Inside IALR

From Trainees to Trainers: The ATDM Additive Journey

• Institute for Advanced Learning and Research

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This episode features Daniel Hyler and Tim Holland—two graduates turned additive manufacturing instructors with the Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing (ATDM) program. Hear them discuss lessons they picked up along the way, plus real-world applications of additive manufacturing in today’s job market.

Listen in as they discuss:

  • Jumping from Student to Instructor: How they found their calling in the classroom.
  • The ‘Light Bulb’ Moment: Why watching a student finally “get it” is so rewarding.
  • Industry Readiness: Helping companies embrace the possibilities of 3D printing.
  • Career Pathways: Creating your own opportunities in an evolving field.

The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research serves as a regional catalyst for economic transformation in Southern Virginia. Our services, programs and offerings are diverse, impactful and far reaching.

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Caleb Ayers:

All right, welcome to another episode of Inside IALR. Thanks for joining us today. So we have done a lot of episodes that involve ATDM, our Accelerated Training and Defense Manufacturing Program. We've done a lot of episodes that involve that program one way or another. And here we are with another episode that involves ATDM. So we have, I think, a pretty cool story that we have two instructors in the additive manufacturing program for ATDM that are actually graduates of ATDM. So they went through the program, went out in industry, have come back and worked their way up and are now instructing students coming through. We have Hyler and and Tim Holland who are both additive manufacturing instructors. So thank you guys for being here. It's good to be here. Tell me about how kind of you ended up in the ATDM program to begin with and kind of what were your takeaways from that.

Daniel Hyler:

Well, I had the wonderful pleasure of being part of the very first CNC program for ATDM. Pleasure of being part of the very first CNC program for ATDM I was just fresh out of high school, I'd actually graduated on a Friday. I got a call on Saturday that there was this program from an employee within ATDM and they reached out and said there was an open slot. So I decided I'd sign up and I started class on Monday. And then also the pleasure of being part of the first additive class for ATDM shortly after the CNC program was completed. So it was a wonderful program.

Caleb Ayers:

You have to tell how you went through it twice. That seems worth sharing.

Daniel Hyler:

Well, truthfully, it was before policies were set in place, so I don't know if we should go too much in detail on that, but it was for Fast Tech, so you threw it right.

Daniel Hyler:

Yes, so after completing the CNC program a local business actually on site here at IALR, fast Tech they took me on as kind of an intern to begin with and I moved into an official part-time job and then they actually sponsored for me to go into the additive program with ATDM. I went through the ATDM program during the mornings and then went back to work basically a full-time job at nights with Fast Tech and at the completion of the additive course I went on to being kind of the lead additive engineer, kind of on site, for certain machines that were at Fast Tech, and I stayed there for approximately eight months later before coming back onto the ATDM team Nice.

Caleb Ayers:

And what about you, Tim?

Tim Holland:

I initially came here I was industry sponsored. At the time I was working as a machinist for Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Out in Norfolk they pretty regularly send a few of their either machinists or their apprentices out here to get further training, especially on you know, the CNC machines, training especially on, you know, the CNC machines. So they sent me out here to get trained. Absolutely fell in love with Danville while I was out here. I love the nice small town feel of it but it's still a big enough town that you know you can still do all the things you really want to do, you know, and so went through the CNC program here at ATDM. I was part of the fifth cohort through that program and went back to the the shipyard after but decided I wanted to come back here after a little while because I enjoyed the area. I enjoyed the program and what we do here and feel it gave me some more opportunities.

Caleb Ayers:

And both of you guys started as technicians in the program and then worked your way up to instructors. That's correct, yes, correct. And both of you guys recently became instructors.

Daniel Hyler:

So I'm in a little interesting situation. After being a technician for the ATDM additive course for about a year, I actually stepped out of ATDM for another program here at ILR, the NASAM program, and I was doing that for about 10, 11 months and then ended up taking a position as the ATDM additive instructor.

Caleb Ayers:

And for those who don't know, nasam is also additive manufacturing just for active duty Navy personnel. So still teaching additive. Just changed audience Right, correct. So what kind of were your as you guys were going through the ATDM program kind of, what were your takeaways? And I mean, I know you went through twice, daniel, but specifically on the additive side, what were kind of your big takeaways from the program? What were the or wait, you just said you went through CNC.

