B3.1;
3D printing at Signify
3D printing promises on-demand, local and personalized manufacturing. Signify 3D printing is actively pushing this value proposition in the market, and I got the opportunity to be a part of it. For a total of 2 years, I’ve worked in the research and development department in their Maarheeze factory. During this time, I worked on a multitude of projects like: MultiMaterial printing, automated visual product inspection, pellet printing, product design and explorative additive manufacturing.
What I wanted to experience is the real-world business side of explorative research. And at Signify that is exactly where I was at, a large company, actively pushing 3D printing into the market. There was however one problem, integration of R&D insights into production. The research that we were doing was technology driven and explorative and as such it was very difficult to connect its output towards products. And this resulted in a lot of our work ending up in a drawer, which was understandable but also demotivating. I first hand experienced the tension between a large company which is moving slowly and techniques and materials which develop quickly.
The work I did revolved mainly around T/R, MD/C and C/A. Building machines, writing G-code and designing luminaires. However, to be situated in a company; visiting companies, working with sales, production and design did give me a lot of insight in real world B/E practises surrounding 3D printing.
