3D Printing News Briefs: July 20, 2018

We’re starting out with some construction news in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, then following that with a little business, a little metal, and a little 3D design. Russian firm AMT-SPETSAVIA has updated two of its construction 3D printers, and the University of New Brunswick has chosen a Concept Laser 3D printer to use for its upcoming research. Mass Portal’s software team went through a reorganization, and attendees learned all about lightweight aluminum material at the recent AMAP forum. Finally, users of browser-based SelfCAD 3D software can access the MyMiniFactory design library…and share their own work there as well.

Spetsavia Completes Updates on Large Construction 3D Printers

Three years ago, Russian firm Spetsavia presented its home construction methods and 3D printers at the 3D Print Expo. Now, the group of machining and 3D printing companies collectively known as AMT-SPECAVIA has updated its range of construction 3D printers (Construction Objects Printing or COP) to introduce two new large-format models. The S-300, with a “working field” of 11.5 x 11 x 5.4 m, is able to print directly on the foundation of buildings up to two stories and 120 square meters, while the S-500 features an 11.5 x 11 x 15 m field and can 3D print buildings up to five, or even six, floors. However, the latter can be increased to a working field of 40 x 11 x 80 m, which Spetsavia says makes it “the largest 3D construction printer in the world.”

“New models of the S series are essentially the next generation of building printers. We’ve always been asked for a solution for multi-storey construction,” said Alexander Maslov, the General Director of AMT-SPETSAVIA. “Now we declare with confidence that such a solution exists! The AMT S300 and S500 printers are high-performance equipment with unprecedented capabilities and competitive price. During the development we’ve taken into account the wishes of the developing companies, at the same time maintaining the inherent reliability of our equipment, ease of management and maintenance.”

Both the S-300 and the S-500 have a direct flow print head for increased productivity, in addition to a new feed station that prepares the concrete mixture. The first shipment of the S-500 is scheduled for this fall, and a team of engineers will accompany the 3D printer to the customer for training.

University of New Brunswick to Use Concept Laser M2 Cusing

L-R: Keith Campbell, Senior Sales Director, GE Additive; Dr. Mohsen Mohammadi, Director of Research and Development for the Marine Additive Manufacturing Centre of Excellence; Hart Devitt, Director of Industry and Government Services; Duncan McSporran, Director, Programs and Innovation, Office of Research Services, University of New Brunswick

GE Additive has announced that the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in Canada, together with commercialization partner Custom Fabricators & Machinists and training partners Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC), New Brunswick Community College (NBCC), and the College communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick (CCNB), has chosen its Concept Laser M2 Cusing metal 3D printer to use in its latest research.

UNB is in charge of the country’s first Marine Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence, which will be the very first in Canada to fabricate certified parts for the marine industry with metal 3D printing. The M2 Cusing will mostly be used by UNB’s Dr. Mohsen Mohammadi, who will be the Director of Research and Development for the new center, and his team for multiple R&D areas, including bast resistance, enhanced corrosion protection, and hybrid 3D printing processes.

Mass Portal Announces Reorganization of Software Team

Latvian 3D printer manufacturer Mass Portal has reorganized, and appointed new leadership for, its software team, which is now an independent company called FabControl. The company will be building an open, next-generation software platform for managing 3D printers and AM workflows, and Mass Portal’s current CEO and co-founder Janis Grinhofs, the founder of FabControl and in charge of developing Mass Portal’s flagship Pharaoh 3D printers, will now serve as the CEO of the new company. Imants Treidis has been named the new CEO of Mass Portal.

“We will continue to serve our existing customers and industrial partners, in the same time striving for excellence in supplying the industry with highest quality machines and tailor built solutions for additive manufacturing needs,” Treidis said.

All About Aluminum at AMAP Forum 

Not too long ago in Aachen, scientific and industry experts gathered at the AMAP Forum (Advanced Metals and Processes) to demonstrate the continuing potential of researching non-ferrous metals, like aluminum, for the purposes of lightweight automotive design. 14 entrepreneurs from industry and five of the RWTH Aachen University institutions formed the AMAP Open Innovation Research cluster at the forum, and discussed topics ranging from new production technologies and materials development to modeling and metallurgic process technology. Some of the specifics included using aluminum hollow castings to create structural components with functional integration, additive manufacturing, and new design and calculation methods for high-strength aluminum alloys.

Dr. Klaus Vieregge, Chairman of the AMAP Advisory Board and Head of the Hydro Aluminium Research and Development Center in Bonn, said, “We are an efficient network. New members are always welcome, but a high number of members is not the focus of the AMAP cluster, we want to convince people by the efficiency of the work and the research results.”

SelfCAD Partners with MyMiniFactory

Online 3D design platform SelfCAD, founded in 2015, combines 3D modeling, slicing, and several other tools and functions in one easy program. Earlier this year, the platform announced a partnership with popular 3D printable model marketplace MyMiniFactory.

This partnership makes it easy for SelfCAD users to access the design library in MyMiniFactory, and also gives them the ability to download their 3D models directly from the marketplace while still in the SelfCAD program. In addition,  it’s also possible for users to upload their models directly to MyMiniFactory for maximum exposure.

To learn more, check out this helpful video:

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

 

What Does BASF’s Investment in Materialise Mean for the 3D Printing Industry?

Earlier on today BASF invested $25 million into Materialise. We speculated that perhaps BASF wanted to conquer the eyewear market because the potential of this market is so vast. We won’t sure what this investment means for both firms for many years. What is sure is that this partnership will have far-reaching consequences for 3D Printing. Every board of every large chemicals company now has to plot a counter move or face headwinds at a later date.

Even though global chemical company BASF has been pretty deeply involved with 3D printing for a few years now, this commitment really ramped up one year ago, when it announced a newly increased focus on the 3D printing industry, along with a new, AM-dedicated business – BASF 3D Printing Solutions GmbH. From the onset, BASF said its new business, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BASF New Business GmbH, would be focusing on 3D printing materials, services, components, and system solutions.

