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Inside 3D Printing Brazil: 3D Criar’s Founders Expect 3D Printing will Change Education in Brazil

One of the companies leading the way in Brazil’s growing 3D printing industry is targeting education. Founded in 2014, 3D Criar is a big part of the additive manufacturing community, pushing their ideas through and around economic, political and industry limitations.

Like other emerging countries in Latin America, Brazil is lagging the world in 3D printing, and even though it is leading the region, there are too many challenges. One of the big concerns is a rising demand for engineers, biomedical scientists, software designers, 3D customization and prototyping specialists, among other professions needed to become an innovative leader in the global arena, something the country is lacking at the moment. Furthermore, private and public high schools and universities are in great need of new tools to learn and interact through collaborative and motivational learning, which is why 3D Criar is offering solutions for the education industry through 3D printing technologies, user training, and educational tools. Operating in the professional desktop 3D printer segment and distributing the world’s leading brands in Brazil, it carries the widest range of technologies available from a single company: FFF/FDM, SLA, DLP and polymer SLS, as well as high performance 3D printing materials such as HTPLA, Taulman 645 Nylon and biocompatible resins. 3D Criar is helping the industry, health and education sectors develop a customized 3D printing workflow. To better understand how the company is adding value in Brazil’s complex educational, economic and technological life, 3DPrint.com spoke with André Skortzaru, co-founder of 3D Criar. 

André Skortzaru speaking about 3D Criar at the Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo in Brazil

After years spent as a top executive at big companies, among them Dow Chemical, Skortzaru took a long break, moving to China to learn the culture, language and find some perspective. Which he did. A couple of months into the journey, he noticed the country was thriving and a lot of it had to do with disruptive technologies, smart factories and a great big leap into industry 4.0, not to mention the massive expansion of education, tripling the share of GDP spent in the last 20 years and even plans to install 3D printers in all of its elementary schools. 3D printing definitely caught the attention of Skortzaru who started planning his return to Brazil and financing for a 3D printing startup. Along with business partner Leandro Chen (who at the time was an executive at a software company), they established 3D Criar, incubated at the technology park Center of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Technology (Cietec), in São Paulo. From there on, they began to identify market opportunities and decided to focus on digital manufacturing in education, contributing to the development of knowledge, preparing students for careers of the future, providing 3D printers, raw materials, consultancy services, in addition to training -which is already included in the purchase price of the machines- for any institution that wanted to set up a digital manufacturing lab, or fab lab, and maker spaces.

“With financial support from international institutions, like the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Brazilian government has funded education initiatives in certain impoverished sectors of the country, including the purchase of 3D printers. However, we noticed that universities and schools still had a huge demand for 3D printers, but little or no staff prepared to use the devices and back when we started, there was no awareness of the applications and technology available, especially in elementary schools. So we got to work and in the last five years, 3D Criar sold 1,000 machines to the public sector for education. Today the country faces a complex reality, with institutions highly demanding 3D printing technology, yet not enough money to invest in education. To become more competitve we need more policies and initiatives from the Brazilian government, like access to credit lines, tax advantages for universities, and other economic incentives that will drive investment in the region,” Skortzaru explained.  

The 3D Criar stand at Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo in Brazil

According to Skortzaru, one of the big problems facing private universities in Brazil is the cutback in student registrations, something that began right after the State chose to reduce by half the low-interest loans it offered poorer students to attend the more numerous fee-paying private universities. For poor Brazilians who miss out on the small number of free university places, a cheap loan from the Fund of Student Financing (FIES) is the best hope of accessing a college education. Skortzaru worries that with these cuts in funding inherent risks are significant.

“We are in a very bad cycle. Clearly, if students are dropping out of college because they dont have money to pay for it, the institutions will schematicaly lose investment in education, and if we dont invest right now, Brazil will be lagging behind the world average in terms of education, technological advances and trained professionals, ruining future growth prospects. And of course, I’m not even thinking about the next couple of years, at 3D Criar we worry about the coming decades, because the students that are going to graduate soon will not have any knowledge of the 3D printing industry. And how could they, if they’ve never even seen one of the machines, let alone used it. Our engineers, software developers, and scientists will all have sallaries below the global average,” revealed Skortzaru.

With so many universities around the world developing 3D printing machines, like Formlabs – which was founded six years ago by three MIT graduates becoming a 3D printing unicorn company – or biotech startup OxSyBio, which spun out of the University of Oxford, the Latin American 3D printing ecosystem dreams of catching up. Skortzaru is hopeful that enabling 3D printing in all schooling levels will help children learn various disciplines, including STEM, and in a way prepare them for the future.

André Skortzaru explains how 3D Criar will change the 3D printing industry in Brazil

As one of the top exhibitors at the 6th edition of South America’s largest 3D printing event, “Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo”, 3D Criar is successfully implementing the technologies of industry 4.0 in Brazil, providing customized training, lifetime technical support, research and development, consulting and post-sale follow-up. The entrepreneurs’ efforts to ensure the best 3D printing experience for their users has led to many participations in trade shows and fairs where the startup has gained recognition among competing companies and interest from 3D printing manufacturers eager to find a reseller in South America. The companies they currently represent in Brazil are BCN3D, ZMorph, Sinterit, Sprintray, B9 Core and XYZ Printing.

3D Criar’s success led them to also supply machines for the Brazilian industry, that means this pair of business entrepreneurs also have a good idea of how the sector is struggling to incorporate 3D printing technology. At this time, 3D Criar provides complete additive manufacturing solutions to the industry, from the machines to the input materials, and the training, they even help companies develop viability studies to understand the return on investment from purchasing a 3D printer, including analyzing 3D printing successes and cost reductions over time.

“The industry was really late in implementing additive manufacturing, especially compared to Europe, North America, and Asia. This comes as no surprise, since during the last five years, Brazil has been in a deep economic recession and political crisis; as a consequence, in 2019, the industrial GDP was the same as it was in 2013. Then, the industry began to cut costs, mainly affecting investment and R&D, which means that today we are implementing 3D printing technology in its last stages, to produce final products, bypassing the normal phases of research and development that most of the world is doing. This needs to change soon, we want universities and institutions to investigate, experiment with the technology, and learn to use the machines,” explained Skortzaru, who is also Commercial Director of 3D Criar.