Tim Holland:

Yeah, I went through CNC as a student. That's wild.

Caleb Ayers:

Neither of you went through ATDM, as I mean you didn't go through ATDM as additive.

Tim Holland:

Nope. So. So for me it was additive. Well, 3D printing has been a huge hobby of mine for well over a decade, well over a decade. And so, yeah, when Daniel actually transferred over to NASAM to be the instructor there that opened up a technician spot in additive, I went into our boss's office with a whole bunch of stuff that I printed out from home and was like I want to transfer over because that's, cnc is where my resume is at, where my experience is at, but additive is where my passion is at, and he let me have the opportunity to go over.

Tim Holland:

I went over at first on just kind of a trial basis to see how things went. Uh, I went over to additive, uh, working with the instructor at the time, eric, and he gave me the thumbs up and said, yeah, I got, I got my new technician, so stayed there until uh, uh, he uh decided to to move up and move out and, you know, get onto his own thing. And uh, so the Institute uh bumped me up to instructor as well. So that's how we have two of us now.

Caleb Ayers:

Yeah, that's, that's really cool. What were kind of the things that you learned while you were in the ATDM program, whether it be in the CNC machining or the additive track, that kind of influence how you now teach the program.

Daniel Hyler:

I think the main thing that I took away was the computer-aided design, the CAD training that was part of that. So all of the ATDM students in the additive course they learn a program called Fusion 360, which allows you to produce in the computer anything that you could imagine.

Tim Holland:

And that was a big help when moving into the industry position that I was in and then also going in further to teach that that training was instrumental to the progression that I've made to piggyback off of uh what Daniel said, because I agree 100% that the CAD software, um learning that has been huge uh, especially for uh the that you know, after I graduated, because the CNC instructor let us get into Fusion a little bit and dabble with not just design but also the CAM side, the computer-aided machining side of Fusion 360.

Tim Holland:

And when I was able to go back to Norfolk Naval I was able to utilize that a bit, which was huge for me. There's been many times where I'm trying to just even visualize something myself and I have to go running over to my laptop, open up Fusion just so I can actually put it in there and be able to see it better on the screen than it is in my own imagination, was how much the training really tries to align itself to realistic expectations of what life is like outside of the training environment, in an actual shop environment. You know the students are. We're expected to clock in and out on time. You know they actually hold you to your attendance here. You have to wear all the proper safety gear, you have to check tools in and out, everything that is normal in a regular shop environment. So that way hopefully the transition for somebody who's coming in, who isn't industry sponsored and doesn't know what life is like in a shop. You know that transition to shop life is a lot easier.

Caleb Ayers:

Yeah, that makes sense and that is a good might as well structure the program to match where the students are going to after. So that definitely seems like a good selling point for ATDM. Tim, you said your hobby is additive 3D printing.

Caleb Ayers:

That's been a hobby of yours for 10 years. I mean, I get the idea, I get the very basic idea of 3D printing, but tell me a little bit about additive manufacturing on a very basic level and then kind of walk us through some of the I guess some of the main things that you're teaching, that you guys are teaching the students in these classes about the actual process of using 3D printing to make parts.

Tim Holland:

Oh, certainly. So yeah, with 3D printing, obviously you know you're taking some form of media, whether it be plastic or metal or composite material, resins, what have you and you are taking your design. The software will put it into essentially just layers, slice it horizontally, and so each layer it will create, and then, once it's done with that layer, moves up, does the next layer, over and over and over again until you end up with your part. The really neat thing about doing it with additive versus a normal subtractive method is you have a lot less waste. A lot of times you're able to create geometries that may not be able to be created with subtractive manufacturing.

Caleb Ayers:

Explain that a little bit more. You can make geometries that aren't possible with subtractive manufacturing. Explain that a little bit more you can make geometries that aren't possible with subtractive manufacturing.

Tim Holland:

That sounds interesting. So with subtractive manufacturing, like machining, if you can't touch it from the outside, you can't machine it. So if there's some sort of like internal cavity or void or something on the inside of a part, I have to be able to reach that from the outside. I have to be able to get a tool in there from the outside in order to create that. Um, whereas with additive, because you're making it layer by layer by layer, you can have a fully encapsulated void or pocket or something on the interior of your print that can't be reached otherwise. There are certain geometries even on the outside of a part. If it's a very intricate part, again, if I can't figure out how to fit this long straight, you know tool in there to create that without hitting another part of the material. I can't make that, then you know, whereas with additive I can. So it's a really for me it's a really exciting technology to learn and be a part of, because I feel like the only thing I'm limited by is my imagination.

