BOARDMAN, Ohio – JuggerBot 3D’s newest space allows it to complete larger-scale additive manufacturing work, and its partners and prospective customers had the opportunity Monday to learn about the company’s work.
The company held an open house Monday at its Southern Boulevard location, ahead of the America Makes’ Members Meeting and Exchange on Tuesday, which is expected to draw representatives from government, the additive manufacturing industry and academia to Waypointe 4180 in Canfield.
“This is the first time that we’re opening this facility to the public,” said Ben Toomey, JuggerBot marketing manager. “But later in the evening, it’s for MMX participants and registrants.”
Monday’s event was expected to draw several JuggerBot 3D equipment partners that are linked to its ongoing U.S. Air Force project. Toomey said the company is manufacturing a system for the Air Force – with a $4.2 million price tag – that’s expected to be completed late this year.
It’s for basically a large-format additive manufacturing system with a build of 6-by-10-by-6 feet.
“And so what we’re doing with that project is we’re actually producing tooling workflows using two different types of material extrusion,” Toomey said, listing thermoplastics and thermosets.
Thermoplastics are found in conventional areas such as trash cans and engineering tools. Thermosets are two-part reactive material found in epoxies, silicones and other polymers. They’re strong materials able to withstand duress such as heat and pressure.
Monday’s event was to allow JuggerBot’s equipment partners connected to the Air Force project to demonstrate their equipment.
“Seeing the equipment in action is a huge verification,” Toomey said. “It’s like a check mark, because this is [capital expense] equipment. So you want to see the proof point for it and, obviously, seeing is believing a lot of the time.”
A manufacturer of industrial 3D printers, JuggerBot 3D started in the Youngstown Business Incubator 11 years ago and continues to operate in that facility. The company bought the Southern Boulevard building in late 2024.
That expansion allows the company to serve more customers and to work on large format additive manufacturing systems such as the Air Force project.
Zac DiVencenzo, company president, said Monday’s open house allows JuggerBot to open its doors to provide insights of what it’s been working on for the past two years. Much of what it does, such as working with America Makes and the U.S. Air Force, is under wraps, he said.
“And we don’t get to talk about it enough, especially with our Valley, like the local Youngstown/Warren area,” DiVencenzo said. “No one really understands what goes on in the Mahoning Valley …” where JuggerBot started and expanded to a second location.
“We have the ability to demonstrate the newest technologies that we’ve been working on for the past two years and bring in some of our partners to showcase some of the work and why we selected them for our project,” he said.
Modifications within JuggerBot’s Tradesman Series 3D printers have enabled development of the first large format additive manufacturing system, the Astra. It’s capable of processing polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, materials.
Toomey said PVC may be tailored to various applications.
“So it can be a high temperature version of PVC, or it can be something that’s more commodity driven. And also the material properties are very, very strong for it as well,” he said. “A lot of things that can go in the ground are PVC based.”
DiVencenzo pointed out that the company isn’t using the whole space in the Southern Boulevard building yet.
“There’s always room for more equipment,” he said. “There’s building larger machines. There’s building more unique, bespoke opportunities, so being more of an additive solution provider than just an equipment [original equipment manufacturer] …”
Pictured at top: Ben Toomey, marketing manager at JuggerBot 3D, stands in the company’s Southern Boulevard building in front of a tool that’s been manufactured on a large-format additive manufacturing system and set to be milled down or routed.