Posted on

Quantum Systems’ Drones Take Flight with the Help of 3D Printing

Quantum Systems is a Munich-based company specializing in advanced eVTOL (electric vertical take off and landing) drones. Most recently Quantum Systems tested using their Trinity F90+ to deliver medical samples, opening up new possibilities for applying drone technology to facilitate medical needs.

Founded in 2015, the company has grown quickly by utilizing 3D printing from the beginning of their journey. From rapidly prototyping to printing laser-sintered serial production parts, 3D printing allows for the production of complex but lightweight parts that are free from design constraints, cutting time and mistakes while keeping costs at a minimum.

Quantum Systems has used Shapeways’ printing services to create the ultimate eVTOL aircrafts. We interviewed their CEO, Florian Seibel, to gain more insights on how 3D printing contributes to their drone-making process.

What is your name and role at Quantum Systems?

Florian Seibel, CEO of Quantum Systems

I am Florian Seibel, and since the founding of Quantum-Systems GmbH in 2015, I’ve held the position of CEO.

The core team of the founders got to know each other as part of their scientific work at the Institute of Flight Systems of the German Armed Forces in Munich. My expertise is the development and the operation of small unmanned aerial vehicles with the focus on design, construction and production methods. With my vision of a licensed, VTOL fixed-wing UAV, I was the initiator of the patent to secure the innovative aspects of the UAV and the driving force behind the founding of the company Quantum-Systems GmbH.

Tell us more about Quantum-Systems

Quantum-Systems GmbH was founded in 2015 in Munich and specializes in the development and production of automatic, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) fixed-wing drones for a wide variety of use cases. The 50+ employees are working intensively on combining range and electric efficiency with the ability to vertically take off and land without additional equipment.

Our passion is the continuous development of industry-leading VTOL aircrafts. With our ready-to-operate systems we serve a wide range of customers. We help to increase yields in agriculture, fly 3-D reconstruction missions, do tactical mapping for security forces or provide mission-critical video footage in real time to military users. Made in Germany, non ITAR and no back doors in soft or hardware as all of our flight planning and autopilot software is designed in-house.

quantum systems drone with 3d printed parts
Quantum-System’s Trinity F90+ drone – Main Body. Image source: Quantum Systems

Why did you choose additive manufacturing and not alternative manufacturing processes?

The complex geometry of 3D-printed parts saves weight by using synergy effects. With synergy effects we mean that with 3D-printed parts we are able to reduce the total number of parts by designing multiple-use parts with integral functionality.

What are the benefits of using additive manufacturing with Shapeways vs using traditional manufacturing?

We used 3D-printing right away, so there is no comparison. Quantum-Systems is a young company. Only because of the fact that we have integrated this manufacturing method into our manufacturing and development process, have we been able to significantly reduce development time. For injection moulded parts we save around 10 weeks by using 3D-printed samples to release the CAD data. The probability that these parts need a second loop of corrections is quite low in this way. For cnc-manufactured parts it is the same, we just often skip the first round of samples with 3D-printed parts which saves us 3-4 weeks. In general I would say 3D-printing saves us 20-50% of time, depending on which parts we design.

What do you value most in additive manufacturing services? 

We can have fast iterations in development
and save time to mature our prototypes.

Why did you choose Shapeways?

Simple customer interface and good print
quality! And on top of that, you are quick!

Trinity F90+ Payload Bay with a dual camera mount for RGB and multispectral images. Image source: Quantum Systems

What types of 3D printing do you use Shapeways for? 

We have many prototype parts and even some
serial production parts laser sintered.

Which materials do you print in and why? 

In general, we order Versatile Plastic and HP (Multi Jet Fusion PA12), sometimes colorized. The material properties are perfect for building light and strong drone parts. We prefer HP at the moment, but for some parts, especially big ones, we order Versatile Plastic due to the price.

Any future projects on the horizon?

A lot! And fortunately, all projects
require the use of 3D printing. The drones sector still offers a lot of room to
pack more features into smaller and more flexible products.

3D printing prototypes and parts has given Quantum Systems the ability to cut substantial time, effort and potential mistakes by streamlining their production process. See how Shapeways can help you prototype and take your designs to the next level.

learn more

The post Quantum Systems’ Drones Take Flight with the Help of 3D Printing appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Posted on

Improving Plant Efficiency with 3D Printed Production Aids

Additive manufacturing (or popularly known as 3D printing) has proven itself to rapidly manufacture strong and functional parts. The technology is changing the way products are being manufactured but alternatively it is also improving the efficiency of traditional manufacturing processes.

To put this in
perspective, all manufacturing factories require the help of production aids to
manufacture and assemble the products. A production aid is any device type of
tool, jig, fixture, or a device used to enhance, optimize, and assist or
speedup the manufacturing or assembly process.

More often than not, production aids are customized to suit the product being manufactured but manufacturing such customized tools in limited quantities is always costly.

