CORE Industrial Partners is a private equity firm in Chicago, made up of experienced investment professionals and former CEOs, with $700 million worth of capital commitments investing in lower middle-market manufacturing, industrial technology, and services businesses in North America. For the last few years, the company has been looking closer at the additive manufacturing (AM) industry, and acquiring AM businesses, such as 3D printing provider Fathom, as new portfolio businesses. Then, some of these portfolio companies go on and purchase other firms, like FATHOM did with injection molding firm Summit and metal AM service provider GPI Prototype & Manufacturing Services LLC.

In November, CORE announced the acquisition of three more 3D printing companies—3D printing filament provider 3DXTECH, Triton 3D, which provides accessories and Stratasys-compatible AM materials, and open-source industrial 3D printer provider Gearbox3D—allowing the firm to form a brand new additive manufacturing platform. 3DPrint.com spoke with John May, the Founder and Managing Partner of CORE, to learn more about the company’s long-term strategy in the AM market. He told us that CORE, having “identified the additive manufacturing sector as a thematic vertical of interest,” has made close to 20 acquisitions so far, “many of which have been integrated into the Fathom platform.”

John May, Founder & Managing Partner, CORE Industrial Partners

3DPrint.com: Why did you specifically choose to acquire Fathom, 3DXTECH, Triton, and Gearbox3D?

“Fathom was an attractive investment due to their broad range of manufacturing capabilities from rapid prototyping to low- to mid-volume production, a proprietary software suite, and engineering expertise. And it was one of the early entrants in the 3D printing industry, dating back to over 30 years of experience.

“3DXTECH, Triton and Gearbox3D were acquired to form a separate platform, representing an expansion of our investment thesis in the additive manufacturing market, albeit with a focus on equipment and materials (vs. manufacturing services at Fathom).”

May further explained that the recent investments in 3DXTECH, Triton, and Gearbox3D aligned with CORE’s strategy to build an equipment- and proprietary materials-based additive manufacturing platform.

“We identified this platform as an attractive entry point due to its successful marriage of deep materials expertise with a differentiated 3D printer offering.”

What’s CORE’s goal with these acquisitions?

“Our goal is to drive transformational growth through both organic initiatives and complementary add-on acquisitions to create market leading businesses capable of accelerating new product development and optimizing product design solutions for our customers.”

Is the company doing a roll-up strategy for 3D printing?

“Yes. Fathom has completed 13 acquisitions over the last three years providing increased scale and capacity, complementary manufacturing capabilities and diversification across industry-leading customers and end markets.

“3DXTECH, Triton and Gearbox3D will similarly, albeit separately from Fathom, look to complete highly strategic add-on acquisitions to augment the commercial and operational capabilities of the broader platform.”

When asked what types of companies CORE is looking to acquire, May answered that its two AM platforms search for targets with “complementary manufacturing capabilities, technology / software, customers, end markets and geographic footprint.”

“Fathom is focused on the rapid prototyping and mid-to-low- volume manufacturing industry while 3DXTECH, Triton and Gearbox3D will look to acquire additive manufacturing materials and equipment manufacturers.”

May explained that the four AM firms it’s acquired in the last few years will not all be integrated together, with Fathom acting as a separate platform than 3DXTECH, Triton, and Gearbox3D; however, these latter three have been incorporated into a single business.

Where do you hope to create value?

“We hope to create value for our customers, employees, communities, and stakeholders by building market leading businesses with compelling product and service offerings.

“Fathom has experienced transformational growth through a combination of strategic initiatives and complementary acquisitions resulting in one of the largest on-demand digital manufacturing companies in North America with over 90 large-platform additive manufacturing machines and 450k square feet of manufacturing capacity across 12 facilities.”

May explained that CORE hopes “achieve a similar result for 3DXTECH, Triton and Gearbox3D.”

Do you want to remain independent, or is the goal to sell this business?

“Fathom has announced a business combination with with Altimar Acquisition Corp. II and will become a public company listed on the NYSE under the ticker “FATH”.

“3DXTECH is a more recent investment that will operate under our ownership as we execute on our identified strategic growth plan in the near term.”

Our Additive Manufacturing Strategies conference, produced together with SmarTech Analysis, is coming up in March of 2022, with 3D Systems as a Diamond Sponsor and Stifel as a Presenting Sponsor. The hybrid event, held both online and in-person in New York City, will feature a total of nine vertical AM topics, including industrial metal 3D printing, automation, new materials, software, 3D printing for the healthcare, dentistry, automotive, aviation, and space industries, bioprinting, and rapid manufacturing.

We wanted to know what May had to say about these vertical topics, and how they aligned with CORE’s additive manufacturing investment focus.

“Each of the above topics aligns with our investment focus in the additive manufacturing sector as we are constantly working to provide the most innovative solutions to our broad base of blue-chip customers.

“We provide rapid manufacturing services to the world’s leading companies across a wide variety of end markets, including healthcare, technology, automotive, aviation and space, among others.”

