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3D Printing News Briefs, June 10, 2020: 3D Systems, nTopology, Jellypipe

We’re discussing an upcoming event and some business news in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs. 3D Systems is holding a virtual trade show next month. nTopology and Yamaichi have signed an agreement, and a 3D printing platform has announced the onboarding of Europe’s largest purchasing and marketing association for industrial B2B.

3D Systems Holding Virtual Trade Show

On Wednesday, July 8, 2020, 3D Systems will be holding an exclusive virtual trade show centered on helping manufacturers keep their competitive advantage by using digital manufacturing solutions to fix supply chain dependencies, streamline supplier distribution, reduce supply interruptions, and lower risk. By integrating both additive and subtractive technologies into the environment, businesses can improve their productivity and agility, and offer customers new innovations. 3D Systems’ own Phil Schultz, Executive Vice President, Operations, and Radhika Krishnan, Executive Vice President and General Manager – Software, will give the keynote address for the event.

“Phil Schultz and Radhika Krishnan outline the essence of agile manufacturing, explaining in practical terms how to transform your environment to deliver a digital end-to-end manufacturing workflow that is fit for today and perfect for tomorrow.”

The event will kick off at 9:30 am EST and, in addition to the keynote, will include live webinar presentations and a virtual exhibit hall. Register here. If you’re unavailable to attend on the day of, the virtual trade show will be available on demand for the 30 days following the event.

nTopology and Yamaichi Sign MoU

Software startup nTopology has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Yamaichi Special Steel (YSS) to bring its next-generation nTop software platform to Japan. YSS is part of the automotive and heavy industry manufacturing supply chain in Japan, and its additive division promotes 3D printing and DfAM in the aerospace, automotive, and medical industries. The two have set up a reseller and service agreement, where YSS will bring nTop to its Japanese customers, providing support and training to users. Then, the Cognitive Additive solution of YSS will be connected to the nTop platform, to help users predict cost and printability.

To kick off the partnership, the YSS Additive Manufacturing team used topology optimization to redesign a brake caliper. As the part is used in a high temperature and fatigue environment, YSS designed a TPMS-based heat exchanger for the caliper, and also added an oil circuit and shielding surfaces. The brake caliper was 3D printed out of aluminum alloy AlSi10 using laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) technology.

Jellypipe Onboards PVH Future LAB and E/D/E

German 3D printing platform Jellypipe uses its Jellypipe Eco-system to help companies take their 3D business to the next level, and features a comprehensive marketplace and the largest 3D printing factory in the D-A-CH region. Now, it’s announced the onboarding of PVH Future LAB, an innovation platform for technology-driven business models, and Einkaufsbüro Deutscher Eisenhändler GmbH (E/D/E), which drives PVH and is the largest purchasing and marketing association for industrial B2B in Europe. Both will now connect to the Jellypipe Eco-system.

“With Jellypipe’s 3D ecosystem – the connection with 3D specialists and our partners is a most important step in the digital automation and supply of 3D printed parts,” said Thilo Brocksch and Frederik Diergarten, both General Managers at PVH FUTURE LAB GmbH. “We can now offer our customers a new and wide process range for 3D printed products.”

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

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3D Hubs Announces $18 Million in Funding and New Dedicated US Office

Less than a year after 3D Hubs turned five and outlined its new strategy to become “a full-blown manufacturing platform,” the company turned away from its community 3D printing roots and announced that it would only be working with professional service bureaus to fulfill orders. This meant that if community members didn’t qualify as a Manufacturing Partner based on their order history, they were out of luck, as the company was becoming completely focused on B2B.

“2018 was the year in which we turned 3D Hubs from a 3D printing peer-to-peer marketplace into a B2B platform for all digital production, taking pivotal steps towards our automated and distributed manufacturing mission,” 3D Hubs CEO and Co-Founder Bram de Zwart wrote in a biannual update to his LinkedIn contacts.

“Since 3D Hubs had become the world’s largest peer-to-peer marketplace for 3D printing, it was a dificult decision in early 2018 to transition to a turnkey B2B manufacturing platform and even harder to pull it off. But with last years’ revenue tripling and $18 Million in new funding we couldn’t be more excited about this new strategy and 3D Hubs its future!”

Bram de Zwart

While there were obviously a lot of hurt feelings in the wake of this announcement, the company seems to be doing pretty well for itself after this decision. Yesterday, 3D Hubs announced that it had received $18 million in Series C funding, which will be used to help “build the future of on-demand manufacturing” and increase development of its online platform, among other important things.

One item the funds will be used for is rapidly expanding its team in the US, which is the company’s largest market with over 10,000 clients. So 3D Hubs will be opening a dedicated US office to best serve these customers, and is now trying to determine where the office will be located.

“For the new office location we’re currently deciding between Chicago, Minneapolis and Boston, cities that are deeply rooted in manufacturing and have great connectivity to the rest of the country and to Amsterdam,” de Zwart wrote.

Speaking of Amsterdam, 3D Hubs will be expanding its team there, and in the US, over the next few months. In an effort to grow from 65 employees to over 100, the company is currently hiring for a number of positions, including Business Develop Representative and Director of Sales.

3D Hubs made a lot of investments last year in automating some of the most important manufacturing process features, such as design validation, quoting, and smart order routing. Now, leveraging the data from 2 million produced parts, the company’s platform can instantly provide accurate quotes for 98% of its customer requests for services such as CNC machining, injection molding, and 3D printing. In addition, 93% of its order are automatically sourced through the supplier network, so that customers receive their parts twice as fast.

3D Hubs also expanded its popular quarterly trend report by including industry specials. For instance, the Q1 2019 edition takes a look at how the automotive industry is adopting digital manufacturing.

