Skip to navigation

Angus 3D Solutions: Forging Ahead with Metal 3D Printing

Andy Simpson took a different route towards opening a 3D printing service provider. He spent more than 30 years running oil and gas manufacturing facilities around the world, including in Abu Dhabi, Russia, Germany, England, and Scotland. “When the oil price hit rock bottom, my role within the company changed very, very quickly,” says Andy. He went from being the person who ran global facilities to the man who would shut down factories and made people redundant. He left the company and decided to start up his own business. “The natural thing would have been for me to go and open a traditional manufacturing shop,” says Andy.

Andy Simpson Angus 3D Solutions
Andy Simpson, Managing Director at Angus 3D Solutions
Free metal sample part

Instead, he opened Angus 3D Solutions, a Brechin-based 3D scanning, 3D printing and manufacturing service company. The company works with customers to create parts that were impractical to fabricate using traditional manufacturing technologies. “There aren’t many places in Scotland doing this [3D printing],” he says. His business quickly grew, and now has a broad customer list — from individual entrepreneurs to some of the biggest oil companies in Scotland. Angus 3D has several 3D printers in-house, including a Markforged Mark Two and Metal X. The Mark Two has predominantly been used to create jigs and fixtures for customers, with some customers now completely changing their designs to optimize for Onyx and carbon fiber. “Onyx is a great material,” says Andy. “It’s gone beyond my expectations, and beyond some of my customer’s expectations too.”

Metal X part
A 3D printed part with supports

The Metal X

Andy had no intention to purchase a metal 3D printer — he had always assumed metal 3D printers would be too expensive and out of his budget. When he came across the Markforged Metal X, he realized it was a perfect fit. “I kept coming back to Markforged because they seemed more engaged and more willing to listen to what my challenges were,” he said. He applied for Zero Waste Scotland’s Circular Economy Investment Fund grant through the Scottish government, with part of his justification stating that his goal was to make metal printing more accessible to people and industries around Scotland. He was awarded the grant within a year, and brought the first commercially available Metal X in the UK to Scotland in late 2018. People have been nothing short of amazed. “To be honest, there’s nothing I enjoy more than showing people this machine — they’re taken away by it, they’re surprised,” he says. Customers like how the machine isn’t overly complicated, compared to other metal 3D printers on the market. Angus 3D Solutions has since printed more than 25 different parts for customers, including legacy parts for a 1942 sewing machines using 17-4 PH stainless steel and custom components for the oil and gas industry. There are also plans to produce test parts for a Formula 1 team.

Request a Metal X quote
Markforged Metal X part
The same 3D printed part with supports removed

What’s next?

Since bringing the Metal X to Scotland, Andy has become the go-to person on the technology for local Businesses, Manufacturers, Universities and local Radio & TV stations in Scotland. “The Markforged Metal X is part of my journey and probably part of my success as well,” says Andy. “That technology allowed me to do that.”

All of the blogs and the information contained within those blogs are copyright by Markforged, Inc. and may not be copied, modified, or adopted in any way without our written permission. Our blogs may contain our service marks or trademarks, as well as of those our affiliates. Your use of our blogs does not constitute any right or license for you to use our service marks or trademarks without our prior permission. Markforged Information provided in our blogs should not be considered professional advice. We are under no obligation to update or revise blogs based on new information, subsequent events, or otherwise.

Never miss an article

Subscribe to get new Markforged content in your inbox