In the last month alone, CORE portfolio company CGI Automated Manufacturing, which itself was acquired by CORE in August, announced the acquisition of Precision Metal Fab and Precision Tool & Die, which provides metal cutting and forming solutions, and the acquisition of HealthSpecialty, a full-service contract manufacturer of skin, body, and hair care products, by CORE portfolio company Arizona Natural Resources (ANR). So it doesn’t appear that the firm is slowing down anytime soon. It will be interesting to see which 3D printing company CORE invests in next.

COBOD’s additive construction technology has been deployed worldwide, from Germany to Kenya, the U.S. to Belgium. The latest location for the Danish firm’s construction 3D printer is Oman, where COBOD technology was used to make “the world’s largest 3D printed real concrete building.”

The key phrase there is “real concrete”, as 3D printed buildings, including those previously made with COBOD machines, typically rely on dry mix mortar formulas, not concrete. In part this is because concrete generally dries too slowly to self-support during the printing process. However, as unveiled with the first 3D printed house in Angola, a new concrete concoction called D.fab makes it possible to 3D print with real concrete and at the same, lower price.

The “world’s largest” 3D printed home made with real concrete. Image courtesy of COBOD.

D.fab was developed by COBOD and CEMEX (NYSE: CX), a Mexican multinational building materials company with $13 billion in revenue and over 41,000 employees. Because read-to-mix dry mix mortars are five to 10 times the price of standard, ready-mix concrete, the partners sought to develop a solution that could be less expensive and created from local sand, gravel, cement.

Only one percent of the total mixture consists “magic mix” from COBOD and CEMEX. This system of admixtures consists of specialty chemicals incorporated at the batching plant that makes the concrete more fluid and pumpable. Another admixture that speeds up the curing process is added in the dosing unit at the printhead, along the concrete to gain shape. According to COBOD, this drops the cost of materials by 90 percent.

Davide Zampini, CEMEX Head of Global R&D, explained, “CEMEX has been monitoring the developments in 3D printing for some time, but it was important to intervene with a significant innovation and improvement. Although we recognize that it can be convenient to 3D print with dry mix mortar materials, our R&D focus was not to go down that route, because we believe that it is important to make 3D Printing accessible. Together with COBOD we have developed the material and technological solution for 3D printable concrete. CEMEX’s D.fab admixture range enabled the development of an innovative 3D printing approach, yet offer a material comparable to conventional concrete.”

Henrik Lund-Nielsen, Founder & General Manager of COBOD International, said of the new material, “When we began 3D construction printing back in 2017, where we 3D printed Europe’s first 3D printed building, we made the concrete recipe ourselves. We had to use a lot of cement to get it to work, with the consequence that our recipe was too expensive and not CO2 friendly. While we have been happy to help various cement and concrete manufacturers develop dry mix 3D printable mortars, we have also insisted on that a solution for making real concrete made from local available materials would be needed for mass application of our technology. We are more than pleased that CEMEX took on the challenge, and proud that we in cooperation could develop the new solution. Prices for materials will come down from the typical 700-900 Euro/m3 for3D printable mortars to now 60-90 Euro/m3 depending on geographic location. This is equivalent to a reduction in cost of materials of about 90% and is truly a game changer for our industry and the construction industry globally.”

The power of D.fab was first demonstrated with the 3D printing of a 53 m2 (570 sf) house in Luanda, the capital city of Angola, by additive construction company Power2Build. Using the material, the home cost less than €1,000 in concrete materials. This was followed by a 190 m2 (2,100 SF) home in Muscat, the capital of Oman, which relied on 99 percent locally sourced materials, aside from the D.Fab additives from Europe, which dropped the cost of the materials to under €1,600. COBOD claims that the same building with typical dry-mix mortar wold have cost over €20,000.

The Omani house was 3D printed in two stages, with the material recipe and training of the local crew performed during part one and the second stage performed by the Omani crew entirely. Altogether, the project took just five days to complete.

The home 3D printed in Oman using COBOD technology and D.fab. Image courtesy of COBOD.

While D.fab doesn’t necessarily impact the CO2 emissions associated with the production of concrete, being able to use locally sourced materials certainly lowers the carbon footprint needed for transporting construction supplies. CEMEX is working with British Petroleum in a reported effort to “decarbonize” cement production and transportation. However, CEMEX itself does not have the most outstanding environmental record, having damaged ecosystems with its sand mining operations, released the toxic chemical chromium-6 into the air around its factories, and emitted hazardous dust at its plant in Rugby, England.

What does seem to be clear is that this new additive system could make additive construction much cheaper, while automating the build process and possibly lowering costs related to labor, as well. What impact this has on the construction sector at large remains to be seen, but we do know that COBOD is quickly establishing itself as the leading manufacturer of construction 3D printers in the market so far.

Conflux is one of the 3D printing startups that I’m the most excited about. With $6 million in recent funding, the company is using its own methods, designs, and expertise to 3D print heat exchangers. Speaking to Conflux CEO Michael Fuller, we learn that the company now wants to advance the manufacturing of heat exchangers before industrializing it.

