CollPlant Biotechnologies Raise $5.5 Million

Regenerative medicine company CollPlant announced new fundraising of $5.5 million in convertible loans intended to support the advancement of their research projects in the fields of medical aesthetics and 3D bioprinting of tissues and organs. On September 9, the company revealed a new private placement with Ami Sagi, CollPlant’s largest shareholder, and other US accredited investors with many years of extensive experience in 3D printing.

The Israel-based clinical-stage company CollPlant is focused on developing and commercializing tissue repair products for orthobiologics, and advanced wound care markets. Their products are based on their rhCollagen (recombinant human collagen), which is produced with CollPlant’s proprietary plant-based genetic engineering technology for use in tissue repair products. Last year the company even entered into an agreement with United Therapeutics to use their BioInk‘s in the manufacture of 3D bioprinted lungs for future transplant in humans.

CollPlant BioInk

The initial closing of the new capital raise took place on September 3, when Mr. Sagi purchased $2 million of the convertible loans through a non-brokered private placement. The remaining $3.5 million in convertible loans were purchased by the US accredited investors.

Since CollPlant is headquartered outside of the US, the convertible loans totaling $5.5 million, automatically convert into the company’s American Depositary Shares (ADS), a US dollar-denominated equity share of a foreign-based company available for purchase on an American stock exchange. In the case of CollPlant, at a conversion price of $4 per ADS following approval of the transaction by CollPlant’s shareholders. Both Sagi and the US investors will also receive three-year warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 1,625,000 ADSs. Sagi has already agreed to fund an additional $1 million following the execution of a license and/or a co-development agreement between CollPlant and a strategic business partner.

“We are now focused on facilitating our development programs of dermal fillers and regenerative breast implants. Our collaboration with United Therapeutics, which is using our BioInk technology for 3D printing lungs, is progressing, and we continue to expand our business collaborations with large international healthcare companies that seek to implement our revolutionary regenerative medicine technology. We are very pleased to have entered into this transaction with Mr. Sagi and the other investors,” stated Yehiel Tal, CEO of CollPlant.

Bioink for 3D printing

CollPlant is one of two companies developing biotechnology in Israel. The up and coming firm launched its new headquarters and R&D center in Rehovot (Israel) last May, for the development of its product pipeline, including the BioInks for 3D bioprinting of tissues and organs, and dermal fillers for medical aesthetics that can be injected into wrinkles.
“In the medical aesthetics market, we are moving forward with the development of a new dermal filler product line, addressing the need for more innovative aesthetic products to treat wrinkles. CollPlant is advancing collaborations with leading companies in this segment. Our new product line will be based on the combination of hyaluronic acid, a naturally-occurring, moisture-binding compound, with our plant-based, tissue regenerating rhCollagen,” detailed Tal while announcing the financial results for the company’s first quarter ending last March.
CollPlant works with collagen, a protein found in tissues such as tendons, skin, blood vessels and bones, and producing it from tobacco plants genetically engineered with five human genes. Its first successful products approved for sale in Europe are used for tendonitis and wound care, and according to company Chairman Jonathan Rigby, they are seeking to commercialize their products in the United States. The company is working hard at reaching their long term goals in regenerative medicine, including transplantable lungs for patients with serious medical conditions, bone repair and chronic wound closure.
Most recently, the firm announced the creation of their 3D bioprinted implants for the regeneration of breast tissue and the successful production of the first prototypes. According to company officials, the implants will be comprised of CollPlant’s proprietary type I recombinant human collagen and additional materials. Loaded with fat cells taken from the patient, these implants are intended to promote breast tissue regeneration. Eventually, the scaffold is designed to degrade and be replaced by newly grown natural breast tissue, that is free of any foreign material.
“The implants we are developing leverage our 3D bioprinting technology and the unique properties of our recombinant human collagen, that has an excellent safety profile. We believe that our technology can eliminate the high risk for adverse events associated with permanent breast implants and provide a revolutionary alternative. This technology is already raising interest from leading companies in this segment,” claims Tal.
CollPlant has made significant progress over the past two years thanks to the combination of their breakthrough technology, new R&D center, and developing new product lines for aesthetics and wound markets, enabling the company to move forward with more products and partnerships.
[Images: CollPlant]

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Sciaky Joins R&D Initiative to Combine Traditional Metallurgy with Wirefed Metal 3D Printing Techniques

Metal 3D printing solutions provider Sciaky, Inc., well known for its extremely popular Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing (EBAM) process, just announced that it has entered into a research and development initiative with metallurgist expert Aubert & Duval – a subsidiary of the Eramet group’s Alloys division – and Airbus, one of its previous 3D printing partners. The ambitious initiative, also called the Metallic Advanced Materials for Aeronautics (MAMA) project, is being driven by the Saint Exupéry Institute for Research in Technology (IRT), and the academic partner for the project is the Production Engineering laboratory of the National School of Engineering in Tarbes, France.

