3D Printing Archives - Page 418 of 419 - Perfect 3D Printing Filament

Car Sunglasses Glasses/Card/Ticket Clips Holder #3DThursday #3DPrinting

Cerega shares this great design for Car Sunglasses Glasses/Card/Ticket Clips Holder!

download the files on: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2920219

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!

Retro microphone lampe #3DThursday #3DPrinting

toolmoon shares:

This is a lighting device designed for 3d printing lamps,

which allows the user easier to use to show lighting effects in the 3d printing lamps

download the files on: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2920381

Workforce is Key to the Development of Additive Manufacturing: Interview with Women in Manufacturing

Opening this week’s Additive Manufacturing Symposium at Science in the Age of Experience, Allison Grealis, Founding President of Women in Manufacturing, took attendees on a journey of discovery surrounding the workforce. As 3D printing integrates more into the broader manufacturing industry, with production capabilities increasing and on-site installations rising, a skills gap remains a significant challenge and barrier to faster and broader adoption. The workforce in manufacturing, both existing and future, is in focus for Women in Manufacturing and other industry organizations striving to focus on the human aspect of industry.

The skills gap is an issue in itself, and a particular piece of that puzzle comes in the form of diversity of workforce. The Additive Manufacturing Symposium’s morning plenary session kicked off with Grealis’ presentation, “The State of Women & Additive Manufacturing,” laying the foundation for an informative day of industry discussion. Organizations, she explained, are becoming ever more aware of the need for diversity and the tangible benefits of a workforce drawing from more diverse backgrounds, applicable to all levels from production line to C-suite. The latter of these sees a notable lack of diversity, wiith women representing a minority. She cited figures to note that while women make up 49% of the US labor force, they represent only 29% of the manufacturing workforce. These figures have been rising, but disparity remains, as reported in studies from McKinsey and, targeted to additive manufacturing, Alexander Daniels Global.

In her presentation, Grealis discussed actionable steps that organizations can take to ensure that they bring in a strong variety of personnel throughout operations, as well as actionable steps women can take in pursuing manufacturing careers.

Organizations can:

Be sure the women you work with have interesting and challenging work
Provide feedback and positive affirmation
Encourage educational and training initiatives
Provide opportunities for professional development
Identify and improve the visibility of leaders

Women in additive can:

Establish a relationship with a mentor / become a mentor
Be visible! Take opportunities to speak on behalf of the industry / share your story
Educate and encourage the next generation of talent
Rise the ranks by positioning yourself for success / pave the way for others
Meet and connect with other like-minded industry women

Later in the day, I appreciated the opportunity to sit down with Grealis and discuss more of the issues and solutions for workforce development in additive manufacturing — an immediate illustration of her last action point for women, as it happened.

“Workforce is the key issue we’re combating,” she told me.

“This is one of the things that’s been a core focus for the organization since we got started. The skills gap is a big focus. When we talk to most companies, they have a slew of positions they’re seeking to fill, and we believe our organization can be a resource to filling those gaps. There are new opportunities that technology and additive manufacturing represent to women and men alike. We have a focus on the public perception issue, trying to influence a more positive image of manufacturing; we focus on parents, educators, and career counselors as much as on students and budding professionals. We share new technology components that would entice new workers and help to dispel myths that would discourage them.”

Initiatives surrounding workforce development represent a critical focus, Grealis underscored, with education and training imperative to the growth of a more advanced manufacturing sector. Encouraging the growth of women in the industry is a widespread effort, with many companies having created women’s affinity groups. Some of these, though, are groups in name alone, she said, and Women in Manufacturing is “working to create real vehicles to provide women with resources — in their company, and resources outside their individual company.”

One of the organization’s efforts is its Leadership Lab for Women in Manufacturing, launched with Case Western Reserve University’s (CWRU) Weatherhead School of Management and the support of the Women in Manufacturing Education Foundation (WiMEF). This Leadership Lab was launched in response to companies’ feedback that they had rising leaders in their ranks who weren’t yet equipped with all they needed, Grealis said. That type of responsiveness to real-world needs is necessary for the growth of positive structural development and encouraging leadership from within. Grealis pointed to efforts fostering training for management aptitude needed for success in leading teams and leading functions of responsibility within their organizations.