He hopes to make heat exchangers that can outperform conventional counterparts by a significant margin. Lower mass, higher performance with costs that are manageable could see Conflux enter into a great many markets in heat management. Starting in automotive racing applications, the company has so far proven out its technology widely.

I really love heat exchangers as a 3D printing application and it was great to learn more about them. It was also interesting to see Michael Fuller’s vision on starting and running his business.

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Transactional emails are like a secret weapon in your email marketing arsenal. 

Since they’re sent in response to customer requests, they’re both timely and super relevant. So much so that the recipients often sit in front of their screens waiting for the email to come in. 

Talk about a captive audience!

To make sure you’re taking full advantage, we’ve created this complete guide to transactional email. We’ll explain exactly what it is, go over some of the best practices when it comes to strategic sending, and provide examples of different types of transactional emails. 

What’s a transactional email?

A transactional email is one that is triggered by a customer’s action. Simple as that.

The most common example of a transactional email is an order confirmation. Here, a customer places an order, and the company sends an email in response. You receive plenty of those yourself every time you purchase something online. 

Other examples include password resets, shipping notifications, and more.

Transactional emails are expected because they carry the information the recipient has specifically requested. What is more, they are timely: a user expects to be able to reset their password immediately upon sending the request.  

The difference between transactional and marketing emails

The biggest difference is that a transactional email is responsive, while a marketing email is proactive. The first is sent in response to a specific query, whilst the latter has to be set up in such a way that it reaches the user at exactly the right time without being unjustified.

Another difference is that transactional emails are sent to only one recipient and typically contain account-specific information. Marketing emails, on the other hand, are usually sent to a large list of customers at the same time. 

As a quick overview, here’s a list of standard emails and whether they’re considered to be transactional or marketing: 

Best practices for using transactional email

Since transactional messages are sent in response to customer actions, they typically have a higher open rate compared to typical marketing emails. This creates a huge opportunity to engage with your customers. To help you make the most of it, we are happy to present  5 best practices for sending transactional emails:   

1. Add a personal touch to your transactional email templates

The one-on-one nature of transactional email presents you with the opportunity to connect with customers on a personal level. 

This can be as simple as including the customer’s name in the body of the email. A transactional email with a personalized customer’s name gets 6x times more unique clicks compared to similar emails without a name. 

You can also use engaging content or compelling copy to spice up your templates –  transactional emails don’t have to be boring! Check out this shipping notification email from MeUndies, for example: 

From a utilitarian perspective, it gets the job done. It lets the customer know that their package has been shipped and even includes the tracking number. But the bold design and cheeky Haiku stand out in a sea of boring emails, breaking through the noise and making a connection with the customer. 

2. Use the opportunity to cross-sell relevant products

This is something you’re likely familiar with if you’ve ever ordered anything from Amazon. Many of their order confirmation and shipping notification emails contain personalized recommendations for other products at the bottom. 

Of course, there’s a reason Amazon goes to such great lengths to find just the right products to recommend — it works. In fact, a recent study found that the highest transaction rates were found in emails that included personalized upsell or cross-sell selections. 

This doesn’t just apply to order confirmation emails. Product recommendations are effective in any type of transactional email. For example, password reset emails that included cross-sell items have a 93% higher transaction rate than those without. 

Your company can mimic this strategy by using the following data points to find products that particular customers are likely to be interested in: 

• A product the customer looked at and/or added to their cart
• A product or a product category the customer bought from you recently
• A product your visitor added to their wish list that’s now back in stock

3. Avoid running into trouble with anti-spam laws

There is a myriad of laws across the globe that regulate the sending of commercial messages. 

The U.S. CAN-SPAM Act, for example, covers bulk messaging along with any other email messaging that’s intended to promote a product. 

While transactional emails aren’t sent in bulk, exempting them from the law, they do sometimes contain promotional material (like the aforementioned cross-selling). To avoid penalties from the Federal Trade Commission, which oversees the law, there are a few things you can do. Some of the best practices would be: 

1. Make sure to explicitly state the purpose of the email in the subject line. For example, “Your ABC order confirmation” or “Shipping notification for XYZ product”. 
2. Ensure there is significantly more transactional content in the email than promotional content. 
3. Verify that all the transactional content comes first, followed by any promotions. 

4. Send transactional emails immediately after customer actions

Most of the time, no one will know if you send your marketing campaign email a few hours later than planned. However, since a transactional email is sent in response to specific actions, someone is waiting for it. 

If a customer requests a password reset, for example, and they don’t get an email until the next day, you’ve likely lost a sale. The same goes for order confirmations. Customers often check right away for confirmation emails to make sure everything went through correctly. 

If they don’t receive it right away, they may try to purchase again or feel the need to contact customer service — either way resulting in a bad customer experience. So it’s important to send transactional emails right away and the best way to do this is through an automated email. 

One option is to use the GetResponse transactional email service that allows you to use API or SMTP-triggered transactional emails to send notifications and keep customers up-to-date with their purchases.

5. Optimize transactional email for all devices 

More than half of your recipients will open your emails on mobile devices so it’s important to optimize them for all screens, not just big desktops. One of the best ways to do this is by building mobile-responsive emails.

