FABTECH 2015: A metaphorical pit stop in the productivity race

It’s no surprise NASCAR legend Rusty Wallace was a hit keynote speaker at this year’s FABTECH® show, which took place last week in Chicago. Auto racing has it all. It’s fast-paced and has a history of people going by their gut to make things happen. Yet all the frenetic activity has a backbone of some solid and often incredibly advanced engineering that must work through physical and (especially) regulatory constraints: this part needs to be of such and such material, and so on.

It’s also no surprise that Bob Markley got his start in racing too. Markley owns 3rd Dimension, a firm that specializes in industrial 3-D printing. His firm exhibited at FABTECH’s additive manufacturing area near the show entrance, alongside other companies in this new but growing manufacturing arena. This included Cincinnati Inc.’s BAAM, or big area additive manufacturing, system, which spent its time at the show printing chairs, tables, and other large objects. The system also happened to print a Shelby Cobra racecar and a kayak, both displayed at McCormick Place’s Grand Concourse.

While the BAAM system prints using a carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer, Markley specializes in an even narrower niche: industrial metal printing using powdered metals and laser deposition techniques. While attending Purdue Polytech Markley worked on racing teams, including an Indy car team. After a stint at Rolls Royce and GM, he had a hankering to get back to a faster pace of working but, now with a young family, without so much time on the road.

“I heard something about 3-D printing, probably on NPR, and I said, ‘Let’s take a look at it to see if this has any legs,” he said. “It was one of my harebrained ideas that actually worked.”

Two and half years ago he launched in Indianapolis as one of the first (though not only) providers of 3-D printed metal products. At the time he had several small competitors in the area, though today some aren’t around anymore. After several years of testing and research, Markley and his company, which employs a little more than a half dozen people, are ready to start stepping up its services, designing and producing parts that really can’t be made any other way.

3-D metal printing remains an extreme niche. Still, the niche is past the infancy stage and is just learning to crawl. Like an infant, Markley’s company started from nothing. The technology is so new, you can’t go to class to learn how to operate an additive manufacturing machine. There are no part inspection manuals or industrywide quality standards to draw from. Everyone entering the field really has to start from scratch.

This is also what makes the field so exciting. According to a panel on 3-D printing held at the show, additive manufacturing doesn’t have the excitement it used to in the investment community several years ago. The hype has died down somewhat. But for those in the field the excitement is still there. There is no rule book, no preconceived notions. This makes the pace of innovation not unlike the engineering magic performed by modern racing teams. Rusty Wallace would certainly relate.