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3D Printing News Briefs: May 19, 2019

We’ve got business news and materials news for your weekend, just ahead of next week’s massive RAPID + TCT show. 3D Hubs and AM Ventures are both opening new offices, but in vastly different countries. BASF 3D Printing Solutions is launching a new TPU material for use with HP’s latest 3D printer series, and Freeman Technology will be hosting a seminar about AM powders next month.

3D Hubs Opening US Headquarters in Chicago

Prototyping machine shop at mHUB

Two months ago, automated manufacturing platform 3D Hubs announced that it had received $18 million in Series C funding, some of which was earmarked for opening a dedicated US office to best serve the over 10,000 clients it serves here. Now, the company has announced that its new North American headquarters will be located in Chicago, Illinois, with the added bonus of an endorsement from the city’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel. This decision allows 3D Hubs to centralize its US workforce, and it plans to double the team at headquarters by the end of 2019. The offices will be located at the mHUB technology innovation center in the city’s West Town neighborhood, and are scheduled to open next month.

“3D Hubs joins the long list of international companies choosing Chicago for their future. With our growing tech economy and strong digital manufacturing community, Chicago is the perfect home for this innovative company,” said Mayor Emanuel. “I look forward to seeing 3D Hubs success in Chicago in the years to come.”

AM Ventures Opens Office in Korea

Germany-based AM Ventures Holding GmbH (AMV) is a top independent strategic investor in the AM industry, and over the last four years has been busily setting up an ecosystem of sustainable strategic investments, in addition to a partner network for using advanced manufacturing technologies in serial production. Now in an effort to further grow its technology venturing activities, it is expanding to the Asia Pacific region with a new office in Busan, Korea.

AMV’s Chief Venturing Officer Arno Held said, “AMV is pleased to announce the opening of its new office in Korea serving the Asia-Pacific region, a market which is already demonstrating active AM adoption for serial production and a large growth potential. AMV commits to this dynamic region and the investment opportunities available there.”

Having already moved to its new Korean home , AMV’s liaison office AM Ventures Asia has appointed Simon (Sangmin) Lee, a previous sales manager at the Korea office of EOS GmbH, as the Regional Director of Asia.

BASF 3D Printing Solutions Launches Ultrasint TPU Powder

Rüdiger Theobald, the Senior Manager for Sales & Marketing in Powder Bed Fusion at BASF 3D Printing Solutions GmbH, discusses the company’s new Ultrasint TPU powder in a recent YouTube video. The highly flexible yet accurate material, which is perfect for automotive applications and coating and simulation solutions, was launched specifically for HP’s new Jet Fusion 5200 series.

“Two great brands, two great companies merge together, both with innovative technologies on hand and a great new ecosystem to support the industry with a very innovative material,” Theobald said in the video.

“We have found out a good way to operate with different wall thicknesses, that makes it very reasonably usable for any kind of pressurized applications in regards of liquids or gas.”

Freeman Technology to Host Seminar on AM Powders

Next month, powder flow specialist Freeman Technology will be hosting a free seminar in the UK entitled “Understanding Powders for Additive Manufacturing.” The one-day event, which will take place on June 11th at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole, will introduce attendees to the principles of powder rheology, and explain how associated methodologies can also be applied in order to gain a better understanding of how to optimize powder for AM applications.

During the seminar, there will be a presentation from Freeman Technology’s Operations Director Jamie Clayton about understanding and measuring powder flow and behavior. Industry experts, such as Ricoh Material Specialist Enrico Gallino and Product Manager Cathryn Langley with Malvern Panalytical, will present about some of the major challenges when it comes to powder handling, including how to quantify the size and shape of metal powders for AM. Delegates will also have the chance to see a demonstration of the company’s FT4 Powder Rheometer. You can register for the seminar here.

Discuss these stories and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

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3D Printing News Sliced: Blue Origin, Digital Alloys, COBOD, 3D Hubs, Euspen, DTU

In this edition of our 3D printing news digest Sliced, we have news from Blue Origin, Digital Alloys, COBOD, 3D Hubs, and Euspen. Read on to learn more about advanced precision in 3D printing, a home-made 3D printed smartwatch, and rebuilding Notre Dame Cathedral. The launch of 3D printed end-use parts Blue Origin, the aerospace […]
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3D Printing in Africa: Kenya & 3D Printing

3D printed Kenya Flag beach shorts by SESY

Kenya has been considered to be a hub for innovation in Africa.  Personally, I started working with Kenya in 3D printing technology with a Makerbot Reseller, Amit Shah who runs Objet Kenya which is a 3D printing service provider based in Nairobi. Similar to the feelings of a first love, this is how I feel about Kenya in terms of 3D printing.