Mobile-responsive emails will look good on both smaller and larger devices. And since you’re building and sending just one email (that’s optimized for both types of devices) it won’t be a problem if your subscriber chooses to open your message using different tools.

Check GetResponse Email Creator for numerous mail templates that look good on all types of devices without having to write a single line of code!

Examples of transactional emails

From account notifications to support requests, transactional emails really run the gamut. They can be an effective asset when it comes to urgent customer communication regarding account management, billing information, online transactions, and numerous types of timely notifications.

Transactional emails come in so many shapes and size that it’s challenging to keep an eye on every single one of them. Instead, let’s take a look at five of the most common types of transactional emails. 

1. Order confirmation email

Order confirmation emails are one of the most important transactional emails you can send. They let the customer know that everything went through correctly and provide their purchase details. 

As we mentioned, customers often check for this type of email right after placing an order — meaning it’s critical to send order confirmations immediately and automatically. Customers also use these emails as reference points so you should include the following information: 

• Order number
• Order date
• Product description
• Payment summary
• Expected shipping and/or delivery date
• Link to order details
• Button to contact support

2. Password reset emails

Password reset requests may seem basic but it’s important not to underestimate their potential. After all, a customer who can’t log in to their account is probably frustrated and annoyed — even more so if they’re trying to make a purchase or get something done. 

So your password resets need to be sent ASAP and they need to be clear and straight-to-the-point. You’re trying to reduce friction as much as possible and get the customer back on track. 

For example, you can include a reset link or a button to make the process as simple as possible. It’s also important to include links to contact support in case the customer continues to have trouble getting to their account.

Your tone is also important. Something light and understanding (like in the example above) can go a long way towards diffusing frustration. 

3. Sign-up confirmation or welcome email 

This is the type of email you send when someone signs up for your newsletter or creates a new account on your website. And it’s the single most engaging email you can send according to our Email Marketing Benchmarks study — averaging an astonishing open rate of over 80% and a click-through above 20%. 

Welcome emails can help you: 

• Set the tone for an ongoing relationship between you and the customer. 
• Express appreciation for signing up. 
• Bring visitors back to your website
• Motivate new subscribers to make their first purchase (e.g. through a discount code). 
• Give key information like ways to reach you, what to expect by joining, etc.
• Improve email deliverability. 
• Drive sales. 

Welcome emails don’t have to be a one-and-done thing either. Some companies use the welcome email to set up a series of communications. Take Landcafe, for example. They developed a whole educational series for new subscribers. 

Their six-email series not only helps to tell their brand story and guide customers through the products they sell, but it also helps them generate revenue. In fact, 54% of their sales come from their onboarding sequence. 

4. Feedback request emails

Feedback requests can be sent as a follow-up to order confirmation or shipping confirmation emails. After a product is received, for example, you can send a feedback request email to find out whether the customer is satisfied with the item and your company. 

Not only does this keep the line of communication open between you and the customer, but it’s a great way to collect reviews that you can use on your website or in other marketing communication. 

In order to make sure a feedback request doesn’t look like a marketing email, here are a few things you can do: 

• Embed the request for feedback into a delivery notification email. E.g., “Wahooo! Your package was delivered today! We’d love to hear what you think!”

• Include the order number or product description in the subject line. 

• Add a picture of the product in the body of the email. 

5. Abandoned cart emails

Abandoned cart emails walk the line between marketing and transactional emails. This is because they’re essentially triggered by inaction rather than action, so customers aren’t waiting for them like they are with other transactional emails. 

That said, they often contain account-specific information, showing customers exactly what items they left in their cart. And even though customers aren’t waiting for the email, they’re more likely to open it since it’s associated with an action they took on your website. 

Plus, abandoned cart emails can be very effective with customers who are on the fence about a purchase. The most effective emails reduce friction by addressing customer pain points. Take the image above, for example. American Giant’s abandoned cart email reassures the customer by focusing on their lifetime warranty. 

Another effective strategy is to create a sense of urgency by offering discount codes or reminding shoppers of expiring promotions. 

Transactional email FAQs

​​How do you write successful transactional emails?

When writing transactional email messages, you should always lead with the most important and most relevant information. An order confirmation email, for example, should lead with the order number and other information about the purchase. 

Product recommendations and other forms of promotional copy should go at the end of the email. This way customers get the information they need right away. It also ensures that your message doesn’t get flagged as a marketing email and sent to the customer’s junk box. 

When should you send a transactional email?

Time is of the essence with transactional emails. Fortunately, here the answer is straightforward: they should be sent immediately after being triggered by a customer’s action. 

Conclusion 

With the right approach, transactional email can be a marketer’s best friend. Here’s a quick recap of best practices when designing a strategy for successful transactional emails: 

1. Add a personal touch to your transactional email templates.

2. Use the opportunity to cross-sell relevant products.

3. Structure your emails correctly so you don’t run into trouble with anti-spam laws.

4. Send transactional emails immediately after customer actions.

5. Optimize transactional email for all devices.

As a tumultuous 2021 comes to a close, SmarTech Analysis has predicted that the 3D printing industry is poised for its greatest level of growth yet. The key verticals and their momentous changes will be covered in depth at the Additive Manufacturing Strategies (AMS) summit March 1-3, 2022, but one that is particularly crucial for the future of the industry is large-format 3D printing. We’ve reached out to firms from the industry to provide their insight into this fast-growing sector.

