Description

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Pouches/Can: 24
Net weight (g): 19,2
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Description

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Size and Weight

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#Industry News

DOE Confirms Fusion Energy Milestone at California Lab

The first nuclear fusion reaction to result in a net energy gain has been successfully completed by scientists at a laboratory in California, a milestone in the decades-long pursuit of a way to produce unlimited energy with no carbon emissions or nuclear waste.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm made the official announcement Dec. 13 during a news conference at the Dept. of Energy (DOE) in Washington, D.C. Granholm confirmed the news that was first reported Sunday, when news outlets including POWER cited sources that said researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on Dec. 5 had produced a fusion reaction that created more energy than it consumed.

Granholm on Tuesday said the fusion experiment at the NIF replicated “certain conditions that are only found in the stars and sun.” Officials said the results of the Dec. 5 reaction needed to be analyzed and peer reviewed before an official announcement of the breakthrough, which is why it was not immediately publicized.

Said Granholm: “Ignition allows us to replicate for the first time certain conditions that are only found in the stars and sun. This milestone moves us one significant step closer to the possibility of zero carbon abundant fusion energy powering our society. This is what it looks like for America to lead, and we’re just getting started. If we can advance fusion energy, we could use it to produce clean electricity, transportation fuels, power, heavy industry and so much more.”

Nuclear power experts applauded Tuesday’s announcement, while acknowledging that progress in showing conceptual viability for fusion is just another stop on what most if not all think is a long scientific, technical, and financial road to commercializing this long-elusive technology.

“Today’s announcement from U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm marks a new milestone, decades in the making, in the tradition of American-led energy innovations,” said Josh Freed, senior vice president for the Climate and Energy Program. “The fusion breakthrough shows the vitality and dynamism in the U.S. clean energy ecosystem. Policymakers should lean into investments in innovation to supercharge technological breakthroughs across a suite of technologies that will be critical to reaching net zero. Each advance that we make in these areas of research creates strategic benefits that will boost U.S. competitiveness globally and spur economic growth domestically.

Freed continued: “American national laboratories have always reached for the stars, and today’s announcement exemplifies that is not just theoretical, but achievable. That’s worth celebrating.”

Engineering Marvel

“This is very important because from an energy perspective, it can’t be an energy source if you’re not getting out more energy than you’re putting in,” Julio Friedmann, chief scientist at Carbon Direct and a former chief energy technologist at Lawrence Livermore, told CNN. “Prior breakthroughs have been important but it’s not the same thing as generating energy that could one day be used on a larger scale.”

White House Office of Science and Technology Director Dr. Arati Prabhakar said during Tuesday’s news conference: “This is an amazing example of America’s enterprise … I want to congratulate the entire Dept. of Energy under Secretary Granholm’s leadership.” Prabhakar called the fusion net energy reaction “an engineering marvel.”

Said Prabhakar: “It’s a century since we figured out it was fusion that was going on in our sun and all the other stars. And in that century, it took so many different kinds of advances that ultimately came together to the point that we could replicate that fusion activity in a laboratory.”

Jill Hruby, under secretary for Nuclear Security for the DOE, and National Nuclear Security Administration administrator, said that “going forward,” the work on fusion will have further “breakthroughs” and “setbacks.” Hruby said her agency’s work is focused on “promoting national security” while “pushing towards … a clean energy future.” She called Tuesday’s announcement “unprecedented” for the scientific community.

The Process of Fusion

The process of fusion works when nuclei of two atoms are subjected to extreme heat of more than 100 million degrees Celsius—that’s 180 million degrees Fahrenheit. This causes the atoms to fuse into a new larger atom, which gives off massive amounts of energy. It’s the same process that powers the sun and the stars.

The process, though, also consumes enormous amounts of energy. A goal of fusion scientists has been to make the process self-sustaining, and most importantly to get more energy out of the process than it uses—hence, to produce net energy. It’s also a goal for the process to work continuously, instead of just for brief moments.

Reaching those goals could lead to commercialization of fusion, which industry experts have said could happen within the next decade, though they acknowledge it could take longer. What has many researchers excited is the potential to create essentially an unlimited supply of carbon-free energy, which could help fight climate change—and do it without the nuclear waste produced by today’s fission reactors.

“The fact that we were able to get more energy out than we put in provides an existence proof that this is possible,” said Mark Herrmann, program director for weapons physics and design at the Livermore lab. “It can be built on and improved upon and made better and could potentially be a source of energy in the future.”

Many Steps Needed

Successfully producing net energy, though, is just one of many steps needed to deliver the promise of fusion. The energy produced by fusion would need to be harvested, and then transferred to the power grid as electricity. Many scientists, even after Tuesday’s announcement, still say it will take years (some say decades) before fusion would be able to produce unlimited amounts of clean energy.

Tony Roulstone, a nuclear engineer at Cambridge University in the UK, told NPR (National Public Radio) that unless more significant progress is made, fusion would be unlikely to have a major role in power generation for another 40 to 50 years.

“I think the science is great,” said Roulstone, who has done an economic analysis of fusion power. “We don’t really know what the power plant would look like.”

Irina Tsukerman, a geopolitical analyst and president of Scarab Rising, a New York-based advisory company, told POWER that “fusion research needs better PR [public relations]. It is extremely underrated. So far, most of the energy-related focus has been on climate-related applications, such as carbon emission reduction. There is not a wide commercial awareness of potential fusion applications … so there is no significant private sector incentive to devote resources to that type of research, when the overall social push lies with other types of energy.”

Tsukerman said “stereotypes related to nuclear energy research in general” also have been a limiting factor for investment in fusion research. “If fusion is seen as ‘sexy’, safe, and spreading, it will take off just as anything that is seen as trendy and exciting has done up until now.” She continued: “There is also a great need for non-government actors to fund this space and to diversify the research in general.”

Global Research

There are several fusion projects ongoing in the U.S., as well as the UK and Europe. France is home to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, a program in which 35 countries are collaborating. Those countries include the U.S., China, the European Union, Russia, South Korea, Japan, and India.

