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Engineering Simulation for 3D Printing Interview with Chris Robinson of ANSYS

Chris Robinson is the Senior Manager of ANSYS Additive Software Development at ANSYS. ANSYS is a billion dollar revenue company that is huge in engineering simulation software. ANSYS software is used to test, simulate, design and improve designs in many industries. Perhaps not very well known outside the area that it dominates ANSYS simulation tools are used on many of the products that surround you. ANSYS can be used to simulate how your electronic circuits will perform, reduces the cost of making embedded software, predicts how fluids behave, is used by all large semiconductor foundries and also for the analysis of structures.
With the acquisition of Brent Stucker’s 3DSim ANSYS also firmly moved into the simulation for 3D printing market. In metal 3D printing, a build can take a few days, tumbling and other post-processing can take a few days as well. It would kind of suck to print a part on Monday and to then find out on Friday through a CT scanner that it is cracked inside. At the same time printing a novel geometry in metal printing is difficult as well. Support strategy design is an art as well as a science. You may have to print half a dozen parts to get it right. This is even more frustrating because 10k and two weeks later you find out that your part is too expensive. ANSYS hopes to rid us of these inefficiencies. We interviewed Chris Robinson to find out more. Chris worked for NAVAIR, the US Naval Air System’s Command where he headed up their polymer and ceramics manufacturing and helped roll out 3D printing for the Navy. Later he worked for Boeing on sintering and FDM materials and technologies before joining 3DSim and later ANSYS. Chris has deep experience in 3D printing for aviation across a number of technologies and we asked him to tell us what ANSYS is hoping to do.

A Screenshot of ANSYS Mechanical Enterprise showing a part being analyzed.

What is ANSYS?
ANSYS is the global leader in engineering simulation. We help the world’s most innovative companies deliver radically better products to their customers. By offering the best and broadest portfolio of engineering simulation software, we help them solve the most complex design challenges and engineer products limited only by imagination.
What do you offer the 3D Printing market?
Just as with other markets, ANSYS offers the best and broadest portfolio of Additive Manufacturing Simulation Software in the industry. ANSYS provides the ability for AM designers to optimize their design, scientists to optimize materials, process engineers to optimize their process, analysts to analyze the geometry that will result from the build, and machine operators to avoid costly and time-consuming errors and problems all within a single suite of ANSYS software tools.  ANSYS even provides quality assurance personnel data to compare predicted thermal profile to their own in-situ monitoring tools to accelerate the qualification process and lead to useful digital twins.
Why should I buy your product?
You should buy the ANSYS AM products because they will save you money, improve your products, increase your efficiency and save you time. The methods that ANSYS use to predict the behavior of a component during fabrication lead to the highest fidelity solution that a user can get on a part in a timeframe that allows useful data to be predicted. Organizations also have the ability to use universal tools for all of their groups to maintain consistency or they can utilize different approaches and tools all within the same applications for specialized and efficient utilization of the software. The flexibility, breadth, and level of high fidelity make buying ANSYS products a sure win.
How important is a simulation in 3D printing? What advantages does it give me?
As an engineer working in the Aerospace industry, my view was that simulation is absolutely necessary to move the AM Industry significantly forward in creating production level components. The standard process in the industry today is that there are many trial and error test iterations at every step of a product development cycle. Each of those steps can be drastically reduced through the use of simulation because a software user not only gets to see what the problems are, but they can also understand what is causing the problem. That allows the user the ability to identify the solution from the beginning. In addition, the user has the ability to try many iterations digitally, which does not require physical equipment. When failures are discovered, it does not require replacement of recoater blades and recalibration, etc. There are also many other aspects, such a machine maintenance, that are eliminated through digital iterations where a user does not need to clean out filters filled with titanium powder or store additional material just testing to make sure they can build a part successfully.

