Amina knows the secrets of polymer 3D printing

Have you already ordered plastic prints from us? Meet our Additive Manufacturing Specialist Amina!

AM Specialist Amina Nouira has become known to many of our customers as a specialist in plastic prints. In her day-to-day work, she plans projects and schedules, calculates quotations, instructs her team members and also handles quality assurance. On the plastic printing side, our clients are typically industrial companies and product development and design companies of various sizes.

Although we are relatively new to the industry, quite a few customers already know exactly what they are ordering. Some order prototypes, others use 3D prints directly for mass production and end-use," says Amina.

In addition to Amina, the 3DStep plastics team currently employs two full-time employees and a varying number of trainees. Many of the trainees come from the Ikaalinen School of Crafts and Crafts, which offers the only full 3D printing and modelling artisan degree in the Nordic countries - which Amina also has in her pocket. Amina's previous training as a machinist also gives her good additional support.

Training as a machinist and years of work in the engineering industry have given her a good grounding in the technical understanding of mass production, working with technical drawings and maintaining machines. The work requires an understanding of different materials, technologies and computer modelling," says Amina.

Amina says many people choose 3D printing as their manufacturing method because, for example, it allows them to produce small batches quickly, cheaply and still with high quality. With the traditional method, just making a mould can cost thousands of dollars, which requires large batch sizes to pay for itself.

Parts can also use a hybrid model, where challenging geometries can be easily 3D printed and then machined to meet surface finish requirements, for example. The end result is a hybrid product that fully meets the customer's quality requirements.

Many people still see 3D printing as a competitor to traditional manufacturing, comparing it to machining on the metal side and injection moulding on the plastic side. However, 3D printing is its own, separate manufacturing process, often used for products that cannot necessarily be made using traditional methods," says Amina.

Amina has been working at 3DStep since 2017, when a plastic printer was just coming into the company. In the beginning, she did a wide range of everything in the production chain, from finishing parts to scheduling and quoting.

Post-processing is in fact of great importance for the quality of the products, it is by no means a side issue. It is also physically demanding and time-consuming. The parts don't come straight from the printer, but after printing they go through many stages to be as high quality as we deliver them to our customers, says Amina.

The best part of her job is the unusual projects where she gets to challenge herself. There are a lot of different technologies and materials, so you really need to understand them to be able to choose the most suitable for each situation. Part of the skill is also being able to choose the right partners for a particular project from a wide network of collaborators.

The best feeling I get is when a project is successful, the client is satisfied, and the same client contacts me when the next project comes up, says Amina.

In her free time, Amina, from Tampere, enjoys dancing and swimming in the lake in the summer and in the hall and open water in the winter. In winter she also goes skiing.

Nature is a great place to be.

Amina Nouira