While the company works hard to keep introducing new materials on its own, as it has an extensive portfolio of materials ready to be developed for 3D printing, BASF also knows that it can’t go it alone. Partnerships and collaborations with other 3D printing mainstays are an important aspect of gaining knowledge and time in this ever-evolving and expanding the industry. So BASF has continued to acquire and strategically team up with other companies over the past year. The company is now working on 3D printed innovations as human skin and tissue, a super-strong prosthetic socket, the Ultrafuse series of filaments  and now, quite possibly, customized eyewear.

A mai, these online German classes are cheap.

This latest comes after today’s bombshell announcement that BASF has invested $25 million in 3D printing leader Materialise, which has been in the industry for nearly three decades. So if we weren’t sure before, we are now – BASF is wholly committed to becoming an industry leader in its own right.

“Our two companies’ business areas complement each other very well and our cooperation will put us in an even better position to find and develop new business opportunities,” Volker Hammes, Managing Director of BASF 3D Printing Solutions, said about the investment. “With its 3D printer facilities in Leuven and innovative software solutions, Materialise has an outstanding infrastructure. Together, we can exploit our strengths even better to advance the 3D printing sector through the development of new products and technologies together with our partners and our customers.”

Materialise and BASF will work together through an open business model to improve upon 3D printing software – the speciality of Materialise – and materials, which is obviously what BASF brings to the table. In addition, this will enable BASF to further optimize its materials in tandem with Materialise. The day before the investment was made public, Materialise announced a proposed public offering of 3.0 million of its American Depositary Shares.

So. What does this big news mean for the rest of the industry? Should we be preparing for a flood of other 3D printing polymer companies to merge with, or even acquire or be acquired by, other businesses in the industry? Maybe.

Photo-Resin X004M is suitable for break-resistant parts, like post-colored electric circuit connectors.

Polymer companies that have long focused solely on their materials offerings will likely take a cue from their counterparts who have also been including applications work in their portfolios, else they risk being left behind in the dust.

It could also mean an increase in high-quality 3D printing materials for industries and applications that Materialise already has its proverbial fingers in, such as aerospace, automotive, healthcare, and even art and entertainment. What will the reaction of and in our broader industry be?

It seems that on the whole, this investment will be a net benefit to the industry. A lone mouse does not exist, neither does a lone polymer company. Subsequently, we can expect renewed investment from polymer companies. They should see a dwindling supply of established M&A candidates for them to peruse. Good news, thanks to the nice people from Ludwigshafen everyone just got a higher valuation. Service bureaus have now discovered a new business model. Rather than making parts which is a complex undertaking and requires hard work you can partner with a polymer giant to make money. The marginal cost of working more closely with one than the other is very low in some cases. For established 3D Printing materials vendors such as Arkema and Evonik, the costs of doing business just went up. Rather than sell materials at fat margins a competitor is now paying other people to use their material. A situation a bit like if one taxi driver were paid to use Exxon gas while the others paid Shell dearly. We’re all being taken for a ride but some of us more so than others.

Perhaps companies across 3D printing will now realise that our greatest potential in the future may be to change how everything is made; but for now, changing how one thing is made or how one business unit hits its revenue targets is enough. BASF engulfs our industry, its revenue sextupling ours. Will this mean that a string of service bureaus will be bought by polymer companies? Bycatch in the nets of billion-dollar trawlers. It would give them much needed parts expertise and the idea of moving towards parts and solutions, not just commodity chemistries must be exciting for them. Even if they don’t, it will be a quick way for them to learn. What about OEMs? While some jump ahead, others leap backwards. These 3D printer builders could be a tempting alternative also, “Look, boss, its like Nespresso for plastic.” 3D printing software companies are thin on the ground but may be amenable to an exit at the right price. Would it make sense for a polymer company to acquire a 3D modelling or CAD firm? Skip everyone, own the customer as she designs the thing then facilitate the manufacturing of that thing. If a staid molecule farmer did that it would make the MCExcel slaves heads spin. Would it be smart? It would be bold, that’s for sure. But, are we but plankton for the polymer wales or are there more that see us as prey?

What of the car and aviation companies. Could they also jockey for position by investing or partnering? They probably benefit more from growth and competition in the ecosystem but in some cases may feel the need to press the trigger. What of the limited availability of viable long fiber carbon fibre or another composite with Impossible Objects and MarkForged way ahead with no one following? In a private space race our industry seems a bit of a rounding error. It may make sense for a space company to acquire both a service firm and an OEM. Or the fact that there are perhaps only 15 viable metal printing companies and around a dozen high-temperature material 3D printing firms in general? Who does that effect? We’re small but we can’t count on everyone being as aggressive as that staid ship of the line from the Rhine. One firm with an evacuation plan that consists of a map of central Europe could swallow us all. Now for a short time before the age of the nanobot and nanotube, we’re like Helen of Troy. From “chips to ships” we have a role to play, We may find ourselves not captains of our destinies but rather prey.

Joris Peels contributed to this piece.

3D Printing News Briefs: July 17, 2018

In Today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, we’re covering a lot of business and a little medical news. AMFG is partnering with a top UK bearings manufacturer to help automate its digital manufacturing workflows, while Segula Technologies has begun an industrial 3D printing partnership with digital manufacturing company Multistation. Techniplas has completed a deployment of Sharebot 3D printers to its 14 manufacturing facilities around the world, and the winners of the SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Competition have been announced. Finally, a pediatric cardiologist used the Sinterit Lisa to create a 3D printed model of a newborn boy’s heart to plan his risky surgery.

Bowman International Announces Partnership with AMFG

Bowman’s bearings

Automation software specialist AMFG, which recently launched a new AI software platform, has partnered with Bowman International, one of the top bearings manufacturers in the UK, as it works to grow its 3D printing capabilities through its Bowman Additive Production (AP) division. Bowman AP has several MJF and SLS 3D printers available for its use, and uses 3D printing to design and produce its end-part bearings, which has helped increase their load bearing capacity by up to 70%.