Much of the work in the U.S. is happening at the NIF at Lawrence Livermore, in a massive, 10-story-tall building the size of three U.S. football fields. The NIF opened in 2009, but many officials questioned the billions of dollars being poured into the project, which is researching what’s called “thermonuclear inertial fusion.” Scientists fire pellets containing hydrogen fuel (with two isotopes of hydrogen) into an array of 192 lasers, which essentially creates a series of very fast, repeated explosions at a rate of 50 times per second. The energy collected from the resulting neutrons and alpha particles is extracted as heat, as the isotopes of hydrogen fuse together and release massive amounts of energy.

“Unlike coal, you only need a small amount of hydrogen, and it is the most abundant thing found in the universe,” said Friedmann in his comments to CNN. “Hydrogen is found in water so the stuff that generates this energy is wildly unlimited and it is clean.”

In August 2021, physicists at Lawrence Livermore were able to “ignite” the hydrogen inside the capsule, which created a self-sustaining burn. Riccardo Betti, the chief scientist of the laboratory for laser energetics at the University of Rochester in New York, told NPR that the process is analogous to lighting gasoline. “You start with a little spark, and then the spark gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and then the burn propagates through.”

Researchers with the ITER project, and scientists in the UK, are working with tokamaks, large circular machines outfitted with giant magnets, to produce the same result as their U.S. counterparts. The tokamak confines plasma using magnetic fields in a donut shape that scientists call a torus. After fuel is put into a tokamak, its magnets are turned on. The temperatures inside are raised exponentially to create plasma. The plasma must reach at least 150 million degrees Celsius, which is 10 times hotter than the core of the sun. The neutrons then escape the plasma, hitting a so-called “blanket” lining the walls of the tokamak, and transferring their kinetic energy as heat.

 

#Product Trends

Disinfecting lamp

Uvio is a UVC germicidal disinfecting lamp that mounts to the top of any computer monitor.

The light shines onto the desktop for two hours every night to disinfect the keyboard, mouse and primary work area so they’re sanitized and virus-free for the next day’s use. Uvio is activated through a centrally controlled, programmable encrypted WiFi app, which users set up one time to actuate all Uvio lights in the organization.

UVIO

Home

New York Bridal Fashion Week: the trade show

The Knot COUTURE lets me really interact with the gowns and the
designers. I get to touch and feel the fabric and really see the
gorgeous details up close. And my favorite part is talking to the
designers and hearing their inspiration behind the collection.

Event profile New York Bridal Fashion Week

• Industries: Brides, Wedding dresses, Fashion catwalks, Fashion
• Frequency: anual
• Scope: Nacional

Next edition New York Bridal Fashion Week

• From Tuesday 11 to Thursday 13 April 2023
• Venue:
  2684-2690 Gold Coast Hwy
• City: New York
• Country: United States
• More info.: fashionweekonline.com

New York Bridal Fashion Week editions

New York Bridal Fashion Week 2023	From 11 to 13 April 2023
New York Bridal Fashion Week 2020	From 18 to 20 April 2020
New York Bridal Fashion Week 2019	From 6 to 8 October 2019
New York Bridal Fashion Week 2018	From 7 to 9 October 2018

Mitteldeutsche Mode Messe: the trade show

The Central German Fashion Fair in combination with the MMC Kids Collections under the umbrella of MMC Mitteldeutsches Modecenter brand.

Event profile Mitteldeutsche Mode Messe

• Industries: Clothing, Fashion
• Frequency: semestral
• Scope: Nacional

Next edition Mitteldeutsche Mode Messe

• From Saturday 10 to Sunday 18 February 2024
• Venue:
  Globana Trade Center Leipzig/Halle
• City: Schkeuditz
• Country: Germany

Mitteldeutsche Mode Messe editions

Mitteldeutsche Mode Messe February 2024	From 10 to 18 February 2024	Globana Trade Center Leipzig/Halle
Mitteldeutsche Mode Messe August 2023	6 August 2023	Globana Trade Center Leipzig/Halle
Mitteldeutsche Mode Messe February 2022	From 5 to 7 February 2022	MMC Mitteldeutsches Mode Center
Mitteldeutsche Mode Messe November 2021	5 November 2021	MMC Mitteldeutsches Mode Center

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Cuba Light Ninja Ice Cool 4mg – A fresh kick of minty coolness and ice with a nicotine content of 4mg/pouch ensure an smooth snus experience.

The Cuba Ninja collection has 25 nicotine pouches per can and is therefore excellent value for money. The softness of the pouches, moisture and pH levels ensure a balanced nicotine experience. Cuba is also available in stronger nicotine strenghts.

FACTS

Net Weight: 13g
Nicotine: 6,15 mg/g (4mg per pouch)
Flavour: Mint
Pouches: 25 / can
Pouch size: Slim
Available in: Single cans, Rolls (10 cans)
Manufacturer: NiccoTobacco EU

Today’s companies have more options than ever to manufacture parts from almost any materials. And when it comes to producing parts from plastics, most end up opting for either injection molding and 3D printing.

While the 3D printing option is generally more well-known because of its availability to even consumer-level users, the injection molding market is much larger as of today. It’s worth almost 260 billion dollars and dwarfs the market size of 3D printing, which is just 16 million in 2020.

But in reality, these two processes aren’t necessarily competitors, as both of them fill their own valuable niches and have unique advantages in certain situations. Although both can sometimes produce similar results, the process that they use for manufacturing is quite different.

So, to help you better understand how both of them work, their most common applications, as well as the advantages and disadvantages that they offer, let’s dig deep into everything you need to know about injection molding vs. 3D printing.

The Basic Principles

Before we can start breaking down the differences in injection molding vs. 3D printing, we must first understand the basic principles behind each of these processes.

And unsurprisingly, since both primarily deal with plastic, there are quite a few similarities as well.