“Sciaky is proud to work with the Saint Exupéry IRT, Aubert & Duval and Airbus on this exciting project. Industrial metal additive manufacturing technology continues to break new ground every day, and Sciaky is committed to keeping EBAM at the forefront of this movement,” said Scott Phillips, the President and CEO of Sciaky, Inc., a subsidiary of Phillips Service Industries, Inc. (PSI).

In terms of work envelope, Sciaky’s exclusive EBAM technology is probably the most widely scalable metal AM solution in the industry. It’s the only industrial metal 3D printing process that has approved applications for air, land, sea, and space, with gross deposition rates up to 11.34 kg of metal an hour, and is able to manufacture parts from 203 mm to 5.79 meters in length. Rather than just melting the outer layer of the metal powder, the EBAM process completely liquefies the metal wire feed.

The fast, cost-effective EBAM process offers a wide range of material options, including titanium, for large-scale metal applications, and uses its adaptive IRISS (Interlayer Real-time Imaging and Sensing System) to combine quality and control, as the patented system can sense, and digitally self-adjust, metal deposition with repeatability and precision. It is mainly due to the IRISS system that the Chicago-based company’s EBAM 3D printing process is so good at delivering, as the company puts it, “consistent part geometry, mechanical properties, microstructure, and metal chemistry, from the first part to the last.”

The goal of its combined MAMA project with Airbus and Aubert & Duval is to combine traditional metallurgy (high-power closed die forging) with new wirefed metal 3D printing techniques, such as Sciaky’s EBAM process, in order to come up with new processes for manufacturing titanium alloys that can be used to make aircraft parts. Based on the caliber of its partners, Sciaky made a good decision in joining the R&D initiative – Airbus is a 3D printing pioneer in the aerospace industry, and Aubert & Duval creates and develops advanced metallurgical solutions for projects in demanding industries, such as nuclear, medical, energy, defense, and aeronautics.

The project’s first phase has global funding in the amount of €4.2 million. 50% of this funding is supported by the French State as part of its “Investing in the Future” program (Programme Investissement d’Avenir, or PIA), while the other half is funded by industrial partners of the initiative.

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[Images provided by Sciaky, Inc.]

Carbon and Arkema’s Sartomer Subsidiary Partner to Increase Materials Performance & Digital Manufacturing Adoption

Four years ago, specialty chemical and advanced materials developer Arkema announced that it would increase its focus on 3D printing materials research; this was followed two years later by a major investment plan, together with its advanced liquid resin solutions subsidiary Sartomer, for advanced 3D printing materials. The company, which operates in nearly 55 countries around the world, continues its materials focus today, and is partnering up with Silicon Valley-based company Carbon to help increase adoption of digital manufacturing and deliver a new supply chain model and cycle of materials performance for Carbon’s manufacturing partners.

“Since Carbon’s early days, Arkema has been an important partner to us,” said the CEO and Co-Founder of Carbon, Dr. Joseph DeSimone. “It’s rewarding to see all the amazing outcomes of our work together over the years bringing new, innovative materials to market.”

Using its innovative Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) technology, which is enabled by its proprietary CLIP process, Carbon is working to reinvent how we design, engineer, and manufacture polymer products, such as automotive and mobile protection solutions, parts for medical devices, shoes, and even blender nozzles. Since it was founded, the company has shared a similar goal with Sartomer – to drive innovation in order to scale resin manufacturing and process technology, so that DLS 3D printed parts can be more cost-competitive and reliable.

Thierry Le Hénaff, the Chairman and CEO of Arkema, said, “We are eager to continue and strengthen our joint efforts in delivering Carbon next generation products and full solutions to our partners & customers, disrupting the way parts are mass manufactured and accelerating new market opportunities.”

Through this new strategic partnership between Carbon and Arkema’s Sartomer business line, which was announced through an investment in the startup’s capital, the two companies will help disrupt the existing supply chain model, deliver new technologies to help bring digital manufacturing more into the mainstream, and deliver advanced materials.

