EPISODE 7 - TODD REESE

Welcome to the Impulse Spotlight where we meet with product development professionals and shine a light on the products they are most proud of.

In this episode we talk to a long-time colleague of mine who loves playing golf, practicing his guitar and even once played on stage with the 90's band Oleander. 

Todd Reese is the President of Realize Inc. a prototype and 3D printing service provider.

In our conversation we discuss a variety of topics within the realm of additive manufacturing and prototyping. 

From the intriguing origins of Realize Inc. to the meticulous processes involved in 3D printing. Todd shares valuable insights into the company's capabilities and specialized services.

We also dive into the importance of client education, exceeding client expectations, the technical aspects of material selection and which CAD files are most often used.

Strap in and get ready to learn about the evolution of consumer-level printers, the impact 3D printing has on a product's time to market, and the significance of preserving design details within the rapid prototyping industry.

Show Notes:

Click here to learn more about Realize

Podcast Transcript:

Hey, Todd, welcome to the show.

Hey, Troy, how is it going? Man. I appreciate the opportunity to be a first vendor on your podcast here. So looking forward to talking with you for the next half hour or so.

Yeah, yeah, it is going to be awesome. So I started impulse over 25 years ago and worked for a product development company that you are were very aware of and kind of saw the writing on the wall that was not going to be around much longer. So long story short started impulse. And, you know, just started it to help product design firms design products. So how did you get your company started?

Well, it is a very similar situation. So for those of you listening out there watching out there, Troy and I actually worked for the same company, so this was a company that I started with actually right before I graduated from college in 1993. So again, it was a product development company that sort of touched on all facets of that cycle, all the way from industrial design through short run injection molding. So when I started in that company, you know, my whole I guess dream job was going to be like a CAD jockey design in parks and I did have an opportunity to do that, you know, on 1 or 2 projects. But as a startup company, it was very, very small. I think I was the 5th employee. So everybody was doing a little bit of everything in there and I just sort of naturally gravitated towards that 3D printing side of things and became well 1 very interested in it. And then 2, I was good at it. So worked for that company for, let us see, 6 years and and like yourself, we did see, you know, a series of downsizing take place and it looked like that company was not going to be around a while and I knew I loved what I did, so took the opportunity to, you know, talk with some family and friends over Thanksgiving of 1998 and then by April of 99, you know we had already secured financing and you know started the company name and and the timing could not have been any better because as you are well aware to that company and a final for bankruptcy. So it sort of was a seamless transition into the into realize.

Yeah, yeah. So, tell us about realize and and the services you provide.

So yeah, realize we are A3D printing service provider. We do a lot more than just 3D printing. There is auxiliary pieces that we do along with it. So not much on the front end of things. And that is where you know our partnership with Impulse and you over the last, you know, 20 some years has been really, really good for us. So when we do get those calls from, you know, say entrepreneurs or somebody that is really, really at the early stages of stuff, we have got somebody to, you know, that is an expert in that field. So when we come into play, we are typically messing with the 3D printing parts. We might do some RT v caster ethane depending on materials, quantities, things of that nature, and then there is also just, you know, other pieces that we can do as well providing finishing services, whether it is paint, whether it is, say, like chrome plating for an aesthetic look, whether it is metal plating for more of a structural thing. And then we have also, you know, manage some, uh, so short run production on the injection molding side of things as well. So kind of staying typically in that prototype realm although, you know, in the last especially, say, 10 years or so, we have seen a lot more parts coming off of 3D printers that are used in more of a production environment . So that is exciting too. And I think eventually that is where, you know, the kind of the dream is is to be able to, you know, have this mass customization of parts and being able to, you know. 3D print an actual piece and it is being done, you know, as we speak.

Sure, sure. Yeah, it is. It is pretty amazing to think about, you know, when you started realize what the capabilities were and now like we have got several vendors that have 3D printers and they are printing production parts, you know,

Right?

just right there in the in their buildings, so. Tell us a little bit about your team, what are the different roles that that people have to serve your clients?

