Altair debuts Inspire Studio and Inspire Render for optimized 3D modeling

Altair, a Michigan-based cloud solutions and software provider, has launched a new 3D design and rendering platform, Altair Inspire Studio. A 3D rendering and animation software, Inspire Render, is also included in this launch which builds upon the functions of Altair Evolve, a 3D hybrid modeling and rendering suite.  “Inspire Studio will enhance designers’ creativity by letting them drive their designs,” […]

3D Printing News Briefs: June 8, 2019

In this week’s 3D Printing News Briefs, we’re talking about partnerships, new software and buildings, and a neat 3D printed miniature. Together, Evolve Additive Solutions and Evonik are developing materials for the STEP process, while Awexim has partnered with Farsoon in an exclusive sales agreement, and SHINING 3D and 3D Systems released Geomagic Essentials. Oerlikon inaugurated its new R&D and production facility, and a Reddit user posted video of a miniature 3D printed steering wheel that fits on a video game controller.

Evonik and Evolve Partnering to Develop 3D Printing Materials

A little over a year ago, Stratasys spinoff company Evolve Additive Solutions emerged from stealth with its production-scale additive manufacturing STEP (selective thermoplastic electrophotographic process) solution. Now, the company is partnering up with the Evonik Corporation, a leading specialty chemicals company, in a joint development agreement to formulate the thermoplastic 3D printing materials for STEP solutions. Initial efforts will be focused on polyamide 12, PEBA, transparent polyamide, and polymer for the polyamide 6 series, and the two companies also plan to create a wider range of production materials for STEP users in the future.

“Evolve’s entirely new technology approach will allow us to expand the range of applications of our high-performance powder materials, which are produced through a unique production process,” said Thomas Grosse-Puppendahl, the Head of the Additive Manufacturing Innovation Growth Field at Evonik. “With more than 20 years of experience in 3D printing, we will also develop a wider range of customized powder formulations to unlock the full potential of the STEP technology.”

Farsoon and Awexim Sign Exclusive Sales Agreement

Another 3D printing partnership has Farsoon Europe GmbH, which is located in Stuttgart, signing an Exclusive Sales Agreement with Warsaw-based Awexim, which was founded in 1991 as a technical consulting and cutting tools supplier. Awexim’s 3D printing adoption as an official Farsoon Europe sales agent will support Poland’s industrialization of 3D printing with Farsoon’s Open Laser Sintering Systems.

“Farsoon’s strength in industrial Laser Sintering Systems, ideally supports our strategy to enter into the 3D Printing market. We support industrial customers in Poland for almost 30 years with top quality tools, machine tools and especially top quality technical and customer service. We are glad to start cooperation with such solid partner as Farsoon, whose approach and vision is similar to ours,” said Andrzej Wodziński, the Managing Director of Awexim. “This cooperation opens huge possibilities to bring even more solutions for our customers on solving their needs. 3D printing is a future of industry, and we are sure, that connection of Farsoon and our team will have big influence on this industry in Poland.”

SHINING 3D and 3D Systems to Deliver Geomagic Essentials

Chinese company SHINING 3D recently announced that it has partnered up with 3D Systems to launch a new cost-effective scan-to-CAD solution. The two released Geomagic Essentials on the market as a bundled offering along with SHINING 3D’s most recent handheld, multi-functional 3D scanner: the Einscan Pro 2X series.

The Einscan Pro 2X and 2X Plus are lightweight and compact, with faster scanning speeds and higher accuracy. The new Geomagic Essentials bundled offer only increases these capabilities, as the solution is perfect for downstream reverse engineering and scan-to-print applications. While many CAD software programs are limited in terms of what they can do in processing, Geomagic Essentials makes the scan data compatible with native CAD workflows, so designers wanting to integrate part design and 3D scan data can do so with ease.

Oerlikon Inaugurates New R&D and Production Facility

Technology company Oerlikon is based in Switzerland, but it has 170 locations in nearly 40 different countries, including the US. The company provides surface solutions, equipment, and materials processing, and as part of its continuing growth strategy here, recently celebrated the opening of its new $55 million, state-of-the-art Innovation Hub & Advanced Component Production facility in Huntersville, North Carolina. This is Oerlikon’s second location in the state, and the 125,000 sq ft, fully functional facility employs about 60 people and will continue to gradually add jobs as the business continues to expand.

“We are already working with customers in the aerospace, automotive, energy and medical industries in the US, and we anticipate continued growth in those sectors, as well as in others. We believe that additive manufacturing can transform production in many industries, and we are excited that our presence here in North Carolina allows us to better demonstrate those possibilities to our customers,” said Dr. Sven Hicken, Head of Oerlikon’s Additive Manufacturing business.