In the meantime, Bowman International’s goal is to use AMFG’s AI-powered production automation software to oversee production of said bearings, by automating production job scheduling, optimizing digital CAD files for production with printability analyses, and creating a custom digital part catalog.

“We’re very pleased to be partnering with AMFG and using their automation software to scale our already expanding AM facility,” said Jacob Turner, the Head of Additive Production at Bowman International. “Additive manufacturing is transforming the way bearings are manufactured, and we aim to continue to be at the forefront of innovating the production of bearings using AM. AMFG’s automation software will enable us to achieve this by significantly increasing the efficiency of our production processes.”

Multistation Partners with Segula Technologies

Another newly announced 3D printing partnership is the one between international engineering group Segula Technologies and Paris-based 3D printing company Multistation. The two are working together to further develop the potential of 3D printing in the industrial sector, which will allow both companies to increase their offerings and provide customers with excellent services along the AM value chain. Segula will bring its design, product-process qualification, and technology integration in industrial environments to the table, while Multistation will share and apply its expertise in AM design and simulation by determining any potential parts that could be 3D printed instead of fabricated with a more traditional method of manufacturing.

“Additive manufacturing is an integral part of a value chain within which Multistation provides a comprehensive offering; Segula Technologies was an obvious partner of choice to enable our Additive Consulting division to address manufacturers’ concerns more effectively,” said Yannick Loisance, the CEO of Multistation. “We will thus be able to supply them not just with software packages, machines and materials, but also with a more comprehensive range of high-quality engineering services that are suited to a host of different business sectors.”

Techniplas Adds Sharebot 3D Printers to Its Manufacturing Facilities

This fall, Italian professional-grade 3D printer manufacturer Sharebot joined the open innovation program at Techniplas, a top automotive design and manufacturing provider. Now, as part of its own continuing digital transformation, Techniplas has deployed Sharebot 3D printers to all of its 14 manufacturing facilities across five continents. This move will allow the company to 3D print the majority of the manufacturing products it uses every day on-site, which will equal major cost and time savings as Techniplas previously used only third-party providers for this task.

With Sharebot 3D printers installed in all of our manufacturing facilities worldwide, we are taking decisive steps toward fabricating the majority of our manufacturing line assembly tools, jigs, fixtures, gauges and even robotic arm attachments in-house. Based on our experience with Sharebot printers thus far, we expect to significantly reduce our development time and annual assembly line tooling costs in each manufacturing facility over time,” said Techniplas COO Manfred Kwade.

Winners of the SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Competition Announced

For the fourth year running, advanced manufacturing technology industry organization SME and Stratasys have co-sponsored the SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Contest, held during the annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Louisville. The winners of this year’s student contest, which asks contestants to solve real world problems with 3D printing, were just announced. This year, entrants had to design an adaptive device for a veteran, who had endured a traumatic thumb amputation, so he could keep playing his PlayStation 3. Prizes include RAPID + TCT conference passes, SOLIDWORKS’ 3D-CAD design software, SME Education Foundation scholarships (for high school participants), a one-year Tooling U-SME subscription, and a MakerBot Mini 3D printer.

“The SkillsUSA contest is designed to help students and educators realize the power of additive manufacturing to drive innovation. This year’s competition was particularly meaningful as it directly resulted in enhancing a veteran’s life with a custom solution not possible without additive manufacturing,” said Gina Scala, the Director of Marketing, Global Education at Stratasys.

The high school winners include:

  • Gold medal: Getty George and Sam Green, Martin Luther King High School, Riverside, California
  • Silver medal: Noah Logan and Johnathan Urbani, Stafford Tech Center, Rutland, Vermont
  • Bronze medal: Andrew Daddone and Layke Martin, Frederick County Career & Tech Center, Frederick, Maryland

The college winners include:

  • Gold medal: Adolfo Vargas and Alexander Kemnitz, Central Community College-Hastings, Hastings, Nebraska
  • Silver medal: Deema Al Namee and Aric Donerkiel, Vermont Technical College, Randolph Center, Vermont
  • Bronze medal: William Swaner and Ashton DeZwarte, Tenneseee College of Applied Tech-Nashville, Nashville, Tennessee

Watch a video about the 2018 competition here, and check out the winning designs here; you can also view SME’s Flickr album for more competition photos.

Surgeon 3D Prints Pediatric Heart Model with Sinterit Lisa

Desktop SLS 3D printer manufacturing Sinterit has seen its flagship Lisa 3D printer, which went through a recent upgrade, used to save lives in multiple ways, from fighting wildfires and protecting the faces of children to providing assistance in a tough pediatric cardiac surgery.

“Delivering desktop SLS 3D printer for more than three years caused that our clients send us tonnes of useful and exciting cases. Writing about all of them is hard, if not impossible, but when 3D printing helps saving lives, especially those most fragile, we feel proud, and also a duty to share it with you,” Michał Krzak, Sinterit’s Marketing Communication Manager, told 3DPrint.com.

A newborn’s heart can weigh barely 20 grams, and fits in the palm of an adult’s hand, so you can imagine that surgeries on such a delicate organ are exceedingly difficult. Jarosław Meyer-Szary, MD, from the Department of Pediatric Cardiology and Congenital Heart Defects at the University Clinical Center in Poland recently turned to Sinterit’s Lisa 3D printer to save the life of Kordian, an infant less than one month old suffering from a potentially fatal heart disease called interrupted aortic arch.

Meyer-Szary created 3D printed, life-size model of Kordian’s tiny heart, and SLS technology was able to recreate each intricate artery and vein. The model not only helped him plan the surgery ahead of time, but also helped Kordian’s mother gain a more thorough understanding of her son’s condition. Kordian is now a thriving and happy 18 month-old, thanks to Sinterit’s SLS technology.

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

GE Additive Partnering Up with Honda and Triumph Group for 3D Printing Acceleration

GE Additive, which is attending the Farnborough International Airshow this week, has been busily dropping announcements from the trade fair, the latest of which is centered around its AddWorks additive consulting service provider. GE Additive and AddWorks were chosen by the Honda R&D Co., Ltd, Aircraft Engine R&D Center in Japan to help increase the development of 3D printed aerospace applications for its future generation aircraft engines.

