3D Printing News Briefs: October 18, 2019

The stories we’re sharing in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs run the gamut from materials to new printers. Altair has launched its new industrial design solution, and Remet opened a metal 3D printing lab in Poland. Innofil3D is sharing lots of material news, and Equispheres has released the test results for a unique 3D printing powder. Finally, Hackaday published a micro 3D printer project.

Altair Launches New Industrial Design and Rendering Solution

The “Geko Ring Collection,” jewelry by Luca Palmini, designed and rendered with Inspire Studio. Image courtesy of Luca Palmini.

Global technology company Altair has launched Inspire Studio, its new 3D design and rendering solution, to help architects, designers, and digital artists create, evaluate, and visualize designs. The solution builds on the functions of Altair Evolve, and includes 3D rendering and animation software Inspire Render, which helps users rapidly generate photorealistic product renderings and animations. Both Inspire Studio and Inspire Render run on MacOS and Windows, and help designers open up their creativity to go beyond traditional CAID tools. The solutions will be introduced next month during a one-day launch event in Italy, and you can also get a free ticket to formnext 2019, where you can learn more about Inspire Studio and Inspire Render at Altair’s booth E11, hall 11.1.

“We are very pleased with these two new solutions for the global industrial design community. Inspire Studio builds on our previous industrial design tool, Evolve, while going beyond Evolve’s capabilities. Inspire Studio will enhance designers’ creativity by letting them drive their designs. It offers an intuitive user interface and a powerful construction history, allowing them to quickly create and explore multiple iterations of their design. Relying on the same modern user experience with powerful interactive, full progressive and raytracing rendering engine, Inspire Render will help designers quickly run photorealistic renderings and walkthrough animations on GPUs and CPUs,” said James Dagg, CTO at Altair.

3D Design and Rendering Software | Altair Inspire Studio

Remet Opens Modern Metal 3D Printing Laboratory

Polish steel structures manufacturer for the oil and gs mining industry, Remet, has launched a metal 3D printing laboratory equipped with a range of high quality machines and devices. The first of these is the DMP Flex 350 by 3D Systems, followed by 3D Systems’ Figure 4, the office-friendly metallic powder atomizer ATO Lab, and plenty of other specialized research equipment. Remet completed the project together with 3D Lab, a top Polish industrial 3D printer distributor and manufacturer of the ATO Lab.

The ATO Lab metal atomizer, which enables testing and fabrication of many powdered metal alloys, was the starting point for this unique laboratory. A new branch of the enterprise, called Remet Metal Labs, is where the company will work on comprehensive additive manufacturing and industrial applications projects. Its goal is to create highly flexible conditions for creating prototypes in the powder production field, and automotive, aviation, and space industry customers are invited to work with Remet to take advantage of the lab. 3D Lab and Remet will present their solutions together at formnext in Frankfurt next month.

Innofil3D Materials and Design Rules Video

This week, Innofil3D, and its parent company BASF, have a lot of news to share. First up, Ultrafuse BVOH, its water-soluble support filament, is now available for purchase, along with its new Ultrafuse 316L metal filament. Designed for easy FFF 3D printing, this is the company’s first metal material – 80% stainless steel with a 20% polymer content.

For users interested in 3D printing their Innofil3D PRO1 filament on a Raise3D printer, you can now join the Raise3D Open Filament Program to take advantage of optimized settings and print profiles. This new program is a collaboration between Raise3D and filament manufacturers, like Innofil3D, to find the top-performing materials for its 3D printers. Finally, Innofil3D has released its second video tutorial for design rules and principles of FFF 3D printing. Check out the video below, and be sure to visit BASF at its large K-Fair exhibit in Hall 5, C21/D21.

Equispheres Releases Test Results for Unique AM Powder

Materials science technology company Equispheres has released the results from its first powder testing phase, completed by a facility that certifies AM materials for applications in aerospace and defense. The results have confirmed that the powder has exceeded expectations, allowing for a 20-30% increase in mechanical performance and a 50% increase in production speeds. In light of this news, Equispheres is launching new equity financing in order to, as the company wrote in a press release, “grow and unlock the vast potential of Additive Manufacturing.”

