composites Archives - Perfect 3D Printing Filament

3DPOD Episode 32: Tuan TranPham, Arevo

Tuan is known universally by his first name alone. Like Madonna and Beyonce, everyone knows hi by just that one name. In Tuan’s case his fame is 3D printing specific and stems from his long history in 3D printing. Tuan has been working in our industry for over 17 years. Having started at color binder jetting company ZCorp, he later worked for 3D Systems, then Objet; he went over to Stratasys, when that was acquired, then on to Arcam (GE Additive). Later on, he moved to Desktop Metal and, now, he is with AREVO.

Because AREVO 3D prints composites and has now released a composite 3D printed bicycle, we spoke a bit about that on our most recent episode of 3DPOD. But, Tuan also addressed his career and new emerging technologies. We talked about 3D printing constraints and futures. We also spoke of sales, how sales in 3D printing works, and how Tuan sells. We spoke of new business models and new markets also. A candid Tuan talked about where he thinks that the industry is headed, as well. Both Max and I really enjoyed speaking with Tuan and gleaning from his insights into the industry. Give it a listen and tell us what you think.

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Fortify Expands Composites 3D Printing with Continuous Kinetic Mixing System

Fortify is one of a number of startups that are developing unique technologies for 3D printing composites. While we await the commercial release of the company’s digital light processing (DLP) system for 3D printing composite materials, Fortify has released more information about when that release is to come, along with news of a new product, its Continuous Kinetic Mixing (CKM) system.

Fortify’s Fluxprint method upgrades traditional DLP technology through the use of a proprietary magnetic system. As illustrated in the video below, Fluxprint relies on printing with resins loaded with reinforcement material (e.g., fibers, ceramics, metals) that have been coated in a magnetic material. During the printing process, a magnet within Fortify’s printer orients these materials in an optimized manner depending on the application. By combining the embedded additives with the proper orientation, the technology can improve strength, stiffness, toughness, wear, and heat deflection temperature, and electrical properties

The CKM system is a material mixing module that ensures that the additives within loaded photopolymers are uniformly distributed while preventing sedimentation and aggregation. While this module will be unique to Fortify’s 3D printers, this sort of technology may be crucial to any sort of vat photopolymerization 3D printer that uses loaded resins. We’ve covered stories about a variety of photopolymers with specialty additives. Perhaps a similar mixing process could facilitate their printing and increase the adoption of such materials.

With the CKM announcement, Fortify has also stated that it is expanding its printing and manufacturing capacity with the goal of shipping its first printers to select customers this summer. Up until now, the company has been printing parts for customers, specifically for the production of tooling for injection molding applications.

A part printed by Fortify used for injection molding.

Through the use of proprietary ceramic reinforcement materials, Fortify has been able to print molds with complex geometries and enhanced physical properties for plastic injection molding. The company has since expanded this capability to metal injection molding (MIM), blending ceramic fibers with resin to create parts that can weather the extreme heat and pressure of MIM.

Chris Aiello, Technical Sales Manager at Alpha Precision Group, said of this new capability, “For years our customers have been asking us for a better way to prototype parts with our production metal injection molding process. Speed, dimensional accuracy, and production intent processes are critical for our customer’s development efforts. Fortify finally showed us a tooling solution that holds up to our MIM process, and checks all the boxes for our customers requirements.”

It’s interesting to note that Fortify is framing the CKM system as a module, as is the case for its Flexprint “fiber alignment module”. We’ll have to see how the modularity of Fortif’s products affects the company’s business and technological strategy. This could mean the need to purchase or lease specific modules separately from the printer itself. Or it could mean that Foritfy plans to release a number of interesting modules over time that may be swapped or included into a broad portfolio of printing systems intended by the startup.

The concept of modularity for tech products is a potentially exciting one, as it makes it possible to upgrade hardware more easily, without completely replacing or overhauling the entire machine. When it comes to consumer goods, modularity has been struggling. Google shelved its modular smartphone and Nascent Objects was acquired by Facebook before we could see if its modular electronics would get off the ground.

For industrial products and individual subcomponents, hardware modules may be easier to pull-off. Swappable printheads, for instance, are common. We’re still awaiting some of the hardware modules related to quality assurance and automation alluded to by Origin when it first unveiled its programmable photopolymerization process. Carbon also said that it would be developing modular hardware to interface with Carbon Connectors built into its equipment. When and if modular hardware becomes a thing has yet to be seen, but if it does, it could have an important impact on the disposability/obsolescence mindset currently exhibited by tech companies.

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Siemens and CEAD Develop Hybrid 3D Printing Robotic Arm

3D printing with continuous reinforcement fibers, like carbon fiber, is just now starting to come into its own, with numerous startups developing their own unique approaches to the concept. Their presence on the market is a different story, as many of these firms are still in the R&D or beta stages. Dutch firm CEAD, however, is already in the process of building and shipping its massive reinforcement fiber 3D printers and has already developed, in partnership with Siemens, a follow-up system that it will be showcasing at Formnext 2019: the AM Flexbot.

