TCT Europe 29.6 by TCT Magazine

3D PRINTING & ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING INTELLIGENCE

MAG EUROPE EDITION VOLUME 29 ISSUE 6 www.tctmagazine.com

Burgmaier takes a hybrid approach to innovation with SLM Solutions.

Materials

3D SCANNING

formnext

Conversations on metal powders and biomaterials.

Applications from healthcare to history.

A look at the technologies and speakers headed to Frankfurt.

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FROM THE EDITOR SAM DAVIES

Back to normal Flights booked, hotel booked, airport parking booked, calendar nearly fully booked. It is November, it is a trip to Frankfurt, it is – after 18 long months – things getting back to normal. By the time this magazine is published, we will be just days away from Formnext 2021, meaning – barring any unforeseen circumstances – the four largest Western additive manufacturing (AM) events (TCT 3Sixty, RAPID + TCT and the AMUG Conference) will have successfully pulled off their respective shows in-person this year. Twelve months ago, as three of them were cancelled completely and the fourth went ahead as a digital-only event, that seemed like a world away. The event organisers behind each have worked tirelessly to ensure their safe return and having been at TCT 3Sixty just a few weeks ago, exhibitors, speakers and visitors alike are extremely grateful. As you’ll read in this issue of TCT Magazine, the AM professionals in attendance at TCT 3Sixty enjoyed being back in front of people and being back in front of the technology, surveying what the exhibitors had to offer and how manufacturers had been using it, after two years away. If they didn’t get their fill in Birmingham, though, we have plenty more over the next 60 pages. With our focus on materials, we speak to Uniformity Labs CEO Adam Hopkins about his ambition to make the company’s products

the ‘gold standard’ of AM powder (page 11); the thyssenkrupp team tells us about its Materials as a Service offering (page 15); 4D Biomaterials discusses its novel set of 3D printable biomaterials (page 19); and ATI outlines the importance of materials designed for AM (page 23). Meanwhile, in our 3D scanning feature, we look at how a team of surgeons has used the iReal 2S face scanner to create facial prosthetics for trauma patients (page 25), while filmmaker Ivan Erhel has deployed scanning technology from Artec 3D to preserve the history of Mesopotamia (page 27). In research and academia (page 35), we talk to the MTC and University of Bristol about the impact AM could have on electrification, and we also talk to BAE Systems, Xometry, and more about the importance of education initiatives as the need for more sustainable manufacturing grows. And as is standard in the last TCT Magazine Europe edition of the year, we preview what’s to come at Formnext. While there may be fewer exhibitors, fewer attendees and fewer evening festivities – all owed to COVID-19 restrictions – than we’re used to at Formnext, we’re anticipating a busy week where products will be launched, conversations had, and drinks drank. For the AM space, what could be more normal than that? We hope to see you there!

29.6 / www.tctmagazine.com / 05

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VOLUME 29 ISSUE 6

COVER STORY

8 11

8. BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

Burgmaier’s hybrid approach to innovation with SLM Solutions.

MATERIALS

11. GOING FOR GOLD

Senior Content Producer Sam Davies speaks to Uniformity Labs about its aim to become the gold standard of AM powder.

15. THYSSENKRUPP TALKS AM

Head of Content Laura Griffiths sits down with the thyssenkrupp team to discuss their play in the AM market.

19. INTRODUCING 4D BIOMATERIALS

An interview with the start-up behind a novel set of 3D printable biomaterials.

23. FUELLING THE NEXT MANUFACTURING REVOLUTION ATI’s Matias Garcia-Avila, PhD, highlights the potential of materials designed specifically for AM.

3D SCANNING 25. A REAL DIFFERENCE

Looking at the impact of the iReal 2S face scanner at North Manchester General Hospital.

FORMNEXT

27. PRESERVING THE CRADLE OF CIVILISATION

48. FORMNEXT PREVIEW

Research & Academia

EXECUTIVE Q&A

How filmmaker Ivan Erhel is using 3D scanning to preserve the history of Mesopotamia.

31. AUTOMATION AND ERROR DETECTION IN AM

FZI Research Center's Pascal Becker on combining robotics with AM.

35. A LONG AND WINDING ROAD

The MTC and University of Bristol discuss the use of AM in their respective electrification research efforts.

Education & skills

39. MAKING SKILLS SUSTAINABLE BAE Systems, Xometry, Made Smarter and Additive Minds share insights on the importance of education initiatives as the need for sustainable manufacturing grows.

TCT 3SIXTY

43. TCT 3SXITY REVIEW

We take you through some of the exhibition and conference highlights as TCT 3Sixty returns.

A look at what we can expect from this year’s Formnext, from conference presentations to machine launches.

59. LITHOZ AT 10

Lithoz CEO Dr Johannes Homa reflects on a decade of 3D printing ceramics.

news

62. ADDITIVE INSIGHT ROUND-UP The latest additive manufacturing industry developments, from acquisitions to applications.

BEST OF BOTH WORLD Burgmaier takes a hybrid approach to innovation with SLM Solutions.

or nearly 90 years, precision manufacturing specialist Burgmaier has been a leader in producing parts and components for industries spanning automotive and engineering to energy and consumer electronics. Around 350,000 parts leave its factory every day for delivery to customers around the world, and statistically there are five Burgmaier parts in every European car. With innovation, quality, and the motto “fascination in high precision” at its core, the family-owned company has enhanced its expertise in subtractive manufacturing by adopting metal 3D printing into its production capabilities. With an SLM 280 2.0 selective laser melting system from SLM Solutions working alongside its 250 in-house production machines, the company now sees AM as an “essential part” of its business strategy. “In hybrid additive manufacturing, we combine the best of both worlds,” Johannes Mayer, Business Development and Sales Manager Additive Manufacturing told TCT. “We use inexpensive conventional standard components and additively build the complex structure on them. The challenge is to manufacture several components in a process-reliable manner at the same time. In order to meet this challenge, we have developed a modular clamping system ourselves and have defined a reproducible process, which guarantees us a repeat accuracy of 0.05 mm.” The addition of AM has allowed Burgmaier to explore filigree and bionic geometries, reduce weight and lead times, and add new functionality to its customers’ parts and internal parts. But, Mayer says, a collaborative approach is crucial to this success. Burgmaier recently turned its attention to one of the most common tools in turning technology: the grooving system. Working with ZCC Cutting Tools Europe, the team wanted to improve the component to make it more efficient