For instance, both are very accurate and can take even intricate designs and produce flawless parts. That means that they can be used in industries like aerospace and medicine, where even the slightest error is not allowed.

What’s more, both are excellent if you need to produce and test out various prototypes of parts at a lower cost, which is essential as you are refining your products or testing their capabilities.

In the end, both can produce a similar result and even have overlapping functionality. Still, the way that they get there is where you will find the biggest differences.

So let’s explore the basic principles of both.

Injection Molding

As you might guess from the name, injection molding uses molds to create complex shapes from plastic materials.

The necessary plastic materials are mixed in a barrel, where they are melted into liquid form. Then, they are injected into the mold, with pressure forcing it to take the exact shape of the mold, to the very last detail.

After that, the material is allowed to solidify by lowering the temperature, beginning the production of the next part. The process takes very little time, so it’s possible to produce a lot of parts quickly.

But before the process can begin, you will need to design and create the injection mold itself, which is actually the most challenging part of the entire process.

In fact, depending on how complex the part that you want to create, designing an injection mold that meets the requirements can take weeks or even months. Therefore, you should work with an experienced company that has a refined injection molding process and can cut down on the time that is needed.

There are also considerations that you will need to make in terms of hard tooling vs. soft tooling for injection molding, with soft tooling being more suitable for low production runs, and hard tooling being better for large-scale production.

3D Printing

If the injection molding process centers around shaping plastic until it meets the dimensions and requirements of the part, 3D printing takes an entirely different approach, building up objects layer by layer until they take the necessary shape.

The plastic material is added on to the previous layer and is then immediately bound, ensuring structural integrity and the ability to withstand various external pressures.

Because of the way that 3D printing works, it allows producing even the most complex shapes, including inner holes, crevices, or unusual forms, as long as they don’t compromise the integrity of the piece.

Some of the industries that utilize 3D printing include sports, aerospace, automotive, and even the reconstruction of old artifacts.

Just like in the injection molding process, there are steps that need to be taken before the process can begin. Namely, you need to design the part through CAD software and prepare the machine for the specific print job. But with 3D, the process is typically shorter and allows testing out different options relatively quickly.

Pros & Cons

So, by now, we’ve established that both processes are quite similar, but also have fundamental differences in the way that they work. So, which one is better?

Well, let’s look at some of the main pros and cons of both to figure that out.

Injection Molding Pros & Cons

Pros

• Efficiency. Using injection molding, you can produce large quantities of parts in a relatively short amount of time, especially when you already have a mold design that you can work with.
• Large Scale Production. Because the injection molding process is so quick, you can realistically produce millions of parts fast and at an affordable cost, given that your services provider has sufficient equipment.
• Durability. The parts that are made using injection molding have strong structural integrity and can be additionally reinforced by combining different plastics or by adding fillers into the liquid resin.
• Cost-Effectiveness. Once the mold design is refined, the cost of every part is very low, which is why many companies use it for mass production.
• Superior Detail. Even though the process is affordable, injection molding remains one of the most accurate production methods, allowing to create complex parts and ensuring that tight tolerances are met every time.
• Minimal Waste. Because of the unique injection molding process, little or no plastic remains unused, which means that there’s almost no waste of materials, further improving the effectiveness of the method.

Cons

• Limitations. Even though the injection molding process is quite versatile, it does have its limitations. Certain angles are more difficult to execute correctly, and the complexity of your project will largely depend on how experienced, capable, and knowledgeable the company you’re working with is.
• Complicated Mold Creation. Before you can start production, you need to design and create the mold, which is basically an inversion of your part. That process isn’t easy, and you might run into various hiccups along the way, so be prepared to spend weeks or months before you can start using it. And if a mold comes out wrong, you will have to replace it, which will eat up even more time and resources.
• Higher Upfront Costs. You probably wouldn’t find a cheaper production method than injection molding once the process starts, but the initial expense of designing the mold can add up quickly. Therefore, it doesn’t always make sense for small-scale production, although it has been successfully used for prototyping as well.

3D Printing Pros & Cons

Pros

• Simple Adjustments. Since you don’t need a mold for producing parts with 3D printing, making adjustments to the digital design of the piece is simple. If something isn’t working as you’d like, just try a different approach, and you can see the results almost immediately.
• Low Upfront Costs. Unlike injection molding, 3D printing doesn’t require a significant upfront investment because everything up until the production itself takes place digitally, on special software platforms.
• Complex designs. Because of the layer-on-layer method of 3D printing, it can produce intricate shapes, including crevices and holes, which is an advantage in some instances.

Cons

• Small Part Size. One of the biggest drawbacks of using injection molding software is the relatively smaller size of the parts that you can create. The layering process has its limitations in terms of scaling, which will be hard to overcome. Sure, the biggest 3D printer in the world recently printed a boat, but usually, you’ll be looking at smaller dimensions.
• Imperfections. While the layering method is effective in some regards, it is also prone to produce imperfections during the manufacturing process. That’s especially true for the surface, which can often come out ridged and a bit uneven.
• Slow Production. Finally, no matter how you look at it, 3D printing just isn’t as efficient as what the injection molding process can offer. As you can imagine, layering the plastic materials takes time to produce even a single part, not to mention trying to create hundreds, thousands, or millions.

How to Choose the Right Option

Even though both approaches have their drawbacks, each also has unique strengths, which make them ideally suited for specific situations.

If you need to do large production runs at an affordable price, you can’t go wrong with injection molding. Meanwhile, 3D printing provides you with more flexibility and the ability to tweak your designs quickly.

If you don’t have a lot of time and need parts now, 3D printing will do better. But if you’ll eventually need to scale, it makes much more sense to opt for the injection molding process, as the initial time you spend will be made up for in the later production stages.

Since there are so many deciding factors that can influence your decision, it makes sense to talk with an experienced company that provides both services and can help you figure out the best approach for your needs.

At 3ERP, we have a team of specialists who can answer all of your questions and offer the most cost-effective course of action that delivers on our requirements.