You may have caught our previous coverage of CEAD and its Continuous Fiber Additive Manufacturing (CFAM) process. The company’s first printer, the CFAM Prime, has a massive build envelope of 4mx2mx1.5m and is, according to CEAD, able to print thermoplastics reinforced with continuous glass or carbon fiber at a rapid average rate of 15 kg/hr. To maintain precision while depositing at such speeds, the system is controlled by Siemens’ Sinumerik 840D sl.

The firm’s new technology, the AM Flexbot, extends CEAD’s partnership with Siemens, resulting in a 3D printing process that uses a large-scale industrial robotic arm as a motion platform. The system features CEAD’s single screw extruder unit mounted onto a Comau robotic arm, all controlled by Siemens’ Sinumerik CNC with Run MyRobot /Direct Control software. For clarification: the AM Flexbot does not perform continuous fiber reinforcement.

CEAD parts for a small pedestrian bridge the company is making.

CEAD turned to Comau and Sinumerik Run MyRobot/Direct Control in order to maintain the precision necessary to accurately deposit the material to near-net-shape before milling parts to completion. The AM Flexbot is now available for purchase, but CEAD is aiming to expand its feature set. If the system can both 3D print and mill, it’s possible to imagine what additional capabilities it might have. This could include performing quality control metrology once a print has been completed, using robotic grippers to add external components, or working in tandem with other robotic arms to create even larger structures.

CEAD co-founder and Operations Director Lucas Janssen said of the product, “By using Siemens’ Sinumerik Run MyRobot /Direct Control together with a Comau robot arm in our latest solution, we are able to deliver a modular system scalable to fit our customer’s needs as many different functions can be added at any time. We are very pleased to work with Siemens and their reliable products.”

CEAD is not alone in the fiber reinforcement or robotic arm space. In terms of the former, companies like AREVO, Impossible Objects, Markforged, Desktop Metal, Anisoprint, and Continuous Composites are just a few who are either working on fiber reinforcement 3D printing or have commercial products readily available. For robotic arms, 3D Systems, MX3D, Stratasys, and EnvisionTEC are only the commercial companies who are either working on 3D printing with robotic arms or have solutions commercially available. In both spaces, there are countless research projects being performed, so CEAD will find itself with plenty of company in the near future.

The AM Flexbot will be on display at the Siemens booth (D81, Hall 12.1) at Formnext 2019, but if you don’t catch it there, Siemens will also be including a CEAD 3D printing system at its Additive Manufacturing Experience Center (AMEC) in Erlangen, Germany.

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Beijing University of Chemical Technology: 3D Printed HA/PCL Tissue Engineering Scaffolds

3D printed bone scaffolds used for tissue engineering purposes need to have a good amount of mechanical strength, since the scaffold needs to be able to provide support for the tissue. As bone scaffolds also require the correct pore structure to help provide a good environment for the differentiation, proliferation, and repairing of damaged tissue cells, bioactive materials, such as polycaprolactone (PCL) and hydroxyapatite (HA), are needed.

Researchers Zhiwei Jiao, Bin Luo, Shengyi Xiang, Haopeng Ma, Yuan Yu, and Weimin Yang, from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT), published a paper, titled “3D printing of HA / PCL composite tissue engineering scaffolds,” about their work constructing nano-HA/PCL and micro-HA/PCL tissue engineering scaffolds using the melt differential FDM 3D printer they developed.

The abstract reads, “Here, the internal structure and mechanical properties of the hydroxyapatite/polycaprolactone scaffolds, prepared by fused deposition modeling (FDM) technique, were explored. Using hydroxyapatite (HA) and polycaprolactone (PCL) as raw materials, nano-HA/PCL and micro-HA/PCL that composite with 20 wt% HA were prepared by melt blending technology, and HA/PCL composite tissue engineering scaffolds were prepared by self-developed melt differential FDM 3D printer. From the observation under microscope, it was found that the prepared nano-HA/PCL and micro-HA/PCL tissue engineering scaffolds have uniformly distributed and interconnected nearly rectangular pores. By observing the cross-sectional view of the nano-HA/PCL scaffold and the micro-HA/PCL scaffold, it is known that the HA particles in the nano-HA/PCL scaffold are evenly distributed and the HA particles in the micro-HA/PCL scaffold are agglomerated, which attribute nano-HA/PCL scaffolds with higher tensile strength and flexural strength than the micro-HA/PCL scaffolds. The tensile strength and flexural strength of the nano-HA/PCL specimens were 23.29 MPa and 21.39 MPa, respectively, which were 26.0% and 33.1% higher than those of the pure PCL specimens. Therefore, the bioactive nano-HA/PCL composite scaffolds prepared by melt differential FDM 3D printers should have broader application prospects in bone tissue engineering.”

Melt differential 3D printer.