The displacement of a heat exchanger viewed in ANSYS Additive Print

Can I iterate with ANSYS just like I would with printing?
Yes, a user can go through iterations of designing a part evaluating deformation, modifying the design and running the part again. However, the beauty of simulation is that the user does not need to go through as many iterations if they do not want to. In a single simulation cycle, users can determine distortion, stress, support optimization, timing and features that are causing problems and other information that would take several physical iterations to collect.
How can ANSYS let me do Agile Engineering?
ANSYS allows users to do Agile Engineering in Additive Manufacturing by allowing Designers, Analysts, Researchers, Engineers and Operators to run digital iterations as frequently as they want to without the overhead of the full production cycle. A designer can create a design that they think may not require any support material and can then quickly simulate to determine if a support free design will result in recoater blade crashes or excessive distortion. They can then either utilize automatic tools to compensate for distortion or to automatically generate optimized support structures. The designer can run through many iteration cycles before they ever even need to work with a manufacturing group, which significantly streamlines this process. In addition to the process simulation, ANSYS offers the broadest engineering simulation software suite available, which can allow users to not only design for the manufacturing process, but also run Agile design iterations for performance in structural, fluids, electromagnetics and many many more fields to create not only an Additive Manufacturing solution, but a total product solution.
Can ANSYS help me with qualifying parts for aviation and things like that?
Yes, ANSYS is used today in the qualification of aviation hardware. As the Additive Manufacturing industry strives to move to more qualified aviation components, ANSYS’ Additive Manufacturing tools provide users with an ability unmatched by any other company to predict the full process at a sub-meltpool resolution, which allows users to understand how varying process parameters and geometric designs will impact a component’s ability to stay within specification parameters during the manufacturing process.  ANSYS has the ability for a user to predict what is thermally happening within a part which users can use in conjunction with in-situ monitoring sensors to verify that a part is built as expected. In addition, ANSYS simulation provides the ability to see the temperature effects below the surface of a part whereas measurement sensors are generally only capable of seeing the surface of a part, which does not alway provide sufficient detail. All of this information provides users with data that is able to help raise confidence in the process and will allow aviation companies to deliver qualified components based on more generic specifications rather than costly point design or even material/machine specific specifications.  Finally, simulation can drastically reduce the cost of developing specification limits, which will allow more aviation companies and suppliers to develop specifications and thereby generate more qualified components.

Microstructure visualization with ANSYS.

Are you able to predict only DMLS or also other 3D printed parts? 
Due to the extremely high demand for DMLS components and the high level of errors that occur in the industry today, the primary focus of ANSYS tools is the DMLS process.  However, the breadth of ANSYS Additive Suite tools also allows our customers the ability predict other processes, with still a more directed focus at other metal AM processes.
What would be the workflow of me using ANSYS to generate the right supports? Predict part stress?
Generating the right supports in ANSYS is very easy: a user provides their desired design to the software via .stl format, the user utilizes an extremely easy to use interface to control any custom settings that they are interested in changing (including choosing their desired material and checking a box to run their simulation for supports).  The software takes care of all slicing, meshing, support generation and etc. automatically, so a user will be provided a support structure file that is optimized based on the level of stress that the part will experience during the fabrication process at every specific point where a support interfaces with the part. A user can then take that support structure and utilize it for the fabrication of their part and the supports should not fracture.  Predicting the part stress is essentially the same process, except instead of looking at the support structure that has been automatically optimized for stress the user will look at a 3D rendering of the datapoints at every mesh node within the part to easily visualize stress patterns, levels, and trends.
How does Additive Science let me improve my machine parameters?
Additive Science enables you to improve your machine parameters by giving users the ability to digitally test many combinations of process parameters and evaluate ideal processing parameters for your specific machine and material.  Many users are interested in building parts as rapidly as possible without running into processing problems, such as balling, porosity, blade crash, and other issues. Through utilizing the the output of the detailed Additive Science simulations for meltpool dimensions, and porosity calculations, users can determine the best process parameters as defined by the user.
What kind of customers work with you?
The versatility and breadth of the ANSYS tools allows us to work closely with many different types of customers from Aerospace, to transportation, to energy, to consumer goods and from Large OEM organizations, to startup suppliers, including engineering firms and manufacturing facilities. We also work closely with machine and material vendors to provide joint customers the best solutions to their specific problems.
What advice would you have for an industrial company looking to manufacture using metal printing?
Metal Additive Manufacturing is an avenue to creating amazing products that will help to grow and improve your business as long as it is used for the appropriate applications.  In the past the cost to entry for the “appropriate” applications has been so high that it significantly limited the number of entry points. A key to breaking down that barrier is to be more efficient. AM specific detailed simulations significantly reduce the cost barrier at every stage of the development cycle.  In general companies take a lot of time and it costs them a lot of money to get started with metal AM. The training and education that comes from utilizing software accelerates the time to get up to speed with the industry; so leverage those tools that are available. You will save money, time, and employee stress by using simulation. The AM Suite from ANSYS is the only solution that combines engineering design tools, AM-specific tools for every part of your development chain, and validation support tools all in one product.  So ANSYS is the obvious choice for AM simulation software.

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‘Marie’ Is the First Life-Sized, 3D-Printed Human Body

via MOTHERBOARD

Meet Marie, the very first life-sized 3D-printed human body made from bioplastic, developed by LSU engineering student Meagan Moore to test real-time radiation exposure and figure out optimal radiation therapy dosing for treating conditions like cancer.

According to an LSU press release, Marie is five-foot-one-inch tall and weighs 15 pounds. She also has a detachable head, and a 36-gallon water storage capacity for up to eight hours.

Read more.