According to the recently published “DED and Large-Format Additive Manufacturing Markets: 2021-2030” from SmarTech, large-scale metal 3D printing is getting even bigger. The leading additive manufacturing (AM) market research estimates that this sector will be worth $739 million in 2026. This makes sense given the range of activity we’ve seen in the last year alone.

For instance, Norsk Titanium (Euronext: NTI) joined the Euronext Growth Oslo market to continue funding its directed energy deposition (DED) technology for 3D printing titanium aerospace parts. Sciaky is developing simulation solutions for its electron beam DED systems with the help of Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B). Australia’s AM3D has reported a number of projects in which its DED equipment was used, including the “world’s largest” 3D printed shipboard fitting and a deal to print tooling for Boeing. Then, of course, there’s Relativity Space’s massive metal 3D printer, which is getting an increasing amount of use. And the fact that a domestic DED industry is developing in India, the quickest growing nation on the planet, bodes well for the technology.

However, it’s not only in the traditionally large world of DED that metal 3D printing is getting bigger. A number of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) manufacturers are currently at work on or have already released machines with more than four lasers, indicating equipment with higher throughput for the production of large parts and large batches. Among them is VELO3D, sponsor of the Large-format AM vertical at AMS 2022.

With a 600mm x 550 mm build volume and eight 1kW lasers, VELO3D’s Sapphire XC can make parts five times larger than the firm’s predecessor and cut production costs by up to 80%. The machine is already shipping and customers already began printing parts in Q3 2021. As of its Q3 earnings report, the company noted that it had 17 XC orders worth $85 million in total bookings and pre-orders.

Zach Murphree, VP of Global Sales and Business Development at VELO3D, saw his company’s progress as a part of a larger trend for metal 3D printing:

“2022 will be the year of actualization of large format printing, particularly in LPBF. Large systems (>400mm build plates, 1000mm tall build volume) will start to ship in large numbers and be used in serial production in a way that will change the conversation around part cost structure and its effect on the viability of applications. I see the adoption of large-format printing driving a significant acceleration of metal AM adoption, particularly when coupled with quality assurance and advanced printing capabilities.”

But it’s not only in metal 3D printing where sizes are increasing. For some time, polymer machines have been getting bigger—namely when Cincinnati Incorporated and Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) system. This saw a number of competitors, including Ingersoll, Thermwood, and CEAD, develop their own large format extrusion systems.

Most often, these types of systems rely on pellet feedstock to more affordably and rapidly process a wider variety of thermoplastics that manufacturers are already familiar with via injection molding. While these enormous machines have been used to 3D print such large structures as boat hulls and vehicle bodies, they see more practical application in the production of large-scale tooling.

Among the developers of large-format thermoplastic 3D printers, Thermwood has been consistently innovating with the architecture of its Large Scale Additive Manufacturing (LSAM) equipment, capable of printing over 40-feet in length. As a CNC maker, the company offers a trim head, necessary for milling these types of mega parts down to their final specifications. An optional Vertical Layer Print (VLP) Table allows for the production of not only super-long components, but items up to 10 feet tall, rather than the standard four feet possible with their machines. The latest option for LSAM machines is Angle Layer Printing (ALP) for VLP system, able to print at a 45-degree angle.

Thermwood Executive Vice President Jason Susnjara tells 3DPrint.com that these types of developments are going to continue throughout the next year:

“Large scale 3D printing has evolved rapidly over the past decade involving engineering, materials and software.  We are constantly looking for ways to further improve and enhance our current technology to give our customers even more capabilities in this emerging market.  We see a bright future for large format additive, and LSAM continues to be the market leader in 2022 and beyond.  We will continue to have many new developments to announce on the horizon that will make LSAM more powerful and easy to use.”

Beyond thermoplastics, we’re seeing photopolymers also growing in size. Namely, Chicago-based Azul 3D has kicked up the scale of continuous digital light processing (DLP) with its High Area Rapid Printing (HARP) technique. The startup claims that HARP is capable of 3D printing at 100 times the speed and 20 times the scale of other DLP systems, though it doesn’t specify whether this is compared to newer generation continuous DLP machines or legacy counterparts. It does say, however, that it can fill a build volume of 12” x 12” x 48” in just three hours.

Image courtesy of Azul 3D.

The company has already partnered with a major manufacturer, Wilson, to produce pickle ball rackets and has said that it plans on releasing an even bigger system than its LAKE printer, dubbed SEA. While LAKE is expected to ship in 2022, SEA will surely be unveiled next year as well, meaning that we can predict new case studies with similarly hefty names as Wilson.

