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I found the 8-K filing for Ron Fisher. It's here near the bottom of the filing.
http://app.quotemedia.com/data/downloadFiling?webmasterId=101649&ref=11804742&type=HTML&symbol=SGLB&companyName=Sigma+Labs+Inc.&formType=8-K&formDescription=Report+of+unscheduled+material+events+or+corporate+changes.&dateFiled=2017-09-20
John Rice mentioned this in the recent con call
I certainly would like to see ten plus systems sold as well. Here's to Ron Fisher meeting that new sales quota and getting his bonus. I believe he has until 1st quarter of 2018 to sell ten plus systems to one of our customers.
I certainly would like to see ten plus systems sold as well. Here's to Ron Fisher meeting that new sales quota and getting his bonus. I believe he has until 1st quarter of 2018 to sell ten plus systems to one of our customers.
Might P&W finally be ready for some PrintRite3D orders?
Unreal!! Computed tomography and a cut up plan. So much for GE leapfrogging with their technology. Wow! GE does need help.
I've seen this mentioned a few times lately that there is no need for independent validation or third party or objective compliance. I disagree with that sentiment. Third party validation and objective compliance are very necessary for customers who need critical AM parts. Here's what the AM experts say.
Powder Bed Material Testing
Many of the additive manufacturing technologies use powder (metal or plastic) as the starting material. This offers opportunities for independent testing of these powder (first time and reused) materials to insure that they meet specifications. First time use materials need to satisfy three parameters (size, shape and distribution). The general shape of the particles should be spherical, the size should be 20 or 50 microns depending on the layer thickness and the distribution should be as tight as possible around size and shape. There should also be testing on the material composition of these powders. Reused powders need to be kept clean and free from oxidation in order to be comparable to the “virgin” powder in performance. This offers opportunities for independent testing of unused and reused powder to insure that there has been no degradation in material characteristics that will affect the performance.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/additive-manufacturing-aerospace-opportunities-puerto-carrero-phd
As reported by an interviewee, one challenge with AM
technology relates to “objective evidence of compliance to
design intent.” When a part is extracted from a machine, it
needs to be evaluated to determine whether it meets the
design intent. The surface geometry can be analyzed, but there
is no nondestructive methodology for determining whether the
metal chemistry meets design specifications. A firm can
produce a part, but how does one inspect and validate it?
As a well
-respected
senior engineer at a leading aerospace firm noted during an
interview with RTI, AM needs “objective evidence of compliance
to design intent. When you pull a part out of the machine, how
do you know it meets its design intent?” According to another
respondent in the same industry, “[you need] empirical
evidence of success to build customer confidence.” This is the
ultimate goal for AM: achieving a level of confidence that a part
be almost certainly free of deformations and functionally sound,
while adhering to design standards and guidelines.
http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/gcr/2016/NIST.GCR.16-006.pdf
Wide-spread implementation and adoption of this or similar, open communication paradigms for PBF will enable researches to advance the science of additive manufacturing, end-users to integrate third-party quality monitoring systems, and enable the development of manufacturer
and third-party add-on tools.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Neal Orringer, Joseph Razum, and Sandeep Rana from 3D Systems, Dr. Suresh Sundarraj and Dr. George Levesque from Honeywell, and Dr. Sung Park from Northrop Grumman.
This work was supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory through America Makes under agreement number FA8650-12-2-7230.
https://sffsymposium.engr.utexas.edu/sites/default/files/2016/005-Dunbar.pdf
Silver, Well said as usual. You've been saying it for years and I agree with you.
I believe John Rice when he says SGLB is ready to move from the lab to real world production as the AM industry is finally saying the same thing. Gotta pay attention to AM industry. Know what you hold
“This is a very exciting period at XJet,” said Hanan Gothait, CEO and Founder of XJet. “Our hard work in developing a transformational AM solution is paying off and we have shipped our first two systems to Oerlikon Citim in Europe and YBI in North America. We are truly at a turning point in the company’s history. Until now, our many successes have been in the laboratory. Now we’re going out into the real world.”
