Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) spin-off Fieldmade and Mark3D UK, have announced a strategic partnership agreement whereby Mark3D UK will exclusively supply Fieldmade Nomad LW portable 3D printers in the UK.
The announcement marks a significant shift in the go-to-market strategy for the Markforged-based Fieldmade Nomad LW range’s supply, support, and servicing. Fieldmade CEO Jostein Olsen said, “Fieldmade AS are specialists in a number of primary areas, our products and services cover Digital Inventory Management, Consulting Services, and the Nomad range of in-field additive manufacturing equipment.” In other news, the British army is employing an in-field additive manufacturing solution for its Project Convergence 22.
“It makes sense for us to work with the UK Markforged specialists, Mark3D UK to improve our offering to the UK’s defense and energy sectors, who have shown huge interest in our LW products,” added the CEO of Fieldmade.
“We have a number of Markforged machines ourselves, so this made our decision to base the Nomad LW project around the Markforged machine easy. Having to recommend a machine that’s going to travel in the back of trucks or put in shipping containers and then airfreighted somewhere in the world wasn’t really a hard decision,” said Svein Hjelmtveit, CTO at Fieldmade.
How does this partnership aim to serve its customers?
“The Mark Two is a very compact and manageable size, it’s very easy to use and when combined with its ability to print parts that are stronger than aluminum, it’s the obvious choice for operationally critical 3D printing,” said Ian Weston MD of Mark3D UK.
The Nomad LW, according to Fieldmade AS, is based on the award-winning Mark Two from Markforged Inc, which has proven popular with engineers of all disciplines. The Nomad LW includes a sustainment pack, a service agreement, and ample materials to print for several months. It also comes with a rugged travel case that enables it to be transported safely. MD of Mark3D UK further explained, “It isn’t beyond the realms of possibility to see these units being dropped out of planes by parachute or pop up in remote jungle locations after traveling for days in the back of a 4×4, the only consideration will be a power source for longer prints and to charge the UPS”.
Fieldmade AS offers a variety of Nomad offerings, including the Nomad LW. Larger solutions are offered in Nomad 1, Nomad 2, or Nomad 3 configurations to meet the needs of end users. These solutions offer customers a pre-packaged micro-factory that can be deployed anywhere in the world. Materials include polymer, composite, and metal, providing what the company describes to be “the greatest possible choice.” According to the company, incorporation into the Fieldmade Digital Inventory software enables users to access completely aggregated, print-ready files with assisting metadata and print them at the point of need, anywhere.
“The LW can easily be transported in the air, over the sea, and across the land to final destinations. Incredibly, engineers can transport this equipment whilst it is still printing, due to the in-built uninterruptable power source (UPS). The core benefit of the Nomad LW is continuous operation at the point of need, even in the most extreme and remote environments,” said the MD of Mark3D UK.
How the strategic partnerships are enhancing the AM sector
Previously, AMT and HP announced a strategic partnership to provide advanced post-processing capabilities to HP customers, building on many years of close partnership. The collaboration revolves around an Integrated Post Processing Solution that provides complete support throughout the entire 3D printing production workflow. PostPro DMS (Digital Manufacturing System) solutions allow a seamless connection between physical and digital components of the workflow from design to production to post-processing. Customers can employ the solution to incorporate and automate post-processing steps like cleaning, chemical vapor smoothing, coloring, part sorting, and inspection for applications produced with HP’s industrial Jet Fusion 3D printing polymer printing solutions more productively and cost-effectively.
Recently, German investment firm Koehler Group announced a strategic alliance with UnternehmerTUM, a technical university in Munich. Furthermore, Koehler Invest has rented BigRep PRO 3D printer to UnternehmerTUM’s MakerSpace for one year. Koehler Group claims BigRep is one of the industry’s leading large format 3D printing firms, with the potential to “speed up innovation and boost flexibility and digitalization in manufacturing processes.”
Elsewhere, US-based post-printing solutions provider PostProcess and German industrial additive manufacturing company EOS announced strategic collaboration. With this partnership, both companies aim to provide EOS consumers with a completely automated and sustainable depowdering solution. The PostProcess Variable Acoustic Displacement (VAD) technology automates the gross depowdering of 3D printed parts, wrapping up the EOS printer product line. This agreement will make it easier for consumers to buy post-printing solutions, allowing the workflow to be entirely digitalized from part design to 3D printing and post-processing. According to PostProcess, VAD technology has been successfully used with large industrial customers to process hundreds of SLS powder cakes and thousands of parts in production environments.
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Feature image shows Fieldmade and Mark3D UK representatives. Image via Mark3D UK.