Mark Ruport, president and CEO of Sigma Labs Inc (NASDAQ:SGLB), sees today’s 3D metal printing industry as akin to the nascent electric vehicle market of the mid-1990s.
“It was in 1996 when General Motors introduced the EV-1, and of course, that failed for a lot of different reasons, primarily because of battery life and technology and refueling, because the infrastructure wasn't there,” he explained. “It's a good analog to what's happened with 3D metal printing.”
Of course, nearly 30 years later the EV technology, the batteries, and infrastructure has finally caught up to the disruptive, revolutionary promise EVs could achieve -- and now offer -- as the world turns toward clean-energy transportation and other power systems.
For Ruport, the 3D metal printing industry (also called additive manufacturing) has matured as well -- to a point where it is poised to usher in a transformative approach to industrial production by creating lighter, stronger, and more durable parts that could not be produced with traditional manufacturing processes.
“Everybody's frustrated that it hasn't matured faster, but we can say that about any major disruptive technology, whether it be the paperless office or electric vehicles or anything like that, it just takes longer,” said the CEO, whose company is a leading provider of in-process, quality assurance software to the 3D printing industry.
“But when it happens, it happens in a big wave. And it always starts with the most sophisticated segment of the market, where the most need is, and the people who are on the leading edge.”
Advancing its PrintRite3D for industrial 3D metal manufacturers
New Mexico-based Sigma Labs is one of those sophisticated companies on the edge, as it develops and commercializes its real-time monitoring software product known as PrintRite3D for industrial 3D metal manufacturers.
PrintRite3D detects and classifies defects and anomalies in real-time during the manufacturing process, ensuring quality and design standards are met while enabling significant cost savings and production efficiencies.
“From Sigma’s perspective, the opportunity for our product in the 3D metal printing segment of the market is very large and continues to grow and is becoming very active,” Ruport said.
The company in April upgraded the product with several breakthrough features such as temperature monitoring and calibration, 3D visualization and predictive machine learning, among others, to provide users with rapid and real-time cross-section analysis capabilities.
3D printing uses software and lasers to direct hardware to deposit material (metal powder), layer upon layer, in precise geometric shapes. In the analog world under traditional methods, in contrast, ironically, it is often necessary to remove material through milling, machining, carving, and shaping to create a metallic part.
Detecting anomalies and defects
But anomalies and defects can pop up during the 3D manufacturing process (which can take hours in some cases). It is critical that those problems are flagged immediately for time and money’s sake.
That’s where Sigma Labs’ software product comes in. It is an edge computing devise that is connected via cables to 3D metal printers for real-time, diagnostic feedback as the software focuses on how the lasers hit the powder while the part is being built.
“Our software analyzes the actual building of a part, layer by layer as the lasers hit the powder to create it. And then our machine learning technology begins to identify and classify defects, and predict defects that might happen based on what we see,” Ruport said.
“And based on algorithms that we've developed over time, we can see just like a welder when he's welding, an anomaly or a defect that might be caused by the powder or the amount of oxygen or the power of the laser. And from that, we say, OK, you have a part here that most likely has a defect. And we notify the operator. So we're a real-time diagnostic monitoring system while a 3D part is being printed layer by layer.”
Sigma Labs’ software also offers manufacturers another key tool for when the finished product awaits inspection. Typically, firms must subject their parts to what is called a CT scan. It’s expensive to conduct and if a product is found defective, the firm will toss out the part, often at great expense. Sigma Labs’ software simulates a CT scan and most likely save the part from the waste heap.
“If you're able to use technology like ours to be able to simulate the CT scan with 85% correlation to a physical CT scan, we then become one of the catalysts for the adoption and production and for the industrialization of 3D printing,” he said.
Flushed with $17 million in cash and no debt
Flushed with $17 million in cash along with no debt, Ruport said Sigma Labs is now focused on serving the aerospace, defense and space exploration industries that need lighter, stronger, and durable mission-critical parts. For example, the company recently won a contract from Lockheed Martin as well as a large European aerospace and defense company for its PrintRite3D system.
“People envision 3D printers actually being put on the moon to replace parts of the ship that brought them there. So they're so totally self-sufficient,” said Ruport, who added that the US Department of Defense is looking at 3D printing as a means to lessen its dependency on supply chains that can break down and cause part shortages.
As Sigma Labs advances its software and deepens its relationships in aerospace, defense and space markets, the 3D printer industry is at an inflection point for a few reasons. On a positive note, part-making times and the quality of metal powders that lasers turn into hard metals are improving, he said.
But a lack of “time and experience” as well as an over-supply of 3D printer manufacturers (53, all told) is holding the industry back for the time being.
“They're producing the hardware,” he said. “We produce software that manages and ensures that the product and the part that they're building is of high quality, is consistent with the design methodology, and meets the requirements of the end-use of the product. So we don't care which printer they're using. It’s just like a software company for the most part doesn’t care what computers people are using because their software will accommodate that platform.”
Looking ahead to the rest of 2021 and beyond, the company not only seeks to commercialize its flagship software but it wants to nurture the industry “holistically” and help lead the emerging 3D print or additive manufacturing movement.
“At the very high level, we practice what we call radical collaboration, which means we're trying to do the things that not only advance our company and our customers, but the industry as a whole,” Ruport said.
“So we plan to share the knowledge base that we are building, the interaction of powders and the processes and the machines, and so forth...Our goal is to be the leader in quality assurance for 3D printing or additive manufacturing.”
Contact the author: patrick@proactiveinvestors.com
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