“Large format 3D printing will continue to rapidly expand over the next several years. Technology with industrial scale and throughput, like our LAKE printer, is unlocking the needs of a new set of customers looking to economically localize production and increase capacity. Now more than ever, it is critically important that supply chains are re-engineered, and additive manufacturing will be the new standard,” Azul 3D CEO Cody Petersen told 3DPrint.com. “Expansion is happening across multiple new verticals. Manufacturing with additive is no longer a tool for only medical and aerospace applications. It is transitioning to a tool for the industrial and consumer markets. We anticipate that these will be the most exciting and highest growth markets in 2022 and 2023. We see considerably more customers taking on complex large-scale projects and expanding into larger, faster hardware with the industrial grade materials that make it possible.”

However, it isn’t only in more traditional manufacturing sectors that large-format 3D printing is making an impact. The past several years have seen the beginnings of an explosion in additive construction, with COBOD BOD-2 3D printers seemingly the most widely used around the world by the likes of the PERI Group and Holcim. They’ve printed homes for Habitat for Humanity and other partners in the U.S., Europe, and Africa. They’re not the only ones though. Competition is heating up, as ICON and Mighty Buildings in the U.S. embark on their own projects, including North America’s largest 3D printed structure and a simulation of a Mars habitat.

With companies as large as Holcim, Saint-Gobain, and Sika all participating in this emerging market, we can expect things to only get more exciting in 2022. Jan Graumann, Global Head of Business Development & Sales for 3D Construction Printing at PERI AG, told 3DPrint.com:

“Next year and the years thereafter we expect the number of 3D construction printing companies as well as the number of realized 3D-printing projects to continue to increase. The technology as proven its high potential to increase productivity in the construction industry and thereby address the global housing shortage. Additionally, we are convinced that 3D construction printing will more and more become a standard building method over the next years.”

Construction 3D printing is diversifying beyond concrete 3D printing to the point where we will see more and more varieties of the technology. Among the pioneers is Branch Technology, which 3D prints unique lattice works that can then be insulated and finished to create load-bearing walls.

The firm’s Chief Financial Officer, Dan Wykoff, explained how his firm is evolving in parallel with the construction sector, which is increasingly adopting modular and prefabricated elements to improve the speed and quality of the building process.

“3D printing provides tremendous efficiency through automation, material waste reduction, labor waste reduction, and more. Branch Technology’s 3D printing occurs offsite, which adds even more value by being able to 3D print components around the clock while eliminating downtime due to weather or lack of sunlight. Combine that with a lean manufacturing and automation mindset, and 3D printing has huge potential to decrease the cost of construction,” Wykoff said. “Branch Technology offers premium products at a normal price, and we are constantly developing new means and methods for becoming even more cost-effective through process automation and lean manufacturing.”

Of the firms involved in additive construction, Italy’s WASP may be the most unique in that it is pursuing innovative methods for making buildings from sustainable materials. After all, the global concrete sector represents the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide after the U.S. and China as nations. It’s also an outlier in that 3D printing homes has been the core of its mission from the start, with other 3D printers only developed to support its construction endeavors.

This year, the firm unveiled a dual printer system for construction used to 3D print a pair of structures from local and natural materials. Though I am still skeptical about the idea of additive construction for solving the world’s housing crisis, I do think that, if new buildings are going to continue going up, they should be built with as little ecological impact as possible. WASP’s project Tecla does just that and in probably the most aesthetically pleasing manner of any additive construction project. WASP Production Manager Nicola Schiavarelli told us what the company has in store for 2022 and beyond:

“WASP’s point of view has always been that of ‘large dimensions’, as the mission is to 3D print houses. Another point of view is the requests coming from the market which are increasingly turning towards large dimensions.The construction, aerospace, industrial, energy, medical sectors are in great motion to add additive manufacturing to production systems. Our new 3D printers brought to Formnext and the success they have enjoyed (we already have orders) are proof that the market is focusing on large sizes and types of material. In fact, the topic is not only the size but the materials. WASP is increasingly specializing in large dimensions both because it is in its DNA and because being able to print types of materials, fluid dense or superpolymers in large dimensions is an increasingly urgent demand on the market.”

It would be an unnecessary pun to say that 2022 will be big for large-format 3D printing, but that is the fact of the matter. The construction industry alone will see a great deal of activity from the likes of the PERI Group and COBOD, while laser PBF firms compete to release their multi-laser machines. DED continues its evolution, though at a slower rate than powder bed, and polymers are growing in scale, as well. With each year’s rapid development, things seem to be moving more quickly upon every December’s reflections. When we look forward to 2023, it won’t be surprising if we underestimated just how large this space has gotten.

Last weekend, we published a roundup of fun Christmas 3D prints, and now, the day after Christmas, we’re here to offer you another holiday 3D printing roundup. While I can’t say that 2021 was the BEST year, it was definitely better than 2020, and we’ll gladly celebrate the move into a brand new year with 3D printing. Here are ten of our favorites!

