Getting back to Aerospace Additive Manufacturing

Why Additive

I found myself moving from the Aerospace & Defense industry into Additive for the first time almost exactly 10 years ago. I had worked in defense and commercial. I had worked in air and space. So, when Stratasys sought a business development manager for A&D, I was able to check a lot of boxes in one go. I still remember Rich Garrity ’s last question in my interview – was I ready to leave the A&D industry for additive. And I still remember my answer – I was not going to do that. My job was going to be to make Stratasys into an aerospace supplier.

I loved it at Stratasys and had a blast for many years.? I got to work with an incredible team of talented individuals – some drawn from A&D, and others passionate about it because of the strong fit for 3d printing. In my time there, we worked to turn the Fortus 900mc into the most repeatable FDM system possible, and we laid the groundwork for acceptance into the aerospace supply chain – tested and traceable materials, repeatable mechanical properties, development of process specifications, and establishing the basis for industrial standards.

We also developed and showed the world the Robotic Composite 3D demonstrator that, while Stratasys didn’t commercialize, I continue to see the legacy of in multi-axis robotic composite printing at half a dozen exciting startups around the industry.? We launched advanced materials, like the PEKK-based ANTERO, which still does not have a viable competitor in the industry.? We worked with customers on even more advanced niche materials and unique applications that I may never be able to discuss openly.? We won Advanced Manufacturing Olympic medals from the United States Air Force AFRSO - Air Force Rapid Sustainment Office and we saw parts made with our materials fly in space, on defense aircraft, and enter serial production in the commercial transport industry.?? In short, we took a giant leap (to leverage an aerospace cliché).

I fell in love with the potential for additive manufacturing in aerospace and defense first on the hype and the possibility, but then, much deeper, on the impact that I had seen firsthand.

Why Now

By the end of 2021, Stratasys had changed considerably from my early days in 2014. We had undergone multiple leadership changes, but finally settled in with the current CEO, Dr. Yoav Zeif . He had articulated clearly that manufacturing was the future of the technology and had rallied the company behind that vision. Stratasys was again moving in the right direction. The last business trip I took with Stratasys was bringing Yoav to Denver to show him firsthand how Boom Supersonic and several other aerospace companies in the area had been positively impacted by their use of AM and, specifically, what we had been able to accomplish with them. I could tell that he saw what I saw on that trip.

But, like so many, I participated in the COVID-driven great resignation and decided to leave Stratasys at the end of 2021. Through the leadership churn, much of the talented team I worked with since 2014 had slowly filtered away from Stratasys, and in the end, I felt the urge to try something new as well. While I don’t regret my decision to leave, I do regret that I allowed my next role to ultimately take me further from additive than I had intended.

So, course correction. There is unfinished business on the adoption of AM in aerospace and defense. There are segments that a machine OEM couldn’t effectively engage with. There are barriers to entry that still need breaking down or circumventing. There is still so much A&D opportunity that is neglected because there is so much distraction from all the non-A&D opportunity, and without sufficient focus, adoption only inches along.

Everyone’s talking about the downturn in 3d printing. The crash of the second hype cycle. Machine OEMs are hurting. Some have closed. Some have scrambled for consolidation. Many have a fraction of the valuation they had a couple of years ago.

But none of this has anything to do with the underlying fact that the values 3d printing brings to aerospace and defense are so perfectly aligned. In fact, as you look to the bright spots that remain in the industry, you’ll often find A&D lurking in the shadows, nursing a steady and slowly accelerating adoption. No, it’s not the growth pace that SPAC’s and VC’s might have promised or wanted to see, but it is an unstoppable engine that continues to build steam. The opportunity remains.

When analysts talk about the future of additive, and I heard much of this at the Additive Manufacturing Strategies summit in New York in February, they consistently highlight two important characteristics of the companies that are thriving – 1) specialization, and 2) focus on application services.

Hence…

Why AM Craft

I met Janis Jatnieks and Didzis Dejus , the founders of AM Craft - Aviation Additive Manufacturing Services , somewhere in the middle of my time at Stratasys. We were all at a conference in Abu Dhabi discussing AM for aircraft interior components. Honestly, and as Janis reminded me recently, I was a bit dismissive of them at first. How could a little company in Riga do something that I couldn’t get done at Stratasys? In time I saw, and it came down to (you guessed it), 1) specialization, and 2) focus on application services. For a while I did have a specialized team at Stratasys, but there was never sufficient focus on aviation to really drive the needle.

We stayed in touch after Abu Dhabi and I was impressed as they started to build their business. They saw and addressed key barriers to a market segment that was unaddressed – Airlines, Operators, and MROs. Those customers, who have a ton to gain from the supply chain benefits of additive, aren’t able to invest in qualifying new manufacturing technologies like an Airbus or Boeing. It’s not their business – they buy certified parts. They don’t make them. They don’t certify them. AM Craft pursued and obtained an EASA Part 21G Production Organization Approval (POA) so that they could deliver parts to those underserved customer segments with airworthiness certification in hand. They solved a key problem to open a new segment that has everything to gain.

And it’s not just about printing parts like any other service bureau. They can go end-to-end – from identifying and redesigning a problem part, to becoming the supplier of that part at any quantity, on any timeline, at any location through a distributed production network. They are an aerospace supplier that has expertise in bringing additive benefits to the end customer. They are becoming the exact thing I envisioned when answering Rich’s last question in my Stratasys interview a decade ago.

To step back just a bit, at Stratasys, we did try something quite like AM Craft. We created a similar company as a joint venture with Singapore Airlines Engineering Company called Additive Flight Solutions Pte Ltd (AFS), and I sat on the Board for that company on behalf of Stratasys. In Singapore, all air travel is international, so they were disproportionately hit by the international travel reductions caused by COVID, but, while small, AFS continued to move in the right direction, also achieving an EASA part 21G POA after I had departed and supplementing production part business with tooling opportunities.

One further step AM Craft has taken is to enter partnering relationships that allow them to extend their Production Organization Approval to other manufacturing facilities.? Essentially becoming a certification layer that can assist other companies in delivering airworthiness certified parts anywhere in the world.? This has already been demonstrated through the AM Craft-led certification of Paradigm 3D in Dubai, not far from where I originally met the team in Abu Dhabi.

AM Craft offers the aviation industry the 1) specialization, and 2) focus on application services that I couldn't accomplish alone at Stratasys, and I’m now proud to become a late co-founder of AM Craft to help accelerate the journey Janis and Didzis began by bringing my past Stratasys experience full circle.

Please be in touch if you have further questions or a need for certified aviation components anywhere in the world.

https://www.am-craft.com/

Time to have some fun!