Massachusetts-based Voxel8 was co-founded in 2014 by an interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers from Harvard University, led by Dr. Jennifer Lewis. The company is working to develop digital manufacturing systems that will change up how we design, manufacture, and sell footwear and athletic apparel around the world.
Not long ago, the company introduced its multi-material ActiveLab Digital Fabrication System, which allows for the product development, wear testing, and production runs of high-performance athletic shoe uppers, in addition to other textiles. It’s designer-friendly, enabling automation and customization with zero tooling costs. The system uses ActiveMix extrusion technology to build 3D structures and thick films with variable cross sections directly on to textiles.
The 600 kg printer, with a 600 x 430 mm build platform, allows users to digitally design and fabricate shoe uppers, and is transforming how we develop and manufacture footwear and athletic apparel today. The system offers shorter manufacturing reorder lead times, significantly reduced design cycle times, and much lower costs for freight, labor, tariffs, and tooling. This gives customers the ability to design shoes, and other textile products, that include structural features and complex designs with little extra cost – affording them the opportunity to set up manufacturing facilities that are located closer to major end-user markets, like Europe and North America, and respond much faster to consumer demand.
Voxel8 seems to be doing pretty well for itself, and has just announced a Series B investment funding round, which was led by DSM Venturing – the venture investment arm of Royal DSM.
“Voxel8 is an excellent addition to our portfolio. Its multi-materials digital manufacturing platform is poised to dramatically impact the footwear and the sports apparel markets, strategic to DSM,” stated Pieter Wolters, Managing Director for DSM Venturing.
“Voxel8 is uniquely differentiated as a leader in multi-material digital manufacturing, which we believe will meaningfully expand the realm of possibilities for digitally manufacturing a wide range of products. Within the athletic footwear market alone, over 2.5 billion pairs of athletic shoes are manufactured globally each year,” said Jiong Ma, Braemar Energy Ventures. “Voxel8 is well-poised to capture substantial market share in athletic shoe upper manufacturing and, more broadly, medical and smart textiles.”
The company will use the funding to continue advancing its multi-material digital manufacturing.
“Our digital manufacturing systems are revolutionizing how footwear and athletic apparel is designed, manufactured, and sold to consumers across the globe,” said Travis Busbee, the CEO and co-founder of Voxel8. “We are excited to work with this team of world-class and experienced investors. Their global reach, expertise, and funding will accelerate the rapid adoption of Voxel8’s technology for high-volume production of athletic footwear and apparel.”
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Four years ago, specialty chemical and advanced materials developer Arkema announced that it would increase its focus on 3D printing materials research; this was followed two years later by a major investment plan, together with its advanced liquid resin solutions subsidiary Sartomer, for advanced 3D printing materials. The company, which operates in nearly 55 countries around the world, continues its materials focus today, and is partnering up with Silicon Valley-based company Carbon to help increase adoption of digital manufacturing and deliver a new supply chain model and cycle of materials performance for Carbon’s manufacturing partners.
“Since Carbon’s early days, Arkema has been an important partner to us,” said the CEO and Co-Founder of Carbon, Dr. Joseph DeSimone. “It’s rewarding to see all the amazing outcomes of our work together over the years bringing new, innovative materials to market.”
Thierry Le Hénaff, the Chairman and CEO of Arkema, said, “We are eager to continue and strengthen our joint efforts in delivering Carbon next generation products and full solutions to our partners & customers, disrupting the way parts are mass manufactured and accelerating new market opportunities.”
Through this new strategic partnership between Carbon and Arkema’s Sartomer business line, which was announced through an investment in the startup’s capital, the two companies will help disrupt the existing supply chain model, deliver new technologies to help bring digital manufacturing more into the mainstream, and deliver advanced materials.
