Innovation leads the way at PPMA

It’s been an incredibly busy, but exciting, time for us here at Addition. Not only have we launched a brand-new service, AddParts, but we have also created an innovative new process which is set to really cause a stir in the food manufacturing sector. To showcase these recent developments, we attended the prestigious PPMA Show held last month in Birmingham and here our director, Tom Fripp , gives us an insight into how the event went and what we’ve got in store for our customers, old and new.

As we embark on an important next step in the journey of our business, it really feels we are now forging our own path in the world of design and additive manufacturing. We always knew that creating a USP would be key and over the last few months we have worked incredibly hard on some exciting developments that we think will make us stand out from the crowd as true experts in this field. And what better place to showcase what we’re all about than at the largest processing and packaging machinery exhibition in the UK, the Automate UK Show 2023!

 AddParts makes its mark

We used the opportunity PPMA brings to unveil AddParts, which is delivered exclusively by Addition Design, and supplies digital spares for production and packing lines on demand through the use of 3D scanning, digital data management and industrial 3D printing. It gives customers across a number of sectors a competitive advantage by drastically reducing downtime on their lines and thereby lowering associated costs.

Our investment in new equipment, and in subsequent skilled personnel, forms the foundation for AddParts’ unique methodology of unlocking the benefits of industrial 3D print technology to provide new opportunities and deliver even higher performance components with reduced lead times offering a really focussed solution that manufacturers can truly benefit from.

But not only did we want to shout about AddParts as a whole, we also wanted to be at PPMA to demonstrate how AddParts can now be used in the food processing sector thanks to a revolutionary new way we have created for the food industry to detect problems in the production process and embrace new technologies.

This new process allows food manufacturers to access production parts that meet the stringent regulatory requirements of food production components whilst taking full advantage of industrial additive manufacturing.

The new technique addresses a number of renowned issues that affect the industry’s ability to fully embrace the benefits of industrial 3D printing while complying with food-safety regulations and production line efficiency needs including those of low-cost, fast turnaround, blue, food contact components.

The power of PPMA

The PPMA Show rarely disappoints. Fellow exhibitors are supportive and keen. As a business we feel welcomed into the industry by both the PPMA and the other members. But we know our market and we know who we are here to help – it’s the engineers, the ops managers, the production planners anyone else who feels the burden of downtime when the line goes down. But people of this calibre are difficult to pin down. The PPMA is different as we find that those very people are the same ones walking the floor seeking out solutions which we can provide in abundance.

AddParts is a service which deals in real components both at the start of the process and at the end. We deal with broken, worn or obsolete parts when we scan the parts and we deal with high quality 3D printed components when we supply and without seeing how we do our work or the quality of the parts we supply for yourself, you simply cannot get a thorough enough understanding for just how good our service is. On top of this, we are manufacturing fanatics and that’s also a difficult thing to convey effectively by any other means than face to face!

Trade shows like the PPMA give us the opportunity to show how much of our customers values we share – those of making sure those production lines keep on turning and focusing on the need to always have a steady, reliable supply of accurate, high-quality components as and when they are needed. AddParts is a really unique offering and we believe that it brings new opportunities for manufacturers in the UK so meeting our customers and answering their questions is an absolute must.

Spreading the word

So, what was the reaction like? We’ve worked really hard to create a simple, honest, dependable identity for AddParts and when we see people glancing, then stopping and approaching us to talk to us, seeing the penny drop for just what we can offer, and how we can help has been an absolute joy. Thankfully, at this year’s PPMA show it happened a lot!

I’d say people’s reactions were part disbelief, part excitement and perhaps most strangely, just plain acceptance! We know it’s novel and exciting and, when paired with the other benefits of AddParts, offers something very new and unique for food manufacturers. But when you put it into context with the other professionally delivered services which have so clearly been thought through and refined to deliver exactly what our customers have been asking, a lot of professionals - from food, pharma, medical and a whole range of industries and companies from SME’s to global giants - saw the blue parts and simply accepted that it made sense for us to be offering something on the production side just as innovative as the rest of AddParts.

We know we’ve got more work to do to make AddParts even more relevant for more manufacturers but AddParts is here to stay and we plan to continue to shout about our continued innovations and success. Watch this space!