One of the most visited stands at Inside 3D Printing Conference & Event was 3D Criar

Indeed, the industry is now more open to 3D printing and manufacturing companies are searching for FDM technologies, like multinationals Ford Motors and Renault. Other “fields, like dental and medicine, haven’t entirely grasped the importance of the advances this technology brings.” For example, in Brazil “the majority of dentists finish university without even knowing what 3D printing is,” in an area that is continuously advancing; moreover, the speed with which the dental industry is adopting 3D printing technology may be unrivaled in the history of 3D printing. While the medical sector is continuously struggling to find a way to democratize AM processes, as surgeons have big restrictions to create biomodels, except for very complex surgeries where they are being used. At 3D Criar they “are working hard to make doctors, hospitals and biologists understand that 3D printing goes beyond just creating 3D models of unborn babies so parents know what they look like,” they want to help develop bioengineering applications and bioprinting.  

3D Criar helps students’ ideas come to life (Image: 3D Criar)

“3D Criar is fighting to alter the technological environment in Brazil starting with the younger generations, teaching them what they will need in the future,” Skortzaru said. “Although, if universities and schools don’t have the technology, knowledge, and money to sustainably implement the required changes, we will always be a developing country. If our national industry can only develop FDM machines, we are hopeless. if our teaching institutions can’t afford to buy a 3D printer, how will we ever carry out any research? The most renowned engineering university in Brazil the Escola Politecnica of the University of Sao Paolo doesn’t even have 3D printers, how will we ever become an additive manufacturing hub?”

3D Criar’s printers for education: the ZMorph (Image: 3D Criar)

Skortzaru believes that the rewards of all the efforts they make will come in 10 years when they expect to be the biggest 3D company in Brazil. Now they are investing to create the market, growing demand and teaching the basics. In the last two years, the entrepreneurs have been working on a project to develop 10,000 Social Technology Laboratories throughout the country to provide knowledge for new startups. With only one of these centers to date, the team is anxious and hopes to add many more in the next five years. This is one of their dreams, a plan that they believe could cost up to one billion dollars, an idea that could take 3D printing into some of the most remote areas of the region, places where there is barely any government funding for innovation. Just like with 3D Criar, they believe they can make the centers a reality, hopefully, they will build them in time for the next generation to enjoy them. 

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Nano Dimension Continues its Growth in the 3D Printing Industry

Israeli PCB print leader Nano Dimension showed off its DragonFly 2020 Pro 3D printer at a US event for the first time while attending RAPID + TCT in Texas last year. Not too long ago, I finally had the opportunity to see the machine for myself while attending this year’s RAPID in Detroit, Michigan.

The industrial PCB printer was the first thing I saw at the booth – it’s hard to miss, being much taller than its desktop predecessor. The system stands on the floor and offers a larger footprint, though it has the same 20 x 20 cm print area as the original DragonFly 2020, which officially ended its beta program in the summer of 2017. Tim Sheehan, the VP of Global Sales and Customer Care for Nano Dimension USA Inc., came over to greet me, and we sat down to chat.

Sheehan used the example of an electrical engineer looking to make a prototype board, noting that everything involved in the process – from finding a business to make the prototype, filling out and getting a purchase order approved, having the prototype made and getting it shipped to you – can cost thousands of dollars and take months to complete.

“That’s the standard process that people deal with today,” he said.

“Now, along comes someone who says, what if I could increase your productivity and reduce your cycle time…that’s giving you a return on investment that’s going to help.”

Then we walked over to the DragonFly 2020 Pro so I could get a closer look. Sheehan explained that a dielectric ink (DI) and a conductive ink are both cured at almost the same time within the system.

“It takes sophisticated software to calculate the algorithm to make sure that what you want to be a feature on that board…something as simple as a hole…it places the hole each time at the appropriate place.

“The board is being printed on a chuck, and that chuck is a heating element and a holding element, so it’s holding what’s being printed.”

The chuck moves back and forth, while the ink is being distributed exactly where it’s supposed to go. Nano Dimension uses a free SOLIDWORKS add-in which, according to its website, “creates a design environment optimized for 3D printing multi-material electronics.”

“So all of this can allow that electrical engineer not to take all that time – that two days for approval, a week to get all the signatures, three to five weeks for the board to show back up, ordering of components – all that time. You can now have a board printed overnight.”

Sheehan told me that, as an engineer, the first design you come up with is never the best. The DragonFly 2020 Pro really helps to speed up the design process, so if you need to make changes and iterations, you’re not wasting everyone’s time. He then showed me some examples of what the PCB printer is capable of, including a 12-layer PCB (below) that took a total of 20 hours to print.


“Time is only determined by the amount of silver we want to put down,” he explained.

“No one else in here can do this. The only way this is being done is the old-fashioned, traditional way, which is one layer at a time is created.”

He also showed me a PCB with an indentation on one end where a battery will sit, which also features a circuit that’s on multiple layers.

Next, Sheehan brought out a sample that demonstrates a helical conductive coil – created in 180 extremely fine turns – that’s embedded in the company’s dielectric ink; this shows Nano Dimension’s ability to create non-planar conductors, and embed them in a structure, in a single process. This can be used in applications such as charging cell phones or as a solenoid, which acts like a magnet when carrying electric current.

“Solenoids generally grab something locked…unlock the solenoid, door opens,” he explained.

“I have children, I’m not home, they come home from school, the door opens, the signal gets sent, I know they’re home. This is the whole IoT, right? Related to electronics.

“So how this all plays through for us is I’m helping you increase productivity.”

I asked Sheehan if anything new was happening with Nano Dimension that he could tell me about, and he said that the company had recently begun a European expansion, in addition to completing its partner development in North America.

“We’ve signed on national and global leaders in additive manufacturing.”

He listed some of these, including additive solutions and SOLIDWORKS software reseller Go Engineer, CATI, and Fisher Unitech, which is the largest Stratasys reseller in the world.

“So, what else is new for us? A lot of what we call application development sharing – we’re introducing how we can help people side mount components, how we can help people create three-dimensional applications, like the inductive coil,” Sheehan explained. “That’s just a few of the many different, what we call ‘feature applications,’ we’re introducing to help people stretch their minds around what else you can do with the DragonFly.”

Nano Dimension has been listening to its customers, and until this point, the company’s “addressable market” has been R&D with major research institutes. But now, the US Department of Defense is one of the top markets it’s addressing, after becoming a certified DoD vendor last June.

“They are the biggest single organization buying from us today,” Sheehan said, noting that Tier 1 suppliers are also purchasing DragonFly printers. “There are different Army, Navy, Air Force branches buying this system, doing things that we don’t even really know because it’s not for us to know…we’re probably not allowed to know.