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Paul Benning Chief Technologist 3D Printing at HP Predicts 3D Printing Developments in 2019

Paul Benning is the 3D Print and Microfluidics Chief Technologist at HP. Before that he was an HP Fellow and the Chief Technologist of their imaging and printing division. He’s a noted expert in nanotech, microfluidics, and inkjet with a Ph.D. in Material Science. I’m really impressed with the caliber of people at HP and the amount of thought that they put into their technology and all of the aspects that surround their technology. I, therefore, jumped at the chance to interview Paul about some key trends for 2019. I’m glad that we got to learn that HP is able to print circuits on its machines and that they’re going to be incorporating machine learning into manufacturing. I’m also glad that Paul’s predictions are firmly rooted in practice science and manufacturing and not in “dream a little dream” blah blah like so many predictions.

Machine learning could significantly reduce scrap rates in 3D printing, is this something you would expect to happen in the near term?

I expect machine learning to escalate innovation in the manufacturing industry in the coming year. As machine learning is integrated more into 3D printers and control systems around the world, engineers and designers will be able to receive information about the temperature of the machine, what the powder looks like, binding agents used, image data and final part geometries. All of this information will aid in reducing scrap rates and ensure the parts produced are concise and fully functional.

How do you see machine learning and 3D printing interact? 

In addition to being able to share more information than ever before with engineers and designers, the integration of machine learning and 3D printing delivers the capability to monitor a part in the field. People can follow the finished part into the world and see how it performs over its lifespan, tying the findings back to design configurations. Designers can uniquely peg every party and track them via a serial number, enabling real-time supply chain traceability.

Can machine learning be used to reduce part shrinkage for example? 

Yes, machine learning will be used to improve the process during development and to provide real-time feedback during part printing and this level of control will help to optimize all performance vectors including part shrink.  An even more significant impact of machine learning might be in more precisely predicting part shrink so that the design and process can pre-compensate for the predicted deformation producing a printed part with tighter tolerances. 

Do you really think that generative design will make designers faster? How? 

Absolutely. Generative design has the potential to make designers 10-100x faster by leveraging algorithms to discover every possible iteration of a solution. Engineers can create and simulate thousands of designs – including those that they’re unable to envision themselves – in a fraction of the time. The beauty of generative design is that engineers are no longer limited by their own imagination but can instead leverage artificial intelligence to co-create better products in a faster and more sustainable fashion.

To what extent will simulation improve generative design so that parts can be optimized?

By building in simulation and testing to the design process, engineers avoid expensive manufacturing re-works. This helps optimize parts by ensuring technology is an active participant in the design process, rather than simply reflecting actual finished designs.

Do you also expect toolpath optimization for particular geometries?

For Multi Jet Fusion and Metal Jet the “toolpath” is replaced by the printed pattern and decisions of where drops of each agent are placed.  I do expect that the drop placement patterns will be optimized for particular geometries to produce precise and mechanically strong parts.

And if we do how do we feed this information back into generative design software? 

Using information shared back from machine learning monitoring 3D printed parts in the field, designers and engineers can input real parameters into generative design software, such as product size or geometric dimensions, operating conditions, target weight, materials, manufacturing methods and CPU. The software then generates all the feasible designs and runs a performance analysis for each to determine the best ones for prototyping.

I’ve always found it rather tantalizing that with the HP 3D printing technology you could put lots of coatings on objects. With porosity and surface quality being so problematic for us, is coating parts something that you’re looking at? 

Yes, we are investigating coatings that are applied both as a post-print process and during print in multi-agent systems.  This voxel control capability will allow HP 3D printers to go beyond simple coatings to produce patterned surfaces – different coatings in different locations – and even enable materials control away from the surface, inside the part.

Can we expect circuits and conductive materials from HP 3D printing? 

We have demonstrated printed circuits at HP Labs and shown operational sensors like strain gauges.

With binder jetting metals won’t we always have a problem with part shrinkage? And won’t that always be terrible because shrinkage will vary due to part geometry and size? 

In any technology where we start with powders and create dense final parts there will be shrinkage as the open space between powder particles is consumed.  We can produce some quite complex geometries today and I expect that as we continue to learn our models will improve and we will provide design tools that work with predictable shrinkage and clever support strategies to provide the broadest design space.

How can you ensure that these parts have the right tolerances?

Well-characterized production machines that are operated using good process control methodologies will give high confidence in producing parts with the expected tolerances.  Advanced computational modeling and machine learning will help us automate the design process to get the best design quickly and will help automate the production tool setup and control processes so we build the best part every time.

What are some application areas for 3D printing that you see opening up?