As additive manufacturing continues to advance and mature, we will keep seeing the way that products are designed and fabricated change across industries…and partnerships like this one between Arkema and Carbon are at the forefront of these changes. Already, their collaboration has been responsible for creating some, according to a press release issued about the partnership, “holistic solutions” that are changing things up in the consumer goods, dental, and sporting markets.
Earlier this week, Carbon announced that it had received $260 million in additional investments after a round of growth funding; one of the participants in this round was Arkema, which invested $20 million in Carbon’s Growth Funding Round. This funding will help Carbon support its next generation of integrated digital manufacturing platforms, solutions, and materials. As the two companies have a similar vision for the AM industry, their growing partnership is a great way for them to use advanced materials technology to grow their collective pipelines of production applications.
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In today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, we’re starting with a couple of stories from the recent Paris Air Show: TUSAS Engine Industries has invested in GE Additive technology, and ARMOR explained its AM materials partnership with Airbus. Moving on, Formlabs just hosted some live webinars, and PostProcess Technologies released a whitepaper on surface finishing metal 3D printed parts. Modix is sharing a lot of news, including four new 3D printer models, and finally, FormFutura has introduced sustainable packaging.
TEI Invests in GE Additive Technology
TUSAŞ Engine Industries, Inc. (TEI), founded in Turkey as a joint venture in 1985, has invested in GE Additive‘s direct metal laser melting (DMLM) technology. GE Additive announced at the recent Paris Air Show that TEI had purchased two of its M LINE factory systems and two M2 cusing machines. While the financial terms of the investment were not disclosed, the 3D printers will be installed at TEI’s Eskişehir headquarters, joining its current fleet of laser and Arcam EBM printers.
Professor Dr. Mahmut Faruk Akşit, President and CEO of TEI, said, “Today, we invest in TEI’s future by investing in additive manufacturing, ‘the future of manufacturing.’ Our longstanding partnership and collaboration with GE is now broadening with GE Additive’s machine portfolio.”
Armor and Airbus Partner Up for Aerospace 3D Printing
Air pipe prototype printed using the Kimya PLA HI (Photo: ProtoSpace Airbus)
Continuing with news from the Paris Air Show, ARMOR Group – a French multinational company – was also at the event, exhibiting its Kimya materials and a miniFactory printer, as well as its new aeronautics filament, PEI-9085. While there, ARMOR also met up with Airbus, which has frequently used 3D printing to create parts and prototypes, such as an air nozzle for the climate control system of its 330neo passenger cabin. The company has now requested ARMOR’s expertise in better qualifying its materials in order to standardize its own AM process.
“We have qualified the PLA-HI and PETG-S. We are currently testing more technical materials, such as the PETG Carbon before moving on to the PEI and PEEK. We have requested a specific preparation to make it easier to use them in our machines,” Marc Carré, who is responsible for innovation at Airbus ProtoSpace in Saint-Nazaire,
“We expect to be able to make prototypes quickly and of high quality in terms of tolerances, aesthetics and resistance.
“Thanks to ARMOR and its Kimya range and services, we have found a partner we can share our issues with and jointly find solutions. It is very important for us to be able to rely on a competent and responsive supplier.”
Webinars by Formlabs: Product Demo and Advanced Hybrid Workflows
Recently, Formlabs hosted a couple of informative webinars, and the first was a live product demonstration of its Form 3. 3D printing expert Faris Sheikh explained the technology behind the company’s Low Force Stereolithography (LFS) 3D printing, walked through the Form 3’s step-by-step-workflow, and participated in a live Q&A session with attendees. Speaking of workflows, Formlabs also held a webinar titled “Metal, Ceramic, and Silicone: Using 3D Printed Molds in Advanced Hybrid Workflows” that was led by Applications Engineering Lead Jennifer Milne.
“Hybrid workflows can help you reduce cost per part and scale to meet demand, while taking advantage of a wider range of materials in the production of end-use parts,” Formlabs wrote. “Tune in for some inspiration on new ways of working to advance your own process or to stay on top of trends and capabilities across the ever-growing range of printable materials.”
