Do you have a “Frank” in your company?

“The eternal problem of the machine builder is waiting for parts.”

As an engineer, you can create a complex CAD model in minutes or hours, but the manufacturing process can be… You’ll have to wait weeks or months. We miss product delivery deadlines, new products are delivered late, we miss business opportunities and we can’t compete. Long lead times slow down your company’s ability to innovate, increase time to market and reduce margins. According to the Timex survey, the average person spends about 5 years of their life waiting for things to happen.

So why does it take so long to finish your parts?

That’s “Frank.” Frank works in your workshop or Frank works in a production facility to which you outsource your production. Since the entire parts production is controlled by Frank, he controls when you receive your parts and what the company’s production plan looks like. He tells you what you can or cannot do, and his time to create your CAD model is between 2 and 6 weeks. In the worst case, he is based abroad and will take months to produce your parts. In many cases, internal R&D/factory departments give up and decide to outsource parts manufacturing.

Markforged was founded 5 years ago in Greg Marks’ living room, long lead times forced him to look for a better way to produce stable parts. His dream: to enable engineers to obtain high strength parts quickly. Out of this need came the idea of merging carbon fiber production and 3D printing technology, and Markforged was born.

What about on-demand 3D printing?

Before Markforged, you could make 3D printed plastic parts, but plastic is not strong enough for industrial applications.

Plastic 3D printers produce parts that are weak and prone to breakage in industrial applications, have no tolerances, have poor surface finish and low heat resistance, cannot tolerate machine tool cutting fluids, and are sensitive to chemicals used in the process industry. To bring 3D printing to scale, the industry needed reliable, repeatable processes that would ensure production quality.

„In the end, the part you produce and offer to your customers represents your company.“

Request a demo!

Feel the strength of continuous fiber for yourself.

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The difference of carbon fibres

Markforged has found out how to print continuous filaments in 3D. And made it so affordable that it can be used on the desktop of any engineer. By moving from prototype to functional prototype to develop parts for final use that are as strong as steel, industrial additive manufacturing is rapidly gaining acceptance in the industry. By 3D printing parts that you have previously produced with CNC/milling, you save time and money.

„Now you can enjoy the reliability of CNC parts with the flexibility of 3D printing.“

Markforged’s unique composite reinforcement technology makes printing with the strength of aluminium possible. All our parts have an outer layer of nylon (or onyx), with the possibility of filling the structure and fibre reinforcement. 3D printed parts as stiff and stable as never before!

Stronger than aluminium. Markforged continuous fiber-reinforced parts are in a completely different class than conventional 3D printed plastics. On the left side we see Onyx (our base plastic) and how it behaves towards ABS and Nylon. The same lines can be seen in the graph on the right, but you can see them compressed in the bottom right – that’s because continuous fiber reinforcement is the only way to make a plastic part stronger than aluminum. How strong are these parts really? Can they carry up to 10 tons?!

The results

So what does that mean? You can now produce parts that are 23 times stronger than traditional printing plastics, 50 times faster than machining and for 1/20 of the cost of traditional stable part manufacturing methods. On the left, you can see an example of a 3D printed part that is stronger than aluminum, produced for $14.20 in material costs and in 10 hours without an operator present. Made 100% by an engineer. It would take me 2 weeks and cost $518 to have the same part made by an outsourced manufacturer.

The range of printers

Press print once and you’re done! If you need function prototypes, use a printer. For production, use 100. We already have our own printer – we have a stock of 30 printers with 11,000 sample parts per month!

The Markforged success story

There must be many Franks in the world, because Markforged has grown exponentially. The company is in hyper-growth mode and was recently nominated by Forbes as the next billion dollar company (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/deloitte-unveils-2018-north-america-technology-fast-500-rankings-300750856.html) – The fastest growing hardware company on the list!

Markforged is the only company to offer an industrial 3D printing platform – software, printers and materials are designed to provide a seamless experience – resulting in an incredibly easy to use solution with high quality parts. It’s the perfect solution to take you from idea to part.

Production at the push of a button

ANYONE can print within an hour WITHOUT ANY experience. With Markforged Eiger slicing software we make part and material selection and printing so easy. The printer range. And an organization of users. From everywhere. Any place in the world. The software is available free of charge (www.eiger.io)

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All the industry-leading Markforged advantages for stable, ready-to-use and functional prototype parts. Markforged has precisely configured each industrial machine with a complete sensor suite including motor encoder and calibration laser to compensate for single digit changes in room temperature. The X7 has a laser control that scans the parts in the middle of the print to ensure dimensional accuracy for the most critical tolerances and repeatability.

High-class customers

Thanks to the uniqueness of Markforged parts, the company has succeeded in gaining wide acceptance in all industries – Markforged has become the first address for high-performance parts. Our customers include Porsche, Microsoft and Siemens.

Overview – Industry 4.0 is NOW

Take a moment to reflect on the changes that this technology will bring to the way we develop and implement things today and tomorrow. As you look around you will see many opportunities to apply this additive manufacturing to win more business opportunities, develop more innovative products and meet the challenges of competition. From now on, you won’t have to rely on “Frank” to produce the parts you need, when you need them.

Welcome to the future of manufacturing.

Learn more about 3D printing continuous fibres!

Which continuous fibre is suitable for which applications? How do I design correctly for filament 3D printing? What do users say and where can I find more information? – This is the right place for you! We listed some information leading you directly to the matching answers.

Composite Design Guide

DfAM – How do you design your part best for 3D printing with composites? In this guide you will get valuable tips for design and material selection.

3D printing in production

This free guide serves as a source of information for engineers and contractors who want to integrate a 3D printer into their manufacturing process.

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3D Printing vs. CNC Machining

The two production technologies each have various benefits and drawbacks, and this article identifys the applications which best benefit from one or the other.