Considering the importance of production aids and its limited quantities, 3D printing can be a perfect fit in this scenario. Factories can leverage the capabilities of 3D printing to produce them at reduced costs. 3D printing can hand a powerful tool to organizations to improve its overall plant efficiency.

We’ll first look at the benefits of using 3D printing in creating production aids.

VALUE OF 3D PRINTED
PRODUCTION AIDS

  • Faster
    Time-to-Market

With 3D printing,
production aids can be manufactured rapidly. This starts a chain reaction to also
speed up the pace of production and assembly, thus cutting down the
time-to-market to take your product from factory to customer.

  • Improved
    Plant Efficiency

With faster production
and assembly leading to faster output and delivery, plant efficiency can be
considerably improved.

  • Reduced
    Cost of Production

By improving part
repeatability and accuracy, rejections can be reduced, leading to reduced cost
of production. When manufacturing jigs and fixtures, 3D printing can eliminate
the time needed for iterations before finalizing on the desired jig or fixture.

  • Performance
    Improvements

By using the design freedom capability of 3D printing, innovative and complex fixtures can be designed and printed to improve the production and assembly performance with fewer constraints.

  • Better Production
    Aids

Compared to traditionally manufactured production aids, 3D printed production aids can be more efficient. It can be made from lighter materials but still offer comparable strength and durability. Alternatively, the tools can be topology optimized to reduce weight and material usage.

  • Part
    Consolidation

3D printing offers the
capability to consolidate multiple jigs and fixtures into a single production aid
thus operators are able to perform multiple operations at the same work station
using a same fixture, saving costs, storage, and handling.

  • Worker
    Safety

As factories are
getting more advanced there is even more impetus on ensuring workers’ safety.
By 3D printing customized safety aid solutions such as safety latches, casings,
locks, and even obsolete safety parts, the workplace safety can be improved.

TYPES OF 3D PRINTED
PRODUCTION AIDS

Let’s take a look at some of the different types of production aids that
can be 3D printed to improve overall plant efficiency.

Jigs & Fixtures

Jigs and fixtures
are customized tools used to hold, guide and control the movement of a workpiece
while other operations are carried out.

Examples of
customizable jigs and fixtures include guides for burr removal, dimensional
accuracy testing, sticker pasting in packaging operations, etc. All can be
manufactured on demand.

Guides

Drill guides are a
commonplace tool on all shop floors. They ensure that holes are drilled in
their intended center and are not deflecting from this position in either
linear or angular terms and are staying within the prescribed tolerance limits.

Marking Tools

In traditional manufacturing a part travels from one work station to the other as different operators perform cutting operations and it is important that the cutting accuracy and repeatability is maintained in all parts. For this, a tool can be 3D printed to perfectly identify the marks to perform accurate cutting operation.

Safety Latches, Casings
and Locks

Apart from making sure
the production is carried out efficiently, the plant also has to ensure the
safety of its workers. For this a plant employs multiple safety tools like
latches, casings, locks and more. These safety tools help minimize on-site
accidents.

Go / No-Go Gauges

Go / No-Go gauges are
used in a manufacturing plants as a testing tool to test weather a finished part
meets the dimensional standards. A Go/No-Go gauge can easily identify any
deflection of the part in terms of its form, shape and dimension. It can
rapidly conform or reject a part according to the fit in the gauge instead of
using other measurement tools like calipers.

Maintenance Parts

Custom quality check and maintenance parts a can be rapidly manufactured.
Simple customizable tools such as stopper tools used to tighten nuts and bolts
can be kept in the individual machine’s toolbox, thus increasing maintenance
efficiency while saving time.

3D PRINTING OF
PRODUCTION AIDS

Production aids can be 3D printed through
various 3D printing technologies. For industrial printing, the commonly used
technologies include Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Selective Laser Melting (SLM),
Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) and Binder Jetting.

SLS 3D Printing

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is a
powder-bed fusion technology. It uses a powdered material that is sintered via
a laser to form the object. This technology offers greater design freedom than
some of the other 3D printing technologies. For parts involving complex
designs, SLS can be effectively used.

SLM & DMLS 3D Printing

FDM printing can offer cheaper production
aids, SLA can offer aids with smoother surface finishes while SLS can provide
greater design freedom but all these technologies print only with polymers. For
industrial parts requiring heavy-duty jigs, metal 3D printing is recommended.
Metal 3D printing technologies suitable for production aids include SLM, DMLS and
Binder Jetting.

Selective Laser Melting (SLM), Direct Metal
Laser Sintering (DMLS) are both powder-bed fusion technologies but for metals.
Both of these technologies can be used for small-size precision production
aids.

Binder Jetting

Binder Jetting technology can be used in
case of large parts. This technology also uses powdered metal material but uses
a binder material to fuse the metal particles together. The greatest advantage
of binder jetting is that it can manufacture parts at a fraction of the cost
compared to DMLS/SLM and Material Jetting. Moreover it is suitable for low-to-medium
batch production when multiple tools need to be mass produced for the entire
factory.

