3D printing industry news sliced: Nexa3D, Lulzbot, Protolabs, Shapeways, Arkema, 3D Hubs and more. 

In this edition of Sliced, the 3D Printing Industry news digest, we cover the latest business developments, partnerships, and acquisitions across our industry.  Today’s edition features supply chain updates, additive manufacturing partnerships, new 3D printing materials, a number of investments in the industry and a 3D printed  off-road electric vehicle.  Read on for the most […]

Michigan Tech researchers invent open-source grinding machine for compression screw 3D printing

Perennial 3D printing innovator and Professor at Michigan Technological University (MTU) Joshua Pearce, has teamed up with MTU colleague Jacob Franz, to create an open-source grinding machine for compression screw manufacturing.  Dr Pearce, who has consistently championed the advancement of open-source 3D printing, led the project, which yielded a low-cost, easily replicable open-source machine. Reportedly […]

Syndaver launches its first 3D printer, the SynDaver Axi

Syndaver, the US-based manufacturer of synthetic humans and animals for surgical training and simulation, has launched its inaugural line of 3D printers, the Axi.  Having used additive manufacturing extensively within its existing business, the company has now launched a desktop extrusion machine of its own. Aimed at prosumers and hobbyists, the US-made 3D printer is […]

3D Printing Industry Review of the Year: December 2019

Concluding 2019, December saw Stratasys appoint a new CEO after over a year of searching and Lulzbot also announces its move to North Dakota. Furthermore, additive manufacturing advances in the transport and lighting sectors and trends are observed  following Formnext 2019. Stratasys appoints a new CEO, Lulzbot moves to North Dakota Leading 3D printer OEM Stratasys appointed Yoav […]

3D Printing Industry Review of the Year: October 2019

The month of October saw a number of AM developments within the aerospace sector including the fundraising for the Terran 1 rocket as well as partnerships accelerating the production of various 3D printed space components. Moreover, major business movements occurred from Lulzbot, EOS, Stratasys, and others. Aerospace developments Relativity Space, a Californian 3D printed rocket […]

Lulzbot closing by end of October? Lawsuit filed by employee

Following the speculation that Aleph Objects, manufacturer of Lulzbot open-source 3D printers had met its end, the company has refused to deny claims that it is indeed shutting down.  An email attributed to Aleph Objects states, “We regret to inform you that the owners of Aleph Objects Inc, makers of Lulzbot 3D printers, have decided to […]

Lulzbot not dead – despite rumors to the contrary

Rumors spreading around the untimely demise of popular open-source 3D printer manufacturer Lulzbot are untrue.  Internet speculation has gained pace from an initial post on Reddit earlier today and spread to blog posts. Lisa Ketner, VP of Global Sales & Support at Aleph Objects, confirmed to 3D Printing Industry that the company is very much […]

LulzBot Releases It’s First Bioprinter

Bioprinting is revolutionizing the way 3D printed tissues can be used to mimic in vivo conditions. The fields of regenerative medicine, pharmaceutical development, and cosmetic testing are benefiting from this technological disruption, enabling researchers and companies to better predict efficacy and toxicology of potential drugs early on in the drug discovery process. But it’s no wonder this technology is so enticing, since bringing a new drug to market, with current methods, could cost $350 million dollars and can take more than a decade from start to finish. On the North American front, Colorado-based manufacturer Aleph Objects, the developer behind the LulzBot 3D Printers, announced today a new open-source bioprinter: the LulzBot Bio.

After almost ten years of manufacturing 3D printers, LulzBot finally decided to move into the bioprinting market. The new machine, which is now available for pre-order on the site and will begin shipping in November, enables 3D printing with materials such as unmodified collagen, bioinks, and other soft materials, and is the company’s first-ever Fluid Deposition Fabrication (FDF) 3D printer. FDF is a newfangled name for the FRESH process which we wrote about here and here.  According to LulzBot, unlike its pneumatic counterparts, the Bio’s syringe pump system allows for precise stopping and retraction, preventing unintentional extrusion and stringing while printing intricate models, like vasculature.

The new LulzBot Bio

The printer has a Free Software design that removes proprietary restrictions, providing, what the company considers, a versatile platform for innovation that grows with everchanging discoveries and advancements. LulzBot reports a commitment to freedom of design in general, developing machines that come with freely licensed designs, and specifications, allowing for modifications and improvements to both software and hardware. In this respect, they have partnered with organizations, such as the Open Source Hardware Association, Free Software, and Libre Innovation. The Bio’s free software and open hardware design give researchers the ability to innovate together, letting the machine be easily adjusted for new materials and processes.

“For researchers, you don’t know what materials or processes you’ll be using in six months, let alone one year from now, so you need hardware that can be adjusted quickly and easily, without proprietary restrictions,” said Grant Flaharty, CEO and President of Aleph Objects.

The LulzBot Bio touchscreen for easy control

The LulzBot Bio comes with nearly everything needed to start bioprinting right away, including extensively tested, preconfigured material profiles in Cura LulzBot Edition, the recommended software for the LulzBot printers; Petri dishes; Life Support gel (by FluidForm); alginate, and tools. It also enables printing with unmodified collagen, something that has proven extremely difficult and is considered one of the most promising materials for bioprinting applications, since it is the human body’s major structural protein and is prominent in biological structures.

Actually, printing with unmodified collagen is currently done using the FRESH method, short for Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels, which was developed and refined by the Regenerative Biomaterials and Therapeutics Group at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. The LulzBot Bio is actually FRESH-certified, which means it uses thermoreversible support gels to hold soft materials during printing. Then, the temporary support gel is then dissolved, leaving the print intact.

