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The State of 3D Printing at Continental Automotive

Other organizations like NASA have also been using 3D printing technology for prototypes and functional parts—long before the rest of the world had an inkling about the impacts that would be made decades later in nearly every major industrial application. The Continental Automotive division serves as a good example of the long evolution of 3D printing and additive manufacturing within industries like automotive.

Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is used to print steel and aluminum. (Image credit: Claus Dick)

With a market cap of roughly $18.5 billion, Continental is a German multinational auto parts maker that manufactures such products as electronics; safety, powertrain and chassis parts; brake systems, tires, and more. Its customers run the gamut of car, truck and bus companies, including Volkswagen, Ford, Volvo, BMW, Toyota, Honda, Porsche and others.

As with every automaker, the firm has been using AM for design and prototyping purposes for some time, but it is now taking the technology to the next level. Just last year, the German-headquartered company opened the competence center for additive design (ADaM) at its Karben site. Five different 3D printing techniques are currently being used at ADaM:

Selective laser melting (SLM)
Selective laser sintering (SLS)
Stereolithography (SLA)
Digital light processing (DLP)
Fused deposition modeling (FDM)

“Practically at every location there are at least smaller additive systems, but this abundance and variety of systems is only available in Karben,” said Frauke Berger, site manager at Continental Automotive, in a recent interview.

Site manager Frauke Berger presents a printed component made of plastic. (Image credit: Claus Dick)

As the automotive and engineering divisions of the company, founded in 1871, work together closely, they are able to put the advantages of 3D printing into action using both plastic and metal materials.

For Continental, this means enjoying savings on the bottom line, more efficient manufacturing processes, ease in designing and making changes without waiting on a third party, and, most importantly for many industrial users, the ability to fabricate more complex geometries previously impossible with traditional techniques.

“A major advantage of additive manufacturing is that parts can be designed differently, and projects are therefore approached in a constructively different way,” said Berger.

Previously, the Continental team was able to create a more durable brake caliper:

“Usually such patterns come from sand casting. It takes about 14 weeks. The printed part was finished in less than a week,” explained Stefan Kammann, head of the Additive Design and Manufacturing business segment. “In principle, all weldable metals such as aluminum, stainless steel and tool steel, titanium or, to a limited extent, copper can be printed.”

Plastics are usually printed at Continental via selective laser sintering (SLS), as the team finds it to be the fastest route, as well as the most similar to ‘series technology.’ Materials such as PA12, as well as PA6, are often employed, along with polypropylene for parts like brake fluid containers.

As 3D printing and AM processes have continued to make impacts around the world and progress due to user’s needs, that growth has been seen at Continental, too, as software, hardware, and materials have been further refined. Orders for parts that may have previously involved up to 40 hours of production time now may take as little as 60 minutes.

“In the past we knocked the supports off the lattice platform with a hammer and chisel and had to be careful not to tear out any piece of the model, the material was so firm,” says Kammann. “The process is extremely precise, and we achieve good surfaces with it.”

With Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), support structures are no longer required. (Image credit: Continental)

DLP printing also allows for the option of 3D printing several parts at once, along with using a selection of materials, like ABS, PLA, TPU, and other plastics.

“For this purpose, a filament, i.e. a rolled plastic, is pressed through a hot nozzle and applied in sausages in a manner comparable to a CNC-controlled hot glue gun,” said Kammann. “You need an infrastructure and other technologies to process, combine, and instill the parts properly.”

Next year, the Continental team is planning to complete a large order for a manufacturer in need of 9,500 parts—all of which will be 3D printed.

Stefan Kammann explains how the rolled plastic is pressed through a hot nozzle. (Image credit: Claus Dick)

Industrial users continue to enjoy the positive impacts of 3D printing and AM processes in a wide variety of other applications too such as aerospace, dental and medical, construction, and far more.

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.

The Continental Competence Center for Additive Design and Manufacturing (Adam) in Karben houses various systems for 3D printing. (Image credit: Claus Dick)

[Source / Images: Automotive IT]

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Formlabs Focuses on the Advantages of 3D Printing With the New Form 3

During a recent Formlabs Webinar, growth marketing specialist, Faris Sheikh, performed an engaging live demonstration of the new Form 3 Stereolithography (SLA) printer. For the hundreds of viewers that tuned in on September 26th, the performance of the printing system unveiled some of the advantages inherent in its new features. Everything from a significant improvement in print quality over the previous model, the Form 2, to understanding how low-force SLA can deliver better surface quality and help to get a gentle release once the part is done printing. The Form 3: Live Product Demo webinar is a step-by-step presentation on how to set up and print on the Form 3, walking the audience through the making of a speaker prototype.

