“February 2nd is Groundhog day. Google it.
This edition of Additive Manufacturing Strategies summit started right after – with a weird feel of dejavu, like in Groundhog day the movie.
That’s the one where Bill Murray lives the same day all over again.
Some progressive thinking did show up, to the rescue.
I had the great pleasure to host a dinner together with Arno Held, Bonnie Gurney & Mary Cecile Neville, James Hockey (Additive🦄), Alex Kingsbury & Robert Martinsen, respectively at AM Ventures, AMT, Incodema3D, LLC, nLIGHT, Inc.
Invited guests and fellow Listeners wanted to rebel to circular history (back to square each year) and walk on a linear path, towards the future. During my toast I recommended Roman Emperor’s Marcus Aurelius’ lines:
“The obstacle to the action fosters the action. The obstacle on the way becomes the way”.
Denying the obstacle and the action it requires from us is not an option. On the good side: constraints can bring out the best from us – it’s how pioneering works.
More reflection on this point was elaborated with and by Alex Kingsbury, who hosted a panel on M&A and Capital Markets. Announcing the collapsing of hyped words (M&A, anyone?) is probably a precondition to look straight ahead, at the obstacles and beyond them.
Brave stand, Alex!
#AI and AM: is it a match?
Sure, you may not make an AI investment if your printers are largely unutilized (Mac Brown)
Very strong presentation by Gregory Hayes, EOS‘ Additive Minds: some cases brought to the table as possible projects where to invest in AI. In situ monitoring as training data source to optimize parameters setting: fewer iterations needed, lower scrap rate.
In a couple of years, the improvements brought by the adoption of AI in critical aspects of the AM process might even generate a new hype cycle: Danny Piper proposed this scenario and I sense it was played down on many levels, on Day 3. Too bad. We may need to give him credits soon.”
Luigi Alzati
VP Sales and Marketing