On April 20, Day One of the Ultimaker Transformation Summit was held virtually, kicking off with a keynote session spearheaded by CEO Jurgen von Hollen. The event delved into the company’s additive manufacturing product-to-platform strategy, a summary of its hardware and software capabilities, and an announcement of its new products and services. Throughout the session, Ultimaker also focused on highlighting the importance of an open ecosystem and collaboration when developing its solutions.
A Changing Landscape
If there is one caveat from 2020 economy-wise, it is that many long-established supply chain and business conventions need to be overhauled. COVID-19 lockdowns, political upheaval and economic instability have caused the current supply chain to crumble under spiking demand and restricted supply. Companies have had to evaluate how to limit their dependency on the supply chain and possibly circumvent it altogether.
As Von Hollen observed, flexibility and sustainability are the two most pivotal “ingredients” for surviving in today’s volatile post-2020 business world. Companies need to be in a state of continuous learning to assess all potential risks and manage resources for addressing any gaps in their product/service lifecycle. But if a company changes too rapidly, things can unravel just as badly. Companies need a methodical, research-based vision in terms of their long-term goals.
“How do we get these two ingredients to work? It’s about an enabling technology,” Von Hollen said. “These enabling technologies are out there, and they will support and drive this flexibility and sustainable value. We believe one of those enabling technologies is 3D printing.”
Currently, gaps are preventing what should be a seamless merging of flexibility and sustainability values. For Von Hollen, these gaps arise from how complicated the world of additive manufacturing can appear to the layman, and from how closed the current additive manufacturing ecosystem is. To fill these gaps, Ultimaker’s end goal is to create additive manufacturing solutions that are intuitive, integrated, scalable and open.
“At Ultimaker, we fundamentally believe that these easy-to-use, flexible and empowering solutions can be used by all,” Von Hollen emphasized. “So, whether you’re small, medium or large, there is something in your production, in your environment, in your prototyping, that can be leveraged using 3D printing.”
To shed light on efforts already in place to simplify the additive manufacturing process and make it a collaborative experience for the client, Von Hollen discussed the benefits of Ultimaker Essentials. Essentials is a subscription that bundles 3D printers with other support services like Ultimaker Digital Factory, a series of cloud-based remote tools designed to manage 3D printers and teams. The bundle also includes Ultimaker Academy, a series of online courses to train clients and staff in using its 3D printing products and software.
Von Hollen wrapped up his part of the summit by announcing two new subscriptions: Ultimaker Professional and Ultimaker Excellence. Professional offers all the features of Essentials coupled with unlimited storage options, reporting capabilities and deeper e-learning support. Excellence provides all the benefits of Professional and Essentials, as well as API access, full e-learning assistance and consultancy hours with Ultimaker experts. Both subscriptions are now available.
A Robust Platform
Ultimaker has installed over 130,000 3D printers and has over 320 sales partners across 70 countries. Miguel Calvo, Ultimaker’s CTO, was quick to point out how robust slicing software and 3D printing hardware have been the bedrock of its growth.
“It all starts with the platform. Working together, our printers and Ultimaker Essentials create a strong platform upon which we build peripherals, materials and other software offerings,” Calvo said. “Ultimaker invested significant R&D—not just in developing our own software and hardware solutions—but also in developing the API, interfaces and enablement tools for our partners to bring their own solutions, knowledge and products into the ecosystem.”
By widening its partner outreach, Ultimaker can continue to offer solutions for an ever-increasing number of user needs. For instance, Ultimaker Cura comes with Marketplace, a feature that depicts all the materials that are currently being offered by Ultimaker and its 100+ materials partners. To date, Cura has a catalog of 215 different materials for additive manufacturing, which can be refined based on brand, polymer class, filling, printer type and characteristics (such as conductivity, aesthetic, biocompatibility). Each option also comes with a print profile that provides a detailed description of the material to ensure that it is right for the job. Once the material is selected, it is ready for slicing.
Each material partner has a detailed portfolio for their organization in Cura. New partners can use dedicated portals to easily add and update their portfolios. All partners are required to add the necessary descriptions for every material they are offering on Marketplace. In fact, Ultimaker used the Transformation Summit to announce “Material Certification”—a new class of materials that will be created by third-party partners but will be certified by Ultimaker’s engineers, chemists and technicians to ensure the same reliability and quality as Ultimaker-supplied materials. More information on the certification process will become available to all partners soon.
“An ever-expanding list of materials and their properties increases the likelihood of you finding the perfect solution to your problem,” Calvo said. “And if you can’t find the perfect material today, then reach out to us. Our application engineers are always testing the boundaries of what is possible.”
The Right Tools
Given the variety of materials on Marketplace, Ultimaker’s 3D printers need to be versatile, durable and scalable. At any given time, the materials that need to be printed might have a diverse range of characteristics, from being water-soluble to ESD resistant to fragile. Ultimaker’s print cores feature intent-based nozzle sizes—users can print “draft and fast” with a 0.8mm diameter or use the 0.25mm diameter to print delicate, precise shapes.
As part of Ultimaker’s efforts to continuously improve its hardware, Calvo announced two new print cores at the Transformation Summit: CC 0.4 and CC 0.6. Both of these cores will launch in the summer of 2021 and will be compatible with the Ultimaker 3, Ultimaker S3 and Ultimaker S5.
“Our two new print cores are based around PVD-coated tool steel nozzles rather than a ruby nozzle in a brass housing,” Calvo stated. “Along with a few other changes in the design, this increases the robustness towards abrasive materials and extends the life of the core. The new cores are excellent for printing composites and metals—now with finer details than was previously possible.”
Furthermore, Calvo announced the “Third-party Hardware Certification.” Similar to its materials certification, Ultimaker will collaborate closely with third-party partners to ensure standardized quality across all hardware available through Ultimaker.
United We Stand
Roger Bergs, Ultimaker’s Software Product Manager, highlighted the fact that many users are still intimidated by additive manufacturing because of what they perceive to be a long, complicated workflow. As such, Ultimaker announced a series of new features that will be added to its platform to streamline and simplify the workflow. These include eLearning and digital libraries that will encourage collaboration and support documentation to fill any knowledge gaps. Reporting and analytics tools will provide users a summary of print jobs, various projects that clients partook in, which materials were used most frequently, and more.
As an open ecosystem, Ultimaker plans to continue working together with its partners to augment its software capabilities. For example, its collaboration with Teton Simulation gave rise to the SmartSlice add-on, which expedites the process by automatically identifying the best printing profile for the client’s project. It is this collaborative, supportive environment that Von Hollen credits as the source of Ultimaker’s success.
“If we can get 400, 500, 600 different ecosystem partners going in the same direction—that is truly differentiating,” he noted to cap off the summit. “It’s a competitive advantage and it’s so much potential that we can leverage together. That’s what drives the business model and this is where we create that mutual benefit for all players in the ecosystem.”