State and federal officials spoke at the inauguration event, which was attended by employees and their families, in addition to business leaders and customers. Oerlikon presented a local robotics club with a check at the event in order to begin growing collaborations with academic institutions and show support for STEM learning.

Oerlikon Huntersville Event

We had a lot of fun last week opening our new Innovation & Proctuction Hub in Huntersville, NC. Check out what happened on the big day! #OerlikonUSA #OerlikonAM

Gepostet von Oerlikon Group am Freitag, 7. Juni 2019

3D Printed Steering Wheel

Reddit user Malespams recently posted a video of a 3D printed steering wheel in action, but not one for a regular-sized car…or even a car at all, actually. No, this miniature green wheel is made to attach to the controller for a video game system, like XBox, to make it easier and more natural to play racing games. However, not everyone who commented on the video thought that the 3D printed mod would make these games easier. One person said that it would offer “zero control” during play, and another noted that it covered the controller’s right stick and would make it hard to press any buttons,

“I have one, but while it’s a fun concept it covers the dpad so if you’re playing horizon you can’t access Anna m. Sometimes it hits the clutch and messes me up,” user 3202 people wrote. “It’s sometimes fun and I could see people having fun if they got used to it.”

If you’re interested in making your own game controller racing mod, check out this Thingiverse link.

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

Going beyond 3D printing for the Purmundus challenge 2019

Held since 2012 by German rapid prototyping company Cirp GmbH, the Purmundus challenge is an annual competition that invites designers and engineers from around the world to participate in a theme-based 3D printing design contest. Almost every kind of submission is possible – from a simple concept to a market ready product. The awards go […]

3DPrint.com The Year in Review: 3D Printing 2018

2018 was a very exciting year in 3D Printing. If we look at the big trends we can see the rise of startups with tens of millions in investment, market entry by multibillion-dollar companies especially polymer companies and increased automation. In the background, we can see the very public fading of the desktop printer on every desktop dream but the new realization that 3D printing might be suited for manufacturing. Overall 2018 was a year of professionalization with everyone focusing on higher-end products and end-use applications. And 2018 was the year of centers for excellence for 3D printing. The Starbucks of our world.

For 3DPrint.com there was a shakeup in our pantheon of writers, renewed long-term partnerships with industry leaders and a focus on quality. With higher quality articles, fact-checking, more analysis and scrutiny we seem to have become less popular with certain companies. But, the higher quality seems to appeal to those who count, our readers. They’ve repeatably reached out to us to give us feedback and thank us for our new path. Our pageviews and unique visitors have also increased substantially during the period validating our approach. In tandem we have found new advertisers and industry partners who appreciate this new more difficult but more rewarding path. For this and your continued support, we’d like to thank you for a fantastic year in 2018.

Below is a selection of our news over these past months. We couldn’t possibly expect to filter out the most significant news items because this would be subjective. Instead, we’ve made a selection out of our most popular news stories and those that were very important or those that were oft-recurring or indicative of bigger trends and movements in our industry. Is your story missing? Maybe I forgot it! Add it below in the comments.

January

A happy GE Engineer (lets hope that PPE becomes a trend in 2019)

GE Engineers learn, iterate and grow through 3D printing.

The year started with Sciaky reporting record metal 3D printer sales for the previous month. This would be a leitmotiv for the year with metal sales, investment and commercialization exploding. This year ten times more industrial metal printers were sold than a few years ago.

3D Systems and Stryker partner for surgical planning, a growing area.

The RegenHU Biofactory, sterile 3D printing inside a laminar flow cabinet. Cray cray.

Bioprinting promoted in the US by RegenHU and Wako.

Auroralabs partner and they’re not the last to partner this year.

February

Addidas and Carbon print shoes.

Stoke med reports advances in patient-specific models. Patient-specific medical applications were on the rise throughout the year with patient-specific solutions being developed in polymers and metals for ortho but also things such as braces.

(photo credit: NASA)

NASA tests 3D printed RS engines.

BASF partners with Farsoon and BigRep. Materials giant BASF is investing heavily in 3D Printing. Through investments in Materialise and partnerships with Farsoon and other OEMs the company wants to place itself in the driving seat of materials development and learning. Meanwhile, many other materials companies are piling in.

March 

Small-scale rockets developed for NASA. Rocketry and 3D printing for space was a huge interest area for us this year. 3D Printing lowers the development cost of new space vehicles and rockets. A lot of work is being done in part count reduction and weight savings on rocket propulsion specifically.

Hero with arm

Openbionics introduces the Hero arm. Open source hardware and 3D printing for medical orthoses and the like has been developing quickly as has Openbionics.

Hot Lithography, kind of like stereolithography but then hawt.

E3D develops tool head changer print head. The ever-innovative E3D folks made a tool head changing 3D printer, an idea that everyone had but no one got around to doing.