https://www.tctmagazine.com/tct-events/formnext-powered-by-tct/xjet-commercial-launch-carmel-am-systems/
EnvisionTEC Unveils Two Production-Ready 3D Printers at formnext 2017
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171113005764/en/EnvisionTEC-Unveils-Production-Ready-3D-Printers-formnext-2017
“As the metal AM industry grows, so does the need to integrate automated processes. Materialise e-Stage for Metal provides significant cost and time savings for companies looking to scale up their metal production. We continuously work with our customers to explore new ways to make their Metal 3D printing production more efficient,” adds Stefaan Motte, VP Software at Materialise.
http://advancedmanufacturing.org/materialise-introduces-new-3d-printing-software/
One customer Daan Kersten, CEO of Additive Industries, was proud to present at this morning's briefing was with SMS Group - a €2.8 bn metal manufacturing company. Norbert Gober was introduced its Scale4Series vision that sees the two companies join together to envisage an additive manufacturing plant for series production housing several full integrated MetalFAB1 machines alongside powder manufacturing/handling, heat treatment, finishing and metrology equipment.
https://www.tctmagazine.com/tct-events/formnext-powered-by-tct/additive-industries-unveil-plan-for-future-at-formnext/
Wow! Thanks for this post!
An important note to me, as a dot connector, was the confirmation that Sigma is still working with Materialise and working with our partner EOS! That is Huge News for me and a few other LONGS!
We know that Materialise is definitely working with GE. I would not take GE off the radar yet.
Yeah, I'm counting on SGLB teaming with Honeywell and others to overcome that GE obstacle. I have been excited to see the recent development with Siemens and I'm encouraged by the AirForce using SGLB to define the standards for qualifying AM components with them. SGLB just needs to stay in the game a little longer and I believe that Intel Inside thing can happen. The Rapid Qualification ICME framework with Honeywell's work for DARPA places them right inside.
It will be interesting to see what GE has in store considering they have worked with both Sigma Labs and 3DSIM to advance their QA capabilities. The 3DSIM FLEX combines two great technologies which I bet Additive Industries will decide to utilize in their Metal Fab 1 machine which is considered an industry first series AM production machine. I'm betting the Siemens, Honeywell, P&W, Solar Turbine, Aerojet RockDyne and more will want FLEX and PrintRite3.0.
I believe GE's in house development will eventually hurt them more than help. We shall see. First GE has to execute on focusing to be an industrial company. They are getting punished by investors at the moment. I'm looking forward to the future as I believe both SGLB and GE will both generate much profit and turn their current pps northward. Good Luck All
Nice to see increasing volume and pps. Let's close over $2. Some investors are seeing light thru the tunnel after the 3DSIM FLEX development.
I'm looking forward to new contracts coming. I agree that Woodward utilizing PrintRite 2.0 is great news and betting on 3.0 getting a lot of traction. Thanks for sharing your experience at conferences with the board! I've been excited about SGLB's potential and I've been buying since summer of 2013. I see continued progress and improvement with SGLB every year.
Awesome Find Jackle!
I like the concluding remarks from AFRL with PrintRite3D evaluated on EOS machine.
7. Concluding Remarks
The printing process of metallic additively manufactured components is complex and leads to heterogeneous local processing conditions for the same global printing parameters. The geometry of individual samples, as well as their collective arrangement within the build domain, influences the processing history they will experience. This work shows that processing history affects defect and microstructure morphology, as well as crystallography. We have developed a simple yet effective model for determining spatio-temporal thermal histories within the build volume, and have shown that the histories correlate with observed microstructures. This model can be used to pre-calculate local processing conditions if the scan strategy of the system is known a priori. Potentially, this model could also be used to modify the build layout if it was desirable to homogenize thermal history.
Thanks jpi, I really like this
Concerning the shorting that's going on. I believe that SGLB falls into this category and should consider a similar type of petition.
https://www.sec.gov/rules/petitions/2017/petn4-712.pdf
For any new investors here. Structural Integrity for Additive Manufacturing by Sigma Labs Inc (Nasdaq-SGLB)
Interesting article about Farsoon. I noticed they talked about having an open concenpt and need to collaborate to succeed. It's a concept shared by Siemens and others. I believe that closed concept is hurting GE. Another reason why I've always been excited with the DARPA Phase wins. SGLB will be right inside. Here's a clip from the Farsoon article.
Thank you for you DD and sharing of it.