There are several other companies offering 3D printing services in Kenya and the country has a great entrepreneurial and innovative spirit. This has made 3D printing a very sensible and lovable technology and if there is something that fires it all: it is the Kenyan will to provide homegrown solutions. Kenya loves to provide their own solutions to their own problems and 3D printing suits very well in this line of thought. To add on to that, Kenyans appreciate and promote local productivity so this promotes a creative and innovative landscape where 3D printing technology makes a huge impact.

In terms of growing and developing with 3D printing technology, Kenya has been doing extremely well on this end. A 20year old electrical engineering student from Nairobi University Kenya, Alois Mbutura developed a minuscule vein finder for use with kids in the hope to address infant mortality and improve vaccination service. The minuscule vein was 3D printed using a MakerBot 3D printer.

Alenna Beroza, Kijenzi engineer, shows off some Kijenzi parts designed with and for nurse

Another great development is by the medical start-up company Kijenzi Medtech who are using 3D printing technology to provide medical solutions to Kenya’s rural clinics including very remote clinics. This is an inspiring endeavour as they assist in providing basic medical components remotely. They are also looking at training nursing staff to print components on site by simply downloading files and sending them to the printer.

Ultra Red technologies is one company in Kenya upping the 3D printing game and they have printed very interesting products like customized canopies for wildlife exploration vehicles. That’s some untapped territory in the wildlife sector in Africa and Kenya is setting the pace. On top of this, Ultra Red technologies are busy printing parts of a solar powered desalination device for providing reliable and clean water for the Kenyan populace. This will surely help to address water challenges faced in Kenya and enlighten the continent to think and pursue such solutions.

Ultra Red Outdoors 3D Printed Canopy

Kenya Connect which is an American-Kenyan not for profit organisation is offering STEM and arts classes in 3D printing to schools in partnership with US-based social enterprise Level Up Village. The drive is to promote and develop the technology at the grassroots level and create a generation that will fully harness the technology.

Micrive Infinite is integrating engineering, 3D printing technology and medical research to transform surgery, treatment and rehabilitation of patients. It is hoped that more homegrown medical solutions will help and improve healthcare in Kenya.

President Uhuru Kenyatta 3D model portrait for 3D printing

The manufacturing sector has also benefited from 3D printing. This has been enhanced with the development of Kenya’s Fab lab through the University of Nairobi Science and technology park. Kenya Fab lab was the first to bring a 3D printer into Kenya and since then they have revolutionized the technology as it has grown to the various sectors of Kenya economy. Not only that, but people in Kenya are also buying personal 3D printers for personal use and an indication of growing interest in the technology.

The innovation hub of Africa continues to develop with 3D printing. There is still great potential for 3D printing in Kenya and the good thing is that resources have been easily found to spread the technology. The future is bright for Kenya and also for Africa as a whole.

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3D Hubs Announces $18 Million in Funding and New Dedicated US Office

Less than a year after 3D Hubs turned five and outlined its new strategy to become “a full-blown manufacturing platform,” the company turned away from its community 3D printing roots and announced that it would only be working with professional service bureaus to fulfill orders. This meant that if community members didn’t qualify as a Manufacturing Partner based on their order history, they were out of luck, as the company was becoming completely focused on B2B.

“2018 was the year in which we turned 3D Hubs from a 3D printing peer-to-peer marketplace into a B2B platform for all digital production, taking pivotal steps towards our automated and distributed manufacturing mission,” 3D Hubs CEO and Co-Founder Bram de Zwart wrote in a biannual update to his LinkedIn contacts.

“Since 3D Hubs had become the world’s largest peer-to-peer marketplace for 3D printing, it was a dificult decision in early 2018 to transition to a turnkey B2B manufacturing platform and even harder to pull it off. But with last years’ revenue tripling and $18 Million in new funding we couldn’t be more excited about this new strategy and 3D Hubs its future!”

Bram de Zwart

While there were obviously a lot of hurt feelings in the wake of this announcement, the company seems to be doing pretty well for itself after this decision. Yesterday, 3D Hubs announced that it had received $18 million in Series C funding, which will be used to help “build the future of on-demand manufacturing” and increase development of its online platform, among other important things.