“Virtual training and learning is very important to us; we want to greatly expand this in the next few years,” she added. “We want to get down into the ranks to more women in manufacturing, many of whom don’t have the travel budget to go to Boston or Indianapolis [where WiM hosts events], and provide resources in how to get more training than just opportunities on the shop floor.”

Providing solutions is integral to Women in Manufacturing’s work and interest, as the organization seeks to “be a key solution provider to find and train and retain talent.” Since 2012, they have offered a direct job board through which companies can directly post jobs and job seekers can see what’s available, including apprenticeships and training, she noted. Networking is also key to the efforts, and advanced networking groups enable a valuable human resources resource, as well as a group for owners and senior executives. Discussion of best practices, and of support and advice, enables a unique setting “that isn’t happening naturally” as these twice-yearly events provide a confidential setting to talk about business.

“With all these efforts, the hope is to grow that percentage that we talked about this morning — we want to see that 29% rise closer to 50%. We want to grow not only the hourly ranks or the management ranks, but also C-suite ranks. Often there it’s under 10%, or single-digit, which is pretty disappointing,” Grealis continued.

“If you look at Forbes’ ranks of top female executives, the key most powerful women in business, most are with manufacturing companies, which is exciting. Now, we need to see more of them, to duplicate that ten-fold and fill more boardrooms with women. Most of those women came through the ranks. Most came up through technical fields, engineering and the like, and rose to lead these companies forward.”

Forbes’ list showcases an impressive array indeed of strong women leading businesses, and includes powerhouse quotes from powerhouse women. The list cites an interview with the Wall Street Journal from Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors and named at number five on the Forbes list:

“Cultivating diversity isn’t about taking a gender count when you walk into a room. It’s about valuing all ideas and building teams with different backgrounds and experiences.”

Looking specifically at additive manufacturing and the revolution surrounding digitization and an increase in cloud and other virtual resources, I asked Grealis how she saw these new technologies reshaping manufacturing and impacting the workforce.

“There should be more opportunities now. It’s not a women’s issue; it’s a people issue,” she said.

“Virtual capabilities are making work more humane; we don’t want to make work life. Companies are becoming more virtual, more flexible, and this makes not only manufacturing more appealing to women, but to millennials, to more generations — it’s become an attractive piece of manufacturing. You can’t just stop the manufacturing line because people want to go home. Virtual offerings, smart machines, and flexible hours are making more possible.”

She pointed to the example of a plant manager she spoke with recently who has found herself in a more humane work environment due to the flexibility enabled by checking virtually on production, allowing her to work more appealing hours while still keeping tabs on the happenings on the line.

For her part, Grealis’ background, with her father working in manufacturing, provided early exposure to these environments and providing a foundation from which she could understand the unique needs in manufacturing.

“I liked the excitement piece that it wasn’t dull; it’s not a traditional office intern experience when helping with things. Early exposure made me more open and excited when I came to metal forming after college,” she said. “I’ve always been very passionate about women’s issues. I’ve had a core passion always about advocating, and even thought for a short minute I would be a criminal lawyer. It’s come full circle to create an organization illuminating a population in manufacturing not often seen or heard from. I worked for a trade association working with metal forming companies, and worked with women leaders in metal forming. I found their unique needs were no different than women in different parts of manufacturing. At the tim, there wasn’t a resource around these individuals, and so we decided to start a conference that became our full service organization. It’s great to help provide power and support to this amazing community.”

Women in Manufacturing will be hosting its summit October 3-5 in Indianapolis, including several plant tours and networking events, alongside gathered experts, workshops, and roundtables.

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

[All photos: Sarah Goehrke]

INTAMSYS Brings High-Performance 3D Printing to Japan with New Partnership

Chinese company INTAMSYS is known for its high-performance FUNMAT 3D printer series, which is designed to print with functional materials. INTAMSYS has seen a great deal of success with its machines, and is growing a strong global presence as it completes its funding. Now the company is moving into Japan through a new partnership that will strengthen its position in the Asian market.