Daniel Hyler:

To continue off that thought, all of the intricacies that additive manufacturing has there's just the same as any other process. There's different tricks, hiccups that you're going to fall into as you go through the process, and that's the main thing that we're teaching these students is how to look out for those trouble spots in any part and how to overcome them. That's one of the biggest challenges. The biggest hurdles to overcome is to learn how to think in that 3D space, being able to overcome those troubles and figuring out an efficient way to get your end result the way it should be.

Tim Holland:

Absolutely. Another thing that we go over is specifically, which is essentially what Daniel was just talking about, is design for additive. A lot of geometries or aspects of parts that they are there specifically because of the method that they are made in. You know, whether you have like an injection molded piece of plastic, you know they're going to put certain geometries on there in order to make it easier to separate from the mold Um or if they want to have uh less material, so that way they don't you know they're not having to make as an expensive of a part. You'll have like a big open space on one side, Whereas with additive we can vary um the the inside structure of the part to where we can still have a full size part, no weird cutouts or uh missing bits, but still be able to uh reduce the amount of plastic and material in there if it doesn't need it.

Tim Holland:

So that's another thing you know that we teach about is how can we, how can we break away from the norm essentially of making things and actually design for the process that we're using? Because a lot of people, honestly, when they start getting into additive manufacturing and 3D printing, they think it's just CNC subtractive, but in reverse. You know we're building up, we're not cutting away, but there's a lot more to it than just that.

Caleb Ayers:

So that's every. That's my understanding of what you exactly. What you just said. When I talk about it's, yeah, subtractive, you're tearing down, additive, you're building up. So now I got it, now I'm learning the more to it. You know, a few episodes ago we had a couple of the guys from the maritime industrial base to talk about the work happening in the in the CMA, with additive manufacturing and how they're basically creating those recipes for how to do the 3D printing for these parts. From your guys' perspective and I think, daniel, you especially, having worked with NASAM as well, you saw it from the active-duty Navy side what are you guys seeing as far as how is additive being used in industry today and what kinds of parts are you guys training students to be able to go make? And I mean not specific parts, but like what types of things?

Daniel Hyler:

Generally now, additive is touching every industry that's out there, whether it's medical for implants, or medical for tissue repair. There's the actual industrial, mechanical parts that military is using, aerospace it's all over the place now. The main thing that additive is being used for, especially on the military side, is for a direct replacement for parts that they can't actively get now, whether the part was in the supply chain before and now is no longer being produced, or it was a part from a really, really old manufacturer that's no longer in business. Whatever the situation is, they're using additive manufacturing to reproduce and copy these parts that they no longer have access to.

Tim Holland:

Another thing that I've noticed is you know, additive is great for rapid prototyping. Great for rapid prototyping Again, when I was working back in Norfolk Naval, like we had a specific group. They were the rapid prototype lab. That's where the couple of 3D printers that they did have in the shipyard at the time, that's where they lived, because anytime you had an idea for something and you needed to quickly try to make that item, that's where you went and those were the tools that they used.

Tim Holland:

Think outside the box, try to come up with something new and go through iterations, because nobody's going to have the perfect answer to the question right off the bat. You know you're going to have to print something out, see if it breaks. If it does, okay, how can we stop that and go through the whole process. Which additive is absolutely perfect for helping companies do that? And then, another way that we are seeing the industry really embrace additive is in more of your exotic materials. One of the printing methods that we have is the Meltio system, so it prints in metal and when you have a more exotic metal, say like titanium for example, if I can print a part out, that's almost the exact thing you know, because the printers aren't precise enough to get it 100% correct, but if I can print it, say 80% to 90% correct, and then use traditional machining to get it the rest of the way, I'm only wasting.

Tim Holland:

Maybe. What would you say, say 5%, 10%, the amount of material versus normal subtractive methods, which means I don't have half the money that I spent on that material going out in the waste bin. Now I only have a fraction of that cost going out of the waste bin. So there's more money in the company's pocket. There's more money, hopefully, in the machinist's pocket, or the, the company's pocket. There's more money hopefully in, you know, the, the machinist pocket, or the, the additive technician's pocket, you know, for the same product.