SmarTech Publishing stated that over $280 billion will be invested in additive manufacturing over the next decade, and GE Additive wants in. Last spring, the company announced that it would be increasing its focus on additive manufacturing, planning to sell 10,000 3D printers by 2026 and become a $1 billion business by 2020. This announcement was followed by setting up operations in Japan this winter, and announcing that more commercial offerings would be available last month. Now, it’s continuing to increase its commercial efforts in Japan by focusing on important industries like automotive and aerospace.

“We are pleased that Honda Aircraft Engine R&D Center has selected GE Additive to be its vendor in providing AddWorks consulting services to further the use of this transformative technology in its future generation aircraft engines,” said Thomas Pang, the Director of GE Additive in Japan. “We are in the best position to share our learnings from our own additive journey, having started from prototyping to successfully applying it to mass production for aviation engine parts.”

Honda R&D Headquarters

GE and Honda have been partnering together in the aviation industry for over ten years, first setting up the joint venture GE Honda Aero Engines LLC in 2004 between Honda Aero and GE Aviation, and then creating the GE Honda HF120 jet engine for use on lighter business jet aircraft like the successful HondaJet – the most delivered in its category last year.

To assist customers in adding 3D printing to their business workflows, GE Additive provides materials, 3D printers, and the engineering consultancy services of AddWorks; these consultants use their AM expertise to help clients figure out if adopting 3D printing will be beneficial in terms of performance and cost. GE Additive is hopeful that AddWorks will help Honda Aircraft Engine R&D Center, and ultimately lead to further growth of its partnership with the company and increased AM adoption in aerospace.

At its Japan location, GE Additive will sell Concept Laser and Arcam EBM 3D printers, along with materials, both directly and through local resellers to customers in the country that focus on heavy industry, automotive, and aerospace.

In addition to the partnership with Honda, Pennsylvania-headquartered Triumph Group, a leader in the aerospace industry, is working to further its own AM strategy by selecting two of GE Additive’s 3D printers and a variety of AddWorks design and engineering consultancy service packages. Triumph hopes that these new additions will help to support both its commercial objectives and its R&D initiatives.

“I really admire Triumph’s smart and progressive strategy in adopting a multimodality approach to their additive journey. And when you add to that the deep experience and divergent thinking of our AddWork’s team, I look forward to seeing the results of what I hope will be a long and rewarding relationship,” said Jason Oliver, the President and CEO of GE Additive.

Triumph works in all levels of the aerospace supply chain, ranging from single components and complex systems to aerospace structures, in order to offer solutions for an aircraft’s entire product life cycle. The company enjoys a competitive advantage over similar businesses thanks to its ability to integrate several capabilities and products.

The aerospace company chose an M2 Cusing Multilaser DMLM system from Concept Laser, as well as an Arcam EBM Q20plus system, both of which should be fully installed at its Seattle R&D facility within Q3 of 2018.

“Triumph Group is excited to work with GE Additive to broaden Triumph’s utilization of additive manufacturing technology. Thus far we have successfully used additive manufacturing for prototyping, and we are rapidly growing its use for design competency,” said Dan Crowley, the President and CEO of Triumph Group. “This partnership with GE Additive will strengthen our additive manufacturing capability, accelerating our ability to design and develop future on-wing solutions for our customers.”

L-R: Gary Tenison, VP Strategy & Business Development, Triumph Group; Jason Oliver, President & CEO, GE Additive; Dan Rowley, President & CEO, Triumph Group; David Joyce, Vice Chair of GE and President and CEO, GE Aviation; Tom Holzthum, EVP Integrated Systems, Triumph Group; Ryan Martin, Sales Leader Americas, GE Additive

Right from the beginning, GE Additive’s AddWorks team will work with Triumph in multiple areas, such as advising on prototyping strategies, discovery workshops, and materials selection.

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

[Images provided by GE Additive]

3D Printing News Briefs: July 10, 2018

We’re starting things off with a little business in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, then moving on to news from the medical and construction industries, and finishing up with a few fun stories to make you smile. First up, Jeff Immelt, the former CEO of General Electric, has joined the board at Desktop Metal, and an industrial 3D printer distributor is offering a new cleaning unit by Omegasonics to its customers. Moving on, Insight Medical and Onkos Surgical are exploring the use of augmented reality in musculoskeletal oncology together, while Australian researchers introduced a new model for large-scale 3D facial recognition and a family has officially moved into the Nantes 3D printed house. Finally, a vegan confection startup is selling its popsicles, made with 3D printed molds, at select Starbucks locations in Los Angeles, and an EnvisionTEC 3D printer is being used to create characters for a stop motion series about superheroes.

Desktop Metal Board Welcomes Jeff Immelt

Jeffrey Immelt

Leading metal 3D printing company Desktop Metal, located near Boston, was founded three years ago with the goal of making metal 3D printing an essential tool for engineers and manufacturers. The company announced today that it has elected a new member to its Board of Directors – Jeffrey Immelt, the Chairman and CEO of GE until he retired from the company last year after 16 years. Immelt, who began his tenure only days before 9/11 and skillfully led GE through the crisis, has decades of experience, and is regarded as one of the most accomplished, innovative business technology leaders in the world. This makes him a valuable asset as Desktop Metal continues to grow.

“I am excited and honored to join the Desktop Metal board and work with this exceptional team of visionary entrepreneurs. Since it was founded nearly three years ago, Desktop Metal has become a trailblazer across the additive manufacturing landscape and I have a tremendous respect for the company’s ability to innovate,” said Immelt. “I look forward to sharing my experiences and contributing to the future direction and growth of this emerging metal 3D printing pioneer.”

Dr. Ken Washington, CTO and Vice President of Research and Advanced Engineering at the Ford Motor Company, was also recently appointed to the Desktop Metal board.