We’ll see accelerated impact of digital manufacturing take hold in the form of production applications, particularly across the automotive, industrial and medical sectors. In the auto sector, we’ve seen an increased focus on developing production-grade materials for auto applications as 3D printing gravitates from prototyping to full production of final parts and products. Additionally, as new platforms such as electric vehicles enter mass production, HP Metal Jet is expected to be leveraged for applications such as the light weighting of fully safety-certified metal parts. Industrial 3D manufacturing also enables the automotive industry to produce applications in new ways that were previously impossible, along with the ability to design application-specific parts for individual systems or models.

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3D Printing News Briefs: December 22, 2018

Starting with fashion news, moving to automotive, and finally on to business, we’ve got a short but interesting 3D Printing News Briefs for you today. An Israeli fashion and shoe designer just introduced a 3D printed collection at a San Francisco museum, while Bugatti just tested out its 3D printed brake caliper. Roboze has three new points of contact for customers in North America, and Titomic has signed its second MoU of the week for metal powders.

3D Printed Fashion Collection on Display 

Ganit Goldstein, an Israeli fashion design student at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem whose work we’ve admired before, recently collaborated with Stratasys on her graduation collection, titled “Between the Layers,” which consists of six pairs of 3D printed shoes and seven 3D printed outfits. The high-end, haute couture collection was inspired by her time in Japan learning a traditional weaving technique called ‘ikat’ at the Tokyo University of the Arts, and all of the pieces were 3D printed on the Objet500 Connex3 Color Multi-material 3D Printer by Stratasys. The 3D printed shoes from Goldstein’s collection were unveiled earlier this week at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum as part of the “Arts of Fashion Foundation” International Student Fashion Competition, of which Goldstein is a finalist.

“Stratasys’ advanced 3D printing technology has opened up endless possibilities for my designs, enabling me to print any design at the voxel level in vibrant colors and a range of materials – all in a single print. This capability to control any voxel for any pattern has enabled me to design without boundaries and to combine 3D printing with traditional weaving techniques to create ultra-realistic shoes. For aspiring designers, the ability to fuse cutting-edge technology with traditional crafts is very exciting, unlocking the freedom to design without limitations of past years,” said Goldstein.

“With the knowledge I’ve gained while working with Stratasys, I’ve come to realize that 3D printing is increasingly becoming an integral part of design thanks to the unique design freedom achievable. For me, the key to good design is to first get an understanding of the traditional design methods and foundations, and then explore how I can enhance the essence of the traditional method with new technology. Not only does 3D printing accelerate the design process and enable reduced production costs, it also affords designers total freedom of design.”

Bugatti Tests 3D Printed Brake Caliper

Last year, super car manufacturer Bugatti revealed that it had created the world’s first 3D printed titanium brake caliper, which was also the largest brake caliper in the automotive industry, as well as the world’s largest 3D printed titanium pressure functional component ever produced. Bugatti worked with Laser Zentrum Nord, part of the Fraunhofer research organization, to develop the caliper, and vehicle trials for the part in series production were expected to start in early 2018.

Earlier this week, the Volkswagen Group posted a YouTube video showing an impressive test run of the 3D printed titanium brake caliper developed by Bugatti. See it for yourself below:

Roboze Announces Three New Customer Points of Contact

Italian 3D printer manufacturer Roboze is continuing its expansion, and this week announced  the names of its three new points of contact for its customers in the US, Canada, and Colombia, which will help it create direct channels in the North American market. This news comes right after the company announced that it had closed its first funding round of €3 million to further develop its R&D department and continue its EMEA and USA market expansion.

Its first new partner is ImageNet Consulting, based in Oklahoma City with a total of 18 US offices. The company chose to work with Roboze because of its high quality 3D printed parts and ability to use flame retardant materials. Ontario consulting company TM3 is working with Roboze because it provides the best opportunity for its customers to use a true industrial platform. Based in Medellin, Colombia, i3D is an expert in FDM technology and was impressed with the high quality of parts that were exhibited by Roboze at RAPID 2018.

Titomic Signs MoU with Sino-Euro

L-R: Sino-Euro’s Cristina Cao and S.J. Liang, Titomic’s Jeff Lang and Vahram Papyran, and Sino-Euro’s Alex Zhao

The day after announcing its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China’s Lasting Titanium, Australia metal 3D printing company Titomic announced that it had also signed an MoU with Sino-Euro Materials Technologies of Xi’An Co. Ltd, a Chinese company that specializes in producing spherical powder for the plasma rotating electrode process (PREP). According to the terms of the MoU, which is effective immediately, Sino-Euro will be appointed as Titomic’s Chinese sales distributor and customer support for its Kinetic Fusion systems. It will also provide Titomic with an exclusive supply of its aerospace grade titanium PREP process powders, and develop new metal powder for the Titomic Kinetic Fusion systems.