Caleb Ayers:

essentially, and I know, yeah, as you said, it's daniel, it's in every industry, and I know you guys are more focused on the you know industrial part of it and the you know more more traditional parts. You're not work working in medical or anything like that, but yeah, you, I know there's whole rabbit holes, you can go down with that and all the things they're trying to. 3d print.

Tim Holland:

I don't know if we can name drop name brands for you, but Invisalign braces. You know what I'm talking about, 3D printed. They're 3D printed on resin printers.

Daniel Hyler:

Did not know that. And then on the other end of the spectrum, 3d printed steaks like rib eyes Now that you can get. They're really expensive, but they're apparently really good.

Caleb Ayers:

I wish you could see my face listeners um trying to understand how that works.

Tim Holland:

So something maybe a bit more, uh, appetizing. Uh, you can actually get now, um, now, 3d chocolate printers. They print in chocolate so you can make some really cool custom chocolates at home, you know, in all kinds of different shapes, sizes, and fill it with all kinds of nifty things you want to make, like a little Easter bunny that when you break you break it open sprinkles go flying everywhere.

Daniel Hyler:

you can do that and I've seen the chocolate printers use quite a bit for cake decorating. Yep, yep, like little roses or other types of decorations.

Caleb Ayers:

So when are we going to get some of those in the atdm lab as soon?

Tim Holland:

as you buy them.

Caleb Ayers:

What's y'all's favorite part of being instructors for this program?

Daniel Hyler:

So for me personally, I've always enjoyed helping other people and helping people progress. That's just something that I can do every day while I'm here with ATDM constantly helping people learn new tips, new tricks, learning new processes, new ways to think about things, constantly being able to change somebody's perspective on something to be able to get a job done, but even more efficiently than they would have thought would have been possible. That's just something that I really enjoy and very, very glad that I can be able to do that every single day.

Tim Holland:

For me, I would have to say, my favorite part is the light bulb moment. When, when I am instructing somebody and I'm trying to teach them, like you know, a whole new process or a whole new way to think about something, and you know you can, you can see it in their eyes where they're trying to fit these, these mental puzzle pieces together, and when it all finally does just kind of click together, you can, you can see it on their face when that light bulb goes off. That feeling of giving someone that, when, when that moment happens, oh, such a great feeling. I love that. I live for for that.

Tim Holland:

So, uh, yeah, and then, um, like Daniel was saying, you know, helping somebody learn a whole new skill that you know they can not just have a job but have a career out of. Uh and yeah, I get to go home knowing like, hey, I helped make that happen. And then, on top of it you know, because ideal and not just additive, but you know, part of our curriculum is also some subtractive work as well I get to not only help people better themselves, but I get to do two of my favorite things while I'm doing it, and then, on top of that, they pay me money for it.

Caleb Ayers:

I'm living the life that's my favorite bit Sounds like you guys got good gigs and it sounds like we got some passionate instructors in here, so I love it. I love it. Um, tim, you just mentioned the light bulb moment. I would imagine that's a big part of the answer to this next last question. But what's what's kind of the y'all's goal for every student that finishes the additive manufacturing track for ATDM? What's kind of your goal for those, for each of those students who are finishing it?

Tim Holland:

Additive is still the new kid on the block when it comes to the industry. You know companies are investing more and more every day, but there's still a fair amount of companies out there that haven't even bought into it yet, and so one of the issues that we've been having is getting a lot of students out into industry when there's potentially not enough jobs to additive jobs for them to get into essentially not enough jobs to additive jobs for them to get into. One of my goals is to try to instill enough drive and passion for it that you know they want to get out into industry. They know it's a little bit of an uphill battle for them because additive is so new. It's a little bit of an uphill battle for them because additive is so new, but they are hopefully looking forward to that more than dreading it.

Tim Holland:

You know, because once more companies do get into additive and do get these things up and running. They're essentially already going to have the workforce there. You know they're going to have these people working for them already. It's just these people are waiting for the company to catch up to them and so, yeah, there'll be shoe-ins for, you know, the higher-up additive spots or they're going to be able to shine as employees for these companies, and so that's not just imparting the actual education and knowledge, but for me that's what I try to do is find that passion in all of the students and try to get that to grow.

