[02:18]

Hi, I'm Dominic Connor, and I'll be hosting today's session featuring SECO Tools and Fusion Coolant
Systems.

Today we'll be discussing the partnership between the two companies, and how it delivers innovative
solutions in medical manufacturing.

And if you don't know already, we will explore Fusion Coolants Systems, super critical critical CO2
technology combined with SECO Tools' Tool Solutions for additive manufacturing and traditional
implants.

I'm not forgetting components made from medical plastics and peek, and the benefits it offers you to
improve cleanliness and efficiency.

The technology [inaudible 02:45] nicely for manufacturers that utilize automation

and demand longer tool life.

All of this is available whilst maintaining a focus on sustainability in our environment.

Now let's jump straight in and get started.

Welcome, everybody, to this session,

where today, we've got Rob Keenan, president of SECO Tools North America.

Hello, Rob!

Hello!
How are you Dominic?

Good, thank you.

And for those as well from Fusion Coolant Systems,

we got the CEO Brian Ahlborn.

Brian, how are you?

Hi there!

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Great to have you both on this [inaudible 03:31].

What were going to do today is we're going to run through a couple of questions.

Obviously, we've got some exciting news to share.

So, we'll kind of jump straight in.

So, Rob, first question's to you.

We talk about partnerships and collaboration.

Why did you choose to partner?

Well, I think that's a great question, Dominic.

And if we look back, we really had a working relationship with Fusion Coolant for many years.

From the inception of the technology, when they developed that years ago.

And we worked on multiple customer projects.

We've had heavy interaction on the R&D side,

to really come up with solutions that help solve customer issues.

So it really was just a natural transition to formalize this partnership.

And at SECO, what we realized is although the cutting tool, of course, is a major aspect of the
manufacturing process.

It doesn't solve all the customers' issues.

So, what we've chosen to do is find very strategic partners that have adjacent technologies that really
help us to solve customer issues.

So it's really about providing complete solutions.

And we feel strongly that Fusion has really a state-of-the-art solution that's going to help medical
customers, especially, in their medical device manufacturing processes.

[inaudible 04:54], you know.

We talk about exciting things and collaboration going for a long time.
For you Brian, what's the most exciting thing about this partnership?

Well, as Rob said, I mean, we've known each other for several years now.

We've proven to have success in front of customers.

So, what's exciting now is to watch our technology continue to mature.

And the SECO team is a very strong team, globally.

So, from Fagersta, to all the regions around the world, there's a lot of awareness of what Fusion is doing.

And there's been a lot of creativity coming out of the SECO team of what our technology is enabling
SECO to do to better solve customer problems.

So, it's exciting to me as to watch how we're sort of crowdsourcing the technology using the SECO brains
along with our own, collectively.

And I think that's really going to be a gamechanger for our small company as we go deeper into the
market.

So again, you know, you say there about collaboration, you know, and crowdsourcing, and generating
the next level of innovation.

How do you see, specifically for medical customers, how do you see this generating innovation?

Well, for medical customers, there's so much work going on, particularly with additive manufacturing 3D
printed parts.
There's a lot of challenges around keeping parts dry.

We offer a solution that allows for dry cutting, while getting the performance that people are used to
otherwise.

So, I mean that's a natural forest and something that we've already done with SECO with a major
medical implant manufacturer.

And, Rob, over to you.

Technology always has limitations.

You know, we talk about the current technology, emulsion coolants.

How does this remove the limitations of some of those traditional technologies?

The Springboard [ofwood 06:52] Brian was talking about, one of the challenges medical device
manufacturers are facing now with the 3D printed parts is their very poor surfaces.

And of course, for medical implants, cleanliness is one of the top priorities.

So emulsion coolant, really, creates challenges in the cleaning process.

So, with the Fusion technology, it helps us overcome that.

[07:18]
As Brian said with the dry-machining, you get the performance of emulsion coolant or better, without
the contamination of the coolant.

So I think it adds an extra layer of benefit to the customer beyond the cutting edge.

You know, and that's a perfect kind of launch into the next question.

You know, we talk about contamination and getting rid of unwanted, you know, processes within the
manufacturing industry.

Sustainability is kind of [okay 07:45] for companies moving forward.

And this is to both of you, Rob and Brian.

How does this partnership contribute to both companies' sustainability goals?

Rob, if you'd like to answer first?

Yeah.

So, when I look at the Fusion Technology and what we're able--

--not only for our sustainability goals but more importantly our customers' sustainability goals.

I think, if you look at the UN Chart, you know, number 3, the health and well-being of employees.

I think, you know, eliminating oil-based coolants, of course.