“We chose to execute this MoU with Sino-Euro for supply of their high-quality Aerospace grade PREP titanium powders aligned with their 50+ years of material science research in titanium and super alloys,” said Jeff Lang, Titomic’s Managing Director.

Discuss these stories and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

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3DPrint.com The Year in Review: 3D Printing 2018

2018 was a very exciting year in 3D Printing. If we look at the big trends we can see the rise of startups with tens of millions in investment, market entry by multibillion-dollar companies especially polymer companies and increased automation. In the background, we can see the very public fading of the desktop printer on every desktop dream but the new realization that 3D printing might be suited for manufacturing. Overall 2018 was a year of professionalization with everyone focusing on higher-end products and end-use applications. And 2018 was the year of centers for excellence for 3D printing. The Starbucks of our world.

For 3DPrint.com there was a shakeup in our pantheon of writers, renewed long-term partnerships with industry leaders and a focus on quality. With higher quality articles, fact-checking, more analysis and scrutiny we seem to have become less popular with certain companies. But, the higher quality seems to appeal to those who count, our readers. They’ve repeatably reached out to us to give us feedback and thank us for our new path. Our pageviews and unique visitors have also increased substantially during the period validating our approach. In tandem we have found new advertisers and industry partners who appreciate this new more difficult but more rewarding path. For this and your continued support, we’d like to thank you for a fantastic year in 2018.

Below is a selection of our news over these past months. We couldn’t possibly expect to filter out the most significant news items because this would be subjective. Instead, we’ve made a selection out of our most popular news stories and those that were very important or those that were oft-recurring or indicative of bigger trends and movements in our industry. Is your story missing? Maybe I forgot it! Add it below in the comments.

January

A happy GE Engineer (lets hope that PPE becomes a trend in 2019)

GE Engineers learn, iterate and grow through 3D printing.

The year started with Sciaky reporting record metal 3D printer sales for the previous month. This would be a leitmotiv for the year with metal sales, investment and commercialization exploding. This year ten times more industrial metal printers were sold than a few years ago.

3D Systems and Stryker partner for surgical planning, a growing area.

The RegenHU Biofactory, sterile 3D printing inside a laminar flow cabinet. Cray cray.

Bioprinting promoted in the US by RegenHU and Wako.

Auroralabs partner and they’re not the last to partner this year.

February

Addidas and Carbon print shoes.

Stoke med reports advances in patient-specific models. Patient-specific medical applications were on the rise throughout the year with patient-specific solutions being developed in polymers and metals for ortho but also things such as braces.

(photo credit: NASA)

NASA tests 3D printed RS engines.

BASF partners with Farsoon and BigRep. Materials giant BASF is investing heavily in 3D Printing. Through investments in Materialise and partnerships with Farsoon and other OEMs the company wants to place itself in the driving seat of materials development and learning. Meanwhile, many other materials companies are piling in.

March 

Small-scale rockets developed for NASA. Rocketry and 3D printing for space was a huge interest area for us this year. 3D Printing lowers the development cost of new space vehicles and rockets. A lot of work is being done in part count reduction and weight savings on rocket propulsion specifically.

Hero with arm

Openbionics introduces the Hero arm. Open source hardware and 3D printing for medical orthoses and the like has been developing quickly as has Openbionics.

Hot Lithography, kind of like stereolithography but then hawt.

E3D develops tool head changer print head. The ever-innovative E3D folks made a tool head changing 3D printer, an idea that everyone had but no one got around to doing.

Wipro opens a 3D printing research center. Research centers were a trend as is the fast-growing Indian 3D printing market.

Chinese researchers use SLM Solutions machines to build nuclear components. China is making higher quality parts and products and this kind of research is a good signifier of that happening in our industry as well.

GKN develops new steel for automotive applications.  Two megatrends the car industry and metal printing intertwined.

Open source desktop bioprinter released by Carnegie Mellon. So far open source and DIY bioprinters have not made a lot of impact yet but this could greatly reduce the costs of bioprinting.

Raise introduces Pro 2 3D printers. Raise and others are making higher quality higher value printers with features such as cameras and build chamber temperature control this is an example of the third wave of 3D printing companies that are focusing on user experience.

Casual nerd photoshoots have been on the increase thanks to 3D printing.

Aon 3D prints with high-temperature materials. PEEK, PEI and high-temperature materials were a trend as were the high-temperature 3D printers to process them.

April 

The US Naval Air Systems command predicts over a 1000 flying parts by years end.

Note that all present are wearing glasses or safety glasses

Sandia works on wind turbines. Sandia has played an outsized role in the development of 3D printing and now is moving more to large format applications.

Jabil introduces a manufacturing network. Large companies trying to engage with 3D printing is a definite trend as is Jabil’s fundamental approach to adopting 3D printing internally.