Industrial 3D Printer Distributor Offering Customers New Omegasonics Cleaning Unit

815BTX

Plural Additive Manufacturing, which is the exclusive North American distributor for industrial 3D printers by 3ntr, is offering the new 815BTX cleaning unit from ultrasonic cleaning systems leader Omegasonics to customers who purchase its 3D printers. The versatile and cost-effective unit is the 3D printing market’s first dual tank/dual action bench top ultrasonic cleaning machine, and can help easily remove water soluble support material.

The left tank of the 815BTX uses a biodegradable cleaning detergent developed by Plural, called BioSolv, while the right tank uses hot water; the model’s dual action then ensures the safe and efficient cleaning of 3D printed parts. The 815BTX also has programmable alternating cycles for hands-off cleaning.

“3ntr manufacturers’ of 3D printers utilize a variety of support materials, some require chemicals for support removal, while others need only hot water. The 815BTX eliminates the need to have two separate cleaning machines or deal with the cost of frequent cleaning detergent changes to get the job done,” explained Frank Pedeflous, the President of Omegasonics. “It’s an all-in-one solution.”

Onkos Surgical and Insight Medical Exploring Augmented Reality in Musculoskeletal Oncology

California medical device company Insight Medical Systems has partnered with Onkos Surgical, Inc. on a pilot project to explore different applications and opportunities for using Insight Medical’s ARVIS (Augmented Reality Visualization and Information System) headset in musculoskeletal oncology, and possibly tumor surgery. Still under development, ARVIS uses its tracking and visualization capabilities to deliver efficient and precise surgical plan execution. The headset can project virtual models of a specific patient’s anatomy and implants into a surgeon’s field of view during a procedure, in order to show hidden anatomical structures and important measurements.

“Onkos Surgical is investing heavily in capabilities and technology to bring innovation to musculoskeletal oncology surgeons,” said Onkos CEO and Co-Founder Patrick Treacy. “Augmented reality technology has the potential of simplifying the complex and providing surgeons with input and feedback that may improve the precision of surgical planning and interoperative workflow. This technology fits well with our portfolio of Precision Oncology solutions.”

University of Western Australia Introduces New Model for Large-Scale 3D Facial Recognition

2D facial recognition is used often for applications in the IT, security, and surveillance industries, and relies on a computer model to know whether a person is legitimate or not. But this method has several issues, such as data being easily accessible online, which aren’t the case with more advanced 3D models. 3D models can address changes in facial expression, poses, scale, and texture, but the data can be hard to gather. Now, researchers from the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Western Australia (UWA) have developed a first of its kind system that can complete large-scale 3D facial recognition. The researchers, who published a paper on their work in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, analyzed 3.1 million 3D scans of over 100,000 people, and trained the innovative new 3D Facial Recognition model (FR3DNet) to learn the identities of a large dataset of ‘known’ persons, then match a test face to one.

Dr. Syed Zulqarnain Gilani, who created the 3D model, said, “With off-the-shelf 3D cameras becoming cheap and affordable, the future for pure 3D face recognition does not seem far away.

“Our research shows that recognition performance on 3D scans is better and more robust. Your 3D scan could be in any pose, wearing glasses or a face mask, and laughing or just smiling and the deep model can recognise you in an instant.

“We hope that this research will help improve security on devices that use facial recognition to grant access to networks and systems.”

Nantes 3D Printed House Welcomes First Tenants

In 2017, a collaborative team of researchers in France began an ambitious project where an industrial 3D printer and a patented concrete construction process called BatiPrint3D were used to build a five-room house in just days. This spring, after 54 hours of 3D printing and four months of contractors adding the roof, windows, and doors, the team finished the 95-square-meter, environmentally-friendly YHNOVA house in the district of Nantes Bottière. The house features wheelchair access and digital controls, and its curved walls are said to reduce the effects of humidity. But it still only cost around £176,000 to build – 20% cheaper than an identical house manufactured with traditional methods. Now, the NMH Housing Award Committee has allocated the house to a French family, and Nordine and Nouria Ramdani, along with their three children, are being hailed as the world’s first family to live in a 3D printed house.

Nordine said, “It’s a big honour to be a part of this project.

“We lived in a block of council flats from the 60s, so it’s a big change for us.

“It’s really something amazing to be able to live in a place where there is a garden, and to have a detached house.”

The THNOVA team now believes they can 3D print the same house in just 33 hours.

Dream Pops Selling 3D Printed Popsicles at LA Starbucks

Vegan confection startup Dream Pops, headquartered in Los Angeles, creates organic, gluten- and soy-free, and vegan popsicles that are tasty, healthy, and made using 3D printed molds. These premier dairy-free popsicles consist of fruit and superfoods pureed together and cooled inside the molds at an accelerated rate with liquid nitrogen. Now, the startup has announced that its sweet treats are now available at five select Starbucks locations in the city – Third Street Promenade, La Brea and 4th, San Vincente and Barrington, Melrose and Stanley, and Wilshire and Santa Monica. The vegan ice cream pops, each of which contain fewer than 100 calories and seven grams of sugar, comes in five distinct flavors: Berry Dreams, Coconut Latte, Mango Rosemary, Vanilla Matcha, and a Dream Flight, which includes all four flavors.

“Our aim is to become the Willy Wonka of plant-based confections starting with our first product the Dream Pop and extending into adjacent better-for-you desserts,” said Dream Pops Co-Founder and CEO David Greenfield.

Dream Pops’ popsicles will be available at these Starbucks locations until October 5th.

3D Printed Stop Motion Characters

3D printing has been used many times to help create characters and backdrops for ads and commercials, music videos, and even movies that use popular stop motion animation. If you’re a fan of the stop motion show Robot Chicken, then you might also recognize the name of the full-service production company that creates it. California-based Stoopid Buddy Stoodios specializes in developing and producing stop-motion, CG, and 2D animated content, and also creates an animated stop motion comedy series called SuperMansion. The studio fabricates most of the show’s characters with a Perfactory 3D printer from EnvisionTEC.

“By utilizing 3D printing, we’re able to tell a story about superheroes and love and conflict and action and adventure,” said Kei Chong, Digital Design Supervisor at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.