CONCLUSION

Factories can leverage 3D printing to create high-quality production tools to improve their plant efficiency. With 3D printing’s wide applicability, range of materials, design freedom and manufacturing flexibility, this technology provides many benefits that should not be overlooked.

learn more

The post Improving Plant Efficiency with 3D Printed Production Aids appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Posted on

How My Track Technology Uses 3D Printing for Their Remote All-Terrain Vehicle

My Track Technology (MTT) is an eco-friendly, electric remote-controlled track vehicle built to operate in extreme terrains. Its low center of gravity, resistance to the elements and autonomy make it a crucial new tool for a wide range of civilian and military applications including emergency and disaster rescues and agricultural functions.

Partnered with Shapeways, the makers of MTT were able to use 3D printing to cut substantial time and costs in their production process by rapidly prototyping designs and printing strong, end-use ready parts that can resist the elements.

We interviewed Michael Martel from MTT to find out how MTT has utilized Shapeways’ 3D printing technology to ramp up production with speed and efficiency.

What is your name and your role at My Track Technology?

My name is Michael
Martel and I’m in charge of the MTT product development.

How did My Track Technology start?

10 years ago my
father and I were discussing a product that can enhance human power but as
small as possible to be able to go where a person can walk. The main goal was
to be able to get someone that is injured out of deep forest and at the same
time bring reduced mobility
persons to extreme places.

From a sketch in 2010 (left) to a fully functional machine in 2020 (right).

What kinds of customers can MTT benefit?

Our customers are very broad. First, there is the military for rescue and material carrying. Mining for carrying material underground without any fumes and CO2 that has to be ventilated out of the mine. Wildfire suppression help, carrying water pumps and equipment. Also fat bike trails grooming, for agriculture use on wet fields or carrying a freezer in the field for fruits and vegetable harvesting. Replacing a generator on construction sites with MTT-154 onboard 2000W inverter, and much much more. 

My Track Technology rescue and rapid intervention
My Track Technology’s machine used in rescue and rapid intervention.
Photo source: My Track Technology

How did you find Shapeways?

Four years
ago one of my electronic employees bought a cheap FDM printer that he assembled himself. At that time I was very skeptical of 3D printing,
I was thinking it was only for toys and figurines. Nevertheless I let him try
some joystick parts. I was at the time building it with a laser cut aluminum
sheet, bent and welded to make an enclosed case. His part with FDM (PLA) was so successful that we
used it for our vehicle for about a year, very amazing. The problem with this
part was the surface finish, time to print and resistance to wet environments.
I was so impressed by this test that I decided
to learn more on 3D printing methods, suppliers and more. This is when I came
to Shapeways’ website and was very impressed
by the technical information and production
capabilities.

I then decided to
manufacture a couple of parts at Shapeways and I have
never been disappointed since. Shapeways is not the
least expensive but I tested many suppliers over the years and I did a lot of
cold temperature testing. Shapeways always has the strongest and nicer finished parts. 

Unless you have $100,000 or more to invest in an SLS or HP printer you will never have the quality, robustness, precision and surface finish of a Shapeways part.

What are the benefits of using Shapeways over an in-office printer?

When buying a printer you have an amazing amount of choice offered to you. The problem is to have a printer for all of the applications. The size of the parts, the surface finish, the resistance and the productivity of this printer are all to be considered. Unless you have $100,000 or more to invest in an SLS or HP printer you will never have the quality, robustness, precision and surface finish of a Shapeways part. Shapeways is a one-stop shop for 3D printing projects. They have multiple machines to accommodate all the requirements of all special projects. So for us Shapeways has been a great partner to reach all of our goals, present and future.

What are the benefits of 3D printing with Shapeways over other manufacturing methods?

Speed, cost and simplicity. When our 3D drawing is finished we don’t have to produce fabrication drawings. We just upload the 3D file on Shapeways’ website. Very simple. We also do not have to build a mold for 1 up to 50 parts. It’s very great cost saving. Later when the design is perfect we can build a mold and be confident that the mold will meet our requirements. We are also not limited to a particular shape with 3D printing, practically every shape is possible. Finally, the precision, repeatability and tolerances are better than most of the others manufacturing methods.

“The precision, repeatability and tolerances [of 3D printing technology] are better than most of the others manufacturing methods

What aspect of My Track Technology production do you use 3D printing and Shapeways for?

We are right now
moving to production and most of the parts that had previously been tested with
3D printing are now thermo or injection molded. 3D printing saves us an amazing amount of money by testing
different designs quickly. When the design is
confirmed the mold can be built with the peace of mind that this part works perfectly well.

The other 10 parts
that are needed for an
MTT-154 2020 will continue to be built with 3D
printing technologies. Up to about 100 MTT-154 units per year it totally makes
sense to print parts in Nylon. We save the initial cost of the mold and we can design parts
that are impossible to manufacture with a traditional mold.

What materials do you use?

Right now we mostly use SLS, with Nylon PA12 (Versatile Plastic), dyed black. We also use rubber like TPU to create custom grommets.

