May 2, 2025 ā¢ 49 mins
When EOS president Glynn Fletcher declared "3D printing is cool, but cool is not a business model" at Rapid TCT 2025, he captured the evolution across the additive manufacturing landscape. In this eye-opening conversation with Craig Rosenblum, president of Himed, we explore how the industry matures beyond technological demonstrations toward practical, sustainable applications.
Craig brings a unique perspective as both a materials science expert and the leader of a 35-year-old biomaterials company (Himed) that has adapted to incorporate 3D printing into its portfolio. He walks us through the shifts he observed at North America's largest 3D printing conference, where the atmosphere has noticeably changed from previous years' technology showcases to focused discussions on industry-specific solutions.
The conversation reveals fascinating developments, from the MIT startup creating "gravity-defying" materials through Rapid Liquid Printing in hydrogels to the reality behind AI buzzwords in additive manufacturing. We discuss how the ecosystem surrounding 3D printing is expanding, with increased participation from supporting industries like materials suppliers and testing laboratories, who recognize their crucial role in advancing the technology.
Perhaps most compelling is the emphasis on collaboration over competition. As Stratasys CEO Yoav Zeif noted, "The competition is status quo" - a recognition that advancing additive manufacturing requires collective effort across sectors rather than siloed approaches. This collaborative mindset particularly resonates in healthcare applications, where improved patient outcomes provide a powerful shared purpose.
Whether you're a 3D printing professional, healthcare innovator, or curious about how manufacturing is evolving, this conversation offers valuable insights into an industry at an inflection point - moving from what's possible to what's useful, from technological spectacle to sustainable transformation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi there, welcome to episode 83.
In this episode of the Latticepodcast, we're fortunate to have
Craig Rosenblum, president ofHyMID, to share his experience
from the Rapid TCT 2025conference calcium,
(00:26):
phosphate-based biomaterialproducts, surface treatments and
lately, the company has agrowing role in 3D printing,
especially ceramic 3D printing,and that's how Craig and I
crossed paths a few years agowhen he signed up to be our New
York 3D Heals Community Manager.
Hey, craig, hey, good to seeyou.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Good to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I'm doing well.
You just had an event that youhosted out in San Francisco for
an in-person Beauty Heals event.
I know we're here to also talkabout Rapids, so there's a lot
to discuss since our last timespeaking.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, since our last time speaking, yeah, well, I
would say the event in SanFrancisco was very memorable and
it kind of like a lot offlashbacks, memories, because I
was recounting on the peoplethat I met during that I invited
during the events.
They're almost every singlechapter of 3D Heels was
represented by a speaker and Iplan to write a little bit about
(01:25):
that experience of this 10years of getting people together
, meeting people.
You know where are we today andI think every major conference
sometimes you meet up with oldfriends and see some new things
that's happening, trends andstuff like that, every single
conference.
I would say, kind of give youthat If you go to a conference,
(01:45):
you know regularly.
So we certainly are going totalk about TCT because I know
initially this is our plan.
But I think it will be veryhelpful, craig, that you can
just tell us why you were thereand what is Hymed.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Absolutely Well.
Always great to chat, alwaysgreat to chat, always good to
discuss the industry and howthings are changing.
My name is Craig Rosenblum.
I'm the president of HyMed.
Hymed is a biomaterials companythat was established long before
3D printing.
We've naturally adapted andrecognized where we fit into the
marketplace as far as differentcalcium phosphate biomaterials
(02:24):
that we produce traditionallythat are used for biomedical
surface treatment or to produceorthobiological devices such as
bone cements and bone fillers.
But as the industry has evolvedin our 30 years of operation,
folks have approached Hymed inrecent years identifying ways
that they can incorporate ourmaterials for post-processing in
(02:47):
additive manufacturing, a termthat if we were having this
conversation five or 10 yearsago, people would be scratching
their head saying wait, you meanyou can't just print something
and go to market with it.
Yes, post-processing is a thing, but we also have found
applications for incorporatingour materials into direct 3D
printing opportunities with theBioceramic Center of Excellence
(03:10):
that we've established at Hymedcapabilities.
But also check in, as you said.
You know conferences are greatfor meeting new people, but
they're also good for seeingcolleagues that you know you
only get to see once or twice ayear and there were quite a few
(03:34):
really valuable keynote speechesthat I thought were interesting
to get a sense of how theindustry is progressing, and I'm
sure we'll talk about all ofthat today.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean just, let's just rewinda little bit.
Since we're on the subject ofHyMet, I just saw on your front
page that you have an articletalking about the history
started with HyMet as only oneor two people in a room.
And now, 30 years later, it's amuch bigger company, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
HyMet stands for HyTemco Medical Applications.
So in the early 90s, yeah, soHymet stands for Hytemco Medical
Applications.
So in the early 90s Hytemco oursubsidiary.
They focused on surfacetreatment for non-medical
applications, predominantlyaerospace and military and
whatnot.
And in the early 90s, folksreached out to Hytemco inquiring
about plasma spray coatings forhydroxyapatite and different
(04:24):
inorganic coatings, and no onein the organization knew
anything about hydroxyapatite.
Google was not at our fingertips, the way that we've all come to
love this day and age.
So Hymed was establishedthrough a joint venture with New
York University, and our twofounding members, you know,
(04:45):
essentially initially had toidentify were we going to
produce hydroxyapatite ourselvesand or were we going to
outsource this material and usethe material acquired from
elsewhere for for surfacetreatments?
And ultimately it was a verymurky field.
No one really knew much, to behonest, about hydroxyapatite.
(05:08):
The article that you justreferenced was something that we
published in 2021, our 30thyear in business.
Amazingly, next year will beour 35th year in business.
So it's always interesting tosee you know what was
conceptualized for a startup.
For every startup that is asuccess.
There are startups that, sadly,are not successes.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Majority of it.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
For sure, but in this particular instance, kudos to
the two fellows that co-foundedthe organization and the
developments that progressedthere afterwards.
I think it's a very healthyfield, not just 3D printing, but
specifically the biomaterialsthat we're involved in.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I do have to mention, Craig, that you weren't even
born when this company wasfounded.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Oh, that's not true, I was.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Okay well.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I was not to put you.
I was also in the majority offolks not being able to spell
hydroxyapatite.
I was learning my ABCs.
I was four or five years old,let's say.
But yes, no, it was.
It was a different ballgame.
There's no doubt about it.
You know, I think that point intime also, you know, thomas
Registry was how theorganization tended to.
(06:18):
You know, get people to.
You know, get a reputation outthere and spread the word.
As I said, there was nointernet.
You know, I think the majorityof leads that we had generated
in the early days was folksreaching out to the organization
through referrals.
When you have a good product,I'm always a believer that
referrals are the best way togrow and you know that's what 3D
(06:43):
Heels does a great job right.
Networking, although networking35 years ago was very different
from networking today.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Absolutely Well.
So you're definitely young forbeing a president of a company
but also representing a newergeneration of leaders in the
space, and I believe that you'reone of those initial person
who's really bringing 3Dprinting concept to the company.
Is that correct or am I missingsomething?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
No, I think that's accurate.
You know, I started materialscience at Johns Hopkins
University and, be honest withyou, when I applied to
university and maybe in thisinstance I'm dating myself on
the negative end Manyuniversities did not even have a
material science degree.
A lot of universities Iremember applying it was a
(07:31):
concentration within biomedicalengineering.
So for me, I've always beeninterested in the materials.
I'm the type of guy and I'msure this will come up in our
conversation today you know, aswe start to talk, you could see
the wheels in my head turning asI'm trying to understand how
something works or why onematerial was selected over
another.
So the appeal for 3D printingto me in many instances is
(07:57):
understanding why certainapplications are more
appropriate in others.
Obviously it's a cooltechnology and we'll talk about
that and some interesting wordsof wisdom from the C-suite
opening meetings.
But I've gravitated to, you know, wanting to keep the.
You know things that make Hymedunique and you know what makes
(08:19):
us unique in this space.
How are we established?
I think you know our values arevery consistent from where we
were 35 years ago, but again,it's a completely different
market space.
Yeah, the organization istrying different things.
The technology is growing inways that we never really
thought of.
So I'm a firm believer of youknow keeping the conversation
(08:40):
going and you know things willwork out, but you know kind of
follow through in the naturalprogression of how the industry
is evolving.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, I love it that Jaime is adjusting himself as
strategies with the changingworld.
So now let's go talk about thisconference that you just
attended, tct Rapid in Michigan.
Right, it was happening inMichigan.
I have no idea where it is,sorry.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
No, you're absolutely right.
So Rapid announced last year.
They announced this is thelargest North American 3D
printing conference in all ofNorth America.
So I think it's important forthose listeners to capture that
Rapid is a tremendous conference.
So a couple of years ago theyannounced every three years it
(09:26):
seems like they're going tocover Central, east Coast and
West Coast, so last year LA,next year will be Boston, so
2025, it was in Michigan.
You could wonder in the monthof April why Detroit, michigan,
it was freezing.
It was, you know.
I think maybe Canada wasn'thappy with the tariffs and there
(09:48):
was a lot of wind.
Oh my God, yes, I forgot aboutthat.
Yes, but no.
The conference itself.
Other than the fact that it'svery challenging dressing and
packing when you're traveling,not sure what the highs are
going to be and, you know,hoping that the lows aren't as
low as what it says, theconference itself was wonderful.
I do think the location inMichigan, both being able to
(10:10):
appeal to those folks in theMotor City where manufacturing
is very prominent, and alsocentrally being located, I would
think that it's the easiest ofthe three destinations for
everyone to get to.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, I didn't realize how close Canada
Canadian border was to Michigan.
I visited a couple of times andyou can just cross the bridge
and get to a different country,which is, I actually used to
actually my hotel, usually to bein Canada, and then I crossed
the bridge to come to theMichigan conferences.
I've done that.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, we could see Canada just looking over where
the Huntington Convention Center, where the conference was held,
I know University of Waterlooexhibited.