So we have a pretty small team here. There is 1011 of us, including myself, I am still very, very involved with the day to day operations as an owner as the president. I am still in here in the trenches, you know, getting my hands dirty, you know, in addition to doing books and things like that, we have got a sales team, obviously they are making, you know, phone calls reaching out to, you know, prospects also. In some regard, they will act as project managers as well and and trying to see those projects through the through the shop as well. We have got an admin team that will help, you know just gather details for projects. You know, feeding them kind of being a liaison between sales and production. And then of course we have got the production team as well, 3D printers run unattended , they run 24/7.

So we do have we run 2 shifts. With the production team and then as far as the weekends go, it is just sort of an on call thing, you know, the guys will switch off and, you know, on Friday evenings or whatever, we will have an idea of what needs to be done over the weekend and typically it is like an in and out kind of thing, you know, for the guys that that cover that and then we have got a finish team as well. You know, parts that come off with the printers, they still do require a level of finishing whether it is just, you know, just a basic strip and ship if something somebody needs something quickly. Or if it is going to go further than that, you know, in our shop or if it is something that we end up having to take it to a certain point and then have, you know, another vendor off site, you know, complete some portions of that for us and then we have got a Q C team as well. So we are measuring parts as they come off making sure you know it is. Kind of more than 1 application for that there is, you know, trying to make sure our machines are always in spec, you know, with what the kind of parts that we are printing out and the tolerances that we can hold and then as well as making sure that, you know, the parts that are going to the client, you know, fall within their specifications and what what they are expecting. So the some like.

Super, super tight tolerances. Others are more concerned maybe about the aesthetics of the part versus the dimensions of it. So, you know, I think having that small team of people also makes it very easy for us to pivot and really, I guess tailor our services to what the client needs versus somebody contacting us and and you know, we say, okay, well, step 1 is this step 2 is this it is it is not like that with with realize so. Very nimble. You know, again, small team able to, you know, react and and get things done on a dime when we need to and and that is kind of what we do. We have a lot of, you know, companies or clients that will call us and it is an emergency situation. So that is sort of the nature of our business. And it is kind of exciting and it, you know, gives you a little adrenaline rush every day when you are getting those phone calls and how can we do this because we are excited to do that stuff.

Sure. A minute ago, you mentioned strip and ship 3D printers are pretty popular and now so people probably understand what goes on. But do you want to explain like why do you have to strip anything and what you know what you are stripping and you just kind of for those that do not know, give them an overview, I guess of what happens as a parts built.

Right. So there are many different 3D printing technologies that are out there here at realize in house we have got selective laser centering Sls. There is stereolithography known as S L. Then there is FDM, which is a fuse to deposition modeling. So there is just there is a lot of different methods out there, there is metals, so when we say strip and ship, it is really just taking it off of the machine and doing as little work to it as possible before we ship it out so. In let us use S L. E.g., those parts require support structures when they are building in that liquid medium, so what parts come out of the machine, we strip off those supports with a putty knife or whatever, so clean it and an alcohol solution post cure it and then pretty much check measurements and get it out the door. So there is not really any, say, sanding down of the parts to make it smooth. And that is I kind of touched on that a little bit earlier in regards to our finish team. That, you know, even though you have these hundreds of thousands of dollars of machines making parts for you, it still requires a level of, you know, a skill set after the fact that is more on the human side of things. They really hone the parts in with SLS. That is a powder base, there is no supports. So that is really just blowing off the powder again, measuring things, you know, that that is a step that we we just do not skip. You know, every we have got printouts of every part that we do and Q C is writing down at least over all dimensions for every part that we go out and then, you know, we will get like monthly reports. And, you know, and you can kind of see trends on like, okay, we have got this machine, we have been seeing some, you know, maybe measurements are walking out on a little bit so that machine might need some attention whether it is a, you run a new scale build or do we need to have an FE field engineer for like a maintenance issue? So, yeah, strip and ship is really just as little work as you can do to a party possible before you get it out the door.

Yeah, it is. It is interesting though. I think a lot of people that do not understand the whole picture of 3D printing, think you just send the part out and you get a bill and you take it out of the machine and put in a box and ship it and there is just so much more that goes on in.