How does working with Shapeways affect the speed of your manufacturing?

In our MTT machine there are about 20 plastic parts. Last year we were in a very big rush to do a test with the US military and we had no time to build 20 molds for every single part. We saved at least 6 months (concept, drawing for molding, mold building and parts production) by 3D printing with Shapeways.

How about any cost savings?

For 20 plastic parts the average cost of a mold is $3500 * 20 = 70,000 USD. This money would have been a very big gamble knowing that we were unsure if these parts would meet the functionality, design and resistance we needed. $70K is a lot of money for a startup. It’s manageable, but $70K without any guarantee that this mold will be useful in the future is unacceptable.

Video source: My Track Technology

What is the most important aspect of working with Shapeways for you?

First, when we want
a strong part I know that Shapeways will not disappoint us. Also the website is
very easy to use, and I like the freedom to choose the shipping you want
depending on the requirement of a particular project. The quality control is
also excellent because I never return a part. Finally, the service when I need
information is excellent.

Can you share any current or future goals for My Track Technology?

The goal right now
is really to move to production and send machines to the customers that have
reserved these vehicles in the past. The product we sell right now is our
MTT-154 2020, with the possibilities to have only one unit with a trailer/sled
or with the flip of a switch multiple units coupled together for special military and industrial
applications.

Finally, we have orders for some small MTT-like robots. The frame will be built entirely in SLS printing at Shapeways very soon.

The next stage in 2021-2022 will be remote control with satellite or 4G and autonomous capabilities.

Efficient Manufacturing with 3D Printing

My Track Technology’s vast range of potential applications will see it become an essential tool for assisting humans in navigating challenging terrains and environments. Using 3D printing has made MTT’s production process much more efficient and affordable and shows how 3D printing can contribute to smarter manufacturing.

Find out how Shapeways can help with your rapid prototyping and robotics manufacturing needs.

The post How My Track Technology Uses 3D Printing for Their Remote All-Terrain Vehicle appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Posted on

4 Ways The Gaming Industry is Evolving with 3D Printing

Games of all kinds, whether it be RPGs (Role Playing Games), tabletop, console or board games, are boundless domains of entertainment and self-expression. While many people remain homebound and in need of entertainment options, developing games and accessories that enhance the gaming experience and cater to all kinds of needs is more important than ever.

Games give players the ability to inhabit other worlds and so their characters in these worlds are completely unique and subject to personalization. 3D printing allows for a new level of freedom in customization from the original design of the character to creating one’s own props, accessories and consoles. It also facilitates prototyping in the development of original games and has the option of being easily shareable with people all over the world via digital files. As the gaming industry evolves, customization is already a crucial component to immersive gaming experiences and 3D printing makes that possible at a never-before-seen level of efficiency and precision.

1. Custom 3D Printed Miniatures and Game Pieces

Customizing one’s character for any game is the first step in creating an experience that is unique to the player. You can have a say in your 3D printed miniatures at any stage in the design process whether you know how to 3D model or not. There are companies that offer customization services through digital scanning that could infinitely expand the possibilities. For example, Miniature You developed an app that allows one to scan his or her face and print it straight onto one of the hundreds of figurine options in the application library.

You can also choose from a multitude of open-source downloadable designs to work from. Or if you’d rather design the character yourself from scratch, you can always try modeling at a beginner level with programs like TinkerCAD. Owning a 3D printer isn’t necessary as you can prototype and print designs through Shapeways. You can have the same character in different positions, seated or in fight mode, for example, and that character can evolve as the player sees fit. This also goes for your character’s props, and the landscape of your gaming world. The possibilities in customization are endless.

Whether you need one game piece or 10, with a 3D file you can print the exact number of pieces needed and continue to reprint them as many times as you’d like.

2. 3D Printed Gaming Mods and Accessories

            Customization isn’t limited to personalizing the world of the game, but also can be used to enhance the context and comfort of the game play experience. There are hundreds of innovative and functional 3D printable bracket mounts, console add-ons, controller chargers and stands and much more. Add-ons like controller grips that help make the controller easier to handle or add style and fun to its original function are popular products. With new gaming devices regularly out in the market, gamers will continue to look for creative solutions to enhance their gaming experience. Because 3D printing allows for so much flexibility in creating unique accessories, every gamer’s needs can be catered to much more easily.

3D printing game pieces

3. 3D Printed Ergonomic and Accessible Pieces

            The use of 3D printing also means it is easier to make gaming more accessible to people who have specific physical needs. The DOTS RPG Project produces 3D printed tactile symbols and braille dice for the visually impaired, so that they can participate in games independently. Any tabletop or board game and its accessories could potentially have versions catered to different special needs allowing for even more people to enjoy and participate in these games.

4. Creating Original Games with 3D Printing

            3D printing is a multi-faceted resource as it not only allows for boundless customizing but also for the prototyping and production of completely original game ideas. You can create your own chess set with your version of the pieces, you can also create your own game completely from scratch and share it with the rest of the gaming community by making the files accessible for others to print and try out.