PCL is biocompatible, biodegradable, and has shape retention properties, which is why it’s often used to fabricate stents. But on the other hand, due to an insufficient amount of bioactivity, the material is not great for use in bone tissue engineering. HA, which has been used successfully as a bone substitute material, has plenty of bioactivity, which is why combining it with PCL can work for bone tissue engineering scaffolds.

“On the whole, the existing tissue engineering scaffolds preparation process have problems of low HA content, easy agglomeration, low stent strength, and single printing material,” the researchers explained.

“The HA/PCL composite particles are used as printing materials, and the mechanical properties and structural characteristics of the two tissue engineering scaffolds are compared and analyzed. The raw material of the melt differential 3D printer is pellets, which eliminates the step of drawing compared to a conventional FDM type 3D printer. The 3D printer is melt-extruded with a screw, and a micro-screw is used for conveying and building pressure. At the same time, precise measurement is performed by a valve control system. This printing method shows advantages in simple preparation process of the composite material, higher degree of freedom in material selection, simple printing process, and shorter preparation cycle of tissue engineering scaffolds.”

The team mixed PCL particles and HA powder together to make the scaffolds. Their melt differential 3D printer uses pellets, and features a fixed nozzle with a platform that moves in three directions. A twin-screw extrusion granulator was used to prepare the PCL material, and the melt differential 3D printer fabricated the tissue engineering scaffolds out of the nano-HA/PCL and micro-HA/PCL composite particles.

The working principle diagram of the polymer melt differential 3D printer.

A microcomputer-controlled electronic universal testing machine was used to test the scaffolds’ bending and tensile properties. A scanning electron microscope was used to observe the micro-HA particle size, as well as the scaffolds’ cross section, while an optical microscope was used to observe their surface structure and a transmission microscope was used to look at the nano-HA particles’ particle diameter and morphology. The scaffold material’s crystallization properties were analyzed using a differential thermal analyzer.

3D printing tissue engineering scaffolds.

Testing showed that the micro-HA was spherical, with a 5–40 μm diameter, and contained some irregularly-shaped debris. The nano-HA was rod-shaped, with a 20–150 nm length.

The crystallization peak temperature of the HA/PCL composites was higher than pure PCL material, because adding HA caused its molecular chain to form a nucleate after absorbing on the HA’s surface. Additionally, adding HA to pure PCL increased the material’s melting temperature, as the latter material had crystals “of varying degrees of perfection.”

The nano-HA/PCL and micro-HA/PCL tissue engineering scaffolds “could form a pre-designed pore structure and the pores were connected to each other,” which is seen in the image below.

“…the micro-HA/PCL and the nano-HA/PCL composite tissue engineering scaffolds can form a three-dimensional pore structure with uniform distribution and approximately rectangular shape.”

External views of micro-HA/PCL and nano-HA/PCL composite tissue engineering scaffolds.

These rectangular pores, with a 100-500 μm length and width, are good news for cell adhesion and proliferation, and the fact that they’re interconnected is positive for nutrient supply.

As for mechanical properties, the nano-HA/PCL specimens had the highest tensile and bending strengths – between 25 and 35% higher than the pure PCL. The micro-HA/PCL specimens had higher tensile and flexural strengths than the PCL, but the nano-HA/PCL was stronger than the micro-HA/PCL, because the HA’s modulus is higher than the PCL’s.

“In addition, nano-HA was more evenly distributed in the composite, while micro-HA had obvious agglomeration in the composite, so the tensile strength and flexural strength of nano-HA/PCL specimens were higher than that of micro-HA/PCL specimens,” the researchers wrote.

Finally, the pore structure of the nano-HA/PCL and micro-HA/PCL tissue engineering scaffolds offered a favorable environment for the discharge of cellular metabolic waste, in addition to facilitating nutrient transport and blood vessel growth. The researchers concluded that their 3D printed composite scaffolds had more potential applications in bone tissue engineering.

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The post Beijing University of Chemical Technology: 3D Printed HA/PCL Tissue Engineering Scaffolds appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

New 3D printed tooling from ExOne simplifies creation of industrial composite parts

Composite materials, such as those reinforced by carbon and glass fibers are invaluable to the production of high-performance components for automotive, aerospace and defense sectors. Though frequently made using more conventional methods, additive manufacturing is proving valuable when more complex, or hollow, carbon fiber components are required. For hollow composite material components, the challenge is […]

Acoustically Assembled Multidimensional Filler Networks 3D Printed Polymer Composites for Thermal Management

In ‘3D-printed polymer composites with acoustically assembled multidimensional filler networks for accelerated heat dissipation,’ authors Lu Lu, Zhifeng Zhang, Jie Xu, and Yayue Pa explore a new technique for printing composites with filler that could eliminate overheating in electronics. Part of the challenge for the researchers in this project was in thermal management and finding a balance in filler loading.

With acoustic field-assisted projection stereolithography, the research team focused on using just a small amount of filler to create a network of heat-diverting paths. This work could be critical to a variety of different applications, as many electronics are overloaded due to heating and may fail completely; in fact, the researchers include data from a U.S. Air Force survey reporting that over half of their issues with electronics are due to overheating. These problems need to be solved, in military applications especially, but also in other fields centered around chipsets, wearables, and flexible electronics.