“The unique properties of our powder, including the high sphericity, narrow particle size distribution and low surface area results in significantly increased packing density.  This allows an increase of powder layer thickness by a factor of 2 which significantly increases build speed. Most importantly, this boost to build speed does not come with a mechanical performance penalty.  Instead, the uniform nature of our powder ensures that parts are produced with reliable and consistent mechanical properties.  The minimal variance in our performance results provides design engineers the statistical confidence to produce stronger, lighter parts,” said Equispheres’ CTO, Dr Martin Conlon.

Hackaday Project: Micro Deltesian 3D Printer

A new Hackaday project by architect Ekaggrat Singh Kalsi was just published – a micro Deltesian 3D printer, which he says offers a quality that’s on par with any Cartesian 3D printer. The printer has a solid aluminum frame, with a standard slider Y axis and a Delta mechanism for the XZ axis. A 3.5″ LCD touchscreen, with a built-in SD card, is fast and easy enough for his young daughter to use, which was his ultimate goal. With an 80 x 100 x 85 mm build volume and a print bed held in place with magnets, the biggest challenge in making the minuscule 3D printer easy to use was the filament loading; Singh Kalsi used a lever-based latch mechanism for this.

“the micro deltesian was born out of the curiosity of building the convoluted deltesian mechanism,” he explained. “Later on it evolved into the idea of building a 3d printer simple enough to be used by my daughter. The deltesian mechanism seem very wierd when i first saw it but eventually i thought maybe i should give it a try and hence this printer was born.”

Watch the video below to see just how easily his daughter uses the micro Deltesian 3D printer:

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

The post 3D Printing News Briefs: October 18, 2019 appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Industry Experts Interviews: Aaron Trocola on 3D Printing Fashion & Wearable Tech

Aaron Trocola

Aaron Trocola is an Industrial designer and consultant specializing in product development using additive manufacturing processes, often leveraging 3D data for customization, and especially in the context of the human body. His early work in developing visualization systems for 3D display and surgical simulation tools has transferred well to product design, where additive manufacturing (3D printing) brings opportunities for efficient and cost effective development of products as well as creative freedom. He is a tech and fashion innovator who has a lot of great experience that he applies to various work he does currently within the field. He currently works as a 3D printing consultant to the Brooklyn Fashion Design Accelerator as well as independently on his Threeform Fashion which he has been doing for over eight years.

Tell me about your background.

I am an industrial designer. I come from a product design background. I specialized in 3D printing. In particular, I focused on organic 3D printing. I found a niche on wearable tech and 3d printing. The adaptation of wearable tech pieces was around 2009. I then started to work on body scanning stuff. I worked at a 3D display company back then. I then worked on some haptic devices. I was able to learn a lot about computer graphics and 3D printing. 2011 I worked on laser sintered nylon pieces. Shapeways made it possible back then. I was able to get a lot of those pieces and then was invited to see multiple fashion shows after that. A lot of those shows are really experimental. I work on experimental pieces to develop and validate the technology with geometric models. I focus on things that are not usable for consumers at the moment.

What is the barrier to future use?

What is the goal? We can not compete with cloth. 3D printing is the contact point between industrial made products and more organic items. We are able to gain a lot of control with 3D printing. For me I see the utility in making elegant packaging and assembly. I have a couple talks about the arrangement of wearables, technology, and apparel. Implants, things stuck to the surface of the skin, backpacks, belts, etc. There is the benefit in static layers. MRI data can help us gain amazing data for 3D design. One can now make patches and different items within clothes. We want to integrate tech and clothes seamlessly. It is not necessary to over do technology within clothing. Price is very important. We do have stretchable material, but they are not as durable. It is still important to focus on re-usability.

Volumetric Models of the Body

Who are people to pay attention to in 3D printed fashion?

Top names already have their rising star moment. It seems to be most people in the field are only doing one off projects. I think more organizations are doing the work. Most of these people have to link up with a research institution. A lot of the stuff that is done must be done with some company whom will work on IP protection.

Iris van Herpen is a Dutch designer to look into. She worked her way up in terms of making a bunch of pieces for a collection. In 2011 she worked with Materialise. She does not do modeling, but she has a bunch of skill in drawing and materials.

Why are dresses the focus in 3D printed fashion?