Faris Sheikh

You probably read a lot about how the Form 3’s new low-force Stereolithography (LFS) technology is used to create parts that are consistently accurate, with amazing detail and surface finish, every single time. But Sheikh took his audience on a dive into the technology behind the Form 3, talking about what makes it special, helping potential users to understand the new print process and learn how to use it to avoid lead times.

Formlabs has been creating reliable, accessible printing systems for professionals for the last decade, ever since Max Lobovsky, CEO and Co-Founder of Formlabs decided it was time to tackle the $80,000 industrial SLA machine industry and turn it into something really affordable, easy to use and desktop-friendly. So Stereolithography has been the company’s forte since 2011, and the Form 3 is already the fourth iteration of the original Form machine. Over 50,000 of the company’s printers are used across the world in so many different brands, from Gilette to Disney, Boeing, New Balance, Amazon, Sony, and Google, just to name a few of the most known ones out there. And they really keep count of the parts being printed with their machines, which up to now its something like 40 million, but they expect that number to go up quickly with the new Form 3 and another version which is bigger, called the Form 3L.

“Our goal with the Form 3 was to reduce the peel force that is common in all SLA technologies and can have some negative consequences on printing processes. So to come up with LFS, this powerful form of SLA technology that decreases the forces of the peel process, we came up with two new features: a flexible tank and a light processing unit,” outlined Sheikh.

The face of the tank is made of a flexible film and reduces print forces to deliver high quality and printer reliability so that when the part comes out it is with a gentle release compared to traditional SLA. Sheikh explained that the company tested the peel forces and determined that there was a ten-time reduction on the Form 3, compared to its predecessor Form 2. That is a significant improvement between printer models. He also suggested that the flexible tank will impact on the surface finish, making it “incredible” as they say, and allow for a faster clean up and finishing after the parts are done the printing.

Steve Jobs sculpture designed by Sebastian Errazuriz, 3D printed in White Resin powered by the low-force tech of the Form 3

“Incredible surface finish is the result of good layer registration, that is, how accurately each layer is aligned with the previous layer. The more accurately they are aligned, the better surface finishes you will have as well as more translucent and clear parts. The greater sharpness in the edges is ideal for the jewelry industry which usually looks for delicate feature-capability and fine level of detail. While the bio and medical industry can benefit from models that will look so much more representative of what they are trying to do.”

Comparing DNA Helix models printed in Clear Resin in the Form 2 and Form 3 (clear and translucent)

The company suggests that 47% of Form 2 users said removing supports where their biggest pain points, while 62% said Formlabs could improve their machines to make the finishing process easier. So Formlabs developed the LFS which allows for easy support removal thanks to tiny touchpoints, or what Sheikh called “light-touch support” that can easily tear away so that being able to just pop off the part becomes a real improvement for users.

Light-touch support structures on the Form 3 leave behind four times less support material than supports printed on Form 2

“If you can finish faster and have a faster clean up it means that you have more time to work on the printing process and spend more time on the product. We want to make your life easier so you don’t have to worry about the printing process.”

Sheikh preparing to print on the Form 3

The printing process with the Form 3 is simple, the user picks any of more than 20 material options from Formlabs, then prepares the design (Sheikh did it using the PreForm software, a free tool offered by the company), print the part and then wash and cure it (done on the FormWash and FormCure machines). The printing of the chosen speaker model by Sheikh takes six hours, but the preparation and post-processing can all be done in just over 30 minutes.

The speaker prototype printed on the Form 3

Sheikh shows how simple it is to use the PreForm software, which has automatic algorithms and helps the user orient the part and generates the supports with just one click. And since the part is going to be printed upside down, it needs supports layer by layer. Then, the print file is sent wirelessly to the printer and it starts printing. Since it takes six hours to print a prototype speaker of 753 layers, the printer will send a text message when it’s ready.

Considering the webinar is less than an hour long, Sheikh shows his audience how easy it is to release the part from the supports once it’s done, with another part that was already done printing.

“Taking off the supports is so simple with LFS, you can easily twist and all the supports come off in one second.”

Formlabs aims to create easy-to-use printers. Sheikh claims that Form 3 is an accessible machine, coming up to $3,500, with an industrial quality that can produce strong parts, making it an ideal successor to Form 2. Formlabs is looking to, not just create a very popular desktop SLA machine, but build a whole culture of innovation, impacting entire teams, enabling anyone to tackle their design, building machines that work remotely so that the printing process is easy and becoming a leading force in many industries.

[Images: Formlabs]

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3D Printing Offers Significant Impact on Microfluidics

Researchers present an overview of 3D printing microfluidics in the recently published ‘Functional 3D Printing for Microfluidic Chips.’ Allowing for epic ‘downscaling’ of biochemical applications—and from the lab to a portable mode, 3D printed microfluidics can be applied to many different applications from sensors and actuators to parts designed for movement like valves, pumps, or fluid flow.