Shorts are taking a breather.. They'll be back if no news of recent contracts. Apparently the contracts earlier this year are not exciting enough.
https://www.materialstoday.com/additive-manufacturing/news/sigma-labs-announces-pratt-whitney-contract/
https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/04/18/961632/0/en/Sigma-Labs-Wins-Contract-with-Solar-Turbines-Incorporated.html
https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/03/02/930054/0/en/Sigma-Labs-Wins-Additional-Contract-with-Aerojet-Rocketdyne-for-U-S-Air-Force-Applications.html
The short game continues... I look forward to a real squeeze.
Investors Pay Attention: Manufacturing Will Change Radically
Thanks RR1, and on that note.
TRENDS IN ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING FOR END-USE PRODUCTION WITH PROTO LABS
3DPI: What barriers does AM face for production and how are these surmountable?
GT: Our customers, especially those newer to 3D printing, are still validating the process overall and getting an understanding of its speed, repeatability and reliability, especially for critical end-use components.
Of course, any decision about which manufacturing process to use is really a conversation about economics. The biggest barriers to broader adoption of additive manufacturing are generally around the total costs and value that companies can create with 3D printing compared to other methods.
From a broader 3D printing perspective, these economics can improve greatly with continued machine and material advancements. We expect that to be realized in time, especially with the recent commitments and investments by large organizations, such as GE and HP. There has also been a lot of focus in the industry on reducing the labor required to support 3D printing, such as software addressing setup and automation of the post-processing currently required.
Sigma Labs is on the verge of a breakout once the orders come. The work with the Air Force and Aerojet to certify parts is HUGE!
The agreement is valued at $11.75 million over a three-year period, according to Jeffrey K. Smith, executive agent program manager for DPA Title 3, a Pentagon-wide initiative to develop affordable and commercially viable manufacturing capabilities for critical defense hardware. The government’s contribution to the demonstration is $6.3 million, the Air Force Research Laboratory said.
In a written response to questions, Smith said Aerojet Rocketdyne is expected to establish and demonstrate “a domestic production capability to manufacture large rocket engine parts using selective laser melting (SLM) technology that pass the key performance parameter criteria and quality requirements.”
As part of the contract Aerojet Rocketdyne will purchase and install SLM machines that will be used to build the components, Smith said. The company is expected to achieve that milestone during the second quarter of calendar year 2015, he said.
SLM is one of a number of additive manufacturing — also known as 3-D printing — techniques used to build hardware from 3-D designs using a layering process. The relatively new manufacturing process is being evaluated closely in the space industry as a way to bring down costs.
The SLM technique in particular uses a laser to melt, in selected areas, powdered metal that has been spread out on a flat bed. The process is repeated over and over on fresh new layers of metal powder until the desired object is created from the melted and fused material.
In a written response to questions, Jeff Haynes, additive manufacturing program manager at Sacramento, California-based Aerojet Rocketdyne, said the company will replicate parts of its operational RS-68 and RL-10 engines under the contract. The RS-68 is the main engine on United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4 rocket, which along with the company’s Atlas 5 launches most U.S. military and other government satellites. The RL-10 is an upper-stage engine, variants of which are used on both the Atlas 5 and Delta 4.
“These parts will demonstrate dimensional and structural capability to meet the demands of” the current traditionally manufactured parts, Haynes said. “Some parts will have improved performance characteristics which will be analytically measured based on the manufacturing approach applied.”
The process, Haynes said, will be evaluated for its ability to lower the cost of producing engines.
Haynes said the company will use government funds to procure the necessary machinery, and share in the cost of developing and demonstrating the additive manufacturing process for major engine components.
The program will require SLM manufacturing machines that are bigger than those that are widely available today, Aerojet Rocketdyne said in the press release.
Aerojet Rocketdyne visited leading SLM manufacturers in Germany in 2010 to evaluate the scaling potential of their machines, Haynes said. He said Aerojet Rocketdyne has already procured one scaled-up machine from Concept Laser GmbH and expects to take delivery in September. Plans call for buying two more from Concept Laser and one from EOS GmbH using funds from the latest Title 3 contract, he said.
Metal 3D printing specialist Sigma Labs Inc. has received an additional contract from Aerojet Rocketdyne, a California-based rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer. The new contract is a follow-on for a contract that was awarded to Sigma Labs last year to develop advanced quality control measures for 3D printing metal aerospace parts.