The gaming industry is a constantly evolving world and the needs of gamers evolve with it. The versatility of 3D printing means that solutions for these needs are more accessible than they have ever been. Already building a new game and ready to test the market? Let us know how we can help with your prototyping and customization needs.

learn more

The post 4 Ways The Gaming Industry is Evolving with 3D Printing appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Posted on

Why Is The Aircraft Industry Using 3D Printing?

While as of the time of writing, the air
travel industry is facing significant difficulties in the face of
pandemic-driven reductions in flights, for many years aircraft have been
proving one of the fastest-growing applications for 3D printing around the world.
We expect that air travel will resume in the not-too-distant future — and that
will see demand for state-of-the-art aircraft on the rise. Some manufacturers
may even be using this unanticipated downtime to revamp their fleets, building
up digital inventories to supply aging aircraft and using advanced
manufacturing technologies to create the next generations of aircraft.

Let’s dive in to find out just why the
aircraft industry is using 3D printing.

A Fit
For 3D Printing

Aerospace is a unique fit for many of the
most-touted benefits of 3D printing:

  • Part consolidation
  • Lightweighting
  • Complex geometries (“freedom of design”)
  • Rapid prototyping
  • Low-volume production
  • Digital inventory

Let’s look at each of these areas to see how
the production of aircraft can make use of these benefits.

Part
Consolidation

The weakest point in an assembly is where it
has been, well, assembled. When it comes to aircraft, such a weakness could
become a point of critical failure, endangering human lives.

By consolidating multiple components of a part
into a single 3D printed build, the number of assembly points is necessarily
reduced. The unique geometries possible with 3D printing can reduce a part that
typically has dozens or hundreds of parts to few — or to one single part. With
no welding, riveting, or other fastening needed to keep the part together, not
only are SKUs reduced, but so too are potential points of failure.

Lightweighting

Every ounce of weight matters when it comes to
equipment meant to fly. Lighter-weight parts means less fuel, improving not
only the carbon footprint of a flight but also the cost to fly.

Materials innovations in 3D printing are
seeing constant improvements in different metals and polymers approved for use
in different equipment. Many of these engineering-grade materials are familiar
to those who have worked with them in traditional manufacturing — translating
these formulations into 3D printable materials is bringing their capabilities
together with part consolidation and other time- and material-reducing benefits
to create altogether lighter final parts.

Freedom
of Design

Many working with design for additive
manufacturing (DfAM) like to proclaim that the technology offers great “freedom
of design,” as complex geometries impossible to make with other manufacturing
processes are for the first time possible.

Design methods like topology optimization and
generative design are developing new shapes never before dreamed of that can be
created only by 3D printing. These complex, often lattice-like designs not only
reduce weight by including material only where necessary, but are often stronger
than legacy designs. While certain constraints of course still exist, and may
vary by 3D printing technology and material used, these are in many ways
significantly reduced from those seen in traditional, subtractive manufacturing
processes. New interior and exterior aircraft components can be designed to
replace stodgy original parts, adding both design finesse and extreme
functionality.

Rapid
Prototyping

The earliest use of 3D printing is also its original nomenclature: rapid prototyping.

Quickly going from a napkin sketch idea to a
CAD design to a first prototype — and then a second, third, and so on —
speeds up the time-to-market for new products. While traditional manufacturing
may require multiple iterations to be sent back and forth over weeks or months,
the fast-paced aircraft industry can see much faster turnaround when designs
can be created and finalized within days or weeks.

Low-Volume
Production

As large as the aerospace industry is, by
total volume the sheer number of aircraft produced is relatively small compared
to, say, automotive or appliance production.

High-value, low-volume production is a perfect
fit for 3D printing. Whereas many traditional manufacturing processes require
expensive tooling and molding to be made, creating economies of scale for mass
production, no molding is necessary for additive manufacturing. One or a few
pieces may be made at a time — including different designs on the same build
plate — with no additional molding or tooling costs. The point of inflection for
additive versus traditional manufacturing typically requires hundreds or
thousands of parts to be made before traditional techniques are more
cost-effective — and while that may ultimately reduce costs to pennies per
injection molded part, before that crossover point, 3D printing is more
cost-effective. This is especially the case when using high-value metal
powders, when material savings are imperative; 3D printing eliminates
significant waste of material as only the material needed for a given build need
be used, and much else can be recycled, rather than cutting away and wasting
material from solid blocks in subtractive manufacturing processes.

Digital
Inventory

When an aircraft is approaching the end of its
useful life, often it can be salvaged through replacing certain parts to keep
it flying. This is often done through use of physical warehouses, where these
spare parts were stored on shelves until needed. These spare parts, in most
cases, were made at the same time as the original mass-produced OEM parts, set
aside to await replacement demand for worn parts. If that demand never comes,
though, they were a waste of not only the time and cost of producing them, but
also of storing them on shelves for however many years. Worse, if that demand
comes but spares are out of stock — especially those forever out of production
— the lack of a small part may ground a plane.