As additive manufacturing continues to advance and mature, we will keep seeing the way that products are designed and fabricated change across industries…and partnerships like this one between Arkema and Carbon are at the forefront of these changes. Already, their collaboration has been responsible for creating some, according to a press release issued about the partnership, “holistic solutions” that are changing things up in the consumer goods, dental, and sporting markets.

Earlier this week, Carbon announced that it had received $260 million in additional investments after a round of growth funding; one of the participants in this round was Arkema, which invested $20 million in Carbon’s Growth Funding Round. This funding will help Carbon support its next generation of integrated digital manufacturing platforms, solutions, and materials. As the two companies have a similar vision for the AM industry, their growing partnership is a great way for them to use advanced materials technology to grow their collective pipelines of production applications.

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ORNL and UMaine Initiative Receives Funding to Create New Bio-Based 3D Printing Materials

UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center students and staff lift a boat roof from a mold 3D printed with a new biomaterial, nanocellulose-reinforced PLA, developed at the University of Maine. L-R: Michael Hunter, Camerin Seigars, Zane Dustin, Alex Cole, Scott Tomlinson, Richard Fredericks, and Habib Dagher. [Image: UMaine]

The researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee have spent a lot of time working with unique 3D printing materials, such as polyesterlignin, and nanocellulose, which is a bio-derived nanomaterial. Now, a new research collaboration between ORNL and the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center aims to increase efforts to use wood products as 3D printing materials. Together, the team will work with the forest products industry to create new bio-based 3D printing materials that can be used to make products like building components, boats and boat hull molds, wind blades, and shelters.

The large-scale initiative was announced this week in Washington, DC. Leaders from the university and ORNL, as well as the DoE‘s assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy Daniel Simmons, the founding executive director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center Habib Dagher, and US Sens. Susan Collins, Lamar Alexander, and Angus King were all on hand for the announcement, which also stated that UMaine and ORNL had received $20 million in federal funding for the program from the DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office.

[Image: UMaine]

“While Oak Ridge is a global leader in additive manufacturing, the University of Maine is an expert in bio-based composites. By working together, they will strengthen environmentally responsible advanced manufacturing in America as well as helping the forest industry in the state of Maine,” Senator Collins said.

Sens. Collins and King requested federal help to save the declining forest products industry in Maine back in 2016, after several paper mills in the state closed their doors. This led to the founding of the Economic Development Assessment Team (EDAT) to work across agencies in order to come up with economic development strategies for the rural communities in Maine that were suffering from the mill closures. This team resulted in the ongoing partnership between UMaine and ORNL.

“Using Maine forest products for 3D printing is a great way to create new jobs in Maine and a good reminder that national laboratories are our secret weapons in helping the United States stay competitive in the rapidly changing world economy. The partnership between the University of Maine and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a model for how science and technology can help Americans prosper in the new economy,” said Senator Alexander.

A 3D printed representation of the state of Maine presented by Habib Dagher, executive director of UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center. The material was a wood-based product developed at UMaine. [Image: Contributed by the office of Sen. Susan Collins]

This October, ORNL’s BAAM 3D printer will be installed at UMaine, which is actually considered a world leader in cellulose nano fiber (CNF) technology. UMaine students can also visit ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF), while staff from the laboratory can in turn learn about cellulose fiber and composites at UMaine’s composites center.

One of the printer’s first tasks will be to fabricate a boat mold out of a wood-based plastic, though the team hopes to apply the technology to many large-scale manufacturing applications.

Habib Dagher, Executive Director of the Advanced Structures & Composites Center holds up 3D printed representations of Maine and Tennessee signifying new manufacturing programs between UMaine and ORNL that will use wood-based products in 3D printing. Sen. Angus King, I- Maine, and Sen. Susan Collins, R- Maine, watch Dagher’s presentation after announcing $20 million in federal funding for the collaboration. [Image: Contributed by the office of Sen. Susan Collins]

Dagher explained, “The material is nanocellulose, basically a tree ground up to its nano structure. These materials have properties similar to metals. We are taking those and putting them in bioplastics so we can make very strong plastics that we can make almost anything with.”

The team will then add the nanocellulose to PLA.

“The University of Maine is doing cutting-edge research related to bio-feedstocks and the application of advanced manufacturing in regional industries,” said Thomas Zacharia, the director of ORNL. “We are thrilled at this opportunity to expand our research base while providing UMaine with access to the leading national capabilities we have developed at ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility.”