PostProcess Whitepaper on 3D Print Surface Finishing
PostProcess Technologies has released its new whitepaper, titled “Considerations for Optimizing Surface Finishing of 3D Printed Inconel 718.” The paper discusses a novel approach to help improve surface finish results by combining a patent-pending chemistry solution and software-driven automation. Using this new approach, PostProcess reports increased consistency and productivity, as well as decreased technician touch time. The whitepaper focuses on surface finishing 3D prints made with alloys and metals, but especially zeroes in on nickel superalloy Inconel 718, 3D printed with DMLS technology.
“With current surface finishing techniques used that are largely expensive, can require significant manual labor, or require the use of hazardous chemicals, this paper analyzes the benefits of a novel alternative method for post-printing the part’s surface,” PostProcess wrote. “Key considerations are reviewed including part density and hardness, corrosion (chemical) resistance, grain structure, as well as manufacturing factors including the impact of print technology and print orientation on the surface profile.”
Modix Announces New 3D Printers, Reseller Program, and Executive
Israel-based Modix, which develops large-format 3D printers, has plenty of news to share – first, the company has come out with four new 3D printer models based on its modular design. The new models, which should be available as soon as Q3 2019, are the 1000 x 1000 x 600 mm Big-1000, the 600 x 600 x 1200 mm Big-120Z, the 1800 x 600 x 600 mm Big-180X, and the 400 x 400 x 600 mm Big-40. Additionally, the company has launched a reseller program, where resellers can offer Modix printers to current customers of smaller printers as the “best next 3D printer.” Finally, Modix has appointed 3D printing veteran John Van El as its new Chief Commercial Officer; he will help build up the company’s partner program.
“We are proud to have John with us,” said Modix CEO Shachar Gafni. “John brings aboard unique capabilities and experiences strengthening Modix’s current momentum on the path to become a global leader in the large scale 3D printing market.”
Dutch filament supplier FormFutura wants to set an example for the rest of the industry by not only raising awareness about sustainability, but also by stepping up its own efforts. That’s why the company has moved completely to cardboard packaging – all of its filaments up to one kilogram will now be spooled onto fully recyclable cardboard spools, which will also come in cardboard boxes. All of FormFutura’s cardboard spools and boxes are manufactured in its home country of the Netherlands, which helps reduce its carbon footprint in terms of travel distance, and the material is also a natural drying agent, so it will better protect filament against humidity.
“Over the past couple of months we’ve been brainstorming a lot on how we can make FormFutura more sustainable and help renew our branding. As over this period we have received feedback from the market about helping to find a viable solution to the empty plastic spools, we started setting up a plan to reduce our carbon footprint through cardboard spools,” said Arnold Medenblik, the CEO of FormFutura. “But as we got to working on realizing rolling out cardboard spools, we’ve also expanded the scope of the project to include boxes and logistics.”
Because the company still has some warehoused stock on plastic spools, customers may receive both types of packaging during the transition.
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Janne Kyttanen is a pioneering designer in 3D printing. The first to develop a whole host of end-use products, he was also the first to set up a design label in 3D printing and sell tens of thousands of lamps. He really brought design to bear on what was then an industrial technology and created many applications as a result. Janne has been a real inspiration to me for many years and it was great to talk to him for our podcast. Now he is exploring investing and in helping to create 3D printing startups with WTFVC. We asked him to talk to us about what it is like to invest in 3D printing right now.
How is the world of investing in 3D printing?
I think we have learned a lot from what happened between 2012-2014. Companies are getting smarter and investors too and everybody is gradually learning to ask the right questions. I wrote blog post about this a while back and for me the questions circle around: Who are you creating value to, how and how does it scale? I think the days are numbered where investors blindly just invest in a particular technology without a clear use case.
How do you see the future?
