3D打印行业透视@Formnext l 对话EOS 欧洲高级副总裁 Zaepernick 先生
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Formnext 2018展会期间，3D科学谷联合创始人Korinna Penndorf 女士与3D打印行业专家进行了访谈，通过5个问题的问答揭示行业发展机遇、挑战与趋势。
3D打印行业透视@Formnext的首位被采访对象是EOS 欧洲(Central Europe)高级副总裁 Nikolai Zaepernick 先生。
EOS 欧洲高级副总裁 Nikolai Zaepernick （左）；3D科学谷联合创始人Korinna Penndorf （右）。
Q1. EOS 今年在Formnext的亮点是什么？
A：EOS 今年的亮点当属最新发布的金属和塑料3D打印技术。
在金属3D打印领域，我们一直以来所追求的目标是以最低成本实现质量可重复的生产，EOS 几乎将所有的研发经费用于帮助生产用户实现这一目标。在质量方面，EOS通过前几代设备获得了经验，现在，EOS M300 已经是第五代设备了，我们将以往积累的所有经验运用到这代设备中，以实现可重复的质量。现在在市场上有很多公司在强调3D打印的生产效率，不过需要重视的是在提升效率的同时必须保证以更低的成本生产质量可重复的3D打印产品，这是至关重要的。
EOS 推出了LaserProFusion技术（据悉，具体商业化时间在2020/21年），该技术的特点之一是生产效率高。下图中的零件是由LaserProFusion 技术制造的，构建时间为9秒。借助LaserProFusion技术，EOS展示了旨在实现最高生产率的创新。EOS不断优化粉末材料与激光之间的相互作用，这项新技术使用多达一百万个二极管，而不是使用单个CO2激光器对整个构建区域进行激光烧结，新技术都可显著缩短曝光时间。
Q2. 与去年相比，EOS 今年在业务方面的表现如何？
A：我们的业务得到了稳步的、可持续的发展，今年的收入约为3.5亿欧元。不过与之前相比，市场上的竞争加剧了，我们的客户在选择与EOS 合作之前，需要花费更多的时间在不同企业之间进行比较。好的一面是，已有客户将3D打印技术投入到生产领域，他们已经意识到了这种应用的价值。目前，市场虽仍以测试和观察这一技术为主，但我们能够看到未来市场容量的增加。
Q3. 目前EOS 遇到的挑战是什么？
A：这条道路永远都不会轻松，作为一家增材制造企业，我们自己首先要与生产领域融合，我们需要学习、适应和尊重制造的游戏规则。
我们也需要将3D打印技术与企业的数字化制造融入起来。数字化制造中蕴含着新的机会，我们如何使用这些数据，并利用数据创造新的商业模式。当然，数据是属于客户的，尊重数据安全性是首要的。然而我们相信，与用户携手，我们可以将数据的价值发挥更大，并且开创出新的商业模式。
Q4. 您对2018年的3D打印行业有何看法？您认为这个行业主要的发展和障碍是什么？
A：关于发展，我们看到市场上有更多的用户接受并测试并非完全成熟的3D打印技术，他们愿意与像EOS 这样的3D打印企业一起开发产品。这种开放的合作开辟了很多新的机会。
与传统制造技术相比，3D打印的材料范围十分有限，但是通过客户与3D打印企业之间的开放合作关系，我们能够开辟出更多的3D打印材料及其应用。
不过制造业用户通常希望我们能够用增材制造技术制造传统工艺加工某种零件所使用的材料。然而，增材制造是一种不同于以往的材料加工工艺，通过零件的设计优化以及增材制造工艺，我们能够使用与传统材料不同的材料，满足客户对于材料性能的要求。通过激光熔融可以影响工艺和零件的属性，实现完全不同的材料属性。
所以我们不一定需要那么多种类的材料，我们不一定需要从材料出发，而是从我们需要实现的产品功能与性能出发，或者可以实现更好的材料性能，这就是数字化材料的魅力。
关于障碍，我看到的是，有些很多企业进入到3D打印领域，但由于3D打印技术分为很多不同种类，对于很多企业而言，所面对的障碍是如何找到适合自己的技术定位。
另一个阻碍发展的客观原因可以说是10年前就存在的，那就是传统制造方式对设计思维的固化。我自己本身是工程师出身，8年前进入到增材制造领域，我的体会是，让工程师重新考虑如何利用3D打印技术，以增材制造的思维去设计，这需要突破以往通过铸造、压铸、机械加工制造所带来的思维限制，这是非常困难的。
Q5. 您对未来5年的预期是什么？
A：第一个预期是，目前正在使用3D打印技术的客户中，有一部分用户正在通过3D打印技术实现量产。这些用户通常是具有明确产品组合的大型OEM，有的甚至一天生产5万件3D打印的产品。再过3到5年，他们会开发出更多适合3D打印的产品来，并且规模做的更大。
第二个预期是，3D打印技术将改变当前的供应链，这一趋势在航空航天与汽车制造领域较为清晰，医疗行业比较特殊，医疗行业的产品一般很少外包给OEM来制造。
目前3D打印技术的最主要应用是制造产品原型，但是并非局限于制造外观原型，而是能够制造功能性原型。有的企业还将3D打印技术用于制造小批量产品甚至是中等批量产品，这是另外一个既定发展趋势。
另外，很多3D打印企业并不盈利，而企业发展需要持续的盈利才能支撑，这会导致未来几年部分3D打印企业被收购或者被迫退出市场的情况。
-- 英文采访 --
Q1. What is the highlight of your company at Formnext this year?
A：So formnext, I believe it’s a place to meet where globally you can achieve the most condensed overview on three industrial 3d printing on this planet. So I believe it’s well to visit, to get an overview about machines,materials and softwares.
What is the biggest highlight of EOS? Of course it’s our new announcement on the metal and polymer technology.