I'm sure that there were somefolks from Canada that did make
the trip to attend, but yes, itis quite close.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So you said this is a wonderful conference and you
mentioned a couple of things,but let's just start with the
keynotes and the speakers.
Any highlights that?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
memorable moments thousand exhibitors You're
talking about.
You know 200 speakers, 400,excuse me 15,000 attendees, 400
(11:28):
exhibitors, you know.
So there's people with alldifferent backgrounds, not just
into industry, 3d printing.
But I think for an event likethis, the keynote really sets
the stage, kind of sets the tone.
So there were a series of fourrepresentatives from some of the
larger, more successfulcompanies, like Stratus, and it
was really quite a remarkableaddress.
(11:50):
I really thought that it was theEOS president, glenn Fletcher,
that really set the tone withwhat he said.
He said that 3D printing iscool, but cool is not a business
model.
So the question is, you know,how do we take this cool
technology, something that we'reall passionate about, for those
listeners spending time out oftheir personal schedule to
(12:12):
listen to a podcast about 3Dprinting, I think they're in the
agreement.
We think it's cool, but how dowe take this cool concept and
make it into a cost effectivemodel that, you know, for those
of us that are in business, canadapt this technology and allow
for the business to succeed in aproper manner?
Yeah, so I thought that wasreally an important thought that
(12:35):
resonated with me.
You know some other thoughts.
You know the conversation inthat opening meeting discussed.
You know the type of technologythat that we're talking about
and how is that technologytransferable, right?
So in previous years when I'veattended rapid, I felt that
(12:55):
every exhibitor was just tryingto flex their muscles and show
how cool their technology was.
So I would have a conversationwith an exhibitor, or you know
someone that was giving a talkand you know I walked away in
the moment saying like, wow,that is really cool.
But for PyMed, or just for mepersonally, representing 3D
Heels, or just, you know,representing an interested
(13:16):
engineer wanting to learn, Iwould walk away from the
conversation both enthused aboutthe technology but wondering,
okay, well, where do we go fromhere?
And I always kind of feel likean empty feeling, not sure of
where do we progress.
I thought that this year'sconference both the speeches as
well as just the organicconversations that were to be
(13:38):
had there were a lot ofcompanies that were in
attendance that their businessmodel is not just based on 3D
printing.
I'm talking about materials,test labs, powder manufacturers,
you know, so on and so forth.
You know, you know folks thatare in the supply chain that
very much are involved in 3Dprinting because material
(14:01):
challenges have found them, buttheir business model is not just
based on 3D printing, and Ithink those support suppliers
recognize the role that theyplay, and there were more of
them than I can ever recall atprevious years, so I thought
that that was a reallyencouraging change.
Again, I think the event hasevolved in a positive way.
(14:24):
I think that it's transformedinto more again, more
industry-specific solutions.
If I look at my notes and thinkof some of the topics in that
introductory keynote, it'sreally more so obsessing about
collaboration right With 3Dprinting or any cutting-edge
technology, what's reallyimportant today might be common
(14:47):
knowledge.
Tomorrow and you get into thisconversation of you know,
competition, and I knowsomething that you don't know,
and I think it was Yoav, the CEOof Stratus, that really put it
best the competition is statusquo Right.
We as an industry.
3d printing is still arelatively small fragment of
what manufacturing in 2025 lookslike.
(15:09):
So you know his words of wisdomwere emphasizing.
You know that the unfortunateoccurrence would be that if, in
subsequent years, we're notmaking incremental advancements
because we're not collaboratingin the way that we should be,
we're not identifying industryspecific solutions.
You know that was somethingthat again resonated with me.
(15:33):
You know, not focusing too muchinternally, but also just
looking at the movement as awhole and being able to continue
in the direction that you know.
Things seem to be organically,but maybe at a speed that you
know some folks expect it to bea little bit quicker.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah, you know, I heard this word, this word,
collaboration, quite a few timesin several different
conferences.
I think obviously it's a verypositive, intended concept.
You know, for example, HiMedand 3Dd heels.
We collaborate pretty well,we're very synergistic.
The question is how and whatare the specifics are?
(16:11):
Did you hear any specificsabout?
You know, for example, how do,how does Stratasys plan to
really collaborate, you knowwith, with people who want to
work with them?
Yep.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Yeah, well, I mean, I think I'm going to fall back on
something that Yoav had said atAM Strategies.
I think he was the keynote forthis year and when I attended
the event last year, he also wasthe keynote and I thought it
was interesting the way thatthat event was presented, much
like Rapid, where you're justtalking about bio 3D printing,
right You're talking about 3Dprinting across many different
(16:47):
industries.
So the fact that the way that wecollaborate is folks in
manufacturing for aerospacecommunicate with folks in
medical defense, can speak withfolks that are more on the
consumer side.
You know, the consensus seemsto be that many of the
challenges that we're observing,while the grass might seem
(17:09):
greener in industries that don'thave to deal with the FDA, for
example, at the end of the day,I think that there's a lot of
commonalities that we're allhaving to deal with.
So the ability to collaborate,it was actually materialized.
The CEO Bridget, who, yeah, shesays that a lot, she definitely
(17:46):
said that a lot and I way thatyou know, if you think about how
that event was done, they hadsay a topic, maybe the afternoon
session focusing onpost-processing, and this was
not just medical post-processing.
They had a representative fromthree or four key sectors
representing post-processingfrom their perspective.
I would say that, fundamentally,that's probably the easiest way
(18:08):
to run a conference which isbroad enough for multiple
sectors.
But realistically also, whyhave the same conversation in
four or five different breakoutrooms when, in actuality, being
cost effective with 3D printingis a conversation that we all
need to be involved in, whilethe budget for these different
markets is different.
(18:29):
It's part of the same movement,so I thought that that was the
way that collaboration wasemphasized, as well as, again,
it being more of a complete show, as I said, with more support.
Suppliers in attendancerecognizing their role in 3D.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
The ecosystem.
It sounds like they're bringingmore and more ecosystem of the
entire industry in closertogether, which is a really good
sign.
I also know that we're kind ofin a down cycle for 3D printing
industry itself, and Idefinitely started to detect a
lot of humility in conversationswhere, you know, instead of
talking about hyper-aggressivegrowth, now is to kind of
(19:10):
reflect on what we have done andhow we have grown, and now
let's grow more logically, in arealistic fashion, and so, yeah,
you do need to haveconversations with people that
you didn't talk to before tofigure out what applications is
good.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
That's my thought I agree completely and I think
there is a strong universitycontingency also at conferences
like this, and I know thatthere's quite a few students and
faculty that do follow in on 3DHeals.
So, you know, I think there'sprobably more of a connotation
of collaboration at the researchlevel, whereas maybe in
(19:44):
industry the connotation or thestereotype is you know, you know
you have patents and thingsthat offer protection.
I still think that the field isstill in its early days and
we're all doing ourself adisservice, in my mind, if we
don't have the broadconversations.
As an industry, you know, weshould be rooting for each other
(20:05):
as far as the overall growth ofthe movement.
Far as the overall growth ofthe movement, there's plenty of
opportunities, in my mind, foreach individual business to be
successful without infringing onindividual business.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, I mean don't be a criminal.
That's the bottom line.
I mean we don't want to workwith criminals, but a healthy
competition, welcome.
It helps everybody grow to bebetter, to create better
products.
So what did you in thisginormous show?
How do you navigate?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
I mean, and then how do you systematically figure out
how to?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
best spend your time.
Yeah, we could easily have apodcast just dedicated to that
question.
Yeah, but I also want you toalso sorry, I want to serve a
multi-purpose here.
Can you also tell us whatbooths are the best?
I mean other than Hyman?
I'm sure Hyman is the bestbooth, but what booth really
attracted your attention andwhat technology really did a
great job at the show?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Sure.
Well, I'll answer your firstquestion by correcting something
that you just said in yoursecond question.
Hyman did not exhibit.
Oh, ok, sorry.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
I conference.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
As I said, giving a talk hanging out with companies
that we're closely collaboratingwith, but not not being tied
down to a high med booth,allowed for me to navigate the
floor a little bit easier andspeak to companies that I
thought was were interesting.
So your question of how do younavigate a show like this, you
(21:48):
know it's obviously a greatquestion.
You know in advance the weeksleading up to the show.
Many conferences come up withapps and you can be intimidated.
But you could also plan aheadby looking at the long A to Z
list of exhibitors that aregoing to be there.
And you know when you look at alist, especially for Rapid,
there's so many startupcompanies, right?
(22:10):
So sometimes, looking at thename, if you're just looking
quickly through the list of 400exhibitors, the name you know.
For a company like Stratasys,for example, you know that's got
to connotate, you knowsomething that you'll likely
know about what that business isall about and what they do and
if that's something that you'reinterested in in speaking with
them.
But for smaller companies, youknow, maybe it's not quite clear
.
Certainly there's brief blurbsthat are readily available on
(22:34):
the, on the app to square tolook at initially, but I like to
just walk the floor without anagenda.
Obviously, there's people thatI most certainly want to to meet
with, from contacts that I'veestablished or folks that I've
established recent dialogue with, but I just walk the floor from
row one to row 40 or howevermany rows that there are.
(22:57):
So a word of advice for someonethat's getting ready to do this
get comfortable.
Yes, you're going to be on yourfeet a lot.
I walk around and it'sinteresting to see how companies
present themselves right.
You know I walk around and it'sinteresting to see how
companies present themselvesRight.
In some instances, maybe theyhave so many taglines that it
clouds what the message is thatthey're trying to get across.
I think simple is better from amarketing side.
(23:20):
But you know, I plan out theevent in advance.
I try to flag on the app whichcompanies I'm interested in
speaking with.
I walked through.
Naturally, a crowd attracts acrowd, so I could tell you
Formlabs.
They were trying to demonstratethe strength of their 3D
printing materials and therewere all sorts of people crowded
(23:40):
around their booth with 3Dprinted hammers and 3D printed
nails yes, they were allowed tobring in hammers to the
conference and one group wastrying to use a 3D printed
hammer and a regular now to seehow strong the hammer material
was.