08 / www.tctmagazine.com / 29.6

and productive, and created a new grooving system that is stronger, lighter, more durable, and cheaper to manufacture. The grooving component used in metal cutting performs an essential service in a range of demanding industries. The metals it cuts can be tough, requiring a tool that is strong, resilient, and able to meet the stress load and scale of serial production lines. Conventional grooving tools feature a straight cooling channel to direct the cooling liquid towards the cutting part to encourage cooling of the metal as it’s being carved. But this traditional shape isn’t as effective as it could be. “The integration of cooling channels offers an extraordinary advantage for our applications in many ways,” Mayer elaborated. “Additive manufacturing enables us to integrate flow-optimised channels into the components, that lead directly to the exact points as needed. This design saves manufacturing costs and at the same time raises component performance to a new level.” ZCC created a star shaped conformal cooling channel that allows the cooling liquid to spread more evenly and cool the material more efficiently. The channel extends all the way from the basic holder to the basic cartridge, splits in two and then winds to the point of action, the cutting edge. This directs the cooling liquid to the right places and minimises the stress load on the entire tool, leading to better performance and an extended lifecycle. “Just as we do it in the monolithic additive manufacturing process, the focus is on the

SHOWN: SLM 280 2.0 SYSTEM

function of the component, according to which we design the component construction,” Mayer said. “There is a close collaboration with our customers. In the case of the modular grooving system, the design owner is our customer ZCC Cutting Tools Europe. For example, we were able to integrate complex star-shaped channels into our components in order to increase the function of the component, or to reduce the component weight by 45%.” For Burgmaier, metal AM is broadening opportunities in the tooling industry. In the example of the nozzle claw, a high-pressure turning tool for long-chipping materials such as Inconel and titanium would typically be manufactured via a multi-step machining process and incur high costs. The conventional production of the tool involves

COVER STORY

maintain a very partnership-based approach.”

SHOWN: BLOW OUT TUNNEL PRINTED ON THE SLM 280

several bores, some of which must be resealed. In order to improve the tool with a high-pressure claw for process-reliable machining, Burgmaier determined the optimal flow rate for the best possible medium feed and redesigned the part to optimise channel shapes and guidance. The nozzle claw was printed in a case-hardening steel with a layer thickness of 50 µm and minimal supports to simplify postmachining. Ken Krauß, Head of Additive Manufacturing at Burgmaier, commented: “With our 16MnCr5 material, which is specially qualified for additive manufacturing by Burgmaier AM, we can produce numerous wearresistant tools. In particular, the

ability to integrate cooling channels is a major advantage of additive manufacturing.” “In the early days we were concerned with sensitising our colleagues from the conventional machining sector to this technology,” Mayer explained. “This is now paying off, as our colleagues approach us with problems from their everyday work. We solve problems together and develop additive solutions, which among other things has resulted in the additive manufacturing of a blowout tunnel. However, we mainly work for external customers, whereby we

“We solve problems together and develop an additive solution.” SHOWN: MODULAR GROOVING TOOL

While Burgmaier leverages its hybrid process to manufacture components for its external customers, the advantages of additive are having a huge impact within its own serial production facilities in Europe. In one case, the aforementioned blow-out tunnel, used to clean components in an automated production process, was optimised for performance and quality. Burgmaier used SLM Solutions’ technology to integrate round air ducts, duct cross sections, and outlet angles to allow compressed air to reach the component from all sides. Burgmaier's team produced six variants in one SLM 280 build job using AlSi10Mg with a layer thickness of 30 µm. The new design resulted in downtimes caused by chips being reduced to zero, a utilisation increase of 7%, and annual savings in the high five-figures. For Burgmaier, being a world leader means constantly staying at the forefront of innovation. The company has shared how the SLM 280 2.0 machine allows it to work “constructively and solutionoriented.” For one of its key customer industries – automotive – the flexibility afforded by its hybrid approach allows it to react to market changes rapidly and maintain a foothold in new markets such as electrification and hybridisation. While Mayer says that we’re not quite at the break-even point for using AM in these kinds of mass production applications, there’s no need to look further than its own machine park to see how AM is already taking effect. Mayer concluded: “The AM area is gaining more and more importance within the Burgmaier Group. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that with additive manufacturing, we ensure internal improvements and thereby improve work processes and save costs in the high six-figure range. On the other hand, we were able to steadily increase the utilization of our AM machine park, which means that we will invest in further plant capacities in the short term. All in all, we see a very positive impact on the entire group.”

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MATERIALS

GOING FOR GOLD WORDS: SAM DAVIES

couple of decades ago, I decided I wanted to commercialise products in the materials space, and the reason is, I think we’re in what you might call a materials revolution.”

It’s a big statement right out of the blocks as Adam Hopkins, PhD, the Uniformity Labs (UL) CEO, is asked to explain the origin of the company he founded back in 2014. And as the conversation continues over the next 50 minutes, Hopkins barely slows down. Slowing down, it seems, isn't on the company's agenda either. UL came out of stealth with a $38m Series B financing round in February before quickly introducing new products and revealing real-world applications of its metal 3D printing materials. Having identified that the materials industry was amidst what he describes as a revolution, Hopkins established Uniformity Labs not long after earning his PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from Princeton University, where he was also commended with the Ray Grimm Memorial Prize in Computational Physics. Working in the university’s Torquato Lab alongside Professor of Chemistry Salvatore Torquato, Hopkins developed a robust packing algorithm that optimises ratios of different-sized spheres to produce novel 3D printing materials exhibiting ‘99%+ density’.