INTAMSYS is partnering with Fusion Technology Co. Ltd., a Japanese company specializing in 3D design and printing for a diverse range of markets, including architecture, manufacturing, medicine, education, anime, and more. Also part of the deal is Canon Marketing Japan, one of Fusion Technology’s reselling partners, which will help promote and market INTAMSYS 3D printers and 3D printing solutions to industrial companies in Japan.

“More Japanese industrial manufacturers are increasingly embracing industrial additive manufacturing solutions for business-critical applications due to strong quality, high consistency and cost effectiveness,” said Mr. Inoue, CEO of Fusion Technology. “INTAMSYS has presented a strong proven track record of delivering cutting-edge high performance material 3D printing solution to industrial end-users globally. Meanwhile, Fusion technology has built up a broad industrial customer base locally through decades of successful reselling experience, evidenced by our direct partnership with Canon. We believe this cooperation will complement each other very well in exploring more markets and possibilities in Japan.”

INTAMSYS is exhibiting with its new partners at the DMS Tokyo, which is taking place from June 20th to the 22nd. This will be the first time that the FUNMAT HT and the FUNMAT PRO HT are exhibited in Japan, marking INTAMSYS’ official entry into the country through its partnerships.

“Globally, Japanese firms have earned the reputation of having very high requirements on quality and reliability for machinery,” said Charles Han, CEO of INTAMSYS. “INTAMSYS is delighted to be recognized by Fusion Technology and Canon through this strong partnership and we look forward to serving the Japanese end users with machines and 3D printing solutions that come with the highest quality and state-of-the-art engineering capability.”

By introducing the FUNMAT series into Japan, INTAMSYS will be introducing high-quality, industrial-grade 3D printing solutions. The FUNMAT HT and FUNMAT PRO HT are high-temperature 3D printers capable of printing with more than 20 functional materials, including six high-performance materials: PEEK, PEKK, ULTEM 9085, ULTEM 1010, PPSU and PSU. They can also print with ABS, polycarbonate (PC) and nylon, the most widely-used engineering-grade thermoplastics. The FUNMAT HT and FUNMAT PRO HT feature heated build chambers and build plates as well as high-temperature nozzles, which enable them to print a wide variety of materials with ease.

INTAMSYS also utilizes an open materials system for its 3D printers, allowing customers a great deal of versatility in what they use to print. In addition to selling its 3D printers, INTAMSYS also offers a 3D printing service, and works closely with customers and partners around the world in a wide range of industries, including aerospace, automotive, medicine, engineering, oil and gas, electronics, education, and research. Applications include tools, jigs and fixtures, concept modeling, visualization aiding, functional prototyping, and the manufacturing of end-use parts.

Japan is a leader in Asia in terms of technological advancement and research, and its 3D printing industry has expanded as major companies choose to expand their presences there. The country will benefit greatly from the presence of INTAMSYS and its high-performance 3D printers, and INTAMSYS will benefit from being part of a large, diverse market. As INTAMSYS continues to grow, it will continue to make an impact in the 3D printing industry, which is turning more and more towards the 3D printing of functional, end-use parts.

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

[Images: INTAMSYS]

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.

Researchers 3D Print Tissue That Mimics Human Bile Duct

[Image via Cancer.org]

A bile duct plays a crucial role in the body, carrying bile from the liver to the intestine to facilitate digestion. Cancer of the bile duct has an alarmingly low survival rate, and treatment requires that the disease be caught early enough for the affected part of the bile duct to be removed. But there’s some good news for those suffering from conditions of the bile duct, as researchers at Northwestern University have 3D printed a mini-tissue that mimics it.

The research is documented in a study entitled “Tailoring nanostructure and bioactivity of 3D-printable hydrogels with self-assemble peptides amphiphile (PA) for promoting bile duct formation,” which you can access here. Lead author Ming Yan and colleagues 3D printed a nanostructure consisting of peptides amphiphile, or PAs, bioink and bile duct cells, or cholangiocytes.