The company is also helping to educate the rest of the world about digital manufacturing, and has been busy developing new content that can better explain the benefits of this technology, and how best to design for digital manufacturing.

In fact, one of the recent efforts is actually working to turn some of the chapters in the company’s 3D printing handbook, which was published in 2017, into helpful video tutorials on its YouTube channel.

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

[Images: 3D Hubs]

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3D Printing News Briefs: September 22, 2018

In today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, we’ve got the speaker lineup for next month’s NAMIC Global Additive Manufacturing Summit in Singapore. Prusa and Cincinnati Incorporated are both releasing new 3D printing materials, and 3D Center is collaborating with 3YOURMIND to launch a 3D printing platform for the Scandinavian market. A British car manufacturer turns to Stratasys 3D printing for prototyping purposes, and a student used reverse engineering and 3D printing to redesign a Nintendo 64 joystick system.

2018 NAMIC Global Additive Manufacturing Summit Speakers

On October 17th and 18th, the 2018 Global Additive Manufacturing Summit, conducted by Singapore’s National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (NAMIC), will be held, and co-located as part of Industrial Transformation ASIA-PACIFIC. Hosted by NTUitive, the summit, which is said to be the country’s largest gathering of additive manufacturing experts, will highlight key AM opportunities and developments in multiple applications, such as aerospace, automotive, biomedical, building and construction, marine, and transportation.

This is the last week to purchase your ticket at the early bird rates. After seeing the line-up of speakers coming to the event, this is an event you definitely won’t want to miss. Some of the speakers include Dr. Behrang Poorganji, the Head of Materials Development for GE Additive: Apis Cor’s Anna Cheniuntai, R&D and Business Development; Kelvin Wee, the APAC Sales Director for Materialise; and Professor Paul C. Ho, with the Department of Pharmacy at the National University of Singapore. You can register for the 2018 NAMIC Global Additive Manufacturing Summit here.

Prusa Releasing In-House 3D Printing Filament

Fresh off the multi-material upgrade for its Prusa i3 MK3/MK2.5, Prusa has more good news – this week, the company released its new filament, Prusament, which is made entirely in-house. CEO and Founder, Josef Průša, said that the company was not happy with the over-exaggerated quality and specs that “most filament companies claim but don’t deliver,” which continued to cause its users to have issues poor print quality and jams.

“So we built a factory and just started to sell our own filament,” Průša told 3DPrint.com. “It took us over a year but we have something pretty special. We guarantee 20µm precision and every spool is traceable on our website, where you can see the full inspection report. I believe we are the only one to do this and hope to set a precedent.”

Check out the sample spool of Prusament for yourself – you’ll see that Prusa isn’t messing around.

Cincinnati Incorporated Launches New Carbon Fiber Material

Cincinnati Incorporated has developed a new material for its SAAM that is ideal for custom tooling and fixture applications. The carbon fiber resin creates a high strength-to-weight ratio and superior surface finishes.

Another company with a new 3D printing material launch this week is Cincinnati Incorporated (CI) – it just released a new carbon fiber resin material for its SAAM (Small Area Additive Manufacturing) 3D printing system. Because it’s been reinforced with carbon fiber, the lightweight, impact-resistant material is durable, stiff, and has low warping, along with accurate parts featuring advanced inter-layer adhesion results. It also has excellent surface finish, making it a good choice for applications in assembly, CMM, CNC fixtures, custom tooling, and has a very high strength-to-weight ratio.

 

 

 

Morgan Motor Company Turns to Stratasys 3D Printing for Prototyping

Family-owned British motor car manufacturer Morgan Motor Company is no stranger to 3D printing, and recently turned to the technology again for help with prototyping on the factory floor. In order to get rid of the endless talks with suppliers and lower the time to market, the company, which manufactures roughly 1,000 vehicles per year, invested in a Stratasys Fortus 250mc from Tri-Tech 3D, a Stratasys reseller in the UK.

“Since the introduction of 3D printing, using the Stratasys Fortus 250mc, Morgan have been able to try more daring designs within research and development,” said Tom Morris, a CAD technician with Morgan Motor Company. “It’s given us the opportunity to take these designs, trial them early on, giving us physical samples, which essentially cuts out the whole quoting process of liaising with suppliers, delivering these parts back to Morgan. Morgan are a low volume vehicle manufacturer, so the ability to be able to design parts on CAD, 3D print them, and take them to the shop floor at a very quick rate is vital to our success as a business.”

Watch the video below to learn more:

Fixing Nintendo 64 Joystick with Reverse Engineering and 3D Printing

California Polytechnic (Cal Poly) student and retro video gaming fan Nam Le was tired of having to find replacement controller joysticks for Nintendo 64 systems – a common problem many Nintendo fans have dealt with. So he took matters into his own hands, and contacted 3D Hubs for help fixing the problem. Le ended up reverse engineering the nearly 20-year-old components, 3D printing them, and redesigning the entire joystick system. It took him three months to disassemble the original controller, measure the components, and design them in CAD – a very impressive task, as he’d only ever taken a basic 3D modeling introduction class.

He determined that the joystick’s whole assembly would wear down over time, causing part failure, and designed the new components so that they were very sturdy and easy to replace. Le 3D printed the gear teeth and housing with Visijet M3 Crystal material, and 3D Hubs manufactured his redesigned joystick out of Nylon PA12 material on an HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D printer.

“Generally, harder materials won’t be worn by materials of a lower hardness,” Le explained about his material choice. “The result is having only one part wear compared to every old component wearing. Every once in a while the stick will have to be replaced, but it takes a longer time to wear and is a better cheap alternative than buying a new controller.”

Six months in, Le’s 3D printed prototype joystick controller shows no signs of breaking.

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