Wipro opens a 3D printing research center. Research centers were a trend as is the fast-growing Indian 3D printing market.

Chinese researchers use SLM Solutions machines to build nuclear components. China is making higher quality parts and products and this kind of research is a good signifier of that happening in our industry as well.

GKN develops new steel for automotive applications.  Two megatrends the car industry and metal printing intertwined.

Open source desktop bioprinter released by Carnegie Mellon. So far open source and DIY bioprinters have not made a lot of impact yet but this could greatly reduce the costs of bioprinting.

Raise introduces Pro 2 3D printers. Raise and others are making higher quality higher value printers with features such as cameras and build chamber temperature control this is an example of the third wave of 3D printing companies that are focusing on user experience.

Casual nerd photoshoots have been on the increase thanks to 3D printing.

Aon 3D prints with high-temperature materials. PEEK, PEI and high-temperature materials were a trend as were the high-temperature 3D printers to process them.

April 

The US Naval Air Systems command predicts over a 1000 flying parts by years end.

Note that all present are wearing glasses or safety glasses

Sandia works on wind turbines. Sandia has played an outsized role in the development of 3D printing and now is moving more to large format applications.

Jabil introduces a manufacturing network. Large companies trying to engage with 3D printing is a definite trend as is Jabil’s fundamental approach to adopting 3D printing internally.

Cellulose used as 3D printing material. Cellulose was explored a few times this year but was part of a much bigger sustainability trend.

4D printing self-folding objects is also something that persists.

“I’d never leave you not for Jessica or that cute Aon guy”

DSM partners with Ultimaker and introduces materials. Yet another large material company entering the market in a strong way.

ANSYS introduces new simulation tools for 3D printing. ANSYS and Materialise both were hard at work releasing simulation software to speed up 3D printing workflows.

The Orion Spacecraft uses Stratasys Antero 800NA (PEKK) to make an intricately-connected 3D printed docking hatch door. Note the photo in the center with the earthrise on it.

Stratasys makes parts for the Orion spacecraft. Polymers in space? Yes we can.

Stratasys introduces PEI and Carbon Fiber optimized systems and expanded software. Stratasys spent a lot of time optimizing its systems for particular end use parts and applications while expanding GrabCAD.

EOS makes a machine for Boeing.

May 

SABIC introduces new materials, another huge company expanding in 3D printing.

Biomodex and Intamsys get funding. Financing was all around this year especially for companies with business to business propositions.

Concrete houses to be 3D printed. Much of the 3D printed concrete news this year was lies, fraudulent or overclaim. If you noticed that we skipped a lot of concrete 3D printing stories, then it was because they were false. This one we verified but we still don’t know if it will work.

Solukon releases depowdering machine. Post-processing equipment to optimize 3D printing for manufacturing was a huge trend this year.

HP Shows off Multi Jet Fusion. HP’s market entry and continued investments are huge news and changing our industry.

Singapore researchers looking to recycle thermosets. Improving thermosets was a big trend as was continued investment and research in Singapore that wishes to be a 3D printing focal point.

“Well yeah honey the Aon guy is cute, but I’m more a resin kind of woman.”

Formlabs introduces ceramic resins. This Formlabs development combines a trend in expanded desktop materials with that of more functional resins and that of expanded use of ceramics in 3D printing.

Titomic partners with Fincantieri. The marine sector is almost totally unexplored in 3D printing but the first real moves are happening this year.

(L-R) Dr. Steve Swioklo with Prof. Che Connon as cornea is 3D printed.

Bioink used to 3D print corneas. The development of bioinks and their expanding uses was a huge trend as well.

June 

Soft robot uses shape memory. I’m a huge fan of soft robotics and think that it will change many things. Research in this area is growing.

Olivier van Herpt introduces porcelain. Olivier’s highly productive ceramic printer continues to innovate outpacing the rest.

Lawrence Livermore prints a nuclear warhead. This has been going on for over a decade but its nice of them to share.

3Doodler announces new 3D printing pen. We don’t always write about 3D printing pens but millions are in the hands of consumers.

FIT and Roboze expand globally. Service bureau stalwart FIT and new player Robooze expand across the world a huge trend of expanding partnerships, resellers and offices happened this year.

Mantis shrimp inspires composite materials. Bioinspired designs were huge this year as were 3D printing composites.

Henkel and LPW expand facilities showing us real investment in thermosets and metal powders.

A postal company opens a 3D printing portal thanks to 3Yourmind. New market-entry by new kinds of players and alternatives to Materialise software are also significant trends.

July 

Soft robots zigzag through sand.

This 3D printed origami fish catching device story was huge for us and encapsulates using folding in real life applications.

3D print astronauts in space, what could be cooler than that?