The most value will be created by what the technology does and not how a particular machine may look like in your workshop.A lot of people talk about 3D printing disrupting the $12 trillion global manufacturing industry. I don’t see it replacing or disrupting anything, but its just a new kind of hammer with its’ own pro’s and con’s and the applications it enables are just going to be new and new industries will be created. Bear in mind that in most manufacturing sectors the machinery generates the least amount of revenue. Let’s say on average 2-5%, so we have 0 interest investing in companies that are just creating machines. At least, I have not yet seen a deck yet, which would change my mind on that.
Where do you invest into and why?
We invest in crazy. If it makes sense, most likely its incrementally making something existing just better. We are drawn to companies and ideas, which connect proven and existing technologies in the most interesting ways. I like to tell people we want to take existing technologies, put them in a blender and see what happens.
Do you go for the end to end tooling only? So printer plus software and materials? Or not?
End to end is a new trendy phrase in the industry. There things have been figured out in every functional business already, so this phrase is a bit of an oxymoron. It’s a bit like a car sales man needing to pitch you on the sequence of events that are needed in order for a car engine to run.
My interest is in creating new value chains for new products all together. If you backtrack from the user using a product to its’ raw material, adding value to each point in the chain is what interests me the most. Smile direct club is a good example of a company, which benefits from most points of a value chain. By going direct to the consumer and cutting the dentist out of the equation completely, they are creating on top of an already proven product, but for far less money. Well done.
Is there a 3D Printing cluster emerging somewhere in the world?
Dunno. But I am happy its’ all happening all around the world. It’s also fascinating to see how the adaptation happens with the late bloomers in a very similar way as it happened in the western world first. That creates also quite predictable investment opportunities when you can map the human psychology before things are even happening yet.
Are you still optimistic about 3D Printing for consumers?
I think it will have its place in a home in a similar manner as a Peloton bike or the drill bench. What I mean by it, is that by the time the novelty factor wears out, it really boils down to value creation or the lack of it. No value or excitement and it just lands in your garage. I have not had a printer in the house for quite a while now. It is just far easier to just upload stuff on a 3D platform and get it all delivered by courier for me, but now that we have small children, I am going to install a few printers here again. The value for me will be to introduce my kids to the tech hands on very early on and build a narrative in their brains that they can make whatever they want and whenever they want. How they will create further value with it all, I am so excited to see.
What investments are you excited about?
Not many to be honest. 90% of the decks I see are “me too products”. Most startups are focusing on the same superlatives as their neighbors. Faster printers, bigger printers etc.
What companies would you love to invest in but you’re not seeing?
I am excited to see companies building tools specifically for a niche product or a service and owning the entire value chain and brand for that. I think what we are seeing is the hangover from prototyping. When your tech is geared towards making prototypes, it being able to make “everything” is great. When it comes to manufacturing, that paradigm is a pest. The clever ones lock their machines to do one thing really well, hammer on that and ignore the rest.
How important is it for founders to have 3D Printing experience and knowledge?
The less you know about 3D printing, the better, so your brain is not clouded by nonsense. I am interested in founders who have the ability to ask the right questions at the right time. All business is the same and you will be able to get to the root of it in 5 minutes of it, if your brain is tuned in the right way.
Where is the opportunity in 3D Printing?
As a “machine”? 2-5% of a particular manufacturing sector.
This week, GE Additive announced that it has signed a major Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Sydney, which includes a master research agreement. Per the agreement, GE Additive will support the university’s vision to create the first metal 3D printing ecosystem in Australia, and will invest a maximum of $1 million in research and development efforts annually over the next ten years to help speed up 3D printing adoption in the region and set up the necessary people and technology to drive education, commercial and economic opportunity, skills and job development, and research.
Debbra Rogers, Chief Commercial Officer, GE Additive, said, “We were immediately impressed by the University of Sydney’s vision for additive manufacturing – not just at an academic level, but also because they understand the positive impact this technology can have on Australia’s economy and its workforce in the very near future.