Cellulose used as 3D printing material. Cellulose was explored a few times this year but was part of a much bigger sustainability trend.

4D printing self-folding objects is also something that persists.

“I’d never leave you not for Jessica or that cute Aon guy”

DSM partners with Ultimaker and introduces materials. Yet another large material company entering the market in a strong way.

ANSYS introduces new simulation tools for 3D printing. ANSYS and Materialise both were hard at work releasing simulation software to speed up 3D printing workflows.

The Orion Spacecraft uses Stratasys Antero 800NA (PEKK) to make an intricately-connected 3D printed docking hatch door. Note the photo in the center with the earthrise on it.

Stratasys makes parts for the Orion spacecraft. Polymers in space? Yes we can.

Stratasys introduces PEI and Carbon Fiber optimized systems and expanded software. Stratasys spent a lot of time optimizing its systems for particular end use parts and applications while expanding GrabCAD.

EOS makes a machine for Boeing.

May 

SABIC introduces new materials, another huge company expanding in 3D printing.

Biomodex and Intamsys get funding. Financing was all around this year especially for companies with business to business propositions.

Concrete houses to be 3D printed. Much of the 3D printed concrete news this year was lies, fraudulent or overclaim. If you noticed that we skipped a lot of concrete 3D printing stories, then it was because they were false. This one we verified but we still don’t know if it will work.

Solukon releases depowdering machine. Post-processing equipment to optimize 3D printing for manufacturing was a huge trend this year.

HP Shows off Multi Jet Fusion. HP’s market entry and continued investments are huge news and changing our industry.

Singapore researchers looking to recycle thermosets. Improving thermosets was a big trend as was continued investment and research in Singapore that wishes to be a 3D printing focal point.

“Well yeah honey the Aon guy is cute, but I’m more a resin kind of woman.”

Formlabs introduces ceramic resins. This Formlabs development combines a trend in expanded desktop materials with that of more functional resins and that of expanded use of ceramics in 3D printing.

Titomic partners with Fincantieri. The marine sector is almost totally unexplored in 3D printing but the first real moves are happening this year.

(L-R) Dr. Steve Swioklo with Prof. Che Connon as cornea is 3D printed.

Bioink used to 3D print corneas. The development of bioinks and their expanding uses was a huge trend as well.

June 

Soft robot uses shape memory. I’m a huge fan of soft robotics and think that it will change many things. Research in this area is growing.

Olivier van Herpt introduces porcelain. Olivier’s highly productive ceramic printer continues to innovate outpacing the rest.

Lawrence Livermore prints a nuclear warhead. This has been going on for over a decade but its nice of them to share.

3Doodler announces new 3D printing pen. We don’t always write about 3D printing pens but millions are in the hands of consumers.

FIT and Roboze expand globally. Service bureau stalwart FIT and new player Robooze expand across the world a huge trend of expanding partnerships, resellers and offices happened this year.

Mantis shrimp inspires composite materials. Bioinspired designs were huge this year as were 3D printing composites.

Henkel and LPW expand facilities showing us real investment in thermosets and metal powders.

A postal company opens a 3D printing portal thanks to 3Yourmind. New market-entry by new kinds of players and alternatives to Materialise software are also significant trends.

July 

Soft robots zigzag through sand.

This 3D printed origami fish catching device story was huge for us and encapsulates using folding in real life applications.

3D print astronauts in space, what could be cooler than that?

3D printed guns were huge this year in the media but not really in real life. So we stood against it.

3D microstructure printed on MEMS actuators. [Image: Rachael Jayne and Alice White, Boston University]

Femtoprint, nanoprinting, and microfluidics will build into a huge technological development over the coming decade.

BASF also took a strategic investment in Materialise and we wondered what it meant.

There were many companies doing space-related deals at aviation shows such as RUAG and Additive Industries.

3D Printing circuits was also a burgeoning thing in 2018.

Drones were big as was using 3D printing for agriculture this story unites both.

Victrex made new PAEK materials available.

A Master’s Degree in 3D Printing? Lots of education initiatives exploded in 2018.

Printrbot closed its doors which shocked many.

3D printed bones? Lots of articles. Lattice structures? Our very own Despacito. 3D printed bone lattice structures? Hell’s yeah.

August 

Nothing ever happens in August.

Satellites printed and made more lightweight were a recurring theme.

I read an awful lot of fatigue response articles in 2018.

Shapercrunch is part of a trend whereby 3D printing startups are not only in the states or Europe.

Using 3D scanning and 3D printing in museums grew a lot.

DigitalAlloys says surprise and comes out of nowhere with a new 3D printing technology.

A few years ago 3D printing chocolate was a surefire winner in terms of traffic. In 2018? Guns or 3D printing coral reefs.