Yeah, and I think 1 day, you know, there are things that are getting better and, you know, you read about some of these things with, like, the the holograms, how they can like, basically the, you know, part will realize itself at at 1 time and I think down the road there is some exciting stuff that could take place, but that is 1 that is always been fascinating to me is that the hologram thing that they have they have experimented with.

Yeah, yeah, so you mentioned earlier entrepreneurs , you know, at impulse, we work with, you know, entre entrepreneurs , individuals, small team design teams, medium, even big, large design teams, what what is the range of client that you work with?

Yeah, that is typical for us as well. It is it is really a wide range. I think our sweet spot is those medium sized companies that do not necessarily have those 3D printing technologies in house. You know, again, we are a service provider. Of course, in the last, you know, 1015 years and really 3D printing, I think became more of a household term and like the, you know, right before we hit like 2010, like that 2,008, 2,009 time frame started getting more traction that way. So we have definitely seen a lot more clients, you know, have some level of 3D printers in their shop. So you know what we have seen is maybe a decline in like the 1 off kind of parts and where they are doing them themselves in house and then when it comes to higher quantities or maybe different materials, that is where we will, you know, I guess make our our mark.

Sure. I assume size would be a time you or somebody that has an in house printer might call you.

Yeah. So, I mean, we have got again, small machines, so we might have the ability to build something and say like a higher resolution than they are capable of doing and the same with a large part. I mean, we have built parts that are, you know, 506 ft long. Our largest machine will handle a part in 1 piece. It is about, say 31 " by 31 " and about 30 or about 22 " tall. But you know, you can and we have built larger parts. It is just you have to cut and paste and you know, we try to do that strategically to make sure that. The when the parts are bonded back together, we do have a very solid bond, so whether it is a dovetail or a tongue and groove or, you know, different kinds of things to do that we have inserted metal pins into parts just to help things hold together and in areas like that, but yeah, the size of the clients that we deal with are, you know, again, entrepreneurs all the way through large companies, we have just found that sweet spot being that.

That mid sized company a lot less, you know, there is a lot of, I guess, red tape to go through and the larger companies when it comes to, you know, if you are not necessarily dealing with the person that needs to parts you do not purchasing. So there is a lot of levels and a lot of maybe phone calls that need to be made. But again, it is it is something that we enjoy doing and, you know, whatever the challenge is, building a part or trying to get to the right person, it is all a lot of fun.

Sure. If you had to boil it down to 1 thing, what is the the biggest thing about your service that keeps your clients coming back time and time again?

I think it has to do with like the size of our team and then the quality of our team. You know, when you do a transaction with realize it is it is it is an experience. I mean, you are going to get that 1 on 1 conversation with somebody. And and those are you know, I take pride in, you know, we have remained this family owned company for since 1999 and you know, that I think that really shows I think our reputation in the industry is is we thought out very highly. Our team members are, you know, qualified, they have been with us forever, you know, that is 1 thing that we have noticed here is very, very little turnover. You know, we have got people that have been here 1015 years. So I think that speaks a lot to it, you know, the quality of the parts that people are receiving in addition to just the conversations we have with them at the beginning of the process and then throughout the process. You know, all the way up until they, you know, receive their parts and we are following up with them making sure that, hey, did everything go for you, you know, we see that you are. You know, part was delivered because, you know, we have even to my email address, I have got all every shipment that goes out of here. I know when it is delivered to the client so we can, you know, make sure that there were no hiccups throughout, you know, shipping.

Sure, sure. So from your perspective, obviously you kind of live in this corner of the product development world. What are the biggest challenges you see product development professionals facing?

So there is a good question. You know, over the years we have seen, I guess the understanding of 3D printing and what the capabilities are of it. And I think there is there is almost like 2 different sides to it some people think overestimate what it can do, but others underestimate what it can do. So I think, you know, and again, that is where we can come in and try to help educate, you know, I would not say we are consultants so much. But education is a very big part of, you know, especially with a new client in trying to dig in and just when they send you apart and say print this, there is there is more to it than that. It is like, okay, what are you going to use this for? What is the environment it is going to be in? You know? Just what are the expectations and it will help us point them to the right technology, which may not be we may not have that technology here. We might have send it out, but ultimately we want to do what is best for that client. And I think that, you know, that is 1 of the biggest challenges that that they are facing is, you know, having the right information on what can be done or what cannot be done with the 3D printing technologies that are out there.

