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3D printing shop takes ‘innovative’ approach to serving customers

Additive manufacturing shop in Minnesota stocks up on equipment

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The president and co-founder of 3D printing company DI Labs, Carl Douglass, said he and his brothers consider their company to be more about design innovation and customer interaction than the typical “upload and go” service bureau. All images: DI Labs

Carl Douglass’ only regret is that he and his brothers didn’t get into 3D printing sooner. The president and co-owner of DI Labs, Spicer, Minn., said he and siblings Brian and Sean started their company with a vision: to develop an end-to-end replacement for the plaster casting process.

“Our thought was that if you broke your arm or leg, the physician could use our system to scan it, convert that information into a digital model, and then 3D-print a cast from antimicrobial materials,” he said. The physician “would also be able to design-in things like flexible hinges and tearaway sections, providing a much better experience for the patient.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out as we anticipated,” said Douglass.

In Pursuit of ‘Solutionology’

The problem was the 3D printer. When launching DI Labs—short for Douglass Innovations—the brothers invested in a desktop FFF (fused filament fabrication) machine but soon discovered the technology “just wasn’t there yet.”

That was in 2013, and rather than throw in the towel, the three engineers quickly set to work improving their less-than-capable printer. They ended up patenting a printhead that reportedly builds parts twice as fast as OEM printheads, then went on to sell their hardware and licensed the technology to several 3D printer manufacturers.

As it turns out, this early success was but a precursor to all that this small additive manufacturing company has accomplished since.

Today, DI Labs employees call themselves “solutionologists.” It’s an appropriate moniker. In early 2015 the Douglasses began to change their corporate focus. Rather than looking for ways to improve AM hardware, they began leveraging their decades of design experience to develop, manufacture, and market products for their customers. Here again, though, they hit a roadblock—albeit one they quickly solved.

“We were doing our own in-house prototyping and then farming out parts, but we weren’t overly happy with the long lead times and sometimes questionable quality from our suppliers,” Douglass said. “So we decided to invest in another 3D printer—a Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) system from HP—which would allow us to expand into the production space. One year later we bought another, and this year we’ve added five new additive technologies to our equipment lineup.”

Tooling Up

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The Spicer, Minn., shop has added five new additive technologies this year.

Aside from the MJF printers, the company also has invested in:

• A Carbon DLS (digital light synthesis) system able to print a range of elastomeric as well as rigid polymer materials.

• A Markforged Metal X that allows DI Labs to print end-use parts in tool steel, INCONEL, titanium, copper, and stainless steel.

• Another industrial FFF machine equipped for high-temperature materials such as PEEK, Ultem, and carbon fiber.

• An SLA (stereolithography) printer and a Stratasys FDM (fused deposition modeling) system.

The shop, which employs fewer than 12 people, also just acquired a VaporFuse Surfacing system from DyeMansion. It saves DI Labs time while substantially improving the quality of its parts.

Douglass said it had become obvious that AM technology had advanced dramatically over the past five years, but the part that still came up short was surface finish. “We’d actually started work on technology to address this when we came across the DyeMansion system. We immediately jumped on it.” He said DI now can 3D-print parts with sealed surface quality comparable to injection-molded parts.

Like many 3D printing shops, DI Labs provides online file uploading and instant quoting capabilities, which it calls Additive Express. Yet Douglass is quick to point out that the shop’s offering goes beyond part production and said he and his brothers consider their company to be more about design innovation and customer interaction than the typical “upload and go” service bureau.

Recreating the Wheel

Douglass discussed several notable projects the brothers have worked on over the years. He mentioned a plastic tubing manufacturer that came to DI Labs about a problem replacing a perforator wheel. The shop designed a 3D-printed sleeve that fit over the machined component, avoiding months of downtime.

3d printing

During a three-month period DI delivered 10 iterations of a design for a basket used for hydroponic lettuce farming. Eventually, the shop delivered more than 30,000 baskets.

The shop also helped a local grower with its foray into hydroponics by prototyping multiple iterations of a basket’s design. DI ended up printing more than 30,000 of the baskets.

The Douglasses and their employees also have 3D-printed thermoform tooling, scale models of building designs, body trim for Indy cars, and a supercharger manifold for a BMW.

One of the coolest parts they printed, however, broke through the build-chamber size constraints faced by all additive manufacturers. By developing a proprietary joining technology, the shop was able to print and then assemble 160 panels into a section of aircraft fuselage measuring 10 ft. long by more than 4 ft. in diameter—large enough for the customer to install and test an entire cockpit.

They’ve since used that same approach to print similarly oversized parts, including a panel the size of a double bed that currently hangs in the front office. “We printed it, assembled it, gave it an autobody finish, and have shipped it across the country to trade shows multiple times,” said Douglass. “Looking at it, you’d never know the thing was 3D-printed.”

Embracing the Vision

Although Douglass and his brothers might have a few regrets about not embracing AM earlier, none of that really matters now. Once they get over the learning curve on their newest 3D printing additions, they plan to expand into metal powder bed AM and the CNC machining needed for postprocessing powder bed parts.

Along the way, they’ll continue to evaluate new technologies as they become available.

“It takes time to get your head wrapped around the full capabilities of 3D printing, even for the most innovative of mindsets,” Douglass said. “This is something that most people underestimate, especially those who’ve spent most of their career in conventional manufacturing. For them, it takes a paradigm shift in their way of thinking.

“Still, it’s not an impossible task, and if you’re able to make that leap, additive is a great tool for solving problems,” he said.

About the Author

Kip Hanson

Kip Hanson is a freelance writer with more than 35 years working in and writing about manufacturing. He lives in Tucson, Ariz.