To learn more, check out the video below.

3D Printing for Animation | Stoopid Buddy Stoodios from EnvisionTEC on Vimeo.

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Nano Dimension and Mayku Announce New Strategic and Distribution 3D Printing Partnerships

Israeli additive electronics provider Nano Dimension announced in April that it would be expanding its coverage in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, and today has made good on that announcement. The award-winning company has officially entered the Chinese market now, thanks to its strategic partnership with top 3D printer distributor the AURORA Group.

The AURORA Group is the majority shareholder of 3D software and 3D printer provider General Integration Technology (GIT), which recently purchased and installed a DragonFly 2020 Pro PCB 3D printer from Nano Dimension for its Taiwan showroom. In addition to this new partnership, AURORA has also purchased a second DragonFly 2020 Pro.

“China is one of the world’s largest and most important electronics manufacturing and design markets, and establishing the correct foothold in the market is key for Nano Dimension. AURORA has years of operating experience in the manufacturing sector, and with its extensive resources and unique network of 1,500 offices, 300,000 customers, including more than 3,000 customers in electronics industries, we believe it is very well positioned to give us fast market access to realize the full potential of the DragonFly 2020 Pro in China,” said Amit Dror, CEO of Nano Dimension. “We look forward to developing the Chinese market together by leveraging AURORA’s significant presence.”

As a result of the partnership, AURORA will market and sell the DragonFly 2020 Pro to customers in China, which will help grow Nano Dimension’s market coverage in APAC.

“Providing our customers with the very latest in high-quality, innovative 3D printing solutions is key to the success of our company,” said Daniel Chi, GM of 3D Business Unit, AURORA Group. “Forming a strategic relationship with Nano Dimension helps us expand our offering to now include capabilities for 3D printing electronics. The Nano Dimension DragonFly 2020 Pro is a groundbreaking technology that opens unimagined possibilities for electronics designers and manufacturers.”

A January 2018 market research report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that the quickly growing Chinese 3D printing market is leading Asia. 3D printing in the country benefits from both industrial and private consumer investments and government support, so partnering with AURORA for additional APAC coverage is a smart move on Nano Dimension’s part.

“This is an important moment for our recently established Hong Kong office,” said Nano Dimension’s APAC Director Gilad Reshef. “We are proud to partner with AURORA as our leading partner in China. The partnership with AURORA deepens AURORA’s exposure to additive manufacturing by expanding into 3D-printing electronics, paving the way for new markets and applications.”

This news from Nano Dimension and AURORA isn’t the only newly announced 3D printing partnership. London startup Mayku has just released its innovative desktop vacuum former, the FormBox, for sale in the UK and the US, with help from its own new partner – 3D printing specialist GoPrint3D.

The FormBox

“We’re really excited about it as we think a lot of 3D printer owners will want one to complement their existing 3D printer,” GoPrint3D’s David Whitehouse told 3DPrint.com.

A drone case being removed from the mold.

GoPrint3D, which is also a distributor for EnvisionTEC and learnbylayers, was launched six years ago as a part of Express Group Ltd, which has provided 2D printer repair and spare parts to the UK for three decades. The company sells, repairs, and hires 3D printers, in addition to providing professional services.

“We were so impressed when we first saw the FormBox that we immediately backed it on Kickstarter,” explained Jo Young, Managing Director at GoPrint3D. “Now we are a partner as well as a backer. It’s the perfect accessory to 3D printers like the Form 2 so we are delighted to add it to our range.”

In 2016, Mayku crushed its original $50,000 Kickstarter campaign goal for the FormBox by over 1,000%. The desktop vacuum forming machine, which can be powered by a vacuum cleaner, lets makers and designers create items in all sorts of materials, ranging from concrete, ice, and plaster to soap, chocolate, and wax, and others as well.

The machine is user-friendly, and fast as well – able to make molds in just minutes without having to rely on any additional software or digital model manipulation.


“Vacuum forming was previously something found in makerspaces and in schools due to their cost and size,” explained Ben Redford, Mayku’s Co-Founder and CPO. “We are thrilled to have the support of the 3D printing industry and have been blown away with what makers have been designing.”

The FormBox is a complementary new hardware addition for 3D printer owners. Users can easily vacuum form a 3D print using the FormBox, which can then be used as a mold for fast replication in multiple materials that are not able to be directly 3D printed at this time.

GoPrint3D now has the FormBox in stock and available for purchase for a price of £499 excluding VAT.

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3D Printing News Briefs: June 29, 2018

In today’s 3D Printing News Briefs (the last one this month, how is the summer going by so quickly?!), a few companies are announcing special honors and recognitions, and then we’re sharing stories stories about some interesting new 3D printing projects, and finally wrapping things up before the weekend with some business news. Renishaw’s Director of R&D has been honored by the Royal Academy of Engineering, while MakerBot earned an important designation for its 3D printing certification program for educators and Renovis Surgical Technologies received FDA approval for its new 3D printed implant. Festo is introducing three new bionic robots, one of which is partially 3D printed, and CINTEC is using 3D printing for its restoration of a famous government house. GE wants to use blockchains for 3D printing protection, and ExOne announced a global cost realignment.

Royal Academy of Engineering Honors Renishaw’s Chris Sutcliffe

Earlier this week, the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) awarded a Silver Medal to Professor Chris Sutcliffe, the Director of Research and Development of the Additive Manufacturing Products Division (AMPD) for global metrology company Renishaw. This award is given to recognize outstanding personal contributions to British engineering, and is given to no more than four people a year. The Silver Medal Sutcliffe received was in recognition of his part in driving the development of metal 3D printed implants in both human and veterinary surgery, and also celebrates his successful commercialization of 3D printed products with several companies, including Renishaw, and the University of Liverpool.

“Throughout my career I’ve worked hard to commercialise additive manufacturing technology. As well as AM’s benefit to the aerospace and automotive sectors, commercialisation of AM and associated technologies has been lifechanging for those with musculoskeletal diseases,” said Sutcliffe. “The award celebrates the successes of the engineers I have worked with to achieve this and I am grateful to receive the award to recognise our work.”

