Sustainable Plastics - March/April 2022 - 20

inside at....Mimaki
continued from page 19
Mimaki's machines.
The company has also developed
a proprietary support material,
which is jetted from the same
nozzles as the primary resin is
printed. The system's software
automatically calculates where
a support should be placed and
how much material to apply.
Once the product is printed, the
support is easily removed. " The
support material is water soluble,
so it can be washed away in an
ultrasonic bath, leaving no trace, "
said Sollman.
Mimaki currently produces
a large-sized printer, a medium-sized
3D printer with a build
volume of 500 by 500 by 300
mms, and recently introduced
its compact model, intended as
an entry-level printer that can,
like the others, print an almost
infinite range of colours.
And, with a street price of just
€35,000, it was given a warm
welcome at the Formnext exhibition
in 2021. " The closest competition
offers something similar
for €100,000. Which makes us a
very interesting option. Our first,
big machine was a huge success,
but it was a bit too expensive
for smaller companies. So,
we developed the smaller one
as well, " said Sollman.
The machines all feature
multiple print heads. " In the
new, small machine, which has
a significantly lower price and
a build volume of 200 by 200
by 70mm, there are two print
heads. And in each of these
print heads are 4 lines. That
means eight channels, making
it possible to jet CMYK, white, a
clear varnish and two channels
for support material. The clear
inks can be jetted independently
or even combined with colored
ink to create translucent
objects, " Sollman explained.
And, while entering a new
market segment is never easy,
Mimaki is satisfied with how
its printers are performing in
the market. The initial investment
in R&D and the effort
involved in launching the new
products are paying off, with
the development of high-quality
colour printers that the
market is embracing.
" Also, we already had the
structure to place the machines
through our business model.
We sell through partners and
we had that whole infrastructure
set up already, " he added.
E-learning, here to stay
That infrastructure, built up
over the years, consists of a network
of partners with which Mimaki
collaborates, all of whom
receive a thorough training prior
to being permitted to become
a partner. " Full training is mandatory, "
said Sollman. " We are
quite strict in that. The reason
is simple and practical. If we sell
machines into Europe and the
partners selling them lack an
adequate knowledge of the machine,
we'd have to send technicians
in, which is expensive.
So, instead, all partners must go
through a rigorous training. "
All the training used to be
done here at the office, but the
pandemic has put an end to
that. Today, all training occurs
online via e-learning and Mimaki
has a dedicated staff of three
for all e-learning tasks.
" Our customers adapted very
well to this situation of e-learning
and online, " Sollman noted.
" It's also turned out to be a far
more efficient way to work, and
far less expensive. An additional
advantage proved to be that
our partners were actually also
learning more - because they
had to do it themselves instead
of depending on us. Of course,
we help them along. But basically,
they're doing most of the
work themselves. "
'A very dynamic
industry'
One highly recurrent question
about additive manufacturing is
when to use it. People are still
trying to figure out where it's
going to and what else it can do.
" That's absolutely true, " said
Sollman. " But it's also part of what
I like about this industry. People
are very open - they like to share
knowledge. It's a very dynamic
industry. Still, the question 'how
can I make money with this?' is
one we get incredibly often. More
often even than questions about
the price of the machine. "
It is a good question. 3D printing,
in general, requires a new
way of thinking, he continued.
And new processes for product
design, which is something designers
are currently wrestling
with, as creating a good 3D file
is not easy.
" Trying to fit 3D printing into
an existing way of doing things,
or into a production process that
works perfectly well is not the
way forward. You must ask yourself:
Why is this handy? How can
I exploit the benefits? " he said.
" It's exactly like 15 years ago
for digital printing. Eventually
everybody will catch up and will
be doing it. "
He mentioned a few instances
of where customers had successfully
fit 3D printing into their
production flow, including one
company in the USA that manufactured
shoes. This company
used the 3D printers to produce
models of new shoes. " As a result,
they are able to produce
about three months earlier, "
said Sollman. " The marketing
team has a real life 3D model
and no longer needs to watch
the street. So, for this company,
it's not about the money or the
ink, it's about producing earlier
and getting ahead of the rest.
That was interesting to hear. "
New developments
Another insight gained from
the market was that in the 3D
printing industry, the actual
printing process is less of an
issue than what comes before
and what comes after - in
short, the file preparation and
finishing processes.
It led to the development of
a completely new end-to-end
solution that was also launched
by Mimaki at the Formnext
show last year. " Nobody else
that we know of sells the whole
solution. But we can now offer a
total workflow, if you are buying
a machine, " said Sollman. " The
idea is to accelerate the adoption
of 3D printing by making
it more accessible through the
use of more automation. It's offered
on a subscription baseis. "
The 3D Print prep software
has been developed to simplify
the 3D printing process. Compatible
with all Mimaki's 3D
printers, it helps users to prepare
and finalise their 3D files before
printing, autocorrecting file errors
and optimising the 3D data
used in 3D printer modelling to
optimise the shape of the model.
" It detects and automatically
fixes errors in among others,
size, thickness, gap and hole
filling, hollow shapes and material
colour, " explained Sollman.
" This makes it easier to configure
a 3D print file, even for users
with only limited experience
with 3D printing technology. "
The company has also
launched what it calls an 'intelligent
support materials removal
unit', designed for use with the
new small-sized Mimaki 3DUJ2207,
and developed in collaboration
with AM Solutions - 3D
post processing technology,
that will allow them to speed up
and automate their post-print
workflow. " The system is Industry
4.0 ready, " Sollman said.
Applications
So, what are customers actually
using these high-quality colour
3D printers for?
According to Mark Sollman,
gaming is a huge market.
Gaming?
" Indeed. Frankly, most of our
printers are being use to print
gaming characters. It's a huge
trend. Gamers want to print
their own avatars in full colour.
One customer has five or six of
our machines, simply to print
Removing supporting material.
20
March/April 2022
Sustainable Plastics - March/April 2022

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