Benjamin Tan, Vice President of Ultimaker Asia Pacific believed that 3D printing on demand, instead of pulling it from a warehouse, has enabled manufacturers to reduce costs in inventory and storage. “With 3D printing, the possibilities are truly limitless, and we are only starting to realise the use cases for it,” he added.
Beginning
Since its inception in the Netherlands in 2011, Ultimaker has grown to become a market-leader; creating powerful, professional and accessible desktop 3D printers. In 2018, the company approached Benjamin to head Ultimaker APAC, responsible for driving growth for Ultimaker 3D printers, and providing leadership across the channel networks.
Having held leadership roles in engineering, business development and sales in the IT and software industries over the past two decades, he was confident that his experience in the related fields would be useful in terms of his connections in the region. Additionally, it equipped him with a keen understanding of local market conditions, enabling Benjamin to be attuned to both the challenges and opportunities that the region has to offer.
While Ultimaker is already established in Europe and US, it is relatively unknown in this part of the region. This is due in part that 3D printing is still in its nascent stage here, hence, many companies in APAC are not even aware of 3D printing as a technology, much less realise the significant benefits that 3D printing can bring. As such, a lot of time is invested into educating and convincing the company stakeholders and decision-makers.
“But we have been seeing good progress. Ultimaker’s network of distributors and partners, have been logging double digit sales records year-on-year. Globally, there are now 125,000 Ultimaker 3D printers in the field, compared to approximately 67,000 units in 2017. Ultimaker Cura, the company’s open source software, has 500,000 unique users per month, up 100% in one year, and processes 1.4 million print jobs per week, a 200% increase in one year,” he disclosed.
Competitive advantage
Ultimaker’s competitive advantage is its 360 degree platform solution consisting of hardware, software and materials and our global sales and support infrastructure. Benjamin revealed its deep knowledge of materials, strong alliances with leading material companies, combined with Ultimaker Cura, allows them to ensure that almost any industrial filament can work with Ultimaker printers, guaranteeing very high levels of quality and reliability, as required by a demanding customer base in all industries.
He also mentioned its highly reliable hardware ensures smooth and superior print quality. Their award-winning Ultimaker S5, together with the newly launched Material Station, helps to push the Ultimaker S5 to a new level of productivity and consistency. It boosts and simplifies the 3D printing workflow. The Ultimaker S5 Material Station enables loading of Ultimaker spools in any bay, in any order. It fits 6 spools and, together with the Ultimaker Material Alliance Program, allowing users to make endless material combinations, unleashing true 24/7 3D printing.
“Software wise, we made a breakthrough with the Marketplace in Ultimaker Cura. The new plug ins simplify the way 3D Printing can be integrated into existing IT environments. We also fundamentally optimised Ultimaker Cura’s User Experience moving from specialist interface to manage settings towards a workflow-based interface, leading users step-by-step towards a successful print, supported by a pretty impressive touchscreen interaction. The biggest breakthrough was in material adoption where we introduced the concept of Print Profiles (PP), first for Ultimaker Materials and quickly widening this concept to a huge Ultimaker Material Alliance Program with virtually all material suppliers in the world, making PP available on UltimakerCura’s Marketplace and in doing so enormously extending the application range of Ultimaker,” he pointed out.
Adoption of 3D printing in Asia
Since the rise of 3D printing in the market recently, Ultimaker have been seeing impacts on a few main areas: Supply chain and decentralised production – companies are moving away from mass production to on-demand printing onsite or local manufacturing hubs. This helps to keep transportation and logistics costs down significantly. Resource management – 3D printing is touted as a sustainable form of manufacturing due to its high efficiencies in cost, production and energy. It dramatically reduces the risk of over-production, thus resulting in need for inventory storage. This in turn reduces carbon footprint used in inventory transportation.
According to Benjamin, the automotive industry was one of the first industries to leverage 3D printing. Some of their biggest customers are from the automotive companies including Ford and Volkswagen.
Volkswagen saved close to €325,000 per year, simply by 3D printing multiple tool and fixtures with Ultimaker 3D printers. This was a 91% reduction in cost with a 35% improvement in final product quality. Another case in point: Heineken, our customer from the industrial automation/ food technology sector, which is still in the first stages of 3D printing, has seen cost savings of 70-90% per printed part with a reduction in delivery time of 70-90%.
The architecture and construction sector is another area that 3D printing will really take off. “We are already seeing vast improvements in design, speed and structure with the use of 3D printing. Closer to home, the Housing Development Board of Singapore announced recently that it will trial 3D-concrete printing for smaller components such as landscape furniture and architectural features in common areas at selected projects,” he said.
“With 3D printing, the possibilities are truly limitless. And we are only starting to realise the use cases for it. We are actively seeking collaborations with tertiary institutions for STEM (Science, technology, engineering and maths) so that students can engage in hands-on learning experiences and be better prepared for the jobs of tomorrow,” expressed Benjamin.
Accelerating industrialisation of 3D printing in Asia
He informed, “We foresee that in professional environments, the printer will increasingly move further away from the people that develop the .gcode. For instance, on a ship to print quick jigs and fixtures there, or to place the printer next to a machine to make repairs on the spot. As such, every printer that we bring should have a fully reliable environment. We want our ecosystem to fit in to these type of user scenarios and we will continue to do so. In the end, it is all about accelerating the world’s transition to digital distribution and local manufacturing.”
“Our software enables professionals to fully transition to Industry 4.0. Ultimaker Cura is developed to streamline the 3D printing experience. It allows users to manage their 3D printers and to upscale production from a single device. A printjob can be started from your office or anywhere in the world. By integrating with CAD software, we unlock faster CAD-to-CURA workflows than ever before,” added Benjamin.
The company aims to provide the professional / enterprise market with accessible, reliable and easy to use 3D printing solution for designers, engineers, manufacturers, architects and medical specialists for printing functional prototypes, manufacturing tools, final parts and architectural/medical models that require full geometrical freedom capabilities, industrial grade material properties, repeatability, high uptime and an integrated workflow. All accessible for every professional at a low cost of ownership.
Not to forget offer universities / research institutions with Accessible, reliable and easy to use 3D printing solutions for researchers and university teachers and students for printing functional prototypes, customised tools and final parts that require customisation, repeatability, full geometrical freedom capabilities and an open yet reliable hardware, software and material platform. All accessible at a low cost of ownership.
The International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that global spending on 3D printing-including hardware, materials, software and services-will be $13.8 billion in 2019, an increase of over 21% over 2018. By 2022, IDC expects worldwide spending to be close to $22.7 billion. Manufacturing was cited as the dominant industry for 3D printing, followed by health care providers and education and professional services1.
1https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Time-to-finance-Asia-s-3D-printing-revolution