“So that’s exciting because when you bring a product to market, you want to know who to address in the market, you want to make sure you go target that. But what’s important is we gather the information from them, and then come back and do the appropriate things for the future of the product. So that’s been successful for us.”

Before I left, Sheehan presented me with my very own 3D PCB, which now sits on my desk next to a myriad of other prints I’ve made or been given. I was excited to receive the PCB, not only because it’s a good physical reminder of what 3D printing is capable of, but also, as I said to Sheehan, who doesn’t like to be handed a little white box?

Stay tuned for more on 3DPrint.com’s trip to RAPID + TCT 2019, and take a look at more pictures from the Nano Dimension booth below:



Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

[Images: Sarah Saunders]

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RAPID 2019: Talking 3D Printing and Partnerships with Ultimaker’s Jamie Howard

While attending the recent RAPID + TCT conference and trade show, I also visited the Ultimaker booth to meet with Jamie Howard, the new president of Ultimaker North America. On the first full day of RAPID, when the show floor had officially opened and there were just a few less lectures and workshops, the company announced that Heineken is using its on-demand 3D printing solutions to create functional machine parts and custom tools for the manufacturing line at its Seville brewery in Spain.

“We’re still in the first stages of 3D printing, but we’ve already seen a reduction of costs in the applications that we found by 70-90% and also a decrease of delivery time of these applications of 70-90%. Local manufacturing helps us a lot in increasing uptime, efficiency and output. We use 3D printing to optimize the manufacturing line, create maintenance and quality control tools, and create tools for our machines which help us increase safety for our people. I think there will be even more purposes in the future,” Isabelle Haenen, Global Supply Chain Procurement at Heineken, said in a press release.

Howard told me that he would describe Heineken as a “global customer,” and that Ultimaker was already looking at additional 3D printing applications in the brewery, aside from the ones it’s already working on, like safety and line optimizations and tooling.

The brewery produces multiple brands of beers owned by Heineken, which all adds up to 500 million liters of beer annually. Engineers at the Seville brewery started off using the Ultimaker 2+ about a year ago, but have since switched to a set of Ultimaker S5 machines.

Howard explained that the project partnership with Heineken included the Ultimaker applications engineering team going through the plant to help the brewery “discover and develop applications that could be 3D printed.”

Heineken’s 3D LAB [Image: Ultimaker]

“We offer that to our Enterprise customers as a service to help them accelerate the adoption of 3D printing in the enterprise,” Howard said. “We also facilitated some advanced training in design for 3D printing so that they could actually print the parts and tools we discovered during what we call the ‘site scan’ process, and that enables the transfer of knowledge and the adoption of knowledge necessary to have them be able to do it more on their own.

“So teaching the competency to discover new applications – it expands the catalogue of parts and applications that they can actually 3D print, which increases the adoption and expands the footprint of the printers.”

Since adopting Ultimaker’s solutions, the brewery has been able to increase its production uptime and save about 80% in production costs.

“The Heineken opportunity is really a good demonstration of the range of applications you can use the Ultimaker platform to do,” Howard said. “Our vision and mission is accelerating the world’s transition to local digital manufacturing, and in a distributed way, where you have the opportunity to leverage our software.

“The open materials platform gives us the flexibility to, at a local level, expand the range of applications with all the same accessibility to the material partners that we have through our Partner Alliance. The Heineken use case includes four categories of applications, from rapid prototyping to safety devices and also jigs, fixtures and tools on the manufacturing line, and also tooling for end-use parts – parts that fail during the production line process – to keep the uptime of the facility higher.”

I asked Howard what types of materials Heineken was using, and he showed me a device made out of Tough PLA material that is used to keep bottles from falling off the line.

“It’s light, and yet has the strength to be able to handle the weight from the bottle,” Howard explained.

“The tool that they were using before was a lot more rigid and rough, and it was sometimes causing the bottles to come off the line.”

The 3D printed version of the tool causes less friction on the bottles, which means a higher yield for Heineken as less bottles are breaking. It also saves the brewery time and money, as they can fabricate the tool on-site rather than send the design away to a third party for manufacturing. Howard also told me about one of the 3D printed safety device that’s been implemented in the brewery.

“There was a piece of equipment that required maintenance, and there was a safety latch that they built to prevent the machine from accidentally coming on during the maintenance process, to protect the workers from any injury. So the part that was printed goes over the power [switch] so you can’t inadvertently turn that machine on during the maintenance process.”



We then moved on to some parts 3D printed by other Ultimaker customers, including one for Volkswagen Autoeuropa. The tool, pictured above, was used on the manufacturing line to keep the wheel assembly from getting scratched. The tool has multiple drill guides to keep the wheel from falling off the lug nuts while it’s being screwed on, and Volkswagen was able to save a lot of time and money in upgrading to this 3D printed tool from the one they were previously using from a molding company, which would often break.

“We redesigned it…before, they were molding it in one piece. Our engineers helped them to discover that if they designed this differently, they could do it in a way that, if this part breaks, then you can just print that part, you don’t have to take the whole thing and throw it away,” Howard explained.

“All the principles of lean manufacturing are addressed in this particular piece.”

This new 3D printed version of the part reduces the amount of the time the tool was unavailable due to breakage, keeps productivity up, and also protects the wheel, so that the yield of the assembly at the end of the line is higher overall.

Take a look at more of my pictures from the Ultimaker booth at RAPID + TCT below:



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

[Images: Sarah Saunders, unless otherwise noted]

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Why Have Global Chemical Giants Jumped into 3D Printing Industry?

Why Did Global Chemical Giants Jump into 3D Printing Industry?

There has been worldwide growth in the 3D printing industry since former US President Barack Obama addressed the importance of 3D printing, calling for industry growth in the United States in 2013. According to Wohlers Report and a McKinsey Report, we have witnessed annual growth rate of 25% and can expect an overall business impact of USD 100 billion by 2025.

In South Korea, hundreds of SMEs have entered 3D printing or the 3D printing service industry and this has become one of the key technologies in the fourth industrial revolution. Six years from now, how has the Asian region, especially, South Korea’s situation changed?

As with all new technologies, the 3D printing industry in South Korea has also undergone ups and downs. The ‘Maker Movement’, which originated from the United States, did not grow in major Asian countries such as China, Korea and Japan due to cultural differences. Even though industrial demand for aerospace, automotive, medical, dental and jewelry has exploded in Asian region, many domestic 3D printer manufacturers, especially of desktop FDM printers, have closed down due to insufficient demand.

Then, how did global corporations react to the 3D Printing revolution?