And then the reverse was truefor another group that was using
a standard hammer and a 3Dprinted now to evaluate the
(24:04):
toughness and other materialproperties of some of their 3D
printed resins.
So you know those types ofquirky.
You know exhibits that naturallyallow for people to win prizes
and feel a sense of satisfactionwhen they walk away.
You know that that attractspeople to the booth.
So I think a lot of companies,especially at conferences like
(24:27):
Rapid, where at the end of theday the coolness prevails, right
Um to show off their neattechnology.
Um, you know, being able to umwalk the floor open-minded in my
mind, uh, not be overwhelmedbut at the same time, be
receptive to seeing things thatmaybe you did not originally
have flagged in your uh isadvice that I would offer and so
(24:50):
what are the cool things?
Speaker 1 (24:52):
you may not be very big booth or getting the hammers
on nails like what are some ofthe cool stuff that you saw?
You'd be like wow, I neverthought, I've never thought
about this, or this is very umlife-changing yeah, um, so
everyone was talking about acompany called RLP.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Are you familiar with them?
No, okay, rlp.
So I have to say, when word gotover to me maybe it was because
it was the end of the show andI was tired I thought that they
had said RIP.
But no, rlp.
The opposite, yes, the completeopposite.
So I'm talking about rapidliquid printing.
So their tagline is materialsthat defy gravity.
(25:34):
They have a system this is astartup company from MIT, so
they're located in Massachusettsand they just released the
levity printer.
So these are materials thatdefy gravity for gravity free 3D
printing.
So they're literally printinginside of a hydrogel Super
interesting.
They had a very slick-lookingbooth, which, again, the
(25:58):
coolness prevails.
At the end of the day, we'reall humans.
That marketing factor, I think,is really important.
But the application for some ofthese materials and I'm looking
at my notes here they had somematerials that were specific for
inflatable medical componentsand some multi-material also,
(26:18):
where they were trying to showthe flexibility of these
products.
So that was something that Ithought was pretty neat and it's
nice to see a startup companyat that showcasing some of these
material properties being ableto print directly within
hydrogel.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Well, have you heard of this bioprinting method
called the fresh bioprintingmethod?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
No, I have not.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
It almost sounds exactly like that, except it's
for bioprinting.
They have a gel bed.
I think the materials aredifferent, probably, but I'm
going to look it up more to seewhat the differential is between
these two.
Is they have a gel bed?
I don't.
I think the materials aredifferent, probably, but I'm
gonna look, look it up more tosee what the differentials
between these two.
And that is out of uh, karnakmelon and it's been, and it's
been around for decades theconcept of have a bath of
(27:02):
material that's uh, that hassome kind of viscosity and then
so that you can actually, isthis extrusion based printing,
or is this, yeah, so actuallythe concept in itself.
I wonder what the patterns areon this Could be potential
lawsuit.
I'm just kidding, but time forme to do some research, and
thanks for letting me know aboutthis very impressive startup.
(27:24):
It sounds like they've alreadygot their fundings and teams all
together.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
That's right.
So I was reading about themafter the fact and apparently
they did exhibit at someconference, maybe 2017 or so.
So pre-pandemic oh.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
OK.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
But this was their first time exhibiting at Rapid
and, like I said, there wasquite a big crowd.
So they were not on my list.
Originally, I'd never heard ofthem, but they were handing out
small little goodies and peoplewere walking around, you know,
talking about them.
One thing that I should alsosay, jenny, which I was really
surprised with there's a lot ofpeople that attend these
(27:59):
conferences for 3D printing, notjust representing industry,
whether it's health care orother.
There's a lot of hobbyists thatare at these types of
conferences.
There were several booths thatwere really geared up for 3D
printing, specific for folksthat maybe sell their product on
Etsy.
I thought that was veryinteresting.
Yeah, it's some booths that youknow they were trying to
(28:22):
showcase the different colors,the wide color spectrum of what
they had, and again, they triedto make it very like spin the
wheel, get a coin, take the coin, play a game, win a prize, get
more coins.
So very incentivized.
But you know they had somereally slick advertising and you
know giving out free samples atconferences usually is a
(28:42):
success.
So I was really surprised,though, to see that and it made
me wonder.
Naturally, there might be folksthat are at this conference
representing their company, andwhat they do in their free time
on their own is anyone's guess,but I suppose that you could
have folks that attend theseconferences, you know, simply
(29:03):
because they're interested in itfrom a hobby perspective.
Yeah, you know one thing I willsay about rapid and just
getting to the conference wespoke about the central location
.
Yeah, admission is free ofcharge.
It is a conference that youknow they really work hard to
try to appeal to.
You know potential, you knowattendees some conferences, and
(29:25):
I think this was something thatyou had discussed in your last
podcast pertaining to AOS yeah,of a conference for, say,
orthopedic surgeons.
You know, sometimes thoseconferences are unfortunately a
little bit harder for a studentor for someone that's first
starting out to get to.
But kudos to Rapid and thebusiness model that SME has
established no-transcript.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Yeah, a couple of comments on the hobbyist side of
things.
First of all, I think 3Dprinting is an amazing creative
tool, just like computers andstuff.
You can really be creative andif you're a designer, have a lot
of imagination.
This is an incredible tool.
The reason why we have I'mguessing have so many hobbyists
(30:24):
nobody's making a whole lot ofmoney yet, um, so maybe that's
why I mean, I would say,technically speaking, 3d hills
is my hobby, but people have.
People really enjoy what itrepresents.
The industry represents theability to think out of the box,
uh, to do things differently,and also technology that's
clearly still growing.
(30:46):
You know new things coming outevery day.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Basically, yeah, I mean, I think you know, at the
end of the day, we all want tolearn.
I would think, right, you knowyou attend a conference.
You know, regardless of whatyour primary objective is, the
goal is to leave that conferenceknowing more than you did
before you.
So you know, being able toattend a conference, like I said
, open minded, meet new people,speak with maybe some folks that
(31:11):
you do know, but predominantlyover a screen, in a virtual
manner, but I think that therewas a lot of excitement.
There was a lot of enthusiasm.
Again, it started with thekeynote.
As far as that upliftingpositivity, hey, we're heading
in the right direction, butthese are things that we still
need to see happen in order forbetter days to continue to
(31:34):
evolve.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yeah, so in the last couple of weeks I've been
reading some articles and itjust seems like every 3D
printing articles now want toadd the word AI to it.
While you were at theconference, is there such
actually real trend thatcompanies are increasingly using
AI?
To increase their productivityor innovations.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah, I had a feeling you were going to ask about
this.
I was planning on bringing itup, if not, but I specifically
spoke with Materialize and 3DSystems like a journalist at
this conference.
Like I said, without exhibiting, you know, walking the floor, I
should give you.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
You know what I should give you a 3D Heels hat
next time.
Yeah, that'd be nice I thinkpeople will be more receptive if
you have our hat.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
I could tell you I introduced a lot of people to 3D
heels even without the apparelon me.
But you mentioned AI, right?
Speaker 1 (32:25):
It's a nice looking hat, don't you think?
Speaker 2 (32:27):
It is a very nice looking hat.
Ai is the buzzword right andagain, the industry right.
We all want to be cool, even inindustries where maybe cool is
not the term.
But I think, for me, when I hadthose conversations, we've all
been doing AI in one form or theother.
(32:48):
Even before, ai was the termright, and that was something
that 3D Systems was quick toremind me in my conversation
there right.
So you know, we're alwayslooking for ways that we could
shorten the product developmentlifecycle.
We're always looking for waysthat we could identify, you know
, things that we've learned fromprevious developments and you
know, what can we take away fromwhat materials worked, for
(33:09):
example, what materials did notwork.
You know, when it comes to themanufacturing cycle and just the
supply chain in general, youknow these are.
You know it's evolvingnaturally as the tools that we
have to our avail grow.
You know, maybe we're able tobe more efficient in how we
evaluate which business is bestsuited for us.
(33:30):
But you know, materialize gave areally fascinating talk
specific to AI and you know,again, I think it's important
that there's a lot of times thatpeople are saying that they're
doing something because maybemarketing thinks that's how they
want to portray theirorganization.
But in actuality the vibe ismaybe a little bit different.
Or you know, ai is not thebuzzword that encompasses that.
(33:53):
But when you say that yourcompany is doing AI and 3D, then
you don't just come across ascool, you come across as extra
cool because of those words.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
I certainly hope so.
I know exactly what Materializeis doing in terms of AI
strategies.
It's very concrete anddemonstrable.
But I'm not really sure with 3Dsystem, how 3D system utilize
the new technologies.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yeah, they had a placard, you know, right behind
the gentleman that I wasspeaking with and while we were
talking about somethingcompletely different, I happened
to walk by and listen to aconversation that the
representative was having withtwo other folks and started to
eavesdrop before I chimed inmyself.
But I asked him.
I said you know, what is thatAI?
(34:41):
He said, like AI development.
And I personally think thatthey used AI because they only
had so many characters that theywere able to fit in on this big
stanchion.
That was, you know, afreestanding aspect to their
booth.
But he was the one he said that,hey, we've always been looking
for ways that we could, you know, make improvements to how we
(35:03):
print, say, when it comes to theorientation of how an object is
printed, right on its sideversus, you know, in a different
manner.
And I've had conversations with3D systems, for example, for
post-processing, right, and, youknow, are there ways that they
could maybe increase the methodof how they perform their print
(35:23):
that would eliminate the need topost process?
Well, yeah, we're doing AI toevaluate that huge company has
performed in many differentgeographic locations to try to
make for a more efficientassessment of what the
(35:46):
technology is that your companycan adapt and figure out if
that's an improvement that youwould like to explore and, if so
, what benefit does it provide.
So we just did AI right there.
I think that we're having aconversation to assess and make
improvements.
It doesn't always have to be AI, don't get me wrong.
