3D Printing Golf Clubs and Equipment

Golf is a popular sport in corporate America and adds about $70 billion dollars a year to the American economy. Companies are always testing new products that will catch the attention of golfers. The 2018 PGA Merchandise Show displayed the latest and greatest from golf manufacturers; everything from top of the line golf clubs to 3D printed golf balls. These tech savvy products are aimed at bringing golf to the attention of the younger generation. Research and Development tax credits are available to companies that partake in the improvement of existing products or the creation of new ones.

The Research & Development Tax Credit

Enacted in 1981, the federal Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit allows a credit of up to 13 percent of eligible spending for new and improved products and processes. Qualified research must meet the following four criteria:

  • New or improved products, processes, or software
  • Technological in nature
  • Elimination of uncertainty
  • Process of experimentation

Eligible costs include employee wages, cost of supplies, cost of testing, contract research expenses, and costs associated with developing a patent. On December 18, 2015, President Obama signed the bill making the R&D Tax Credit permanent. Beginning in 2016, the R&D credit can be used to offset Alternative Minimum Tax and startup businesses can utilize the credit against $250,000 per year in payroll taxes.

3D Printed Callaway Golf Clubs

Callaway Golf recently announced a collaboration with Titomic, an Australian additive manufacturing company. Callaway plans to bring additive manufacturing into the golf world while also improving performance and efficiency. Titomic developed a new process for 3D metal printing called Titomic Kinetic Fusion. This process uses cold gas spraying to apply titanium particles to a structure to create parts that can withstand a great amount of force. Research and development of the prototypes will be produced at Titomic’s Melbourne facility which houses the world’s largest 3D metal printer. This isn’t the first instance of additive manufacturing in the golf industry, as last year Krone Golf created a 3D printed golf club.

Krone Golf

Krone Golf and CRP Group designed a club that was created by using a mixture of additive manufacturing and subtractive manufacturing. Designing the perfect golf club is a difficult task. Some aspects to take into consideration include swing, impact and follow-through. Restrictions such as size and weight of competitive golf clubs make it hard to develop new clubs. The miniscule characteristics of a club need to be altered in order to improve performance and additive manufacturing provides a way to make the changes needed for the development of new clubs. The body of the KD-1 driver is made from a Windform SP carbon composite that is resistant to shock and vibration, while the face is made of Ti 6AI-4V, a durable titanium alloy that is CNC machined and sanded for smoothness. Krone Golf is fascinated with how well the CNC machined parts and the Windform material work together exactly as designed. The performance test and computer simulations show the KD-1 to outperform any driver on the market today.

Grismont Paris

Golfers who want to separate themselves from the crowd will want to look to Grismont Paris. Grismont Paris produces 3D printed, custom-made golf clubs that can be finished in gold, copper, or metal. Clement Pouget-Osmont, a passionate golfer, started off making club heads for himself and friends out of his apartment in France. Now Grismont collaborates with engineers, artists, craftsmen, and clubmakers to create custom tailored 3D printed golf clubs unlike anything else on the market.

3D printing artists work together with engineers to create a harmonious balance between style and performance. Several aspects of a golf club can be adjusted to better fit the customer including center of gravity position, lie, loft, offset, club head weight, weight distribution, and  handedness. You have the option to either put in your specifications online or you can arrange a fitting session where experts will tailor your golf clubs to your every demand.

3D Printed Golf Ball

Nike is prototyping a 3D printed golf ball that is engineered to last longer and outperform even the best of golf balls on the market. Nike isn’t new to producing top of the line golf balls. The athletic company still uses elastomeric material for an inner core and a rigid material for an outer core, but 3D printing improves this process by conducting smoother transitions between materials and adding a new type of geometric configuration called a void, which could lead to performance enhancements. Nike is prototyping with different configurations, such as forming each shell layer away from the work surface, a type of assembly that is unattainable through traditional methods. Lastly, golf balls would be fused with DuPont Surlyn by using a 3D printing technique called fused deposition. While the golf ball is not on the market yet, expect Nike to announce the product in the near future.