Acoustic Field Assisted Projection Stereolithography (A-PSL) setup

Polymer composites are ‘promising’ due to their conductive qualities, along with being insulating and flexible. The traditional method involves mixing fillers in the matrix, with some success in adding ‘heavy filler loading.’ Historically, however, this has led to problems such as:

Clogging
Difficulty in mixing
Agglomeration
Trouble in filler embedding
Limited manipulation of filler distribution
Orientation issues

“Additionally, the manufactured composites with heavy filler loading usually suffer from insufficient binding, mechanical deterioration, and thermal expansion coefficient mismatch,” state the researchers. “The disordered distribution of fillers limits thermal performance enhancement due to the phonon scattering between isolated fillers.”

a. Photograph of parallel filler line pattern in liquid resin; SEM images of b.The uniform composite, c. The patterned composite, d. Acoustically assembled filler microstructure in cross-sectional view. (Filler: aluminum powder).

3D printing offers better results in alignment and orientation, but also allows for multi-material fabrication. Here, the researchers see the potential for superior performance with their acoustic-field-based filler manipulation technique, including the following features:

Filler distribution controls
Lack of manufacturing restrictions
No filler shape or property requirements

The module is made up of electro-piezo elements, a function generator, and an amplifier.

“A function generator provides the sinusoidal signal with adjustable frequency and voltage. This signal is applied to the electro-piezo element after amplified. The piezo element actuation leads to structural deformation of the PET film, which subsequently induces an acoustic field in the filler-resin suspension. The acoustic radiation force drives fillers to the pressure nodes of the acoustic field to form a pattern,” state the researchers.

The team created five different composites, P1-P5, with the three patterned composites (P2, P3, P4) exhibiting better performance due to their 3D particle assembly networks—causing the researchers to state that the samples ‘proved the effects’ of filler assembly in regard to the new composite and technique.

a. Schematics of unit layers. b. Photograph of a printed sample P-1 and its microscopic images. c. Schematics of different filler distribution patterns and the microscopic images of fabricated samples in side views.

“By controlling the manufacturing parameters, such as the layer thickness and the projection mask, multidimensional filler networks formed,” concluded the researchers. “Multidirectional heat transfer paths provided by multidimensional filler networks accelerate the cooling process in the isolated polymer matrix. With the same feedstock or even the same number of particles filled in the polymer matrix, the patterned composites are superior to the uniform composite with significantly higher heat dissipation efficiencies.

“Future work will be to quantify the relationship of composite functionality with particle pattern design parameters.”

Composites are accentuating the realm of 3D printing materials as users in research, development, engineering, and industrial settings around the world seek better ways to make prototypes and products, including bioprinting structures—from graphene reinforced nanocomposites to wood composites and chitosan-gelatin hydrogels.

Find out more about 3D printing polymer composites for electronics here. What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.

[Source / Images: ‘3D-printed polymer composites with acoustically assembled multidimensional filler networks for accelerated heat dissipation’]

Illustration of the cooling experiment.

Istanbul: Thesis Student Explores Continuous Fiber Composites in FDM 3D Printing

Although polymers are still the most popular materials used in 3D printing today, many users find themselves limited due to issues with inferior strength and rigidity. Creating composites is a good way to solve these problems, allowing manufacturers to enjoy the benefits of existing plastics while reinforcing them for better performance. In ‘Modelling and path planning for additive manufacturing of continuous fiber composites,’ Suleman Asif, a thesis student at Sabanci University (Instanbul), examines how the addition of continuous fibers can improve fabrication processes with thermoplastic polymers, and add greater strength in mechanical properties.

FDM 3D printing is mainly explored here. Issues with FDM 3D printing and these materials, however, tend to be centered around a lack of strength and inferior surface finish, build times that take too long, and inconvenient post-processing. In previous studies, researchers have used short fibers to strengthen thermoplastics, along with carbon nanotubes and fiber composites. Iron and copper have been added to ABS, and the addition of graphene fibers have been noted to add conductivity. In most cases, tensile strength increased but there were issues with interfacial bonding and porosity.

The use of short fibers and nanofibers has been explored, but Asif explains that such additions are better for applications like aerospace or automotive. With the use of continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic (CFRPT) composites, though, both ‘ingredients’ are extruded at the same time from one nozzle and show significant improvement and strengthening.

Schematic diagram of 3D printing process with continuous fiber composite

In a different study, researchers loaded both thermoplastic polymer and continuous fibers into the nozzles for FDM printing, with PLA and continuous fibers (some samples consisted of carbon fibers, and some with jute) added separately to another nozzle. While carbon did offer improvements in strength, the jute was not helpful due to ‘degradation of fiber matrix interactions.’ Other tests showed that PLA reinforced with modified carbon showed higher tensile and flexural strength values, demonstrating how powerful ‘preprocessing’ can be.

