Markforged's FX10 Metal Kit highlights the company's attractiveness as an acquisition – 3DPrint.com

Nano Dimension's acquisition of Markforged was clearly the biggest headline of 2024 for the latter company, and in fact one of the most watched developments in the additive manufacturing (AM) industry as a whole this year. About a month before the deal was announced, Markforged unveiled a product that provided key insights into why the company was an attractive target for buyers.

In late August, Markforged released the Metal Kit for the FX10 composite printer, a release that embodies Markforged's evolution over the past few years. In particular, the Metal Kit shows how Markforged has increased its focus on fixing problem areas that crop up on the factory floor.

At the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago (September 9-14), I spoke with Tripp Burd, Markforged's Director of New Platforms, about how the Metal Kit fits into Markforged's overall strategy. The first thing I wanted to know was how the FX10 with the Metal Kit compares to the company's signature Metal X printer, first introduced in 2017:

“The FX10 is our latest generation printer. With the Metal Kit he is the Metal “The counterpoint to this is that the Metal However, as this continues to evolve and we continue to develop and refine further software and materials for the Metal Kit, there is no reason why it cannot have the same consistent track record in the future can boast like the Metal X.”

Of course, another advantage of the Metal Kit is that it is far cheaper for companies to purchase an adapter set than to purchase an additional printer. This gives Markforged a leg up on any customers who may be interested in developing metal AM applications but don't yet have enough interest to commit to an additional system.

In this sense, Markforged's development of the Metal Kit – and its focus on the factory floor in general – is a direct response to where the company's user base has found the most success in terms of ROI:

“If you go to a car factory that has its own Markforged printer, they're not at the point where they're making millions of cars with Markforged parts,” Burd explained. “But all the components in the factory itself, all the grippers, arms, brackets, everything involved in making cars – that’s where you find the best solutions for AM.” And it’s important to emphasize that this isn’t in a printing lab takes place in a separate building, but in the tool room with maintenance staff directly on site who maintain or optimize the production line.

This is possible because we have automated much of the knowledge contained in the underlying processes. So an engineer working for one of our customers doesn't have to be an expert in extrusion settings, layer heights and the like. This allows the necessary knowledge to be disseminated to every factory where there is a Markforged printer, where it would be unrealistic to have a printing expert on hand for every shift in every factory.”

Burd explained his position on the scope of services AM is currently best suited for:

“In many cases, the way 3D printers are used in practice is like a Swiss army knife. For example, if you only need to produce metal parts all day, there are other technologies. But to print a variety of reinforced composites and polymers with a few metal parts, the Metal Kit is perfect for that. In situations where cost per part is high, where complexity and part mix is ​​high, and volume is low, all of these attributes fit well with AM.”

Based on his experience with where AM is most compatible with the broader industry, I asked Burd what he thinks the industry can do to increase adoption rates:

“The best way to increase AM adoption is to expand addressability,” he said. “And that requires engineers with problems. You need to equip them with a tool that allows them to quickly and cost-effectively solve the problems they face every day. 3D printing is an excellent tool, but like any other tool, it is only as useful as the person using it for a specific task. Therefore, a combination of increasing skills, training and availability of technology is the best way to attract new users, advance new use cases and push the technology ever further into highly critical, highly valuable applications.”

Finally, Burd mentioned one of the industry sectors he sees as most attractive for the next phase of additive manufacturing:

“When you look at the impact of digital manufacturing, the most interesting thing to consider as relevant technologies become more widespread is what they can do for digital inventories and supply chains, and I think that's the next level,” Burd told me . “Once the design work is completed with a controlled process in a repeatable device, you can truly make that part available digitally, on-demand, anywhere in the world. This is the opportunity for sub-level performance to prevail in solving enterprise-wide and ultimately even global problems.”

With Markforged, Nano Dimension is entering the most practical area of ​​the AM industry. This is essentially the area furthest from its own existing wheelhouse where deep tech research and development resides.

Bringing these two areas together should give the merged companies an interesting vantage point from which to observe the development of the industry and give them access to two completely separate sources of income in the future. If the two companies manage to learn fruitfully from each other, the resulting new products and processes will be completely unique.

Images courtesy of Markforged