For our Sustainability issue, TCT spoke to Atomik AM CEO Prof Kate Black and Commercial Manager Gareth Neal about the UK company’s radical, solutions-focused approach to responsible additive manufacturing.
TCT: What is the industry missing and how is Atomik AM aiming to solve it?
Kate: Without materials, we don't have anything. If we don't control materials and look after them, we can't achieve good engineering solutions. Materials have caused many issues in the additive manufacturing industry. We haven't lived up to the hype we've created over the last 20 to 30 years because we've approached it with a one-size-fits-all mentality. This approach isn't delivering what customers need. Manufacturers often try to convince customers they need a particular product rather than listening to what they actually want. We should focus on developing manufacturing solutions that meet customer needs.
TCT: So where do you start?
Kate: Rather than focusing on problems, Atomik focuses on solutions. If we fix the problem in front of us, we can inadvertently cause a problem further along down the line because we're not considering how that system works as a whole. Our first thing to ascertain from a customer, is the thing that they think is the problem in the first place. We supply them with a solution-focused questionnaire so that we can really understand what difference it would make to their business if we had solved the issue. Nine times out of ten, the thing they came to us with isn't the thing that they need to fix. It's giving technological solutions but also steering them in the right mindset so that we can get to the solution quicker.
TCT: How are you encouraging companies to think differently?
Atomik AM
Professor Kate Black
Kate: Our aim is agile manufacturing for a sustainable future. Who doesn't want a sustainable future? It's not hard to sell. The challenge is maintaining a solution-focused mindset. It's easy to revert to a problem-focused approach because we're hardwired that way. It's important to realise that how we think determines the world we create. Despite having amazing technologies like additive manufacturing, AI, and machine learning, we still face many challenges because we're not thinking the right way. From my experience as an individual and a business owner, adopting a solution-focused approach pays dividends. It can be difficult to get people on board, but once they see the benefits, it's hard to go back to a problem-focused mindset.
TCT: When you meet with customers, is sustainability a priority for them?
Kate: You see people paying lip service to sustainability but they don't always live by their values. We're all on the same planet, just because you're not doing it in your plant or in your factory doesn't mean it's not having an effect somewhere else in the world. We see people manufacturing goods that don't really serve the purpose, so they throw them away after a week or a month's time. I think the biggest crime in additive manufacturing is printheads. They are thousands of pounds, and [companies] expect their customer to buy a new head in six months’ time. It's bad engineering and bad material science. We've got printheads that we've had for eight years because we put the right materials in them. Once we start putting materials first, we won't have those issues.
Get your FREE print subscription to TCT Magazine.
Exhibit at the UK's definitive and most influential 3D printing and additive manufacturing event, TCT 3Sixty.
In the Western world, we rely on a capitalist system that emphasises consumption and growth. This approach could lead to the end of human civilisation. We need to consider alternative economic models that enable humans and innovation to thrive.
TCT: What role do you think AM specifically has in shaping this sustainable future?
Kate: Additive manufacturing should be seen as a tool in the manufacturing toolbox. We shouldn't be seeing it as either or. That's where we've gone wrong. When we start to see how we can augment additive with conventional, that's when additive will really take off. If we get the materials right in the first place, and they add value, then, yes, it has a strong role to play in sustainable manufacturing. Taking high quality materials, chopping them up into small powders, using immense amounts of energy, time and money and then gluing them back together as substandard material – somebody must have been having an off day when they thought about that!
Gareth: It's the business thinking mindset again. It's, how do I make money out of this? Not, how do I provide a solution, whilst making money out of this? It's subtle, but it's important. If you have a commercial team who are solely focused on bringing revenue, they'll compromise to make things easier to bring in money, rather than provide the correct solution. Those compromises mean that the customer is never quite satisfied, which is where additive manufacturing is right now.
TCT: You also talk about being socially conscious and treating people with respect.
Kate: To be sustainable, we need to innovate quickly because we don't have the luxury of time anymore. People innovate by thinking about things differently and bringing different disciplines together. If you look at the workforce, particularly in manufacturing, it is generally white males. How do you have diversity of thought if you don't have diversity of workforce? I believe that the technology we need already exists and it's scattered around the world like a large jigsaw. It needs people to bring those pieces together, but we can't bring those pieces together when we have cultures that alienate half the population.
TCT: You’re putting materials first. Can you elaborate on why that’s a significant shift?
Atomik AM
Gareth Neal
Kate: Once you understand how materials work at the molecular level, you can start to manipulate them to give functionality at the part level. Imagine if we could do that in additive manufacturing? Not only nice geometries, but graded and controlled microstructures across a part that does what you want it to do. We can start to lower processing temperatures, shorten processing times, manufacture materials that are very difficult to manufacture in any other way. There’s a whole world that we haven't really explored, and with that comes new innovations, new technologies. I would urge the additive manufacturing community to put materials at the forefront of everything that you do. The machines and the characterisation should be there to liberate and facilitate the materials. Not the other way around.
Gareth: You're starting from the end. What do I need this thing to do? How do I do that? How do I create that type of material? How do I deliver that into a shape? How do I manufacture that shape? What does that infrastructure look like? You work from the end and go backwards. It doesn't necessarily look like a machine you can put several different types of powder in with either a printhead or a laser and sell as a formula and reap in the machine sales and consumable razor blade model from it.
TCT: What progress has been made so far?
Kate: We've developed a low temperature, pure aluminium process. People ask, ‘How do you do that? It oxidizes, doesn't it?’ But if you look at the chemistries and you can control the chemistries, you can get pure aluminium. That has lots of applications in thermal management systems for electric vehicles, aerospace and automotive. And because we don’t see binders as just a binder, we've managed to use starting materials that are far cheaper, which will drive down the part cost by magnitudes.
Gareth: There's likely to be some cynicism around that, especially if we can deliver 5cm parts for a couple of quid, because we're now at the point in AM where it's an established industry with 30-year veterans that think they know everything. If there is any cynicism, just come and ask us, come and find out. We'll sign an NDA, and then we'll tell you what we do. Don't look at it as cynicism, treat it as curiosity.
TCT: In 10 years, what would you define as success for Atomik AM?
Kate: I would like Atomik to be known as the global standard for manufacturing. Just as people refer to 'the Google way' or 'the Netflix way,' I'd like people to say, 'the Atomik way.' This is not about recognition for Atomik; it's about ensuring a sustainable future for ourselves and future generations. To achieve this, we must urgently change our manufacturing methods and business leadership. By leading with a focus on solutions, the business will take care of itself.
This article originally appeared inside TCT Europe Edition Vol. 32 Issue 4 and TCT North American Edition Vol. 10 Issue 4. Subscribe here to receive your FREE print copy of TCT Magazine, delivered to your door six times a year.
