Wisconsin-based automotive manufacturing service provider Techniplas has introduced its Techniplas Prime service as a subsidiary of the company. Since launch in 2018, Prime is said to have helped Techniplas produce more than 40 million parts. It was designed as an e-manufacturing 3D printing platform for car manufacturers, providing instant quotes for automotive engineers and designers looking to produce lightweight parts […]
Nexa3D’s Ultra-Fast NXE400 3D Printing System Making North American Debut at CES 2019
This week at CES 2019 in Las Vegas, production-grade stereolithography 3D printer manufacturer Nexa3D will be displaying its new NXE400 3D printer for the first time in North America. The NXE400 is impressive indeed, with reported print speeds of up to six times faster and 2.5 times the build volume of comparable hardware, making it the fastest large-format 3D printer in the industry.
Water pump housing
Like the other 3D printers in the company’s newest line, the NXE400 leverages Nexa3D’s proprietary Lubricant Sublayer Photo-curing (LSPc) technology and patented structured light matrix, and can continuously print up to 16 liters of parts at high speeds of up to 1Z centimeter a minute. This lowers the production time for prototypes and other functional parts from hours to just minutes, at injection molding levels of tolerance, repeatability, and quality, which also saves on money.
The new, highly accurate NXE400 comes with integrated sensors and cognitive software, which combine to offer continuous print monitoring, optimize part performance, and give detailed diagnostics. In addition, it also comes equipped with tough materials in order to enable ultra-fast 3D printing of production tooling, casting patterns, functional prototyping and end-use parts, and dental restoration.
Speaking of the dental industry, Nexa3D is planning on commercializing its new NXE 3D printer series this year through a multi-channel arrangement with its current partners: 3D printer manufacturer XYZprinting and digital and traditional dental materials provider BEGO. The three-way collaboration will go a long way in transforming the world of digital dentistry, as it will access the demand for expensive digital dentistry printers and industrial production, and the partnership could also end up being a major dental competitor to both EnvisionTEC and 3D Systems.
Various parts and assemblies 3D printed by the NXE400. Electrical assembly, pull handle, GoPro mount, bracket assembly, topology optimized brackets designed by ParaMatters
But the dental industry isn’t the only one that Nexa3D is interested in – the company is also collaborating with Techniplas, a global design and automotive manufacturing provider. Nexa3D joined its open innovation program as a partner a year ago in an effort to expand its presence in the automotive industry, and at this week’s CES show, Techniplas will be showcasing a concept vehicle that features 3D printed parts produced by Nexa3D, along with its growing generative design capabilities.
At CES 2019, Nexa3D will be exhibiting a range of its 3D printers, including the new NXE400, at the Techniplas booth #9320 in the North Hall’s Vehicle Technology zone in the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), and also at the Dynamism booth #32020 in the 3D Printing Marketplace in the LVCC’s South Hall.
Izhar Medalsy, the Chief Product Officer for Nexa3D, said “After more than two years of intensive research and development, our team is proud to exhibit the results of our painstaking work at CES 2019 with our significant partners Techniplas and Dynamism, two go-to-market collaborators that are helping us validate the marketplace impact and build access to new products.”
Nexa3D wants to invite all qualified resellers, strategic partners, and industry practitioners to check out its new NXE400 3D printer, priced at $49,950, at CES 2019 this week. If you’re unable to make it out to Las Vegas for the show, you can see the 3D printer in action in the video below:
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[Images provided by Nexa3D]
Autonomous Drone Solutions Provider Apollo Robotics is Latest Techniplas Open Innovation Partner
Wisconsin-based Techniplas, with locations in Switzerland and California, is a global design and manufacturing provider of automotive products and services, and has been doggedly pursuing 3D printing for quite some time now. The company is committed to open innovation and brings other 3D printing companies together to offer benefits from their shared technologies; several of these companies, like Nano Dimension, DWS, Sharebot, ParaMatters, and Nexa3D, have also joined Techniplas’ open innovation program.
The latest of these partners is Apollo Robotics, which provides affordable, autonomous drone solutions for land surveys. Techniplas made the announcement just ahead of CES 2019, which opens this week in Las Vegas.
“We are pleased to welcome Apollo Robotics as a full member of our open innovation program. Today’s announcement is another step in our commitment to making the connected world,” said George Votis, the Founder and Chairman of Techniplas. “With a partner like Apollo Robotics on board, we are accessing and learning together how to integrate and scale high-speed multi-sensing data acquisition technologies faster into an ever-expanding portfolio of cognitive and connected products and services.”
For those who don’t know, autonomous surveying is time-consuming, costly, and requires highly sought after expertise. But by combining artificial intelligence with multi-sensing LiDAR, HD and thermal cameras, Apollo is able to quickly digitize and reconstruct worksites, with just a single scan, into actionable and accurate 3D models.