3D printed guns were huge this year in the media but not really in real life. So we stood against it.

3D microstructure printed on MEMS actuators. [Image: Rachael Jayne and Alice White, Boston University]

Femtoprint, nanoprinting, and microfluidics will build into a huge technological development over the coming decade.

BASF also took a strategic investment in Materialise and we wondered what it meant.

There were many companies doing space-related deals at aviation shows such as RUAG and Additive Industries.

3D Printing circuits was also a burgeoning thing in 2018.

Drones were big as was using 3D printing for agriculture this story unites both.

Victrex made new PAEK materials available.

A Master’s Degree in 3D Printing? Lots of education initiatives exploded in 2018.

Printrbot closed its doors which shocked many.

3D printed bones? Lots of articles. Lattice structures? Our very own Despacito. 3D printed bone lattice structures? Hell’s yeah.

August 

Nothing ever happens in August.

Satellites printed and made more lightweight were a recurring theme.

I read an awful lot of fatigue response articles in 2018.

Shapercrunch is part of a trend whereby 3D printing startups are not only in the states or Europe.

Using 3D scanning and 3D printing in museums grew a lot.

DigitalAlloys says surprise and comes out of nowhere with a new 3D printing technology.

A few years ago 3D printing chocolate was a surefire winner in terms of traffic. In 2018? Guns or 3D printing coral reefs.

Carbon nanotubes are probably a health risk.

A stator ring and impeller by Velo3D

Velo3D came out of nowhere with an exciting new metal technology.

Lots of companies are working on controlling the 3D printing octagon eg controlling all of the variables including software and procedures to get better 3D printing results.

Research in hydrogel composites exploded in 2018.

We looked at where all of this 3D printing research is coming from.

Flexible thermosets/photopolymers were all the rage as well.

September 

Metrology, QA and parts measurement were quickly growing activities.

With Xaar joining the fray, the hype around binder jetting metal 2018 could be the year of the inkjet.

Minifactory makes a capable large expensive open FDM machine capable of PEEK and PEI. Spurned on by automotive and aerospace that is a real trend.

Kai Witter of Dyemansion talks costs and uses actual numbers to determine how effective their post-processing equipment is.

Everyone is always trying to control this unruly melt pool.

Dyze Design is part of a new group of specialized nozzle design and manufacturing companies that aim to challenge the status quo.

Resin from Prusa.

Lots of people wanted to 3D print silicone and ACEO spread to the US.

AddUp spins out of Michelin and starts to gobble up the French 3D printing industry.

3DHubs killed off its hubs, focuses on B2B, still confuses me.

Evolve additive spins out of Stratasys.

3DGence makes a capable high-end desktop machine.

HP to make metal 3D printers.

As Desktop Metal expands.

All that glitters is probably gold nanoparticles.

Knitting was big as was concrete.

Twikit and BMW offer mass customization together.

Biodegradable medical devices such as stents were a trend.

Carpenter bought LPW postioning it for growth in high-end powder.

Consultants? 3D Printing Consultants, everywhere.

Nscrypt brought some truly amazing ideas and performance to market in bioprinting and electronics.

Xjet built an applications center to roll out its technology globally.

The Goldilocks choice faced by metal printing companies.

Using a MIG welder for a metal printer is about as low cost as we can imagine it.

November

Qualifying aerospace brackets, a multi multi million dollar priority for many.

This hybrid open die forging and DMLS technology still blows us away.

Electrically conductive filament printed on desktop machines was happening a lot.

Bioassemblybot wants to use contour printing to print directly onto people.

Spare parts for my washing machine? Finally. Collective mic drop, we’re done now.

In-cabin 3D printing for aviation was growing.

Happily, there was more research into the air quality of 3D printing.

3D printing meat and other foods was growing but will explode in 2019.

Essentium was another well-financed startup with a highly productive technology.

The AutoAdd project showed us that car manufacturing and 3D printing can be a reality.

LSS’s new Airbus based sintering technology showcases the minitrend that 3D printing maintenance companies are providing innovation in sintering.

Additive Industries partners with Volkswagen.

Solvay marks another company joining our industry in force.

December

Another episode in the resurgence of sintering service organizations in 2018 is the EOS Integra machine made completely separately of all the other EOS machines.

Sadly 3D printing and the law, especially IP law was an issue this year.

Charged aerosol focusing is an interesting technology.

Operational studies and research on real parts was a growing area.

Breast cancer and cancer research using 3D printing was also a trend.

The Fraunhofer sisters did some truly amazing research this year including this.

In secret 3D printing antennae is a huge business but now people are doing public research into the area.

GE makes a big investment in 3D printing in Australia.

Optomec expands vertically in gas turbines.

Autodesk makes a large toolbox.

I hope that you’ve had a wonderful 3D printing year and wish you another!