The 3D printer market spans from the consumer, for makers and hobbyists, to the design office, for rapid prototyping, and increasingly to the factory floor, for everything from tooling to production parts.
Ultimaker is one company that seems to span that entire market. We spoke with president John Kawola to find out more about how industrial additive manufacturing applications are developing, especially with these desktop-scale printers.
Ultimaker recently began shipping the S5 product line, which is finding applications not just for prototyping, but in manufacturing as well. “The carpet floor is where design and engineering happens, but the concrete floor is where manufacturing happens,” said Kawola. “Increasingly, we’re seeing our customers bringing the printers designed for the carpet floor onto the concrete floor, especially for jigs, fixtures, and tooling.”
Ultimaker has an open materials platform, allowing its machines to work with filament from other vendors and in other materials beyond what Ultimaker offers. According to Kawola, keeping the materials market open increases the rate of innovation and adoption of additive manufacturing in production.
For more on additive materials, check out Additive Manufacturing Materials for Production here on engineering.com.