Our Sites

Two additive manufacturing companies separate themselves from the pack

3D printer manufacturer Desktop Metal and 3DP rocket builder Relativity Space differentiate themselves from competitors by adopting “blue ocean strategies”

Spring has sprung. That means longer, warmer days. Green and scarlet buds. Rain. Songbirds. Wet songbirds. And the Spring 2019 edition of The Additive Report.

Included in the issue is an article I wrote on the long-awaited Production System from Desktop Metal. DM launched the metal 3D printer to compete with injection molding, stamping, and other conventional mass-production methods.

Limitations of space prevented me from reporting on an interesting portion of the interview I conducted with the company’s vice president of product, Larry Lyons. I asked him if DM planned to position the Production System, based on binder-jet technology, to compete against laser-based metal 3D printers sold to users in highly lucrative sectors like aerospace and medical.

Not initially. Laser-based systems have had 15 years to stake their claims and gain acceptance in those markets, Lyons pointed out, adding that revenue for the AM industry worldwide totals about 0.1 percent of the $12 trillion global manufacturing economy.

“When we look at that $12 trillion, we don’t want to go after the one segment where there’s already a 3D printing technology that competes well. We’d rather go after the 99.9 percent where there is no metal 3D printing technology. “We see ourselves going up against traditional methods of manufacturing and displacing those versus worrying about displacing a DMLS (direct metal laser sintering) sale to a high-end aerospace customer,” said Lyons.

DM’s plan to enter uncharted 3D printing waters brings to mind the 2005 book Blue Ocean Strategy. The authors make the case that companies prosper more by seeking customers in waters with few, or no, competitors (blue ocean) than by engaging shark-like rivals circling a shrinking pool of profits (red ocean).

Swimming in rival-free waters isn’t the only way businesses can adopt a blue ocean strategy. According to the book’s authors, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, companies can effectively differentiate themselves from competitors by creating a niche within an established market.

Starbucks is the best-known example of this strategy. It took a commodity item, made it better, packaged the “barista” experience, fulfilled the public’s deep-roasted need for a superior cup of coffee—and charged five times more than the corner restaurant.

Relativity Space, the company profiled for the issue’s cover story, also has found a way to differentiate itself from competitors—albeit in a much more narrowly focused market than Starbucks’: rocket manufacturing. The Los Angeles startup aims to be the first company to 3D-print and launch an entire rocket.

There’s more to its focus on 3D printing than just novelty value, though, writes the article’s author, Bill Leventon. Printing a rocket drastically reduces part count—thereby boosting the strength and stability of the structure—simplifies assembly, provides greater freedom in parts design, and dramatically slashes retooling time.

Relativity isn’t the only organization 3D-printing parts for space vehicles. Others include the European Space Agency and Launcher, a Brooklyn company that 3D-prints rocket engines.

Times have changed. Ten years ago I interviewed a mechanical engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) who oversaw the manufacturing of components used on NASA spacecraft. Almost all the parts were machined and/or ground, many to millionths-of-an-inch tolerances.

I told him that I assumed NASA was an early and eager adopter of new technologies and loaded its space vehicles with components made using the latest manufacturing technologies. No, he said. “We only use well-tested, long-proven technologies. You don’t send new technologies into space.”

Today NASA launches 3D-printed parts into space, indicating to me that AM has become a tested, proven technology.

Like the times and the seasons, manufacturing technology is ever changing.

About the Author
FMA Communications Inc.

Don Nelson

Editor-in-Chief

2135 Point Blvd.

Elgin, IL 60123

(815)-227-8248

Don Nelson has reported on and been in the manufacturing industry for more than 25 years.