(36:06):
Ai is great, but I think wetalk about AI in ways that it
expands what it actually is.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Yeah, I mean, if I purchase a third-party SaaS tool
that use AI, I mean,technically speaking, my company
is also using AI speaking, mycompany is also using AI.
But I think everybody in 3Dprinting really hoping to see
one day people like me who havevery limited technological
expertise can just pick up aprinter, design something and it
just come out the way I want itto be, you know, with much less
(36:35):
tinkering and guesses anddisappointments, and eventually
gave my printer away.
You know that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Yeah, I do think when it comes to designing, right,
you know, if you're looking todesign a new device and if the
belief is that 3D printing isthe most logical way to design
that new device, you know thereare ways that you can, you know,
be efficient in that you knowconversation and figure out,
okay, well, what's unique aboutmy device, what can I do that's
(37:08):
different from you know anotherdevice that's out there?
And or how can I assess anoptimal device?
Right, the design that is.
So there are definitely ways.
I mean I use AI to readliterature, right, like you can
upload multiple papers andquickly assess if what you're
trying to innovate has alreadybeen established.
So, again, it's a really usefultool, no one's denying that.
(37:30):
I think it's probably toopowerful than we at sometimes
want to admit.
But as far as just in itsinfancy, the idea of using AI
for 3D, you know I'm all formaking improvements, but at the
same time, I feel that you knowmany of these conversations are
taking place, even if AI is not,you know, spearheading them.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Right, and also most of the money going to what we're
talking about, like in AI rightnow they're in large language
model.
I mean, we have a bunch ofother different types of
artificial intelligence andmachine learning processes that
utilize for making physicalgoods and robotics and all that
stuff.
It's not really I don't thinkthe bulk of the money is going
(38:14):
there.
It's mostly like chat, gtp, youknow that kind of stuff, you
know, uh, that kind of stuff.
So now we, we chat a little bitbefore the conference of.
You know, I'm kind of want to.
You know, I think previously,when I talked to other people
attending these internationalconferences, people always
almost in the last two years,almost every year people talk
(38:36):
about the presence of chinesecompanies.
Um, what is, what is it likethis time around, especially
given the current geopolitics?
Speaker 2 (38:44):
well, again, I I think that for an event that is,
uh, in north america, there'squite a few companies that are
international that that attended, um specific to companies in
china.
Um, I can't remember anyspecific conversations that I
had.
Um, you know, as far as youknow, getting into discussion as
far as what the market is inChina for some of these
(39:07):
technologies.
You know, I have more examplesthat I could share, just as far
as companies in Germany andother geographic locations, yeah
, but I don't know.
Are there any companies inparticular that you're following
in China that you're wonderingabout?
Speaker 1 (39:25):
You know, there are a couple of metal 3D printers
that I think the Chinesecompanies are formidable, but I
don't remember the name.
At the moment they supply theirinternal 3D printed implants
and I think more and moreEuropean designers and
manufacturers are leaningtowards them, but I don't really
(39:46):
have concrete data.
Like I said, and whenever wetalk about the Chinese printers,
people always have pricingpressure relative to the other
companies in North America andEurope both.
So it's always kind ofinteresting as where they are.
I mean, a couple of years ago,when I talked to one of their
(40:09):
media influencers in 3D printing, they were very much floored by
North America and European 3Dprinting technologies.
I mean they're like there's noway we're there yet.
So I'm just kind of curiouswhat the sentiment is.
Is China catching up on thetechnology side?
(40:31):
Because they certainly areinvesting.
From a government perspective,a strategic perspective, I'm not
sure our government or EU isactually investing enough to be
competitive.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Right, yeah, yeah, I think I mean just to comment on
the international representationat this conference.
I thought that there were a lotof folks that traveled quite a
bit distance.
I spoke to quite a few peoplethat had never even been in the
US before.
Oh, wow, I thought it wasinteresting.
(41:04):
Yeah, where are they from?
So I, in particular I'mthinking of a conversation that
I had with Amorea Technologies,so they're based in Germany, and
I kind of sympathized when Irealized that Detroit nothing
against Detroit, but again, thatweather was quite cold and if
that was my first time in the US, it might be my last time in
the US.
But a newer company.
(41:25):
They were at the Discovery Zone, which is where the first time
exhibitors are located.
They have this innovationsection preaching to how
innovation is the backbone of 3Dprinting, and they thought that
it would be valuable.
It seems to lump many of thesestartup companies together.
They thought that it would bevaluable, it seems to lump many
of these startup companiestogether, but you know, I think
(41:46):
there's a lot of reception thatthey feel based on, you know,
conversations that they've hadvirtually, and again, the fact
that I think we were allpleasantly surprised with the
overwhelming attendance fromstudents and researchers, the
overwhelming attendance fromstudents and researchers, and I
(42:09):
think, even though you know,those types of conversations at
a conference are more in linewith collaboration efforts
rather than immediate businessgratification.
I think most folks were quitepleased with that.
So, again, I think the idea ofsharing ideas, uh, the ideas of
being able to understand whatother markets in other
geographic locations are workingon and kind of comparing and,
(42:31):
and you know, contrasting I Ithink it was a healthy level of
discussion.
But, uh, specific to the thechina question that you asked, I
didn't really get get a senseof one way or the other.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Okay, I guess it's a good thing if you didn't get
anything negative.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Yeah, I mean, naturally we could start to talk
about tariffs and what thatlooks like for.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
We should talk about it.
Let's talk about it, because Ihave no idea where it's going.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Yeah, I don't think anyone does.
I mean, here we are todayrecording this podcast, the
middle of April, so people mightbe listening to the podcast
where maybe there's more clarityin months or maybe even years
there afterwards, but we'reexpecting now for there to be a
delay of at least three months.
So that'll take us, say, to thebeginning of the third quarter.
(43:17):
But until then, what I see andwhat I heard at the conference
is that, as an extension of howpeople have acted the past five
years since the pandemic withsupply chain uncertainty,
there's a desire to stockpile oncritical materials that are
acquired directlyinternationally or that are
(43:38):
manufactured with componentsthat are residing from
international sources.
So stockpiling is somethingthat we do.
Stockpiling is something thatwe receive as a critical
supplier for so many in thisspace.
It'd be an interestingconversation I don't think that
it's come up, naturally, jenny,in any 3D Heals webinar, right,
(44:02):
in terms of tariff, yeah, andwhat kind of effect that has on
the supply chain.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
I didn't even know what tariff was until this year.
Okay, I think most commonpeople don't know what the hell
is happening, sure, and I thinkit's actually time for me to
perhaps write a blog to explainwhat tariff is, and it's
actually not as easy as it isshown in the media, and also,
(44:28):
currently all the tariffs are onthe fiscal goods, and we're not
even talking about digitalservices and a bunch of other
things that we definitely has ahuge surplus over other country,
which is a good thing.
So, yeah, I think, um, yeah, Ijust learned about it this year.
So, no, we never talk about it.
And, uh, you know, my visionfor the world is, you know, a un
(44:50):
, basically united nation.
Collaboration has always beenour operational.
You know style and I loved it.
You know where people fromdifferent countries with
different health care systemscan talk about how they can help
each other to solve theirproblems with economic and
technical constraints, because I, you know, to me our common
(45:14):
enemy is mortality, disease andpain and suffering, not all the
other things that you knowpoliticians care about.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
So I mean so it's a different kind of goal.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Oh, I certainly know what you mean, and here we are
talking about one of thosebuzzwords collaboration, right,
and I think you know the idea,especially anyone that's in the
3D printing space for healthcare, right, you know you have
to be in it for the right reason, right, while there's, as we
said, opportunity for everyoneto maybe not everyone, but
(45:50):
there's opportunity for manypeople to be successful, you
know there has to be a sense ofaccomplishment and satisfaction
and pride, knowing that whatwe're doing, you know in many
instances, is benefiting patientcare, right.
So you know doing, you know inmany instances, is benefiting
patient care, right.
So you know this, you know, Ithink in that respect, you know,
hopefully we're able to, as asociety, come to a time that
(46:13):
we're all, you know, pulling therope in the right, in the same
direction, for the right reason,really more of a with positive
nature in mind for the rightreason, really more with
positive nature in mind.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Yeah, I think that eventually we will come to the
same table and start tocollaborate again.
That's my hope and that's myoptimistic belief.
It is always good to see thiskind of conference happening,
because nobody is trying tofistfight everyone in the
conference.
Everyone is very polite andvery friendly, welcoming kind of
thing.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
Yeah, for sure.
And I think again, 3d Heels,just as an extension, and the
lattice, it's really anextension of wanting to learn
from each other, wanting tounderstand how different trends
in the industry, things that wemaybe see or read about, but
being able to hear directly fromthose experts in our field.
(47:08):
And, again, I think, if youhave a proper business model and
are able to overcome thoseobstacles that you really have
no control over and in thisinstance, tariffs is one of them
, right.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Out of your control.
Yeah, it's like taxes.
Taxes is a way of tax, you knowhere we are again.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
It's April 15th, right?
So I just right on time, right,right on time.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Yeah, so well, thank you very much, craig, for this
incredibly insight, for thisamazing event that I kind of
having FOMO at the moment that Ididn't get to go.
Hopefully next year.
Well, next year is going to beBoston, my favorite city, that's
right.
But, it's also going to be cold.
April is not going to be.
It's better, but not not thereyet.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
That's right.
Yeah, april in Boston isn'tgoing to be too much different
from April in Detroit, maybe thewindshield won't be quite there
, but it's pretty windy out inSan Francisco, so I sense a
comeback Maybe, if we're lookingahead to 2027, with the West
Coast due, maybe they'll selectNorthern California.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
I hope so.
You know honestly, if you'rethe event organizer and you want
a local collaborator, I'm hereand I actually kind of like our
new mayor.
We just got a new mayor in SanFrancisco and is really
hopefully getting the crimes andstuff like that under control.
That's great and reallyreinvent our beautiful city.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
That's great.