Yeah, sure. That makes sense. I mean, that it is not their specialty, right? They they what they have read and that, you know, they have picked up over time and that is all they need.

Yeah. Right. Yeah, I mean, we will have people call in or email us or whatever or reach out to our website and and they will call out a certain material. You know, why did you pick this material, you know?

Yeah, it is. That is a it is a good answer to that question. It is interesting to to understand that how does so you talked you know, you do education. Is that there are a formal process of that or is it just more of like when the need arises you you are going to? Yeah, I think I think it is more of an organic conversation , you know, and and having those opening conversations with a client and given clients that have been with us for a long time, you know, they have got something new that comes up and again, I think that is something that we take pride into is like and if you are just struggling with like some kind of problem, just use this as a sounding board, just, you know, give us a call and say him face in this or want to do, you know, x with Y and, you know, do you have any ideas on how this might work and, you know, we might shrug our shoulders and say, we do not know and there might be issues where it is like, hey, we have you know, I know somebody who might know something here. Let us let us get old of it and there are times when, you know, we can maybe say come to the rescue with a solution for them in house.

Sure. And you do not charge for anything like that, right?

Typically we do not. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, that is that is 1 thing we try to get our clients and prospective clients to do too. But we have done this for over 25 years, you know, call and ask, you know, we might we may not know the answer but.

Right?

We may have you know, we have got a lot of resources and a lot of, you know, experience, so use, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is funny too, looking back, you talking about experience and looking back like when I first started in the industry and how the software has changed, like when we first started when I first started working on like an SLS machine in the past. There was no 3D like it was all you had to do and it was almost like set up on a spreadsheet , then you would have to go through it layer by layer and see how things would work and how it is going to come together. And, you know, I I kind of think that helps us be a little bit better at what we do because, you know, we were kind of ushered in from that into the the threed where you could actually see the parts on the screen and spin them around and see if they are touching or not.

How does your how does your service help? I mean, I think it is kind of obvious, but let us talk about it anyway. How does your service help product development teams achieve faster time to market?

Yeah, speed to market is a big thing. Obviously, everyone wants to get their product out there as quickly as they can and have it done right. So I think with the caliber of equipment that we have got, the number of machines that we have, we have over a dozen again raging in size from, you know, parts or pieces that can be built at very small layer thicknesses and fine layer site or fine laser sizes so you can get that detail up to, you know, machines that are you are building like, say half an engine block or something along that line and, you know, machines just got to say a little fatter laser beam and can draw faster. And it it is just all about the speed. So getting parts to clients quickly is a big 1. And then I think that we are seeing a lot more complex projects, so it is not necessarily anymore print this part.

It might be something like, hey, we have got this is what our I guess assembly might be the right word to use. We see a lot more like assembly style stuff. And it could be a marriage of, you know, this 3D printing technology, this 3D printing technology, and then there is going to be, say, some RT, V and cast models done with it, and we have to make sure that those all you know, fit together and go together seamlessly and then it is just kind of incredible what the clients can do with those the test, like the real world testing that they can pull off with that stuff. So I think it is really helping them shorten their entire cycle and you know, I think those type of clients are the ones that are pushing a lot of 3D printing that industry and like what can be done with them because again, it is it is so much more than just parts. There is again, these these big assemblies, you know, quantities are going up where people used to do 1 Z twos and, you know, now it is not uncommon for us to see, you know, orders for 100, 200 parts that are printed, um. And then, of course, the quicker we can knock them out, you know, again, we have a a fleet of machines here so, you know, trying to keep them all in check with each other. So let us say you build part A on this machine. Part B on this machine, you got to make sure that they are still going to fit together, so, you know, making sure that those quality pieces are in place, you know, the machines are maintained on a maintenance level. Kind of like an oil change or rotating your tires on your car, you know, just can do everything you can to keep it running.

Sure, sure. You mentioned the case where you had a bunch of different machines building for 1 assembly. Was it in all the machines because you were looking for different materials or different colors or?