After all, this is a big decision, so it makes sense to take your time and explore your options carefully.

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Xometry was founded on the principles of problem-solving. In this podcast, "The Future of Manufacturing" with Macro Micro Michael Marco and Startups at the Edge (M4Edge), Xometry CEO Randy Altschuler takes a deeper dive into Xometry's business model and how its modernization of the manufacturing industry solves age-old problems. He discusses how Xometry fundamentally changes the manufacturing ecosystem through big data, machine learning, and its network of manufacturing partners.

Randy shares how Xometry can:

• Resolve inefficiencies related to time, geographic constraints, and under or overcapacity
• Deliver quality through process management
• Increase capacity utilization to benefit both the consumer and manufacturer
• Allow manufacturers to invest more in their capital by creating confidence in the level of customer demand

Randy also shares how he hopes to eventually expand Xometry to global markets and factor in the environmental costs of manufacturing in its algorithms. Listen to the full podcast recording here.

A transcript of the interview

Marco: Hi, I am Marco Annunziata and welcome to M4Edge. Michael, what's the long name again? 

Michael: The short name is M4Edge and the long name is is Macro Micro Michael Marco and Startups at the Edge. I'm Michael Leifman and today our guest is Randy Altschuler of Xometry. In case you're wondering, that's Xometry with an X.

Marco: Xometry combines two business models that have come to define our new industrial age. One of them is all the rage lately: AAS, or as a service, as in SAAS, or software as a service. In Xometry's case, MAAS, manufacturing as a service.

Michael: XAAS, anything as a service, is the generic term. The idea is that instead of buying a good, you purchase the services the good delivers when you need them. Some examples have been around for a long time, like renting a car, but the trend is now becoming widespread. Xometry allows companies to leverage existing manufacturing capacity instead of getting new parts to get the parts they need rather than having to invest in additional manufacturing equipment of their own. But other than in rare cases, Xometry is not the manufacturer, but is a match maker between customers and suppliers.

Marco: And here is where the second business model comes in: the platform. Xometry provides a platform; the means to link people or companies that want something produced with companies that are able to produce it. It's like a hyper-efficient market—an economist's dream. It is not too dissimilar from what Amazon does, linking buyers and sellers, or Uber and Lyft, linking riders and drivers. But there's more. 

Michael: Hopefully there's more because if you guys only dream of hyper-efficient markets, then you're not looking for life. (Laughs) Part of Xometry's secret sauce is in its machine learning algorithms. That is, Xometry is not Ebay for manufacturing with bids and offers. Xometry figures out what the thing should cost. Its data and algorithms come up with the prices. So, what does it mean for the economy? Lots.

Marco: Probably a lot more than I can dream of. Xometry enables greater production through better utilization of the existing manufacturing capacity. And by connecting large numbers of users, it can yield greater efficiency and lower prices. 

Michael: And by increasing capacity utilization on production lines, we are maximizing the overall productivity of capital and labor. But these business models are also changing something else fundamental: the geography of production. The platform is a service model that theoretically knows no borders. So, if you only had access or thought you only had access to a local, narrow geographic area, or were only aware of certain producers, suddenly you have access to a broad network and supply chain, or a broad customer market.

Marco: This is one of those things that has the potential for exponential change in the economy, and major players are noticeable. In the days since we recorded the interview, BMW announced that they've designated Xometry as a Tier 1 supplier.

Michael: Oh yeah, and did we mention they do 3D printing as well? There's a lot here. Xometry is definitely at the edge. Welcome to M4Edge and enjoy the episode.

Marco: Absolutely. Randy, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. We are very excited to talk to you. Both Michael and I have a background in manufacturing so we are very excited about what you are doing, but why don't you start off by telling us and our listeners what Xometry does, how you came up with the idea, and what is the purpose or what problem are you trying to solve? Or as I normally put it, why on earth are you doing this?

Randy: Yes, and thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I'm very excited to be here. We have this unique opportunity in the United States and around the world where hundreds of billions of dollars of manufacturing are being done by small manufacturers, and they're spread out across our country here and across the world. For these manufacturers, the long tail of the internet hasn't quite reached them. So, we've described them as being landlocked. They're sometimes second, third generation businesses. They have a dozen to 20 customers they've had for a long time, all in a local area, and that is the heart of their business. When those customers are busy, they're very busy. But when those customers aren't busy, they aren't busy either. They have a lot of free capacity. These companies have a small amount of marketing and sales efforts. Maybe they have a website, but often they have almost no online presence. And their capability—their skill—is largely hidden from all of the other potential customers around the country or around the world. We describe it as having "stranded capacity." And the internet, which has allowed so many small retailers to access customers everywhere, doesn't touch these manufacturers. On the flip side, if you're a customer, there's no central best place for you to find a manufacturer to make your parts. You too have your own supply chain, but it's limited to your own experiences. As new manufacturing technologies get introduced—it could be 3D printing, a new kind of molding, and all sorts of innovations happening—you don't really know, "Is that the best way to make my parts?" What are the decisions, what are the tradeoffs of these different technologies because you have your usual set of suppliers who have their usual set of skills. You don't really know in an automated, digital way how to access these new technologies you're reading all about. So in some ways, business is very analog. So with Xometry, we're trying to bring it into the new age and create a platform that connects buyers and sellers of manufacturing. And our proprietary technology helps create pricing and an entire ecosystem that enables those buyers and sellers to interact and create custom parts. 

Michael: So can you talk more about what a typical use case would look like? How does the process work? Maybe if there's a customer whose story you feel comfortable telling, take us through the idea of someone reaching out through you to a supplier on the other end.

Randy: Sure, so a good example would be BMW. BMW will come to us to make parts in their production line, parts that are used as service parts in a car. These are typically small-volume parts that have quick turn times. They don't hold a lot of inventory of these parts. So they'll come to our platform, they'll upload 3D CAD files— 

Michael: 3D CAD file? That's three dimensional computer-aided design and drafting file. It's the software encoding of the instructions for how to produce something: what the geometry of the part is, what the materials should be, the processes, the dimensions, the tolerances, et cetera. It's the computer engineering drawing for how a part should be built.

