Posted on

3D Printing News Briefs: December 26, 2019

For your holiday edition of 3D Printing News Briefs, we’ll get business out of the way first – Wipro 3D has launched Addwize, a new Additive Technology Adoption and Acceleration Program. Moving on, Prusa interviewed animatronic model senior designer Joshua Lee about their shared interest in 3D printing. Finally, Voodoo Manufacturing helped an artist bring her 2D artistic vision to full-sized 3D life.

Wipro 3D Introduces Addwize Program

Scale vendors: Foundation – blue; Advanced – green; Practitioner – orange

Additive manufacturing solutions provider Wipro 3D, a business of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, has launched a new Additive Technology Adoption and Acceleration Program called Addwize, which will address all the phases in the AM adoption cycle within academia and industry. The multi-platform, OEM-agnostic adoption program will help interested organizations and institutions fully understand 3D printing, evaluate business cases for the technology, and then scientifically use it to create value. It’s designed to help stakeholders of all levels, and academia, adopt and scale their usage of AM for business benefits.

“Wipro 3D addwize™ is designed and developed to support any organization or institution who is either evaluating metal Additive technology, has AM in their near future technology roadmap or has already invsted in AM, create business value using metal AM,” said Ajay Parikh, Vice President and Business Head, Wipro 3D.

“There is no lower or upper limit to the size of the organization who wants to evaluate AM.”

Prusa Interviews Animatronic Model Designer Joshua Lee

Not too long ago, the Research Content Team at Prusa met award-winning animatronic model senior designer Joshua Lee in Prague, who has over 25 years of experience in the film industry working on such movies as Prometheus, The Fifth Element, and even the Star Wars and Harry Potter series. The team took advantage of the opportunity to speak with Lee about a topic near and dear to all their hearts – 3D printing, which he uses often in his work.

“We use a lot of different techniques of 3D printing in the filming industry,” Lee told Prusa. “We only really adopted it in the last 5 years. I am really using it a lot now.

“The thing I like the most is how 3D printers help when you have really tight deadlines. The film director has a new idea and you just wish there were more hours in a day. We used to do a lot of “all-nighters” to get things made. If you’ve got your own 3D printer, you can design something quickly, press print and you can go home to bed – that’s the best thing! In the morning, you are up and running again and this amazing print awaits you there. I still get a small thrill, every time I come in and see this thing that has magically appeared there overnight.”

To hear more of what Lee had to say about the materials he uses (PLA and PETG), his preferred desktop printer (Original Prusa MK3), and specific Star Wars-related projects he used 3D printing for, check out the rest of the interview in the video below:

Voodoo Manufacturing Assists with 3D Printed Art Installation

Back in 1976, artist Agnes Denes created a 2D art piece called Probability Pyramid – Study for Crystal Pyramid, and has long since dreamed of turning into a life-size installation. In early 2019, her dream seemed like it would become reality when NYC-based art space The Shed began working with her on the project. The team didn’t have much luck with acrylic, glass, or mold injection, and so turned to Brooklyn’s Voodoo Manufacturing for assistance. There were a lot of requirements for the project – the Pyramid required several groups of bricks in unique sizes and shapes, totaling 5,442 translucent bricks that could be stacked to easily transport and form the pyramid; Voodoo 3D printed bricks that were 99% hollow, so they were less breakable and very lightweight.

“A lot of traditional manufacturing happens abroad. Because Voodoo’s factory is in Brooklyn, the team at The Shed would have an easier time accessing the parts as the sculpture was built. By the same token, as part of her commitment to environmental responsibility, it was very important for Agnes Denes to keep the production local,” Voodoo explained.

“The use of 3D printing was much more in line with her vision than traditional sculpture construction methods. This also allowed us to test multiple versions of the Pyramid digitally instead of having to build many physical versions.”

Thanks to Voodoo’s digital factory, the exhibition Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates opened on time. The retrospective, which features the 3D printed installation, will be displayed at The Shed until March 22, 2020.

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: December 26, 2019 appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Posted on

Wipro3D and the Indian Institution of Science develop EBM 3D printer

Wipro3D, the additive manufacturing arm of global information technology company Wipro, and the Indian Institution of Science (IISc) have developed an industrial metal 3D printer. This system utilizes Electron Beam Melting (EBM) technology offering improved thermal management, higher part density, and superior mechanical properties to parts made using other metal additive methods. According to Ajay […]
Posted on

Wipro 3D and its plans in the 3D Printing Market Interview with VP Ajay Parikh

Wipro is an $8 billion 164,000 employee Indian technology company. The company runs large outsourcing and technology implementation projects, and is one of the world’s largest IT firms. May may be surprised that Wirpro has a 3D printing arm. Moreover, Wipro 3D was set up in 2012. Wipro 3D has grown to be a metal 3D printing service provider that also offers 3D printing consulting, 3D printing engineering services, research services. The company is aiming to be a full spectrum player for 3D printing offering everything from sketch to the setting up of complete 3D printing service centers. We were very curious to see what Wipro 3D was up to and spoke to Ajay Parikh the VP and Business Head, Wipro 3D to find out more about the company’s plans.

Why is Wipro active in 3D Printing?

“Additive Manufacturing and related know-how is going to play a dominant role in how we conceive, design, produce and use objects. AM is going to push the limits of material science, and allow us to explore frontiers, never before imagined and disrupt manufacturing and supply chain processes globally. Wipro3D is Wipro’s initiative to be part of the future of manufacturing.