The overall goal for the initiative is to find new uses for wood-based products in an effort to reinvigorate Maine’s forest products industry, while also helping to make regional manufacturing stronger by connecting university–industry clusters with the MDF. The federal funding will be divided equally between both facilities.

“We will integrate 20 years of research in bio-based composites at UMaine and 3D printing at ORNL. It is an opportunity engine for our students, faculty, staff and manufacturing industry who will work side by side with researchers at our nation’s foremost research laboratory. Together, we will break down wood to its nanocellulose structure, combine it with bioplastics, and print with it at hundreds of pounds an hour,” said Dagher. “The research we will be conducting with ORNL will spur next-generation manufacturing technologies using recyclable, bio-based, cost-effective materials that will bolster our region’s economy.”

Scientists from UMaine and ORNL will be conducting research in multiple areas, such as multiscale modeling, CNF production, drying, functionalization, and compounding with thermoplastics, and sustainability life-cycle analysis.

CNF could actually rival the properties of steel, and by successfully adding it into plastics, the researchers could create a renewable feedstock for strong, recyclable, bio-derived material systems that might even be 3D printed at deposition rates of hundreds of pounds an hour. Additionally, using a material that’s 50% wood could help open new markets for the forest products industry.

UMaine will get world’s largest 3D printer and use wood-based plastic to make boat molds

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UC Berkeley Researcher Receives Award from Johnson & Johnson for Smart 3D Printer

In 2015, Johnson & Johnson launched the WiSTEM2D (Women in Science, Technology, Math, Manufacturing and Design) program in order to increase the representation of women in the scientific and technical fields, along with the development of female leaders. The unique, multifaceted program is meant to engage women at three important development phases of their lives: youth (ages 5-18), the university graduate level, and in their professional careers.

J&J began offering its WiSTEM2D Scholars Award in 2017, which is meant to fuel development of female leaders in STEM2D, as well as add to the talent pipeline. The award supports the winners’ research, while also inspiring other women to go down similar career paths in their own STEM2D fields. Now in its third year, nominations for the Scholars Award were accepted from female scholars in each of the STEM2D disciplines: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing and Design. An independent Advisory Board was set up to choose the winners from over 400 international applicants, and the six winners were recently announced.

“Through this Award and other programs, Johnson & Johnson is working to increase the participation of women in STEM2D fields worldwide. We want to nourish the development of women leaders building a larger pool of highly-trained, female researchers so that they can lead STEM2D breakthroughs in the future,” said Cat Oyler, Vice President, Global Public Health, Tuberculosis, Johnson & Johnson and WiSTEM2D University Sponsor.

In addition to being recognized at an awards ceremony tonight at Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide headquarters in New Jersey, the winners – all assistant or associate academic professors, or the global equivalent of such – will each receive $150,000 in research funding, as well as three years of mentorship from Johnson & Johnson.

Just like Johnson & Johnson, we here at 3DPrint.com have also worked hard to highlight the 3D printing-related accomplishments of young girls and women in STEM and tech fields. That’s why I was thrilled to learn that one of this year’s winners is focused on manufacturing and 3D printing.

Each Scholars Award winner represents one of the STEM2D disciplines:

  •  Katia Vega, PhD, Assistant Professor of Design, UC Davis: while she’s already using the human body as a source of wearable technology, she’ll move on to experimenting with interactive skin and biosensors.
  • Ronke Olabisi, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers University: developing a new hydrogel that can be placed over an injury and constantly deliver insulin and stem cell growth factors for faster skin and tissue growth.
  • Grace X. Gu, PhD, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University of California, Berkeley: developing a smarter, more efficient 3D printer that can self-correct during a print job.
  • Rebecca Morrison, PhD, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at University of Colorado, Boulder: identifying flexible algorithms that can run calculations on shifting variables more quickly and accurately.
  • Naama Geva-Zatorsky, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institure of Technology: studying the interactions between the immune system and gut microbes.
  • Shengxi Huang, PhD, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, The Penn State University: developing one device to measure potential disease-causing biomolecules, like cancer cells.

Grace Gu, PhD

Gu, who joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 2018, is looking to address the limitations in manufacturing and materials design with her smart, self-correcting 3D printer.

“I am really excited to build my research group at Berkeley, meet and mentor undergraduate and graduate students, teach foundational mechanical engineering classes, collaborate with exceptional faculty members within and outside the university, and work on 3D-printing projects with students to create a better tomorrow,” Gu said when she began her job at the university.