On the metal side, I believe we are consistently pursuing our story towards production. And production is about defined and repeatable quality that you need to achieve. And of course, it’s about lowest cost per part. So this is something where we put all our R&D dollars in order to achieve exactly this for our customers.
For the quality, we made everything that we learned on our former machine generations. And it’s been five iteration already. We have been achieving in the EOS M 300-4 machine to achieve a consistent quality and a repeatable quality.
Image: EOS M300, image courtesy: EOS
This is not easy. We see that in the market, there’s a lot of noise. Everyone speaks about 10 or 100 times of the productivity. But if you really look between the lines, if you want to produce,it’s about a defined quality, and at the end,it’s about a lower cost of the part. So this is what we address on the metal side.
On the polymer side, now we are unveilling a new technology which we called LaserProFusion. It’s not about one laser is not about two lasers or four lasers. It’s gonna be a million diodes.
And if you compare the productivity of our smallest machine today and say this is the size of the statue of liberty. Our next best machine is the P 500, which we launched last year. Compared to the statue of liberty ,the productivity of P 500 is Eiffel tower，the productivity of the new LaserProFusion is like the highest buidling in the world. So now you can imagine what the evolution of this new technologies.
For the new technologies, how to ensure the quality is critical. For EOS, since we are in production, so we can’t afford to to sacrifice on quality. Our new LaserProFusion will of course build on the quality while increasing the speed.
I’ll show you a part that produced by the LaserProFusion machine.The build time of this part is nine seconds.
Image: EOS booth at formnext 2018, part build time is 9 seconds. by Korinna Penndorf
Q2. What is the 3d printing business performance this year compared with last year in your company?
A：Our business are steadily and sustainable growing. Business figures is around about 350 million Euro this year. It’s a little bit of a cool down what we’ve seen the last couple of years. But I think this is due to different factors. I believe now we are facing more competition,people need to understand what exactly fits their requirements.
On the other side, we have customers that actually go into production and they are aware of these applications and they will go through the roof at a certain point in time. I believe still now it’s more a testing and seeing. There is no way back and the only way is enhancing and increasing capacity in the market. So we’ll see also a sustained growth in the future.