Sigma Labs is known for its PrintRite3D software, a proprietary program which allows users to rapidly and affordably certify and qualify metal aerospace parts that have been 3D printed. Last year, the company was awarded two significant contracts with Aerojet Rocketdyne: to help establish standards for qualifying metal 3D printed aerospace components, and to provide its technology to the America Makes 3D printing initiative.
Aerojet Rocketdyne, for its part, was awarded a massive $6 million contract from the U.S. Air Force in 2016 for the development of new standards for liquid-fueled rocket engines—part of the effort to move away from politically undesirable Russian-made aerospace parts, such as the RD-180 engines which are currently used on the Atlas V launch vehicle. Sigma Labs’ technology was evaluated for this massive project.
PrintRite3D, Sigma Labs
Sigma Labs’ new contract with Aerojet Rocketdyne will see the former upgrade its PrintRite3D software with new and more advanced sensors and algorithms. Additionally, under the new contract, Sigma Labs will offer engineering support through complex geometry-specific data analysis, and work together with Aerojet Rocketdyne to “assess and quantify” in-process data variation. At the moment, these are the only disclosed elements of the follow-on contract.
Jackle, Man I totally agree! I'm still patiently waiting through all the noise for what us LONGS believe will be the inevitable rise of SGLB.
We remember SGLB certifying 3D-printed rocket components with Aerojet RocketDyne.
“Working alongside Aerojet Rocketdyne on this Air Force program, as well as with America Makes, allows Sigma Labs to once again showcase the benefits of our unique technology,” said Mark Cola, President and CEO of Sigma Labs. “This is a great opportunity for Sigma Labs to gain additional exposure within the aerospace and defense industry, particularly as part of an initiative designed to define standards and qualification requirements for 3D-printed rocket components. We look forward to the rollout of these programs in 2016 and appreciate the trust that both Aerojet Rocketdyne and the U.S. Air Force have placed in Sigma Labs.”
Sigma Inside is coming 2019 to that new Huntsville facility. IMHO.
We know that AR-1 is using 3D printed components.
Aerojet Rocketdyne has reported two significant milestones have been reached in the development of the 3D printed AR1 rocket engine. Following successful hot fire tests, the engine also completed its Critical Design Review (CDR).
As a result, the AR1 engine is on track for certification in 2019 in its bid to replace the Russian made RD-180 rocket engine. The RD-180 is currently used to launch most U.S payloads into space. However, Aerojet has significant competition in the form of aerospace manufacturer Blue Origin and its BE-4 engine.
Aerojet Rocketdyne earlier announced that it was headquartering its Defense business unit in Huntsville, along with its defense advanced programs group known as the Rocket Shop?, bringing roughly 800 new jobs to the region. In addition to the new manufacturing facility, Aerojet Rocketdyne recently leased 122,000 square feet of office space at 950 Explorer Blvd. in Cummings Research Park to accommodate newly hired employees and those relocating to Huntsville from other company locations. The changes are part of a larger Competitive Improvement Program the company launched in 2015 that is on track to deliver $230 million in annual savings once complete.
“The new Advanced Manufacturing Facility we are officially breaking ground on today is an essential component of Aerojet Rocketdyne’s Competitive Improvement Program,” said Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and President Eileen Drake. “The steps we are taking are focused on making our company increasingly agile and able to deliver high-quality, affordable products to our customers as we position Aerojet Rocketdyne for the future.”
The new Advanced Manufacturing Facility, which is expected to begin production by the end of 2019, will be used to build a variety of aerospace products, including production work on the AR1 advanced rocket engine; composite cases for solid rocket motors; case pneumatic and hydrostatic proofing; and additive manufacturing (3-D printing) production work to support of a variety of programs in the space and defense sectors. This new facility will also be used to conduct advanced rocket propulsion research and development activities.
https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/10/24/1152729/0/en/Aerojet-Rocketdyne-Breaks-Ground-On-New-Era-of-Advanced-Manufacturing-in-Huntsville.html
“Process qualification is very important as well,” Meyer added. “If we have to perform a specific qualification on every part, that’s punishing us on lead time. We could have a much broader scope of applications with a solid process qualification.”
Regarding part optimization, Meyer emphasized the need for more robust design for manufacturing tools to deal with the complex designs characteristic of additive manufacturing. “How will we surface finish this part with inaccessible surfaces?” he asked, rhetorically. “How will we address support removal on this part?”
“Today,” Meyer explained, “there’s no one surface finishing process that can address all the different geometries that we face; we have some that are excellent for cleaning out channels, but not very good for external surface finishing, and vice versa.”