“Additive requires a completely different way of engineering and thinking. Educating and training current workforces with new skills and also getting more engineers into additive takes time and programs need to be developed over a number of years. The University of Sydney recognises this and that in order to build the right mindset, the right skills, the right materials we need to encourage close collaboration between companies, academia and governments.”
The university is actively working to provide intellectual leadership in 3D printing over the next ten years, and this new MoU reinforces its commitment to build a 1,000 square meter Additive Manufacturing and Advanced Materials Processing research facility, which will end up acting as a “focal point,” as GE Additive calls it, for the partnership.
Professor Simon Ringer, the Director of Core Research Facilities at the University of Sydney, said, “This addition to the University’s core research facilities will allow our researchers and research partners to conduct trail-blazing fundamental research, and will directly benefit Australian industry, particularly our aerospace, transport, biomedical and defence sectors.
“We are creating an environment for our researchers to explore the limits of what materials can do, how they are structured, and how to make them. Establishing a world-class capability in Darlington/ Camperdown is a key first step for our grand plans for Advanced Manufacturing in Paramatta/Westmead.”
Additionally, the university will also make an investment in current, and future, GE Additive technologies under the terms of the MoU.
The university’s Vice-Chancellor and Principal Dr Michael Spence said, “This MoU builds on the University’s world-class expertise in the disciplines essential to advanced manufacturing such as materials engineering and integrated digital systems.
“By partnering with GE Additive, an industry leader in additive manufacturing, we can set the agenda for this disruptive technology and ensure that Australia is primed to both participate in, and contribute to, this exciting next phase of the industrial revolution. The collaboration will drive the R&D needed to learn how this disruption to manufacturing can be harnessed for economic benefit. We are especially delighted that this initiative aligns with our plan to establish a new campus at Parramatta/ Westmead, where advanced manufacturing will be a key focus.”
GE Additive and the University of Sydney will also cooperate on developing new applications, as well as potentially new 3D printing industries, to drive positive economic and commercial impact. GE Additive’s funding will help expand upon the university’s current materials science and advanced manufacturing research infrastructure and capabilities by helping to increase new R&D efforts into analytics, material and powder technologies, and sensing. Both will also enjoy bilateral access to the other’s networks of academic, government, and industry stakeholders.
L-R: Debbra Rogers, chief commercial officer, GE Additive; Professor Laurent Rivory, Pro-Vice- Chancellor (Research), University of Sydney; Christine Furstoss, chief technology officer, GE Additive; and Dr. Michael Spence, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of University of Sydney
The aforementioned master research agreement, which was agreed to within the terms of the MoU, will cover three separate areas:
Image processing and data analytics
Materials and powder technologies, such as alloy design and modification, post-processing optimization, and materials gaps in repairs
Sensing technologies and advanced materials characterization
This last area will build on the university’s existing experience with electron microscopy and the electron beam melting (EBM) technology developed by GE Additive company Arcam.
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Global engineering group Sandvik has been investing in a wide range of 3D printing process technologies for metal components for years, with experience in 3D printing metals such as titanium alloys, tool steels like maraging, stainless, and duplex steels, cemented carbide, high-temperature materials, and nickel-based alloys. Now, the company is increasing its metal AM capacity with a significant investment, and announced at formnext 2018 that it has installed several RenAM 500Q quad laser 3D printers by Renishaw.
These new metal 3D printers are the perfect complement to Sandvik’s current systems, which include machines from Arcam, Concept Laser, EOS, and ExOne that use a variety of different methods and materials.
This expansion is on the heels of another investment by Sandvik in a new manufacturing plant for titanium and nickel 3D printing powders, which complements the company’s market-leading Osprey gas atomized metal powder range, showcased at formnext this week.
