Lee

Lee brings 25 years of cross sector design expertise and a passion for additive manufacture. From his start as an apprentice fabricator welder to his role as technical director, he has led CAD design, rapid prototyping and production intent 3D printing initiatives while championing education and corporate social responsibility.

Lee is the other partner in the businesss and, like fellow director Paul, brings a vast depth of technical expertise and industry know-how to the company.

Over the past 25 years, he has worked across multiple sectors designing products for the automotive, plant equipment, commercial vehicle, health and safety equipment and nuclear industries.

Lee’s specialist skill lies in design and he has many years of experience in CAD, project management and designing products for manufacture.

Much like Paul, Lee completed a recognised apprenticeship as a fabricator welder for Northern Counties – a Wigan-based bus building company now known as Alexander Dennis. He returned to Northern Counties on three occasions, ultimately joining the drawing office team and embarking on his design journey.

For the past 15 years Lee has regularly used 3D printing to support design projects, most often to demonstrate concepts or validate designs through rapid prototyping.

Both Lee and Paul believe that, thanks to advances in 3D printing technology and materials, it is now possible to use additive manufacture to produce production-quality parts. They see volume production as achievable by setting up 3D printer manufacturing cells or farms, where multiple machines produce parts in parallel—one large machine versus 30 smaller, more versatile ones.

To achieve this requires educating designers and manufacturing engineers to design and plan specifically for additive manufacture.

Previously, Lee was technical director and co-founder of CAL International. Under his leadership CAL grew rapidly into a sizeable design house offering CAD design and 3D printing services from facilities in both the UK and Poland, employing over 30 people. 

Lee is also a passionate advocate of corporate social responsibility. As technical director at CAL he established an apprentice scheme and championed numerous events supporting STEM, IMechE and local charities in the Knowsley area—and plans to continue doing so through 3D 360.

Both Lee and Paul believe their hands-on experience of advanced manufacturing is invaluable in guiding and educating both industry on the benefits of additive manufacture and in promoting Industry 4.0.