Hello everyone. My name is Luis Rodriguez with Ultimaker
and I’m pleased to welcome Kevin from Decathlon
We’ve asked you here today to share your story
I know you’ve been with Ultimaker for a little bit
and you’re also new and helping things inside the company
So tell us a little bit
Yeah for sure
At Decathlon, we want to bring sport available for the many
So to do that, we need to reduce the cost
and before our entity of prototyping was created
we were putting externally our prototyping phase
So it was not cost-effective
and so on we decided to go internal
and that’s why we created our entity about prototyping
And rapidly we reached other companies
like Ultimaker
to get a good 3D printer
and also to have a partnership about how to improve each other
And to also get the most out of our 3D printer
So you used to outsource the prototyping?
Yeah, before that, yeah
By internally prototyping, we keep our data
That was the main point of our security
Yeah, you can protect your IP
Exactly
So you’re part of a new group that was formed inside the company?
About additive manufacturing
We really feel the need of exploring this field
because before that we were designers and we worked quickly
But we needed to know what was going on
Right, you need to have control of that workflow
Exactly, yeah
So people might not realize you’re a large sports brand
But you also do work for the brands that are carried in the stores
Exactly, yes
We’re dealing with every sport, every kind of sport
And each of them need some validation of design or some mechanical structures
So that’s why we had a lot of cases
and we have a range of different technology
Right. So you have a lot of application uses
I even heard that you’re using some actual parts in stores for shelving – things like that
Yeah
You know, now you’re a group, they’re going to want to use you for everything
Yeah
What about materials. Have you explored a wide material range?
Or has that evolved?
Yeah, we had a chance to use composites also
But for the first phase of conception
we basically for the time with FDM
because it’s quicker
and is enough to validate some shapes and assemblies also
But we can use carbon fiber, for example
We had some example for protection
because the IP is with the engineer and the designer wanted to
to test it in a real application for protection
So that was a functional prototype
Yes, a functional prototype
What Ultimakers do you use?
I know you have evolved
Yeah, we started with the Ultimaker 3 Extended
because what we needed was accurate resolution, on the Z-axis
And for the 3 Extended, it was a need
from internal as well
OK, so you had good surface quality on that full height
Yeah, and to have like part of the shoes
we wanted a lot. But we also printed
But after we get the Ultimaker S5, we had the chance to print larger pieces
And that was our need
So you weren’t cutting up parts
Yeah, before that it was cutting parts and fixing after
Now you can do pieces like this, where it’s all one piece
Yeah exactly
And it’s really interesting because thanks to the S5, the build volume is really interesting
and we have some features that help us to not ruin a larger or longer 3D print
And then elsewhere in the company, are you also doing tooling and jigs and things for these products
or other products?
Have you started to do that yet?
So far, we’re focusing on the additive manufacturing
and we sometimes did do a lot of post-treatment and facing or so
So coating and we try to get the most realistic prototype of it
So what did the S5 give you beyond the size?
You started to explore composites or?
Well, composites also
Thanks to the last print core CC Red 0.6
we had the chance to 3D print a tennis racket
and we wanted to reach a mechanical structure with carbon fiber
So, so far I know that there’s a large range of different
Lots of composites out there
Yeah composites of whatever so
I didn’t try everything yet
No you can’t
Exactly
So what’s the plan inside the company now?
This is a successful business unit, you’re starting to use it for more things
Are you going to expand this to other sites or do you train other employees?
It’s not just you
Yeah, our goal is to, we are a small team right now
dedicated to additive manufacturing
But because we are not the only ones thinking about additive manufacturing inside Decathlon
So we wanted to federate all of these people
There are several parts in France and also abroad in Taiwan, in Russia
They are starting to use additive manufacturing for not just prototyping, but thinking about the next step
So, our goal is to federate, give the good insight
because we try everything, we fail, we learn
so we make some
parameters
I mean, you know we put it in order to make the work easier
So they can start off at the same level
So yeah, we’re starting to construct a network
of additive manufacturing experts inside Decathlon
So we will maybe in the near future say
that we can produce locally
Right, ship the files
Because our entity, AddLab at Decathlon, don’t do only prototyping
but we are also looking at after-sales
And we already produce some parts that we can produce on-demand
So, economically and also for
For repairs or upgrades
Exactly yeah. And tooling also
I was thinking like because thanks to all of the composites we can do with FDM
we can do tools that don’t exist with mechanical properties
And so far, we have a lot of demand from the inside for some tooling
Oh that’s great
Thanks to Ultimaker S5 and also all the composites
You’ll be able to explore that
So maybe one day all of these sites will have Ultimakers and you just ship a file
Exactly, yeah. And with the right parameters in the slicer
thanks to Cura also
And the federation with Cura Connect
They want to get the same parameters and everything work fine
Will you be involved in training the others?
I train my team
So part of my job is to make everything smooth in our workflow
So yes
I try and get the good parameters for our application
and share it with the team
So everyone is up to date
So once you convinced your superiors
that you wanted to do this
what was the sort of final decision?
Was it turnaround time, cost
was it how easy to use software?
Because a lot of companies don’t want their engineers to waste time learning software
They want it to be easy to use and maybe grow into it or something
Yeah, but from our point, it’s like we are cross-technology
And we wanted to have control from the inside
So that’s why we dig in deeper on the software
to have the right parameters within it for the right application
You create your profiles
It was OK if it is easier and plug-and-play
why not?
If you get the result
But because we can use any different materials
we wanted to have all the panel of parameters
So then you’ll drill down per application
get a profile, and then you guys share those profiles
Yes. That is our strength
So it might be per material, but it could be per product?
Per peripheral? Per shape? Yeah, yeah, why not?
Well thank you Kevin for sharing what you do
We really thank you for stopping by and taking the time
We’re excited to see where you go and expand
And we want to do these to help tell the stories so people can relate
It is possible
Thank you everyone for watching
If you want to find out more about using our products in an office environment
make sure to download the white paper