In short, multinational chemical giants chose 3D printing materials instead of hardware or software, pursuing partnerships with global equipment manufacturers and software companies to co-provide one-stop solutions.

One example, BASF, one of the world’s largest chemical companies, entered the 3D printing materials industry through its subsidiary in September 2017. In 2018, BASF acquired Advanc3D Materials, Setup Performance, and Dutch filament manufacturing company Innofil3D, which are major materials companies. BASF also partnered with global 3D printing companies such as EOS and Materialise pioneering various sales channels.

Henkel, a German chemical and consumer goods company with 143 years of history, has also entered the 3D printing materials business. Henkel does have 3D printer products (Loctite) developed in-house, but Henkel’s main fields are various industrial resin materials, post-processing, and adhesives. Henkel also seeks synergies through collaboration with major manufacturers such as Carbon and HP.

American multinational chemical corporation, Dow Chemical, has developed the world’s first liquid silicone rubber material for 3D printing. Dow offers new possibilities for the 3D printing industry by combining the advantages of silicon materials such as heat resistance, cold resistance, UV resistance, elastic restoration with the shape properties of rubber materials. Dow also partners with Germany’s German RepRap to expand into various manufacturing fields.

Royal DSM with a history of more than 25 years in additive manufacturing also entered 3D printing material market. DSM has developed polymer resins and industrial filaments that can be used for various 3D printing methods such as FDM, SLA, DLP, etc., and is targeting global markets through partnerships with global equipment manufacturers and platform companies such as Ultimaker and Origin. Additionally, Solvay, Arkema, Sabic and Evonik have also invested in entering the 3D printing market. 

GE Additive, one of the world’s largest suppliers of metal 3D printing equipment and services, employs, currently, more than 1,000 scientists and engineers working on metal materials. GE Additive offers a full range of metal powder, 3D printing equipment and support services including various metal materials as titanium, cobalt, nickel, and copper. GE is taking full advantage of this technology to build aircraft and expects to save $3 billion to $5 billion in manufacturing costs over the next decade.

More stories? You can meet all the above mentioned global industry experts at Inside 3D Printing Seoul taking place on June 26-28 at KINTEX (Seoul), South Korea. Inside 3D printing Seoul is Asia’s premier additive technology event with 10,000 visitors, 100 exhibitors and 40 world-class speakers from 28 countries.

For more information, you can visit our official website or contact Inside 3D Printing Secretariat (inside3dprinting@kintex.com).

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3D Printing News Briefs: May 30, 2019

In today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, euspen plans to hold a Special Interest Group meeting in September centered around additive manufacturing, and an adjunct professor completed a comparison between a small SLS 3D printer and a large one. Moving on to interesting 3D printing projects, an artist teamed up with Mimaki to use full-color 3D printing to make a stage prop, a reddit user created an anti-cat button for an Xbox system, and an imgur user created a modular 3D printed fashion system.

euspen to Hold Special Interest Group Meeting on AM

The European Society for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology (euspen) will be addressing the factors which are influencing an uptake of the use of additive manufacturing as a production technology at a Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting in September. The meeting, which will be co-hosted by the American Society of Precision Engineering (ASPE), will analyze the barriers to, and the opportunities for, the adoption of AM in production. It will be held from September 16-18 at the École Centrale de Nantes in France.

At the AM SIG meeting, issues that are, as euspen put it, “critical to the viability of AM as a production technology,” will be addressed. The co-chairs of the meeting are Professor Richard Leach from the University of Nottingham and Dr. John Taylor from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Local hosts and the organizing committee include Professor Alain Bernard from Centrale Nantes, Dr. David Bue Pedersen from the Technical University of Denmark, Professor Leach, and Dr. Taylor.

Comparison of Small and Large SLS 3D Printers

3D printers are often used in educational settings these days. Piotr Dudek, an adjunct professor at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Poland, runs a 3D printing lab at the school that both students and researchers frequent. While many technologies are used in the lab, SLS is the one that most interests Dudek, who decided to compare a big SLS system from EOS with the smaller Sinterit Lisa.

“We are using the big EOS SLS 3D printer for a long time and we wanted to compare it with Sinterit Lisa, check the possibilities of it. In SLS technology every detail matters. The temperature of the printing chamber, powder distribution system, heating or laser moving mechanism are very precise and important features. We wanted to test if Sinterit’s device is the valuable solution,” Dudek stated.

Larger 3D printers obviously have higher print volumes, but the down sides include difficult calibration, specialized training, and higher costs. In addition, it’s easy to mess up the calibration of a large 3D printer during transport. The Lisa 3D printer uses a gantry system, which comes pre-calibrated to save time, and it also uses less material, which means less money. The desktop printer is also much more student-friendly, making it the better choice for 3D printing labs like the one Professor Dudek runs.

Full-Color 3D Printed Stage Prop

A few months ago, 3DPrint.com heard from 3D printing specialist and Post Digital Artist Taketo Kobayashi, from the Ultra Modelers community, about an art exhibit in Japan that he helped organize which featured colorful, 3D printed works created on the Mimaki 3DUJ-553 full-color 3D printer. Recently, he reached out to us again with news of his latest Mimaki Engineering collaboration – a stage prop for the Japanese artist Saori Kanda, who performed with techno/trance band Shpongle at the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado.

“It is a artwork,” Kobayashi told 3DPrint.com, “but also a utilization of full color 3D printing to entertainment field.”

The “Shpongle Mask,” which took 28 hours to print and mixed in Asian details, was worn onstage by Kanda as she performed her painting live with the band.

3D Printed Anti-Cat Xbox Button

reddit user Mbiggz was getting sick of their cat turning off the touch-sensitive button on the Xbox console while it was in use, which I can understand, having two cats of my own. So Mbiggz came up with the perfect solution – a 3D printed cover for the button. The design can be found on the maker’s Tinkercad account, as Mbiggz originally made the design for a Digital 3D class.

“Adhesive goes on the back part (it is labeled in the print). I’m a newcomer in terms of this so it’s not perfect,” Mbiggz wrote on Tinkercad. “Also, the door doesn’t open all the way, so you can fix it so that it does if you want to (even though it doesn’t really matter, there’s not really a need for it to open it all the way).”

3D Printed Modular Fashion System

hunter62610, a young imgur user, designed and 3D printed a Lego-like modular fabric system, which was featured in his school’s fashion show. He made two dresses that are made with a 3D printed prototype fabric pattern called Escher, which was designed to be “put together and taken apart” hundreds of times. It took him just two weeks to make the material, which the two young ladies who modeled the dresses said was fairly comfortable.