Q3. What is the major challenge for your business currently? Have you overcome all possible challenges? So is there anything left after this great announcement today?
A：We are on the path, but this path will never be easy. It’s not gonna be a quick win. If you compared 3D printing to traditional manufacturing, these companies are always challenged by digitalization and industry 4.0. So what is the next area? And this is also true for 3D printing. So we are integrating ourselves in the existing production fields. So we have to first of all learn, adapt and respect the rules of the business facts. And I think that’s been the hard work in the past to do so. But now we’re here. So we are producing with our customers.
However it still, I mean we’re talking about decentralized manufacturing, which is is the next thing. We need to also with our technology tie into the digital transformation. This is also a challenge not for only us, but I think the entire 3D printing space will have to have an answer on this.
And important is that we understand what is feasible with this data and how can we use it. And of course,the utmost goal with respecting security. The data is belonging to our customers. But I guess together with our customers, we can find models to increase productivity and also to generate new business models. So there’s enough to do in oncoming years.
Q4. What do you think the year of 2018 for 3d printing industry? What’s the major development and obstacles that you see if you look all around your partners and players, other players in the market?
A：There is a lot of noise in the market. I believe if you talk about obstacles for someone who does not know what is to expect, it is really hard at the moment to differentiate what is only noise from the market and what is right for companies to implement.
The second biggest hurdle is the same as ten years ago. When I entered additive manufacturing 8 years ago, I realized that the mindset of the engineers is the blocking point. And I can say that because I’m an engineer as well. So to rethink casting, die casting, to rethink a part which is manufacured by milling technology, to chenge the way of thinking how to design the part for 3d printing, this is very difficult. And this is true ten years ago, and it’s still true today. So this is the second biggest thing that needs to be overcome.
Korinna Penndorf: From the technology piont of view,is there something in the market that you feel this year has happened?
I believe portfolio bandwidth is the most critical point. We still have a fraction of materials available at the moment.,If you compared to injection molding or casting, or in general machining materials. However, what I see is that much more players on the market(also the willingness of companies) to accept and experiment the process which is not 100% ready.
This openness, I think, it’s visible in the market, and this opens up a lot of opportunities. But I have to add on this. So typically engineer comes and he works with a define material in a traditional process. And he says, ok, can I have the same material for additive manufacturing? And it’s not the same story, because it’s a different way of processing these materials. This always caused confusion. I take the original material but have a different result or, this is more the idea of digital materials. I can take a different material, but then through geometry optimization plus I can influence the process such that I achieve the hot properties I would like to have.
So it is a matter of how you think the properties of the part you want to achieve, not a matter of sticking to the materials you used to have.
And maybe for one thousand kind of origin materials. I don’t have to have one thousand kind of the same materials, but I can have maybe a hundred or maybe only ten kinds of. And I can simulate and I can influence the process and the part properties, I can then achieve even better material properties. So this is the idea of digital materials.
Q5. What is your expectation for next 5 years?
A：So let’s start with markets, we have customers that are producing parts 50 thousand pieces per day. For these customers, for these kind of applications and for these markets, I don’t see a way back. Now it’s about to get confidence and also make sure that these companies make their way to product more types of parts, then to scale. So I see these kinds of customers are on the path, talking about three to five years, those customers are going to somewhere they will go big.
The second thing I expect is this will trickle down to supply chain. So this is gonna to impact the supply chain. I see that very clearly in aerospace. I see that very clearly in automotive. Medical is a different industry sector. Big medical companies tend to keep the production in house.
But industry like aerospace and automotive, this will have an effect on the ecosystem. So I see that there’s gonna be clear applications that will go 3d printed at the OEMs in the supply chain.
I see rapid prototype is still not in this situation. So we’re gonna see more not only geometric rapid prototype, but also functional, where companies actually take the part and try for a small series or even for a mid size series. So this is gonna happen as well.
Anther change I believe is going to happen is a consolidation in the markets. Many companies are not making money, there has to be a substantial way of growth. This is a natural element where the consideration will happen either merging or the company being bought or getting obsolete.
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