Rather than physically keeping goods on
shelves, digital fabrication methods allow for storage of a design file that
can be 3D printed on demand. 3D printing a replacement part allows for only
those parts needed to ever be made — again without need for first producing
costly molding or tooling. These on-demand spare parts can also be made
anywhere with the appropriate technology, rather than awaiting OEM delays that
can all too easily run up into weeks or months.

Flying
High With 3D Printing

The production of aircraft, from prototype to spare parts, is increasingly benefitting from the use of 3D printing in the supply chain. Decentralized production, new design possibilities, and reductions in time, materials, and costs are offering new ways for aircraft to keep flying high.

The post Why Is The Aircraft Industry Using 3D Printing? appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Posted on

5 Benefits of Using 3D Printing in Facade Architecture and Construction

A building’s facade
is a challenging, multi-functional aspect of the structure that carries a lot
of responsibility and expectations. It acts as a barrier and protects the
inside from the elements, determines how much light enters the space and also
provides the overall aesthetic to the building. Find out how architects are
using 3D printing to streamline architectural design and construction
processes, freeing up more time and costs to continue innovating.

“Deep
Facade” from ETH Zurich Uses 3D Printing to Produce Complex Geometric Shapes

Deep Facade is a 6×4 meter aluminium structure composed of 26 sections of looping metal cast in a 3D printed open sand mold. It was created by students from the Digital Fabrication course at ETH Zurich in 2018 and evokes the folds of the cerebral cortex. This process makes use of the computational design method called topology optimization, where lightweight material can be used to create highly stable and efficient structures. They used binder jetting technology to fabricate the sand molds which allowed them substantial geometric freedom and sped up the fabrication process due to fast printing time, eliminating patternmaking and reducing material waste. The complexity of the geometric shapes of Deep Facade would not have been possible without the use of digital design and 3D printing. Each mold took under 12 hours to print and once printing began the facade itself was formed in less than half a week. The students’ work on Deep Facade demonstrated that the production of parts with 3D printed sand molds was faster and cheaper than traditional mold making methods, and also showed how efficiently one of a kind complex geometric designs could be produced.

FIT
Additive Manufacturing Group’s “Facade 3000” Demonstrates the Potential for
Mass Individualization with 3D Printing

In Lupburg Germany, FIT created a 3D printed aluminium facade for its boarding house made up of panels each with its own complex pattern of cavities to showcase how to use 3D printing in construction to favor economical individualization. The panels each have a unique arrangement of cavity shapes, each created using aluminium inserts in the molds. They were able to produce 20 different panels simultaneously in rotation. This method of producing unique panel pieces demonstrates that 3D printing is a key resource when it comes to the future of cost-effective mass-individualization and customization in construction.

1 South
First Building by COOKFOX Architects Finds Higher Productivity and Durability
with 3D Printed Molds

The new building at the site of the former Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn, NY. consists of two interlocking structures with facades of all-white concrete precast from 3D printed molds. The crystalline facades were designed to emulate sugar crystals and are self-shading with each piece shaped according to its solar orientation. The variations in the panels meant that over 100 different molds were needed, and creating each one took between 14-16 hours instead of taking 40-50 hours each if the molds were made traditionally. The efficiency of the molding process freed up substantial time and the 3D printed molds proved to be more durable than traditional wood and fiberglass molds (which can be used up to 10 times), as they were able to be reused 150-200 times.

Rainier
Square Tower in Seattle by 3Diligent Corp x Walters & Wolf Use 3D Printed
Parts for Better Accuracy and Reliability

In order to create an upward slope from the 4th to the 40th floor in the 59-story Rainier Square Tower in Seattle, Walters & Wolf and digital manufacturing company 3Diligent Corp printed aluminium nodes and wall curtains. 140 3D printed v-shaped nodes and square cut pieces of curtain wall were custom fabricated to geometrically accommodate a different angle for each section of the building. 3Diligent gave Walters & Wolf the option between investment casting and 3d printing and Walters & Wolf decided to use the 3D printed nodes because of their level of precision and structural integrity. Each node was created with varying dimensions up to a cubic foot, another testament to the efficiency and flexibility of 3d printing.

The
“Fluid Morphology” Project in Munich Make Use of Fast Prototyping to Develop
Functionally Integrated Facades

At the Technical University in Munich, Moritz Mungenast and Studio 3F began a project to create a 3D printed facade envelope that integrates ventilation, insulation and shading to become the new facade of the Deutsches Museum in 2020. The facade design is flowing and translucent, resembling Shapeways’ translucent material Accura 60. Studio 3F built a 1.6×2.8 meter section to test for a year to improve the design before making another polycarbonate prototype. The team was able to print 1:1 scale models and prototypes along the way with ease, meaning they were able to fully comprehend the viability of their design, determine production costs, communicate their ideas to their clients and continue developing what they hope to be a widely used facade technology that combines form and function.