“Other bioprinting techniques often require materials to be chemically altered or mixed with other materials to make them 3D printable,” explained Steven Abadie, CTO of Aleph Objects. “Because of the excellent biocompatibility of collagen, being able to 3D print with it in its original form brings us that much closer to recreating models that mimic human physiology.”

As stated by the company, the LulzBot Bio has already been instrumental in 3D printing some of the first-ever fully functional human heart tissue. This was achieved by a team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon, led by Adam Feinberg, that used the new device to 3D print heart tissue containing collagen and producing parts of the heart at various scales, from capillaries to the full organ.

“What we’ve shown is that we can print pieces of the heart out of cells and collagen into parts that truly function, like a heart valve or a small beating ventricle. By using MRI data of a human heart, we were able to accurately reproduce patient-specific anatomical structure and 3D bioprint collagen and human heart cells,” inidcated Adam Feinberg, principal investigator of the Regenerative Biomaterials and Therapeutics Group at Carnegie Mellon and co-founder of FluidForm.

FluidForm, powered by Carnegie’s research, has been working on the science behind the FRESH technology for quite some time. Now, Aleph Objects has taken the concept straight to the hardware, manufacturing this new machine, which they expect will be the first step to open up bioprinting to the broader market for exponential innovation.

Last June, LulzBot had already announced its collaboration with FluidForm, to combine their expertise and offer new bioprinting solutions. The LulzBot Bio has also been used by Newell Washburn, professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry at Carnegie, and a team of his colleagues to demonstrate how a new machine-learning algorithm could optimize high quality, soft material 3D prints.

According to company execs, the LulzBot Bio will satisfy the needs of many industries, for example, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, medical devices, and life sciences. It could be ideal for producing bioprinted tissue for pre-clinical testing or used to recreate physiology to study diseases. It certainly seems like a great start to a new printer and perhaps the beginning of the company’s immersion in the bioprinting world.

[Images: LulzBot]

The post LulzBot Releases It’s First Bioprinter appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

How Effective are 3D Printed Reefs?

Researchers from the School of Marine Science and Policy at the University of Delaware are looking further into the concept of 3D printed models placed in the vicinity of coral and fish, touching on concerns regarding toxicity and chemical leaching. In the recently published ‘3D printed objects do not impact the behavior of a coral-associated damselfish or survival of a settling stony coral,’ authors Emily J. Ruhl and Danielle L. Dixson outline their findings regarding the use of 3D printed models in coral reef behavioral research.

Previous research has been performed regarding 3D printed objects in the environment with success, from studying animal behavior and habitat to using 3D printed shells to offer stability to oyster beds. And you don’t have to live on an island or near the beach to be aware that coral reef systems are in trouble today—often with little left of their once-thriving habitats. Ruhl and Dixson see great potential in 3D printing for ‘advancing the discipline of coral reef behavioral ecology.’

For this study, the team experimented with the use of 3D printed and natural skeletons placed amidst blue-green chromis, along with researching the survival rate of Caribbean mustard hill coral on a 3D printed substrate. In creating the models, they photographed the coral from 50 different angles, using a simple iPhone. After converting the files into 3D designs, they printed the models to life-size dimensions on the following variety of 3D printers:

The researchers then acclimated the 3D printed models in seawater for a week, after which a ‘cafeteria-style arrangement’ was set up:

“All five coral treatments of a single species were arranged in a circular pattern spaced 50cm apart from the corals directly adjacent in a 1.8m diameter tank filled to 45cm. For each trial, coral species and treatment order were randomized. An individual fish was placed into an 18cm diameter mesh cylinder (1cm2) at the center of the experimental tank and left to habituate for 15-minutes (Aformosa n = 29, Pdamicornis n = 15). The cylinder’s construction allowed the fish to observe all habitat treatments without having access to them. After the habituation period, the cylinder was slowly raised to begin the 15-minute observation period.”

Replicates of P. damicornis (top) and A. formosa (bottom) control corals 3D printed with nGen, XT, PLA, and SS filament, respectively.

The authors recorded the habitat non-stop, and overall discovered that experimenting with 3D printed objects in situ rendered benign results, demonstrating suitability for assessment of a range of reef behaviors and habits.

“As coral reef ecosystems are highly dynamic environments, field studies are the next step to investigate the efficacy of using 3D printed objects to facilitate ecological research,” concluded the authors.

“While coral settlement studies in situ are typically not disruptive to coral reef systems, 3D printed substrate could allow for novel methodologies in conducting this research. For instance, printed substrate could be designed to compare settlement rates, growth, and survival of different coral species across specific surface complexities or cryptic microhabitats. This information could inform management practices by tailoring efforts to the needs of individual species.”

While many users and researchers today are concerned about the impact of 3D printing on the environment, the technology has been used in many different projects behind helping to save it, from preparing to rid the ocean of plastic waste to removing pollutants from the air and even stopping food waste.

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

viridis spent in association with any of the coral habitat treatments (n = 44).

Mean behavioral responses (± SE) by C. viridis when exposed to 3D printed or coral skeleton habitats (n = 12).

[Source / Images: ‘3D printed objects do not impact the behavior of a coral-associated damselfish or survival of a settling stony coral’]

 

The post How Effective are 3D Printed Reefs? appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Aleph Objects enters 3D bioprinting with Fluidform, hardware coming summer 2019

Aleph Objects, the manufacturer of LulzBot open source 3D printers, has confirmed its entry into the 3D bioprinting market. In partnership with Massachusetts based 3D bioprinting technology developer FluidForm, Aleph plans to launch LulzBot Bio hardware later this year. For Grant Flaharty, Aleph Objects CEO and President, this undertaking presents a chance for LulzBot to […]