And the contamination and the exposure to those chemicals is actually very good for employees.
But also, I think, when we look at industry innovation, again, we don't have the waste to deal with, or
customers don't.

So I think that's a key aspect of not only are you not purchasing expensive oil-based coolants, but the
disposal is actually the most expensive part of that.

So you eliminate the disposal of those coolants.

I think it also ties to responsible consumption and production.

So again, limiting waste circularity

So I think there's a lot of benefit there.

The one that I think is most important to us internally at SECO is number 17 on the UN chart.

And that's partnering towards all sustainability goals.

So it's really about creating these ecosystems and these partnerships with other technology companies
to really drive sustainability in a meaningful way.

Great!

And, Brian, you know, I suppose Fusion Coolant Systems sustainability is what you guys are about--a big
part of what you're about.

Well, absolutely.

It is the basis of our company.

It's why I work at Fusion.

It's why most of our employees have joined us.

We're on a mission.

And the UN Sustainability Development Goal, all 17 of them are on our wall everywhere in our company
and on our website.

And you'll see, if you look at our website that there are seven of them that we have a direct impact on.

And Rob walked through many of them very adequately right there.

It's very exciting for us to have the opportunity to bring something clean to the industry.

But, you know, we're a small player.

And having an alliance with someone like SECO is just fantastic for us because we have something we
want to bring to the market.

And we think it's important for the market.

And SECO shares that vision.

And so collectively, it's very exciting to bring it out.

Well look, you know, for me, I think, two companies, shared vision of sustainability, also innovation and
collaboration.
It's exactly what this event that we're sitting here, taking part into this.

So I would like to thank you both.

Rob, thank you.

Brian, thank you.

And then we'll through into the next session.

Yeah, thank you very much.

[11:00]

Hello, and I'd like to welcome you to this session.

With me today, I have Scott Jones, Director of Engineering from Fusion Coolant Systems.

How are you doing, Scott?

Good to be here.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

And Eric Gardner from the North American Application Specialist on SECO Tools.
How are you, Eric?

I'm doing great Dominic.

Thank you.

Good, good.

So today, we're going to discuss some of the typical issues facing customers.

And we hope that this gives you the opportunity to explore the technology and how it might be of
benefit to you and your facility.

So let's just jump straight into my first question.

So Eric, focused specifically in medical, but we see an increasing prevalence of it everywhere.

Additive

Can you explain why additive is utilized in the industry?

Indeed, Dominic.

We've seen a lot more of the additive manufacturing in the medical device industry.

There's several components to what makes it viable and economically beneficial from the technical
standpoint.
You're going to create internal matrix of material.

[Lighten 11:57] the devices, maintaining strength or maybe even stronger.

But the main thing in the implants would be promoting a porous structure, promoting bone growth to
fix the implant in the human body.

From an environmental standpoint, also significant, typical manufacturing from raw material of large bar
stock, forging, casting.

[12:22]

There's a lot of chips and [inaudible 12:23] made.

Removal from the manufacturing process that needs to be recycled and/or discarded.

Recycling requires transport, cost and consequences involved in that.

So, the targeted application of materials is very beneficial.

There's still finished machine to be done.

For us cutting in the cutting tool room.

But then also, from an economic standpoint, I think it's one of the main challenges is time.
The time to create the printed part is getting better and better everyday to the point where it's
economically viable and in production in the industry.

Great!

So, Scott, Eric mentioned about why they utilize it in the industry and why it's increasingly turning to
additive.

How does Fusion overcome some of the challenges [inaudible 13:09] with additive manufactured
medical components?

The reason they use it to build this porous structures so that it promotes bone growth.

It's a super huge challenge for them to then clean afterwards.

So if the machine, they want traditional metal working fluids,

trying to get those parts clean afterwards can be extremely expensive and extremely inefficient and
extremely risky as well.

Because if they don't get them perfectly cleaned, it's very possible that when they do get put into a
human body, the body will reject it.

So our technology replaces all of the metal working fluid with super critical CO2.

And what you get is, you get to maintain your tool life and your cycle times but you get a completely
clean process.

So the part actually comes out of CNC machine cleaner than it went in.
So there's a potential in the future to maybe even eliminate some of the downstream cleaning steps.

But in the case of 3D-printed materials, it certainly eliminates that risk and guarantees that that part will
be clean coming out of the CNC.

So, Eric, you know, we're touching on the 3D-printing process itself.

What materials are we finding that are most viable and what direction in the materials does the future
hold?

Currently, the most viable and the most predominantly manufactured [inaudible 14:39] material would
be titanium.

For [inaudible 06:22] and so forth hip caps.

That's the most predominantly used.