Gu received her BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2012, picking up an MS from MIT two years later and remaining at MIT to earn her PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2018. According to UC Berkeley, her research interests include harnessing the power of “tools such as advanced computational analysis, machine learning and topology optimization to revolutionize the field of smart additive manufacturing.”

In her research group at the university, the work is focused on bio-inspired materials.

“The big goal is to develop materials that are inspired by nature, like seashells and bones, and discover new material combinations never before manufactured. These biomaterials possess remarkable mechanical properties that are yet to be replicated by man-made counterparts,” Gu said. “This way we can make implants, for instance, tailored to each individual with the properties necessary for structural integrity of the part—and push the frontiers of additive manufacturing.”

[Image: UC Berkeley]

The work for which she received her WiSTEM2D Scholars Award is centered around building a smarter 3D printer. As Berkeley Engineering put it, she trained “a model for a smart 3D printer that can perform predictive diagnostics to ensure optimal printing quality.”

Gu is taking computer science concepts and applying them to manufacturing in order to create her smart 3D printer. The ultimate goal of this particular research is develop a 3D printer that’s able to correct mistakes by itself while working, while also using a wider range of materials in order to more quickly and reliably produce objects like tougher bike helmets and stronger prosthetics.

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[Images: Johnson & Johnson unless otherwise noted]

3D Printing News Briefs: April 12, 2019

We’ve got news about a contest to start off today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, followed by some business news and 3D printed jewelry. Weerg has announced the second edition of its “3D Printing Project Award” contest. Moving on, Bastian Solutions worked with Fast Radius to create a robotic materials handler using HP 3D printing, while Fast Radius announced that it has closed a round of Series B funding. Finally, an SLM 3D printer is being used by a person you might recognize to fabricate unique metal rings.

2nd Edition of Weerg’s 3D Printing Project Award Contest

3D printing and CNC machining platform Weerg, based in Gardigiano, Italy, just announced the second edition of its “3D Printing Project Award” contest, which promotes creativity, experimentation culture, and innovation in design manufacturing. The company, which offers the largest Italian installation of HP’s MJF 4210 3D printers, invites designers and developers to create “an iconic object completely printed in 3D” for the chance to win a €500 Weerg coupon, and an interesting social media opportunity – star as the protagonist in a professional video that will highlight his/her designer skills, which Weerg will promote.

“After the success we obtained last edition, we decided to put to test once more our recently doubled and enhanced production department, and to give visibility to the most creative talent in 3D Printing. The Weerg Award was created to stimulate the potential and the desire to innovate of tomorrow’s designers who are starting to come face to face with the opportunities offered by additive manufacturing,” said Weerg’s founder Matteo Rigamonti. “In addition, it will allow us to maximize the performance of HP printers by creating very original and sophisticated items.”

You have until this Sunday, April 14th to submit your entry by posting it directly to Weerg’s Facebook and Instagram pages. The winner will be announced on Monday.

New Robot Warehouse Picker Features 3D Printed Parts

Indianapolis-based Bastian Solutions, a Toyota Advanced Logistics company, has launched its Shuttle System: an efficient, flexible robotic materials handler with dexterity to spare. 45% of the final build-of-material (BOM) on the system’s robotic arm were 3D printed with HP and Carbon 3D printers. The durable polymer joints of the robotic picker were made with HP’s Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) technology, while its fingers and gripper were 3D printed out of unique materials, like EPU 40, using Carbon’s Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) technology. The company displayed its new Shuttle System this week at ProMat 2019 in Chicago.

“We envisioned that additively manufacturing specific parts would make the Bastian Solutions Shuttle System the most efficient and agile robotic picker available on the market. The additive manufacturing process will enable us to customize each robot picker to fit a customer’s particular warehouse environment,” said Ron Daggett, the Vice President of Technology and R&D, Bastian Solutions.

These parts were 3D printed at the Chicago headquarters of industrial-grade additive manufacturing facility Fast Radius.

Fast Radius Raised $48 Million in Series B Funding

Speaking of Fast Radius, the company recently announced that it had raised $48 million in a Series B funding round, which it will use to continue expanding its production-grade AM platform through application engineering, sales teams, and software development. Its software platform, the Fast Radius Operating System (FROS), supports customers across the entire lifecycle of a product, helping them conduct engineering and economic evaluations, find potential applications, and 3D print industrial-grade parts at scale. The funding round was led by the company’s previous collaborator UPS, and Drive Capital was also a strong participant; other participants include previous investors Jump Capital, Skydeck, and Hyde Park Venture Partners.