Carbon nanotubes are probably a health risk.

A stator ring and impeller by Velo3D

Velo3D came out of nowhere with an exciting new metal technology.

Lots of companies are working on controlling the 3D printing octagon eg controlling all of the variables including software and procedures to get better 3D printing results.

Research in hydrogel composites exploded in 2018.

We looked at where all of this 3D printing research is coming from.

Flexible thermosets/photopolymers were all the rage as well.

September 

Metrology, QA and parts measurement were quickly growing activities.

With Xaar joining the fray, the hype around binder jetting metal 2018 could be the year of the inkjet.

Minifactory makes a capable large expensive open FDM machine capable of PEEK and PEI. Spurned on by automotive and aerospace that is a real trend.

Kai Witter of Dyemansion talks costs and uses actual numbers to determine how effective their post-processing equipment is.

Everyone is always trying to control this unruly melt pool.

Dyze Design is part of a new group of specialized nozzle design and manufacturing companies that aim to challenge the status quo.

Resin from Prusa.

Lots of people wanted to 3D print silicone and ACEO spread to the US.

AddUp spins out of Michelin and starts to gobble up the French 3D printing industry.

3DHubs killed off its hubs, focuses on B2B, still confuses me.

Evolve additive spins out of Stratasys.

3DGence makes a capable high-end desktop machine.

HP to make metal 3D printers.

As Desktop Metal expands.

All that glitters is probably gold nanoparticles.

Knitting was big as was concrete.

Twikit and BMW offer mass customization together.

Biodegradable medical devices such as stents were a trend.

Carpenter bought LPW postioning it for growth in high-end powder.

Consultants? 3D Printing Consultants, everywhere.

Nscrypt brought some truly amazing ideas and performance to market in bioprinting and electronics.

Xjet built an applications center to roll out its technology globally.

The Goldilocks choice faced by metal printing companies.

Using a MIG welder for a metal printer is about as low cost as we can imagine it.

November

Qualifying aerospace brackets, a multi multi million dollar priority for many.

This hybrid open die forging and DMLS technology still blows us away.

Electrically conductive filament printed on desktop machines was happening a lot.

Bioassemblybot wants to use contour printing to print directly onto people.

Spare parts for my washing machine? Finally. Collective mic drop, we’re done now.

In-cabin 3D printing for aviation was growing.

Happily, there was more research into the air quality of 3D printing.

3D printing meat and other foods was growing but will explode in 2019.

Essentium was another well-financed startup with a highly productive technology.

The AutoAdd project showed us that car manufacturing and 3D printing can be a reality.

LSS’s new Airbus based sintering technology showcases the minitrend that 3D printing maintenance companies are providing innovation in sintering.

Additive Industries partners with Volkswagen.

Solvay marks another company joining our industry in force.

December

Another episode in the resurgence of sintering service organizations in 2018 is the EOS Integra machine made completely separately of all the other EOS machines.

Sadly 3D printing and the law, especially IP law was an issue this year.

Charged aerosol focusing is an interesting technology.

Operational studies and research on real parts was a growing area.

Breast cancer and cancer research using 3D printing was also a trend.

The Fraunhofer sisters did some truly amazing research this year including this.

In secret 3D printing antennae is a huge business but now people are doing public research into the area.

GE makes a big investment in 3D printing in Australia.

Optomec expands vertically in gas turbines.

Autodesk makes a large toolbox.

I hope that you’ve had a wonderful 3D printing year and wish you another!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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New Layer by Layer Tutorial! Designing a Snap fit Case for CPX

In this tutorial we’ll take a look at designing a snap fit mount for the Adafruit Circuit Playground boards.

Adafruit Circuit Playground Express
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3333

CAD Parts on GitHub
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CAD_Parts

3D Printing Projects Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOWD2dJNRIN46uhMCWvNOlbG

3D Hangout Show Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVgpmWevin2slopw_A3-A8Y

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVsMp6nKnpjsXSQ45nxfORb

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVagy3CktXsAAs4b153xpp_

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Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

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MiniFactory Discloses PEKK and PEEK Parts Cost and Quality in Ultra-Polymer 3D Printing

MiniFactory, headquartered in Finland, is known as the producer of hardware for companies interested in 3D printing with polymers; for example, their latest, the miniFactory Ultra 3D printer allows users to work with ULTEM, PEKK, PEEK, PPSU, and more. In their December newsletter, by Olli Pihlajamäki, the month’s activities are outlined and remarked on in full discourse, with a deep focus on how engineers are benefiting from the availability and use of ultra-polymers.

Known for a dedication to plastics in general, MiniFactory is now specializing in the ultra-high performance kind, allowing users to fine-tune their manufacturing of parts, whether they are for prototyping or functional use. Over the past six years, their name has continued to grow—in line with the 3D printing industry overall.