Apollo employs rapidly growing technologies, such as 3D digitization, breakthrough sensors, and deep learning to address the typical problems that come with autonomous surveying, and has developed the first completely automated solution which is able to completely get rid of the operating friction and complexity of current surveyors. Its drone is designed to fly unmanned, and is ready for surveyors to use both on-demand and on-site, so they can access premium aerial data in a more safer, more efficient and cost-effective manner.
In its new partnership with Techniplas, Apollo will bring its fully automated, industrial-grade 3D digitization platform and high-speed data acquisition to the table.
“We are thrilled to join the Techniplas open innovation program and learn with and from Techniplas how to scale our proprietary autonomous drone technology and services platform further. Together with Techniplas, we are democratizing access and accelerating adoption of autonomous automated professional solutions for the connected world,” said Apollo Robotics’ CEO Rob Cammack.
In addition to open innovation, Techniplas also has a broader strategy at play – 3D printing connected devices – which it focuses on in its digital business unit.
“At Techniplas Digital we assembled some of the most experienced additive manufacturing professionals and accessed several game-changing technologies that truly unlock the full potential of additive for the creation of lighter, stronger parts and connected products,” the company’s website states. “With 3D printing complexity is free so we can now design for greater performance while leveraging more complex designs that are simpler to manufacture.”
Techniplas is committed to making the world connected for its global customers, and possesses expertise at combining the traditional and exponential technologies into one connected, product-functional experience. By partnering with Techniplas, Apollo believes it will be able to revolutionize how professionals can gather, processes, and handle 3D data, improving the bottom-line and its customers competitiveness.
At CES 2019 this week, attendees to visit the Techniplas booth LVCC 9320 in the North Hall, in order to experience for themselves how the company is working with its newest partner, Apollo Robotics, to apply automated multi-sensing technologies.
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3D Printing News Sliced: Linde Gases, Techniplas, Autodesk, America Makes
Today in Sliced, the 3D Printing Industry news digest, a 3D inkjet printer for electronics; the latest hardware and software releases at Formnext 2018; 3D printing helps improve cancer treatment and more. Formnext 2018 previews Linde Gases, a division of the Linde Group, a German engineering company, will present its ADDvance powder cabinet for metal materials used […]
3D printing news Sliced Siemens, ExOne, Stratasys, Massivit, CELLINK, Formlabs, Star Rapid
This edition of our 3D printing news digest Sliced asks the following questions: Is advanced manufacturing destined to destroy jobs? Will 3D printing benefit from trade wars between the US, Europe and China? How is bioprinting advancing and what are the latest career moves and opportunities across the 3D printing industry? Also, 3D printing news from Siemens, […]
3D Printing News Briefs: July 17, 2018
In Today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, we’re covering a lot of business and a little medical news. AMFG is partnering with a top UK bearings manufacturer to help automate its digital manufacturing workflows, while Segula Technologies has begun an industrial 3D printing partnership with digital manufacturing company Multistation. Techniplas has completed a deployment of Sharebot 3D printers to its 14 manufacturing facilities around the world, and the winners of the SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Competition have been announced. Finally, a pediatric cardiologist used the Sinterit Lisa to create a 3D printed model of a newborn boy’s heart to plan his risky surgery.
Bowman International Announces Partnership with AMFG
Bowman’s bearings
Automation software specialist AMFG, which recently launched a new AI software platform, has partnered with Bowman International, one of the top bearings manufacturers in the UK, as it works to grow its 3D printing capabilities through its Bowman Additive Production (AP) division. Bowman AP has several MJF and SLS 3D printers available for its use, and uses 3D printing to design and produce its end-part bearings, which has helped increase their load bearing capacity by up to 70%.
In the meantime, Bowman International’s goal is to use AMFG’s AI-powered production automation software to oversee production of said bearings, by automating production job scheduling, optimizing digital CAD files for production with printability analyses, and creating a custom digital part catalog.
“We’re very pleased to be partnering with AMFG and using their automation software to scale our already expanding AM facility,” said Jacob Turner, the Head of Additive Production at Bowman International. “Additive manufacturing is transforming the way bearings are manufactured, and we aim to continue to be at the forefront of innovating the production of bearings using AM. AMFG’s automation software will enable us to achieve this by significantly increasing the efficiency of our production processes.”
Multistation Partners with Segula Technologies
Another newly announced 3D printing partnership is the one between international engineering group Segula Technologies and Paris-based 3D printing company Multistation. The two are working together to further develop the potential of 3D printing in the industrial sector, which will allow both companies to increase their offerings and provide customers with excellent services along the AM value chain. Segula will bring its design, product-process qualification, and technology integration in industrial environments to the table, while Multistation will share and apply its expertise in AM design and simulation by determining any potential parts that could be 3D printed instead of fabricated with a more traditional method of manufacturing.