The other materials that are bio-compatible for orthopedic implants would be cobalt chrome and then
you get into the plastics.

There is another metal that's proprietary to one OEM.

The cobalt chrome is a much more durable material than titanium

and it's used in the high wear of components such the femoral for the [wear 15:08] properties of it.

All of these materials that we're talking about are somewhere being studied in the works to be printed.

So I think cobalt chrome, we'll see first.

When it comes to the plastics, I can foresee peak being one that would be printed.

But the material itself is extremely expensive.

So I think the targeted application material will be key for peek.

I can't say I've seen it in production anywhere but I can--

--people that are working on those keep it close to their chests.

But we'll see all these materials.

All of the above, we'll see in the future in an additive manufacturing.

So we spoke about the metallics, titanium and cobalt-chrome,

and obviously the plastics and peeks.

Scott, for you, firstly, does Fusion technology benefit those manufacturers than only machine plastics
and peeks?

Yeah, I mean, you have obviously the same cleanliness benefit, right, of the super critical CO2.

A lot of the people that manufacture these plastics don't use any coolants at all.

They might just use compressed air.

The challenge there is burr formation.

And you can eliminate a lot of them through tooling.

But, it's a real problem universally across the industry.

So when you apply our technology to machining of plastics, the burr formation is significantly reduced.

So, you're not going to get a completely burr-free part but it's going to be 95-98 percent reduction in
burrs overall.

So this does a lot of things.

Some of our customers might spend seven minutes machining part--plastic part, and then, 17 minutes
deburring it.

So they actually have rooms full of people who sit there with magnifying glasses and exact-o knives
cutting these burrs off these parts which is obviously extremely inefficient.

And it prohibits the ability to automate that manufacturing process as well because a human hand has
to touch everyone of those parts.

So, collaborating with SECO over the last years, developing tools specifically for super critical CO2,
specifically for plastic, we can machine parts that we feel like we can get free of burrs enough where you
could actually implement some automation into these processes.

And I suppose to you, Eric, what technology does it--or in the tools to help reduce burrs?

From a cutting tool design, we've put a lot of effort and research and development into creating a tool
that can cut plastics and reduce burrs through the raw materials we make the cutting tools from,

and we must maintain a pristine and very sharp edge to minimize these burrs.
Working in the industry, I'm often asked for me to recommend our tools that will cut and not leave burr.

Then with using the humor of [inaudible 18:02] we do not have one of those and nobody does either.

You are going throw a burr [inaudible 18:06] processes that can be used to mitigate the burrs, throw the
burrs in different directions by the machining process or order of operations.

But again, the cutting tool edge and that kind of stuff that we're working on won't minimize it

but it [inaudible 18:22] without exaggeration that the first time I've seen a burr-free part come from
plastic is using the CO2 technology.

And when we talk about technology, it's obviously a shift away from the traditional normal emulsion
coolants.

How is this partnership between SECO and Fusion changing the design of a cutting tool?

So from the line of cutting tool standpoint, working with Fusion, the answer is, it's requiring us to rethink
everything.

Delivering this coolant to the cut in the most efficient way and most advantageous way to [inaudible
18:56] is difficult.

We have to rethink our raw material.

Working with our suppliers to create [inaudible 19:03] delivery that's smaller than we've ever thought of
before.

So it's pushing the possibilities [inaudible 19:09] material suppliers.

From a current standpoint, the CO2 connected is a solvent and actually removes certain coatings.
[19:18]

So we're working on new coatings and other coatings that developing the work better with the coolant
system.

And you know, geometries are always evolving, getting better.

So, in the CO2 environment, the chips perform slightly differently and different [inaudible 19:34] work
better than others.

So we're relearning and changing everything on the design aspect.

And my question to you Scott, so SECO tools have got the cutting edges covered.

As we move back into the machine tool, is there any special requirements regarding the tool holders in
August?

And how important is it to get as close as possible to the cutting edge.

Yeah, when it comes to tool holders, there's a few different strategies.

If you could see the picture behind me, actually, this is one strategy where instead of going through the
tool itself or actually going through the tool holder and coming out of the phase of the tool holder and
directing our super critical CO2 coolant down the fluids of this [inaudible 20:14].
As far as rethinking how we design the tool holders and thinking maybe even further back to the CNC
machine itself.

There's not a lot of changes that are required.

We go through the same standard coolant passageways that you would with your standard coolant
system.

A question that's commonly asked to us is, "What's it going to do to the bearings in my spindle because
it's so cold?"

Well, it's important to remember that up until we come out of that tool, we're actually warm.

To become a super critical fluid, or to get CO2 into its super critical state where above 31 degrees C.