Use cases are rarely the same when it comes to 3D printing, as characteristics like flexibility, geometric complexity, hardness, strength, weight, and others can vary depending on the specific application. But Sandvik works across the whole value chain: all the way from component selection, design and modeling, and material choice to the optimal 3D printing method, post-processing, testing, and quality assurance.
“We refer to our process as ‘Plan it. Print it. Perfect it.’ Printing is only one of seven steps you need to master to obtain a perfect AM component. So, you have to think beyond printing to get the best possible value from additive manufacturing,” explained Kristian Egeberg, the President of Sandvik Additive Manufacturing.
While the design of a component certainly plays an important role in 3D printing, so too does the quality of material used. Sandvik, in its own words, has an “in-house capability” to make the broadest portfolio of alloys on the market, thanks to its Osprey metal powder range, in addition to the necessary know-how and expertise in metallurgy to customize the optimal material for whatever application is required.
Annika Roos, Head of the Powder Division in Sandvik, said, “We work closely with our customers to tailor alloys in line with their exact requirements, even for small batch print runs. Not only do we match the alloy to the purpose, we can also optimize the particle size for the chosen printing process.”
This week at formnext, which came to an end today in Frankfurt, Sandvik showcased several different 3D printing use cases with a variety of materials, process technologies, and post-processing methods, in addition to a selection of its Osprey powders. The 3D printed components on display are real industrial customer use cases, featured at various stages of development, and each of them was able to leverage the technology in order to deliver either improved effectiveness, functionality, performance, or productivity.
3D printed coolant clamps for Seco Tools, made from maraging steel, had internal curved channels for better lifespan and performance, while a titanium Sandvik Coromant CoroMill 390 milling cutter is up to 80% more lightweight, and 200% more productive.
Maraging steel sliding cases for LKAB Wassara were also on display at Sandvik’s booth. These two-pieces parts, 3D printed as a single unit, featured internal channels for underground hammer drilling, which helped to increase service life and improve performance. Finally, Varel nozzles 3D printed on-demand from cemented carbide had tailor-made threads which are long enough to be used for drilling in the oil and gas industry.
With its newly acquired Renishaw 3D printers, who knows what Sandvik will tackle next? The company is also looking for collaborate further with Renishaw in AM process technologies, materials development, and post-processing as well.
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We’ve got plenty of business news for you in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, and a little scientific research as well. Kelyniam Global has acquired new 3D printing technology, while Rostec makes an investment in technology. One of the earliest SpaceX employees is now an advisor for another aerospace company, the Youngstown Business Incubator has received a federal grant, and SAE International recently hosted a 3D printing webinar. Auburn University has been chosen as the site of a new National Center of Additive Manufacturing Excellence, and a new study discusses 4D printed elastic ceramics.
Kelyniam Global Adds New 3D Printing Capabilities
Using medical models for surgical pre-planning is almost a clinical standard these days. In an effort to increase its current medical modeling skills, custom 3D printed cranial implant manufacturer Kelyniam Global, which works with health systems and surgeons to improve cost-of-care and clinical outcomes, announced that it has expanded its 3D printing capabilities with the acquisition of new technology. This new technology aligns with the company’s reputation as a premium supplier of cranial implants requiring excellence in design and quick turnaround times.
“This state-of-the-art equipment will enable Kelyniam to produce certain medical models on the same 24-hour turnaround schedule we offer for cranial implants. The ability to rapidly print ultrahigh resolution models with high accuracy across our entire platform is a significant differentiator in our industry,” said Kelyniam COO Chris Breault.
Rostec Investing in Industrial 3D Printing Development
Russia’s state technologies corporation Rostec (also Rostek and Rostekh), which develops products for high-tech and communication systems, has invested nearly 3 billion rubles to create a specialized center for industrial 3D printing. The Center for Additive Technologies (CAC), with a goal of reducing the amount of time and money it takes to launch new products, will offer customers a full range of services and advanced 3D printers. The CAC’s main task will be introducing industrial 3D printing to high-tech industries that could really use it.