3D Printed Accessories

For the golfers who want to 3D print on their own, Thingiverse has creations available to anyone. Makerbot, the company behind Thingiverse, designed a golfing kit that anyone can print. The kit includes CAD models for golf tees, golf forks (divot repair tool), and ball marker. The golf fork and ball marker can even be customized to display your initials or logo on the face.

Conclusion

The golf industry is constantly trying new methods of manufacturing in the quest for better performance. Club manufacturers, even brand names such as Callaway, are utilizing 3D printing in the production process in order to improve the smallest technical aspects of the golf club unattainable using traditional manufacturing methods such as injection or compression molding. Grismont is taking 3D printing to the next level by 3D printing custom-made heads and fine tuning them into top-of-the-line luxury golf clubs. 3D printing has a strong future in the golf industry and as more companies research the potentials of additive manufacturing, expect 3D printed products to become widespread in the golfing world.

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Charles Goulding and Ryan Donley of R&D Tax Savers discuss 3D printed golf equipment.

3D Printing & the Proposed Siemens and Alstom Rail Merger

Further consolidation of the rail industry is proposed to occur with the potential merger of Siemens‘ and Alstom’s railway products businesses. Their proposed merger follows the sale of GE’s rail business to Wabtec. Siemens, headquartered in Germany, is the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe. Alstom is a French multinational company that is operating worldwide in rail transportation industries. The merger would create a European powerhouse in the railway industry. Both of these companies utilize additive manufacturing along with their regular manufacturing methods to improve on the way components are produced.

The Research & Development Tax Credit

Enacted in 1981, the federal Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit allows a credit of up to 13 percent of eligible spending for new and improved products and processes. Qualified research must meet the following four criteria:

  • New or improved products, processes, or software
  • Technological in nature
  • Elimination of uncertainty
  • Process of experimentation

Eligible costs include employee wages, cost of supplies, cost of testing, contract research expenses, and costs associated with developing a patent. On December 18, 2015, President Obama signed the bill making the R&D Tax Credit permanent. Beginning in 2016, the R&D credit can be used to offset Alternative Minimum tax and startup businesses can utilize the credit against $250,000 per year in payroll taxes.

Alstom

In 2015, Alstom had a conference that introduced additive manufacturing to its R&D department to help with rapid prototyping. Alstom has integrated 3D printing with prototyping various parts of a train such as the bogie; a bogie is a crucial part of a train that determines how much weight a carriage can bear. Additive manufacturing allows for the production of a single part that can replace several other parts. An example of such a part is an air vent that Alstom created by using polyamide, a flame retardant material. Alstom also likes the versatility of 3D printing; anything that can be made into a CAD model can be 3D printed from materials that range from flame retardant plastics to strong metals. Switching the materials used not only adds customization, but also serves the purpose of weight optimization. Christophe Eschenbrenner, Digital Supply Chain Manager at Alstom, introduced the idea of 3D printing spare parts to optimize time and money on a day to day basis. 3D printing spare parts solves two main challenges in the supply chain: the missing part situation; an essential piece of equipment would be missing which would lead to a train being stored in a depot, and the overstock situation, which would lead to cash being tied up as inventory builds rather than is consumed. Alstom believes that 3D printing is a rapidly advancing technology which is why they will continue to explore the integration of 3D printing into their business model.

Siemens

3D printing opens up countless new opportunities for a manufacturing giant like Siemens. Siemens already has a full facility dedicated to producing 3D printed parts located in Erlangen, Germany. Siemens realize that 3D printing allows for a quick and cost-effective way to print components that are rarely replaced. Maximilian Kunkel, head of research and development at the facility, says, “We can produce complex parts without having to worry about minimum volumes or the cost of tools.” With additive manufacturing, components can be made within days instead of waiting weeks for the delivery of the same part. Siemens had a predicament where 3D printing was quite useful; streetcar (trolley) drivers wanted switches on the driver’s seat armrest for turn signals and switching rails but it simply was not cost-effective to manufacture these new armrests due to the volume that was required. 3D printing technology solved this problem by redesigning the current armrest to accommodate the new switches and printing the requested number of armrests in a timely fashion. Siemens is working on perfecting their 3D print process by creating CAD models, improving design and materials then conducting tests on the new products. Siemens believes that 3D printing allows them to stay several steps ahead of the competition.