One item the funds will be used for is rapidly expanding its team in the US, which is the company’s largest market with over 10,000 clients. So 3D Hubs will be opening a dedicated US office to best serve these customers, and is now trying to determine where the office will be located.

“For the new office location we’re currently deciding between Chicago, Minneapolis and Boston, cities that are deeply rooted in manufacturing and have great connectivity to the rest of the country and to Amsterdam,” de Zwart wrote.

Speaking of Amsterdam, 3D Hubs will be expanding its team there, and in the US, over the next few months. In an effort to grow from 65 employees to over 100, the company is currently hiring for a number of positions, including Business Develop Representative and Director of Sales.

3D Hubs made a lot of investments last year in automating some of the most important manufacturing process features, such as design validation, quoting, and smart order routing. Now, leveraging the data from 2 million produced parts, the company’s platform can instantly provide accurate quotes for 98% of its customer requests for services such as CNC machining, injection molding, and 3D printing. In addition, 93% of its order are automatically sourced through the supplier network, so that customers receive their parts twice as fast.

3D Hubs also expanded its popular quarterly trend report by including industry specials. For instance, the Q1 2019 edition takes a look at how the automotive industry is adopting digital manufacturing.

The company is also helping to educate the rest of the world about digital manufacturing, and has been busy developing new content that can better explain the benefits of this technology, and how best to design for digital manufacturing.

In fact, one of the recent efforts is actually working to turn some of the chapters in the company’s 3D printing handbook, which was published in 2017, into helpful video tutorials on its YouTube channel.

Discuss this news, and other 3D printing topics, at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

[Images: 3D Hubs]

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3D Hubs closes $18M Series C funding, focuses on automation for manufacturing

Automated manufacturing platform and former 3D printing marketplace 3D Hubs has today announced the successful closing of $18 million in funding. A Seres C investment, the round was led by Dutch growth capital investment firm Endeit Capital. It features the contribution of five other parties including, most notably for 3D Printing Industry readers, Erik de Bruijn, Co-founder […]
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3D Hubs launches U.S. business, adds new quality control for 3D printing

Online manufacturing network 3D Hubs has launched a new business entity based in the U.S. Part of its new B2B strategy, the move has been made to implement the company’s “Fulfilled by 3D Hubs” service in the region. In addition to this development, 3D Hubs has announced a new tool for its 3D printing checkout […]
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3D Printing News Briefs: September 22, 2018

In today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, we’ve got the speaker lineup for next month’s NAMIC Global Additive Manufacturing Summit in Singapore. Prusa and Cincinnati Incorporated are both releasing new 3D printing materials, and 3D Center is collaborating with 3YOURMIND to launch a 3D printing platform for the Scandinavian market. A British car manufacturer turns to Stratasys 3D printing for prototyping purposes, and a student used reverse engineering and 3D printing to redesign a Nintendo 64 joystick system.

2018 NAMIC Global Additive Manufacturing Summit Speakers

On October 17th and 18th, the 2018 Global Additive Manufacturing Summit, conducted by Singapore’s National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (NAMIC), will be held, and co-located as part of Industrial Transformation ASIA-PACIFIC. Hosted by NTUitive, the summit, which is said to be the country’s largest gathering of additive manufacturing experts, will highlight key AM opportunities and developments in multiple applications, such as aerospace, automotive, biomedical, building and construction, marine, and transportation.

This is the last week to purchase your ticket at the early bird rates. After seeing the line-up of speakers coming to the event, this is an event you definitely won’t want to miss. Some of the speakers include Dr. Behrang Poorganji, the Head of Materials Development for GE Additive: Apis Cor’s Anna Cheniuntai, R&D and Business Development; Kelvin Wee, the APAC Sales Director for Materialise; and Professor Paul C. Ho, with the Department of Pharmacy at the National University of Singapore. You can register for the 2018 NAMIC Global Additive Manufacturing Summit here.

Prusa Releasing In-House 3D Printing Filament

Fresh off the multi-material upgrade for its Prusa i3 MK3/MK2.5, Prusa has more good news – this week, the company released its new filament, Prusament, which is made entirely in-house. CEO and Founder, Josef Průša, said that the company was not happy with the over-exaggerated quality and specs that “most filament companies claim but don’t deliver,” which continued to cause its users to have issues poor print quality and jams.

“So we built a factory and just started to sell our own filament,” Průša told 3DPrint.com. “It took us over a year but we have something pretty special. We guarantee 20µm precision and every spool is traceable on our website, where you can see the full inspection report. I believe we are the only one to do this and hope to set a precedent.”