First of all, I sincerely hope your New Year’s Eve looks something like this, because mine will be decidedly different, as Ohio is cold and gross this time of year. Aptly named Thingiverse user BubbleChill wants to make sure you celebrate the new year right, and what better way to do that than with this insulator for wine and champagne bottles? The insulated cooler was designed by Design Prototype Consult LLC, and was sold on Amazon for a bit before being released to the world. It was tested on more than 30 bottles and fit each one perfectly, and should be printed at 100% scale with no supports, but definitely a brim for the top.

“To make the threading action super slick, add some dry lubricant like the one made by 3 in one.

“Any material works well. I have printed on multiple printers and the top and bottom always fit together perfectly with 0.4mm nozzle. If your printer isn’t well calibrated or you are using a larger nozzle, scale the top up a little for a perfect fit.”

If you’re planning a sit-down dinner this New Year’s Eve, you’ll want these 3D printable ambigram place cards by Cults3D user Uruma, with one side reading 2022 and the other side reading the guest’s name. This was printed on a resin printer for “the coolest look,” and would probably work on an FDM system just as well, though this hasn’t been tested yet. There are only ten first names available for 3D printing at the moment, but if you want a new name, just ask and it will be added “with pleasure.”

“Printed with support by rotating the names 45° with the first name and 2022 up so that there is no support inside the object.”

If you’re like me, your recipes come mainly from Pinterest and not from actual cookbooks, which means you use a phone or tablet stand rather than a cookbook stand. So when you’re whipping up your New Year’s Eve party goodies and need your phone, look no further than this low-poly tiger smartphone stand from MyMiniFactory user RocketRacoon; 2022 is the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese Zodiac, after all, which starts in February. The stand, which measures at 109 x 20 x 45 mm, will require plenty of support material everywhere, and supports all phones, though you should apparently be careful with bigger phones.

You’ll want to look spiffy for your New Year’s Eve party, and this 3D printable 2022 bow tie from Thingiverse user olivie62690 should do the trick. You’ll need to glue the “front” part to the main part in order to change the color, and two small hooks are needed to attach an elastic so you can actually wear it.

You can also rock up to the party with the always classic “giant glasses in the shape of the next year.” This easy to assemble pair of 2022 glasses is from Cults3D user 3DIMKA, and the temples fit tightly into the frame; holes on the ends are meant for an optional thread in case you want to hang the glasses around your neck. You can also turn the frame into a magnet to hang on the fridge, as several round holes in the back are for 5 mm neodymium magnets.

“The color number inserts can be printed separately in a different color and then glued to the frame. They also have a tight fit so the gluing part could be unnecessary, depending on the quality of your printer.”

Back to the Year of the Tiger, Cults3D user 3DTROOP has this flexible model that’s a fun toy and will also double as a great 3D printed New Year’s Eve party decoration. Made out of PLA and ABS with no supports needed, this articulated little big cat measures at 164.1 x 57.6 x 10 mm and takes three hours and eleven minutes to print, with 0.2 mm layer height and 10% infill.

Speaking of decorations, this model by Cults3D user Master_Printer has a pretty uplifting message for the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022: New Year, New Me! This is another ambigram, or as it’s called here, a “unique Text Flip model,” which is said to be pretty tricky for non-experts. Measuring at 116 x 64.7 x 46.3 mm, the print settings for this one should be “upscale,” with supports.

“I position the model so that the New Me is readable from a birds-eye view.”

Thingiverse user edsept7 shared this festive 2022 print, featuring what appear to be fireworks coming out of the numbers. Printed on a Creality CR-20 out of PLA filament, the model was made at 100% infill, standard resolution, with no rafts.

We’re sticking with the celebratory New Year’s fireworks for these last couple of prints, including this piece of art by MyMiniFactory user 3DPrintBunny. This print won’t need any supports, and the back will slot snugly into place, though it’s suggested that you should print more than one back “so that you can change the mood by changing the background.”

“I would print the first layer at a nice slow pace as the design is quite complex. Having print thin walls/lines checked on your slicer settings will make sure the whole model is printed properly but even without it it still looks great.”

Finally, to really start 2022 off with a bang, check out this 3D printed base by Thingiverse user eastfreak, which has room to launch eight rockets at once with an empty beer bottle in the middle to keep things steady. Supports are not needed, and the print, which was made with yellow Geetech PLA filament, requires 0.2 resolution and 30% infill. Obviously, please use caution when launching rockets or fireworks.

From all of us here at 3DPrint.com, have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve, and as always, happy 3D printing!

Merry Christmas! In celebration of the holiday, we’re giving you a gift: this weekend’s 3D Printing News Briefs! We’ll start off with some good news, as Lithoz has been named as one of the top five spin-off companies in Austria, and move on to materials, as Formlabs developed two biocompatible resins and AP&C is working with Airbus to provide titanium powders. We’ll end with a little business, as Equispheres brings on a new Chief Operating Officer and Hitachi Metals and A*Star have extended their AM partnership.

Lithoz Named Top University Spin-off in Austria

Ceramic 3D printing leader Lithoz GmbH, a spin-off of TU Wien, was named as one of the top five successful Austrian spin-off companies by the Spin-Off Austria Initiative, which aims to encourage entrepreneurship in university students by creating a database of these spin-offs to track and promote growth. Austrian investors Hermann Hauser and Herbert Gartner founded the initiative to raise awareness and support for the country’s universities to make entrepreneurship a mission as important as teaching and research, as well as to encourage the development of 1,000 university spin-off companies by the year 2030.