MakerBot’s Certification Program for Educators Gets Important Designation

One of the leaders in 3D printing for education is definitely MakerBot, which has sent its 3D printers to classrooms all over the world. Just a few months ago, the company launched a comprehensive, first of its kind 3D printing certification program, which trains educators to become 3D printing experts and create custom curriculum for STEAM classrooms. An independent review of the program showed that it meets the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards, and it has earned the prestigious ISTE Seal of Alignment from the accreditation body. In addition, a survey conducted over the last three years of over 2,000 MakerBot educators shows that the percentage of teachers reporting that MakerBot’s 3D printers met their classroom needs has doubled in just two years.

“This data shows that MakerBot isn’t just growing its user base in schools. We’re measurably improving teachers’ experiences using 3D printing,” said MakerBot CEO Nadav Goshen. “Much of this impressive teacher satisfaction is thanks to the effort we’ve put into solving real classroom problems—like the availability of 3D printing curriculum with Thingiverse Education, clear best practices with the MakerBot Educators Guidebook, and now training with the new MakerBot Certification program.”

Earlier this week, MakerBot exhibited its educator solutions at the ISTE Conference in Chicago.

FDA Grants Clearance for 3D Printed Interbody Spinal Fusion System 

California-headquartered Renovis Surgical Technologies, Inc. announced that it has received 510(k) clearance from the FDA for its Tesera SA Hyperlordotic ALIF Interbody Spinal Fusion System. All Tesera implants are 3D printed, and use a proprietary, patent-pending design to create a porous, roughened surface structure, which maximizes biologic fixation, strength, and stability to allow for bone attachment and in-growth to the implant.

The SA implant, made with Renovis’s trabecular technology and featuring a four-screw design and locking cover plate, is a titanium stand-alone anterior lumbar interbody fusion system. They are available in 7˚, 12˚, 17˚, 22˚ and 28˚ lordotic angles, with various heights and footprints for proper lordosis and intervertebral height restoration, and come with advanced instrumentation that’s designed to decrease operative steps during surgery.

Festo Introduces Partially 3D Printed Bionic Robot

German company Festo, the robotics research of which we’ve covered before, has introduced its Bionic Learning Network’s latest project – three bionic robots inspired by a flic-flac spider, a flying fox, and a cuttlefish. The latter of these biomimetic robots, the BionicFinWave, is a partially 3D printed robotic fish that can autonomously maneuver its way through acrylic water-filled tubing. The project has applications in soft robotics, and could one day be developed for tasks like underwater data acquisition, inspection, and measurement.

The 15 oz robot propels itself forward and backward through the tubing using undulation forces from its longitudinal fins, while also communicating with and transmitting data to the outside world with a radio. The BionicFinWave’s lateral fins, molded from silicone, can move independently of each other and generate different wave patterns, and water-resistant pressure and ultrasound sensors help the robot register its depth and distance to the tube walls. Due to its ability to realize complex geometry, 3D printing was used to create the robot’s piston rod, joints, and crankshafts out of plastic, along with its other body elements.

Cintec Using 3D Printing on Restoration Work of the Red House

Cintec North America, a leader in the field of structural masonry retrofit strengthening, preservation, and repair, completes structural analysis and design services for projects all around the world, including the Egyptian Pyramids, Buckingham Palace, Canada’s Library of Parliament, and the White House. Now, the company is using 3D printing in its $1 million restoration project on the historic Red House, which is also known as the seat of Parliament for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and was built between 1844 and 1892.

After sustaining damage from a fire, the Red House, featuring signature red paint and Beaux-Arts style architecture, was refurbished in 1904. In 2007, Cintec North America was asked to advise on the required repairs to the Red House, and was given permission to install its Reinforcing Anchor System. This landmark restoration project – the first where Cintec used 3D printing for sacrificial parts – denotes an historic moment in structural engineering, because one of the reinforcement anchors inserted into the structure, measuring 120 ft, is thought to be the longest in the world.

GE Files Patent to Use Blockchains For 3D Printing Protection

According to a patent filing recently released by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), industry giant GE wants to use a blockchain to verify the 3D printed parts in its supply chain and protect itself from fakes. If a replacement part for an industrial asset is 3D printed, anyone can reproduce it, so end users can’t verify its authenticity, and if it was made with the right manufacturing media, device, and build file. In its filing, GE, which joined the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA) consortium in March, outlined a method for setting up a database that can validate, verify, and track the manufacturing process, by integrating blockchains into 3D printing.

“It would therefore be desirable to provide systems and methods for implementing a historical data record of an additive manufacturing process with verification and validation capabilities that may be integrated into additive manufacturing devices,” GE stated in the patent filing.

ExOne to Undergo Global Cost Realignment

3D printer and printed products provider ExOne has announced a global cost realignment program, in order to achieve positive earnings and cash flow in 2019. In addition to maximizing efficiency through aligning its capital resources, ExOne’s new program will be immediately reducing the company’s consulting projects and headcount – any initial employee reductions will take place principally in consulting and select personnel. The program, which has already begun, will focus first on global operations, with an emphasis on working capital initiatives, production overhead, and general and administrative spending. This program will continue over the next several quarters.

“With the essential goal of significantly improving our cash flows in 2019, we have conducted a review of our cost structure and working capital practices. We are evaluating each position and expense within our organization, with the desire to improve productivity. As a result, we made the difficult decision to eliminate certain positions within ExOne, reduce our spending on outside consultants and further rely on some of our recently instituted and more efficient processes,” explained S. Kent Rockwell, ExOne’s Chairman and CEO. “Additional cost analyses and changes to business practices to improve working capital utilization will be ongoing over the next several quarters and are expected to result in additional cost reductions and improved cash positions. All the while, we remain focused on our research and development goals and long-term revenue growth goals, which will not be impacted by these changes, as we continue to lead the market adoption of our binder jetting technology.”

