The nervous system blog posts the secret to clean laser cutting using a 3D printed laser nozzle.
An important thing for a good laser cutter to have is a coaxial air assist, meaning the laser beam and the air stream point in the same direction, rather than having the air blow from the side. However that’s not all; it turns out the quality of your air can vary greatly. It’s not about how hard you blow, but how smooth the air is. You want the air to be very efficient otherwise it can be like blowing on a fire. Rather than removing smoke, you end up stoking the burn making cuts worse rather than better. This quality is called laminar flow (as opposed to turbulent flow).
To improve our air assist, we have developed a custom 3D printed nozzle for our laser cutter. There isn’t much information out there for designing air nozzles, except for spray guns which have a very different application. However, there are a lot of resources for designing DIY laminar flow nozzles for water, and that’s for one reason: super soakers. I found a great resource with lots of patents for nozzles called Super Soaker Central. There were 2 main takeaways I got from this: you want the exit of the nozzle to be very sharp and you can use thin channels in the nozzle to columnate the air and remove turbulence.
3D printing technology could challenge the way we eat in the future, making recipes trivial and letting the imagination run wild. It will basically disrupt the kitchen. When Paul Bocuse, one of the most celebrated French chefs of all time, reshaped the style of cooking at restaurants, many weren’t happy. Bringing fresh ingredients, unusual combinations and a great sense of creativity to the way Michelin-star institutions delivered their classic food concoctions would break the way professional cooking was done in restaurants forever. Food 3D printing is also working for a possible future cooking revolution along the same lines Bocuse did, with fresh produce, unconventional combinations, and creations that work beyond what any recipe could ever put forth, in an automated process. 3D printing in the food industry is also changing how hospital patients eat, as well as the way nutrition should be delivered in meals.
For Lynette Kucsma, the passionate mind behind the food 3D printing machine Foodini, there is no turning back. She believes that in the next 10 to 15 years, this technology will change the way people look at food. Foodini, developed by Natural Machines, is a 3D food printing kitchen appliance that enables personalized food, healthier eating, improved kitchen efficiency, and less food waste. Anyone can print using their own real, natural, fresh ingredients; customize foods, nutrition, and presentations, and printing just the amount they need and nothing more.
Lobster dish (Image: Natural Machines)
Co-founded by Kucsma and Emilio Sepulveda, who is also the CEO of the company, Natural Machines sought out to create food tech that would empower healthy eating, allowing people to control the food that goes into the 3D printer, the Foodini. To understand the success behind the technology and what lies ahead for the company, 3DPrint.com spoke to Kucsma.
“Our vision is that the 3D food printer will become a common kitchen appliance, much like a microwave or an oven,” suggested the entrepreneur and CMO at Natural Machines. “When people think about 3D food printing they imagine fancy foods and designs, which the machine can do of course, but it works for everything else too. Its helps to get rid of the preservatives but also to follow in the macrotrends for people that want to eat healthier and know more about what is in their food. Also, by using available fresh ingredients, people can become less reliant on packaged goods, which is something we have become so accustomed to buying.”
3D printed food is in a whole new industry, and Natural Machines has been around for seven years. But for Kucsma, it is not a long time in the scoop of an industry. The company, however, is growing, with global sales, and offices in New York City, Milan, Beijing, and headquarters in Barcelona. Their main markets are in Europe, North America, and Asia. Their core customer base includes restaurants and chefs, like the Torres brothers in Barcelona who currently own two Foodini devices and handle over 100 dishes every day; food service providers; food manufacturers; education industry; researchers; nutrition experts, and health companies.
“Of course, with 3D printed food, we are talking about professional kitchens: some of the chefs do prep ingredients and dishes in advance, other restaurants print in front of their customers and use it as more of a showpiece as well, while others use it in the kitchen and you never even imagine you were eating 3D printed food.”
Foodini machines in a restaurant (Image: Natural Machines)
Kucsma explained that from a tech perspective, they are basically using deposition printing, however, they didn’t just take a 3D printer off the shelf and then manipulate it to handle food, instead, the device was created from scratch because they needed it to be food grade safe. The Foodini is extrusion-based and comes with five nozzles of varying sizes and five stainless steel capsules, along with other accessories. Foods can be made into a paste and easily printed, like doughs, chocolate, chicken, and so much more. Even ground beef can be turned into burgers. The capsules can hold “endless types of different textures” explained Kucsma.
She also suggests that “the technology is slightly different in the sense that we don’t use standard slicing software or one print speed. Typically with 3D printers that use plastic or metal, you are working with one ingredient and one print speed, but we don’t do that. Instead, we are optimizing for the ingredients you are printing, and customizing it thanks to the different nozzle sizes available.”