Pat McCusker, the COO at Fast Radius, said, “This additional funding will allow us to further expand our partnerships with leading global companies across aerospace, consumer, industrial, medical, and automotive verticals.”

Bam Margera 3D Printing Jewelry with SLM Technology

And now for something totally different…Bam Margera, a professional skateboarder, stunt performer, filmmaker, musician, and TV personality who rose to fame as one of the main members of MTV’s reality show Jackass from the early aughts, is now designing jewelry, which he 3D prints on an SLM Solutions 125 system that he purchased. He is selling the unique metal rings and pendants on his official BamMerch website.

According to the website, “BamMerch is Bam Margera´s new lifestyle brand offering various jewelry and apparel, our store launched in December 2016.

“All items are crafted in Estonia, using combination of high-tech metal 3D printing and hand crafting to create extremely unique and detailed jewelry.”

All of the jewelry is 3D printed in-house out of sterling silver, and then carefully polished in ten stages. Some of the pieces, like the pretty Margeras Pendant with three intertwined hearts, are available for as little as $17, with prices ranging all the way up to $149 for the Skull Ring v2. Margera also offers a range of bundles. Check out the video below to see the 3D printing process for some of Margera’s rings, but be warned – if you go searching for more information about his 3D printed jewelry on Twitter or Instagram, there’s a lot of profanity and other NSFW content.

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Auburn University Receives NASA Contract to Develop 3D Printing Techniques to Improve Liquid Rocket Engines

L-R: Auburn University’s John Mason and Patrick Scheuermann, director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, sign a Space Act Agreement [2015 Image: Auburn University]

Back in 2015,  Auburn University and NASA signed a Space Act Agreement for the purposes of exploring and advancing additive manufacturing applications and research together. The university has remained committed to 3D printing, and aerospace, over the years, working with NASA in a public-private partnership to establish its National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME) two years ago for the purpose of improve the performance of 3D printed parts, respond to workforce development needs in the AM industry, and share research results with collaborators.

Now, the university’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering has announced that NASA awarded a three-year, $5.2 million contract to NCAME to research and create 3D printing techniques to help improve the performance of liquid rocket engines. The work covered under the contract is part of NASA’s Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology (RAMPT) project, and is just the latest development to come out of Auburn’s relationship with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

“This partnership with Auburn University and industry will help develop improvements for liquid rocket engines, as well as contribute to commercial opportunities. The technologies developed by this team will be made available widely to the private sector, offering more companies the opportunity to use these advanced manufacturing techniques,” said Paul McConnaughey, the Deputy Director of Marshall Space Flight Center.

RAMPT is centered around evolving lightweight, large-scale novel and 3D printing techniques for developing and fabricating regeneratively cooled thrust chamber assemblies for use in liquid rocket engines. NCAME already collaborates with more than 70 academic, government, industry, and non-profit organizations, and will now help support the RAMPT project as it works to create a domestic supply chain and specialized manufacturing technology vendors, which will be used by all government agencies, commercial space companies, and academic institutions.

“For decades, Auburn engineers have been instrumental in helping the U.S. achieve its space exploration goals. This new collaboration between NASA and our additive manufacturing researchers will play a major role in developing advanced rocket engines that will drive long-duration spaceflight, helping our nation achieve its bold vision for the future of space exploration,” said Christopher B. Roberts, the dean of the university’s College of Engineering.

Michael Ares, who works in Media Relations for Auburn University, told 3DPrint.com in an email that the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering is a leader in developing and implementing the kind of AM aerospace technology that Auburn and NASA have also been working on “behind the scenes,” which would allow astronauts on long-duration spaceflights to manufacture spare parts when needed.

“Think about how that would have been helpful on Apollo 13…” Ares told us.

GE Avionics is another Auburn partner that’s taken research jointly conducted with the university all the way to production. Additionally, Alabama’s Governor Kay Ivey announced last week that GE Aviation will invest $50 million to expand the additive manufacturing operation at its Auburn facility. All of this goes to show that when it comes to aerospace 3D printing, it seems like Alabama is the place to be right now.

“This contract is a giant leap towards making Alabama the ‘go to state’ for additive manufacturing. We look forward to growing our partnership with NASA, industry and academia as we support the development of our nation’s next rocket engines,” said Mike Ogles, Director of NASA programs in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and the RAMPT Project Manager.