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Graphmatec Partnering with Materials Developer Add North 3D to Develop Conductive 3D Printing Filaments

Last summer, materials scientist Dr. Mamoun Taher, a researcher in the Department of Chemistry at Uppsala University in Sweden, worked with serial entrepreneur Björn Lindh to found a startup company, of which Taher is the CEO, called Graphmatech. Not only is the startup part of top European business accelerator the InnoEnergy Highway, which specializes in sustainable energy, but it also belongs to SynerLeap, the ABB Corporate Research Center‘s innovation growth hub.

Back when Taher was working on graphene materials as a postdoc at Uppsala, he discovered just how many properties were lost when the thin flakes stuck to each other during large-scale production, and determined to find a solution.

Now one of the top 10 companies in the 2018 Nordic Cleantech Open startup competition, Graphmatec is doing pretty well for itself, and Taher even developed a new form of graphene, called Aros Graphene, which makes it possible to use the complex material on a larger scale in industry.

Graphene, a two-dimensional carbon material, is increasingly being used in 3D printing applications, and is 200 times stronger than steel, but 12% lighter weight than the second lightest material in the world. While the material poses difficulties when it comes to bulk production, it’s great for conducting electricity and heat, and 3D printable materials can be improved by mixing graphene with nanocomposites.

Now, Graphmatech has teamed up with another material technology startup, Add North 3D, to develop conductive, novel filaments for 3D printing, based on its own patented Aros Graphene nanocomposite material.

According to the Add North 3D website, “3D printing offers unique possibilities to test new materials and we want to be in the forefront in contributing to replacing the black carbon atom with the green one in all possible parts of society.”

Swedish materials developer Add North 3D, which got its start in 2016, specializes in FFF/FDM materials. For the last two years, the startup has been focused on consumables, developing new materials, such as its new matte material add:architect, and sustainable plastic solutions. It also works on development projects, such as creating a new process to make 3D printable PLA from the country’s forest industry side-streams, that are financed by the Swedish Innovation Authority.

Aros Graphene Polymer 3D Filament

The startup is now getting ready to introduce an international expansion, and Aros Graphene-based filament will be one of its cornerstones.

Recently, Graphmatec developed a cost-efficient, scalable process for coating polymer granular and powder with its Aros Graphene material to gain high-quality dispersion. The process is a “compounding step” before filaments are extruded, and could also be put to work coating polymer granular and powder with different types of additives.

Aros Graphene is easy to disperse in polymers, and Graphmatec’s technology makes it possible to tailor the precise level of the filament’s conductivity, which will introduce a whole new range of 3D printing applications, including thermal management components, electromagnetic and radiofrequency shields, sensors, and circuit boards.

Taher said in May, “We’ve seen that a thermal paste that contains Aros Graphene is 180 percent more thermally conductive than other thermal paste products on the market. In the close future where more and more data centres will be needed to store data, there is huge demand for advanced thermal management solutions.”

The new conductive filaments by Add North 3D and Graphmatec will soon be optimized, and then they will be put through beta testing with a reference group. The material is expected to hit the market within the next 6-12 months.

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3D Systems Looks to Increase 3D Printer Efficiency with Aquant’s AI Platform

For the last two years, 3D printing industry giant 3D Systems has been looking into product launches in hardware, materials, and workflow, in order to create more opportunities for additional applications. 3D Systems President and CEO Vyomesh Joshi (VJ) mentioned this strategy again at RAPID + TCT in Texas last month, and highlighted a few examples.

For instance, the company has been focused on applications in the medical and dental fields for a while, and both the US Air Force and the US Navy will be utilizing its technology to reproduce older plane components and qualify metal 3D printing for warships. 3D Systems also recently introduced a new metal 3D printing system, along with an integrated metal 3D printing software platform.

Never one to just sit back and rest on its laurels, 3D Systems rallied after disappointing Q3 17 financial results and outlined a fairly aggressive approach to keeping its market leadership position. In keeping with the plan, the company recently made its newest announcement – it’s chosen the Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform by New York-based Aquant to increase field service efficiency through parts prediction.

“Advanced technology is key to continued growth for our business. By applying Aquant’s AI technology to our service processes, we believe we are taking a major step towards the vision of providing our customers with zero unplanned downtime,” said Mark Hessinger, the Vice President of Services for 3D Systems.

Aquant, an enterprise AI platform, learns the unique language of other enterprises through machine learning, and uses this knowledge to increase equipment uptime – what it refers to as Uptime as a Service. Its machine learning can provide a step-by-step troubleshooting process, which allows its customers to make faster, smarter decisions, driven by hard data, by taking Aquant’s recommendations for “predictive actionable service.”

The company uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms to quickly convert both historical unstructured and structured data into a helpful knowledge base. Aquant’s predictive AI can help elevate organizations by increasing first-time fixes on machines, which completely negates unplanned downtime.

Shahar Chen, Aquant’s CEO and Co-Founder, said, “We are honoured 3D Systems, one of the leading 3D printing companies in the world, has decided to partner with us. Our technology will allow 3D Systems to leverage all of the data they’ve gathered over the years to create an immediate improvement in speed and accuracy of issue diagnosis, achieve a significant increase in machine uptime, reduce operational costs and provide fast ROI.”

3D Systems will maximize its 3D printers’ uptime through Aquant’s innovative AI platform, which will allow the company to diagnose machine failures more accurately and quickly. Thanks to its increased productivity, 3D Systems will be able to save money by cutting out repeat service visits. In addition, Aquant analyzes historical item usage, so it’s better able to forecast any future demand.

According to the Aquant website, “Even the best experts cannot predict the exact parts and skills necessary to complete each job. In order to maximize machine uptime and increase first-time fix rate, Aquant’s machine learning algorithms predict which parts and skills are required for the job.”

The technicians at 3D Systems can call on Aquant’s technology to quickly diagnose 3D printer issues based on their report symptoms. In addition, the company will be able to better predict which parts will need service calls, escalate complex problems to the next level without delay. – basically letting Aquant take care of all of the heavy lifting.

It’s smart decisions like this – teaming up with Aquant to reduce 3D printer downtime – that keeps 3D Systems on top.

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