Natural Machines is involved in several active projects, from encouraging younger generations to act in favor of food sustainability to new technologically advanced and nutritionally balanced food products in innovative formats. Along with the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics, they use Foodini to print appealing and flavorful creations to serve patients on dysphagia diets or other conditions that require consistency-modified diets.
Foodini dysphagia print series: a printed plate made up of steak, potatoes, and vegetables for patients with nutrition problems due to health or swallowing problems (Image: Natural Machines)
Foodini is also used by a number of research and development companies pursuing innovative advances in food and food production solutions. With institutes training the next generation of hospitality and culinary arts professionals to use the machine as an example of evolution in culinary practices.
More recently the company became a partner in Europe’s EIT Food consortium and is working on an oncology project called ONCOFOOD, which provides new innovative food solutions for cancer patients considering nutritional requirements and sensory alterations, promoting the pleasure of eating and preventing malnutrition.
“Helping cancer patients who have trouble swallowing, either temporarily or long term, due to their treatment. We are taking foods and making them look much more realistic and presentable because basically what patients are eating today is a blob mash, so imagine eating that for every meal and every day? The colors and flavor of the food profiles may change but anyone would quickly get bored with that. However, when we print those foods, whether we take a chicken breast and puree it to print it in the shape of a drumstick, or if we take carrots and puree them to print stacked carrots, we are sure that people will enjoy them, and this has been proven. We can even do fun shapes for younger patients, which is helping them eat more, better as well as with their recovery,” said Kucsma.
Foodini technology today does all the work to create what the user wants, however, pizzas, cookies, and other foods still need to be cooked in an oven. So the next step for Natural Machines is a Foodini 3D printer that will add a cooking function, and the company recently announced how they are doing it. Their next food 3D printer will be called the Foodini Pro, and although the release date is not yet set in stone, the machine will use lasers to cook.
Cooking with lasers in FoodiniPro (Image: Natural Machines)
According to Kucsma, the brand new development will be much more efficient and focused on regular consumers instead of just targeting professional kitchen users and researching institutions.
“We began working on this new technology six years ago, and we are now announcing how we are doing it, which means that it won’t be available this year and it’s hard to put an actual date, but we are thinking it might be a couple of years before we begin selling them.”
Having a Foodini at home is quite an adventure for Kucsma, who described the experience of 3D printing food with her kids as an incredible challenge to her own creativity. “I tried printing everything for my kids, from spinach quiche dinosaurs to guacamole shaped as Gaudi’s multicolored salamander known as “the dragon”, which we had recently seen at the Park Güell (Barcelona),” described Kucsma, whose two children inspire a lot of her 3D cooking projects.
Guacamole salamander (Image: Natural Machines)
At Natural Machines, they develop everything, from the software to the hardware. Plus, the machine works as Internet of Things (IoT) device. Kucsma said that “even today there are some pieces of hardware that don’t necessarily function because we didn’t write the software for it yet, but we wanted to build them in the hardware so that when we do get the software done, we can push it out.”
A lot of the challenges for the company are part of the education process. Their goal is not just to sell the device, but to educate people on why 3D printing is so useful. Still, the founders know that there is no such thing as an overnight success, knowing that it takes time to get the technology in place.
Even though Foodini machines began selling in 2018, the company has found a way to quickly capture the interest of the food industry as well as researchers and food consortiums. The extraordinary designs, presentations and nutritious dishes that can be made with this machine are endless. Just like 3D printing is disrupting industries everywhere, it is now the turn of food specialists to incorporate Foodini as part of the next generation in the food evolution.
3Dflow is a private software company operating in the field of Computer Vision and Image Processing. It was established in 2011 as a spin-off of the University of Verona, and in 2012 it became a spin-off of the University of Udine. 3Dflow is a company that provides solutions in Photogrammetry, 3D modeling of reality, 3D processing, and 3D visual effects. Their customers range from small industries competitors to large scale entertainment companies. In this article we will be analyzing this company as well as showcasing their workshop for 3D imaging and photogrammetry, as well as their world cup competition.
3Dflow is a company that is based in Italy. It is a small organization with fewer than 15 employees. The main value proposition this organization gives is its ability to use computer vision and software in combination to create 3D image data. For the stitching of the point cloud data of multiple photos, the organization provides software that does this for the user. The software is called 3DF Zephyr. 3DF Zephyr comes in the following forms:
The free version of 3DF Zephyr includes full 3D construction, a 50 photo limit, single NVIDIA GPU support, basic exporting capabilities, and basic editing tools, and full forum support. 3DF Zephyr Lite differences include Dual NVIDIA GPU Support, 1 year upgrades included, basic email, and full forum support. The 3DF Zephyr Pro version has full exporting capabilities, advanced editing tools, control points & measurements, laser scan support, 1 year upgrades included, full email, and forum support. 3D Zephyr Aerial has all the previous abilities and GIS, CAD, and Survey Tools.