Today, it serves as the foundation of Uniformity Labs’ ambitions in the additive manufacturing space. But initially, Hopkins and his team had looked at taking their computational technology to the concrete industry, where it wanted to reduce the amount of cement needed to build structures and offer a stronger alternative material. Though the technology would have worked, Hopkins says the concrete market was going to be hard to move because ‘the cost margins are razor-thin.’ In additive manufacturing, though, UL identified a sector where higher-performing materials were going to be essential as 3D printing technology matured. “We spent years optimising this for different sizes and shapes of powder that were available in additive, and we optimise for costs as well as for properties,” Hopkins said. “And it’s not just about density. When you’re a laser machine, the densest powder gives you some advantages, but a uniformly spread powder bed is where uniformity comes from [and] is probably more important. “Folk have known this with respect to spherical particles, but spherical particles of one size. [They] don’t have anything

on spherical particles – or nonspherical particles as in our case – of many different sizes, where the little particles are filling in all the gaps between the big ones, so you have a very high-density bed, you have more powder on the bed, you also have smaller particles filling the gap. You have a very smooth bed, a very uniform bed, and you’re decreasing stochastic variation simultaneously with this dense powder that exponentially increases laser absorption that is thermally conductive, instead of thermally insulating. You melt a lot more powder per unit energy, as well as having a more uniform bed. So, more reliability, more repeatability through the uniformity, much faster printing.” Uniformity Labs has been able to achieve this without spending ‘hundreds of millions of dollars,’ with Hopkins saying existing powder metallurgy equipment and platforms will be up to the task and users ‘won’t have to sacrifice anything’ to use the company’s powders. These powders, per UL, boast reduced porosity of 15-30% and up to ‘1000x+ more contact points between particles.’ This helps Uniformity Labs’ materials to be more thermally conductive and allows the user to sinter more

“We’re not going to dominate the powder industry, but we are going to be the gold standard.”

SHOWN: ALUMINIUM 6061

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MATERIALS SHOWN: PART PRINTED WITH UNIFORMITY LABS MATERIAL

uniformly, yielding denser parts. It also means there is less shrinkage of parts during the sintering phase. “And that’s perhaps even more important,” Hopkins added. “Geometric tolerance or geometric accuracy is exponentially dependant on shrinkage and what that means is if you reduce your shrinkage by a factor of two, you get roughly a factor of five-to-ten absolute tolerance improvement. It enables much more accurate sintering of larger parts which is a big deal because in the sintering space – binder jetting and MIM – one of the main problems is once you get to larger parts, you have uncontrolled shrinkage; you’re not exactly sure how much the part is going to shrink or it’s going to warp when it shrinks. It makes it impossible to make certain parts and certain geometries and it also makes it inaccurate, so you need to build on more material and then you need to do more post-machining to get rid of that extra material.” Hopkins sees ‘tremendous’ opportunity with binder jetting and has been working with Desktop Metal for several years on a range of projects, including one that resulted in the launch of an aluminium 6061 material for the Production System in March. Set to be made available once fully qualified, the aluminium 6061 exhibits greater than 10% elongation, as well as improved yield and ultimate tensile strength compared to wrought 6061 aluminium with similar heat treatment. The work between the two firms is ongoing, with Uniformity utilising an in-house Desktop Metal Shop System for further materials development. It’s not the only 3D printing system Uniformity Labs has taken ownership of, nor does it just focus on binder jet technologies. Using an SLM 280 2.0 Dual Laser system recently, Uniformity Labs additively manufactured a rollcage for a solar-powered race car that competed in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, an international event where solar-powered cars drive 3,000km through the Australian outback. For this project, Uniformity Labs used its ultra-low porosity AlSi10Mg aluminium alloy to print the topologically optimised component with a 30μm layer thickness, though it is said to have a productivity level equal to that of a 60μm layer thickness print. The company also offers titanium, cobalt chrome and superalloy materials.

recipes for its powder bed fusion aluminium materials and powder fusion steels, just as it does its powder bed fusion steels compared to binder jetting steels, with the parameters of each optimised with the turn of a dial. Owed to its computational technology, Hopkins believes Uniformity “can turn knobs that others can’t” and backed by $38m in funding from IP Group and Orion Resource Partners, the company is pushing to establish itself as an AM materials leader. A key part of that objective has been to recruit Gary Brown as VP of Finance; appointing former Jabil execs Geoffrey Doyle and Walter Tersigni to the roles of VP of Business Development and VP of Sales; and adding GM veteran Alan S. Batey, former Nucor Chairman John J. Ferriola and former GKN Sinter Metals President Christon Franks to its Board. It is also building out a third facility where the company will have 50,000-square-foot of space dedicated to the production of 4,000 tonnes per annum of high-quality steels, cobalt chrome and other ferrous materials, while titanium and aluminium are the focus of the company’s alreadyestablished pilot production plant.

month it does today, to tens of tonnes, hundreds of tonnes and – ‘maybe one day, long, long in the future’ – tens of thousands of tonnes. For that, Hopkins says the industry needs to grow and the 3D printing machines need to improve, but he’s confident they will and he’s confident Uniformity will then be among the best powder suppliers around. “There’s no world where Uniformity is the only powder supplier. We’re not out there to supplant anybody. We’re out there to grease the gears, or maybe I can say a step further, we’re out there to remake the inner workings of the mechanism that is the AM industry,” Hopkins finished. “But we’re not making all the gears, we’re going to be one or two of the components and we’re going to put them all together in the way that best helps our customers. There’s always going to be a place for standard monomodal powders in AM. We’re not going to dominate the powder industry, but we are going to be the gold standard of powder.”

With the finances, experience and intellectual property all set in place, Uniformity Labs is now joining the number of other ‘fantastic materials companies out there’ and has outlined a roadmap that will take the company from producing the tonnes of powder per SHOWN: METAL POWDER ATOMIZER AT UNIFORMITY LABS

Whether developed for binder jetting processes or laser powder bed fusion, Uniformity’s materials are designed to ensure they are high in density, low in porosity and output quality 3D printed components. The company has different

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materials

WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS

es, that’s right, tiss-en-krup,” Lilyana Stoyanova, Marketing Business Analyst at thyssenkrupp Materials UK confirms as we reconnect over Teams, three weeks after our first meeting at TCT 3Sixty where I’d almost definitely pronounced the materials specialist’s name incorrectly. A helpful video on thyssenkrupp’s website showing several mispronunciations proves I’m not alone and emphasises a clear mission that underscores my conversation with the team: thyssenkrupp wants the additive manufacturing (AM) industry to know its name. “In our particular fields, in aerospace metals, in automotive and motorsport metallics, the name thyssenkrupp carries a lot of weight, a lot of expertise and a lot of knowledge. People want to deal with us,” explains Nigel Evans, Head of Business Development at thyssenkrupp Materials UK. “We were really surprised at [TCT 3Sixty], a lot of people hadn’t heard of thyssenkrupp which has always been quite challenging for us and quite strange because we're not used to that.”