“Furthermore, a path control method was developed to print complex geometries including hollow-out aerofoil, a unidirectional flat part, and a circular part,” states Asif.

Previous methods also used ABS and carbon fibers, with two different nozzles and the carbon fibers contained in between the upper and bottom layers of the plastic.

“The process worked in such a way that after printing of lower layers of ABS, carbon fibers [were] thermally bonded using a heating pin before the upper layers of ABS were printed. In addition, some samples were also thermally bonded using a microwave to understand the difference between both methods,” said Asif.

In comparison to pure ABS, the results demonstrated significant strengthening in mechanical properties.

“In addition, it was observed that there was not much difference between the results obtained from test specimen thermally bonded by heating pin and microwave oven. So, it was concluded that microwave could be successfully used for thermal bonding between matrix and other fiber layers.”

Researchers also attempted to reinforce PLA with aramid fibers, showing ‘notable enhancement.’ Another test evaluated a raw material of commingled yarn, containing polypropylene (PP):

“A cutting device was also incorporated in the system, and a novel deposition strategy was developed. The results showed a remarkable increase in flexural modulus as compared to pure PP. However, the void presence in the samples was a major issue in the proposed technique.”

Overall, in reviewing the multitude of studies performed, Asif saw potential for improving mechanical strength, but realizes a need for control of the fiber position within the nozzle to reduce adhesion issues.

“The system also needs to be designed in such a way that the fiber lies directly in the center of the nozzle to ensure that the thermoplastic polymer is properly diffused into the fiber from all sides using a coaxial printing process in which more than one materials are extruded simultaneously through a nozzle along a common axis,” says Asif.

The researcher also began examining various path planning processes for acquiring point locations that guide the extruder in depositing materials for filling layers. Asif discovered that most suggested path planning was limiting as it only worked for specific complex structures—some of which would not be appropriate for fabrication of CFRTP composites. Asif suggests that as the algorithms stand currently, there would be problems due to:

Under-deposition (typically called underextrusion in FDM)
Over-deposition
Movement of the extruder to next layer after filling one layer

Coaxial CFRPT printing and composite structure with unit cell

“Hence, there is need of a continuous path planning method that can generate a deposition path without any under-deposition and over-deposition, and with better moving strategy from one layer to the next one,” concludes Asif.

“As a future work, a screw-based mechanism can be designed and developed for 3D printing of CFRTP composites. It would allow the continuous input of thermoplastic pallets and, therefore, parts with large dimensions can be printed. In addition, a topology optimization based algorithm can be developed to control the number of layers containing fibers to produce optimized lightweight parts depending upon specific load applications.”

3D printing offers an infinite amount of opportunity for designers and engineers around the world, immersed in creation—whether that is industrial, artistic, or completely scientific. There is an immense amount of energy centered around this technology that just continues to grow in popularity, and especially as users continue to refine the processes and materials. Composites are often used to strengthen existing methods and materials, whether in making structural parts for aerospace , regulating electrical composites, or studying conductivity and different techniques for fabrication. Find out more about the use of continuous fiber composites here.

What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.

Effect of nozzle diameter on the elastic modulus of continuous fiber composites

Implementation of the developed algorithm on a commercial printer (a) Complex concave geometry (b) Fidget spinner

[Source / Images: ‘Modelling and path planning for additive manufacturing of continuous fiber composites’]

AREVO Partners With Franco Bicycles to Make 3D Printed Carbon Fiber Frames

AREVO is a Khosla backed, well funded, startup that uses a six-axis robot arm to extrude composites for manufacturing. The company has since inception spoken of breakthrough materials and applications such as carbon nanotube reinforced composites with a specific focus on printing bike frames. Now the firm has partnered with Franco Bicycles to make frames for their Emery brand. The Emery One eBike will have a unibody frame 3D printed out of continuous carbon fiber. Continuous carbon has higher strength than the more easily available short carbon fiber and indeed few firms such as Markforged, the US Army, Impossible Objects, moi, and Continuous Carbon are experimenting with this interesting technology. CFRP polymer parts have a high strength to weight ratio and of all the Continuous Fiber Reinforced Polymer materials Carbon Fiber is king. Used in anything from sunglasses to F1 and now passenger cars carbon fiber is a cool and exciting material. The material is already extensively used in bike frames extensively but with lots of manual labor required optimizing carbon fiber processing could make it more commonplace. In addition to cars and bicycles, fiber reinforced parts have an important role in aerospace and other high tech manufacturing and the material is ever expanding.

This is exactly what AREVO wants to do. The company offers a generative design platform and says it can do, “virtually void-free construction…optimized for anisotropic composite materials.” The firm says that the time to part from the idea to a final bike frame is significantly faster than with traditional hand layup composites and says that its frame consists of only one part not “many parts glued together.” Traditionally manufactured the frame would have consisted of 27 parts. This part reduction would also reduce stock and assembly costs significantly. They also tout their lower overal product development costs.