3Dflow still comes from an educational background in terms of its founding story. It explains how they have transitioned to a consulting company as well as an organization that is focused on research and development. It also explains why they offer a free version of their software as an educational version for students. They care about building software for the future of photogrammetry as well as 3D imaging. They have developed specific algorithms and frameworks that are proprietary to their organization. This includes:
3DF Samantha
3DF Statsia
3DF Sasha
3DF Masquerade
3DF Stasia is the proprietary algorithm to extract very accurate dense point clouds from a set of 2D images. In Computer Vision this process is best known as a multiview stereo. The first step is to extract the corresponding points in two images and the second step is the 3D reconstruction with algorithms like Discrete Linear Transform. The Discrete Linear Transform, or Discrete Fourier Transform used in a linear model, converts a finite sequence of equally-spaced samples of a function into a same-length sequence of equally-spaced samples of the discrete-time Fourier transform (DTFT), which is a complex-valued function of frequency. The function we are dealing with in this case is the stitching together or images into 3D object data. Using DLT, the reconstruction is done only where there are SCPs. By increasing the number of points, the results improve but it is time consuming. This method has low accuracy because of low reproducibility and time consumption. This method is dependent on the skill of the operator. This method is not suitable for bony structures with continuous shape. This method is generally used as an initial solution for other methods. Hence the other technology developed by 3DF is vital.
3DF Sasha is their proprietary algorithm for mesh extraction: given a dense point cloud full of details, it is important to preserve as much detail as possible when extracting the surface. Sasha allows one to get sharp edges on a 3D model and that is why it is more suitable for applications such as architecture, industrial surveying, and urban monitoring. Without the precision of point cloud data, the resulting stitch of 2D images would come out to be noisy.
To clean up residual noise from the data, 3Dflow employs their 3DF Masquerade tool. This tool has been developed as an external executable that is included in the 3DF Zephyr installation package. Masquerade can mask images so it can save time during masking operations. 3DF Masquerade is helpful when there is a lot of background noise or when the subject has been moved incoherently with the background: the most common scenario is a subject that is being acquired on a turntable.
The first photogrammetry & 3D scanning training course in the English language by 3Dflow in Verona (Italy), next September 30th, October 1st and October 2nd! One will learn photogrammetry with 3DF Zephyr: this course will tackle everything from photography for photogrammetry (basic and advanced shooting techniques) to data processing with 3DF Zephyr, on both photogrammetry-only workflows and a external-data oriented workflows (e.g. laser scanners). Theory and practice on the software will be paired with an actual test-acquisition Verona, a world-famous history-rich cities in Italy and home of 3Dflow.
I will be attending this workshop to learn and report on this next month, but I encourage others to look into the 3Dflow organization and see what they are doing. Also be sure to signup for their workshop here.
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!
In this article, I would like to tell some interesting things about Endurance Lasers. Over the past 4 years, we have sold more than 2000 units worldwide, and our Facebook community is growing rapidly. I’ve started calling it the “Endurance family.”
When we started this business back in 2015 I did not expect that it would become so successful. Back then we only offered 2.1 watt lasers. Many of our customers wanted more capable and powerful lasers. So the business was developing pretty slowly. People wanted to cut thicker materials and engrave firmer surfaces, metals for instance. That moved us towards higher power laser modules. Since then we have developed many laser add-ons: 2.1 watt, 3.5 watt, 5.6 watt, 8 watt, 8.5 watt, 10 watt, 10 watt+ and 20 watt double beam lasers to give people more power and capabilities.
Leather is one of the many materials that our units can engrave well.
We have achieved a lot: our 10/10+/20 watt lasers cut 3-4 mm of plywood and wood quite easily and can engrave on many surfaces: steel, stainless steel, copper, brass, stone, glass, etc. But that did not stop us from advancing further with new technologies. Right now we keep on testing more powerful diodes and laser tools to build more powerful units for our customers. Our latest improvements make our lasers more efficient.