Scientists predict that 3D printing in microfluidics will be the precursor to a ‘new generation’ of smart devices able to adapt to their environment and human requirements. As the name would predict, microfluidics route tiny streams of fluids to their destination, usually customized to a laboratory application or a ‘point-of-care setting.’ 3D printing has also been used for chips as the technology has entered the mainstream, offering one of its greatest benefits: speed in production.

“Ideally, the user does not have to be a specialist and the setup does not require a large amount of external equipment,” explain the researchers. “For a device to meet these demands, a self‐contained design of operational features is beneficial.”

The researchers point out that 3D printing has become a true alternative over conventional techniques like molding, but mainly so with functional items like valves and sensors; for instance, the authors mention the case of a strain sensor created to offer data regarding tissue strength, allowing doctors to evaluate heart tissue response to drugs.

Typical technologies used are:

Stereolithography (SLA)
FDM 3D printing
Photopolymer jetting

Pump designs are 3D printed to offer flow like that of a syringe pump but eliminating the need for so much hardware and allowing microfluidics more accessibility.

“The most elementary design of a pump is based on previously described valves. By combining three valves on top of a fluid channel, and actuating the valves consecutively, the working principle of a peristaltic pump is recreated,” state the researchers.

An impressive new device created by researchers recently demonstrates how a heart-on-a-chip can be used to measure the strength of heart tissue. The chip is fabricated via direct ink writing and requires six different inks. Also, of interest is a new strain sensor created through embedded 3D printing, e-3DP, with resistive ink that is composed of carbon particles in silicone oil and then extruded in a silicone elastomer. Other sensors have been created too, such as those for soft strain, force, and tactile measures.

“With integrated sensing and on‐line readout of data, external hardware controllers allow the precise reaction to specific stimuli, effectively controlling built‐in elements. This “outsourcing” of regulatory elements from the lab to the chip is a critical step toward the automation of microfluidic chips. Additionally, it makes the technology more accessible to other labs and lowers equipment costs,” conclude the researchers.

“The present and future impact of 3D printing technologies in the field of microfluidics is undeniable. By inheriting the intrinsic characteristics of 3D printing, microfluidic device development has become itself limitless, regarding factors such as the architecture, size, and number of devices produced. All of this can be presently achieved by 3D printing and its highly automated manufacturing process which allows for an equally limitless degree of reproducibility and customizability on the fly.”

Just as 3D printing technology avails itself to massive structures—whether in building an art installation, rocket, or entire home—it is also just as popular today among users in creating on the micro-scale.

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.

Pneumatically controlled valves. a) Schematics and micrograph of a valve in its opened and closed state. Reproduced with permission.3 Copyright 2015, Royal Society of Chemistry. b) CAD design of a membrane valve. c) Schematic illustration in its opened and closed state. Flushing channel allows the control chamber to be drained after printing. b,c) Reproduced with permission.5 Copyright 2016, Royal Society of Chemistry. d) Schematic illustration of the succeeding miniaturized design. Reproduced with permission.21 Copyright 2015, AIP Publishing.

Concatenation of pneumatically controlled valves to a form a pump. a) Photograph of a peristaltic pump, SLA‐printed with WaterShed XC 11122. Reproduced with permission.3 Copyright 2015, Royal Society of Chemistry. b) CAD design of a pump. Gray channels are for flushing out resin after the print. c) Photograph of the printed pump shown in (b). d) Schematic diagram and e) CAD design of the multiplexer. b–e) Reproduced with permission.5 Copyright 2016, Royal Society of Chemistry.

[Source / Images: ‘Functional 3D Printing for Microfluidic Chips’]

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Assessing the Effectiveness of 3D Printed Medical Models for Renal Surgeries

Catalina Lupulescu and Zhonghua Sun explore the valuable connection between 3D printing and progressive treatment for kidney patients in the recently published ‘A Systematic Review of the Clinical Value and Applications of Three-Dimensional Printing in Renal Surgery.’ In analyzing various reviews regarding 3D printing for renal disease, the authors focus on the affordability and efficiency of fabricating kidney models for several different levels of use by medical professionals. Twenty-seven patient studies are considered within this research as the models were used to educate doctors, patients, and medical students.

As treatment of kidney tumors is on a trend toward being less invasive for patients, medical professionals are relying more on surgical planning techniques such as 3D printing. The researchers raise the concern, however, that there are inconsistencies regarding 3D printing technology, software, and materials—along with accuracy, affordability, and efficiency in production of such items.