Randy: And our technology, which we use artificial intelligence, will produce a price and a lead time for them. And we'll also tell them and show them, in real time, the tradeoffs of different manufacturing technologies because it turns out there are a lot of different ways to make a certain part. Some may be cheaper, some may be faster, some may give you tighter tolerances so it's more exact. Some may have different types of surface finishes, some may have certain material properties. With our platform, they can instantly see all the pros and cons of these different technologies in real time. So BMW can come to our site and upload these files, choose that technology they want, and see the delivery date. There's also what's called post-processing—things they need to make the part usable in a production environment or end-use environment—and then they can buy. You can either purchase with a credit card or if you're a company, you can pay with a purchase order. You never have to talk to anyone on the phone, you don't have to go visit the factory, you don't have to think about how this guy can do that and this guy can do this; it's not a mix and match. No, it's all there for you in one place, like when you want to shop for things on Amazon, anything you can think of is there and you can press buy. It's not hypothetical, it's real. It's a real window into the pricing and lead times and capacity that's available in manufacturing today in the United States. Boom, you buy, and then with our algorithms, we match that order with the best suppliers available. And we use these matching algorithms to pick the right supplier and there's lot of characteristics that factor into that. And then we create a price for them and we marry those two prices. Xometry is the person who is connecting the buyers and sellers, and the transaction is made, and then we monitor the production of those parts. (12:28)

Michael: I'm going to tell a little story that I told you, Randy, when we first spoke on the phone. Going back before XAAS, or everything as a service, was anywhere in the common parlance and long before Xometry was started, I read a New Yorker article in 2004, 2005 about a company called Office Tiger. I was obsessed with this story—it was so cool—it was about a company that basically invented the idea of business process outsourcing. It was something I was really struck by. Fast forward to 2006 when you and I first spoke and I did a little bit of googling around—who was this Randy Altschuler guy? All of a sudden this article comes up from 2004 and lo and behold, you're that guy. It was sort of a cool moment for me and I'm wondering, Office Tiger is similar to Xometry, right? You're linking buyers and consumers through a platform in a way that hadn't really been done before. And so, how much of that background of Office Tiger played into your view of how or why you built Xometry? 

Randy: You know, the concept behind connecting buyers and finding the optimal solutions for customers and, in the case of Office Tiger, it was about skills, it was about location, it was scale. So it was a different set of considerations but it was still the same theme of, how do I make things a better way? In this case, it was a more of a service model, but it was, "how do I provide these services in a better way?" The mission of Xometry at the end of the day is for both the buyer and seller to find the optimal match. So for the buyer, "What's the best way to make this?" And not only "What's the best way?" but "Who's the best one to make it for me?" And likewise for the sellers, a big challenge for manufacturers is they're being asked to quote and do work that doesn't fit into their sweet spot, because the customers aren't educated enough. So if you're a manufacturer, you like to cut metal. You actually like to manufacture it. You don't want to waste time quoting parts or on administrative stuff, so if we can knock that out for you, that's really great. And a similar concept with Office Tiger is the sense of, and in this case, with removing any boundary of nationality and saying, "Hey, we're going to find for you anywhere in the world, whether it's in India, whether it's in Salt Lake City, whether it's in Poland, we're going to find that optimal solution for you." I think that's a common theme—that we're becoming more and more of a globally linked country and economy. I think that theme resonates with Xometry and there's a lot of efficiency there. There's a lot of inefficiency because traditionally, you're not finding the best matches between the buyer and seller. 

(15:00)

Marco: And Randy, you were saying earlier that the key to building credibility is to show you can get it done, especially since you're not doing it yourself. So how does the vetting process for the manufacturing companies work? How do you find them and how do you make sure that they have the capacity and the quality? 

Randy: What's exciting in terms of finding them is that they've found us. We have a lot of people on staff who come from a manufacturing background and, you know, there are facebook groups of machinists—they're all over and it's a whole community. They love to watch videos of people cutting parts and actually machining. I mean, there are tens of thousands of them who do that. 

Michael: Sounds fun.

Randy: Yeah, my son watches other people play video games on his iPad. He watches other people do it. So since it's been coming to us by word of mouth, the vetting process is really important, particularly because a large portion of our customers are aerospace, defense, automotive, industrial, and medical devices. I mean, really important stuff that's in the sky, on the ground, it's in your body. So first here is the online vetting portion, there's the interview portion, then there's a test, which Xometry pays for. So we'll give you test parts and we'll pay the supplier to do that. And then there's the portion of time where all the work will, before it's sent to the end customer, it'll come back to the Xometry facility and it will be tested and be approved before it goes to the end user. So that's an extra cost, but we don't feel comfortable until the partner—we call our manufacturers, "partners"—until they reach a certain point of credibility—they have a certain score we generate—we don't feel comfortable that they can direct ship. And then we also tightly control how much work that partner can take and for what kinds of work. It's all done in an automated way using an algorithm since we do too much volume to do that sort of thing by hand to get lost. But there are a strict set of rules that dictate who can do what when and as you graduate that process—sometimes they never graduate—but if they graduate through that process we're more comfortable with saying, "Hey, it can go directly from you to the customer." Or, "You're good enough to do this very precise part or this very quick-turn part"—you know, all these different gates they need to go through.

(17:19)

Michael: I recall—I don't know if it's still part of the Xometry business model—but I recall you guys also had your own manufacturing facility in case you couldn't match a supplier with a consumer's product demands. Is that still a part of how you do things?