Our 10/10+/20 watt lasers have undergone many improvements over the years. Working with 445 nm NICHIA laser diodes, we seem to have hit their physical limits. We simply could not increase the beam power any further. Now we are exploring new optics opportunities including fiber coupling and laser beam combinations. Soon we plan to announce a triple-beam laser with 30 watt optical power output.
the Endurance Laser Box
We have added some useful features to a 10 watt+ laser as well: such as an air assist, a bigger focusing ring and a laser box to measure the temperature, voltage and current while the laser is working. I’m proud to say that at the moment that our 10 watt+ is one of the most advanced laser attachments on the market today, suitable for any 3D printer or CNC machine. A bigger focus ring lets us keep the laser focused all the time as opposed to many Chinese analogs which can not do this. Our next step is to make a more powerful unit.
Research on the Nescel + FAP800 by Coherent
Trying to build more powerful units, we redirected our attention to some modules by Nescel and Coherent. Nescel offers a 10 watt 520 nm laser model while Coherent offers a FAP800 with 15 / 25 / 30 / 45 watt laser modules with a NIR wavelength of 808 nm. The difficulty in operating these lasers is related to the specific voltage and current setting. Thus, a FAP800 Coherent requires 2V and 40A which is not typical, and to find affordable AC DC or DC DC converters is a challenge. That is why we have developed our own AC DC with an adjustable voltage of 1.5-3V with stabilized and adjustable current settings. Now this AC DC converter is available for you.
The FAP800.
Our first launch of the FAP800 25 watt laser module brought us a good measure of optimism. Though there are still some issues to be resolved such as the: cooling of the laser module and the optics on the fiber and laser driver module in order for it to be fully compatible with all CNC machines and 3D printers. However, testing and running of the Nescel 520 nm 10 watt AVG did not satisfy us and we decided to leave that technology for a while.
Community and support
I personally believe that a good, friendly and supportive community is very important to a company or a business, especially to a startup. It is generally acknowledged that if you run your own business you must forget about days off and holidays. And I can say it is very true, as I am writing this article on a train taking me to the mountains. I am lucky that our Facebook community unites a lot of knowledgeable, supportive and interesting people. When my customers find drawbacks in our products they do not get angry, they very often help us improve them. There is always room for improvement. Our community members care about our product and are always eager to help. I’m so grateful to all of them for their kind words and assistance. This is very inspiring.
Another thing that I actually find very important is support. I do not understand why many businesses do not really care about their customers’ opinions. Look around, all robotic answering machines, no option to call or talk to a real person, no option to leave feedback or make a suggestion. That places me as a consumer in a strange position: I pay for the product, but what about support and service? Most businesses selling their products on Ebay or Amazon just leave you on your own.
Upgrade your current laser
This Upgrade plan came to my mind once we started to release more and more powerful units. Some of our customers feel upset when we begin to sell brand new products soon after they have made a purchase. That is why we offer buyback and upgrade options. A customer can exchange an older version of the item for a newer one with a little extra payment. We like that. This works even for a customer who has already has a laser from another manufacturer. It is quite simple with our upgrade kit to get a double beam laser(one US farming companies took advantage of this offer and cuts tape now with their new upgraded lasers).
Different applications
We are exploring new ways of using diode lasers in daily life and helping CNC users and enthusiasts to try them in action. The most popular way of using them today is in laser marking (etching) on metallic surfaces and laser cutting of acrylic, wood and plywood. For example our customer Florian Kelsch opened a new business with our 10-watt laser, and he is a real master of laser cutting and laser engraving on metallic surfaces.
I believe that supporting academics, students is a key point out of our social mission. Most research plans look quite promising and some have a lot of practical value. I wish we could donate more lasers in future. I am sure that there are so many different ways to use diode lasers in pharma, microbiology, medicine, quantum physics, classical physics, chemistry, etc. I am deeply concerned that use of powerful laser modules are still very limited. By inspiring educators and academics to play with them we hope to change this in the future. We usually donate older lasers free of charge to educators. We also like to send free lasers to academics and STEM centers worldwide, this February 2019 we sent 9 units to educators.
At last week’s second annual Additive Manufacturing Strategies (AMS) summit, held in Boston and co-hosted by 3DPrint.com and SmarTech Markets Publishing, there were several firsts, including an exhibition floor, a startup showdown, dedicated workshops, and two separate tracks for medical and dental 3D printing. During the official opening of AMS 2019, “The Future of 3D Printing in Medicine and Dentistry,” Lawrence Gasman, the President of SmarTech Markets Publishing, said that while last year’s event had participants from roughly 11 countries, this year 24 countries, along with 27 US states, were represented.
The first keynote speaker at AMS 2019 was Dr. Ali Tinazli, the Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences Strategy for HP; he discussed the democratization of medicine and the implications of this. On the final day of the summit, Lars Neumann from German machine tool supplier TRUMPF took the stage for the final keynote presentation, titled “Integrating Additive Manufacturing Into Medical Device Production” and centering around 3D printed instruments and implants.