The announcement about the university’s new NASA contract was made at the biannual four-day meeting of ASTM International’s F42 Committee on Additive Manufacturing Technologies, which is hosted by the university at the Auburn Marriott Opelika Resort & Spa at Grand National in Opelika. Nima Shamsaei, the Director of NCAME, will lead Auburn’s team for the RAMPT project as the principal investigator.

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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]

Techstars and Stanley Black & Decker remain laser-focused on finding game-changers in advanced manufacturing

Why industry leader, Stanley Black & Decker, & global investment firm, Techstars, are honing in on additive manufacturing and sustainable solutions in 2019:

In 2018, Techstars and Stanley Black & Decker announced the launch of a multi-year program focused on finding the most disruptive startups in the world working on advanced manufacturing solutions. In the first year of the program, they focused solely on companies working on solutions related to additive manufacturing. The ten companies selected are well on their way to changing fundamental aspects of the manufacturing and consumer industries. Each of the ten companies that were accepted received $120,000.00 in initial funding from Techstars and are now part of #techstarsforlife with continuous access to world-class mentors and hundreds of resources.  During the program founders gained access to many leaders from within Stanley Black & Decker including CEO, Jim Loree, and connected with mentors from the across the Techstars network including Ilan Levin, the former CEO Stratasys, Max Lobovsky, the CEO of Formlabs, and Bre Pettis, the founder of Makerbot. The full list of 2018 mentors is available here.

Since the first Demo Day on October 11th 2018, many of the companies have already secured additional funding to continue to expand their businesses, and four received additional follow-on investment directly from Stanley Ventures, the venture capital arm of Stanley Black & Decker. 

Max Lobovsk the,CEO of Formlabs meeting with founders during the 2018 Stanley+Techstars Accelerator

Applications for the second year of the program recently opened on January 7, 2019. In this second year of the program, Stanley Black & Decker will continue to double down on their efforts to find innovative companies working on additive manufacturing.

Additive manufacturing has the potential to disrupt supply chains and distribution centers over time, and could even lead to the decentralization of manufacturing. But they have also recognized the potential to leverage the accelerator to positively impact the environment and made the decision to expand their view to also consider companies working on innovative solutions around sustainability. While they are keen on finding companies that can help solve problems around sustainable packaging, they are taking a wide lens at what that might look like.

“We’re trying to find companies that are thinking differently about how to make an impact and drive the manufacturing industry forward. That might mean that we find disrupters working in hardware, material science, or software.” said Claudia Reuter, Managing Director of the STANLEY+Techstars Accelerator.

If you are interested in learning more about the STANLEY+Techstars Accelerator, you can register now to join a live AMA (Ask me Anything) webinar scheduled for February 27th.

If you’re ready to apply, you can start the process here.

Desktop Metal Raises $438 Million Total With Additional $160 Million Round What Does It Mean?

Desktop Metal is becoming quite the VC darling. The Massachusets based metal printing firm has now raised a total of $438 million by virtue of its latest funding round of $160 million. This round led by Koch Industries’ Disruptive Technologies investor gives the company a valuation of over $1.5 billion.

 

Desktop Metal CEO Rik Fulop said that,

“We are at a critical juncture in the advancement of metal 3D printing and additive manufacturing. We are excited about Koch being an investor, customer and capability provider in this round. This new funding will fuel the continued development of our metal 3D printing technology and rich product roadmap, the scaling of operations to meet a growing demand of orders, and the financing of major new research and development initiatives. Combined, this will set us on a trajectory to become a global leader in metal 3D printing, a key pillar of Industry 4.0.”

While Chase Koch of Koch Disruptive Technologies stated that,

Desktop Metal’s 3D printing solutions can redefine prototyping and mass production of metal products, which has profound disruptive implications for manufacturers like Koch Industries.” “We are very bullish about the prospects of Desktop Metal, not just as an investor, but also as a customer and partner.”

What is significant about this? 

KDT’s investment is notable in size but also notable in that other firms such as Ford and GE have invested in the firm as well. Especially in 3D printing, we are starting to see an outsized impact from manufacturing/industrial companies and their venturing arms. Companies such as Stanley Black and Decker are even collaborating on funding series of firms. That 3D printing will be a disruptive force in industry is well understood by us inside the industry but is becoming more commonplace outside of it also.