Randy: Yeah, so we consider it more of our lab. When we started our business, to get the data going—we needed to capture some data—and we need to, as I was alluding to before, have some manufacturing experts. We built our own little machine shop, we built our own 3D printing facility, and we learned a lot from that. But that also makes us more credible with our suppliers. We can say, "Hey, I have actual machinists here. I know what you're going through." So we still have that facility. It's an extremely small part of our network and it's less about backup more than about credibility, testing, learning, and eating your own dog food. If we're going to be rolling out a new feature to our suppliers, would we, as a supplier, want this feature? Now if our guys hate it, why would we expect our suppliers to like it? So that helps us a lot. And I think there are other folks who aredoing different elements of the space, and I think having the manufacturing chops is important. I think it helps influence your product development but it's also important for the credibility you get with your suppliers and your customers. 

Michael: Are there other things you think distinguish Xometry from the other players in the space? I've noticed you're no longer alone.

Randy: There are a couple of things from the customer side. We want to be your one-stop shop. And then on the supplier's side, it's about—this I can't really talk about yet, because we haven't introduced it—it's about things we can do to make our suppliers better. So part of our pitch is to go to BMW and say, "Listen, you may even have one of our partners on your network, and they may already be a supplier to you, but working with Xometry, they're better. If you access them through our platform, they're going to do better for you than if they did it on their own. I can't detail exactly how we're going to do that, but that's part of our mission to make our suppliers better suppliers.

Michael: Quality-wise or price-wise? Can you divulge any of that?

Randy: We want to make them more profitable, we want to make them faster, and we want to make them more accurate. We want everything that's good for them and the customer. This is a rare marketplace where both sides can win. Often, in a marketplace, you're pushing down a supplier's price to satisfy the buyer. In this case, there's so much inefficiency in the market, and there are so many tools we can bring to bear, we can actually make it cheaper for the customer and more profitable for the supplier. 

Marco: Let's stay on the concept of this being a win-win situation for both manufacturers and the customers, which I like a lot. You started out the conversation by pointing out that, from the point of the manufacturers, they have spare capacity that they can better utilize through Xometry. Talk a little more about the users and why they choose Xometry as a platform. Is it mostly for prototypes, is it to complement their supply chain, do they use it as an additional form of their supply chain? I'm interested because especially when you see companies like BMW or GE, which have large-scale supply chains, you wonder what is it that Xometry can offer them?

Randy: Yeah, so we're not a contractor manufacturer. When you look at a Fortune 500 or a Fortune 50 company—and we have a lot of those in our customer base—they're going to be doing contract manufacturing. They're going to build a one-to-one relationship that their integration into their supply chain is going to be seamless. We're not going to disrupt that market that's very efficient. We don't want to add noise to that. We don't want to add friction to something that's become as frictionless as possible. There's always innovation but it's pretty darn good, and there's lot of tools out there, lots of software tools and tried and true methods to make that better. But there's a huge subset in the United States of the 80 billion dollar segment of parts that are ordered in low volume that are not end-use production parts. And it's that market that's incredibly inefficient where the procurement person at BMW sends out an email, even if it's an automated email, to 35 suppliers and says, "Hey, here's the specs of what I want, come back to me before XYZ date with your response." They gotta call people, follow-up, answer questions. They gotta do all this work, and after a bunch of days and a bunch of costs, they'll finally have some bids. We are effectively an instant RFQ with our system. You don't need to do all that. Our algorithms are instantly telling you what the best market price is today, and if Xometry is successful, our best market price is better than the best price you could ever get even if you do get that 30-person RFQ. And we do that in a given day. That's really important to the customer. And for the procurement professional, who's our friend, their ability to scale and their ability to get better lead times and solutions without doing all the manual leg work that's required today, even if they have a fancy ERP and procurement system—

Michael: That's an Enterprise Resource Planning System. It's a system that allows manufacturers to track in one place all of the prices, bids, quotes—everything in their manufacturing supply chain—all the material, all the labor, all in one place.

(23:00)

Randy: —but that's really not germane in these instances—that's a win for them. 

Michael: I want to go back to this. I've been sort of itching to ask this since the beginning when you said you have this AI algorithm that comes up with the price. So it's not actually a bidding system, right, it's not as if you've got manufacturers on one side, saying, I can do it for X and another guy saying I'm going to do X minus one, or whatever. It's the algorithm itself doing the bidding. 

Randy: It couldn't be instant if that were the case. So I don't have time to pull my network and say, Hey, Michael just quoted these parts. What do you guys think?" My customer will be waiting around. So I need to find a way to give you an instant price. My algorithms basically are a instant poll and say, "Hey, I know what suppliers have done these parts, kinds of parts like this before for what price, I know who likes to do it at this price. I know what's the right price. You know what I can get this done at, what the lead time will look like, etc." That's the goal I'm going to return to the customer. And that's good of the magic of Xometry because using AI, we've gone very wide if you actually tried to do a cost plus model; then you would never be able to scale the size which AI could do so quickly. It would be extremely slow—we're trying to figure out tool paths and exactly how it was made and, on the flip side, if you wanted to actually get real bidding data, it wouldn't be instant. So the beauty of AI is to mimic that bidding process in real time. 

Michael: How did you get the data to train the model to begin with, since so little of that building data is ever disclosed? Very little of that as public. How did you how did you train the model? 

Randy: We just built and are building the data. It's just running parts, getting data—we acquired a company called MakeTime, one of our competitors based in Lexington, Kentucky a couple months ago and so they accumulated a lot of data. So it's just through different means. But it's all data that we or MakeTime have accumulated ourselves. 

Michael: I assume it continually trains when a guy accepts a bid or whatever. I assume that the model reinforces its knowledge?

Randy: It does. So we need more—the more data we have, the more we train our models and the smarter they get. So, a lot of it is about scale and and the number of transactions we can run. Those are all incredibly important data points for us. Think about the more people are on Google, the better and the more accurate the search results become, right?

(24:30)

Michael: So, sorry to harp on this a little bit, but if you've got either an unusual product or a new product, what's the track record on how accurate you are based on the expectations of the consumer?