While at first glance, that might seem bullish, Evans makes a fair point. The thyssenkrupp Group is renowned for its steel production with over 200 years of industrial history behind it, serving countless sectors from mining and metals to aerospace and oil & gas, across its 480 worldwide locations. The Group is made up of largely independent industrial and technology businesses, one of which is materials distributor and service provider thyssenkrupp Materials UK, which recently unveiled its new offering to the metal AM market. “It's sort of an evolution for us into the additive manufacturing market,” Evans said. “We've been through the stages at the moment where we’re taking metal away from the components that we're making, the next stage is to actually create the component from the powdered metal and kind of grow the product.” For the wider thyssenkrupp Group, the move to additive began with the launch of its AM TechCenter in Mülheim in 2017.

“It's an evolution for us into the AM market.”

The centre was established to explore the technology’s potential and, as a materials supplier with its own raw materials department, it made sense take a closer look at the materials side too. The company has spent time carefully evaluating the right powders, chemical compositions, particle size distribution, flowability, limitations – the kinds of details those customers in the highly regulated industries that thyssenkrupp serves would be paying close attention to – and is now ready to provide to the market. There are many challenges within the metal AM process. Even the sourcing route for AM materials is entirely different to the traditional mode of selling materials. So different in fact, Evans, who has a wealth of experience across aerospace, defence and machining industries, jokes that for the first time in his 35-year career, he finds himself presented with a blank sheet of paper and conversing with universities, technology centres and machine vendors (some of which already use thyssenkrupp metals to

SHOWN: THYSSENKRUPP MATERIALS UK ANNOUNCED ITS NEW AM SERVICES AT TCT 3SIXTY

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Cubicure starts digital series production: Cerion

A new era of additive series production

The overhaul of stereolithography has been a long time coming. One Austrian 3D printing company bids to answer the call: Cubicure has just presented Cerion, a large-scale production plant which closes the gap to toolless, fully digital series production of polymer parts. Apparently, the machine is already in use with some pilot customers and has proven that it delivers on its promises.

Rethinking stereolithography It needed a new way of thinking to turn dreams of the future into productive reality. No more resin baths or material trays; enter a process that doesn’t even need to limit itself to one single lighting technology. Cerion’s particular strength is a completely novel printing head that smoothly glides over the building area and, layer by layer, combines all building processes in one fell swoop. With a giant building platform measuring one meter by thirty centimeters, one might think Cerion would need to take its sweet time to achieve an optical precision of 50x50 µm². Think again: Each layer is printed in just under a minute, completely independent of how many parts need to be produced in what size or how complicated their geometry is. So above all, Cerion is scalable, in its dimensions and its throughput. A few bulky or thousands of minute parts can all be printed simultaneously. „Due to the type of processing with a traversing printing head and exceedingly precise lighting control, there is no variance in manufacturing accuracy distributed over the build area,“ confirms Dr. Bernhard Busetti, process engineer and product manager for AM systems at Cubicure. The newly developed process even improves the reproducibility of print jobs. In addition, Cerion relies on Cubicure‘s seasoned Hot Lithography technology. It might be a new system, but it already has a broad range of applications backing it up.

„This is the essential breakthrough in the industrial upscaling of lithographic printing processes“ enthuses Managing Director and CTO Dr. Robert Gmeiner. „After three decades of stereolithography, finally an industrially scalable process has been found.“ Make the next step towards toolless manufacturing and come see the future of light-curing 3D printing for yourself at the trade show Formnext in Frankfurt am Main in mid-November.

Cubicure will be exhibiting in hall 12.1 at booth F39.

www.cubicure.com

materials SHOWN: THYSSENKRUPP IS OFFERING A "ONE STOP SHOP" FOR AM, INCORPORATING ITS IN-HOUSE MACHINING CAPABILITIES

manufacture said machines) to devise a new strategy. “We're setting ourselves up as a supply chain partner and partner of choice,” Evans elaborated. “We're not just selling a piece of metal, we want to supply a process, we want to look at where they're going with it. So, we're having to change the way we're selling. What I think has happened is a lot of the people we're speaking to aren't changing the way they're buying. They're still buying like it's 1984. You know, ‘Who's the cheapest price?’, ‘Where can we get it from?’ And ‘I like dealing with Dave’. We've got to change that mentality.” Any switch to additive usually calls for a change in mindset. According to Evans, early conversations with aerospace customers have shown that the industry knows it’s coming but some businesses aren’t quite ready to adopt. Sebastian Richter, Head of Metal Powders argues that the pandemic hasn’t helped either as the lack of in-person contact has prevented would-be users from experiencing AM’s potential first-hand. It’s a different and more cautious view to many others in the AM industry who believe the pandemic has given AM an opportunity to showcase its unique benefits over traditional manufacturing routes, but Richter remains positive that there’s a place for AM alongside existing manufacturing setups. Richter said: “When you are in a production job site like we have for Materials Services in the UK, where you have a milling machine and right next to it you have a printer and everybody

knows how to use it, then I think that's the future of this technology and of this industry.” In what the company believes to be a unique offering to the market, thyssenkrupp Materials UK has introduced a post-build service, leveraging its large portfolio of in-house, machining centres across the UK to deliver a more efficient production process from material selection to verified finished part. Customers can work with thyssenkrupp to identify the optimum materials for their parts, print them and have them post-processed by a range of surface finish options offered via thyssenkrupp’s network of 5-axis machining platforms. It’s all part of its Materials as a Service (MaaS) offering which allows thyssenkrupp Materials UK to oversee the entire AM thread depending on the customer’s needs. “We market ourselves as a one stop shop for additive manufacturing,” Iryna Smokovych, Powder Metals Engineer explained. “We are also a supply chain solutions provider, and it applies for additive, it applies for all other Materials as a Service projects. We can just supply the material, and that's fine but we can also support the whole supply chain if the customer needs it. We can supply the finished product if they require.” thyssenkrupp Materials UK keeps a selection of sustainably sourced