Check out the sample spool of Prusament for yourself – you’ll see that Prusa isn’t messing around.

Cincinnati Incorporated Launches New Carbon Fiber Material

Cincinnati Incorporated has developed a new material for its SAAM that is ideal for custom tooling and fixture applications. The carbon fiber resin creates a high strength-to-weight ratio and superior surface finishes.

Another company with a new 3D printing material launch this week is Cincinnati Incorporated (CI) – it just released a new carbon fiber resin material for its SAAM (Small Area Additive Manufacturing) 3D printing system. Because it’s been reinforced with carbon fiber, the lightweight, impact-resistant material is durable, stiff, and has low warping, along with accurate parts featuring advanced inter-layer adhesion results. It also has excellent surface finish, making it a good choice for applications in assembly, CMM, CNC fixtures, custom tooling, and has a very high strength-to-weight ratio.

 

 

 

Morgan Motor Company Turns to Stratasys 3D Printing for Prototyping

Family-owned British motor car manufacturer Morgan Motor Company is no stranger to 3D printing, and recently turned to the technology again for help with prototyping on the factory floor. In order to get rid of the endless talks with suppliers and lower the time to market, the company, which manufactures roughly 1,000 vehicles per year, invested in a Stratasys Fortus 250mc from Tri-Tech 3D, a Stratasys reseller in the UK.

“Since the introduction of 3D printing, using the Stratasys Fortus 250mc, Morgan have been able to try more daring designs within research and development,” said Tom Morris, a CAD technician with Morgan Motor Company. “It’s given us the opportunity to take these designs, trial them early on, giving us physical samples, which essentially cuts out the whole quoting process of liaising with suppliers, delivering these parts back to Morgan. Morgan are a low volume vehicle manufacturer, so the ability to be able to design parts on CAD, 3D print them, and take them to the shop floor at a very quick rate is vital to our success as a business.”

Watch the video below to learn more:

Fixing Nintendo 64 Joystick with Reverse Engineering and 3D Printing

California Polytechnic (Cal Poly) student and retro video gaming fan Nam Le was tired of having to find replacement controller joysticks for Nintendo 64 systems – a common problem many Nintendo fans have dealt with. So he took matters into his own hands, and contacted 3D Hubs for help fixing the problem. Le ended up reverse engineering the nearly 20-year-old components, 3D printing them, and redesigning the entire joystick system. It took him three months to disassemble the original controller, measure the components, and design them in CAD – a very impressive task, as he’d only ever taken a basic 3D modeling introduction class.

He determined that the joystick’s whole assembly would wear down over time, causing part failure, and designed the new components so that they were very sturdy and easy to replace. Le 3D printed the gear teeth and housing with Visijet M3 Crystal material, and 3D Hubs manufactured his redesigned joystick out of Nylon PA12 material on an HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D printer.

“Generally, harder materials won’t be worn by materials of a lower hardness,” Le explained about his material choice. “The result is having only one part wear compared to every old component wearing. Every once in a while the stick will have to be replaced, but it takes a longer time to wear and is a better cheap alternative than buying a new controller.”

Six months in, Le’s 3D printed prototype joystick controller shows no signs of breaking.

Discuss these stories and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below. 

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3D Hubs Releases Second Edition of Digital Manufacturing Trends Report

Last quarter, 3D Hubs published its first Trends report to include Digital Manufacturing trends. The popular and long-running report still includes all of the latest information about 3D printing, but now also includes more insights on other digital manufacturing technologies, such as injection molding and CNC machining.

Today, 3D Hubs has released the second edition of this newly revamped report. The Digital Manufacturing Trends report for Q3/2018 is exclusively available for free download here.

“Spring has brought about a change to the data, with the end of the financial year and students ordering,” George Fisher-Willson, 3D Hubs’ Communications Manager, told 3DPrint.com.

Highest Rated Industrial Printers

In the Highest Rated Industrial Printers category, SLS still reigns supreme, accounting for six of the top ten 3D printer models, though one should note that only 3D printers with over 30 reviews per quarter are included in the breakdown. The top four are virtually unchanged from last quarter, with the Formiga P 100 still in first with a quality rating of 5. The iSLA-650 Pro was knocked down one slot to sixth place by the sPro 140, which received the same 4.93 rating as the EOSINT P 760 above it.