Daniel Hyler:

My answer to the question would be very, very similar to what Tim has said. The main goal that I see with these students, that I would like to see from these students, is to have enough, like Tim said, drive, initiative and just excitement for the entire additive process Enough for them to be able to search for a job Now, as Tim said, there's not very many out there right now. Additive is a slow-growing field but it's speeding up very fast New technologies, new types of processes every day. I would like to see these students have enough initiative, enough drive to if they can't find a job make a job, whether they take a job that just has a manufacturing position, something where they're just doing CAD design, just being able to 3D, model things, and then try to push some industry or some business into the additive field to be able to make that business grow and be successful as they grow with that. That's just the main thing that I would like to see out of every student that comes through.

Caleb Ayers:

Yeah, no, as you guys were talking about that, I was thinking about the. I think we have it somewhere on our website or in some of our, somewhere on our marketing materials, the idea of we're training the workforce of tomorrow, that idea, and I never really thought about like what that, what that means, because you know, and especially with additive, I think it's oh, it's fast growing, everyone's doing it. But that's interesting what you guys are saying, that like the companies are slower to catch up because it's a new technology, obviously it takes time to adopt these things. Um, so yeah, that's cool what you guys, that, that grit that you guys are trying to put into your students and show them that they can go and make these jobs, as you said, 3d print the jobs, right.

Daniel Hyler:

And one thing that I've noticed about the industry is that it's less likely for a business to transition into additive, more so than it is for a business to begin with additive. So there's new company startups that are doing strictly additive as their main source of production, versus companies that have been around, businesses that have been around for 50-plus years, that have been doing it a certain way for so long that they're almost scared to get into the new technology, scared that they don't know what they're going to get into, scared they're going to do it wrong and not be successful.

Tim Holland:

Right, they're scared to invest the money without knowing that they're going to get a good return. So, yeah, they, because they're already established, they, you know they, they can afford to wait a bit. See how, make sure this isn't a fad or a trend. You know they, they can afford to kind of wait it out a little bit and let let some other people be the pioneers. Let them fall on their face If, if that's what happens.

Tim Holland:

Um, but I think more and more companies, uh, whether brand new or well-established, they're all seeing that that additive additive is sticking around Um, and there's there's way more pros than cons to it, so they're all starting to really get geared up. Um, at the, the last job fair we had, I actually had two companies that I've uh talked to occasionally, you know, cause they usually send the same people, so you know, I get to see them on occasion. Um of the companies specifically sought me out and were asking me how many additive students I had that were looking for jobs, because not only did they finally get additive put into those companies, but they wanted people like today.

Daniel Hyler:

So, yeah, companies are getting hungry for, for people had someone just today asking the same thing me and tim were talking about that just not even an hour ago, about wanting students to come and work for them anybody who is over the age of 18 would like to come learn additive manufacturing and come to the atdm program.

Caleb Ayers:

Learn from uh, tim or daniel, depending on what shift you end up in. Um, they're obviously great, passionate instructors, very knowledgeable about additive and, as they said, this is a growing field for companies you can send. Atdm has industry sponsors positions where you can send people through the program as a conditional hire. So there's options for companies and businesses that are looking to add employees and there's options for people who are looking to learn these skills and get out in the field. So, um, that's all the questions that I have for you. Any, I appreciate you guys taking the time to talk today. I know this is a ATDM is cool. The longer I'm here, I'm like yeah, atdm is a really, really cool program and there's lots of, lots of different angles to that. Any other thoughts that you guys would want to share For?

Tim Holland:

me, you're absolutely right. Atdm is really cool, getting to be one of the few people who have seen both sides of it, not just as a student, but also as the instructor. For me, it's just as cool being here. Either way, I have a ton of fun. I had fun while I was here as a student learning, and I have a ton of fun here as an instructor. You don't find that too many places. So, yeah, I'm stoked, I'm happy.

Daniel Hyler:

Same thing for me. It was fun, it was exciting while I was here as a student, but it's just even better now as an instructor, being able to give that excitement to someone else. It's just a whole new way of taking your hobbies and being able to work for it.

Caleb Ayers:

Yeah, that's really awesome. Well, thank you guys for being here. We appreciate it. Thank you Anytime.