Advance Australian Manufacturing With Studio Kite

Being at the forefront of technological advancement is nothing new for Steven Rosewell and his highly talented crew at Studio Kite based in the greater Byron Bay area.

For your average punter, 3D printing might be considered a relatively new phenomenon but, within the walls of Studio Kite, it's been the baseline of the company since the late 1990s. CADzilla – their enormous 3D printing beast, developed and built by Studio Kite here in Australia – has recently played a pivotal role in enabling them to adapt to the shifting ground of COVID-19 and help the local film and television production sector get back to work.

With over 30 years in the industry, Steve is well aware of the pressure filmmakers are under, which consequently puts their tradespeople under pressure too.

So, how do filmmakers use 3D printing?

As Steve explains, “A filmmaker will walk onto a set. They’re going to shoot next week and they're working at where the camera's going to be. When they see the stage, it’s not unusual for them to think it would be better if that set went up another four metres or so because they're shooting off the top of it, and it needs to be ready in two days. The next minute they’ve got the whole crew working around the clock on the weekend to lift that set another four metres."

"The people who work in the film industry work hard. When we say it's going to be there, it's there. If it's not there, you're letting down hundreds of people. So, if you've got the attitude like 'Nah, mate – I can't get that out to you until May', you'll never have a place in this game.”

“3D printing really excites filmmakers because, if they want a stage to go up four metres that afternoon, that's what happens. It makes things possible."

Tell us about how you got into 3D printing...

In the 'old days' of 3D printing, a single kilo cartridge of filament cost almost $1,000, 'state-of-the-art' computers took about 20 minutes to boot up, and DVDs of specs and plans were couriered between manufacturing plants to get a job completed. It goes without saying, they (thankfully) don’t make 'em like that anymore!

Steve reflects on purchasing his first 3D printer in 1999 after being engaged to make a complex miniature model for a TV advertising campaign for a major car tyre retailer.

“We used to run a big model shop in the Fox Studios where we were machining lots of big blocks of polystyrene and we had to make a little miniature rubber tyre. [The agency] wanted this little wind-up toy bouncing tyre with feet but it had to be a specific tyre. So, I thought, 'How are we going to hand model this?' It was only three inches in diameter."

Fortuitously, Steve had spent that very morning talking with an industrial design student about computer modelling in manufacturing: “The student had gone home, and that job came in that afternoon. I got on the phone and told him to bring the laptop back in. We sat down, talked it through and, within a few hours, he’d patterned out this tyre. It was beautiful. He modelled up exactly what they wanted.”

The prototype plans were then sent to the experts at University of Melbourne who were leading the way in integrating computer design and manufacturing. When Steve received the finished model not long thereafter, he was converted to the seemingly endless possibilities it represented for him.

“We got the part and I was like, 'Oh my god, I want one of these machines'. I think it was about $80,000 and we ran that thing to death!”

What were the experiences of Studio Kite in 2020?

While not completely immune to the impacts of COVID-19, 2020 and the challenges it presented to all manufacturers, Steve and his team were presented with a unique opportunity to consolidate their operations. It didn’t take long before Studio Kite’s customers started pushing orders through to completion.

“Our background is in the film and the arts industries, but we're always getting calls for work outside of that sector,” explains Steve. “A whole bunch of work just came flying through to us. A lot of people wanted to close certain accounts — because we do a bit of architecture stuff as well — and they just wanted to finish their jobs so they could get paid for them."

"I was running the printers during that period just by myself and the guys were on Jobkeeper for about a month. But then that was it – we needed them back in again. And then, when movie production re-started up here in Byron, we were working on just punching out prints for 3D for films that were being shot.”

How is Studio Kite more efficient and more productive these days?

While many of the essential fundamentals of running a thriving business are in place at Studio Kite, a large part of their success in adapting to changing circumstances rested with their 'monster' 3D printer, known as CADzilla.

Up until 2016, Studio Kite’s mainly machined polystyrene blocks to create models for film sets using Kuka arm robots. Working with this kind of material was troublesome given the cost and quality of raw materials, the amount of waste produced in the machining process, transportation costs and workplace safety issues. There were also limitations on the intricacy and detail of the models being created.

“We needed to do big stuff as well,” admits Steve. “We had tonnes of semi-trailer after semi-trailer of waste. It was building up in the workshop and it was maddening. So, we bought a big extruder out of China and put it on the Kuka robot.”

“We worked on the design of what would become CADzilla for about a year. We were turning over quite a bit with the robot but, once CADzilla got built, it was totally different. We designed it to do exactly what we wanted with a really fast computer, so I could feed the files quickly and get in and out of corners when it was printing really fast.”

Speed aside (CADzilla has a printing speed of 24 meters-per-minute in layer heights of 0.4 to 6mm), the machine also creates a tangible product at the end of the process: "Before it was always just like an illusion of a real product, because you'd never get sharp edges and accurate dimensions. With CADzilla, it's actually a real product that we're producing.”

CADzilla has afforded the team at Studio Kite some impressive productivity and efficiency gains. Added computer power means they can print four identical products at once. As Steve says, "It's a week instead of a month for delivery – a year instead of four years."

“CADzilla’s enormous – it's seven metres high with a build space of 2.6 metres x 2.6 metres x 3.6 metres. We've got two CADzillas. One of them is currently running two-foot high, little detailed models with filament, and it's so accurate. It does it without a hitch. The machines run through the night, they quietly tremble around and keep on going. We’ve got lots of alarms and safety pressures and all that sort of stuff on them so, if anything goes wrong, it just stops and emails us. So, yeah, we have our CADzillas working around the clock.”

“We pride ourselves on running the factory with solar power and are able to chip up any unnecessary support material or unused prototypes back into usable print material, so we're also complementary to circular manufacturing principles.”

What's next for Studio Kite and manufacturing in Australia?

Including Marvel, and some of the world’s most notable production houses among their clientele, Steve is tight-lipped about the projects Studio Kite has been involved with over the last 12 months. One area that he’s able to talk about is the future of manufacturing in Australia, and what he sees as a looming skills shortage.

While there’s seemingly no shortage of computer animators, Steve is adamant that the industry needs more 3D modellers via a trade apprenticeship model.

“Just like the plumbing trade or a motor mechanic, whatever, you'd be a 3D 'printsmith' or, I don't know what they call them… an additive manufacturer,” he muses. “Within a couple of weeks, you can learn how to run one of these machines, so that that's not a high skill. It's preparing the files for the machine – that's the skill. And that's something that needs a lot more investment put into it to get anywhere serious.”

To this end, Studio Kite is putting their money where their manufacturing mouth is. It’s early days but Steve and his team are working alongside Griffith University to establish pathways with recognised credentials at their end into the industry.

“We might actually be building a qualification or trade for 3D printing, so trained people can be brought in, educated properly in a formal situation, and then rock up to work and you know that they know what they're doing. That's the next move. It will happen.”

Find out more about Studio Kite at https://www.studiokite.com/
The Studio Kite story is part of Integra Systems' Advance Australian Manufacturing (#AAM) initiative. Read all about it and see how you can participate.