Social media. Fashion is such a huge industry. It is 4 trillion dollars. If you are to add fashion media it is immense. Anyone who has flipped through a fashion magazine is able to compare items and what we see in the magazine. Nothing is really made with real clothing. One can make a random scarf and make it look amazing. One can use a refined piece within 3D printing. This allows for some pieces I have made to be used. Heidi Lee is able to put a lot of stuff on social media for example of my work. We should not really focus on 100% 3D printed things such as a full dress. We shouldn’t think of replacing fibers made through plants. We are going to have to wait for more molecular modeling.

I think synthetic biology is the future for materials within 3D printing and fashion. What do you think?

I agree. It is important to mimic biology. With 3D printed scaffolds that is a great direction to go. Being able to manipulate structure is highly important. I would like to see what people do with bio-printing and other interesting proteins that could help bind and cross linked molecules. There is a lot of potential. Current textiles are focused on biological processes. I think what we will see continual development that starts with mechanical assembly of traditional styles. Next steps focus on mechanical assembly of garments. Most of the impact will be in shapes that are made differently. Fast fashion will be a big play for this. 3D printing will be able to break into that particular field. Fast fashion electronics are such a huge thing as well.

Designs by Aaron

What are some things that are important for the field?

We need to digitize the body. Everyone should have a 3D scan done. This will allow us to be able to have info that can be a volumetric image of our body. This allows us to have custom fashion.

Twist Light Reinvents the Lighting Industry

What started out as an exploration into the flexible properties of different materials soon became a revolutionary product for Boston-based industrial designer Evan Gant. His design, the Twist Light, is a pendant light that transforms to adjust the brightness with a simple twist. At the start of his design process, Gant was making prototypes simply out of paper towel rolls. Then, seeing the product’s potential, he moved into using 3D printing to prototype the Twist Light.

“I started out trying to find a way to get some of my ideas out of my sketchbook and into a physical form,” Gant told Shapeways. “My first project was a printed ring for my wife as an anniversary present. Then I made a few items to use around the house before I decided to start selling some of my projects.”

From Paper Towel Rolls to 3D Printing

While using paper towel rolls was of help in the very beginning stages of the design process, Gant has now seen the many benefits to prototyping with 3D printing. In fact, he notes that using companies like Shapeways over traditional manufacturing methods — like injection molding — has proved to have many more benefits than expected.

Array pendant light made by Evan Gant, shop owner of OliveBird

Array by OliveBird

“It gives me an opportunity to try ideas out and get them in people’s hands rather than committing to a larger scale production. I also love that I can test out people’s interest in an idea and see what feedback I get from selling/sharing the ideas. It is very easy to make changes, or even scrap the idea and move on without feeling like I am too invested. My favorite part of the design process is iterating and seeing the reaction to ideas. In a traditional process (like injection molding), a large portion of your time is spent optimizing from a mold, finding a vender that will make you parts, doing quality control, etc. You often need to make a lot of compromises to your design in the end.”

Choosing 3D Printing Over Desktop Printing

On the flip side, Gant notes the benefits of using Shapeways over other 3D printing methods like desktop printing, saying, “I love having access to the variety of printing methods. I can switch between materials, colors build volumes, etc. If I had a home machine, I would have to stock the materials, maintain the machine and probably deal with a small build volume, or have a very expensive machine. Also, most of the affordable home machines are FDM, which is a great process but has limitations in terms of surface finish and level of detail.”

Twist pendant light made by Evan Gant, shop owner of OliveBird

Twist by OliveBird

The Twist Light is now in its 4th iteration and only getting better. Gant explains the constant need for it to be dimensionally accurate, as well as for it to have good aesthetics.

“Given that I would like to sell the ideas with no secondary finishes, I need the parts to look good when they come out of the printer, which is why I really like the durable and flexible plastics. It is cleaner than an FDM while being flexible and durable (obviously), and the cost per square inch is reasonable.”

As he moves forward with his product, Gant is excited to see it come to fruition. He applauds Shapeways for our customer service and low costs, among other benefits.

“I think that Shapeways is a very customer friendly service, easy to understand the costs and build limitations. The best part for me is the ease of which I can turn ideas around into something I can sell, which I can use to fund my next project. I have appreciated Shapeways sharing my projects in the past and driving more sales.”

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