This week, we had the pleasure of speaking with John Middendorf, adding to our collection of guests from the Ohio State University, Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence. John is the Director of Additive Manufacturing for OSU - CDME. He has great expertise in development of AM machines and unique capabilities, such as multi-material laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), hybrid additive/subtractive LPBF, and advanced in situ sensing. He talks about what the market is looking for from the Additive Manufacturing industry, competing with large metal companies as a small metal business with Open Additive, and how he ultimately got into Additive. Be sure to check out John's recommended read - Aquinas's Shorter Summa: Saint Thomas's Own Concise Version of His Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas.
Episode Summary:
0:00 - Intro 1:36 - John's early years 9:58 - First impressions of Additive Manufacturing 16:48 - Foundation of Open Additive 19:42 - Competing against bigger metal companies 21:28 - What does the market need today? 25:43 - Transition from Open Additive to OSU CDME 27:55 - Overview of OSU CDME 31:45 - Excitement for remainder of 2023 34:36 - Upcoming day to day 35:30 - John's recommended read