Randy: Oh, we'll eat it. We have a portfolio approach to our pricing. Sometimes, to your point, Michael, we'll see something we've never seen before—the system won't have seen it and it will misidentify or won't really know how to handle it. It will spit out a price and a lead time. Now, if the price and lead time, unfortunately, are too expensive and too long, the customer won't order so we don't win their business, which I always like. But that's better than what usually happens, which is it's too good and it underestimates what the true cost is and/or maybe it says it's going to happen faster and that's when we have to eat it. We say, "Dave, you come to the site and you order something that's $1,000." Well, actually, our software hasn't seen this before and it's misclassified it. It's really a $4,000 part. I mean, I'm eating $3,000, you know? Big tasty sandwich. Not tasty, but—

Michael: [laughs] Right, right. So you take all the downside risk, but because if the price is too high, it doesn't get bought. You know, you get the upside risk.

Randy: That's right. So you see the margin on what we do. It's focused in a nice healthy place but there are tails on both sides. Both, some parts where we get really oversized margins, but there's a downside as well, where, hey, we don't have enough data. We haven't learned about this yet, we've got it wrong and it misidentified it. As time goes on, and we do more and more of those parts, and as our system gets smarter and smarter, we're truncating the tails of both sides and it's about getting narrow, narrow books. In the end, we really want to have predictable range for everybody, both their buyers and their sellers, but that takes time. And that's our moat too though. That's why it would be very hard for another company. We talked about competitors, but they don't really use AI to come in and suddenly be able to do that, because you have to have a lot of data and we've had five years plus we've had five years of MakeTime—MakeTime has been around a similar period of time as we have. We get the advantage of all that data we've generated together.

Marco: You should be aware of that whenever we mentioned artificial intelligence, Michael gets excited and suspicious. He has these dystopian nightmares bubbling up his mind. So if we can steer the conversation away from the algorithm for a second, let's talk more about the products or any you were mentioning earlier: aviation, healthcare, defense. Can you tell us a little bit more? Is it mostly intermediate parts, is it mostly industrial products, is it end-user products, or any sector-specific, sector-stronger users than the part of the platform?

Randy: Yeah. So it really ranges and is full spectrum from a quick prototype to an end-use product that a consumer will see. So we're more on on the B2B side. So I'd say that's what distinguishes us. That's why we tend to do higher complexity work because we do a lot in aerospace, defense, automotive. We do more stuff, from assemblies to all post-processing. There is just a lot more work in our products and a lot of our tools are helpful for a professional.

Michael: So let's begin to broaden this a little bit. We just touched on some of the sectors that you produce for. Geographically, you guys are only in the United States only at this point, correct?

(29:00)

Michael: Do you see a future where Xometry is global—where you're able to tap into a more global supplier and consumer base?

Randy: Absolutely. You know, many of our customers are multinationals and are asking us to be in Europe or asking us to be in Asia. And so, absolutely. We need to be where our customers want us to be. For us, the challenge will be building those local networks. And that's important, not only because of the transportation costs and lead time costs, but also because every market's a little bit different. The precision expectations in Asia, in Japan, may be very different than they are in Canada—just for example—but those markets can be somewhat different. And those subtleties are important as we grow global—and eventually Xometry will go global—our platform has to recognize that. It's also a reflection of the kinds of businesses in each of those areas as well. 

Marco: So if I hear you correctly, Randy, you're envisioning going global with a kind of an islands approach that is building local networks of manufacturers to solve the national, regional customers as opposed to having a deeply interconnected global chain. 

(30:22)

Randy: I think it's fine to have a global chain. And I think as we go global, we'd be happy if somebody in America wanted access to a provider in Asia or likewise for an agent to access a provider in the United States. I think there's so much local capacity available and skill available that—and particularly those we're not doing contract manufacturing—I think a lot of that value is much closer than you think it is. And there are advantages to being closer. 

Michael: When you and I had talked earlier regarding some applications of this sort of business model to developing countries, you brought up the important point that you need, for this sort of dispersed business model and production model, you need reliable power, you need roads, you need ports. It's not that you can just build. You can't plop down a factory in the middle of a forest somewhere. So, talk a little bit about that if you still, presumably, feel that way and how you think that limits you or what you think the opportunities are to either build out countries that don't have that infrastructure but have cheap labor costs. How do you see that developing?

Randy: Yeah, I can use an example right here in Maryland. In Maryland, a lot of the power lines are above the ground and, I'm from New York City originally, so, different infrastructure there. So when there are bad storms, our manufacturers lose power. As you mentioned in the beginning, we have our own little manufacturing shop where we'll actually lose power, and that's here in Maryland, in, by the way, Montgomery County, one of the wealthiest counties in the United States. So I was recently speaking at a panel about manufacturing in Maryland and I know the state's pushing hard to get manufacturers to come here and I said, "First order of business, make sure everybody has power." And particularly, when you're thinking about things like 3D printing, getting a power backup is ridiculously expensive. You can't do that. And if you lose power for seconds you can lose hours and hours of build—of manufacturing time on your 3D printer. (Snaps) It's gone. So uninterrupted power supply is critical. Even here in Maryland, it doesn't happen and it's unfortunate. 

(32:50)

Michael: Kind of following the same theme, maybe less hypothetically, but from your current crop of customers, is the pole of extra production what gets the factory that has the slack online or is it the cheaper labor costs in one county or state versus another—what's really at the fulcrum here? Is it the capital costs, is it just the availability of the production line, or is it the labor costs?

Randy: For our customers, it's about getting the parts. They need those parts, and because most of our customers are established businesses, as we alluded to earlier, they start with us because their supply chain failed. Their go-to vendors couldn't get it done, and that's how they first find us. "I can't get it done." They find us on the web. "Okay, let me try this solution." So it starts with a problem, and when we can prove to them that we can get that done, that's when they start coming back to us over and over again and at some point they say, "Wait a minute, maybe it's not just for stuff for my own network projects, maybe it's for more core stuff." For our customers, price is always important and lead time is always important but reliability is certainly the single most important thing, and getting it when you need it. And that's the beauty of having a marketplace versus just doing all manufacturing yourself. You can scale in a way that nobody else can if they're trying to build it all themselves. So with Xometry, you have virtual access to 2,500 manufacturers. That's pretty awesome. Now, the question is how to really deliver on that and how do you make that accessible? That's what Xometry really tries to do but if you can do that, then that's a very appetizing solution for a customer.