I was in San Francisco a coupleof times last year.
I know you and I had thepleasure of meeting after so
many years of virtualconversation.
Yeah, I really like SanFrancisco.
Obviously, there's a lot ofreally neat 3D printing
technologies that areoriginating there, so I would be
rapid.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
And it's also the closest to the birthplace of
Silicon Valley, where all theVCs grew up.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
Just kidding.
But yeah, we have a lot of thehighest concentration of venture
capitalists, definitely in theBay Area, no question about it.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
Let's make it happen.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
Yeah, hopefully we're just going to promote our
podcast and hopefully somebody'sgoing to listen to this episode
.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Sounds wonderful to me.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
Thank you, Craig.
I'm going to stop recording now.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
Thanks, Craig.
I'm going to stop recording now.
Thanks, Jenny.
Hi there, welcome to episode 83.
In this episode of the Latticepodcast, we're fortunate to have
Craig Rosenblum, president ofHyMID, to share his experience
from the Rapid TCT 2025conference calcium,
(00:26):
phosphate-based biomaterialproducts, surface treatments and
lately, the company has agrowing role in 3D printing,
especially ceramic 3D printing,and that's how Craig and I
crossed paths a few years agowhen he signed up to be our New
York 3D Heals Community Manager.
Hey, craig, hey, good to seeyou.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Good to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I'm doing well.
You just had an event that youhosted out in San Francisco for
an in-person Beauty Heals event.
I know we're here to also talkabout Rapids, so there's a lot
to discuss since our last timespeaking.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, since our last time speaking, yeah, well, I
would say the event in SanFrancisco was very memorable and
it kind of like a lot offlashbacks, memories, because I
was recounting on the peoplethat I met during that I invited
during the events.
They're almost every singlechapter of 3D Heels was
represented by a speaker and Iplan to write a little bit about
(01:25):
that experience of this 10years of getting people together
, meeting people.
You know where are we today andI think every major conference
sometimes you meet up with oldfriends and see some new things
that's happening, trends andstuff like that, every single
conference.
I would say, kind of give youthat If you go to a conference,
(01:45):
you know regularly.
So we certainly are going totalk about TCT because I know
initially this is our plan.
But I think it will be veryhelpful, craig, that you can
just tell us why you were thereand what is Hymed.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Absolutely Well.
Always great to chat, alwaysgreat to chat, always good to
discuss the industry and howthings are changing.
My name is Craig Rosenblum.
I'm the president of HyMed.
Hymed is a biomaterials companythat was established long before
3D printing.
We've naturally adapted andrecognized where we fit into the
marketplace as far as differentcalcium phosphate biomaterials
(02:24):
that we produce traditionallythat are used for biomedical
surface treatment or to produceorthobiological devices such as
bone cements and bone fillers.
But as the industry has evolvedin our 30 years of operation,
folks have approached Hymed inrecent years identifying ways
that they can incorporate ourmaterials for post-processing in
(02:47):
additive manufacturing, a termthat if we were having this
conversation five or 10 yearsago, people would be scratching
their head saying wait, you meanyou can't just print something
and go to market with it.
Yes, post-processing is a thing, but we also have found
applications for incorporatingour materials into direct 3D
printing opportunities with theBioceramic Center of Excellence
(03:10):
that we've established at Hymedcapabilities.
But also check in, as you said.
You know conferences are greatfor meeting new people, but
they're also good for seeingcolleagues that you know you
only get to see once or twice ayear and there were quite a few
(03:34):
really valuable keynote speechesthat I thought were interesting
to get a sense of how theindustry is progressing, and I'm
sure we'll talk about all ofthat today.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean just, let's just rewinda little bit.
Since we're on the subject ofHyMet, I just saw on your front
page that you have an articletalking about the history
started with HyMet as only oneor two people in a room.
And now, 30 years later, it's amuch bigger company, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
HyMet stands for HyTemco Medical Applications.
So in the early 90s, yeah, soHymet stands for Hytemco Medical
Applications.
So in the early 90s Hytemco oursubsidiary.
They focused on surfacetreatment for non-medical
applications, predominantlyaerospace and military and
whatnot.
And in the early 90s, folksreached out to Hytemco inquiring
about plasma spray coatings forhydroxyapatite and different
(04:24):
inorganic coatings, and no onein the organization knew
anything about hydroxyapatite.
Google was not at our fingertips, the way that we've all come to
love this day and age.
So Hymed was establishedthrough a joint venture with New
York University, and our twofounding members, you know,
(04:45):
essentially initially had toidentify were we going to
produce hydroxyapatite ourselvesand or were we going to
outsource this material and usethe material acquired from
elsewhere for for surfacetreatments?
And ultimately it was a verymurky field.
No one really knew much, to behonest, about hydroxyapatite.
(05:08):
The article that you justreferenced was something that we
published in 2021, our 30thyear in business.
Amazingly, next year will beour 35th year in business.
So it's always interesting tosee you know what was
conceptualized for a startup.
For every startup that is asuccess.
There are startups that, sadly,are not successes.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Majority of it.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
For sure, but in this particular instance, kudos to
the two fellows that co-foundedthe organization and the
developments that progressedthere afterwards.
I think it's a very healthyfield, not just 3D printing, but
specifically the biomaterialsthat we're involved in.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I do have to mention, Craig, that you weren't even
born when this company wasfounded.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Oh, that's not true, I was.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Okay well.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I was not to put you.
I was also in the majority offolks not being able to spell
hydroxyapatite.
I was learning my ABCs.
I was four or five years old,let's say.
But yes, no, it was.
It was a different ballgame.
There's no doubt about it.
You know, I think that point intime also, you know, thomas
Registry was how theorganization tended to.
(06:18):
You know, get people to.
You know, get a reputation outthere and spread the word.
As I said, there was nointernet.
You know, I think the majorityof leads that we had generated
in the early days was folksreaching out to the organization
through referrals.
When you have a good product,I'm always a believer that
referrals are the best way togrow and you know that's what 3D
(06:43):
Heels does a great job right.
Networking, although networking35 years ago was very different
from networking today.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Absolutely Well.
So you're definitely young forbeing a president of a company
but also representing a newergeneration of leaders in the
space, and I believe that you'reone of those initial person
who's really bringing 3Dprinting concept to the company.
Is that correct or am I missingsomething?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
No, I think that's accurate.
You know, I started materialscience at Johns Hopkins
University and, be honest withyou, when I applied to
university and maybe in thisinstance I'm dating myself on
the negative end Manyuniversities did not even have a
material science degree.
A lot of universities Iremember applying it was a
(07:31):
concentration within biomedicalengineering.
So for me, I've always beeninterested in the materials.
I'm the type of guy and I'msure this will come up in our
conversation today you know, aswe start to talk, you could see
the wheels in my head turning asI'm trying to understand how
something works or why onematerial was selected over
another.
So the appeal for 3D printingto me in many instances is
(07:57):
understanding why certainapplications are more
appropriate in others.
Obviously it's a cooltechnology and we'll talk about
that and some interesting wordsof wisdom from the C-suite
opening meetings.
But I've gravitated to, you know, wanting to keep the.
You know things that make Hymedunique and you know what makes
(08:19):
us unique in this space.
How are we established?
I think you know our values arevery consistent from where we
were 35 years ago, but again,it's a completely different
market space.
Yeah, the organization istrying different things.
The technology is growing inways that we never really
thought of.
So I'm a firm believer of youknow keeping the conversation
(08:40):
going and you know things willwork out, but you know kind of
follow through in the naturalprogression of how the industry
is evolving.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, I love it that Jaime is adjusting himself as
strategies with the changingworld.
So now let's go talk about thisconference that you just
attended, tct Rapid in Michigan.
Right, it was happening inMichigan.
I have no idea where it is,sorry.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
No, you're absolutely right.
So Rapid announced last year.
They announced this is thelargest North American 3D
printing conference in all ofNorth America.
So I think it's important forthose listeners to capture that
Rapid is a tremendous conference.
So a couple of years ago theyannounced every three years it
(09:26):
seems like they're going tocover Central, east Coast and
West Coast, so last year LA,next year will be Boston, so
2025, it was in Michigan.
You could wonder in the monthof April why Detroit, michigan,
it was freezing.
It was, you know.
I think maybe Canada wasn'thappy with the tariffs and there
(09:48):
was a lot of wind.
Oh my God, yes, I forgot aboutthat.
Yes, but no.
The conference itself.
Other than the fact that it'svery challenging dressing and
packing when you're traveling,not sure what the highs are
going to be and, you know,hoping that the lows aren't as
low as what it says, theconference itself was wonderful.
I do think the location inMichigan, both being able to
(10:10):
appeal to those folks in theMotor City where manufacturing
is very prominent, and alsocentrally being located, I would
think that it's the easiest ofthe three destinations for
everyone to get to.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, I didn't realize how close Canada
Canadian border was to Michigan.
I visited a couple of times andyou can just cross the bridge
and get to a different country,which is, I actually used to
actually my hotel, usually to bein Canada, and then I crossed
the bridge to come to theMichigan conferences.
I've done that.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, we could see Canada just looking over where
the Huntington Convention Center, where the conference was held,
I know University of Waterlooexhibited.
I'm sure that there were somefolks from Canada that did make
the trip to attend, but yes, itis quite close.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So you said this is a wonderful conference and you
mentioned a couple of things,but let's just start with the
keynotes and the speakers.
Any highlights that?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
memorable moments thousand exhibitors You're
talking about.
You know 200 speakers, 400,excuse me 15,000 attendees, 400
(11:28):
exhibitors, you know.
So there's people with alldifferent backgrounds, not just
into industry, 3d printing.
But I think for an event likethis, the keynote really sets
the stage, kind of sets the tone.
So there were a series of fourrepresentatives from some of the
larger, more successfulcompanies, like Stratus, and it
was really quite a remarkableaddress.
(11:50):
I really thought that it was theEOS president, glenn Fletcher,
that really set the tone withwhat he said.
