5 Years Later | Entry Blog 7

My journey so far…

It’s been good. Three words to summarise how things have been in the last 5 years. My focus now has changed from 3D printing to overall business development. I still do a lot of 3D printing and the techniques, softwares and design philosophies have changed over the years which, in this field, continues to be rather exciting.

Fusion360 has been one of the biggest shifts in my 3D printing operations, with the commercial software being great to use and allows for collaborations with others easily. Having a bunch of options available, I still recommend finding the one that suits you, knowing 80% of the daily functions and researching the other 20% you may only use once or twice in a project.

The changes in materials, availabilities and performance has been improving. PLA now works for 90% of our prints with the remaining 10% spread between special materials, resin printing, etc. It blows my mind knowing that the material options used to be unreliable, irregular and limited. Now it’s hard to select which type of PLA you should use, and what printers to use it on!

Finally, the knowledge of folks especially those in manufacturing are starting to shift. Almost all know about them however there is still those who don’t understand how it works. Being able to show companies how these things can add value to R&D, production, manufacturing and other areas have been interesting. Most adopting the technology after a few successful projects.

It’s hard to know what the next 5 years will be but it’s going to be bright!