(34:30)

Marco: And there is something you mentioned earlier, which I found very, very interesting and very encouraging. When I first found out that your supply chain, your manufacturing base is entirely the US, as an economist I had an immediate negative reaction. I thought, "Oh my god, this is something that will actually encourage more protectionism. It will encourage the breaking down of global supply chains." But our conversation tells me this is not true. You were pointing out you're not contract manufacturers so global manufacturers still need their global supply chains, but at the same time, something you mentioned earlier is that you're creating more demand, more work for manufacturers dispersed across the United States. And therefore, creating more certainty, more demand. And so, possibly more production, more jobs, and more investment. Should we see Xometry as something that can actually strengthen the fabric of manufacturing and job creation across the US?

Marco: One related question is the issue of what happens to capacity utilization. The first point you made is you're creating a system whereby the installed capacity of manufacturers in your supply chain gets greater use. Low capacity utilization is inefficient, but it also provides a cushion to the extent that as capacity utilization increases, there is more the risk that if something goes wrong, there's a spike in demand or a disruption due to a hurricane, you might have more significant problems in the manufacturing chain. How you see this? How you see the impact?

Randy: I don't think that's necessarily the case. In fact, I think it's the opposite. As our suppliers are seeing more business and we're effectively there as SG&A, their sales and marketing engine, they're beginning to buy more equipment; they're beginning to add more capacity. I have to give my manufacturers lot of credit. As I mentioned in the beginning, some of these are second or third or even fourth generation manufacturers. They know you can't run your machines to 100 percent capacity or even 90 percent. I mean there's that comfortable number to take into account. The inevitable problems that occur just because things happen and you can't control Mother Nature. So what I think those manufacturers realize is they're getting more business. "Boy, I probably need to invest more." And we give them the confidence that they can do that, because even if they're in Texas and they've lived and died with oil and gas industry their whole lives, and now they say, "Hey, wait a minute, I can get a whole new stream of business for medical device people in Boston or from a defense contractor in Maryland because Xometry's delivering it. I can go out and buy more equipment."

(38:10)

Marco: So this enforces the point you made earlier that it is a win-win situation. So on the one hand, the users have more confidence and more certainty that they can get their parts when they need them with the right quality, and on the other hand, the manufacturers have now more confidence and more predictability in a higher level of demand and this can, therefore, give them the confidence to invest more and create more capacity.

Randy: That's right. And one of the other benefits we have in our network—so recently we had all this flooding and terrible weather in North Carolina—we were able to take the work that was being done by our North Carolina suppliers and switch it to people in other geographies. From customers' perspective, that was seamless. They didn't see any problems. And from our local partners' perspectives, the burden of having to do work when your shop was underwater, and where it was going to be risking your life to go on the road, but you need to do that, was taken away as well. So it was really a benefit as much as anything can be a benefit when there's natural disaster. But it was a benefit for both the customer and the supplier. With a network where you can distribute work to different places, that enables that to happen. Otherwise you're stuck with that one provider and that's a bad thing for both of you when things go bad. 

Michael: One of the questions I want to make sure I get in is sort of what I'm going to call the the philosophical question of this podcast. When you look at the manufacturing market 15 years from now, 20 years from now—some point that, for a startup, is a very, very far future—how do you see the manufacturing world? You think production as a manufacturing service becomes the dominant form of production? You think it's still sort of niche-y thing? Where do you see this going? How do you see the networks being built out?

(39:54)

Randy: I think it's going to become more and more interconnected. So I think networks are going to be more and more important, and they may be in the shape of what Xometry has, they evolve—I think they always have to evolve—but I think technology is linking that long tail. The internet is reaching manufacturing now and it will forever change and it will—I think in a very positive way—will interconnect us. I also think there's going to be, unfortunately, because of climate change, I think there are going to be some other ships. I think manufacturing's going to have to be more aware of its impact on the environment. I think that's going to dictate what methods of manufacturing technologies themselves start emerging and which ones get throttled back. I think it's going to be different world altogether because of those sorts of trends and manufacturing is going to be front and center of that.

Michael: Can you foresee a moment when Xometry works into its algorithms, the sustainability of the process?  What the emissions are?

Randy: Absolutely. Listen, there is no way that having a ten dollar package shipped overnight via Amazon from somebody far away is good for the environment. There's just no way. And again, our job is to empower and grow all these local businesses, but I think certainly location, carbon footprint, and the impact have to be factored in. It's a true cost. And we've all been in such a hurry. We haven't factored that but it's coming home now. We've got to deal with it.

Michael: This has been great. Randy. Thank you very much. 

Marco: Thank you so much. Good luck.

Randy: Okay. Thank you guys. Good luck.

Serena NgohI write about Xometry and all things manufacturing. You might also see me hosting webinars, designing infographics, producing videos, and working directly with customers to tell their manufacturing success stories.

Read more articles by Serena Ngoh

本教程适用版本：WPS 365 点击免费使用

每个公司都会使用电脑来写文档，经常性的使用Excel来写文档的人，那么为了防止自己辛辛苦苦写出来的文档不被他人盗取，都会为文档设置密码，所以如何在Excel设置打开密码呢？

第一步:打开【Excel】，找到你所需要修改或编辑的Excel文件，然后点击【文件】：

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第二步:点【文件】后下方有个【文档加密】，点开后选择【密码加密】：

 

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第三步:在弹出来的方框里，找到输入密码那一条方框里，输入你自定义的密码，然后点击确定就好了：

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第四步:再次输入你自定义的密码，确定正确就完成了：

>>免费升级到企业版，赠超大存储空间

那么，在Excel表格当中，为Excel文档设置打开密码的方法，是不是非常简单呢，你学会了吗？