“The idea of the system is that theoretically, one could buy a fashion catalog filled with designs, and say 5000 links. Once could make every clothing item in the catalog, based on there needs. Perhaps that’s a pipe dream, but it’s a fun idea,” hunters62610 wrote.

“The Escher system is quite versatile. Each link acts like a free flowing Equilateral triangle, and has a male and female ball joint on each side. Every individual link is theoretically compatible with every other link. Special links are stored in the middle of this pouch that are really 3 merged links with a screw hole. If needed, these links can be used as elastic tie down points or buttons, if you screw in the buttons i made.”

A Makerbot Replicator Plus was used to print the fabric links in unique, small panels.

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

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In South America, an event brought together experts and ideas for 3D printing in healthcare

3D Print Week (Si3d) at the Technological Institute of Buenos Aires (ITBA), Argentina, brought together local experienced 3D printing and additive manufacturing professionals. From entrepreneurs to students, industry experts and academia, even medical and dental professionals were invited to network in an environment embracing the impact of 3D printing in the industry and healthcare sectors. Attendees were also able to print their projects for free at the fully-equipped university 3D Lab, which is home to a Stratasys J750 PolyJet 3D printer, two Fortus 250mc, a Fortus 450mc, an Objet Alaris30, a CNC machine, and two desktop printers. The two-day event aimed to highlight the growing capabilities of 3D printing in the region, also provided the industry a place to discuss the future of 3D technology. Experts from ITBA, Stratasys, Hornero 3DX, and Garrahan Children’s Hospital shared their experiences with 3D printing models, materials and applications. Some of the topics discussed included 3D bioprinting, 3D facial scanning, and software, 3D printing in a nuclear power station, as well as the making of splints using 3D scanning and 3D printing. Si3d is a must-attend on the annual calendar in Argentina, where only two major 3D printing events take place every year and the local 3D printing industry is taking longer than expected to take-off.


Aeronautic engineer and co-founder of Hornero 3DX, one of the leading companies in Argentina providing 3D printing solutions for public and private sectors, Federico Bertoli, spoke to 3DPrint.com abo

 Hornero 3DX replicating a skull with one of their best-sellers BCN3D’s Sigmax (Credit: ITBA)

ut the tough reality facing most of the local 3D printer developers. “In 2014 we began designing 3D printing machines, but the lack of incentives for local manufacturers (who have to compete with cost-effective Chinese 3D printers), a decrease in investment for start-ups and very low financing for tech firms, made our venture a very high-risk investment, so we decided to import machines that could satisfy our customers needs,” said Bertoli, who had on display some of the 3D printers his company is currently selling, including ones from Barcelona-based BCN3D Technologies and Zortrax. “Creating 3D technology is quite difficult in Argentina. Other neighboring countries, like Brazil, have come a long way because they have seriously invested in the industry, where local manufacturers have intensified their research and development thanks to the support they are getting from the state, and they have access to all sorts of financing options. So, while in Argentina we can sell 10 machines per month, Brazil is closer to 100. Although there is a lot of interest from many small and medium businesses who wish to acquire the technology, most of our clients are barely getting by, trying to survive the current recession, which translates to even fewer investments in 3D printers.”

3D printing specialists showing some of their work to curious students (Credit: ITBA)

While dozens of students, 3D printing enthusiasts, and business owners walked through the packed corridors of the university, stopping by each stand, speaking to the experts about some of the challenges that arise during 3D printing, workshops and panels showcased successful projects in 3D printing and 3D scanning. The buoyant atmosphere of one of the top universities in Latin America, located in chic Puerto Madero district (very well known among tourists traveling to Buenos Aires) was a great setting for the event, especially since lots of people became very enthused about printing their own projects for free at the 3D Lab. From Harry Potter tokens to glasses for children who can’t afford them, the dozens of 3D printed projects were a raging success among attendees.

Trideo, one of the prominent local manufacturers of 3D printers was part of the event, showcasing some original eye-catching pieces. It’s co-founder, Nicolas Berenfeld, explained to 3DPrint.com why he also considers the country a very difficult place for a hardware business: “a few years back, there used to be a lot of developers of 3D printers in Argentina, however an increase in imports meant that many had to close their doors and transition to a different business model, mostly resellers of imported 3D printers. This approach is not entirely helpful for the development of 3D printing technology in the country since it doesn’t generate knowledge or add value to the industry.” Originally from Belgium, Berenfeld came to Argentina with a degree in business engineering, a strong belief that 3D printing can change the way we do things and a need to develop the technology in Latin America. His firm, Trideo, makes desktop and industrial 3D printers and offers professional 3D printing services for specific industry needs. Even though their industrial and professional printers are a big hit among many local small and medium firms, the entrepreneur had hoped Buenos Aires would become one of the great 3D printing hubs in Latin America.

“Right now, the country does not have the right conditions to export 3D printers or hardware in general. Firms that export to the world face larger demand, and under the right conditions, they can operate at larger scales where the price per unit of product is lower, but this doesn’t happen in Argentina. Countries like Spain, Turkey and many in Asia have asked for 3D printers from Trideo, but we just don’t have the scale to make them,” explained Berenfeld. Still, he claims that the 3D technology industry has begun to grow in other ways, there are more 3D printing consultants, prototyping apps, casting molds, spare parts for imported 3D printers and even filament developers (like Printalot).

During the highly publicized event, many healthcare professionals took the stage for an introduction into some of the most innovative medical uses for 3D printing. Rodrigo Salazar Gamarra, a dental surgeon and 3D printing innovator who creates facial prostheses with low-cost 3D technology, explained how his open-source, cost-effective methods are helping people everywhere, especially in poor communities where there is a great demand and need for fast cutting-edge healthcare solutions. Furthermore, one of the latest studies by the Renato Archer Information Technology Center in Brasil, where Salazar does a great deal of his work, indicated that the use of customized biomodels for complex maxillofacial operations can reduce surgical times by between 25% and 62%, reduce recovery times in hospital by 50% and have up to a total cost reduction of more than 24%.