“3D-printing has expanded our ability to produce reproducible and more complex scaffold architectures for tissue engineering applications,” the abstract states. “In order to enhance the biological response within these 3D-printed scaffolds incorporating nanostructural features and/or specific biological signaling may be an effective means to optimize tissue regeneration. Peptides amphiphiles (PAs) are a versatile supramolecular biomaterial with tailorable nanostructural and biochemical features. PAs are widely used in tissue engineering applications such as angiogenesis, neurogenesis, and bone regeneration. Thus, the addition of PAs is a potential solution that can greatly expand the utility of 3D bioprinting hydrogels in the field of regenerative medicine.”

The PAs and cholangiocytes were mixed with thiolated gelatin at 37°C and 3D printed at 4ºC using an EnvisionTEC 3D-Bioplotter, one of the most-utilized bioprinters on the market. The material retained integrity as the bioinks printed into filaments capable of supporting multi-layered scaffolds. The researchers stabilized the scaffold by cross-linking a derivative of ethylene glycol with calcium ions; scaffold stability was observed in culture for more than a month at a temperature of 37°C.

First author Ming Yan. [Image: Northwestern via Physics World]

The researchers also explored the use of a laminin-derived peptide (Ile-Lys-Val-Ala-Val, IKVAV) and the influence its inclusion in the bioink would have on the bile duct cells. Laminin is a molecule necessary for cell adhesion, and after bioprinting, the bile duct cells remained viable in vitro. Staining revealed the formation of functional bile-cell-based tube structures; when cultured in IKVAV bioink, the structures showed enhanced morphology, forming functional tubular structures.

This is the first time that a bioink-based system supplemented with PAs was used for bile duct tissue engineering. The research shows a lot of promise; the bioprinted bile ducts as well as in vitro systems created with the bioinks have the potential to be valuable for research into bile duct cancer as well as the testing of treatments. Right now, bile duct cancer is a grave diagnosis to receive, but the enhanced research that could be made possible by this work offers hope for better understanding and more effective treatments.

As a next step, the researchers now want to optimize the peptide concentration and test other signaling molecules within the bioinks to enhance the formation of functional tubular structures that mimic those found in the liver.

Additional authors of the research paper include P.L. Lewis and R.N. Shah.

[Source: Physics World]

3D Printing Makes it Rain in Touring Theatrical Production

In Stijn Devillé’s Gesprek met de Regen, which translates to “Conversation with the Rain,” a couple grieves the loss of their daughter during the monsoon season in Singapore. The play’s setting required a lot of rain, which is a challenge in a theatre, but the theatre company Het Nieuwstedelijk worked closely with KU Leuven and Materialise to not only create rain, but to do it in an extremely artistic way.

KU Leuven student Arne Broeders designed the rain machine for his Master’s thesis in Industrial Engineering: Electronics and ICT. 8.5 meters long and spanning the entire length of the stage, the machine not only creates indoor rainfall but also creates images, patterns and words in the water – somewhat similarly to a Spanish art installation created a couple of years ago. Broeders developed the software program that would allow the images to appear, along with designing and building the machine itself.

The machine needed to be constructed in a way that would allow it to be lightweight and easy to move between venues. Techniques like CNC milling would have created a machine that was much too heavy to be hung up in a theatre, as well as too expensive. So Broeders turned to 3D printing, which allowed him to integrate the internal channels right into the rain machine’s design. Materialise advised the designer on the best method of 3D printing for the project, which turned out to be Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), thanks to its ability to 3D print complex designs at low cost.

Materialise’s Design and Engineering team also helped Broeders alter the design to create a more open structure, reducing material costs and allowing for more thorough removal of unused powder. The file was then prepared with Materialise Magics software.

“After a few test prints on the campus, we realized we had to move towards larger entities which were completely sealed, which wasn’t possible with FDM,” said Broeders. “That’s how we ended up with Materialise, the only company around Leuven capable of printing plastic on an industrial scale. They advised us about using the Laser Sintering technique and the results were amazing; the entire structure was watertight and our valves were easily able to operate the nozzles.”