It can be both actually. So some of the materials have different properties. We have got like an opaque, y got black material, have like a kind of a grayish material. We got clear materials. So a lot of times you might do let us say a housing for an a consumer electronics apart and they want like a little, you know, a window piece that is going to fit into a a whole or like a, you know, an LED or something might be behind it. So, yeah, a lot of times it has to do with what they are looking to do as far as an aesthetic standpoint, a lot of times clients might we have got 1 client in particular that whenever we see an order come in, usually it is multiple parts like there might be, say, 25 components that go to their assembly and they like to pick different materials just for a color contrast, just so they can see the different pieces in there versus having to go in and say, you know, paint this 1 certain color or that 1 another color just kind of helps differentiate the different pieces that are all together in their assembly. And then it could be just quantity. You know, sometimes clients do not necessarily care what the material is. They just need a lot of parts and they need them fast. So at that point we can shift them between several machines and and again, try to reduce that time to delivery.

Sure, sure. You mentioned different materials. How many different material options do you have?

Six to ten, and that is like straight out of 3D printing machines and then, you know, once you go into the world of casting things where we will make like a 1 off master pattern that we are going to replicate pieces of urethanes, there is literally thousands of, you know, different ones you can choose from with different properties, different hardnesses . So, yeah, we have got our favorite say probably 2 dozen materials that we go to, but, you know, it is kind of funny. The questions that we will get from clients is like, again, we have been doing this for a long, long time and you are still like, wow, I have never heard that question before. So again, that is fun for us too because we, you know, feel like we are still learning stuff every day too in this industry.

Yeah, can you share a like a story of a specific e.g. of a client that came to you and used your service and, you know, they had this successful outcome?

Yeah, actually we have got a good 1 and you are kind of a piece of this too. So, I remember I was sitting here 1 night at the office. It was a little bit later in the evening, say 6:00, 6:45, you know, we you know, us being on the eastern time, we do have clients on the West Coast. So, you know, typically there is 2 or 3 of us around a little bit later in the evenings. And then of course, we have got that second shift on the production side. But, yeah, I had a guy call and he was he just had an idea and asked if we were familiar with the guitar and I am like actually I got an acoustic 1 sitting right right behind me here and he is like, I mean, you have just save me like 20 min worth of explaining step to you. And so again, he had an idea did not have a sketch on a napkin or anything. And, you know, again, since our expertise is not necessarily in design, we turn them over to impulse product development for that phase of things and we went through iteration after iteration of prototypes, uh, for this guy and it was the prototypes were useful, like he could strap it onto the guitar. It was it was a it was a piece that was, I guess, twofold. It could be used for teaching guitar and they could also be say somebody kind of is their hands do not work like they once did. Yeah, they can still play these, you know, I guess basic chords with just a push of a button, almost like guitar, hero style. And ultimately, that product hit the market. Made the US a cord, buddy is what it is called. Again, you are very familiar with this. And ultimately, he went on Shark Tank and got a deal from a shark. And is continuing to sell those cord buddies to this day.

Yeah, yeah. That was a crazy and fun projects.

Yeah, yeah. It was a good time. I mean, it was over it was a quite a while that we went through those iterations but it is it is fun to see those kind of successes because, you know, loan Travis was such a good guy and just passionate about but everything just who to talk to so. So it was a good time.

Yeah, you mentioned earlier that you do not force your clients into a, you know, specific process. We do the same thing. We we try to do everything we can to just, hey, we are going to work in your process. But what does it look like when a client comes to you, like what there has to be some process, what is the process look like for them to start doing business with you and and get part?

Yeah, so so when a client first comes to us, we have to you know, what we are going to do, our best service on the front end is if they have a 3D model already created. Occasionally we will get people come to us with just a print and usually it is like a nice drawing, like a, you know, a fully spec out drawing. Those are helpful, but ultimately we do need a threed cat file where we can see the, you know, the overall size of it as well as the the volume of the part that does play into, say pricing and timing as well. So yeah, Threed model is definitely like I would say the the major first step that they would need to provide us with. And at that point, we can provide an estimate proposal depending on the scope of their project. And then really it is just kicking it back to them and then seeing how they want to proceed again. Flexibility comes during the we have had guys want to stop by and pick up parts or they want to come by and actually was their parts building in the machine. So yeah, it is just I mean, not so much a process outside of that first step of a file.