Most Used Industrial Printers

The HP Jet Fusion 3D 4200 is holding steady at first place in the Most Used Industrial Printers category…and with a record 30% more output, with an increase from 5,087 to over 6,550 prints.

“At #1 the HP machine created 6,551 prints, nearly triple that of #2 place Formiga P 110 which achieved a respectable 2,244,” 3D Hubs’ Digital Manufacturing Trends report states.

The large-format UnionTech Lite 600, up from 201 to 1,665 prints, most often used to create automotive molds and tooling, moves from its tenth place ranking last quarter to third this time around, knocking the sPro 230 down to fourth. The Objet30 Prime is also up a few places this time to round out the top five, though its number of prints only increased by 227.

Highest Rated Desktop Printers

In terms of Highest Rated Desktop Printers, only 3D printers with over 140 reviews in the quarter are included in the statistics for this quarter, which have the Zortrax M200 moving up from fifth place last quarter with a rating of 4.81 to first place this time around with a barely increased rate of 4.87.

The LulzBot Taz 5 makes a surprise entrance, and its 4.86 rating puts it at #2 on the list. Those reviews must have all been extremely positive, as #3 on the list, the Original Prusa i3 MK2, has the exact same rating with a total of 658 reviews. The Creality CR-10 is up from the tenth position to #4, and the Original Prusa i3 MK3 is up to #5 this quarter, with 349 reviews netting it a 4.83 rating.

The report notes, “The machines also took a large share of the reviews showing their popularity with service providers across the world.”

Most Used Desktop Printers

The battle rages on between the Form 2 and the Original Prusa i3 MK2 in the Most Used Desktop Printers category, with the Form 2 increasing its number of prints from 14,211 to 14,516 to jump back up to first. This gap may continue to grow, as Formlabs has released two new resins over the last few months. The FlashForge Creator Pro and the Original Prusa i3 MK2S both remain, respectively, in the #3 and 4 slots, though the latter has dropped its number of prints just a smidge, and the Prusa i3 MK3 has made the list this quarter, with a total of 6,345 prints.

According to the report, “Of the total 71,869 prints produced in the top 10, the Prusa machines have manufactured over 25,000 of the [sic], an impressive figure.”

Most Used Technologies

Not much change this quarter for the Most Used Technologies, as FDM 3D printing continues its first place ranking…even going up one percentage point while SLS dropped one.

“For the first time since the report began Metal Sintering double its share going to 2%, this could be potentially due to businesses putting in their high-end orders before the end of the financial year,” the report stated. “It could also be down the fact that Metal 3D printing is seeing further adoption by large multinationals as its ability to create complex geometries in metal cannot be beaten by traditional technologies.”

Most Used Materials

Last quarter, the Most Used Materials category adopted the generic term “Standard,” to denote that suppliers are listing materials to include all variants. Since then, the top ten has changed a little bit.

“Standard PLA has distanced itself further from ABS, at #1 with 33%, growing 3% since Q2’s report. ABS, although it maintains its #2 spot with 14%, has seen its number go the opposite way with a decrease of 3%,” the report explained. “This movement could be down to more new materials entering the market that challenge ABS’s position, which is relatively hard to print and not safe for non-ventilated spaces due to its fumes.”

Standard Resin is now in the #3 spot with 9% usage, while SLS Nylon appears for the first time at #4 with 8% usage. Standard PETG is hanging on to the #5 spot, though its reported usage has increased from 4% to 6%. Onyx, the proprietary material from Markforged that contains chopped Carbon Fiber, has entered the list for the first time at #9.

FDM Color Distribution

As for FDM Color Distribution, black is still in the #1 spot, with an increase of 5% of the market share – according to the report, nearly half of all of the 3D printed parts made on 3D Hubs are black. However, only the colors of submitted prints are reviewed for this report, so who’s to say that gray, up to #3 this quarter, isn’t used more often and those people just don’t submit their work?

Additionally, the spread of colors has dropped quite a bit, with Other down to 11% from 24%, which “is in line with the standardization of colors on 3D Hubs” explained last quarter. Transparent also makes it to the list for the first time, which 3D Hubs speculates could be due to the rising popularity of SLA and DLP 3D printing.

Top Print Cities

“The student peak in line with the end of the financial year has impacted the Top Print Cities and Top Print Countries,” Fisher-Wilson tells us. “Both the USA/UK and New York/London grew substantially, as the high concentration of universities in these cities bumped up their market share.”