Hector Rodriguez, Co-Founder of Emery Bikes:

“We chose AREVO technology because its iterative and flexible design represents the new age in composites manufacturing, and we wanted to be the first bike company to help lead this revolution, AREVO’s continuous carbon fiber technology has been instrumental in achieving the ride quality and high-performance requirements we set out to accomplish with the Emery One.”

Hemant Bheda, AREVO Co-Founder and Chairman:

“This is the first Composite Additive-Manufactured bike frame and it represents an important milestone for the AM industry as AREVO is delivering on the promise of on-demand manufacturing of composite parts in volume now,.” “With the introduction of the Emery One, the transformation of the global composite bike industry has begun.”

The say that the main advantages of their technology as:

True serial, volume production of AM-made composite parts that are made with thermoplastic materials, which are tougher, durable and recyclable, as compared to brittle and non-recyclable thermoset materials

A replacement of a laborious manual process with a fully-automated, “lights out” production model

Delivering on the promise of localized manufacturing or “on-shoring,” which creates greater independence for bike brands

A much greater “freedom of design” for bike manufacturers that creates the possibility of fully-customized bikes made on an “on demand” basis, an approach AREVO calls “DESIGN. PRINT. GO.”

Brittle composites using thermosets are a big issue in bike frames. A several thousand dollar bike frame which is in and of itself very strong could shatter if it hit a curb. If the firm could equal the strength of traditional thermosets for thermoplastics the environmental benefits would be huge. Not only would parts last longer but their recycling would be more possible also. Current carbon fiber materials are impossible to recycle and pose a huge environmental burden. The materials used are also quite dangerous for man and planet and it would be good to see in what way AREVO could improve on this. True lights out production would radically cut costs as may local manufacturing while increased geometric freedom and on-demand production may radically alter the economics of bike making. This kind of technology could be a big threat for the mainly Taiwan based manufacturers of Carbon fiber bike frames. Unless of course, they develop a similar technology of their own. Carbon fiber bike frame manufacturing moved to Taiwan because under stricter environment and employee safety regulations in Europe the industry was pushed out. With good reason as well, the fibers, resins, processing chemicals could encompass many negative health effects for workers and their surroundings. To me, AREVO’s technology is possibly a hugely exciting one if they can prove that they can produce sustainable composites that can in some way be recycled. Industries such as automotive and aerospace are thinking of the end of life consequences of their parts while also trying to lose weight. If AREVO can demonstrate high strength to weight, less part brittleness, low environmental impact during production, long life and post use recycling then they could have a blockbuster technology on their hands.

You can see the Emery at booth S9 at the Sea Otter Classic bicycling event in Monterey, California, April 11 – 14.

AFRL and University Partners Used 3D Printed Composite Materials to Make Structural Parts

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) near my hometown of Dayton, Ohio, has long been interested in using 3D printing and composite materials for the purposes of aerospace applications. Last year, AFRL’s Composites Branch at the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate partnered up with researchers from the University of Arkansas, the University of Miami in Florida, Louisiana Tech University, and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) to work on advancing 3D printable composite materials.

The Composites Branch works on the research and development of organic and ceramic matrix composite technologies for legacy, developmental, and future Air Force system components. Together with its university partners, the AFRL branch demonstrated 3D printed composite materials, made from a combination of carbon fiber and epoxy, which had been successfully fabricated and used to make structural parts on both air and space craft. The results of this 3D printed composite material effort will soon be published in a special issue of the Journal of Experimental Mechanics that’s dedicated to the mechanics of 3D printed materials.

Dr. Jeffery Baur, leader of the Composite Performance Research Team, said, “The potential to quickly print high-strength composite parts and fixtures for the warfighter could be a tremendous asset both in the field and for accelerating weapon system development.”

Composite materials are made up of two, or sometimes more, constituent materials that have very different chemical or physical properties. When combined, these components produce a new material that has characteristics which are different from the originals. The individual components that make up the composite will remain distinctly separated within the final material structure.

When compared to the more low-quality polymers that are typically used in 3D printers, the composite materials demonstrated by AFRL and its partners are the same type that are already being used to make Air Force system components. These materials are very strong, while also lightweight, and have higher thermal and environmental durability than most.

Most traditional epoxy and carbon fiber composites are made by layering carbon fiber sheets, coated with epoxy resin, on top of each other. Then, the whole thing is cooked for hours in a costly pressure cooker to finish. The major downside to this method is that it’s more difficult to create parts that have complex shapes when sheets are being used.

This is where additive manufacturing comes in. Composite materials that are 3D printed are able to create parts with those complex shapes, and additionally don’t require the use of long heating cycles or expensive pressure cookers. On a materials level, there aren’t a whole lot of downsides to using composites for the purposes of producing, assembling, or repairing parts for the Air Force, whether at the depot or out in the field.

