[Editor's Note] According to Formlabs, Inc.'s recently announced 2022 business strategy, Formlabs plans to actively expand the domestic dental, medical, and digital manufacturing markets with high-quality and cost-effective 3D printing solutions along with material certification from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety this year. To this end, Formlabs is strengthening its lineup and expanding its services to various fields. In particular, Formlabs recorded more than double the growth last year despite the sluggish 3D printing market, and it is expected to expand the domestic digital manufacturing market based on its 2022 business strategy this year as well. Accordingly, our magazine arranged an interview with Formlabs Korea CEO Jinwook Kim to hear about Formlabs' plans and products for this year.




■ Please introduce Formlabs, Inc.

Formlabs, Inc. is a company that has been around for about 10 years, and its Korean branch was established about 2 years ago.

If I had to describe Formlabs in one word, it would be ‘innovation.’ If Apple is an innovative company in the IT field, Formlabs can be said to be an innovative company among 3D printing companies.

Formlabs recently received an investment of approximately 180 billion won from SoftBank Chairman Son Jeong-ui.

We are investing heavily in R&D and overall business areas through attracting investment.

It is believed to be the first investment in the 3D printing industry.

■ Recently announced the 2022 business strategy

There is a difference between global strategy and Korean strategy.

Overall, in terms of the global market, it will spur businesses in smart manufacturing, manufacturing innovation, and manufacturing and engineering.

Formlabs has been around for 10 years and is continuously expanding its product portfolio.

Desktop SLA products are specialized for dental and medical applications.

What differentiates our products from existing products is their sophistication and cost-effectiveness. In particular, since sophistication is emphasized a lot, Form 2 and Form 3, which are specialized products for dental, medical, and jewelry, became the main products.

In our case, since the registration with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety began this year (2021), we have a 40% market share worldwide, but I can tell you that Formlabs Korea is focusing on the dental and medical markets, which have not been able to enter the Korean market much.

■ I heard that the 3D printing industry is having a hard time due to COVID-19. I would like to hear about ways to overcome this and the future outlook for the 3D printing industry.

First of all, I recently conducted a webinar with a partner about the medical field.

I did a lot of market research and market analysis related to that, and it is definitely true in Korea. It is true that the market size shrank last year and the year before.

It could be said that part of this is due to the impact of Corona.

In the beginning, President Obama's 3D printer story came out and created a worldwide boom.

In our country, too, four major government ministries signed an agreement and created a promotion law, and two years ago, 3D printing itself was recognized as a 4th industrial revolution technology and a national qualification certificate was created. It was a case that was very popular two years ago, but it seems to have slowed down a lot due to COVID-19. I don't think this is limited to the 3D printing industry, but I think it's because the economy itself is shrinking.

Nevertheless, I can say that Formlabs has its own differentiated area as a niche player.

For example, two years ago when I first joined Formlabs Korea, and now, two years later when COVID-19 began, the business has grown more than twice in just two years.

Due to the nature of a global company, we cannot disclose the sales figures, but in terms of percentage, we have grown by exactly 2.5 times.

I thought deeply about how I grew up even in difficult times.

Formlabs was born 10 years ago with a vision for a company that would enable executives and employees to deliver cost-effective professional and industrial products to customers.

Formlabs started out as a company with the idea of creating a product that could be easily used for presentation slides, used for professional and industrial purposes, and delivered to customers at about 1/100th the cost of existing industry products.

I think that in the COVID-19 era, people who previously spent a lot of money chose Formlab because it is cost-effective and can be delivered to customers at a reasonable price.

I believe that Formlab's vision itself is not only sustainable in the face of economic downturn.It is reported that the company has achieved rapid growth.

When it comes to the market in general, what people talk about the most is the 4th industrial revolution, and the most important thing about it is data. There are many things to consider, such as AI, big data, and many other things, but one thing that is always mentioned is 3D printing.

3D printing itself is the process of creating an object at the very end of a process or process itself, so in a way, you could say that factories are being replaced by 3D printers.

The most rapidly changing industry in Korea is dental work, although there are still some cases where it has changed less, but globally, it is dental work. Worldwide, everything is being replaced with 3D printers.

Looking at it this way, it is a question of how quickly global companies and the Korean market can grow, but I think it is a business and industry that has sufficient market growth rates and visions for the market.