“Industrial 3D printing is becoming one of the indispensable attributes of modern industry. We see the high potential of this technology and introduce it into our production practice,” said Anatoly Serdyukov, the Industrial Director of the aviation cluster at Rostekh State Corporation. “For example, in the JDC today, about three tons of parts per year are produced by the additive technology method. The holding plans to widely use them in the serial production of promising Russian gas turbine engines, which will be certified in 2025 – 2030. The creation of a specialized center will expand the scope of this technology and produce parts for such industries as aircraft building, space, high technology medicine, automotive industry.”
Project participants calculate that the CAC’s first pilot batch of parts will be manufactured there sometime in 2019.
Former SpaceX Employee Becomes Advisor to Relativity Space
Jordan Noone, Relativity Space Co-Founder, said “When I was at SpaceX, Tim’s stellar reputation for breadth and depth of engineering and operations was legendary in the industry.”
Buzza spent 12 years helping to develop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft and will advise Relativity Space on organizing the company structure, launch site selection and trades, rocket architecture, structures and avionics, and more.
Federal Grant Awarded to Youngstown Business Incubator
The Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI) is about to receive some new 3D printing software and hardware, thanks to a federal grant. Recently, the Appalachian Regional Commission awarded $185,000 in federal funding to YBI. The new 3D printers and 3D printing software that the grant will fund, in addition to being a boon for YBI, will also help to strengthen its frequent area partners Youngstown State University (YSU) and America Makes.
“Each additional piece of equipment further strengthen us as a national and international leader in additive manufacturing technology and this is a key part of that process,” said Michael Hripko, YSU’s Associative Vice President for Research.
SAE International Recently Held Additive Manufacturing Webinar
Topics covered during SAE International’s webinar last week included novel AM methods that translate to automotive and aerospace applications, the risks involved in introducing 3D printed, flight-critical parts, and the anticipated timeline for general acceptance of 3D printed parts by aerospace customers.
Auburn University Site of New National Center of AM Excellence
“The Center of Excellence is going to facilitate us bringing together the best technical experts in industry, government, and academia, and that’s going to help us develop the very best standards for this emerging technology,” said Katharine Morgan, the President of ASTM International.
New Study On 4D Printed Elastic Ceramics
3D printing EDCs. (A) 3D printed large-scale elastomeric honeycomb. (B) 3D printed microlattices and (C) honeycombs of PDMS NCs and first EDCs and second EDCs.
Shape-morphing assembly is a great technology for applications in 4D printing, biomaterials, life sciences, and robotics, and multiple materials like ceramics, silicone, and polymers are used. But, we’ve not yet seen much in the way of ceramic structures derived from soft precursors that allow for elastic deformation. Polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs) have some excellent properties, such as high thermal stability and chemical resistance to oxidation and corrosion, and their microstructures can be fine-tuned through tailored polymer systems.
While we’re seeing a lot in the way of 3D printing soft materials, current ceramic precursors are not flexible and stretchable. Guo Liu, Yan Zhao, Ge Wu, and Jian Lu with the City University of Hong Kong published a paper, titled “Origami and 4D printing of elastomer-derived ceramic structures,” that explains how they developed silicone rubber matrix nanocomposites (NCs) that can be 3D printed and deformed into elastomer structures with complex shapes and transformed into mechanically strong EDCs.