Loughborough University, which 3D Hubs is familiar with, has also cracked the top ten for the first time in terms of Top Print Cities with its #9 placement. Following New York and London in the top two places, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, and San Francisco round out the rest of the top five.

The US and the UK continue to hold the top two spots for 3D printing usage in the Top Print Countries list, but the Netherlands has come up to knock Canada out of third place down to fifth, while Germany sits in fourth.

The report says, “India moves into the Top 10 for the first time, sharing the same percentage as Italy with 1.4% at #10. With the increases for the top two, countries like France have seen a substantial drop in market share moving from 3.4% to 2.5%. The trend continues that countries with a heavy population of students have seen market share increase.”

Most Used CNC Materials

In Most Used CNC Materials, affordable Aluminum 6061 is still hanging on to the lead, with over half of all 3D Hubs’ orders using the materials, though its usage has decreased a few percentage points. However, as Fisher-Wilson tells us, there was a shake-up in the category as previously predicted, with 19 new materials added this quarter.

“Stainless Steel 304 at #2 lost nearly half of its market share (11.6% to 6.8%) with Delrin at #3 and Mild Steel 1018 at #4 debuting with 5% each,” Fisher-Wilson told 3DPrint.com.

Aluminum 7075, with 4.8% usage, is #5 in this category.

There’s now more variety in Most Used Finishes at 3D Hubs, as it’s introduced some new materials, though the percentage of respondents leaving their parts as machined is down a bit from 77.6% to 70.8%. Bead blasting, at 7.5% in the #2, is still far behind, though the number three finish, anodized color, has increased its usage by nearly double.

What do you think of these results? Discuss this new trend report, and other 3D printing topics, at 3DPrintBoard.com, or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

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Student Creates CUDA, the 3D Printed Underwater Jet Pack

About 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered with water and while technology for traveling on dry land has developed that allows people of moderate income to cover a fair amount of ground relatively quickly, underwater exploration of a comparable sort has remained out of reach for all but a few. In terms of individual exploration, the ‘luxury seatoy’ SEABOB underwater scooter has infiltrated the dreams of those interested in underwater transport — but with a price tag of about $17,000 it will remain a dream for most. In response to the inaccessibility of this kind of technology, one young man decided he was going to work to create a more price-friendly alternative.

This innovative young man, Archie O’Brien, worked with 3D Hubs to create his underwater enhanced transportation device, which he has named the CUDA. O’Brien’s creation won him first place in the recently announced 2018 3D Hubs Student Grant program in the Product Design category.

The CUDA is a jet propulsion-driven backpack which the user wears allowing a hands-free jet pack experience underwater. The initial idea was to miniaturize a jet ski and utilize that, but it didn’t quite fit in the backpack configuration. After a careful reading of “Numerical Analysis of a Waterjet Propulsion System” by Norbert Willem Herman Bulten, O’Brien was convinced that despite the difficulties involved, he could come up with something that would be better suited to the backpack configuration.

With dreams of gliding effortlessly through the clear waters off of Iceland or as a member of a pod of dolphins, he set out to experiment and research and experiment again. In order to be able to quickly create and rapidly iterate while developing the jet pack, O’Brien utilized 3D printing and CNC technologies. This also allowed him to control for costs as it was part of his primary objective to create something that could be significantly more affordable than anything else on the market. As such, he used FDM technology and PLA, two of the most widely accessible and economically viable methods for fabricating. In addition, SLS was used to create the impeller, using carbon fiber infused powder which gave extreme stiffness needed for such parts.

The key test was determining how the 45 3D printed parts would hold up underwater. To prepare them to operate in such extreme conditions, all the 3D printed parts were first coated with a thin layer of epoxy resin that was then slow-dried, and silicone seals were added to all of the access doors in order to keep water from leaking in and shorting out the battery and other electronics.

But, of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and so there was nothing else to do but throw the thing on and get in the water, which O’Brien has done with gusto, testing the CUDA out in both pools and open water. In addition, parts have been left in water for months to see if they can withstand prolonged exposure, and so far it has all been up to snuff. The CUDA itself requires only 10 minutes to assemble – though I’m assuming that’s for someone with experience if my history of IKEA assembly finish times are any indicator. Once assembly is complete, the backpack is designed to work intuitively, with its harness holding it at 90 degrees in relation to your shoulders and speed controlled by a handheld trigger.

The CUDA is currently patent pending with hopes for the first commercially available models to hit the market in 2019.

What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts; join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.

[Source/Images: 3D Hubs]