ANN ARBOR, MI — The EWIE Group of Companies (EGC), a family of manufacturing brands headquartered in Ann Abor, Michigan, launched a new brand focused on the provision of additive manufacturing services to its group companies and customers. Azoth 3D offers both metal and polymer AM, as well as design and prototyping, 3D scanning and reverse engineering.

EGC decided to enter the additive manufacturing market as a response to the shifting manufacturing landscape of Industry 4.0. One of the largest subcategories of items that its brands are often asked to source are machine spare parts, with most production facilities stocking rooms full of brackets, gripper fingers, fixtures, motors, and automation components in order to minimize the impact of machine down time.

“The EGC’s success, and consistent growth, can be attributed to three things,” explains Joey Mullick, vice president, Azoth 3D. “First, identifying the best technology for a plant operation. Second, consolidating the vendor base by identifying manufacturers who provide world class products and global support. Lastly, benchmarking best practices and replicating them throughout a customer’s manufacturing facilities. Azoth is leveraging these same principles in the world of additive.”

AzothAzoth 3D’s Center of Excellence, also located in Ann Arbor, is said to have grown from an empty warehouse into an impressive lab of the industry’s highest-performing technology in less than two years. The team stated that it envisions being able to support the bulk of orders from headquarters, focusing primarily on Binder Jetting for its metal additive manufacturing offering.

To support its metal additive manufacturing capabilities, the company has so far built partnerships with Digital Metal and its parent company Höganäs, Desktop Metal, and Elnik Systems, LLC, and its sister company DSH Technologies.

“Just as a traditional manufacturing facility could not procure all its tools from one tool maker; Azoth is diverse in its partnerships and holistic in its services,” states Mullick. “The team has built up a network that includes shops that offer technologies they do not, machine distributors, and partners with deep additive expertise. They are also providing reverse engineering and DFA services.”

ECG reports that its vision for Azoth is to transform the physical inventory of a plant into a digital one, thereby reducing the costs of its customers. To this end, the company has coined a new phrase, Take One Make One or “TOMO.”

“The problem Azoth seeks to solve was ever-present in EGC’s existing customer base, and early adoption of their business model has been significant,” says Mullick. “Since the issues surrounding spare parts are common to all manufacturing facilities, Azoth has been able to grow beyond the group's common customer archetype. New customers choose Azoth because of their ability to manufacture precision parts to blueprints, their vast knowledge of the additive tools available in the market, and the ability to implement digital inventory on demand. Customers that choose to work with Azoth get more than a 3D printed part.”