Many projects focused on healthcare prototyping (Credit: ITBA)

At the local level, scientists Diego Fridman, Pablo Luchetti, and Luciano Poggi, revealed a novel incision and closure surgical device made with 3D printing technology, INCLODE, which can be placed prior to a surgical incision and does not require stitches to close the wound. It’s bye bye scars once the device is approved for use in humans; currently, it’s in the pre-production stages. The device, which won the Israel Innovation Award in late 2018, consists of an adhesive sheet with a guide for the incision and allows its expansion and subsequent closure, with the help of a mechanical seal. “The doctor can work on the wound and once the work is done, the skin returns to its original place. What’s great about the gadget is that it reduces operating time, sewing a wound takes between 15 to 20 minutes, while INCLODE does the work in just a few seconds,” added Poggi.

Live printing of dental prostheses at the event (Credit: ITBA)

Also interested in how 3D printing advances medicine is the director of the Stratasys branch for the Caribbean and Latin America region, Juan Carlos Miralles. At Si3d, he highlighted how important it is for hospitals to have 3D printers, allowing doctors to save up to 60% in surgery time. According to the expert, a great example is the Las Condes Clinic, a private healthcare institute in Chile, which acquired a single-material Stratasys machine three years ago that prints with high precision and can develop accurate bone models. “Using personalized biomodels for surgery planning has proved to increase the probability of success by 90%, which is great news for the over 16,000 orthopedic spine surgeries every year. The technology used in the country’s healthcare system could help over 700,000 patients per year in the region,” he proposed. Miralles is mainly concerned with the healthcare sector, and he went on to explain how 3D printing could benefit medical students who face many challenges when trying to use cadavers during the first years of medical school practices. For years, medical schools everywhere have suggested that there is a shortage of cadavers, in part because of the rise in organ donations, and cadavers without their organs are not suitable for medical education. “Finding cadavers for medical practice is very difficult, and when university research labs finally get them, they need a specific room temperature and procedures to avoid decay. Medical students are also limited because they cannot choose a body that has undergone a specific disease or condition, so this is where 3D printing technology becomes extremely useful, being able to scan a patient’s tomography, reproduce it and study a specific case could ease professionals and students.”

The Stratasys Latin America branch has been working closely with hospitals, universities, research institutions, and companies since 2013 to provide them with their best 3D printing technology. In Chile, quite a few institutions have teams with a high technological capacity to make precise biomodels, like the University of Santiago de Chile and hospitals like Clinica Las Condes and Orema Clinic. Currently, the Israel-based company has about a thousand machines in South America.

“3D printing is proving to be a revolutionary and efficient new form of production to meet the demands of the current market and we expect our educational institution will prepare students and future 3D printing innovators with knowledge and experience in 3D printing and additive manufacturing applications. At ITBA, we are very interested in the impact that the technology has on the medical and industrial sectors, and local universities are pushing the limits of what can be done, working alongside medical experts and engineering specialists,” said Jorge Leporati, coordinator of the Digital Manufacturing Laboratory at ITBA.

The event was a big success. With a majority of engineering students among the attendees, it was clear that once many of them get their degree, they plan to work with 3D printing technologies. Perhaps in a few years, Buenos Aires will standardize processes, scale up production and invest more in development of AM. Until then, experts suggest that we will see academia advance faster than the industry itself. And while manufacturers and enthusiasts are pushing for more government incentives for local companies, the Argentine Chamber of 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing is trying to put together another 3D printing event in late July to further advance knowledge, share experiences and get the word out about what they are doing. It’s an uncertain future for many entrepreneurs who expect that an improved economy in coming years will benefit their companies, but until then they need to work together and collaborate to keep the 3D printing industry up and running.

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Inside 3D Printing Seoul Meets the Smart Factory

Inside 3D Printing Seoul is entering its 6th year and has become one of Asia’s premier additive technology events for the digital transformation of design, development and manufacturing all driven by Industry 4.0.

With the theme of ‘A New Era of Advanced Manufacturing’, Inside 3D Printing decided to diversify its exhibitors. This was needed due to the continuous increase in demand from advanced manufacturing in South Korea, which includes CAD/CAM/CAE, industrial robot, drones, metrology, inspection, monitoring, tooling, mold, CNC, smart sensors and automation verticals.

South Korea is not only an advanced country in IT infrastructure but also a manufacturing powerhouse. Korean major corporations, called ‘Chaebol’, including Samsung, Hyundai, LG, SK, Hanwha, CJ, etc., have decided to invest KRW 300 trillion (or approximately USD 250 billion) in the next 5 years in order to find new promising industry sectors.

Unlike a number of non-specialized events in Asia, Inside 3D Printing Seoul brings the 10,000+ active industrial AM users as well as supplier groups together every year. This event is the best launch pad for both domestic companies looking for a global audience and for international companies looking to tap the Korean market.

Further, more diversified products or additive technology for advanced manufacturing are to be exhibited for the first time at Inside 3D Printing Seoul. With the name of ‘Smart Factory Zone’, the first exhibitors will be given various benefits including 20% off price, premium location near cafeteria and maximum exposure in multiple online/offline channels.

Good news for this year’s event is for 3DPrint.com and SmarTech Analysis to join as co-producers of Inside 3D Printing Seoul, which will further upgrade the event and provide the best marketing platform for 100+ exhibitors, sponsors and 10,000+ buyers from around the world.

Another piece of good news is that it is still available to exhibit before 10,000+ buyers and active user groups from 28 countries with increased discount rate compared to last year.

If interested in limited exhibiting or speaking opportunities for forthcoming Seoul event taking place on June 26-28, please contact Inside 3D Printing Secretariat (inside3dprinting@kintex.com) or visit our website (www.inside3dprinting.com/seoul) for more information.

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3D Printing News Briefs: May 26, 2019

This year’s RAPID + TCT ended late last week at the Cobo Center in Detroit, so we’re again starting off today’s 3D Printing News Briefs with more news from the busy show floor. DyeMansion launched a new extended color series at RAPID, while 3D Systems made the announcement that its Figure 4 Modular is now available. Moving on, SLM Solutions just celebrated the grand opening of its new Shanghai application center. Finally, a Reddit user made an adorable miniature 3D printer.

RAPID 2019: DyeMansion’s New Colors

DyeMansion at RAPID 2019 [Image: Sarah Saunders]

Munich startup DyeMansion, a leader in finishing and coloring solutions for 3D printing, launched its new ColorsX extended color series for end-use products at RAPID last week, in order to continue helping its customers achieve the perfect finish for all of their applications. Automotive ColorsX and Neon ColorsX are the first solutions under the startup’s X Colors for X Industries premise, with more to follow in the future. The automotive color line has improved light and heat resistance for better 3D printed polyamide components and interior car parts, and features Automotive BlackX, which has a less saturated black tone than DyeMansion’s basic DM Black 01 and was created according to ISO EN 105 B06 method 3’s hot irradiation standards. The luminous neon color line includes GreenX, YellowX, OrangeX and PinkX to help create striking end-use products. Both of these new color lines are compatible with DyeMansion’s PolyShot Surfacing (PSS) and VaporFuse Surfacing (VFS).