Actors Tom Van Bauwel and Sara Vertongen

The final product was employed to impressive effect, releasing rain down onto the stage and revealing brightly lit words and images rendered in water. In a way, the rain machine is itself a printer, releasing water in pre-programmed shapes to form fleeting but memorable works of art. It likely would not have been feasible to create such a machine without 3D printing, which allowed it to be lightweight, inexpensive, and built in the complex geometry that was required. Broeders’ design won the Leuven MindGate Crossover Contest and will be touring with the play across Europe, showing audiences another example of how 3D printing intersects with art. In addition to seeing a moving story, audiences will be treated to the best of technology.

Gesprek met de Regen premiered in Genk, Belgium on May 30th and will be touring all over Europe.

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

[Source: Materialise/Images: Katrijn Van Giel]

Tax Credit Aspects of 3D Printed Ice Cream, Cones and Gelato

Among dessert items, ice cream ranks one of the most popular frozen treats in the United States. Over the past several years, the ice cream industry has consistently produced well over 1 billion gallons of ice cream each year with the average person consuming 6 gallons yearly. The ice cream industry, for the most part, uses traditional methods for making ice cream; however, the recent rise of 3D printing in the food industry has allowed for 3D printed ice cream, cones, and gelato to break through. New 3D printing methods being utilized by chefs, engineers, and businesses have allowed for new food products to be developed, creating opportunities for valuable R&D Tax Credits.

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.

Robots in Gastronomy

Robots in Gastronomy is a Barcelona-based research group specializing in additive manufacturing for food products. The group created a 3D printer called the FoodForm that is capable of printing soft-serve ice cream in simple shapes such as a star, a swirled circle, and other shapes. The FoodForm can print delicate ice cream treats with a high rate of precision and is even capable of catering to personalized and custom treats.

Pixsweet

Pixsweet is a Los Angeles-based company focused on customizing and personalizing nearly anything into a 3D printed popsicle. Pixsweet began using 3D printing as a way to supply local stores with options that can be both affordable and more original than the average ice cream snack. The company uses their own 3D printing technology to combine raw food materials with virtually any image found online to create a charming and tasty frozen treat.

MELT

MELT is a new company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands focused on creating the Icepop Generator 3D printer for specially designed on-site ice creams. The idea behind the 3D printer development is that it can be used at festivals and events where visitors can draw up their own design, at which point the Icepop Generator 3D printer will drill a sculpture into a block of ice. The unique 3D printer is actually a CNC machine that features a built-in glass freezer to allow full visibility of how the ice cream is made.

Drip Drop

Drip Drop is a Denver startup that uses 3D printing to develop molds for a one of a kind ice cream cone. The Drip Drop cone is a circular ice cream cone to prevent excessive dripping from frozen treats. Drip Drop is working with mold manufacturers and 3D printers to develop silicone templates of the cone, soon to be available for wholesale and retail across the country.

Dream Pops

Dream Pops is a Los Angeles-based company that deploys all-natural ingredients for ice cream into 3D printing to create a delicious and nutritional popsicle. Dream Pops consistently strives to develop new popsicle designs never before seen and enlist the help of an Ultimaker 2 3D printer, which creates the unique silicone molds that will form the ice cream.

Conclusion

The future of 3D printing looks increasingly brighter as the use of additive manufacturing is expanding into numerous fields, especially the culinary industry. Companies are adopting 3D printing techniques and adding their own innovation to further drive the seemingly endless possibilities provided by 3D printing. Continuous experimentation has brought incredible culinary results as now even real ice cream is capable of being produced along with a plethora of other complex foods with the potential to change our entire food landscape and how we think about food.

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 3D printed ice cream.

Siemens Releases Solid Edge 2019, Packed with New Tools and Updated Features

Siemens has been delivering its Solid Edge software for several years now, enabling engineers and designers to create in CAD/CAE easily yet professionally. The company has now introduced the latest iteration of the software, Solid Edge 2019, and it reliably includes plenty of new features as well as upgrades to existing ones, in categories including mechanical design, electrical design, manufacturing, simulation, technical publications, and data management.

Users can now reverse engineer imported objects and take advantage of new features such as convergent modeling, generative design, and advanced flow simulation. An impressive array of PCB design tools are also included.