He said that 3D printing iscool, but cool is not a business
model.
So the question is, you know,how do we take this cool
technology, something that we'reall passionate about, for those
listeners spending time out oftheir personal schedule to
(12:12):
listen to a podcast about 3Dprinting, I think they're in the
agreement.
We think it's cool, but how dowe take this cool concept and
make it into a cost effectivemodel that, you know, for those
of us that are in business, canadapt this technology and allow
for the business to succeed in aproper manner?
Yeah, so I thought that wasreally an important thought that
(12:35):
resonated with me.
You know some other thoughts.
You know the conversation inthat opening meeting discussed.
You know the type of technologythat that we're talking about
and how is that technologytransferable, right?
So in previous years when I'veattended rapid, I felt that
(12:55):
every exhibitor was just tryingto flex their muscles and show
how cool their technology was.
So I would have a conversationwith an exhibitor, or you know
someone that was giving a talkand you know I walked away in
the moment saying like, wow,that is really cool.
But for PyMed, or just for mepersonally, representing 3D
Heels, or just, you know,representing an interested
(13:16):
engineer wanting to learn, Iwould walk away from the
conversation both enthused aboutthe technology but wondering,
okay, well, where do we go fromhere?
And I always kind of feel likean empty feeling, not sure of
where do we progress.
I thought that this year'sconference both the speeches as
well as just the organicconversations that were to be
(13:38):
had there were a lot ofcompanies that were in
attendance that their businessmodel is not just based on 3D
printing.
I'm talking about materials,test labs, powder manufacturers,
you know, so on and so forth.
You know, you know folks thatare in the supply chain that
very much are involved in 3Dprinting because material
(14:01):
challenges have found them, buttheir business model is not just
based on 3D printing, and Ithink those support suppliers
recognize the role that theyplay, and there were more of
them than I can ever recall atprevious years, so I thought
that that was a reallyencouraging change.
Again, I think the event hasevolved in a positive way.
(14:24):
I think that it's transformedinto more again, more
industry-specific solutions.
If I look at my notes and thinkof some of the topics in that
introductory keynote, it'sreally more so obsessing about
collaboration right With 3Dprinting or any cutting-edge
technology, what's reallyimportant today might be common
(14:47):
knowledge.
Tomorrow and you get into thisconversation of you know,
competition, and I knowsomething that you don't know,
and I think it was Yoav, the CEOof Stratus, that really put it
best the competition is statusquo Right.
We as an industry.
3d printing is still arelatively small fragment of
what manufacturing in 2025 lookslike.
(15:09):
So you know his words of wisdomwere emphasizing.
You know that the unfortunateoccurrence would be that if, in
subsequent years, we're notmaking incremental advancements
because we're not collaboratingin the way that we should be,
we're not identifying industryspecific solutions.
You know that was somethingthat again resonated with me.
(15:33):
You know, not focusing too muchinternally, but also just
looking at the movement as awhole and being able to continue
in the direction that you know.
Things seem to be organically,but maybe at a speed that you
know some folks expect it to bea little bit quicker.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah, you know, I heard this word, this word,
collaboration, quite a few timesin several different
conferences.
I think obviously it's a verypositive, intended concept.
You know, for example, HiMedand 3Dd heels.
We collaborate pretty well,we're very synergistic.
The question is how and whatare the specifics are?
(16:11):
Did you hear any specificsabout?
You know, for example, how do,how does Stratasys plan to
really collaborate, you knowwith, with people who want to
work with them?
Yep.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Yeah, well, I mean, I think I'm going to fall back on
something that Yoav had said atAM Strategies.
I think he was the keynote forthis year and when I attended
the event last year, he also wasthe keynote and I thought it
was interesting the way thatthat event was presented, much
like Rapid, where you're justtalking about bio 3D printing,
right You're talking about 3Dprinting across many different
(16:47):
industries.
So the fact that the way that wecollaborate is folks in
manufacturing for aerospacecommunicate with folks in
medical defense, can speak withfolks that are more on the
consumer side.
You know, the consensus seemsto be that many of the
challenges that we're observing,while the grass might seem
(17:09):
greener in industries that don'thave to deal with the FDA, for
example, at the end of the day,I think that there's a lot of
commonalities that we're allhaving to deal with.
So the ability to collaborate,it was actually materialized.
The CEO Bridget, who, yeah, shesays that a lot, she definitely
(17:46):
said that a lot and I way thatyou know, if you think about how
that event was done, they hadsay a topic, maybe the afternoon
session focusing onpost-processing, and this was
not just medical post-processing.
They had a representative fromthree or four key sectors
representing post-processingfrom their perspective.
I would say that, fundamentally,that's probably the easiest way
(18:08):
to run a conference which isbroad enough for multiple
sectors.
But realistically also, whyhave the same conversation in
four or five different breakoutrooms when, in actuality, being
cost effective with 3D printingis a conversation that we all
need to be involved in, whilethe budget for these different
markets is different.
(18:29):
It's part of the same movement,so I thought that that was the
way that collaboration wasemphasized, as well as, again,
it being more of a complete show, as I said, with more support.
Suppliers in attendancerecognizing their role in 3D.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
The ecosystem.
It sounds like they're bringingmore and more ecosystem of the
entire industry in closertogether, which is a really good
sign.
I also know that we're kind ofin a down cycle for 3D printing
industry itself, and Idefinitely started to detect a
lot of humility in conversationswhere, you know, instead of
talking about hyper-aggressivegrowth, now is to kind of
(19:10):
reflect on what we have done andhow we have grown, and now
let's grow more logically, in arealistic fashion, and so, yeah,
you do need to haveconversations with people that
you didn't talk to before tofigure out what applications is
good.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
That's my thought I agree completely and I think
there is a strong universitycontingency also at conferences
like this, and I know thatthere's quite a few students and
faculty that do follow in on 3DHeals.
So, you know, I think there'sprobably more of a connotation
of collaboration at the researchlevel, whereas maybe in
(19:44):
industry the connotation or thestereotype is you know, you know
you have patents and thingsthat offer protection.
I still think that the field isstill in its early days and
we're all doing ourself adisservice, in my mind, if we
don't have the broadconversations.
As an industry, you know, weshould be rooting for each other
(20:05):
as far as the overall growth ofthe movement.
Far as the overall growth ofthe movement, there's plenty of
opportunities, in my mind, foreach individual business to be
successful without infringing onindividual business.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, I mean don't be a criminal.
That's the bottom line.
I mean we don't want to workwith criminals, but a healthy
competition, welcome.
It helps everybody grow to bebetter, to create better
products.
So what did you in thisginormous show?
How do you navigate?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
I mean, and then how do you systematically figure out
how to?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
best spend your time.
Yeah, we could easily have apodcast just dedicated to that
question.
Yeah, but I also want you toalso sorry, I want to serve a
multi-purpose here.
Can you also tell us whatbooths are the best?
I mean other than Hyman?
I'm sure Hyman is the bestbooth, but what booth really
attracted your attention andwhat technology really did a
great job at the show?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Sure.
Well, I'll answer your firstquestion by correcting something
that you just said in yoursecond question.
Hyman did not exhibit.
Oh, ok, sorry.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
I conference.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
As I said, giving a talk hanging out with companies
that we're closely collaboratingwith, but not not being tied
down to a high med booth,allowed for me to navigate the
floor a little bit easier andspeak to companies that I
thought was were interesting.
So your question of how do younavigate a show like this, you
(21:48):
know it's obviously a greatquestion.
You know in advance the weeksleading up to the show.
Many conferences come up withapps and you can be intimidated.
But you could also plan aheadby looking at the long A to Z
list of exhibitors that aregoing to be there.
And you know when you look at alist, especially for Rapid,
there's so many startupcompanies, right?
(22:10):
So sometimes, looking at thename, if you're just looking
quickly through the list of 400exhibitors, the name you know.
For a company like Stratasys,for example, you know that's got
to connotate, you knowsomething that you'll likely
know about what that business isall about and what they do and
if that's something that you'reinterested in in speaking with
them.
But for smaller companies, youknow, maybe it's not quite clear
.
Certainly there's brief blurbsthat are readily available on
(22:34):
the, on the app to square tolook at initially, but I like to
just walk the floor without anagenda.
Obviously, there's people thatI most certainly want to to meet
with, from contacts that I'veestablished or folks that I've
established recent dialogue with, but I just walk the floor from
row one to row 40 or howevermany rows that there are.
(22:57):
So a word of advice for someonethat's getting ready to do this
get comfortable.
Yes, you're going to be on yourfeet a lot.
I walk around and it'sinteresting to see how companies
present themselves right.
You know I walk around and it'sinteresting to see how
companies present themselvesRight.
In some instances, maybe theyhave so many taglines that it
clouds what the message is thatthey're trying to get across.
I think simple is better from amarketing side.
(23:20):
But you know, I plan out theevent in advance.
I try to flag on the app whichcompanies I'm interested in
speaking with.
I walked through.
Naturally, a crowd attracts acrowd, so I could tell you
Formlabs.
They were trying to demonstratethe strength of their 3D
printing materials and therewere all sorts of people crowded
(23:40):
around their booth with 3Dprinted hammers and 3D printed
nails yes, they were allowed tobring in hammers to the
conference and one group wastrying to use a 3D printed
hammer and a regular now to seehow strong the hammer material
was.
And then the reverse was truefor another group that was using
a standard hammer and a 3Dprinted now to evaluate the
(24:04):
toughness and other materialproperties of some of their 3D
printed resins.
So you know those types ofquirky.
You know exhibits that naturallyallow for people to win prizes
and feel a sense of satisfactionwhen they walk away.
You know that that attractspeople to the booth.
So I think a lot of companies,especially at conferences like
(24:27):
Rapid, where at the end of theday the coolness prevails, right
Um to show off their neattechnology.
Um, you know, being able to umwalk the floor open-minded in my
mind, uh, not be overwhelmedbut at the same time, be
receptive to seeing things thatmaybe you did not originally
have flagged in your uh isadvice that I would offer and so
(24:50):
what are the cool things?