■ Currently, 3D printing is active in medical and prototype fields, but it seems to be slow in spreading in the manufacturing field. What do you think is still needed for spreading in the manufacturing field?

In terms of market size, Korea ranks 11th among OECD countries.

It is a rich country ranked 11th in the world in terms of national competitiveness.

When looking at manufacturing powerhouses around the world, Korea is in the top five along with the United States, Germany, China, and Japan.

Having done business in Korea for a long time, I know that there are some things that foreigners don't understand.

For example, why is Google dominating the global market while Korea is not? Why Naver?

Starbucks has the same UI and look and feel all over the world, so why is Insadong in Korea different?

Foreigners don't quite understand these things and often say things like, "This only accounts for 1% of global business, so why is it so unique?"

When I talk to executives at headquarters, it seems like Korea itself is a country with high standards. In the case of dental products, registration with the Food and Drug Administration is being done at Class 1 in the head office or overseas, but we are moving to Class 2.

That means the standard itself is high.

Customers’ expectations and interest are high.

In conclusion, I think that Korea is a country where once something explodes, it explodes explosively, but it is difficult to raise the bar for the standards before it explodes.

The difference from other countries is that the manufacturing sector is also a market driven largely by large corporations.

Compared to other countries, it is a characteristic of our country, the Republic of Korea, that large corporations take the lead rather than ventures and mid-sized companies. So, looking at those aspects, I met with research institutes of large domestic corporations last year and the year before, and the story was that large corporations are already preparing to take over the market with ideas.

In that sense, it feels a little slow, but the biggest difference between the global and Korea is that the market share of the 3D printing market itself, which is still more than 30% for public education research institutes rather than for end products used by customers, is still there.

Nevertheless, if the advantages of being a top 5 manufacturing powerhouse, or the talents that lead creativity, culture, and emotions, and such things come together and the time comes when we can meet customer expectations, I don't know if it will be next year or the year after, but when that time comes, I think the market growth will be explosive.

I think that South Korea is a country with great potential.

■ Please introduce the main products sold by Formlabs, such as Form 3L and Fuse 1.

The first thing Formlabs started with was the SLA 3D printer.>
There are several technologies for 3D printing.

There are various types of machines, such as FDM machines, SLA machines, and SLS machines, and they are classified by differences in 3D printing technology.

SLA is a product that creates liquid resin by shooting a laser, and SLS products are products that create powder in a layered form.

Just two years ago, when I joined, the SLA printer Form 2 was just starting to sell well. Then, the upgraded version of Form 3 came out, and in the past two years, Form 3L, a product that overcame the size limitations of the SLA product, came out. It is a product that can be used for industrial purposes at a scale of about three times that.

And with the launch of premium product lines such as Form 3B and Form 3BL, which are specialized for dental and medical applications, the portfolio for SLA product lines has expanded.

The SLA market, which has recently started business, has a product called Fuse 1, which is an SLA product that laminates in powder form rather than the existing resin. In some ways, it is a product specialized in industrial engineering.

Next, the product lineup is expanding to include a post-processing product group called Post-processing Form 3L Washcure, and it can be seen that the focus is on manufacturing engineering.

For each technology, there are many FDM products that are widely available on the market as popular products, so there are various fields depending on the technology. In the case of Formlabs, it started with SLA products and began to receive the spotlight in the market with the Form 2 product, and that product became a company that made a name for itself in the dental and jewelry markets with its good price, precision, cost-effectiveness, and delicacy. Then, the Form 3L, which is about three times the size of the Form 2 and Form 3, was released.

The product is a product that represents SLA technology.

Recently, with the launch of SLS products in a laminated form using the SLS powder that I mentioned earlier, we can say that the product lineup for industrial and manufacturing engineering purposes has been fully established.

The main difference itself is the difference in the material, and depending on which material is suitable for the product I want to make, it may be right to choose which product.

For example, medical devices, syringes, cylinders, powders, and such can be made with SLA liquid resin products, and as SLS products, there are many cases where personalized differentiated splints, cast shapes, spinal correction, and such are mass-produced with Fuse SLS products, as we have seen in recent cases at our headquarters and domestically, as well as in the last webinar.

So, since it is a difference in materials and 3D printing technology, I think it would be better to proceed by selecting the product itself according to the planning intention of which product I will manufacture.

