For years, the additive manufacturing (AM) industry promised to reinvent production. But as the technology matured, the real challenge turned out to be proving that 3D printed parts could be made consistently, meet industry standards, and work in real industrial applications.
For companies like Fathom, the industry’s push toward real production has meant moving beyond the traditional “service bureau” model. Once known mostly for prototyping and digital manufacturing services, Fathom has spent the last few years becoming more of a manufacturing partner for aerospace, medical, and industrial customers where quality and consistency are just as important as innovation.
I spoke with CEO Rush LaSelle after reconnecting with Fathom’s team during the AIAA SciTech Forum in Orlando at the beginning of the year. With years of experience in AM and contract manufacturing, including previous leadership roles at Jabil, AddUp, and 3DXTECH, LaSelle spoke about where industrial 3D printing is today, what the industry got wrong in the past, and where companies are finally starting to see real demand.
Metal 3D printed demonstration parts on display at Fathom’s booth during the AIAA SciTech Forum in Orlando. Image courtesy of 3DPrint.com/Vanesa Listek.
“It’s been an interesting 30 years for additive. But it’s certainly been a very interesting five years for industrial additive. Fathom is focusing more heavily on industrial applications where customers care less about whether something can be printed and more about whether it can actually perform reliably in the field,” said LaSelle. “We’re really more focused on manufacturing outcomes. It’s not just printing a part anymore.”
That shift reflects broader changes happening across the AM industry. Over the last decade, many companies promoted 3D printing as a technology that would rapidly transform automotive production, aerospace manufacturing, and supply chains overnight. Some of those expectations proved premature. What companies like Fathom discovered, according to LaSelle, was that qualifying and producing repeatable industrial parts was far more difficult than early marketing materials suggested.
“When I got into the AM space 15 years ago at Jabil, we believed what the manufacturers were telling us,” he explained. “We thought we could plug additive right into industrial manufacturing environments. What we found very quickly is that the properties are not the same.”
That realization forced much of the industry into years of qualification work, process development, and post-processing refinement. According to LaSelle, AM is only now reaching a level of maturity at which manufacturers can reliably produce the repeatable outcomes that industries like aerospace and medical require.
“We’ve just reached that level of maturation where we can deliver good outcomes the way we thought we could 15 years ago,” LaSelle said. That progress has changed Fathom as well. “What we are really more focused on is manufactur
For years, the additive manufacturing (AM) industry promised to reinvent production. But as the technology matured, the real challenge turned out to be proving that 3D printed parts could be made consistently, meet industry standards, and work in real industrial applications.
For companies like Fathom, the industry’s push toward real production has meant moving beyond the traditional “service bureau” model. Once known mostly for prototyping and digital manufacturing services, Fathom has spent the last few years becoming more of a manufacturing partner for aerospace, medical, and industrial customers where quality and consistency are just as important as innovation.
I spoke with CEO Rush LaSelle after reconnecting with Fathom’s team during the AIAA SciTech Forum in Orlando at the beginning of the year. With years of experience in AM and contract manufacturing, including previous leadership roles at Jabil, AddUp, and 3DXTECH, LaSelle spoke about where industrial 3D printing is today, what the industry got wrong in the past, and where companies are finally starting to see real demand.
Metal 3D printed demonstration parts on display at Fathom’s booth during the AIAA SciTech Forum in Orlando. Image courtesy of 3DPrint.com/Vanesa Listek.
“It’s been an interesting 30 years for additive. But it’s certainly been a very interesting five years for industrial additive. Fathom is focusing more heavily on industrial applications where customers care less about whether something can be printed and more about whether it can actually perform reliably in the field,” said LaSelle. “We’re really more focused on manufacturing outcomes. It’s not just printing a part anymore.”
That shift reflects broader changes happening across the AM industry. Over the last decade, many companies promoted 3D printing as a technology that would rapidly transform automotive production, aerospace manufacturing, and supply chains overnight. Some of those expectations proved premature. What companies like Fathom discovered, according to LaSelle, was that qualifying and producing repeatable industrial parts was far more difficult than early marketing materials suggested.
“When I got into the AM space 15 years ago at Jabil, we believed what the manufacturers were telling us,” he explained. “We thought we could plug additive right into industrial manufacturing environments. What we found very quickly is that the properties are not the same.”
That realization forced much of the industry into years of qualification work, process development, and post-processing refinement. According to LaSelle, AM is only now reaching a level of maturity at which manufacturers can reliably produce the repeatable outcomes that industries like aerospace and medical require.
“We’ve just reached that level of maturation where we can deliver good outcomes the way we thought we could 15 years ago,” LaSelle said. That progress has changed Fathom as well. “What we are really more focused on is manufactur