Speaker 1 (24:52):
you may not be very big booth or getting the hammers
on nails like what are some ofthe cool stuff that you saw?
You'd be like wow, I neverthought, I've never thought
about this, or this is very umlife-changing yeah, um, so
everyone was talking about acompany called RLP.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Are you familiar with them?
No, okay, rlp.
So I have to say, when word gotover to me maybe it was because
it was the end of the show andI was tired I thought that they
had said RIP.
But no, rlp.
The opposite, yes, the completeopposite.
So I'm talking about rapidliquid printing.
So their tagline is materialsthat defy gravity.
(25:34):
They have a system this is astartup company from MIT, so
they're located in Massachusettsand they just released the
levity printer.
So these are materials thatdefy gravity for gravity free 3D
printing.
So they're literally printinginside of a hydrogel Super
interesting.
They had a very slick-lookingbooth, which, again, the
(25:58):
coolness prevails.
At the end of the day, we'reall humans.
That marketing factor, I think,is really important.
But the application for some ofthese materials and I'm looking
at my notes here they had somematerials that were specific for
inflatable medical componentsand some multi-material also,
(26:18):
where they were trying to showthe flexibility of these
products.
So that was something that Ithought was pretty neat and it's
nice to see a startup companyat that showcasing some of these
material properties being ableto print directly within
hydrogel.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Well, have you heard of this bioprinting method
called the fresh bioprintingmethod?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
No, I have not.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
It almost sounds exactly like that, except it's
for bioprinting.
They have a gel bed.
I think the materials aredifferent, probably, but I'm
going to look it up more to seewhat the differential is between
these two.
Is they have a gel bed?
I don't.
I think the materials aredifferent, probably, but I'm
gonna look, look it up more tosee what the differentials
between these two.
And that is out of uh, karnakmelon and it's been, and it's
been around for decades theconcept of have a bath of
(27:02):
material that's uh, that hassome kind of viscosity and then
so that you can actually, isthis extrusion based printing,
or is this, yeah, so actuallythe concept in itself.
I wonder what the patterns areon this Could be potential
lawsuit.
I'm just kidding, but time forme to do some research, and
thanks for letting me know aboutthis very impressive startup.
(27:24):
It sounds like they've alreadygot their fundings and teams all
together.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
That's right.
So I was reading about themafter the fact and apparently
they did exhibit at someconference, maybe 2017 or so.
So pre-pandemic oh.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
OK.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
But this was their first time exhibiting at Rapid
and, like I said, there wasquite a big crowd.
So they were not on my list.
Originally, I'd never heard ofthem, but they were handing out
small little goodies and peoplewere walking around, you know,
talking about them.
One thing that I should alsosay, jenny, which I was really
surprised with there's a lot ofpeople that attend these
(27:59):
conferences for 3D printing, notjust representing industry,
whether it's health care orother.
There's a lot of hobbyists thatare at these types of
conferences.
There were several booths thatwere really geared up for 3D
printing, specific for folksthat maybe sell their product on
Etsy.
I thought that was veryinteresting.
Yeah, it's some booths that youknow they were trying to
(28:22):
showcase the different colors,the wide color spectrum of what
they had, and again, they triedto make it very like spin the
wheel, get a coin, take the coin, play a game, win a prize, get
more coins.
So very incentivized.
But you know they had somereally slick advertising and you
know giving out free samples atconferences usually is a
(28:42):
success.
So I was really surprised,though, to see that and it made
me wonder.
Naturally, there might be folksthat are at this conference
representing their company, andwhat they do in their free time
on their own is anyone's guess,but I suppose that you could
have folks that attend theseconferences, you know, simply
(29:03):
because they're interested in itfrom a hobby perspective.
Yeah, you know one thing I willsay about rapid and just
getting to the conference wespoke about the central location
.
Yeah, admission is free ofcharge.
It is a conference that youknow they really work hard to
try to appeal to.
You know potential, you knowattendees some conferences, and
(29:25):
I think this was something thatyou had discussed in your last
podcast pertaining to AOS yeah,of a conference for, say,
orthopedic surgeons.
You know, sometimes thoseconferences are unfortunately a
little bit harder for a studentor for someone that's first
starting out to get to.
But kudos to Rapid and thebusiness model that SME has
established no-transcript.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Yeah, a couple of comments on the hobbyist side of
things.
First of all, I think 3Dprinting is an amazing creative
tool, just like computers andstuff.
You can really be creative andif you're a designer, have a lot
of imagination.
This is an incredible tool.
The reason why we have I'mguessing have so many hobbyists
(30:24):
nobody's making a whole lot ofmoney yet, um, so maybe that's
why I mean, I would say,technically speaking, 3d hills
is my hobby, but people have.
People really enjoy what itrepresents.
The industry represents theability to think out of the box,
uh, to do things differently,and also technology that's
clearly still growing.
(30:46):
You know new things coming outevery day.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Basically, yeah, I mean, I think you know, at the
end of the day, we all want tolearn.
I would think, right, you knowyou attend a conference.
You know, regardless of whatyour primary objective is, the
goal is to leave that conferenceknowing more than you did
before you.
So you know, being able toattend a conference, like I said
, open minded, meet new people,speak with maybe some folks that
(31:11):
you do know, but predominantlyover a screen, in a virtual
manner, but I think that therewas a lot of excitement.
There was a lot of enthusiasm.
Again, it started with thekeynote.
As far as that upliftingpositivity, hey, we're heading
in the right direction, butthese are things that we still
need to see happen in order forbetter days to continue to
(31:34):
evolve.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yeah, so in the last couple of weeks I've been
reading some articles and itjust seems like every 3D
printing articles now want toadd the word AI to it.
While you were at theconference, is there such
actually real trend thatcompanies are increasingly using
AI?
To increase their productivityor innovations.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah, I had a feeling you were going to ask about
this.
I was planning on bringing itup, if not, but I specifically
spoke with Materialize and 3DSystems like a journalist at
this conference.
Like I said, without exhibiting, you know, walking the floor, I
should give you.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
You know what I should give you a 3D Heels hat
next time.
Yeah, that'd be nice I thinkpeople will be more receptive if
you have our hat.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
I could tell you I introduced a lot of people to 3D
heels even without the apparelon me.
But you mentioned AI, right?
Speaker 1 (32:25):
It's a nice looking hat, don't you think?
Speaker 2 (32:27):
It is a very nice looking hat.
Ai is the buzzword right andagain, the industry right.
We all want to be cool, even inindustries where maybe cool is
not the term.
But I think, for me, when I hadthose conversations, we've all
been doing AI in one form or theother.
(32:48):
Even before, ai was the termright, and that was something
that 3D Systems was quick toremind me in my conversation
there right.
So you know, we're alwayslooking for ways that we could
shorten the product developmentlifecycle.
We're always looking for waysthat we could identify, you know
, things that we've learned fromprevious developments and you
know, what can we take away fromwhat materials worked, for
(33:09):
example, what materials did notwork.
You know, when it comes to themanufacturing cycle and just the
supply chain in general, youknow these are.
You know it's evolvingnaturally as the tools that we
have to our avail grow.
You know, maybe we're able tobe more efficient in how we
evaluate which business is bestsuited for us.
(33:30):
But you know, materialize gave areally fascinating talk
specific to AI and you know,again, I think it's important
that there's a lot of times thatpeople are saying that they're
doing something because maybemarketing thinks that's how they
want to portray theirorganization.
But in actuality the vibe ismaybe a little bit different.
Or you know, ai is not thebuzzword that encompasses that.
(33:53):
But when you say that yourcompany is doing AI and 3D, then
you don't just come across ascool, you come across as extra
cool because of those words.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
I certainly hope so.
I know exactly what Materializeis doing in terms of AI
strategies.
It's very concrete anddemonstrable.
But I'm not really sure with 3Dsystem, how 3D system utilize
the new technologies.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yeah, they had a placard, you know, right behind
the gentleman that I wasspeaking with and while we were
talking about somethingcompletely different, I happened
to walk by and listen to aconversation that the
representative was having withtwo other folks and started to
eavesdrop before I chimed inmyself.
But I asked him.
I said you know, what is thatAI?
(34:41):
He said, like AI development.
And I personally think thatthey used AI because they only
had so many characters that theywere able to fit in on this big
stanchion.
That was, you know, afreestanding aspect to their
booth.
But he was the one he said that,hey, we've always been looking
for ways that we could, you know, make improvements to how we
(35:03):
print, say, when it comes to theorientation of how an object is
printed, right on its sideversus, you know, in a different
manner.
And I've had conversations with3D systems, for example, for
post-processing, right, and, youknow, are there ways that they
could maybe increase the methodof how they perform their print
(35:23):
that would eliminate the need topost process?
Well, yeah, we're doing AI toevaluate that huge company has
performed in many differentgeographic locations to try to
make for a more efficientassessment of what the
(35:46):
technology is that your companycan adapt and figure out if
that's an improvement that youwould like to explore and, if so
, what benefit does it provide.
So we just did AI right there.
I think that we're having aconversation to assess and make
improvements.
It doesn't always have to be AI, don't get me wrong.
(36:06):
Ai is great, but I think wetalk about AI in ways that it
expands what it actually is.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Yeah, I mean, if I purchase a third-party SaaS tool
that use AI, I mean,technically speaking, my company
is also using AI speaking, mycompany is also using AI.
But I think everybody in 3Dprinting really hoping to see
one day people like me who havevery limited technological
expertise can just pick up aprinter, design something and it
just come out the way I want itto be, you know, with much less
(36:35):
tinkering and guesses anddisappointments, and eventually
gave my printer away.
You know that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Yeah, I do think when it comes to designing, right,
you know, if you're looking todesign a new device and if the
belief is that 3D printing isthe most logical way to design
that new device, you know thereare ways that you can, you know,
be efficient in that you knowconversation and figure out,
okay, well, what's unique aboutmy device, what can I do that's
(37:08):
different from you know anotherdevice that's out there?