“Additive manufacturing is an integral part of a value chain within which Multistation provides a comprehensive offering; Segula Technologies was an obvious partner of choice to enable our Additive Consulting division to address manufacturers’ concerns more effectively,” said Yannick Loisance, the CEO of Multistation. “We will thus be able to supply them not just with software packages, machines and materials, but also with a more comprehensive range of high-quality engineering services that are suited to a host of different business sectors.”
Techniplas Adds Sharebot 3D Printers to Its Manufacturing Facilities
This fall, Italian professional-grade 3D printer manufacturer Sharebot joined the open innovation program at Techniplas, a top automotive design and manufacturing provider. Now, as part of its own continuing digital transformation, Techniplas has deployed Sharebot 3D printers to all of its 14 manufacturing facilities across five continents. This move will allow the company to 3D print the majority of the manufacturing products it uses every day on-site, which will equal major cost and time savings as Techniplas previously used only third-party providers for this task.
“With Sharebot 3D printers installed in all of our manufacturing facilities worldwide, we are taking decisive steps toward fabricating the majority of our manufacturing line assembly tools, jigs, fixtures, gauges and even robotic arm attachments in-house. Based on our experience with Sharebot printers thus far, we expect to significantly reduce our development time and annual assembly line tooling costs in each manufacturing facility over time,” said Techniplas COO Manfred Kwade.
Winners of the SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Competition Announced
For the fourth year running, advanced manufacturing technology industry organization SME and Stratasys have co-sponsored the SkillsUSA Additive Manufacturing Contest, held during the annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Louisville. The winners of this year’s student contest, which asks contestants to solve real world problems with 3D printing, were just announced. This year, entrants had to design an adaptive device for a veteran, who had endured a traumatic thumb amputation, so he could keep playing his PlayStation 3. Prizes include RAPID + TCT conference passes, SOLIDWORKS’ 3D-CAD design software, SME Education Foundation scholarships (for high school participants), a one-year Tooling U-SME subscription, and a MakerBot Mini 3D printer.
“The SkillsUSA contest is designed to help students and educators realize the power of additive manufacturing to drive innovation. This year’s competition was particularly meaningful as it directly resulted in enhancing a veteran’s life with a custom solution not possible without additive manufacturing,” said Gina Scala, the Director of Marketing, Global Education at Stratasys.
The high school winners include:
- Gold medal: Getty George and Sam Green, Martin Luther King High School, Riverside, California
- Silver medal: Noah Logan and Johnathan Urbani, Stafford Tech Center, Rutland, Vermont
- Bronze medal: Andrew Daddone and Layke Martin, Frederick County Career & Tech Center, Frederick, Maryland
The college winners include:
- Gold medal: Adolfo Vargas and Alexander Kemnitz, Central Community College-Hastings, Hastings, Nebraska
- Silver medal: Deema Al Namee and Aric Donerkiel, Vermont Technical College, Randolph Center, Vermont
- Bronze medal: William Swaner and Ashton DeZwarte, Tenneseee College of Applied Tech-Nashville, Nashville, Tennessee
Watch a video about the 2018 competition here, and check out the winning designs here; you can also view SME’s Flickr album for more competition photos.
Surgeon 3D Prints Pediatric Heart Model with Sinterit Lisa
Desktop SLS 3D printer manufacturing Sinterit has seen its flagship Lisa 3D printer, which went through a recent upgrade, used to save lives in multiple ways, from fighting wildfires and protecting the faces of children to providing assistance in a tough pediatric cardiac surgery.
“Delivering desktop SLS 3D printer for more than three years caused that our clients send us tonnes of useful and exciting cases. Writing about all of them is hard, if not impossible, but when 3D printing helps saving lives, especially those most fragile, we feel proud, and also a duty to share it with you,” Michał Krzak, Sinterit’s Marketing Communication Manager, told 3DPrint.com.
A newborn’s heart can weigh barely 20 grams, and fits in the palm of an adult’s hand, so you can imagine that surgeries on such a delicate organ are exceedingly difficult. Jarosław Meyer-Szary, MD, from the Department of Pediatric Cardiology and Congenital Heart Defects at the University Clinical Center in Poland recently turned to Sinterit’s Lisa 3D printer to save the life of Kordian, an infant less than one month old suffering from a potentially fatal heart disease called interrupted aortic arch.
Meyer-Szary created 3D printed, life-size model of Kordian’s tiny heart, and SLS technology was able to recreate each intricate artery and vein. The model not only helped him plan the surgery ahead of time, but also helped Kordian’s mother gain a more thorough understanding of her son’s condition. Kordian is now a thriving and happy 18 month-old, thanks to Sinterit’s SLS technology.
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