So, up until the very last second where it goes through the nozzle and expands at the cutting tool, it's
actually traveling through the machine tool warm.

The changes to the machine tool, the changes to the tool holder are extremely minor.

In fact, all the changes that we do make, we say are backwards compatible.

So, when we do put this technology onto a CNC machine, you can actually switch from tool to tool, back
and forth between more traditional water-based coolant and our technology.

So, sort of the early days cryo--cryogenics, where people had to do all sorts of exotic things to make
their CNC machine compatible with this particular technology, it's very very easy to implement.

So, there's hundreds and thousands of manufacturers out there today.

With just a couple of tweaks on the machine tool that they already have, they can implement your
technology straight away?

Yeah, I mean, we change the rotary union but we've partnered with a lot of their different rotary union
manufacturers throughout the [inaudible 21:53] to develop rotary unions for us.

And again, those rotary unions are backwards compatible with the standard high-pressure water-based
coolant system.

So, the retrofit market is certainly addressable and is a good part of our business.

We work with all different sorts of CNC machine tool, OEM machine tool builders, and then new capital
equipment--putting our technology on, before it arrives at your factory, there's certainly another avenue
that we can explore with the end-user.

And, you know, I'll ask you both this question.

And Eric, I'll start with you.

This is a collaboration and innovation event.

How important is it to have industry partners where we can develop innovation within this segment?

Short answer, it's extremely important.

So, being a part of SECO, we have the pleasure and the opportunity to work with many manufacturers of
medical devices throughout the world.

We have a [inaudible 22:54] network of engineers supporting our customers, collaborating with our
customers.
But the collaboration with Fusion is excellent from a couple's standpoint versus--

since we have [inaudible 23:06] applications, we extend our [inaudible 23:08] Fusion as far as
implementing and showing the technology.

So, when we look from a big picture, our customers' applications and say, "We see benefit possibly from
this technology,"

the customer will benefit from it, SECO benefits from it.

We differentiate ourselves from others because we're giving access to the customers for this
technology, and benefiting Fusion at the same time.

So, the collaboration is extremely important.

And more so everyday in the industry, it gives us a wonderful opportunity to provide this information to
our partners and customers.

And to you, Scott, innovation, super critical carbon dioxide.

It even sounds great.

And a company that's kind of really changed how traditional coolants have been applied.

How important is it for you to have an industry partner that can reach global industry?

I mean, it's really everything.

So we've worked really diligently from the beginning to build our ecosystem.
Our technology in a vacuum by itself will not be successful.

We need to partner with people like SECO and the machine tool builders and the gas companies and
tool holders, etcetera,

to fully see what this technology is capable of doing.

And thankfully for us, we started working with SECO early enough that this collaboration has really
opened a lot of doors for us and has taken our technology from "Oh, that's interesting" to "This is
production ready" and "In production around the world."

So, working with SECO who just has a mindset of, "We're going to be innovators and collaborators and
we're going to collect all of the technologies necessary to solve our customers' problem" has really been
everything for us.

That's the type of people that, to get a technology as different as ours, and sort of game-changing as
ours into the mainstream is really necessary.

So, we're very thankful that SECO has worked with us over these years.

And what I'm most excited about is I don't feel like we've scratched the surface of what's really possible.

So, it's going to be really interesting over the next few years to see where we can--how much further
even we can push this technology in partnership with SECO.

Brilliant segue.

That was going to be my next question.

What's on the horizon?

What is it that we can look forward to?

Yeah

That is correct.

The technology has been around long enough now that it's disseminated out into many different
industries, with many different end-users, and different thinktanks, and people who are evaluating the
technology and using it in production.

And so what's really exciting for me is, we like to say, "We're at the point with this technology where
we're sort of crowdsourcing how to use it the most--the best way, if you will", right?

So, everyone's getting their hands on it now and evaluating it.

And using it in ways that we either don't have the bandwidth to do or in an industry that we wouldn't
necessarily address right now,

or doing it in completely the wrong way, which might actually turn out to be the right way, right?

So, to me, it's like we're rewriting the machinist handbook because the technology is that different and
enables that level of change in performance.

So, it's going to be really exciting to see where we can push this the next few years.

Well, Scott, Eric, I'd like to thank you both for joining me today.

You've both shared some amazing information and insights.

And I'm sure there's going to be lots of questions and you guys are going to be available to answer
questions and help potential customers out with understanding the opportunity.
And to you, the viewers, thank you for joining Scott, Eric and myself as we explore the challenges the
medical segment faces.

And we hope we've inspired you to explore the technology and the benefit you might get out of it in
your facility.

Thanks now.

Thank you, Dominic.

Thank you.

[27:35]