And or how can I assess anoptimal device?
Right, the design that is.
So there are definitely ways.
I mean I use AI to readliterature, right, like you can
upload multiple papers andquickly assess if what you're
trying to innovate has alreadybeen established.
So, again, it's a really usefultool, no one's denying that.
(37:30):
I think it's probably toopowerful than we at sometimes
want to admit.
But as far as just in itsinfancy, the idea of using AI
for 3D, you know I'm all formaking improvements, but at the
same time, I feel that you knowmany of these conversations are
taking place, even if AI is not,you know, spearheading them.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Right, and also most of the money going to what we're
talking about, like in AI rightnow they're in large language
model.
I mean, we have a bunch ofother different types of
artificial intelligence andmachine learning processes that
utilize for making physicalgoods and robotics and all that
stuff.
It's not really I don't thinkthe bulk of the money is going
(38:14):
there.
It's mostly like chat, gtp, youknow that kind of stuff, you
know, uh, that kind of stuff.
So now we, we chat a little bitbefore the conference of.
You know, I'm kind of want to.
You know, I think previously,when I talked to other people
attending these internationalconferences, people always
almost in the last two years,almost every year people talk
(38:36):
about the presence of chinesecompanies.
Um, what is, what is it likethis time around, especially
given the current geopolitics?
Speaker 2 (38:44):
well, again, I I think that for an event that is,
uh, in north america, there'squite a few companies that are
international that that attended, um specific to companies in
china.
Um, I can't remember anyspecific conversations that I
had.
Um, you know, as far as youknow, getting into discussion as
far as what the market is inChina for some of these
(39:07):
technologies.
You know, I have more examplesthat I could share, just as far
as companies in Germany andother geographic locations, yeah
, but I don't know.
Are there any companies inparticular that you're following
in China that you're wonderingabout?
Speaker 1 (39:25):
You know, there are a couple of metal 3D printers
that I think the Chinesecompanies are formidable, but I
don't remember the name.
At the moment they supply theirinternal 3D printed implants
and I think more and moreEuropean designers and
manufacturers are leaningtowards them, but I don't really
(39:46):
have concrete data.
Like I said, and whenever wetalk about the Chinese printers,
people always have pricingpressure relative to the other
companies in North America andEurope both.
So it's always kind ofinteresting as where they are.
I mean, a couple of years ago,when I talked to one of their
(40:09):
media influencers in 3D printing, they were very much floored by
North America and European 3Dprinting technologies.
I mean they're like there's noway we're there yet.
So I'm just kind of curiouswhat the sentiment is.
Is China catching up on thetechnology side?
(40:31):
Because they certainly areinvesting.
From a government perspective,a strategic perspective, I'm not
sure our government or EU isactually investing enough to be
competitive.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Right, yeah, yeah, I think I mean just to comment on
the international representationat this conference.
I thought that there were a lotof folks that traveled quite a
bit distance.
I spoke to quite a few peoplethat had never even been in the
US before.
Oh, wow, I thought it wasinteresting.
(41:04):
Yeah, where are they from?
So I, in particular I'mthinking of a conversation that
I had with Amorea Technologies,so they're based in Germany, and
I kind of sympathized when Irealized that Detroit nothing
against Detroit, but again, thatweather was quite cold and if
that was my first time in the US, it might be my last time in
the US.
But a newer company.
(41:25):
They were at the Discovery Zone, which is where the first time
exhibitors are located.
They have this innovationsection preaching to how
innovation is the backbone of 3Dprinting, and they thought that
it would be valuable.
It seems to lump many of thesestartup companies together.
They thought that it would bevaluable, it seems to lump many
of these startup companiestogether, but you know, I think
(41:46):
there's a lot of reception thatthey feel based on, you know,
conversations that they've hadvirtually, and again, the fact
that I think we were allpleasantly surprised with the
overwhelming attendance fromstudents and researchers, the
overwhelming attendance fromstudents and researchers, and I
(42:09):
think, even though you know,those types of conversations at
a conference are more in linewith collaboration efforts
rather than immediate businessgratification.
I think most folks were quitepleased with that.
So, again, I think the idea ofsharing ideas, uh, the ideas of
being able to understand whatother markets in other
geographic locations are workingon and kind of comparing and,
(42:31):
and you know, contrasting I Ithink it was a healthy level of
discussion.
But, uh, specific to the thechina question that you asked, I
didn't really get get a senseof one way or the other.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Okay, I guess it's a good thing if you didn't get
anything negative.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Yeah, I mean, naturally we could start to talk
about tariffs and what thatlooks like for.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
We should talk about it.
Let's talk about it, because Ihave no idea where it's going.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Yeah, I don't think anyone does.
I mean, here we are todayrecording this podcast, the
middle of April, so people mightbe listening to the podcast
where maybe there's more clarityin months or maybe even years
there afterwards, but we'reexpecting now for there to be a
delay of at least three months.
So that'll take us, say, to thebeginning of the third quarter.
(43:17):
But until then, what I see andwhat I heard at the conference
is that, as an extension of howpeople have acted the past five
years since the pandemic withsupply chain uncertainty,
there's a desire to stockpile oncritical materials that are
acquired directlyinternationally or that are
(43:38):
manufactured with componentsthat are residing from
international sources.
So stockpiling is somethingthat we do.
Stockpiling is something thatwe receive as a critical
supplier for so many in thisspace.
It'd be an interestingconversation I don't think that
it's come up, naturally, jenny,in any 3D Heals webinar, right,
(44:02):
in terms of tariff, yeah, andwhat kind of effect that has on
the supply chain.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
I didn't even know what tariff was until this year.
Okay, I think most commonpeople don't know what the hell
is happening, sure, and I thinkit's actually time for me to
perhaps write a blog to explainwhat tariff is, and it's
actually not as easy as it isshown in the media, and also,
(44:28):
currently all the tariffs are onthe fiscal goods, and we're not
even talking about digitalservices and a bunch of other
things that we definitely has ahuge surplus over other country,
which is a good thing.
So, yeah, I think, um, yeah, Ijust learned about it this year.
So, no, we never talk about it.
And, uh, you know, my visionfor the world is, you know, a un
(44:50):
, basically united nation.
Collaboration has always beenour operational.
You know style and I loved it.
You know where people fromdifferent countries with
different health care systemscan talk about how they can help
each other to solve theirproblems with economic and
technical constraints, because I, you know, to me our common
(45:14):
enemy is mortality, disease andpain and suffering, not all the
other things that you knowpoliticians care about.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
So I mean so it's a different kind of goal.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Oh, I certainly know what you mean, and here we are
talking about one of thosebuzzwords collaboration, right,
and I think you know the idea,especially anyone that's in the
3D printing space for healthcare, right, you know you have
to be in it for the right reason, right, while there's, as we
said, opportunity for everyoneto maybe not everyone, but
(45:50):
there's opportunity for manypeople to be successful, you
know there has to be a sense ofaccomplishment and satisfaction
and pride, knowing that whatwe're doing, you know in many
instances, is benefiting patientcare, right.
So you know doing, you know inmany instances, is benefiting
patient care, right.
So you know this, you know, Ithink in that respect, you know,
hopefully we're able to, as asociety, come to a time that
(46:13):
we're all, you know, pulling therope in the right, in the same
direction, for the right reason,really more of a with positive
nature in mind for the rightreason, really more with
positive nature in mind.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
Yeah, I think that eventually we will come to the
same table and start tocollaborate again.
That's my hope and that's myoptimistic belief.
It is always good to see thiskind of conference happening,
because nobody is trying tofistfight everyone in the
conference.
Everyone is very polite andvery friendly, welcoming kind of
thing.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
Yeah, for sure.
And I think again, 3d Heels,just as an extension, and the
lattice, it's really anextension of wanting to learn
from each other, wanting tounderstand how different trends
in the industry, things that wemaybe see or read about, but
being able to hear directly fromthose experts in our field.
(47:08):
And, again, I think, if youhave a proper business model and
are able to overcome thoseobstacles that you really have
no control over and in thisinstance, tariffs is one of them
, right.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Out of your control.
Yeah, it's like taxes.
Taxes is a way of tax, you knowhere we are again.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
It's April 15th, right?
So I just right on time, right,right on time.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Yeah, so well, thank you very much, craig, for this
incredibly insight, for thisamazing event that I kind of
having FOMO at the moment that Ididn't get to go.
Hopefully next year.
Well, next year is going to beBoston, my favorite city, that's
right.
But, it's also going to be cold.
April is not going to be.
It's better, but not not thereyet.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
That's right.
Yeah, april in Boston isn'tgoing to be too much different
from April in Detroit, maybe thewindshield won't be quite there
, but it's pretty windy out inSan Francisco, so I sense a
comeback Maybe, if we're lookingahead to 2027, with the West
Coast due, maybe they'll selectNorthern California.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
I hope so.
You know honestly, if you'rethe event organizer and you want
a local collaborator, I'm hereand I actually kind of like our
new mayor.
We just got a new mayor in SanFrancisco and is really
hopefully getting the crimes andstuff like that under control.
That's great and reallyreinvent our beautiful city.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
That's great.
I was in San Francisco a coupleof times last year.
I know you and I had thepleasure of meeting after so
many years of virtualconversation.
Yeah, I really like SanFrancisco.
Obviously, there's a lot ofreally neat 3D printing
technologies that areoriginating there, so I would be
rapid.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
And it's also the closest to the birthplace of
Silicon Valley, where all theVCs grew up.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
Just kidding.
But yeah, we have a lot of thehighest concentration of venture
capitalists, definitely in theBay Area, no question about it.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
Let's make it happen.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
Yeah, hopefully we're just going to promote our
podcast and hopefully somebody'sgoing to listen to this episode
.
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Sounds wonderful to me.
Speaker 1 (49:19):
Thank you, Craig.
I'm going to stop recording now.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
Thanks, Craig.
I'm going to stop recording now.
Thanks, Jenny.
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