Lupulescu and Sun consider research studies over the last two years, sifting through 676 different articles to find 24 suitable for examination. A total of 27 articles were analyzed and discussed as they also added three others after reviewing citations.

“Of these 27 studies, the number of printed 3D models was less than 20 in 26 studies, while the remaining study involved 200 patients who were randomly allocated to either receive pre-operative planning with imaging alone or a combination of imaging and 3D-printed models,” state the researchers.

“Fifty-two percent of studies utilized participants/cases of patients with renal masses highly indicative of renal cell carcinoma (mostly complex), with one case of a patient with bilateral renal tumors. Nineteen percent of studies utilized participants who were eligible or scheduled for undergoing laparoscopic partial nephrectomy surgery.”

3D-printed model of a 67-year-old male with renal tumor at the upper pole of the left kidney. Comparative views of the CT scan at the nephrographic phase ((a) axial, (b) coronal, and (c) sagittal planes) and corresponding views of the physical model ((d) superior and median view, (e) median and anterior view, and (f) lateral view). An inferior polar cyst is also displayed on this model (translucent yellow). The cubes show the 3D-printed model orientation in space (I = inferior face, A = anterior face, L = lateral side, S = superior face, P = posterior face, M = median side). The patient underwent a left radical nephrectomy for a 65 × 56 × 42 mm clear cell renal cell carcinoma, pT1bN0Mx, Fuhrman grade 3. The arterial tree is presented in opaque magenta, the collecting system in opaque yellow, and opaque orange for tumor display. The renal vein and renal parenchyma are kept translucent to allow the best visualization of the relationships between the renal tumor and surrounding structures. Reprinted with permission from Bernhard et al.

PolyJet 3D printing and stereolithography (SLA) was the most popular techniques used, although seven different types were noted overall—to even include biotexture modeling, with multi-materials and multi-colors used in fabrication. Most researchers were experimenting with plastic/resin bases, but silicone and acrylics were used also.

The final analysis by the authors explains that TangoPlus, an acrylic polymer/photopolymer material, was the ‘most useful’ for accuracy and realism in the models. They also found that silicone-based materials more closely resemble kidney tissue.

Along with Mimics, a range of other software tools were used, to include Analyze12.0 and 3D Slicer. Blender was most commonly used for post-processing work.

“The studies that used the Objet 260 and Connex 500 printers utilized more expensive, branded materials such as PolyJet technology and TangoPlus material, while materials such as photopolymers, polylactides, and thermoplastics were used in studies that utilized other, less expensive printers. It was also found that the studies that utilized more-expensive printing technologies used multi-colored materials, in order to superiorly differentiate diseased from healthy tissue on the model,” stated the authors.

The researchers did uncover numerous limitations in using 3D printing, however, to include the amount of time required for both data segmentation and post-processing. They also reported obstacles as so many different software tools are required for segmentation and post-processing. Most importantly though are the issues with affordability—and Lupulescu and Sun point out that this is the main reason 3D printing is not used more in routine practice—as each model could cost as much as $1,000—and especially with the use of higher quality materials. Lesser materials can be used to lower cost, but that is usually reflected in the quality of the models too. The authors also found issue with some of the evaluations as only 5 of the 27 studies discussed any quantitative assessment.

Overall, Lupulescu and Sun explained that the 3D printed models in general are helpful in their accuracy, along with educating junior surgeons and allowing for training tools for surgeons who may be during performing new and delicate procedures. Patients and families can be more involved and educated in the process also.

“It has been revealed that a range of 3D-printing technologies, printer models, and materials exist, and that no gold standard has been identified, as it is based on user-preference. Despite this, study findings suggest that the utilization of different colors may aid in separating healthy from diseased renal tissue, further benefitting the pre-surgical planning process,” concluded the researchers.

“Further research focusing on these areas and encompassing a larger sample size with in-depth quantitative assessment may be able to strengthen findings reported on the accuracy and feasibility of 3D-printed kidney models for the treatment and education of renal disease. An analysis of the literature has demonstrated that the diagnostic and treatment process of renal disease may be assisted if surgeons are able to carry out a mock surgery using models beforehand.”

3D printed medical models are making life easier for surgeons around the world, as well as patients who are not only able to understand more about their diagnoses and impending procedures but are also able to receive better patient-specific care. Models have been created to help surgeons heal bone fractures, reconstruct eye sockets, monitor ventricular devices, and much more.

Find out more about 3D printing for kidney treatment here. 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.

Different 3D-printer models/brands utilized based on the analysis of 27 studies.

Comparison of different 3D-printing technologies utilised according to the review of these studies.

[Source / Images: ‘A Systematic Review of the Clinical Value and Applications of Three-Dimensional Printing in Renal Surgery’]

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