“We're setting ourselves up as a supply chain partner and partner of choice.” metal powders in stock including stainless steel, aluminium, titanium and nickel-based alloys, but in the UK, it’s also manufacturing its own AM powders for powder bed fusion and electron beam melting processes including common grade materials and bespoke customer formulations. thyssenkrupp’s global presence, supply chain experience, and network of sites means it is able to react quickly and provide this service to customers on a global scale. Though, even with the pull of a big name, Evans says providing that local element remains important. Evans added: “It's something we've been doing in the UK for a long time - value added, additional manufacturing or now MaaS and for me, additive manufacturing is one of the technologies and one of the processes that I feel fits in and encompasses this completely. It is a new market for us and it's a different type of selling that we're having to look at and it's a different route but one I think that is going to be essential for us moving forward, that we are aligned with our colleagues in Germany and ensure that we can join in what I feel to be the next stage of evolution for a metal supplier.”

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MATERIALS

INTRODUCING 4D BIOMATERIALS A WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS

lot of tech breakthrough stories come from humble garages and garden sheds, but it was a coffee shop in Derbyshire where the lift of the UK’s lockdown restrictions this past Spring enabled 4D Biomaterials’ CEO Philip Smith and additive manufacturing (AM) consultant Phil Reeves to meet for the first time and experience one of their own.

“I told him what we were doing,” Smith recalled in a recent conversation with TCT. “[Phil] started laughing and said, ‘I've got a client, he's asked me to find that material. I've been looking all over the world for that material.’” That material, or materials, is 4Degra, a range of novel polymeric 3D printing resin-inks (patents applied for) that can be used to additively manufacture implantable medical devices which degrade and resorb into the body over time. It all started 15 years ago with Professor Andrew Dove, a leading researcher in degradable polymers, who started developing a new class of stereolithography-type resins that would deliver better patient outcomes. To commercialise the technology, 4D Biomaterials has since spun out of the Universities of Birmingham and Warwick, assembled a full-time team of six, secured a recent seed round of £1.6m, and is now ready to take the technology into its next phase. Degradable polymers such as polylactic acid (PLA), poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) and polycaprolactone (PCL) are well established in the medical device field, with some already able to be printed via processes such

as FDM, but they can pose some limitations.

“With things like PLA and PLGA, which are polyesters, degradation is triggered by moisture and those materials in particular hydrate very easily,” Dr Andy Naylor, Head of Product Development at 4D Biomaterials, explained. “So, when they go into the body, the water goes all the way through the material. That triggers a reaction

“We've got, potentially, a world-beating material.”

causing them to degrade from the inside out. That degradation can lead to a potentially very acidic local environment, which is not very good for tissue and that's a key drawback with those materials.” By contrast, 4Degra materials degrade via a progressive surface erosion process that stops the structure itself from collapsing suddenly. This means that any byproducts are also released much more gradually, resulting in reduced concentration levels. As tissue grows into the scaffold, this progressive erosion also improves the way the device itself is resorbed over time. 4D Biomaterials’ team of engineers and chemists is able to formulate the material for different needs. These can range from incredibly soft and flexible materials to those with rigid and strong properties. The company recently neighboured alongside TCT 3Sixty at the Med Tech Innovation Expo where an array of application examples, from 3D printed lattice structures for bone regeneration to microstructures for splints, displayed the wealth of potential such material flexibility could bring. In one of the larger application examples, the materials were used to print a breast conserving lumpectomy device which is implanted into the void after the removal of a tumour. The device, printed in a soft tissue version of 4Degra, features a shape memory lattice structure and sponge-like quality, similar to breast tissue, so that it can be compressed into a smaller shape on implantation and then expand once it reaches body temperature. Over time, the patient’s natural tissue grows into the scaffold

SHOWN: LUMPECTOMY DEVICE WITH SHAPE MEMORY LATTICE

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MATERIALS

which will then degrade and be resorbed into the body. The device is said to have piqued the interest of breast surgeons in the U.S. who see this as a more efficient way of delivering better cosmetic outcomes without the need for reconstructive surgery. In a different example featuring a stiffer material formulation, a lattice structure was applied to bridge the gap in a fracture and promote bone growth. For more complex cases, thanks to 3D printing, these kinds of devices can also be personalised. “Those types of tissue scaffolds, with a very well-defined pore size and very high resolution, are great for growing tissue through,” Naylor added. “You couldn't make it any other way other than 3D printing.” Leveraging Reeves’ connections within the AM industry, the company has been working with early customers and machine vendors – both of which are being kept under wraps – to get the materials ready for clinical trials. While the team has plenty of ideas around where these materials could have an impact, Smith says the long-term intention is not to become a medical device manufacturer but rather a provider of materials and a development partner. Yet, getting a medical device through the necessary regulations is a long and rigorous process and currently, Reeves describes the “chicken and egg” situation the start-up finds itself in as it plans to select one device to focus on pushing through clinical trials to attain regulatory approval without relying on a third party to take the leap for them.

SHOWN: 4DEGRA CAN BE FORMULATED FOR DIFFERENT APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

PEEK, whether it's titanium, whether it's known and accepted biomedical materials, you still have to go through this whole process for a medical device,” Reeves explained. “What excites me about this is that we have a better material than the incumbent material and it won't take necessarily any longer to get it into a medical device, if you want to use 3D printing.” Whilst it was a serendipitous meeting of minds in a local café – and a short Happy Birthday exchange between Smith and Naylor over LinkedIn that evolved to finding a home and a kitted-out lab inside Nottingham’s MediCity – which led 4D Biomaterials to where it is today, the trio believe the switch to remote working and Zoomification of business meetings also played a part by creating a level playing field. “We've had Zoom meetings with some of the biggest medical device manufacturers and 3D printing companies in the world,” Reeves shared. “We're a tiny start-up in Nottingham and I think pre-COVID there would have been an expectation that we would have to have travelled to them to be seen and I think that

that's completely changed now. I think it's become a much more level playing field in the way that you communicate with prospective partners and clients and supply chain partners.” The start-up has ambitions to select its first device early next year with intent to start human trials around 2023. Right now, the resin is only suitable for design development purposes but the next step is to engage with a GMP manufacturing facility to prepare the material for clinical trials. Once that is achieved, the possibilities could be boundless. “I think we're actually in a pretty strong position that we've got, potentially, a world-beating material that’s better than what you've got, and it's 3D printable,” Phil concluded. “So, if you're a device manufacturer and you want to move into 3D printing, why would you do that using a substandard material?” Visit 4D Biomaterials at Formnext HALL 11, STAND B59.