“The global market requirement to develop and deliver increasingly complex products in shrinking timeframes has created many new challenges for our customers, as well as new opportunities to differentiate,” said John Miller, Senior Vice President, Mainstream Engineering, Siemens PLM Software. “I’m confident that the integration of leading technologies and the next-generation design capabilities delivered in the Solid Edge 2019 portfolio will empower our customers to innovate in the new era of digitalization.”

New tools are available for convergent modeling, allowing engineers to incorporate mesh models directly into their workflows. The tools also support milling, casting and molding of generative designs, so that users can model and simulate the entire process, not just the final product. On the electrical engineering side of things, Solid Edge Wiring Design offers design tools that can be used to rapidly create and verify the flow of wiring through electrical systems.

Solid Edge Harness Design adds harness and formboard design using automated part selection, verification and report generation. In addition, Solid Edge PCB design enables the intuitive creation and schematic capture of printed circuit board layouts, including sketch routing, hierarchical 2D/3D planning, and ECAD-MCAD collaboration.

Solid Edge CAM Pro is a new system that allows users to program CNC machine tools, and supports both simple NC programming and high-speed, multi-axis machining. On the additive manufacturing side of things, automated print and color preparation allow designs to be sent directly to the 3D printer. Multi-color and multi-material 3D printing are both supported.

P&ID Design and Solid Edge Piping Design tools offer improved modeling, simulation, and automated placement of piping systems. These systems allow for automated 3D piping design and fully automated isometric drawing output for plant design. There is also a 3D parts library included. These tools, according to Siemens, can help reduce design errors and ensure efficient piping design in the oil and gas industries.

General improvements include better control over shapes, weight and strength. Free cloud-based collaboration tools are included as well, allowing users to work in real time from anywhere with browser-based access to CAD files.

You can learn more about the new features here, as well as check out buying options. Several discount bundles are available at the moment, for a limited time.

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

[Source: Graphic Speak/Images: Siemens]

Using 3D Printing to Sample the Ocean Floor

When we think of biodiversity, we may think of forests with wildly differing species of birds, insects and other animals, or seas with wide varieties of fish. Sometimes biodiversity is easily visible in these larger species, but often it can only be measured on a very small scale. Dr. Matthew Cannon, a research associate in the lab of Dr. David Serre at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Institute for Genome Sciences, is interested in measuring biodiversity using DNA from environmental samples such as fresh or marine water, sediments or soils.

The analysis of environmental DNA, or eDNA, is an effective technique of measuring biodiversity. Organisms living in a particular area can be identified and characterized by the cells and hair they leave behind, or their decaying remains, all of which contain DNA and can reveal to scientists the types of creatures that are present in any given location. Special tools are required for this kind of analysis, especially for the type of work that Dr. Cannon wants to do, which involves taking samples from deep underwater locations.

Methods of sampling eDNA from deep underwater locations are limited by the volume of water that can be collected, or because of potential contamination from surface water. The possibilities presented by collection of eDNA from these deep-water locations are intriguing, however, because a single sample can give researchers an idea of the total biodiversity of a site without direct organism sampling. These locations are difficult to explore; traditional methods such as collecting samples in trawl nets or expeditions with remotely operated vehicles are expensive and can miss organisms that can’t be captured by a net or that avoid the lights of a rover.

Therefore, Dr. Cannon wanted to explore alternative options for deep-water eDNA sampling. He designed and 3D printed a device that houses a water filter and pump, controlled by an Arduino, that can collect samples at any depth. The device allows for the collection of large samples, limited only by filtering time.

“3-D printing is allowing us to develop a prototype water sampler that might not have been practical to imagine or design a few years ago,” Dr. Cannon said.

Dr. Cannon used the 3D printer at the Health Sciences/Human Services Library Innovation Space to create his prototype, which he is now testing to ensure that the parts work well together. It only takes a few hours to 3D print each prototype, allowing him to quickly develop new iterations.

The University of Maryland prioritizes technological advancement; towards the end of last year the university opened a new center dedicated to bioengineering, and was one of the earlier schools to open a MakerBot Innovation Center. The school is responsible for some advanced 3D printing-related research, and Dr. Cannon’s work will put the university on the map once again for its use of technology to gain new insight into areas that have previously been unexplored.

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[Source/Images: University of Maryland]