I don’t think per se that none of this can exist without Sigma Labs contribution. In reality all these things can be built and to increasingly good standards by the machine makers. Sigma’s strength is not in the making of the part, it is in the verification of it. What doesn’t exist out there is any independent verification of part quality and geometry than can be applied to all machines and a variety of materials. So the parts can be made, but there appears to be no better way, certainly no other ‘commercially ready, in -process’ way to verify independently that what the machine is spitting out is exactly what you set the machine to spit out. When you make parts you expect X. When it comes out it may look like X, but on a micro level, as is often the way with AM machines, the part may have weaknesses both physically and geometrically that are hidden from eye. As we know, when you are making critical parts these micro flaws are not acceptable and pose potential risk. As Greg Morris pointed out a year or so back, anyone can build a part, but there will come a point where liability risk is important and there has to be a standard way to verify quality. The key for Sigma is being independent. It verifys what you put in vs what the machine spits out. It’s not interested in whether the machine acted as it should have. A machine can act as it should, and yet create a part with inherent flaws.
Sigma will find a strength in supply chains. The big guys do use supply chain companies to create parts, such as Parker Aerospace (GE) and having a standardized quality inspection tool across suppliers and machines will prove especially, incredibly useful to the likes of GE. They can set their supply chain to create parts and, as long as verified by PrintRite3D™, know that the part they are presented with has been made within a set of parameters acceptable to what was ordered. No flaws, no geometrical irregularities.
No other company is close to commercially offering this kind of service, in–process, to the standard that Sigma Labs is with PrintRite3D™. This function is incredibly important in rolling out mass production in a format that is incredibly technical and inherently unstable and the fact that it is in-process leads to great time saving advantages too. Look at the new MetalFab1, which will incorporate PrintRite3D™ (Mark has said so, the website indicates so, the system fact sheet suggests so), it is built round the concept of increasing the in-process work the machine does.
Mark and Vivek have long suggested they would like to, and are aiming for, PrintRite3D™ to be a market standard. If two major adopters of industrial scale AM are using it and forcing it on their suppliers then there is a good chance it could be. Especially when there is no competition. Honeywell and GE have spent years testing, and building WITH Sigma, PrintRite3D™ modules. Any new player would have to undergo rigorous testing over a similar period of time, and improve upon the science that these guys from Los Alamos have been working on for 20 odd years with Americas top National Laboratory.
Wether Sigma becomes a national standard, or even an international standard I am not going to guess. What I do know is that between now and there there will be a lot more PrintRite3D™ units sold as the manufacturers and supply chain co’s start to invest in AM as the way forward. The genius to me is that Sigma is working from the top down. It’s working from GE, Honeywell, America Makes, EWI down. The uptake from supply chain to these top tier companies/institutions will be forced upon them (as mark suggested, a pull effect). This top down viral adoption can be very powerful when a new industrial process gets going.
I am probably boring you now, but it’s important new investors realize the potential of this technology. It is not happening today, it’s not happening tomorrow, but if you have the patience to enjoy the rewards of all the back end work Sigma and its partners have been doing over the last 2-3 years you could be very, very well rewarded indeed. This technology is spreading rapidly, across many, many organizations, yet this particular aspect is rapidly being cornered by PrintRite3D™