Conclusion

The proposed Siemens and Alstom rail merger produces new opportunities, not only in the European industry but in the 3D printing industry as well. Siemens and Alstom are both experimenting with 3D printing and its various benefits to their respective business models. 3D printing allows for the rapid prototyping of various parts and leaves room for the improvement of products already in circulation. To date, Siemens and Alstom are only using additive manufacturing on small scale components but they believe the technology will evolve to a point where 3D printing will be viable at all points in their manufacturing process.

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


Charles Goulding and John Chin of R&D Tax Savers discuss the Siemens-Alstom merger.

 

3D Printing 5G Telecommunication Technology

The telecommunications industry is currently front page news including the AT&T/Timewarner acquisitions, the pending Fox acquisition by Comcast or Disney and a new CEO at Verizon who is a technologist with a focus on 5G. Once the current merger activity further settles, we anticipate a new, focused, and competitive telecomm industry. The use of additive manufacturing in the telecommunications sector has introduced new solutions for advancements in current technology. Telecommunication components are expensive to prototype, manufacture and install while spare parts are also significant costs to many new projects and existing ones. Using additive manufacturing, parts such as electrical components that have arbitrary and geometrically intricate shapes/sizes can be easily prototyped and integrated onto printable circuits. Antennas, sensors and power stations for IT departments, telecommunication companies, cable operators, and related companies are now being deployed with 3D printed parts as the technology becomes more widely accepted in the sector. 3D printing components for telecommunication purposes is eligible for Research and Development tax credits.

The Research & Development Tax Credit

Enacted in 1981, the now permanent Federal Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit allows a credit that typically ranges from 4%-7% of eligible spending for new and improved products and processes. Qualified research must meet the following four criteria:

  • Must be technological in nature
  • Must be a component of the taxpayer’s business
  • Must represent R&D in the experimental sense and generally includes all such costs related to the development or improvement of a product or process
  • Must eliminate uncertainty through a process of experimentation that considers one or more alternatives

Eligible costs include US employee wages, cost of supplies consumed in the R&D process, cost of pre-production testing, US contract research expenses, and certain costs associated with developing a patent.

On December 18, 2015, President Obama signed the PATH Act, making the R&D Tax Credit permanent. Beginning in 2016, the R&D credit can be used to offset Alternative Minimum Tax, for companies with revenue below $50MM and for the first time, pre-profitable and pre-revenue startup businesses can obtain up to $250,000 per year in payroll taxes and cash rebates.

3D Printing Uses in Telecommunications

MIMO

MIMO antennas (multiple input, multiple output) are antenna technology for wireless communications in which communication circuits are combined to minimize errors and optimize data speed. Recently, communications manufacturers have been experimenting with 3D printing the powerful antennas. Utilizing a high-resolution stereolithography 3D printer, the printing process is entirely precise as it is capable of printing 27.2 x 27.2 x 17 mm antennas that can be completed within half an hour. The printed antenna is made of a photosensitive resin, ensuring all its surfaces are metalized and conductive, further enhancing frequency characteristics.

Orange

Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators; headquartered in France, they provide to 200 million mobile customers and 18 million fixed broadband customers. Orange is working to provide clean renewable energy to millions of on-the-grid users as well as expanding to those off the grid through the use of 3D printed components optimizing many power sources such as wind turbines. Small wind turbines are being used to improve efficiency and optimize mobile connection performance but can be expensive to build in mass production. Orange adopted 3D printing to utilize for the wind turbines as they are printing blades that are significantly reducing the cost of the units, as well as improving performance to provide impacts to the lives of those living in energy poverty along with those currently already using energy solutions.

Optomec

Optomec is a 3D manufacturing company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico that specializes in printing solar cells, flexible electronics, organic electronics, and touchscreen components, among many other parts, and are now experimenting with 3D printing functional parts for a phone such as the antenna. 3D printing a phone antenna now provides phone companies flexibility in the design and allows for a reconfiguration of the whole production line. With the ability to mass produce small phone components such as an antenna with 3D printing, no longer will harmful solvents and materials be needed for such parts and it will even provide a less expensive solution for phone companies whose profit margins are already razor thin.

