Ascendent 3D Printing Technology Important for Midwest, Economy and Kids

Video footage courtesy of Carlos Urquieta from Camera Eye Media.

Kim Brand is excited about 3D printing, and he thinks you should be too. The general manager of Indianapolis-based company 3D Parts Manufacturing believes 3D printing represents a change in the way we think about making things and that it will open up a new era of creativity and innovation.

“When I graduated from Purdue in 1975 with a mechanical engineering degree, I chose to get into IT (information technology) because IT was cool,” said Kim Brand of 3D Parts Manufacturing. “But I can tell you today that manufacturing is cool — and it may have only recently become cool — and it’s going to benefit everyone, especially the Midwest that has a tradition in manufacturing, and all the people who have spent their careers putting us where we are. I don’t want to make this a presentation about how smart I am for God’s sake, but how ascendent a brand new [3D] technology is and how important it’s going to be for us, our kids, our economy, and I’m just thrilled to be a part of it.”

Highlights from Kim Brand’s presentation at TechPoint’s Tech Thursday:

1. You can turn your dreams into parts now, which is really cool. It comes with some caveats; these new tools have new rules.
2. What used to be an assembly of many different parts is now a single 3D part. The quality control and inventory implications alone are enough to justify this technology. You don’t have to make as many different parts, you don’t have to measure them, you don’t have to keep them in stock, you don’t have to assemble them and measure them again, and you don’t have QC guys floating around. So there are a lot of positive impacts aside from the geometry of 3D printing.
3. 3D printing is not just for rapid prototyping anymore, we’re making parts that are being used in actual products.
4. Autocad is so 90s. That way of thinking doesn’t work anymore and we have to be able to represent objects that have depth in order to stay competitive and innovative.
5. 3D printing is a “scratch your own itch” medium. You can now make just one of something instead of needing all of the infrastructure that it used to take just to make one.
6. Subtractive manufacturing vs. additive manufacturing: In the old way, we used to whittle away material. Today, we can give you any shape you want and you are only paying for the actual molecules of the part and no waste.
7. Everybody should stop what they are doing and go download the free software called Sketchup, it’s an easy way to learn and draw in 3D.

Tech Thursday is sponsored by voice, data and managed services provider LightBound and hosted by the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels. The event is free, open to the public, and hosted at the offices of Faegre Baker Daniels near 96th St. and College Ave. on the Northside of Indianapolis.

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