The abstract reads, “Four-dimensional (4D) printing involves conventional 3D printing followed by a shape-morphing step. It enables more complex shapes to be created than is possible with conventional 3D printing. However, 3D-printed ceramic precursors are usually difficult to be deformed, hindering the development of 4D printing for ceramics. To overcome this limitation, we developed elastomeric poly(dimethylsiloxane) matrix nanocomposites (NCs) that can be printed, deformed, and then transformed into silicon oxycarbide matrix NCs, making the growth of complex ceramic origami and 4D-printed ceramic structures possible. In addition, the printed ceramic precursors are soft and can be stretched beyond three times their initial length. Hierarchical elastomer-derived ceramics (EDCs) could be achieved with programmable architectures spanning three orders of magnitude, from 200 μm to 10 cm. A compressive strength of 547 MPa is achieved on the microlattice at 1.6 g cm−3. This work starts a new chapter of printing high-resolution complex and mechanically robust ceramics, and this origami and 4D printing of ceramics is cost-efficient in terms of time due to geometrical flexibility of precursors. With the versatile shape-morphing capability of elastomers, this work on origami and 4D printing of EDCs could lead to structural applications of autonomous morphing structures, aerospace propulsion components, space exploration, electronic devices, and high-temperature microelectromechanical systems.”
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SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) is a popular 3D printing method for good reason. It produces functional, complex, durable parts without requiring support structures, meaning that finished parts require relatively little post-processing. The technology was invented more than three decades ago and has been reliable and effective in all its years of existence, but there’s been one drawback – it’s only possible to 3D print objects using one material at a time. This same drawback has afflicted most 3D printing methods for years, until recently advances in the technology have allowed for multi-material printing in FDM and other methods. SLS, however, has remained a single-material technology.
That changed with the emergence of Aerosint, a Belgian startup that is dedicated to revolutionizing powder bed 3D printing. The company’s patent-pending technology has multiple benefits: it saves on powder, eliminating the need to recycle material; and it allows for 3D printing in both polymer and metal materials – separately or simultaneously. Aerosint is exploring high-performance materials like PEEK and PPS, and has stated that its technology can work with other materials as well, such as ceramics or organic materials.
[Image: Aerosint]
The possibilities of Aerosint’s technology are exciting: a few examples the company has given as potential products are rigid prosthetics with localized flexible cushioning; optimally shaped batteries with improved capacity for electric cars; and other multi-color, multi-material objects.
Aerosint will soon be advancing its technology further, as the company has just informed us it has closed a financing round of €850,000. This was the startup’s second funding round, and participants included Meusinvest Group and Innovation Fund as well as private investor Peter Mercelis. Mercelis co-founded LayerWise, a company that focused on metal 3D printing for medical applications and was purchased by 3D Systems in 2014. He will also join Aerosint’s board of directors.
“Peter brings more than 15 years of experience in 3D printing to the project,” said Edouard Moens, Co-Founder and CEO of Aerosint. “We are convinced that his unique expertise and network in 3D printing will open up new doors for the Aerosint technology. Peter has a very strong reputation in the 3D printing industry and we are thrilled to have the chance to work with him.”
The latest round of funding will be used to strengthen the company’s existing patent portfolio, finance collaborative development projects, and advance the technology further. In the next year or two, Aerosint also plans to double its current team of six to accelerate development and shorten time to market.
“When I first met the Aerosint team I was immediately convinced by their strength as a group and by the cleverness and robustness of their core technology,” said Mercelis. “What they have achieved with a relatively small team in only 2 years of development is quite impressive. Their technology is a true innovation that opens the door to plenty of very unique opportunities in polymer, metal, and ceramics 3D printing and beyond. At the same time the technology is perfectly compatible with many of the existing printing methods. Technical challenges remain but none that can’t be overcome. I believe the next months are going to be very exciting for the company now that their first full sintering prototype is ready.”
The Meusinvest Group and Innovation Fund have funded Aerosint in a previous round, and are pleased to do so again.
“We believe the project has a lot of potential and a clear economic value in a fast growing industry,” said Marc Foidart, Vice General Director of Muesinvest Group. “Peter Mercelis will be an important addition to the board and will help to accelerate Aerosint’s development.”
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Massachusetts-based Voxel8 was co-founded in 2014 by an interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers from Harvard University, led by Dr. Jennifer Lewis. The company is working to develop digital manufacturing systems that will change up how we design, manufacture, and sell footwear and athletic apparel around the world.