Voxel8 Inc.

Voxel8 is a 3D manufacturing company that is adept at printing electronic components especially for telecommunications. The company from Somerville, Massachusetts has developed a 3D printer capable of printing one-piece, functioning electronic devices such as a smart phone. The printer creates digital manufacturing systems that can print numerous types of components such as antennas, electromagnetic coils or stacked integrated circuits, among many more. Though capable of printing whole pieces, some assembly is still required for installing batteries, sensors and resistors for which Voxel8 is working to develop new inks to print these parts. The company hopes to revolutionize the telecommunication industry and eventually eliminate the need for the painstaking task of thousands of human workers having to assemble the complex handheld devices we use every day.

Airbus Defence and Space

Airbus, the large aerospace company headquartered in Toulouse, France, is experimenting with metal 3D printing to develop critical parts for satellites used in telecommunications. Airbus is 3D printing metal waveguides used on telecom satellites which are crucial pieces that filter out unwanted radio frequencies and allow others to pass through. The additive manufactured parts provide improved performance while lowering production costs and excess waste and eliminating design constraints seen with traditional manufacturing techniques. The less bulky 3D printed waveguides are allowing for more waveguide components to be integrated onto satellites, greatly increasing the degree of functionality while delivering more capable telecom satellites that will soon change the landscape of how satellites are designed and developed.

Conclusion

Telecommunications is one of the most important aspects of everyday life; without it, data, information, messages, etc. would not be exchanged in a timely manner, if at all. Recent developments in 3D printing for the field have eliminated many of the limiting barriers that have prevented much of the technology from being utilized to full potential due to factors such as cost or feasibility to implement such methods. 3D printing is being used more than ever and telecom specializing companies are digging in to significantly improve upon 3D printing methods to continually provide solutions that will change much of daily life for the better.

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


Charles Goulding and Ryan Donley of R&D Tax Savers discuss 3D printed telecommunications devices.

 

Jay Leno’s Contribution to Auto Part 3D Printing

It is well known that Jay Leno is an avid car enthusiast and has a world-renowned collection of nearly 300 vehicles. What isn’t as well known is that his team does their own car repair and utilizes 3D printing for replacement parts. It can be difficult and costly finding parts for vintage cars that ended final production many years ago.  Most car collectors don’t have enough vehicles to justify experimenting with 3D part design and production. Specialty replacement parts providers are few and far between. Waiting for a few parts can tie up a garage repair bay for a long time. Jay Leno is showing the auto industry how to address these issues with 3D printing. Companies and individuals engaged in the classic car business are eligible for R&D tax credits.

The Research & Development Tax Credit

Enacted in 1981, the now permanent Federal Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit allows a credit that typically ranges from 4%-7% of eligible spending for new and improved products and processes. Qualified research must meet the following four criteria:

  • Must be technological in nature
  • Must be a component of the taxpayer’s business
  • Must represent R&D in the experimental sense and generally includes all such costs related to the development or improvement of a product or process
  • Must eliminate uncertainty through a process of experimentation that considers one or more alternatives

Eligible costs include US employee wages, cost of supplies consumed in the R&D process, cost of pre-production testing, US contract research expenses, and certain costs associated with developing a patent.

On December 18, 2015, President Obama signed the PATH Act, making the R&D Tax Credit permanent. Beginning in 2016, the R&D credit can be used to offset Alternative Minimum Tax, for companies with revenue below $50MM and for the first time, pre-profitable and pre-revenue startup businesses can obtain up to $250,000 per year in payroll taxes and cash rebates.

The large auto manufacturers and their suppliers have experimented with 3D part design but to date have not yet evolved to volume production.  Leno serves as an additional auto parts design incubator and an example the auto industry can learn from.