■ Future direction of 3D printing development and domestic activitiesI want to hear about

From the perspective of Formlabs headquarters, I would like to say one thing. In terms of business, about 55% of the world's 3D printer business is the business. The remaining 40-45% is the material business. To that extent, printers are important, but depending on the material, the technology area is extremely polar.

For example, soft materials such as dental draft, high temp (which can withstand thousands of degrees of heat), and silicone rubber. Since the material itself is a very important point, about 200 chemistry Ph.D.s at the head office are investing in material development.

As new materials are continuously being released into the market, it seems that such materials will help to dominate the future market.

As I mentioned earlier, in Korea, there are products such as Form3L SLA products specialized in engineering and manufacturing, and products that allow easy washing and curing post-processing, as well as SLS products such as Fuse1. In a way, it seems like this has opened up the market to specialize in manufacturing and engineering. As I mentioned earlier, I think it will be time to create a medical and dental market through registration with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

I've been going around the market for about two years and met with representatives of domestic venture companies. Surprisingly, there were domestic companies that were leading the medical and healthcare markets not only domestically but also globally.

I didn't know much about it before.

There was a possibility that we could have a venture company in the domestic medical field and go with Formlabs headquarters as an OEM.

Personally, as I studied ventures during my doctoral program, I am interested in how domestic venture companies are expanding their business overseas as well as domestically. In this respect, unlike existing big IT companies, they can create win-win partnerships in the form of agreements or OEMs, and domestic venture companies have agreements with medical scanner companies.

Medical scanner companies are global, Formlabs can go to Formlabs' customer base, and are specialized companies that produce domestic resins and materials.

I think that these types of partnerships or OEMs that can expand business worldwide to Formlabs' customers or under the name of Formlabs by signing agreements with our R&D will come out soon. I personally think that this is meaningful and could lead to a symbiotic relationship with domestic companies.

■ Lastly, please say a word to the readers.

I taught at a university for about two years until last year. I have also done job mentoring on topics related to employment, and have had many opportunities to meet with university seniors who are about to start looking for a job in the form of special lectures, starting about 10 years ago.

When I came to the 3D printing industry and looked at the current players, I realized that majors and academic backgrounds didn't really matter.

A good salesperson saw a friend who was fencing, and a good-looking friend saw a person who prepared to be an idol but got into this business. As far as we know, they graduated from a good university and decided to make a living according to their major, but now that I see them playing in this field, I think that if I have any interest, it might actually be an area I can jump into. There are many things that the government, academia, public institutions, and private companies like ours will collaborate to create a market, but even so, the business or market itself will not be like the generation of our parents and fathers in the past, where everyone used the same product and one product was a huge hit, but rather, the market will change to a form that suits the emotions or community of a certain person and a differentiated business that fits that person's emotions, so if I'm interested, it's enough to be the axis of the 4th industrial revolution and a good business area.

We are a top 5 manufacturing powerhouse. We are good at creativity and things like that. In the past, when there were world-class craftsmanship competitions, the one thing that Korea always came out on top in was things that were made by hand by craftsmen.

Those talents are what Koreans basically have, and they are talents that differentiate them from people in other countries, so in terms of job creation, it can be a good alternative for people in their 20s who are wondering what to do, and in some ways, for people in their 50s like me who have no choice but to start a new second life after quitting their jobs, if I can be interested in something and do something, for example, with 10 million won, I can create my own factory, so it's not like I used to make all the products and use all the products I make, but I can have my own business ideas and do things.

For example, I like fishing. I think that by making fishing rods in various shapes and materials, I can contribute to creating many jobs and quality jobs in the fishing community.

Finally, 3D printers make it really easy for me to turn the ideas in my head into products.

Recently, I saw that houses are made with 3D printers. What I want to say is that business is a battle of ideas, and the existing generations do not wear, use, and eat the same things. Now, as the generations change, each person has their own sensibility.

Our partner company's young salespeople said to me, "Mr. Manager, look at this. This is a one-of-a-kind ring." When Fuse 1 came out, the partner company's CEO said, "Mr. Manager, would you like me to make one of these for you? This is a business card holder. “I’ll even engrave your name on it.” Rather than just using what everyone else is using, there is an advantage in that you can create a product that has your own meaning. So I think that combining 3D printing itself with an idea could be of great help in terms of future business or market competitiveness.