In addition to these innovative projects, more and more architecture firms are utilizing 3D printing to achieve a higher level of freedom in design and as a way of making processes more time and cost efficient. 3D printed molds hold up better than traditional wood casts and have a higher range of possibility when it comes to complex geometric shapes. Because of the range of materials available, 3D printing also assures a level of structural reliability for the printing of end-use parts.

Shapeways can print with a variety of materials, including stainless steel, translucent and high strength plastics, and can help you get started with producing custom molds and parts.

The post 5 Benefits of Using 3D Printing in Facade Architecture and Construction appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Posted on

Solving An Urgent Need: Shapeways Produces Hard Hat Shields for Plant Workers

Shapeways hard hat shield, front view
Shapeways 3D Printing Technician, Conor Scourby, wearing the hard hat face shield

The spread of COVID-19 has led to closures all over the country, but meat and vegetable processing plants have been ordered to remain open and the CDC has made wearing face shields mandatory for plant workers. Since they haven’t had to source these face shields in the past, many don’t know where to turn when their usual PPE suppliers are out of stock. The medical face shields could be made to work in some instances but were not ideal, as plant workers must wear hard hats and the medical shields’ band makes for an uncomfortable and awkward fit. The food production plants then put out a request for a better fitting shield solution that could work with a hard hat or a bump cap. We reached out directly to the plants to supplement this sudden need for more suitable protection in their work environment during a global pandemic.

Hard Hat Shield Design Conception

The hard hat face shield was designed by our Shapeways team that includes Thomas Brown, 3D printing engineer in the SLS department, Kyle Jaworowski, 3D Printing Engineer, and Juan Mercedes, Production Manager.

“The three of us collaborated on the design of the face shield,” said Thomas. “Kyle designed the fasteners to integrate a more comfortable strap to replace the rubber bands that were originally used, while Juan and I focused on material and machine volume usage to optimize the end price.” Using the Shapeways Face Shield v2, a modification of the Prusa RC2 Face Shield developed by Prusa Research, the team modified the previous face shield design to integrate with existing hard hats.

Our team used the MSA VGuard hard hat as the basis for the design because, based on our conversations with plant managers, this is the more universal option in the industry. Using the hard hat has worked out better than a traditional bump cap, because of the ability to clip the face shield frame to the sides of the hard hat.

The Prototypes

We designed and produced the first hard hat shield prototype in two days. We then made adjustments to the measurements to achieve a more uniform fit and to the attachment pegs to keep the visor more securely in place. After no more than three revisions the hard hat shield’s final design was complete.

The Finished Hard Hat Shield

Side view of the hard hat face shield

The final iteration consists of a plastic band with protruding pegs for the attachment of a clear visor. The assembled face shield can then be clipped onto the bottom of the hard hat’s brim on the sides. We printed the hard hat shields using SLS plastic for affordability and versatility. The entire designing, prototyping, and printing process took two weeks.

Available for On-Demand Orders

These hard hat shields are made to suit the unexpected and immediate needs of essential plant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The hard hat shields can be printed as needed and fulfill a more functional alternative to typical face masks in the food production environment. 3D printing offers immediate solutions to urgent needs for PPE during the COVID-19 crisis and can fulfill that need until the regular sources are able to provide the necessary supplies again.

These hard hat shields can be used as additional protection for workers in any environment where hard hats are worn. To place an order for these face shields please contact our Shapeways sales team directly at bizdev@shapeways.com.

The post Solving An Urgent Need: Shapeways Produces Hard Hat Shields for Plant Workers appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Posted on

3D Printing Your Video Game Character

Video gaming isn’t all fun and games: it’s a
massive and fast-growing global industry. Around two billion gamers around the
world are driving the $120 billion-plus market — estimated to
approach $200 billion in the next couple of years.

Both game and gamer are only going to continue
to grow more complex. Graphics never dreamed of in my childhood with pixelated
Kool-Aid Man on Atari are showing detailed worlds with individually
configurable characters. And with so many hours spent building, developing, and
leveling up those characters, of course players are becoming attached to them.

So attached that it’s becoming only natural to
want to bring those 2D characters into the third dimension.

3D
Printing From A Game

To date, most 3D printing of video game
characters has been up to individual efforts and pretty labor-intensive.
Shapeways has developed tutorials on how to export game files into 3D
software to clean up, make watertight, and 3D print. Here’s a look at how
ZBrush can help there:

More and more, we’re seeing tutorials arising among the community as well
to provide detailed instructions on how to make a game character 3D printable. Conversations about the merits of 3D printed game
characters abound, as for the last several years video games and 3D
printing have both been growing, with significant overlap between these
digitally-minded communities.

The messaging in all this is clear: having
your specific avatar 3D printed to match your carefully crafted adventurer is
something you as a gamer are interested in making work.

What’s also clear? Making 3D characters 3D
printable is pretty painstaking work, especially for those better versed in
gaming than in modeling.