Other Classic Car Part Designer Examples

Porsche

Porsche is among the leaders in manufacturing specialized high-performance sports vehicles, and has been doing so for nearly 90 years. Porsche is integrating 3D printing to keep their older model vehicles running and eliminate expensive tooling and storage costs for numerous classic Porsche models. Cars such as the 1986 Porsche 959 where only 292 were built require special parts that do not exist anymore and would take a series of complex tooling to acquire a necessary part. With Porsche’s digital fabrication processes, they can simply scan and print a single part instead of producing numerous small run expensive components that require entire tooling mechanisms. Porsche is currently utilizing 3D printing to print eight other components from plastic or steel and is testing whether 3D printing can be used to reproduce many more components.

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz is a global automobile marquee known for their luxury vehicles and trucks that has been a consistent adopter of the latest technology to improve upon their past, present and future product lines. Mercedes-Benz can essentially print any part for any car they’ve ever built just as long as they have the schematics or part in hand to duplicate it. Customers are closer now to having access to a large catalog of replacement or custom parts that Mercedes can print and ship in a short amount of time. The utilization of 3D printing removes the overhead of machining expensive parts and tools while setting up a market to sell what were once very expensive parts, for a fraction of the cost.

Freshmade 3D

Freshmade 3D in Ohio is a team of highly skilled individuals with extensive experience in additive manufacturing, materials and processes, industrial design and reverse engineering. They strive to provide precious antique and valuable classic car parts that become increasingly difficult to find every day through the use of 3D printing methods, and are poised to lead the industry in serving restoration and custom automotive markets. With few alternatives for finding a classic car replacement part, Freshmade 3D gives enthusiasts a valuable option to use additive manufacturing to engineer quality parts or prototypes that would be much more expensive if the parts were to be machined. Freshmade 3D offers a wide range of materials and small-medium scale manufacturing that will satisfy most car part needs.

PartWorks

PartWorks is a 3D printing and CNC machining company out of Georgia that uses the latest technology to deliver the best manufactured parts for many of the leading industries. PartWorks has become especially adept in the vintage car sector where they are capable of engineering obsolete and custom parts that cannot be found in production today. PartWorks is unique because they utilize precision laser scanners, 3D printers, CNC machining and injection molds/stamps that allow their customers the options of having the part made in house or offering an open format file of a 3D model that can be printed or edited by the customer themselves.

GRYP

GRYP is a French startup that is using 3D printing to create classic car parts on-demand in an attempt to reduce restoration costs. Their goal is to allow collectors to restore their vintage cars at a consistent and affordable cost to continue the prestigious heritage of such vehicles. GRYP works with numerous automobile clubs and associations, spare parts distributors, and local 3D printing companies in an attempt to integrate large scale 3D printing not only to the classic car sector but to the automotive industry as a whole.

Conclusion

The world had enjoyed Jay Leno’s humor for many years. Now he’s bringing his expertise and creativity to provide design leadership for the automotive industry while having his own fun. Even though Leno retired from late night public television, he still continues his on-camera appearances with his own YouTube channel called Jay Leno’s Garage, dedicated to 3D printing and cars, and has garnered more than 2 million subscribers as he spreads the benefits of utilizing 3D printing.

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


Charles Goulding & Ryan Donley of R&D Tax Savers discuss automotive 3D printing. 

 

Lockheed Martin’s Contributions to 3D Printing

The aerospace industry was one of the first major advocates of 3D printing, as the industry has been a driving force in the evolution of this technology. The industry covers a wide range of commercial, industrial and military applications that demand state-of-the art technology for mission critical needs. At the forefront of 3D printing is Lockheed Martin, which serves as a clear leader through their ability to rapidly implement innovation and use of 3D printing across prototyping, tooling and production of components. Lockheed is able to create significant varying parts and designs that are cost effective, reliable and durable more so than traditional machining methods, due to the improvements of 3D printing technology.

The Research & Development Tax Credit

Enacted in 1981, the now permanent Federal Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit allows a credit that typically ranges from 4%-7% of eligible spending for new and improved products and processes. Qualified research must meet the following four criteria:

  • Must be technological in nature
  • Must be a component of the taxpayer’s business
  • Must represent R&D in the experimental sense and generally includes all such costs related to the development or improvement of a product or process
  • Must eliminate uncertainty through a process of experimentation that considers one or more alternatives

Eligible costs include US employee wages, cost of supplies consumed in the R&D process, cost of pre-production testing, US contract research expenses, and certain costs associated with developing a patent.