Military branches in other countries are also seeing the benefit of 3D printable composite materials. For example, engineers in India are manufacturing complex core structures using the composite 3D printing process; when combined with top and bottom face sheets, these structures will create lightweight sandwich structures that have properties tailored specifically to, as AFRL put it, “the physical forces that need to be carried.”

Conventionally fabricated sandwich structures use the same core geometries over the entire area of an aircraft skin, but a 3D printed version would be able to stand up under heavier forces when necessary, while also remaining lightweight in other parts of the skin.

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

[Source: Dayton Daily News]

Interview With Greg Haye of Local Motors About Co-Creation and 3D Printing

Local Motors burst onto the scene in 2007 using crowdsourcing and cooperative design to develop cars. Their visionary and bold approach lead them to become a nexus for designers, engineers, and gearheads who wish to work together on making vehicles. The Local Motors team has made the Strati, Olli, and Swim, which all use 3D printing heavily in their designs. Local Motors has been trying to usher in a paradigm of collaborative engineering and local production in a very complicated class of product with lots of safety and regulatory issues. It is not often that you find a company that wants to juggle and ride a unicycle at the same time. What’s more Local Motors has been using several 3D printing technologies to make some of the largest functional parts now being used. Local Motors is a very inspiring company for many of us and we decided to interview Greg Haye, their Vice President of Product Management, to find out more.

What is Local Motors?

Local Motors is actually one of two subsidiaries under the parent company, LM Industries. LM Industries is noted as the first digital vehicle manufacturer. A digital vehicle manufacturer means that we can build large, complex cyber-mechanical products from concept to deployment in under a year on our digital thread. This speed lets us bring products to market in a whole new way, designing with a global community of experts, and applying technology such as 3D printing to create and assemble products in small batches at our agile microfactories. We fulfill every step of the creation process from design to production in-house, the result being more stakeholder centric products, built at a lower costs, using fewer resources and taking less production time.

We start with “co-creation,” where we source design ideas using challenges on Launch Forth, our global community of designers and engineers. Once a winning design has been well received by users as a minimum viable product (MVP) it moves immediately into manufacturing, using one of our microfactories powered by robotic, additive and subtractive manufacturing capabilities, which often includes using the world’s largest 3D printer, the Thermwood Large Scale Additive Manufacturing (LSAM) for production. From this process, we’ve made the world’s first co-created car, the Rally Fighter; the world’s first 3D-printed car, Strati; and the world’s first co-created, self-driving, cognitive, electric shuttle, Olli. We also created our own subtractive process and composite materials for use in our vehicles.

Is 3D printing a natural fit for your business model?

The major revolution in direct digital manufacturing is that 3D printing is becoming a manufacturing tool rather than a modeling tool. It’s a huge shift in application fueled by changes in material, machine and processing science.

This shift towards using 3D printing as a manufacturing tool makes 3D printing a critical piece of our digital vehicle manufacturer model. 3D printing enables us to produce products that can quickly evolve to changing consumer demands or shifts in the product’s purpose.

How is 3D printing limited?

The current limitations are solely tied to the relative immaturity of the technology and materials ecosystem as compared to more conventional mass manufacturing processes. While we see ourselves as subject matter experts on the process and its entire ecosystem, we cannot do it alone and have enlisted the industries best partners to move the technology forward together in all areas. The largest limitations exist in the ability to accurately and easily simulate the 3D printed structures in existing CAD and simulations softwares. We have regularly developed our own simulation models to verify our designs performance and efficiency, but it is still a time consuming process.

What needs to change to make 3D printing a more viable production technology?

Advances in speed and efficiency in design processes and manufacturing equipment will accelerate its viability for mass commercial usage. This will be driven primarily by advancements in design and simulation software as well as faster, more accurate manufacturing equipment.

What materials are you excited about?

We are excited to work with more and more “green” materials coming into the market such as reclaimed carbon fiber from aerospace industry waste streams as well as bio based materials such as algae based polymers and bamboo fibers. Innovative solutions like these ensure that we can continue to push the bounds of energy efficiency and sustainability.

Do you think that your approach will be suited to a whole host of other products as well?

This is the beauty of the digital vehicle manufacturer business model. Our goal is to produce other products from design to production in-house. We as a company are currently working on mobility solutions, but we’re always exploring the depth and range of mobility products whether its off-roading vehicles, autonomous vehicles or a better wheelchair.

We recognize the massive opportunity to conceptualize, design, prototype and manufacture other products, especially in the realm of complex machinery or products that evolve rapidly due to shifting consumer demands.

Why would I help co-create your products? What the reward for me?

There are a few reasons. The first is the driving force behind many of Launch Forth’s 200,000 community members: following a passion. Launch Forth gives the hobbyist engineer, designer or critical thinker, the opportunity to create out a completely original idea to solve real world problems. It’s an opportunity for our community members to take their passion or side-hustle to the next level by testing their skills and potentially earn recognition for their work.

Another incentive for community members is the access to a community of thousands of like-minded people and the potential to bridge a critical skills gap. Many Launch Forth Challenge submissions are from groups or pairs of community members as Launch Forth creates an infrastructure and network for designers, engineers and innovators to connect and collaborate.