Neumann, who works at the company’s south German location, explained that TRUMPF is a family business, and that after 90 years in the manufacturing business, it has “quite a bit of a track record” in the medical field, noting examples like using lasers to cut stents.
“If there are any doctors here, typically I’m not talking to you…my presentation today is the production of these devices,” Neumann stated at the beginning, explained that he was mostly talking to the medical device manufacturers.
Neumann noted that in the previous days at the summit, attendees had seen and heard lots of numbers, and said that he was going to be “looking at growth, more than the actual numbers.”
Speaking of those numbers, he mentioned that growth rates for 3D printed medical devices were around 10-15%, which is “quite a significant growth year on year.” But when it comes to fusion devices, Neumann said that people in the industry believe that additive manufacturing will be used 100% in the future.
Some of the main things Neumann said we need to keep discussing to allow serial additive manufacturing to become economically viable for more implants and devices include system and process capability, cost per part, and quality assurance, as “driving up quality lowers cost.”
But how can we assure quality when it comes to 3D printing? Neumann said lots of input, such as CAD data, are necessary when attempting to fabricate a medical device that fulfills all of its defined specifications, since the regulations and standards (like ASTM and ISO) aren’t complete yet. While the lengthy old guard of quality assurance centered around manually maintaining the quality of inputs, like powder, during 3D printing and post-processing and then again checking the completed product, now that imaging equipment and sensors are being added to help ensure quality during the build, we can ideally intervene, if necessary, during the actual 3D printing process.
It’s equally as important to lower the cost per part. In manufacturing environments, such as factory floors, ideally the 3D printers should be working on builds around the clock, instead of having to take time for set-up and cleaning. Neumann said that to help ensure this notion, laser off times need to be reduced, and that all other processes, such as post-processing, should be moved to different locations so that the printers can just keep doing what they do.
In terms of system and process capability, Neumann asked the room what the industry could be doing better to arrive at not only different implants, but also more of them. His personal impression is that, since the additive manufacturing field is developing so quickly, process chain integration is one of the main topics at the moment, along with software, and that machine technology will need to be pushed again a few years down the road.
Neumann stated that in terms of additive manufacturing, the main medical device categories are:
standardized implants
personalized implants
medical instruments
non-implantable devices
He also noted what he called “three key advantages” for 3D printing in the medical field: mass personalization, which provides new treatment options; using porous structures to improve osseointegration; and cost-effective manufacturing, such as low- to mid-volume, less expensive materials, and the ability to create complex shapes. Neumann said that this last point is “slowly coming into focus,” because when it comes to medical 3D printing, hundreds of thousands of parts are not always needed, which can definitely help keep costs down.
Because of increased interest by medical device manufacturers to use 3D printing, Neumann believes that instrumentation as an application will definitely grow, and mentioned that about 100 3D printed medical devices are already FDA-approved.
Switching the focus to the metals used to 3D print many of these instruments and devices, Neumann said that while many people have been excited about titanium in recent years, new materials like cobalt chrome and stainless steel are the talk of the town at this point in time. With a nod to one of his previous points, he also brought up how preheating implants 3D printed with Ti64ELI can affect the overall quality of the final component by ensuring less distortion. Neumann said that more information on this will come from TRUMPF later in the year, but did note that in the future, it may no longer be necessary to use as much heat treatment, which also helps lower costs.
Finishing up, Neumann said that aerospace companies are the only ones that possess guidelines to follow when installing metal 3D printers, and that it would be helpful if this would eventually spread to other sectors as well, such as the medical field.
“I hope someday this norm is valid for all industries equally,” Neumann stated.
Some of the questions asked at the end of Neumann’s keynote were quite interesting. One person approached the mic and asked his opinion on the currently available simulation tools, and Neumann said that the software is interesting and seeing a lot of investment at the moment, as many companies, such as OEMs, that use 3D printing are running simulations ahead of nearly every component they’re manufacturing in order to predict defects early on. But, he also noted that the data coming from these simulation solutions has yet to be validated.
Another attendee mentioned again the demand for new, exotic materials in medical instrument 3D printing, and asked Neumann for any specific examples. While it may not sound exotic, he said that stainless steel is one material that many manufacturers can use without having to change the production or post-processing methods, meaning that re-certification won’t be required, so lead times will likely decrease.
Plans have already been laid in motion for the third annual Additive Manufacturing Strategies summit, which will be held from January 29-30, 2020 and will include a metal 3D printing track. To keep up to date on registration information and everything else for AMS 2020, sign up for our newsletter here.
Discuss this news and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the comments below.