Yeah. Sure. So obviously getting a CAD file would be 1 of these. Are there any other best practices that people should know about? You know, some like does and dots to make things run smooth?

Yeah, yeah, so the machines will our machines typically ultimately need an S T L file, which is it is a representation of your CAD data and you can control that representation by changing the setting and whatever software package that you are using that you are doing your, you know, designing in whether it is solid works or whatever. Because in 1 of those kind of packages, if you have got something that is around, it is a true round where when you move it over to an S T L standpoint, you are turning it into kind of a point cloud the lack of a better description. So the tighter that you can put those points together, the more true you are going to be to your CAD file, the more loose you are with those settings, you are going to have a very coarse piece, so if you have got like a cylinder, it could come out with a lot of very facets that are very apparent, very, you know, visually pleasing. Um, you know, doing that stuff a lot of time. We will work more with step files or I just files steps. Probably been the most 1 that we use these days. That way we can control the quality of the S T L file that goes into our machines, but. You know, we will we will have, um, we will kick back to the client and say, yeah, I mean, we could build this part as it is with these facets on here, but I do not think you are going to get out of it what you want to get out of it, so if you just change to it or send us the step file instead, that is going to ultimately make you happier with what you get and do a better job with it.

Yeah, yeah. So just a few more questions and start to wrap up. But what is the biggest change you have seen in your business over the years?

Again, I think going from just part to these more complex projects, that is been a big 1, just the advancement of the technologies , the things we are doing with metal now and all these other different processes that are out there. I think that when the say consumer level machines first started coming out, they were very consumer level. I think those are becoming more advanced now. I think there is a lot of really good say like FDM style printers and really even S LA style printers that you can get for I mean, it is still a, you know, hefty chunk of change but you are not spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. So I think those are making definitely an impact, you know, on that those early 1z2 Z's, you know, that they are just trying to roll out some early design stuff. So we do not necessarily see that churning like we used to. So that is been a big 1 too and, you know, you can just, you know, more and more companies bringing in machines themselves. So, you know, we find ourselves, you know, we have challenges. As everybody else and you know, but we are confident in the services that we provide. So a lot of times when a company will bring a machine in house, a printer in house, they might just run 1 material. So when they do, you need a different material or if they need like you were saying earlier, a larger or smaller part, we are still there to fill that. So we have got a lot of clients that have machines in house, but we still hear from them like on the regular.

Yeah, yeah. This question is kind of almost the same, I guess, but maybe we can look out a little further. What are some of the emerging trends that you are seeing in in your part of the product development world?

I definitely see that those again, the the barrier of entry is becoming a little bit less like the quality of machines is a lot better than it once was. And again, I know we talked earlier on an email exchange about like some AI stuff as well and, you know. That is interesting as well. I do not know if it is going to lead to another question altogether, but so if I am to be better, maybe a little early, but you know that I think could be a cool trend with how the machines and the quality of the parts could change with that. The machines could learn, you know, from themselves, like have that feedback system in there where you are, let us say measuring the strength of a part, you know, because this is layer added technology, you are a lot of times going to get different properties in the different directions, so. Yeah, might lead to, hey, now we like what what is your what is your goal for this part? If you do you want like the ultimate strength out of it, then the machine is going to know, hey, to build it this way, being it fast, we need to build it this way. I think that designing for, so we still have a lot of instances where there is a lot of feature detail that can be compromised because of the nature of the process itself, um, so there is some, you know, adjustments that are made on the software side of things, so. Like in regards to the diameter of the laser beam, we have to offset for that to get like true dimensions, the same with like we have got a there is a factor in there called like Z Compensation where say for the e.g. of CER lithography, that first layer or 2 that gets hit with the laser beam, it does not know to go down like just 1 layer and stop, you know, it might bleed a little bit down there, so in order to get that correct dimension, we might need to shave off a couple bottom layers that way. It is all said and done. It is the right size. So that can lead to compromising of features if if there are small features on there. So I think that, you know, the whole AI thing to it can be very helpful in helping the machine preserve those details without, you know, completely losing which we will see now and again. Thin walls can just go away, yeah?