We also, of course, offer cash rewards and the potential to earn a commission for your designs or ideas (if the product is prototyped and produced by Local Motors or one of our industry partners like Airbus, Allianz or the US Marine Corps).

Why is Olli important?

Olli is our 8-person, low-speed, 3D-printed, autonomous, electric shuttle. It’s perfect for things like urban centers in cities, business campuses, hospitals or other large spaces where people need to get around.

This product exemplifies how LM Industries’ digital vehicle manufacturing is capable of creating real solutions for mobility challenges like sustainability and traffic congestion. Designed by a Launch Forth community member and now being manufactured and deployed across the country by Local Motors, Olli was designed and built specifically so that it could be constantly iterated on and easily customized to fit the needs of wherever it was being used. Also Olli was made from tire to roof with true autonomy and safety in mind, unlike other AVs, which are really minivans with mounted sensors and added software.

Is there actually an economic advantage to local microfactories?

Absolutely! Our vision for the local microfactories is for them to be as advantageous for the communities as possible. Ideally, the microfactories will employ the community, pushing the local economy forward, and only produce customized products that are really in-demand for the community’s needs.

For LM Industries, the local microfactories improve our digital vehicle manufacturing model because microfactories reduce the minimum efficient scale at which innovative products can be brought to market, by employing a workforce with a high mix of vehicle design, development and marketing capabilities. They are a distributed network of flexible production capacity designed around the low volume local products in production at any given time.

And more generally, microfactories are better for everyone ast they benefit the world as a more sustainable option. Microfactories are more sustainable as they theoretically reduce the environmental impacts of transport emission while they also promote less waste and higher recyclability. By producing more adaptable batches of product using more sustainable materials, and leveraging tech like 3D printing, our microfactories and our digital manufacturer model outpaces others in environmental benefits.

What other products are you working on?

We’re always working with multiple partners to figure out solutions to specific problems by developing new products through Launch Forth challenges. For example, Launch Forth recently completed the co-creation phase of the Island Electric Vehicle (EV) challenge, which called for designs to make a low-speed, rugged, electric vehicle particularly designed for island economies. A winning submission has also already be selected – Isla.

We also recently worked with the US Marine Corps to develop a modular logistics vehicle. This challenge, the first of many, asked for design submissions for a modular logistics vehicles that serve a multitude of operations as well as an unmanned cargo delivery system to improve the operations and well-being of servicemen and women.

What it Launch Forth?

As one of the imperative LM Industries’ subsidiaries, Launch Forth is a SaaS (software as a service) platform for product design powered by a robust community of designers, engineers and solvers. Launch Forth harnesses the speed and potential of crowdsourcing and co-creation to bring breakthrough products to market quickly with a shared community of over 200,000 innovators from around the globe who collaborate on ideas, solve problems and create solutions for challenges both large and small. This community-powered platform pairs design thinking with open innovation and accelerates the product development process for well-respected global giants like HP Inc., Local Motors, General Electric Co. and Airbus.

Local Motors wants to collectively design cars whose bodies are printed out locally.

Can I buy a Strati?

The Strati, the world’s first 3D-printed car is not available for commercial sales at this time.

For additional context, the Strati was the winning design entry among more than 200 received from 30+ countries around the globe during a six-week challenge led by Local Motors in Spring 2014. Designed by the company’s global community and built using the available technology at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Local Motors will produce the Strati, designed specially for urban transportation needs of Chicago.

What do you think the potential is for Large Scale Polymer Composite Additive Manufacturing?

This process is unique in that we can use recyclable materials that can be deposited at a very rapid rate consuming low amounts of energy to build items of size and mass. This has huge potential in manufacturing items of scale such as vehicles, aircraft, ships, architectural building components, and tooling or molds. Most of these things take massive capital, resources, and time to execute. With Large scale additive processes applied this can drastically reduce the cost and foot print needed to manufacture.

Will open innovation outpace internalized innovation?

We view co-creation as the future. It will likely start being utilized by more companies in conjunction with their internalized innovation efforts because the internet gives everyone the basic infrastructure to access and connect with open innovation participants. While open innovation is not the solution for every problem, there is a massive opportunity to develop solutions to pressing problems through mass innovation and idea sourcing.

Why should I as a company partake in open innovation?

Open innovation forces a company to step out of its organization biases since the community of co-creators provide fresh ideas, built out of a diversity of perspectives. New ideas and even reevaluating on how to think about a challenge is invaluable to innovation.

What is holding companies back from co-creation?

For some companies, their infrastructure could be the barrier to utilizing co-creation. Co-creation requires the internal organization to establish a platform to curate, facilitate and sift the ideas coming out of a co-creation community. Also co-creation can be a seemingly intimidating process because a company has to develop a community and the infrastructure to handle the influx of innovation. It’s not easy, but it is mangable and can be an incredibly lucrative opportunity for businesses looking to find a solution.