Many believed that the mighty Desktop Metal engine was running on fumes so this investment is timely, to say the least. It propels Desktop Metal to new heights. If they can unlock all of this capital then they can easily outspend much larger established 3D printing companies in R&D for example.

HP is a behemoth and one could easily assume that they would have the reach and resources to be outspending everyone in the metal printing race. This investment clouds this for the near term and could give Desktop Metal edge.

This kind of investment should also mean that MarkForged could seek more capital if it wants to engage in an arms race with Desktop Metal.

Will companies such as Xjet and Exone also increasingly target more desktop machines in order to not have a kind of Innovator’s Dilemma problem and be surpassed from below?

Rik Fulop’s mastery in obtaining cash could give the company a huge war chest to see of new competition in inkjet while keeping established firms at bay.

What does this not change? 

Binder jetting metal or FDM combined with wax/polymer metal is not a race that is run. It is also not a filter for my phone pictures or a social network. We’re talking about very difficult hardware, materials and software challenges that have yet to be solved.

Acceptance is key in 3D printing and people are buying machines to help them in an organized way manufacture. Hype will fan the flames but peter out if the performance is not there.

So in adoption, there will be challenges in scaling the Desktop Metal service offering and the quality, output, and yield of machines over time. A lot of capital will have to be deployed there or partners will have to pick up the slack in service at least.

The MIM industry has been trying to solve shrinkage rates on injection molded metal parts for decades. They have not been able to do so successfully. In testing parts I’ve always remained skeptical of binder jetting metals or in wax/polymer FDM for metals. I predict that shrinkage differences in part size, across wall thicknesses and geometries, will continue to be problematic for users.

Distortion on parts, stringing, misprints in the FDM step are also potential issues with the Desktop Metal process.

This well-capitalized company with a lot of candle power is also up against Xjet which has a wealth of inkjet knowledge and one of the global homes of Inkjet prowess HP. Meanwhile, Markforged continues to grow hard making this binder jetting metals space a very competitive one.

There are however other inkjet patent heavy firms that may see this investment as an enticement to also make a similar system. It also may deter them.

GE will join this space, but who else will as well?

As well as companies that are working with similar technologies we have Digital Alloys and other new entrants that are also playing in this space.

People often forget that DLP and SLA machines make tens of millions of metal cast parts as well per year. Could increased automation make these systems competitive for many types of shapes as well?

Will Fused Deposition Modeling companies look more towards looking to metalized filaments for creating similar parts than Desktop Metal can make?

We will need to verify part densities, repeatability and how these parts function in the real world to really know how productive either Studio or larger production units can be for firms.

Will many companies continue to bet on HP because they have an established name? Or will Desktop Metal be able to parlay this move into inertia and inevitability?

The company has repeatedly missed launch deadlines and implementation dates with customers.

Experience with part production by others is very limited with Desktop Metal systems. There are few verifiable metal printed parts available at client sites and there is little data on the real world performance of Desktop Metal systems.

Outlook 

Investors seem to believe that the inexpensive metal printing opportunity is huge and that it may be winner takes all. Is it though? It is far too early to tell but I would assume that many tens of thousands of factories and design firms worldwide would profit from having on-site tooling and parts in metals. In prototyping, bridge manufacturing, tooling, and unique parts this could mean that we have thousands of machines as an opportunity. How many of those firms want the staff to do the debinding and sintering in house? If we add the labor cost, and the trouble will we really all have machines on site? Companies now don’t do their own HR and IT but Bob is going to get a room to print parts in on site?

This in my mind is a real unknown and would really depend on what the local metal printing service offering is and what parts people need when. How many have the right volume in parts to warrant this specific system? Yes, pizzas are the future but where and when will I opt for Dominos and when to make my own pizza? I’m confident that inexpensive metal parts for industry is a huge potential segment but what will be the form factor and throughput of machines in this area?

All in all I think that the hype in this particular area is over-optimistic money wanting desperately to plant a flag somewhere. There is an opportunity but this opportunity is not as self-fulfilling as it is in online video or social networks. There are fundamental complexities with binder jetting metals/extrusion with polymer metal filaments that will continue to be challenging. Desktop Metal has not demonstrated that they meet these challenges in real-world production. At the same time, many FDM firms could attempt something much less expensive that does work for a certain set of customers. I’m not convinced that Desktop Metal has the crown planted firmly on its own head at the moment. If the team continues to outperform and executes well in the year to come however then they could turn themselves into the company in pole position in metals.