MiniFactory testing specimens

MiniFactory testing specimens

Now, along with accessibility and affordability for many users at the desktop, difficulty in using PEEK and other challenging plastics has become streamlined:

“The discussion around Ultra-polymer 3D printing is a hot topic.  The high mechanical properties across a wide range of temperatures, excellent chemical resistance against fluids and ability to match thermal expansion to metals are the key advantages of these high-performance polymers,” states Pihlajamäki . “3D printing allows for reduction in system weight while allowing for improved efficiency and design flexibility. When 3D printing is combined with the ultra-polymers, it is possible to manufacture optimized and high-quality parts for real use. This way the material costs are far less than any other manufacturing method.”

Polymers are a hot topic indeed, and in the past temperature has been the obstacle for users, especially at the desktop.

“In practice, 3D printing ultra-polymers require more than just a hot nozzle and build plate. The heated printing chamber and enough heat during the print is the key of the process. Therefore, we can be sure the polymer chains are oriented randomly, and the polymer is in structural relaxation. With the miniFactory Ultra, the printing process is optimized for different high-performance polymers, ensures that the mechanical properties and dimensional accuracy of the printed parts are of high-quality.”

The Ultra has been on display at exhibitions around the world lately, allowing potential users a glimpse into the benefits of this high-performance 3D printer. At FormNext18, the MiniFactory team was able to share initial datasheets describing mechanical properties for 3D printed ultra-polymers, filling everyone in on how testing was performed—resulting in high-quality parts that offer true functionality in real-life applications.

FormNext18

“The parts were printed in XZ and ZX orientations to show the real-life performance of the manufacturing method,” says Pihlajamäki. “This way we give the engineers the data required to design parts for real use cases, since they know what to expect of the part in terms of mechanical properties.”

The MiniFactory December newsletter also announces that they have their first local reseller in place in China:

“We signed the contract last week in Beijing between our China team and their local reseller. It was an honour to take a part of that meeting and see that we are working with the best professionals in the industry. Therefore our plan for the next year is to find 4-5 authorized partners from different parts of China. We believe China will take a giant leaps with additive manufacturing during upcoming years. With our local team we want to be a significant and reliable partner for Chinese educational institutes and companies.”

Find out more about MiniFactory and its products 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.

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Penn State Researchers 3D Print Porous Tissues

3D bioprinting still has a lot of issues that need to be worked out before we can see anything like a 3D printed organ transplant. One issue is figuring out how to grow blood vessels in printed or engineered tissue, but researchers at Penn State have found an alternative to that idea, creating tissues with micropores that allow nutrient and oxygen diffusion into the core.

Ibrahim T. Ozbolat

“One of the problems with fabrication of tissues is that we can’t make them large in size,” said Ibrahim T. Ozbolat, Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics. “Cells die if nutrients and oxygen can’t get inside.”

Creating tissue building blocks with micropores is an alternative to vascularization, or growing blood vessels inside the tissue, according to the researchers. They refer to the building blocks as “porous tissue strands.” They began with stem cells derived from human fat and mixed them with sodium alginate porogens. Sodium alginate, which is derived from seaweed, can be printed into tiny particles that leave holes, or pores, behind in the fabric of the tissue when dissolved. The researchers used the stem cells and sodium alginate to 3D print strands of undifferentiated tissue, which were then combined, by 3D printing them next to and on top of each other, to form patches of tissue.

The researchers then exposed the tissue to the chemical cocktail that causes stem cells to differentiate, allowing the cells to turn into bone or cartilage. The pores allow the fluid to flow to all of the stem cells. According to the researchers, the strands were able to maintain 25 percent porosity and 85 percent pore connectivity for at least three weeks.

“These patches can be implanted in bone or cartilage, depending on which cells they are,” said Ozbolat. “They can be used for osteoarthritis, patches for plastic surgery such as the cartilage in the nasal septum, knee restoration and other bone or cartilage defects.”

Cartilage tends to be easier to produce than bone because in the human body, cartilage does not have blood vessels running through it. Some bone is naturally porous, however, so porosity in engineered tissue means greater potential for repairing or replacing natural bone. Only tiny patches of tissue can currently be made, but they are still easier to fabricate than growing artificial tissue on scaffolding.

The research was documented in a paper entitled “Porous tissue strands: avascular building blocks for scalable tissue fabrication.” The work has a lot of potential for bone and cartilage regeneration, and the researchers are also considering applying their technique to muscle, fat and other tissues as well.

Authors of the paper include Yang Wu, Monika Hospodiuk, Weijie Peng, Hemanth Gudapati, Thomas Neuberger, Srinivas Koduru, Dino J. Ravnic and Ibrahim T. Ozbolat.

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.