ECOPARTS is a company based outside of Zürich in Switzerland. Started in 2006 as a pioneer in the field of additive manufacturing. Today, 17 years later, the company is the largest AM metal service provider in Switzerland and currently produce 11 different metal alloys on our EOS equipment. They print various stainless steels, tool steels, nickel alloys such as Inconel or light metals such as aluminum and titanium and offer the corresponding mech. post-processing if required.
Interview with Noël Toffolon, Head of Sales & Kim Martinsson, Technical Sales at ECOPARTS.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Noël Toffolon & Kim Martinsson: We are involved in the whole process, from idea to finished part. Not only do we produce the parts, we also help companies with design, AM-Thinking and guidelines for a perfect result. With our expertise within this field, we also have courses and seminaries to educate companies in the world of AM-Engineering.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
N.T & K.M: As we are a service provider, we cannot publish direct news about products, as these are customer projects. However, current news from our side is that we have successfully completed EN9100:2018 certification for aerospace and defense. In the AM industry, there are still few companies across Europe that have this certification, as the requirements for the quality management system are very high.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
N.T & K.M: The range of 3D-Printing is huge. We produce everything from a small simple cube, to the most complex parts for development of jet engines. Some days we produce one-of-a-kind prototypes, the next day we start a big production of parts that we have been producing for years. We have the opportunity, to have a foot inside of many industries, which is of course very exciting.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
N.T & K.M: According to our assessment, the market continues to grow, so there is still little crowding out between the market participants. Products are being newly developed or optimized for AM technology, so that one can speak of a “blue ocean” through these projects and thus generate market growth.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
N.T & K.M: We see the market trends in 2023 clearly in the direction of optimization of the build parameters and the further development of “support-free construction”. As in previous years, larger installation spaces will also be an issue, although I believe that a large proportion of market participants can identify with the installation space sizes currently available on the market and can cover the majority of their applications. Currently, there are still few large installation spaces with dimensions of >500x500x1000mm installed worldwide, since there are also not yet so many applications for the broad market, where the economic efficiency of production is guaranteed.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2023?
N.T & K.M: I think in 2023 the market will not make huge leaps in terms of market capitalization. As in the past years, there will be a steady and continuous increase of newly developed products and projects, which will be manufactured by means of AM technology. We remain on the ball and look forward to discovering and jointly developing with our customers all the opportunities that AM offers.