SHOWN: 4DEGRA MATERIALS DEGRADE VIA A PROGRESSIVE SURFACE EROSION PROCESS

“It's just a way of us making sure we get the material in a device that's approved,” Smith adds, “and then that qualifies it as a material for other people to use in whichever device they're developing or have.” Though, with what the team believes to be a “world-beating” material on their hands, Reeves argues that for those devices where 3D printing makes sense, 4Degra is a no brainer. “The reality is, it doesn't matter what the material is, whether it's

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MATERIALS

FUELLING THE NEXT MANUFACTURING REVOLUTION

WORDS: Matias Garcia-Avila, PhD, Principal Engineer, AM R&D at ATI Specialty Materials

s additive manufacturing (AM) matures, parts specifically designed for additive manufacturing (DfAM) will offer superior performance and significant advantages when compared to parts made from traditional manufacturing methods. Most metallic materials used in AM today are powder or wire product forms of traditional cast and wrought alloys such as nickel 718 or Titanium Ti-6Al-4V (Ti 64). It is important to remember that these alloys were once designed to be cast into ingots and forged or rolled into billet, bar, or plate/sheet form, where the hot working of the metal plays an important role in the final crystalline microstructure and performance of the material. In most cases, AM processes can produce material properties superior to casting and close to the cast and wrought products of the same alloy by using thermal post-processes like heat treating. In some cases, like in Ti 64, the physics inherent to AM can work against the material. For Ti 64, high cooling rates observed in laser-based AM processes can lead to a martensitic transformation in the material, leading to low ductility and high residual stresses. For some part geometries, these residual stresses can be severe and lead to process failures that render the components not printable. This martensitic transformation in titanium is not exclusive to Ti 64 (most alpha-beta alloys

exhibit this behaviour), limiting their wide insertion into AM components. Other titanium alloys, such as beta-rich alloys, do not experience martensitic transformations on cooling and could be more suitable for AM due to the lack of residual stress build-up during AM processing. In addition, beta-rich Ti alloys can be heat treated to produce a variety of strength and ductility combinations, offering versatility and wide applicability to titanium AM components. Recognising this challenge, ATI is evaluating beta-rich Ti alloys in laserbased AM processes. Alloys like ATI Titan 23, a beta-rich alloy, h ave shown excellent printability in laser powder bed fusion and blown-powder direct energy deposition processes. The AM material produced from this alloy shows no signs of martensitic transformation when printed, and the material has been successfully heat-treated for different strength/ductility combinations to match application requirements. The results from the preliminary experiments indicate that the parts printed using this alloy have 75% lower residual stresses and 20% higher strength for the same elongation compared to parts printed in Ti 64. ATI Titan 23 is just one example where using the right material

SHOWN: TITANIUM BRACKET PRINTED IN BETARICH ATI TITAN 23 TITANIUM, ACHIEVING 75% LESS DISTORTION COMPARED TO TI64

for the application and process enables the full advantages of AM design freedom. Other Materials Designed for Additive Manufacturing (MDfAM) are starting to appear in the market, offering superior printability and performance compared to legacy materials. In the titanium system, for example, compositional modifications can change solidification behaviour in the material to take advantage of the rapid cooling seen in AM processes and produce martensite-free microstructures that lead to higher performance. In other alloy systems, such as highperformance nickel alloys used in rotating jet engine components, rapid solidification is already used to prevent detrimental segregation of these highly alloyed materials by making the feedstock into powder form. These powders are then consolidated via hot isostatically press processes and hot worked into final components. Similarly, highly alloyed Ni powders can be developed for AM which takes advantage of the rapid solidification to prevent segregation and provide higher performance than powders made from cast and wrought compositions. For applications like heat exchangers, complex manifolds, or parts with internal channels and cavities, AM provides tremendous advantages versus traditional manufacturing methods by enabling parts to be made in one piece instead of complex assemblies. Some of these parts have already been designed for AM and cannot be manufactured in a costeffective manner, or at all, in any other way. The emergence of new material compositions that take advantage of the physics of AM will improve the performance and efficiency of these complex components by providing higher strength, improved high-temperature capability, and better manufacturability by lowering residual stress and distortion. Only by combining the freedom of design of DfAM components and the superior material performance of MDfAM will AM truly become the next-generation production process of the future, launching the next manufacturing revolution.

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3d scanning

A REAL DIFFERENCE

How surgeons at North Manchester General Hospital are putting a new handheld facial scanner through its paces.

he creation of facial prosthetics for trauma patients has traditionally involved taking an impression of the patient’s face where the patient must lie back, very still, until it sets, after which a gypsum stone solution is poured into the mould. Once this hardens, the facial prosthesis can be built around it. The process is not always reliable and can be long and extremely uncomfortable. 3D scanning presents healthcare professionals with a less intrusive, more streamlined alternative. “In the last few years, we have tried to move from traditional methods of mould making to using 3D scanners, which has enabled this process to become quicker, cleaner and more convenient for the patient,” explained Oliver Burley Reconstructive Scientist and Lab Manager at North Manchester General Hospital (NMGH). “The facial scanning technology we had access to in the past was suitable for some applications - such as burn splint manufacture - however the level of detail captured left a lot to be desired. Their ability to capture the intricate detail of the patient’s face was not as precise as we’d want it to be. A high level of accuracy is essential for creating maxillofacial devices and facial prostheses that are aesthetically pleasing, fit well, and blend seamlessly with the patient’s own features.”