“Some of our earliest customers who made use of DyeMansion Print-to-Product technologies for serial production are from the Automotive and Lifestyle industries,” explained Kai Witter, DyeMansion’s Chief Customer Officer. “While working closely with our customers, joint strategies are always about creating even more value to their businesses. So, I feel very delighted to now offer additional value creating products. Automotive and Neon ColorsX are only the beginning of providing more specific industry offers.”

Once DyeMansion decided to launch its ColorsX series, it also named the coloring process it established back in 2015: DeepDye Coloring (DDC), which can be easily controlled and traced through integrated RFID technology and offers a limitless choice of custom colors.

RAPID 2019: 3D Systems Announces General Availability of Figure 4 Modular

Also at RAPID last week, 3D Systems announced the general availability of its scalable Figure 4 Modular production platform. The flexible digital light printing (DLP) system has multiple configurations that can print parts with high surface quality, and allows manufacturers to iterate designs more quickly, as well as produce end-use parts without having to worry about a minimum order quantity. Three models make up the Figure 4 – Standalone, Production, and Modular – and several customers, such as D&K Engineering and Midwest Prototyping, are reaping the benefits. Additionally, 3D Systems also announced five new DLP and SLS materials, the first of which is the immediately available Figure 4 FLEX-BLK 10. The other new Figure 4 materials, such as TOUGH-BLK 20, MED-AMB 10, MED-WHT 10, and HI-TEMP-AMB 250, are expected to be available in Q3 and Q4 of 2019.

“The newest additions to our plastic 3D printing portfolio demonstrate our commitment to driving the adoption of digital manufacturing. With the industry’s first, truly scalable plastic production platform and our robust selection of materials, 3D Systems enables customers to rethink manufacturing and realize improved agility, reduced complexity, and lower overall total cost of operation,” said Vyomesh Joshi, the President and CEO of 3D Systems.

3D Systems also announced that its customers Rodin Cars (based in New Zealand) and North Carolina-based Stewart-Haas Racing are using its plastic and metal 3D printing solutions to improve the speed and performance of their cars.

SLM Solutions Celebrates Opening of New Shanghai Application Center

The same year that SLM Solutions opened an applications and demonstration center in Germany, it also established Chinese operations in Shanghai. Earlier this week, the selective laser melting experts celebrated the grand opening of their expanded office facilities and application center in Shanghai, which will help the company continue to grow its presence on the Asian market. The new center has installed four SLM systems: one SLM 125, one SLM 500, and two SLM 280 printers. Additionally, the facility also has equipment to represent an SLM build’s supporting process chain, such as a metallurgical lab and post-processing capabilities. The grand opening included a tour through the new new customer service and application engineering center.

“As we continue to grow our Chinese team, the opening of our Shanghai Application Center is an important milestone in SLM Solutions’ development and indicates the confidence in the Chinese market,” stated Jerry Ma, General Manager of SLM Solutions (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. “As part of the global strategy for growth we have the capacity to more than double our number of employees and the equipment to support all Chinese users with the technological resources shared by our applications centers around the world. We can also provide high-quality, fast technical services to better promote the development of selective laser melting and create more value for customers.”

Mini 3D Printed 3D Printer

A reddit and imgur user by the name of “Mega Andy” used 3D printed parts and DVD drive motors to make his own miniature 3D printer. And by miniature, I mean that he used a banana for scale, which was taller than the 3D printed 3D printer itself! It’s a really interesting project – the device runs Marlin, and features a glass bed and an E3D V6 hotend. The black and gold parts of the mini 3D printer were made out of PLA material, while PETG was used to make teeth for the leadscrews. Speaking of this, Mega Andy said that the printer is “fairly unreliable” because it easily ruins the teeth that guide the device on the leadscrew. Additionally, he’s also working to improve and lengthen the Z axis due to binding problems. Mega Andy released the STLs onto Thingiverse so others could try to make their own versions of the miniature 3D printed 3D printer…say that five times fast.

“So this project is nothing new, people have made 3d printers, CNC, engravers before using this hardware. What I wanted to do differently with this is have a designed 3D printed frame to hopefully fit standard parts. Instead of mounting full metal dvd drive assembly’s together and look like a DIY project I wanted a something that could be more compact and neat,” Mega Andy wrote on Thingiverse.

“This project is not for everyone and would only recommend to someone with a decent knowledge of 3d printers, basic soldering and lots of patience. Also some fiddling was needed to get the right amount of tension on the leadscrew, this bit is a massive pain but hopefully no one else needs to go through quite as much issues as i did with this bit. They will wear out though and a 3d printer will be needed to print new parts for it when they inevitable wear out.”

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

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3DQue Introducing QPoD & QSuite at RAPID 2019: Enabling Autonomous 3D Printing Mass Production Capabilities

Today in Detroit, this year’s RAPID + TCT kicked off in the Cobo Center. We’ve already been reporting on plenty of news from the show, with lots more to come in the days ahead. Canadian company 3DQue Systems Inc., which automates FFF and FDM 3D printing for mass production, will be launching two technologies at the event this week: QSuite and QPoD.

First, a little background…the company was founded just last year by finance expert Steph Sharp and 18-year-old inventor and 3D printing whiz 18-year-old Mateo Pekic, who began 3D printing small part quantities in 2016. Pekic needed to find a way to remove parts from the print bed and start the next job remotely, and after lots of research and testing, has now been running his own 3D printers – with full automation – for more than two years.

“Until now, plastic 3D printing has failed to meet today’s manufacturing needs due to the high cost of part removal and lack of end-to-end automation. Working from his basement, Mateo Pekic has been able to solve a problem that has stumped some of the world’s leading experts in materials science, engineering and innovation by automating plastic 3D printers to safely produce complex plastic parts at scale,” said Sharp, who is also the CEO of 3DQue.

Pekic spoke with Sharp, a local mentor for entrepreneurs, and asked her to run the business with him; 3DQue was founded just days after Pekic’s 18th birthday. The company has truly made plastic 3D printing competitive with traditional manufacturing, as it offers solutions to some of the major problems when it comes to scaling the technology, such as unit cost, autonomous part removal, and automated production.