Finally, in order to achieve more integrated architectures, additive manufacturing needs to see advancements in intermediate processing. “You generate problems for yourself in terms of areas that are impossible to access for your post-processing steps,” said Meyer. “And so, you may need to consider a process in which your part is produced in loops, including post-processing steps. That brings up additional challenges, but unless we start looking at them, we’re never going to get there.”
https://www.engineering.com/AdvancedManufacturing/ArticleID/15886/The-Airbus-Roadmap-to-Additive-Manufacturing.aspx
Kanya, Thanks much for this post. It sounds remarkably like Sigma Inside "All of the data is stored in computer memory and a proprietary machine-learning algorithm correlates defects revealed by the scanners with powder patterns recorded on the particular layer. “The more often you do it, the smarter the system gets," but we'll see. Here's Mark's response about it at the last con call and here's the transcript.
Hi, good afternoon, John. I had a question I guess when Mark Cola was doing a call he said he is trying and still locked with GE, I was wondering that's still true or do you still have engineers that are currently working with GE after the America Makes project that ended.
John Rice
Well, Mark is sitting right beside me so I'll ask him to answer the question.
Mark Cola
Hi, Aaron, thanks for asking the question. You are absolutely correct the America Makes program ramp through the first quarter actually slightly into the second quarter this year and that was where our focus of our efforts have been as with contemplating and completing that activity and so now we are actually looking forward to new opportunities with GE although we don't currently have any.
Just watched this video. Thanks for sharing! Now we see why Moog partnered with SGLB on the Navy proposal. I did not realize Moog was that big over 2 billion in sales. Another bg company that thinks SGLB is where AM future lies. Excellent!
Z, Yep. GE is slipping on their timelines. They are not quite ready IMHO kinda makes sense that SGLB is working more with others now who are closer to an in-line process which is a better fit. There have been a ton of delays with aerospace companies just as MC as said previously thru no fault of SGLB. I'm thinking Siemens more inclusive and open AM strategy maybe paying off and pushing them much closer AM ramp up.
Boeing supplier GE Aviation needs to boost engine production to hit delivery targets, analyst says
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/10/20/boeing-supplier-will-need-much-higher-engine.html
Yeah. I hear ya but just having the draft available will provide AM companies with the guidance that they need to proceed forward. I believe that the draft guidance is all several aerospace players are waiting on. It would be very nice to see some in-process/in-line guidance is there with a reference to SGLB as an example of a company doing that. That AMSC AM roadmap 2.0 is due June 2018 which should be right around the time DARPA Phase 3 with Honeywell is starting to wrap up. I'm looking forward to a snowball effect of positive events in 2018 to get SGLB moving up.
Well said! I agree and certainly am hopeful for sales of multiple PrintRite3D packages in the fourth quarter. It would allow Ron to get that bonus and pps should finally start moving north.
Thanks much for this post. I'm looking forward to reading about what FAA says about AM certification.
Well. I certainly hope we don't get there. In the meantime, I noticed that GE is having a bit of a rough time as well.
General Electric profit falls, missing expectations, will cut $20 billion in businesses
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/10/20/ge-misses-earnings/783350001/
LOL! Too funny!
Continued delays in Aerospace will delay some of the P&W orders. IMHO
Airbus A330neo Stages Delayed Maiden Flight
By REUTERSOCT. 19, 2017, 8:51 A.M. E.D.T.
TOULOUSE, France — Airbus on Thursday staged the delayed maiden flight of its A330neo jetliner, an upgraded version of its profitable A330 series designed to buttress European sales against the latest model of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Bregier said Pratt & Whitney, whose industrial problems have delayed deliveries of Airbus jets, was testing re-designed parts for its engines and expected to start delivering the modified version at the end of this year.
The majority of the delayed jets are destined for airlines that have selected Pratt & Whitney’s new Geared Turbofan engine. CFM International, co-owned by General Electric and Safran, is also supplying engines for the A320neo.
Yep. The precision timing is amazing. It will unfortunately continue until SGLB's value is realized by more to break the cycle. I shall continue to hold because I see the amazing progression of SGLB and understand the T&E cycle of new technology and continue to monitor the AM industry. Mark and Co. definitely are understanding what's happening in the AM world. I look forward to the reward.