Sure. So I was going to ask about AI is there anything else you see AI kind of impacting your industry?

I mean, those are the big ones, I think, and just how you can make better parts and and making better and so metals is a good 1, you know, we do not have metals here. You know, we were talking earlier about strip and ship. I know that like strip and ship for metals is a completely different beast and I have also heard that, I mean, you can have 20 years worth of plastics under your belt with 3D printing and you step into the metal world and, you know, nothing like nothing transferred, so but I know that, you know, again, I think with, say, the different methods that can be done with metals after the fact, you know, the heat treaty and all that stuff and again. The orientation of parts, I think is going to play pretty good role on that and we will see how it you know, I am anxious to see how it could feed back into the front end of the software kind of things. And I have not I have not heard a lot in that space. But, you know, there is been a lot of talk about AI lately, so.

Yeah, you know, it is coming. You just do not know exactly how. Yeah, so so last question and we will wrap up in your experience, what is what are some of the most underutilized features or tools that you guys have to offer that people, you know, underestimate?

Yeah. I mean, I think it kind of comes from that, I guess we talked about earlier in regards to like the education and, you know, I guess some clients will call in and they might be surprised or or not quite understand what can be done with reading printing. So I think when they are not as educated in those early conversations , they may not know that, okay, this material can go up to x degrees. And you do not have to, you know, go to a secondary process or you might be able to, you know, mimic this with this material versus going to like an injection mod tool or something like that. So I think that is the big thing. It is just just making sure that they are educated enough to understand what can be done without having unrealistic expectations either, you know, going to build a 4 ft part and like overnight kind of thing, you know, but I think just keeping it keeping it real with them and just setting expectations and, you know, trying to I guess over deliver. And again, exceeding those expectations .

Cool, this has been awesome. Is there anything else you want to add? Mention make sure that people know about when it comes to realize.

Think we have covered a pretty good piece of it. I mean, it is been a fun, right? I mean, I absolutely love what I do. We love every phone call we get. We come in do not necessarily know who is going to be on the other end of the phone. So you know, over the years, we have been presented with some really exciting projects and you know as you are well in this line of the business, we can not not necessarily talk about a lot of it because we are under so much non disclosures. And again, we are pretty early in that design cycle. So, you know, obviously everyone is trying to protect their their goods before they hit the market. But yeah, it is just, you know, we really enjoy what we do. Everybody here loves what we do. We have a good time doing it. It is still, you know, after so I fell into this industry in 1993, so, you know, over 30 years now and I will still find myself with my head on the glass back there just watching something build still to this day just fascinates me so. You know, again, just highlighting how so nimble we are and you know can react quickly and work with clients process versus having to mold them into ours and just encouraging people to, you know, give us a call and talk about those problems or what challenges they are facing in their product development side and see if there is anything that we might be able to do to help them out.

Cool, that is awesome. Where can people find you if they want to learn more about realize?

So, I mean, we have got a website realizeinc.com we do have an online quoting system as well. That is a little bit more for kind of like just basic parts when it comes to say more advanced things. We will we do want to have like more of a proposal kind of set up where we have those conversations . So we have your partners at real zinc com is a good email address to kind of open up a conversation . And again on our website, we have also got like a form you can fill out For attaching a file that way and, you know, versus getting a quote right away instantly, you know, you are again opening up that conversation and so there is a couple different ways you can get rid of us obviously, you know, talking to Troy. They will give us names every once in a while and vice versa, you know, when we get, you know, calls for cat design or whatever, will typically shoot them your way as well. But it is been a good partnership with you over the last I mean, yeah, pretty much started. So you guys started in 98 and we started in 99, so. Quite a few more or less 1 or 2.

Yep. Blend into the background . Cool. Well, this has been awesome. I really appreciate you taking the time to do this. I will put put all this information on the website and, you know, put a link to your website on there as well.

Okay, yeah. Again, appreciate being the opportunity to be a vendor out here for you. And now you have done a couple of these podcasts and kind of a cool thing.

Yeah. Yep. I appreciate it.

All right. Thanks.