Finding Value in AM – Manufacturing Approach from a Seasoned Expert
In the summer of 1989, Richard Grylls got his first "real" job. He had just graduated from the British equivalent of high school and needed cash before heading off to the University of Oxford to study metallurgy. Cycling about four miles each morning to an Industrial Park in Andover, Hampshire, he spent the summer manufacturing bathmats and shower curtains. The bathmats were most memorable: strips of rubber suckers were dropped into a mold until all the holes were filled. Lay the mat on top, and close the lid. Heat and pressure welded the suckers to the mat, and after 30 seconds - open the lid, and peel off the bathmat. Richard's manufacturing journey had begun!
By the time Richard finished his PhD in metallurgy at the University of Birmingham in 1996, manufacturing in England was already in significant decline, particularly due to the rise of Chinese imports. The factory where he burned his fingers had already closed. He managed to get only one job offer, from an automotive manufacturer who offered such low pay that he would have been worse off than when he was a PhD student. Faced with this, he was very fortunate to secure plane tickets for himself, his wife, and his 3-month-old daughter to fly to Columbus, Ohio, where he began his work as a postdoctoral researcher at The Ohio State University (OSU).
At OSU, with the incredible mentorship of Dr. Hamish Fraser, Richard was exposed to the vast scope of manufacturing in the USA. His metal additive manufacturing journey began one fateful day in 1997 when Hamish returned from a visit to Sandia National Labs and announced that he had bought the first-ever commercial metal 3D printer, sold by a new spin-out called Optomec. Richard was tasked with getting it installed and running. In May 1998, they commissioned the first-ever commercial Direct Energy Deposition (DED) machine in the basement of the OSU Materials Science building.
After his time at OSU, Richard spent a few years at GE Aerospace as the Subject Matter Expert for single-crystal superalloys, and then joined Optomec for fourteen years, first as the Applications Development Manager for their DED technology, then in various sales, marketing, and general management roles. In the early 2000s, Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) and Electron Beam Melting (EBM) technologies were still being invented, so DED was the only choice in metal AM. In Optomec's lab in Albuquerque, Richard and his team tried every application you can imagine...and most failed. Why? Because DED just wasn't suited to building near-net-shape hip cups, fuel nozzles, or rocket engines. During that time at Optomec, Richard was privileged to lead the team that wrote the first-ever public standard for DED – the ASTM Standard Guide.
In 2015, after seeing LPBF mature to the point where it could start entering production and attacking those applications that DED had tried and failed to do, Richard joined SLM Solutions and served as their Technical Director in North America. SLM Solutions had recently introduced the first two-laser and then the first four-laser machines into the market. The time at SLM was spent supporting key customers as they worked to enter production.
After SLM, Richard worked to stand up Carpenter's printing service bureau; helped Seurat Technologies market their novel Area Printing process; and served as Chief Engineer for AM at Beehive Industries as they developed a printed turbine engine, before joining TBGA in the summer of 2023. These diverse experiences had a common thread – bringing his experience to make additive manufacturing truly useful. Not just a toy, a fundraising vehicle, or a cool idea, but a manufacturing technology that offers true value.
Richard's many and varied experiences in the world of advanced manufacturing have given him a vivid appreciation of the role manufacturing plays in a strong economy, robust defense, and robust employment. The area around his home near Lima, Ohio, retains a vibrant manufacturing sector – from Abrams Tanks to Honda engines to fork trucks, the industrial base remains strong. However, the memory of the decline of manufacturing in England in the 1990s has given him a deep understanding that the USA's security and prosperity depend on our ability to support and grow the industrial base, invest in advanced technologies, and educate the next generation of entrepreneurs and engineers who can further advance manufacturing technology. At TBGA, and through his volunteer work at his local high school, where he teaches 3D Printing, Richard remains focused on finding value in advanced manufacturing technology: both helping clients find it, and teaching others to find it too.