[MUSIC] So in this video, we are speaking to Rob Gorham, who's the director of operations at America Makes. Now this institute in Ohio is really set up as a collaborative initiative between academia, businesses, and the government. Their focus is on re-invigorating US manufacturing and helping businesses understand how to leverage additive manufacturing in product design or development and also for end use parts. So join us as we learn about America Makes and what they provide with Rob Gorham. >> I'm the director of operations here at America Makes. I spent the last 11 or 12 years before coming here at Lockheed Martin. I'm an aerospace engineer by training. I worked a lot in design and advanced design, specifically in a skunk works. And then got into additive manufacturing, a Lockheed Martin, and they came to Youngstown, Ohio to serve as the director of operations here at the Institute. We are a collaborative organization with over, now, a 160 members and the whole point is to serve a mission of advancing added manufacturing and 3D printing in the United States. It's all about US manufacturing competitiveness. And so we have large industry, small industry, public partners, academia, and we're all working together to solve problems that are common amongst everyone. Across multiple industries being aerospace, or bio-medical, or architecture, or art, automotive, it doesn't really matter, they all have common issues with really taking advantage of what the promise of additive manufacturing holds. [SOUND] Well at America Makes, specifically addressing that need, we have a lot of shops that interact with us. And the reason they do that is because they may not have access to a huge research budget. And the ability to turn dials and knobs to make sure the quality that the consumer expects is actually being met during the build process. That's a very important thing. Certification procedures, once you start to get into industries and you're ready to sell product or services that impact the aerospace or automotive, there's a whole certification process we all have to understand and the Institute can help with that. Once you get into start printing things that get into more bio or food and drug, then you start to have to think about the FDA, or the FAA, and the Institute can help there as well. So shops, tinkerers, different makers, hackers, entrepreneurs, all of those different organizations have the opportunity to interact with the Institute. Interact with the broad set of members that we have inside the Institute, and really, the word I like to use is leverage, why try to recreate your own research budget? Or why try to recreate a skill set at your own shop that you can take advantage of Intel, or GE, or Toyota, or Lockheed, or Boeing, or Stratus's 3D systems, X1, Siemens, Deloitte, it just goes on and on and on. That brain trust is I think what we bring to the table that all of those different folks that you mentioned, and all the folks that are listening to the class can really take advantage of. [MUSIC] We are here at America Makes in Youngstown, Ohio to see the facility and get a tour of the fabulous machines they have here. And we have with us Rodrigo to give us a tour of the place. So, Rodrigo, thank you for taking the time. >> You're welcome. >> Could you introduce yourself. >> Sure, my name is Rodrigo Enriquez, I'm a mechanical engineer. I'm also the manager and operator of what we call the Innovation Factory at America Makes. Which regards this floor and the one below us, where we have all of our additive manufacturing machines. America Makes is the national additive manufacturing institute, focused on advanced additive manufacturing in the industry. >> So I know at the Meta lab we have only a desktop machine, so we look forward to having you show us some of the higher end machines and the kind of capability that's available, so we'll follow you. >> Okay, this plastic filament extrusion machine, it's filament fused modeling. It's very similar to your desktop printers, this is the industrial level of the machine. Works the same way, we have a build plate right here and an extrusion head at the top of the machine. You have a filament at the bottom of the machine, containing those canisters. >> So these are the filaments? >> Yes, that's the filaments. So you have space for a lot more material than on your desktop printers. We also print two different ones, a support, and an actual material. This just has a wider range of plastics that you can print out and larger build envelope. It's about a cube foot to print on this. >> That is pretty good. >> Now over here, I have a binder jetting machine. >> Okay. >> You also have a powder bed. >> Okay. >> And then you have a binder or a glue that comes out of your printer. >> That's the powder there? >> Yeah, in this case they have stainless steel, but you can print sand, concrete, steel, any other metal, plastic, glass, anything you can get into a powder, for the most part you should be able to print it out. >> For those the binder and the binding agent would be different for each one. For each one, but that's the least of your constraints, and no worries the getting the right binding agent. Then you build your part over here, and this is nice you have a small build envelope, there are larger ones that can actually do parts quite larger. Now, if you're printing with sand, you can printing the sand casting models. >> Okay. >> So, in this case, so you're familiar with casting? Which is a forming type of technology where you pour metal into a sand bowl. We actually are able to print the casting and the technology for casting comes out the same. This will be the final part. Now the part is not printed out, the casting is printed out. Now this is an SLS machine, or Selectively Laser Sintering. You may have also heard Selective Laser Melting or Direct Metal Laser Sintering. All these three names are used interchangeably and they refer to, mechanically, the same machine. We're using plastic on this one so it's a quite a low power laser. And you can see the build envelope. The parts around are surrounded here with what's called the cake, that's the technical term. It's just since you're centering the powder, it will actually clump together a little bit and you need to take it off and your part will be surrounded in all this excess powder. And when you finish your parts, they'll look like this. Now I have black powder in there, but you can print white. This is the natural color of the powder. And you can get quite complex shapes out of that and a very nice finish. >> So is this the sort of the highest end machine you have? >> No, the highest end will be the metal one. But the metal one and this one are pretty similar. If you want to go downstairs and see the metal machine. Now, this is called a Selective Laser Melting machine or SLM. It's mechanically very similar to the one upstairs and when I open the door, you'll see the similarities. You have your build envelope right here and we have some type of spreader. In the one upstairs, we had a roller, in this one we have a wiper blade. >> So this moves front and back? >> Forward but you've got your lasers here, and build here. And when you're building your part, you're shining your laser onto your powder bed, and melt it out. This is full melting versus centering. There's a materials difference between one preferred and the other. The machine itself is the same. >> Well, thank you for giving us the tour, it was a pleasure being here, thank you. >> You're welcome. [MUSIC] [SOUND]