When I first saw an image of the QPoD, I was positive it was oriented wrong, until I read the release more closely. The plastic high-volume 3D printing mass production unit, powered by the company’s automation QSuite, has a vertical build platform.

This could actually be a real game changer. The efficient, compact, 24/7 production-on-demand unit has a total of nine 3D printers in a 12 sq ft 3×3 array. An 8-day field trial was conducted on the autonomous platform in January, and the QPoD printers were able to successfully produce 25 x 25 x 25 mm switch cube frames at a rate that would be equivalent to 100,000 parts a year: a production capacity of over 8,000 parts/sq ft.

Switch cubes

The platform has internal conveyors and collection bins for true autonomous 3D printing, at unit costs that are competitive with injection molding. With QPoD, there’s no need for outsourcing, which helps reduce inventory levels, costs, the environmental footprint, and lead times.

The QPoD is driven by QSuite, which automates 3D printers all the way from upload of the design to delivery of the parts. This end-to-end automation upgrade negates manual, time-consuming tasks like enterprise scheduling, 3D printer restart, and parts removal. The suite includes several modules, including calibration, material removal, and matching the next print job to the current 3D printer configuration.

QSuite mass produces high-quality plastic parts in a continuous loop without the need for dedicated operators, and reprioritizes jobs based on changing parts or deadlines. The suite doesn’t require any glue, tape, or robotics for autonomous part removal, and uses real-time reporting and management data to give users complete control from remote locations.

At RAPID this week, 3DQue will be offering live, hands-on demonstrations of the innovative QPoD. Not only has the cover been removed from the platform so attendees can get a good look inside, but you can also book a hands-on demonstration of the automated part ordering system at the company’s booth #1765. You can choose the part, material, color, and quantity, then watch how it’s uploaded into the queue and matched with the correct printer. Once the part is printed, attendees will be able to see it automatically delivered to the collection area and pick it up.

Additionally, don’t miss the Innovation Auditions at RAPID today from 1:30-2:30, as Pekic will be competing for the chance to present 3DQue at tomorrow morning’s keynote presentation.

Starting in July, QSuite capabilities will be available for license to end users on a pay-for-use basis starting at $1 an hour per printer (lower hourly rate for high volume users). Booking is also currently open for the QPoD platform, with installations slated to take place between June-December 2019 for the introductory price of $45,000. Each on-demand production unit comes with QSuite, automated part delivery, control panel, and nine 3D printers.

Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

[Images provided by 3DQue]

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RAPID 2019: Opening Day and Opening Ceremony

The first day of the RAPID + TCT conference was bristling with activity. The first day mostly consists of lectures and workshops. At some other conferences, this is a secondary affair but here in Detroit we’re really seeing this to be the meat and bones of the conference on day one. There were a tonne of conference events and workshops today from the very general to the highly specific. There were workshops on casting materials for automobiles, implementing quality systems for medical devices, metal printing, and how to use 3D printers in hospitals and biomaterials. A lot of these were almost all day events with multiple speakers that were almost conferences in and of themselves.

Professor Hart’s Workshop

Professor John Hart gave a great presentation on applying materials and processes to making 3D printed parts throughout the life cycle. This workshop was great for people trying to start business cases internally with 3D Printing. It covered things such as costing and the relationship with the design to the final part. Walking around through all the workshop rooms I was really spoilt for choice. I really do believe that the “workshop day” at Rapid is underappreciated and under-visited. There are people here and there is knowledge here that you really can not find anywhere else. Do not miss this first day if you want to come next year! Having said that there were thousands of attendees for the different workshops and the first day already felt like a big conference.

Things started to get much bigger when we went to the Ballroom for the main opening ceremony.

Erika Berg of Carbon and Vitorrio Bologna of Riddell

Erika Berg of Carbon and Vitorrio Bologna of Riddell keynoted on how their companies were working together to try to make individualized mass customized helmet liners for football helmets. Individual helmets and other sports gear could become a huge application for 3D printing. Using one build of a Carbon L1 3D printer all of the distinct parts of a helmet liner can be produced. The data comes from a scan of a players head which is now done by 3D scanners but Riddell wants to go to a home scan solution for that in the future. The data gets sent to Carbon which then calculates the optimal design of the helmet cellular structure which may have 140,000 struts. Riddell already has 4000 3D scans to work with as well as thousands of readouts of player crashes to tell them how to design the helmets. In the future, the team wants to put accelerometers and other sensors in all helmets to acquire more data that would let them produce better helmets. They want to implement this for all football players from the Pro’s and college to the youth level. All in all the approach with cellular structures and data gathering seems very sound and this is a huge application for 3D printing if it goes forward. I just have questions with the Carbon business model. If Riddell leases the printers if Carbon slices the files if Carbon determines the optimal structure of the helmet then what is Riddell?

If we look at firms such as Nike: Nike is the brand, they design the shoes and know how to market and brand them. Others manufacture. Now Riddell is outsourcing key ownership of the core design competency that they and firms like Nike have. Won’t they be tied to Carbon forever? Isn’t the core part of their helmets the connection between the “crash test data”, head scans and how to create the cellular structures for the helmets?

Carl Dekker of Met-L-Flo then came on. He is the current ASTM 42 Chairman and Advises SME. He presented awards on the best research paper and project. Fast Robotic Soft Matter 3D Printing for Neurosurgical Phantoms Fabrication by Michael Chang was the winner of the Dick Aubin Distinguished Paper Award. On the 23rd you can see him present it. On the research project side the winner was The Copper Cooler: Heat Sink for CPU’s by Lisa Brock and Gitanjali Shanbhag.

Industry consultant Todd Grimm then took us through the companies that had applied for the innovation award and revealed that 48 out of 400 exhibitors would be on a list to be considered. He then went on to detail all of the firms and their particular innovation in order to tell everyone “What’s New” at Rapid. I thought that this was a particularly helpful presentation for visitors. He also mentioned that the finalists for the innovation award would be: Digital Alloys, e3D, Fabrisonic, Formalloy, NXT Factory, Rapidia, Sigma Labs and Sintratec. I for one really can’t choose there are a number of very deserving firms there and also some very sympathetic teams. Usually one could guess but this time its wide open as far as I’m concerned.

Then the SME Industry Achievement Award was revealed. The winner was Ely Sachs. Ely was a Desktop Metal co-founded but also a core inventor of the “MIT patent” inkjet head based 3D printing technologies years earlier and a more than deserved winner! This was a very exciting almost my brain runneth over first day here in Detroit and I can’t wait to discover more.