Burley and his team at NMGH have recently been trialling the iReal 2S face scanner from The 3D Measurement Company (T3DMC) which has allowed them to capture fine features such as hair, eyebrows, skin folds, wrinkles and eye position, including pigments and colours, without irritating the patient’s skin or eyes. “Thanks to the blue and the infrared light settings we can scan a person’s face in thirty seconds and produce a high-quality scan,” Burley explained. “The scanner is light and portable which allows us to easily travel with it between different hospital sites. Furthermore, there’s minimal post-processing required and the resulting stl. and obj. files can be used depending on the need, such as for printing the 3D models." “The fundamental difference against traditional techniques of taking moulds and impressions is that it's far quicker, it's far less painful, and it's less intrusive on the patient,” Adam Stanley, Director at T3DMC added. “It's a more pleasant experience for them, and fundamentally, we can get far more accurate data so any downstream processes for creating the

prosthetic means that it's going to fit better and it's going to be more comfortable to wear.” The iReal 2S is said to be one of the most affordable 3D body scanners on the market and can capture data at 550,000 measurements per second in high-definition and in colour without reference markers or dots. It’s designed so that “the patient barely knows they are being scanned,” according to Stanley. It also features a built in HD camera which directly captures full colour images of the scanned object, overlaying them onto the 3D mesh structure to give realistic colour representation, and a visual guidance system which ensures ease of use for nontechnical users. “That's a huge thing that's often overlooked,” Stanley shared. “You can have a very comprehensive, very accurate system, great data capture but if it's difficult to use and not very user-friendly, then it often will not get used as a piece of technology because it actually makes the process for the operator more difficult, even if it does give better data downstream.” That ease of use has been essential for the NMGH team and Burley added that they're now looking to use the scanner for more complex cases as a volume measurement tool for tissue reconstruction on other areas of the body. Further to that, the data captured can also be used to create 3D printed models and prototypes for prosthetics. “The ease of use is critical to the success of a system like the iReal,” Stanley said. “This is a tool that is in the arsenal of consultants, surgeons, practitioners, whoever needs to collect information about a patient so that they can review it at a later date, when the patient is no longer there. To do that in a digital space in 3D is a very powerful concept. The iReal allows you to capture precise, clean data very quickly, so that you can get on with your day, and let the patient carry on with their day as well.”

SHOWN: THE IREAL 2S 3D SCANNER

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3d scanning

PRESERVING THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION Head of Content Laura Griffiths speaks to filmmaker Ivan Erhel about using 3D scanning to digitise the past.

ave what could not be saved.”

That was the mission French filmmaker Ivan Erhel appointed himself when he decided to travel from the South to the North of Iraq in a race to preserve what remains of the history of Mesopotamia, often referred to as the Cradle of Civilization. That urgency is no exaggeration. With ISIS occupying over 30% of the country at the time, destroying museums and statues in the process, Erhel recalled in a conversation with TCT how, after seeing a video showing the destruction of a museum in Mosul - countless relics and history lost in the process - he felt compelled to do something, anything, to help save what was left of the world’s oldest civilisation. A conversation with a friend who had just purchased an Artec Eva 3D scanner sparked an idea. SHOWN: THE EVA WAS USED TO SCAN LARGER PIECES

“He said, ‘If I were there sometime before ISIS, we could have saved it,’ and I thought that was really a great idea, so I decided to make a film about it.” The film centres on the journey of an Iraqi writer who, after three decades living in France, returns to Iraq to help preserve its history using 3D scanning. Prior to this project, Erhel had never used a 3D scanner and now left coordinating the project on his own with the support of 3D scanning specialist Artec 3D, set out with a Space Spider and an Eva scanner in tow. The destruction of the Mosul Museum and Nimrud, once a major ancient city 20 miles south of the city of Mosul, were the starting points for the project. The first piece to be scanned was the Processional Way of Babylon, a 250-metre-long brick road 120 km south of Baghdad, featuring carvings of various animals

and legendary creatures, much of which had already been destroyed by erosion. For larger pieces like this, a handheld Eva was propped up on a stick to reach harder to access areas while the blue light Space Spider was put to work capturing intricate details on smaller objects using a turntable. The team also scanned people, including soldiers who initially questioned Erhel’s intentions with the technology (“It looked like a spy thing!” Erhel said) but after the project was explained to them, agreed to be scanned and are now featured in the film. On top of logistical challenges around securing a visa and permissions to film, Erhel’s bid to capture as many monuments and artefacts as possible posed very real risk with the sounds of gunshots and further destruction never too far behind. For many of the sites, Erhel and his small team were the first to arrive and without the luxury of spending weeks scanning some of the larger monuments, including one that measured

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Large-Scale Additive Manufacturing Touches Down at Formnext 2021 – Massivit 3D Formnext 2021 is shaping up to be one of the most talked-about industry events in quite some time. One of the hot topics that will be discussed and scrutinized is how to attain the Holy Grail of additive manufacturing: speed and size. As AM technologies are adopted more pervasively into real-world manufacturing arenas, industries such as marine, aeronautics, and land-based transportation benefit from factors such as weight savings, structural integrity, and geometry freedom. However, inherent limitations in production speed and size remain unresolved. One company whose participation at Formnext is already garnering significant industry buzz is Massivit 3D - pioneers in large-scale 3D printing. Massivit 3D was born of a vision to resolve recognized limitations in production speed and size in the field of additive manufacturing.

The company’s Webinars in last year’s Formnext Connect online event spurred a lot of interest from virtual attendees around the globe. The Massivit 3D stand C119, Hall 12.1 – will showcase a wide range of applications, from full-scale printed railway spare parts to automotive wide body kits and custom furniture – all to be 3D printed live throughout the course of the event. The company’s latest industrial-grade system, the Massivit 5000, was developed to serve the Industry 4.0 requirements of the Automotive, Marine, Rail, and Scenic Fabrication arenas. It enables full-scale end-use parts, prototypes, and molds to be produced with ultra-short lead times by leveraging advanced, thermoset photo polymer materials, dual printing heads, sophisticated slicing software, and cutting-edge computer vision features. The Massivit 5000 boasts an exceptional build volume

of 1450W x 1110D x 1800H mm and a printing speed up to 30x the speed of other AM systems on the market. It offers a range of printing materials, printing modes, and resolutions to accommodate particulate considerations of speed, strength, and scale. The system’s Dual Material System allows a different material to be printed simultaneously on each head. Visitors to the stand will learn about Massivit 3D’s patented Gel Dispensing Printing (GDP) technology – the innovation behind the company’s portfolio of 3D printers – that has already empowered manufacturers and service bureaus across 40 countries to automate and expedite their workflows. A European nautical engineering firm, Velum Nautica, has used their Massivit 3D printer to produce full-scale, tailored marine parts, shortening their production time from days