Over 50 Austrian universities were asked to provide data for and take part in the initiative with their top spin-off companies. TU Wien nominated Lithoz, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, as well as its new top five spin-off status. With its range of ceramic 3D printers and materials being used in a variety of different applications, the company has successfully made the jump from spin-off to global market leader in 3D printed ceramics.

Formlabs Develops Two New Biocompatible Resins

To expand its healthcare offering, Formlabs announced that it’s developed two new biocompatible materials, which were shown to the public for the first time at RSNA 2021. BioMed White Resin and BioMed Black Resin, which will be USP Class VI certified, were created for applications that typically prefer opaque materials for aesthetic quality or functionality, and will add diversity to the medical resins currently available to the healthcare sector, so that both patients and providers can benefit. The company’s BioMed Resin line is known for its long-term stability, excellent performance, and sterilization compatibility, and these two new biocompatible resins will make improved ergonomics more accessible through reliable surgical planning, custom healthcare research tools, and fast medical device iterations.

“The value of 3D printing within the healthcare industry cannot be understated. The 3D printing applications in healthcare are vast, from improving patient education through more accurate, real-time modeling, to supporting a more personalized approach to medical devices to better outcomes in the operating room with 3D printed surgical guides. These applications each require materials that are both effective and safe for medical uses,” stated Gaurav Manchanda, Director of Medical Market Development at Formlabs. “The addition of these resins to Formlabs’ materials library will allow for greater flexibility in design and function and can be used in a variety of applications ranging from medical device manufacturing, biopharmaceutical processing, and consumer goods such as medical device components, wearables, and custom dental appliances.”

AP&C Signs New Agreement with Airbus for Titanium Powders

AP&C inks new agreement with Airbus to provide Titanium powders.

GE Additive company AP&C announced the signing of a new multi-year agreement with Airbus to provide titanium (Ti-6AI-4V) powders for metal 3D printing applications. AP&C continues to invest in plasma atomization technology in order to maintain high quality while bringing costs down, and offers large-scale production of plasma atomized titanium, nickel, and aluminum powders. The company has grown its capacity to over 1,000 tons of titanium powder a year, making it a leader in the field. As AP&C’s CEO Alain Dupont explained, metal AM adoption in the regulated aerospace industry continues to grow, and one of the important factors in matching that growth is by setting up a strong supply chain—which includes qualified powder.

“Our approach is to be more than just a supplier of metal powders to our customers,” said Dupont. “To scale metal additive manufacturing, acceleration can only be achieved by sharing knowledge best practice to lower risk and increase stability. One way we have supported Airbus in recent years, for example, has been to help its in-house additive manufacturing team establish its own methods and processes to qualify Ti-6AI-4V powders.”

Equispheres Hires Chief Operating Officer to Lead Ottawa Production

Calvin Osborne, Equispheres COO

Speaking of metal powder, materials science company Equispheres has hired Calvin Osborne as its Chief Operating Officer to lead the next phase of production and commercialization of metal powder at its Ottawa manufacturing facility. Osborne, a professional engineer and experienced product development and manufacturing executive who’s led R&D teams and holds patents for several medical devices, will use his business insight and technical skills to help scale and commercialize the company’s metal powder technology in order to meet increased market demand. The company’s high-performance aluminum 3D printing powders are made using a unique atomization process that can create spherical particles, and third-party testing shows that its feedstock can print three times faster than traditional powder, as well as achieve 50% part cost reductions.

“Equispheres’ feedstock holds promise to radically reduce the cost of additive manufacturing such that it can economically compete with traditional production-volume manufacturing technologies. I’m excited to join the talented team at Equispheres to help drive the company towards this vision,” Osborne said.

Hitatchi Metals & A*Star Extend 3D Printing Partnership

Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng touring the SIMTech-Hitachi joint lab at Hitachi Metals’ plant in Tuas on Dec 3, 2021. Straits Times photo: Mark Cheong

In more metal 3D printing powder news, Hitachi Metals Singapore (HMS) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s (A*Star) Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) have extended their existing partnership and joint lab collaboration for an additional three years. The lab, located at Hitachi’s facility, houses a SIMTech atomizer that can produce both reactive and non-reactive metal powders in smaller quantities for companies working to develop their 3D printing capabilities. The two partners will also invest an additional $8.5 million in the SIMTech-Hitachi Metals joint lab, bringing the total investment amount since 2018 up to $14 million. The country’s Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng witnessed the signing ceremony marking the joint lab’s extension at Hitachi Metals’ plant in Pioneer, noting that public-private partnerships like these can be the impetus for innovation.

“3D printing allows for highly customisable and complex designs to be made without the initial start-up costs that come with traditional manufacturing processes,” said SIMTech’s Executive Director David Low. “With supply chains around the world now facing difficulties, 3D printing may come into play to help with these chokes along the supply chain.”