If we go by numbers, leading analysts had assessed the size of the additive manufacturing Market at USD 6 Bn in 2016, and expect it to grow to USD 16 -20 Bn in 2020 at a growth rate of 27%. They attribute this growth to the Metal AM market owing to an increase in its industrial applications. The growth of Metal AM is expected to be 42% with Aerospace, Automotive and Medical segments driving the growth.”

Is adoption on the rise?

“We assess adaption maturity of new tech essentially based on type and extent of end-use adaption, the ecosystem maturity and how rate at which the technology is evolving. If we look at the rate of enterprise adaption across the globe, it’s been pretty rapid in the last few years, metal 3D printing being the highlight. The entry and investments of large players like GE, HP in addition to entrenched incumbents such as EOS, Stratasys etc, further reinforces confidence. Besides a select set of full suite solution providers with global aspirations offer services ranging from Additive Consulting, Engineering, Manufacturing and R&D to turnkey solutions are driving up adaption.”

How do your consultants work with customers to help them get into 3D printing?

“Our Consultants study the client context, analyse opportunities and identify use cases that deliver the maximum benefit of Additive Manufacturing. We work with clients to design, redesign and adapt new and existing designs and geometries to 3D printing, work on material solutions, as well as end use prove outs, as well as process capability to reach regular and predictable use of additive manufacturing in their business operations. The central consideration in our engagement will customers is the business value that we can generate for the customer with 3d printing.”

Are you primarily focused on metal printing?

“Yes. Our focus is metal 3D printing and we see merit in offering complete suite of services such as Additive Consulting, Additive Product Engineering, Reverse Engineering, Series production of parts using Additive Manufacturing, R&D solutions as well as design, set up and operations of captive centres. We also offer process capability improvement programs. Given Wipro’s strength in business solutions, we can offer an integrated digital manufacturing solution including automation and iot use cases working closely with other businesses of Wipro.”

How do you work with customers in a design and engineering capacity?

“3D printing allows designers and engineers to completely rethink the way they approach product engineering. Given our strong background in product as well as additive engineering, we work with customers to analyse existing geometries, conceptualize products to take advantage of the freedom of design and manufacturing that 3d printing brings, and design the entire manufacturing process to assure repeatability and reliable , functional performance of the product in service conditions. These services are based on our deep understanding of various aspects of the technology. We thoroughly understand the deep interconnect between Additive Engineering, product engineering, materials science, pre-build, build and post-build strategies, to finally prove-out components that meet customers’ production and service condition needs. Design offerings are offered either as a standalone service, or as a part of the complete component realization solution.”

You also have 3D printing capacity in-house? In which technologies?

“We have a fully integrated Additive Manufacturing Centre in Bangalore, India catering to domestic and international customers, adhering to best practices and standards in Additive Manufacturing. We have a full-fledged design studio, best in class industrial grade metal 3D printers, a comprehensive post-processing shop as well as full-fledged materials characterization lab. While we currently use powder bed fusion as the default additive manufacturing technology, we are in the process of including various other technologies to suit specific industry applications. We are also in the process of manufacturing a purpose built machine to meet the demanding needs of customers.”

Do you focus on a particular market, vertical or application at all?

“Aerospace, Space, Defence, Energy, Automotive and specific applications in Healthcare are some of the sectors that we currently serve with a domain led focus.”

What are some examples of 3D printed parts that really add value?

“An appropriate selection of components and AM technology to address specific business case is important for a sustainable AM program within an enterprise. Wipro3D has a structured and systematic consulting framework that helps customers design an entire roadmap.

For a “successful” use case, the AM intervention needs either improve functional performance, improve manufacturing efficacy, reduce time to market or address supply chain issues.”

Wipro3D assists the space, aerospace and Défense with mission critical service ready components, that are proven out including components that are in space. We also offer industry For Healthcare too we offer optimized components that result in improve system design as well as performance. The Automotive industry is under constant pressure to release new products and Wipro 3D is helping compress their time to market with high fidelity prototypes for automobile and two-wheeler manufacturers in various subsystems. The Injection Moulding industry has benefitted from the freedom of design and manufacture afforded by AM with the freedom of design that AM offers.”

In which industries do you see 3D printing becoming strong in the immediate future?

“As you know, Aerospace, Space, Defence and Healthcare are at the forefront of AM adoption We feel major growth in usage of AM will also come from Automotive, Oil & Gas, and Industrial sectors employing different variants of metal AM technologies.”

Do you think that clusters of desktop systems will compete with industrial systems in manufacturing?

“Both systems have unique and mutually exclusive use cases and as such we see them coexisting.”

Do you think that one particular technology will win out over others?

All 3D printing technologies will co-exist with each other given the variety of applications, engineering needs and service conditions across industries.

What is Wipro’s ambition in 3D printing?

“We aim to be among the leading global full suite players in metal and advanced materials additive manufacturing solutions.”

What would be your top tips to a large company wanting to explore 3D printing? What are some of the roadblocks for manufacturers when switching to 3D printing?

“It is critical to find the right applications within the enterprise and identify the right type of additive manufacturing technology to create proper use and business cases. Enterprises need to work with the right Additive Manufacturing solution provider, which whom the enterprise can co-create and execute a long term adaption roadmap A systematic adaption roadmap is key. A good AM solution provider can make a big difference. Another aspect is executive sponsorship. If this is not on the board’s agenda, there is pretty good chance it’s going to be limited to prototyping. Moreover, you need high resilience. When it comes to enterprise adaption, certainly Return on Capital Employed, Utilization, Service life, comparison to conventionally manufactured components in terms of mechanical properties are top of the mind considerations. As in any case, early adopters face a steep learning curve, but one which is to come in handy, as the technology matures and use cases grow. Start now, with a strong business outcome objective, ideally working with a strategic solutions partner.