From rendering a watertight 3D model from a
generally-not-watertight 3D game design to physically 3D printing the character
to the post-processing and painting needed to finalize the character’s full
look in three dimensions, the detail work is pretty intense for a casual DIYer.
That’s definitely not to say it’s not possible — all the TLC going into each
character is also a physical manifestation of the digital work already done to
craft the original look in-game. There’s also a sense of zen that comes with
painting a gaming mini, familiar to many a tabletop gamer.

3D printed game characters

If you’re driven in the desire to have a
figure of your character but don’t know where to start, Shapeways offers design
services through a partnership with ZVerse. If you really want to do
it yourself, design tips on ensuring printability of a file
are also available.

These options are pretty tough to scale,
though, for more than the occasional one-off character print — and that’s
where game designers’ conversations are getting really interesting.

Online design repositories already offer many
printable models of popular video game characters, but obviously they don’t
have your specific character creation. So what if the games themselves offered
the option to directly export your character and, without having to go through
the hullabaloo of cleanup, checking meshes, scaling, and perfecting, just gain
access to a 3D printable model?

Game
Designers Look Ahead With 3D Printing

Increasingly, game designers are exploring the
use of 3D printing to allow gamers to design and 3D print their virtual
characters directly from video games.

It’s been a hot topic for game studios big and
small as they see the fervor with which players customize their characters.
Dozens or hundreds of hours of game play can create a real bond between player
and avatar, and it’s not gone without notice that those players would love a
way to make their characters even more real — by bringing them into the real
world.

Of course, the technological differences
between software design, where even the most three-dimensional characters still
live in a very 2D screen, and 3D printing are many. Collaborations are key to
bringing these renderings into the physical world, and that’s where the
conversation lies today.

For right now, we don’t have anything concrete
emerging from these conversations…but it’s nice to know game designers are
looking ahead with bringing 3D printing into the plans for upcoming editions.

The post 3D Printing Your Video Game Character appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Posted on

4 Remarkable Creations in 3D Printed Furniture

SuperMod by Simplus Design
SuperMod by Simplus Design. Image source: Simplus Design © Alan Tansey

The use of 3D printing in furniture design has
allowed for the creation of highly precise, intricate and functional works of
art that use materials in fresh, imaginative ways. Many designers are using 3D printing
to create modern, sometimes futuristic furniture that uses the aesthetic of
machine made textures to its advantage. Here are a few to get started:

Folding Stool Printed by SLS Technology

In 2006, Patrick Jouin from Belgian design company Materialise.MGX created the ultimate practical folding seat with the One Shot Stool. The stool is designed to twist in one simple motion from a narrow folded position not much larger than a walking stick or folded umbrella into a sturdy and functional seat. The stool has a modern, fresh aesthetic and is easy to transport and store. The stool was printed using Selective Laser Sintering and the stool and all of its moving parts and hinges were cut out of the same piece of material.

The Most Intricately Detailed Chairs You’ve Ever Seen

Team CurVoxels from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London created a series of robot-printed filigree chairs using the designs of a S-curved chair as their basis. These highly intricate and complex chairs consist of thousands of tangled looking filaments in varying densities depending on where structural support needed to be strongest. The team created a custom nozzle for their printer that was able to produce four to six millimeter filaments in the air that allowed for uninterrupted printing and the students were able to alter the pattern where needed using an app.

A Versatile Modular Shelf for Spaces of All Sizes

SuperMod by Simplus Design.
SuperMod by Simplus Design. Image source: Simplus Design © Alan Tansey

Sebastian Misiurek and Arianna Lebed designed SuperMod as a multi-faceted unit that could act simply as a shelving unit but also as a partition or standalone piece. Each of its mods were printed in opaque white and translucent red plastic and can be detached and moved around to suit specific storage needs as well as allow light to travel through it in different ways and create glowing effects. Using on-demand 3D printing, this versatile modular shelf can consist of as many individual units as one chooses to achieve the desired look or to fit a client’s specific storage needs.

Nature Inspired, Artificially Manufactured

The first collection produced by Spanish design company, Nagami Design, was a series of four 3D printed chairs, collectively named Brave New World, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, Ross Lovegrove and Daniel Widrig. Bow and Rise, the first two chairs (Zaha Hadid), were inspired by coral reef and marine ecosystems and both feature a curved seat and a singular base printed by a pellet-extruder. The RoboticaTM stool (Ross Lovegrove) draws connections between natural programming and artificial manufacturing that occurs in robotics. The seat is made of silicone inserts and the seat itself was created using a continuous rotational process fusing layer upon layer together. David Wildrig’s Peeler chair is composed of three curved, seven-millimeter-thick shells of PLA plastic and was designed to use as little machine time and create as little waste as possible.

Handcrafting is still just as viable a way to create furniture, as that produces its own particular aesthetics. 3D printing simply allows for the further exploration of what aesthetics are possible and allows for there to be a focus on different types of details and methods, broadening the scope of what designers can create.

Feeling inspired? Let Shapeways 3D print your creation today.

The post 4 Remarkable Creations in 3D Printed Furniture appeared first on Shapeways Blog.