New Fylde coast business uses latest manufacturing techniques

Sam Schmierer is defying the coronavirus crisis with the launch of Schmierer Engineering, Design and Drafting bringing 3D printing technology to a wider customer base.

He launched the Preesall business in June and has been busy with custom orders and specialist repairs, having been called on to make everything from replacement parts for sewing machines no longer available, to gazebo brackets and prototype parts for cars.

Sam, who hails from Australia and has a degree in mechanical engineering, got interested in the technology more than six years ago.

He said: “I used to read Australian popular science magazines and saw a couple of articles on 3D printing. It piqued my interest mainly because of the wide variety of things you could do with it.

“I got myself a basic printer to learn about it, but as time went on an the technology improved, I got a better machine that was much more capable and gave decent prints.

“There’s so much you can do with one of these machines that you can’t do with a CNC machine and its cheaper and quicker too. You can go from a model to finished part in a couple of days rather than a week.

He uses a Raise3D Pro 2 industrial machine with another due to arrive within weeks and plans for a metal sintering machine in the future.

He moved to the Fylde coast in December last year with his English wife Vicky.

They print using engineering grade plastics such as polycarbonate, as well as cheaper materials, and the material comes as a roll of raw filament.

“But 3D printing is really just the end part of it all. It is about integrated design. The technology comes to the fore with the design and re-imagining of the products we are asked to supply.

“This Covid era has highlighted the weakness in some of our supply chains. To be able to have a scalable demand, responding to the current world this technology could be a game changer.

“At the moment a lot of people are going in-house, buying the machines themselves But that will change to outsourcing to specialists, which is what happened with CNC machining.

“That is how this will go. Particularly when the industry standards come out in a couple of years time.”