On December 18, 2015, President Obama signed the PATH Act, making the R&D Tax Credit permanent. Beginning in 2016, the R&D credit can be used to offset Alternative Minimum Tax, for companies with revenue below $50MM and for the first time, pre-profitable and pre-revenue startup businesses can obtain up to $250,000 per year in payroll taxes and cash rebates.

Remote Interface Unit

Lockheed Martin is planning, for the first time, to use additive manufacturing to develop a part that will be on a military satellite. The complex unit is an aluminum electronic enclosure designed to hold avionic circuits, and is a part that would require multiple components and processes to manufacture under regular machining. But with 3D printing, the parts total is reduced to just one, which in turn reduces manufacturing time from six months down to 1.5 months, as well as reducing assembly time from 12 hours to just 3 hours. Lockheed hopes this successful part can open more 3D printing opportunities for their several other extensive aerospace programs.

Orion Spacecraft

NASA’s Orion spacecraft is a program designed to send astronauts to the moon and beyond in a series of exploration missions. The craft is going to be made of more than 100 3D printed parts, the majority of them made by Lockheed Martin and using state-of-the art materials, like the new Antero thermoplastic material, which is designed to meet NASA’s requirements for heat and chemical resistance. The use of 3D parts was crucial for this program as nearly every piece that was 3D printed was more efficient than traditional parts and reduced costs to the spacecraft overall.

Fuel Tanks

Lockheed Martin, in partnership with Stratasys’ RedEye 3D printer, were able to develop large fuel tanks that store propellant for satellites. The largest fuel tank was as large as 15 feet long, the largest piece ever manufactured by a RedEye printer and one of the largest aerospace parts ever made by a 3D printer. The fuel tanks themselves are the first ever successful ones to be produced through additive manufacturing, and were done in a highly condensed time frame for nearly half the cost of machining the parts. Due to the sheer size of these parts, Lockheed built several smaller parts to fuse together and finalize the product in time to market a competitive contract bid process. They would not have been able to do this had they machined the parts.

Trident II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missile

Lockheed Martin has been the primary ballistic missile contractor for the US Navy since 1955 and nothing has changed as they remain the primary supplier. Lockheed was called upon to develop another ballistic missile that would be known as the Trident II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missile. This is a three-stage missile that can travel an average range of 4,000 nautical miles while carrying multiple independently targeted missiles. Within the missile is a 3D printed component that is similar to the one used on Lockheed Martin’s satellites. The one-inch wide aluminum alloy piece is a connector backshell component that protects vital cable connectors in the missile. The component was designed and fabricated using only 3D design and printing methods that allowed engineers at Lockheed to produce this part in half the time it would take with machining methods.

Our articles published in Lockheed’s major business areas are presented below:

Aerospace Aerospace Mega Trends Driving 3D Printer Usage
Satellites The R&D Tax Credit Aspects of 3D Printed Telecommunications
Helicopters The R&D Tax Credit Aspects of 3D Printing Helicopter Parts
Drones 3D Printed Drones and the UAS Integration Pilot Program
Avionics The R&D Tax Credit Aspects of Avionics

Conclusion

Lockheed Martin is undeniably a leading manufacturer of all things relating to the aerospace industry. Not only do they produce high quality and critical products, but they consistently find ways to innovate and stay steps ahead of the field with the use of additive manufacturing to bolster their already highly advanced product lines. Lockheed expanded this vast production through the acquisition of Sikorsky Aircraft, the leading helicopter manufacturer, which will gain a boost in their existing additive manufacturing capabilities after joining the Lockheed portfolio. The continued integration of 3D printing and large acquisitions is allowing Lockheed to develop parts that are giving aircraft extended service lives, reduced fuel costs, weight reduction and increased strength.

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


Charles Goulding & Ryan Donley of R&D Tax Savers discuss Lockheed Martin.