Businesses turn to 3-D printing to shorten R&D time

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Three-dimensional printing sounds like science fiction, but it's being applied to some old-fashioned trades, such as wood carving at Knickerbocker Bench in Congers.

"Once I came up with that basic design, I wanted to see what it was like if I changed angles," said Tim Englert of Knickerbocker Bench, which designed wood furniture at Congers Lake Memorial Park. "To do that in wood, even in miniature, is very time-consuming.

"Working in 3-D allows you to quickly explore your ideas."

Throughout the Lower Hudson Valley, businesses are starting to use 3-D printing to shorten their research, development, patenting and production times, saving money in the process and bringing new products to market more quickly.

That's what Marty Snider, president of MSA Products Inc. in Nyack, has been doing with the 3-D printers at Rockland Community College's 3D Smart Printing Lab in Haverstraw for free, thanks to a state grant.

Snider used to have his kitchen, bath and closet organizational products designed and turned into prototypes in China, then the samples were mailed back and forth until arriving at a finished product.

Now Snider has his engineers in China design products with 3-D computer design software, then the files are emailed to him and taken to the Haverstraw printers.

"It had a major change in the way we're doing business. It basically enables us, at very low cost, to get into products that we wouldn't get into," said Snider about his company's move into plastic product prototypes that previously were too expensive to make locally. "We do in two or three days what used to take us two or three weeks."

Staffers at Rockland said helping local businesses become more competitive and succeed is the whole idea behind the 3-D lab.

"When I first came on (the) team, there was a lot of talk about economic development and small business and the need to them," said Michael Kluger, coordinator of the lab. "I feel like I have a personal connection to getting every single one of these businesses in the Hudson Valley and Rockland to do a little bit better because it's going to help the entire region."

3-D printing is formally known as additive manufacturing because a small heated nozzle deposits plastic, metal or some other substance on a flat platform, slowly building up the object. The State University of New York at New Paltz is 3-D printing's local epicenter, and the region's officials are hoping 3-D printing will help lead a manufacturing resurgence.

"You have individuals with ideas and they often can't get that idea from the computer to an actual product," said Larry Gottlieb, executive director of the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp. "It's been interesting to see these prototypes of cool products coming through the New Paltz machines."