Additive Manufacturing Is in Full Production at Incodema3D

In 1998, Jim Hockey was installing commercial roll-up doors when he made a service call that changed his life. “I walked into the customer’s facility and saw lasers creating parts from a vat full of liquid photopolymer and I was absolutely hooked. For the last 26 years, I’ve been a matchmaker between additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and the customers who will benefit from them.”

Today, Hockey is director of business development at Incodema3D, based in Freeville, New York. The shop makes parts for aerospace, defense, energy, power generation and a few other niche industrial applications with laser powder bed fusion technology (LPBF).

“Metal AM is now part of the traditional manufacturing process,” Hockey says. “It has become repeatable and dependable, and is ready for production parts.”

Serial Producers

Incodema3D is an acronym for invent, concept, design and manufacture. A short list of capabilities includes:

• 23 AM systems from EOS North America (IMTS booth #432302)
• AM metal powders from EOS, 6K Additive (IMTS booth #433024) and GE Additive (IMTS booth #433200)
• 10 machining centers from Haas (IMTS booth #338100) 
• Six Mitsubishi wire EDMs (IMTS booth #338129)
• A Mazak i700 Variaxis (IMTS booth #338300) with an expandable 12-station Palletech System and a tool carousel that holds 120 tools
• A Zeiss Contura CMM and Comet 3D (IMTS booth #134302) blue light vision system

“Three years ago, 80% of our work was R&D development work,” says Sean Whittaker, Incodema3D CEO. “Today, we’re doing 90% production and 10% R&D development work.” 

Whittaker explains that aerospace and defense components have a long gestation cycle. The design for additive manufacturing (DFAM) work engineers did from 2014 to 2016 is coming to fruition now and it’s changing the AM landscape. “We’re now phasing into production,” Whittaker says. “These are long-term programs with qualified metal AM parts that are going to have a 20-year life cycle.”

According to Hockey, metal additive manufacturing isn’t changing manufacturing; it’s changing the way engineers think. “For example, they can increase the surface area for better cooling of electronic components while also lightweighting them and reducing the number of assemblies,” Hockey adds.

An IMTS Ecosystem

As Incodema3D has grown as a contract manufacturer, IMTS has become a much larger landscape for the company’s team. “IMTS is a complete manufacturing show,” Hockey says. “The Additive Sector is fantastic because it helps blend both the additive and the conventional processes together.”

To prove his point, Hockey notes that Incodema3D acquired the Mazak machining center at IMTS 2022. “It completely changed the game for one of our largest customer programs because it can machine complex shapes in a single setup and provides unattended operation,” he says. “We need people working smarter. At IMTS 2024, we’ll be looking at AI, automation and robotic carts. In everything we do, we match the right technology to elevate our production capabilities for our customer programs.”

Read more about Hockey’s manufacturing career at IMTS.com/ReadJames and hear more about his journey at IMTS.com/James. See how you can work smarter with advanced manufacturing equipment and software, and make your plans to attend IMTS 2024. Register at IMTS.com/Register.