or weeks down to a matter of hours (pictured top left). Velum Nautica has served its global clients with countless custom parts including a 1.2-meter foldable gangway and a bowsprit that doubles as a boarding ramp for a 30-passenger yacht – all printed in less than one day. Designers and engineers are constantly turning to companies like Massivit 3D for digital solutions to challenges that previously fell in the purview of hand craftsmen, such as scenic fabricators. For example, a 4.23m replica of a classic Italian sports car (pictured below) was 3D printed and assembled in just four pieces by Colorzenith and Giò Forma (Milan) for La Scala using a Massivit 1800. For further information about large-scale 3D printing, please contact Massivit 3D here. www.massivit3d.com Top right image: Wide body kit by TJ Hunt, STREETHUNTER DESIGNS & BCT Entertainment.

3d scanning

“I believe this technology was in search of a purpose.” country together and scanning and sharing our common heritage because they are the guardians but this heritage belongs to all of us.”

SHOWN: THE ARTEC 3D EVA HANDHELD SCANNER

up to 75 metres wide and 30 metres high, often had to capture what they could in a matter of hours. “We had to be very careful,” Erhel said, describing the “tense” situation the team found itself in while determined to scan what was dubbed “Last Survivor of Nimrud.” “There was one sculpture standing, the last one and we scanned it with the [Artec] Eva.” Some of the scans are available to view on SketchFab and Erhel has even brought a couple of those files back into the real world with 3D printing. He’s holding one - printed using a powder-based process - as we speak. Erhel caveats that he’s not too enthusiastic about the quality of printing compared to 3D models (“You can’t compare with the original,” he said) and he shared how there was some hesitation from officials about letting the crew scan some artefacts through fear they would produce copies. That said, he believes the support of Artec 3D afforded the team a lot of credibility and believes there is real value in what they set out to achieve.

“If we were there sometime before we'd still have a trace of what Nimrud was because all we have is our photography and that photography is incomplete. So [3D scanning] is a way to give eternity.” The film has since been completed and is currently available to watch in France, but Erhel’s mission continues. Now, he’s in the process of setting up workshops across the country to teach young people of Iraq about 3D scanning technology in what he hopes will serve as inspiration to start a movement of preserving heritage. “The country is divided and it's very different when you're from the South, from the North or from the centre,” Erhel explained, adding that he wants to create three workshops across these three distinct parts of the country, “So that they can work together on keeping this SHOWN: CAPTURING FINE DETAILS WITH THE EVA

For the technology itself, Erhel believes projects like his also show how 3D scanning can offer more meaningful value. “I believe this technology was in search of a purpose, apart from [reverse] engineering, which is the obvious purpose,” Erhel offered. “But world heritage, human civilization, is a cause.” The final and perhaps most enduring impact is the new light Erhel hopes his film and the scans taken along the way will place on Iraq. He wants viewers to recognise that the country is more than the images we see of war and destruction, it is the birthplace of much of human civilisation, where the foundations for language, architecture, agriculture and more were built thousands of years ago. “I think that's a good way to promote this heritage and to remind the world that Iraq is not just a conflict zone, Iraq is the cradle of civilization,” Erhel concludes. “Western civilization, we have a debt, an important debt, towards Mesopotamia and to this country.”

“Any documentation is welcome,” Erhel said. “Even if it comes from me who was not a professional in 3D, was not a professional in archaeology, I was nothing. I think a 3D model is so much more accurate than photography, it has much more information and you can understand much more by looking at 3D models, you can easily look at it through all angles. When you look at a model of all sides, then you see things that you cannot see on a photograph.

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research & academia

AUTOMATION AND ERROR DETECTION IN AM A WORDS: Pascal Becker, Research Scientist, FZI Research Center for Information Technology

dditive manufacturing (AM) is playing an increasingly important role in today's production. This is not only due to the fact that complex geometries can be produced with AM, but also because this type of production is economical, especially for small quantities and individualised products.

However, the work has so far been bound up with many manual steps. To begin with, the CAD data must be sliced for printing. The more experience and knowledge the employee has about the printing process, the more likely a successful print result is. The number of possible error cases varies depending on the type of process, and the possibility of observing the printing process in-situ also varies depending on the process type. After preparation of the print data and the printer hardware, the process can be started. The print itself typically takes several hours, if not days. In that time, various errors can occur such as warping. Sometimes the errors are so serious that the print job can be aborted immediately, since the final part deviates greatly from the desired geometry and cannot be used. There are currently only a few options for automated error checking here. Various research institutes are therefore trying to implement this in-situ error detection using the current technologies. Not only does the choice of software approach (artificial intelligence, classical sensor data processing) play a role, but the choice of sensor technology is also very specific to the printing process. In addition to imaging methods such as 2D, 3D or thermal imaging cameras, acoustic and optical microphones, as well as vibration sensors are also being investigated. These sensors must be integrated into the hardware and the process, and the sensor data must be processed and evaluated in order to obtain added value. Continuous monitoring of the current printing situation is important in many ways. Thus, the print can be monitored automatically and the recorded data can be used for quality assurance, as well as for

predictive maintanence for the machine. Reliable error detection enables the print job to be aborted at an early stage, thus saving valuable time and material. As a result, the corrected print job can be started earlier and losses are reduced.

Once the print job is finished, the objects are manually unloaded, cleaned and post-processed. Depending on the object geometry and printing process, this can involve a lot of manual work. This is where the two modern technologies of AM and robotics need to be combined. According to some scientific publications, unloading the component with the help of a robot is very flexible and economically feasible. In the field of post-processing, there are both the first startups and already scientific results that have studied and partially solved the problem.

errors during the printing process and at the same time, reduce the number of manual steps after printing. Appropriate approaches need to be developed and implemented for these two topics so that AM can better exploit its potential.

Hear more from Pascal at the TCT Conference @ Formnext on 17th November at 14:30-15:00. GET TICKETS: tctconferenceformnext.com

Here, it is important to consider the overall system. Depending on the unloading strategy, something must already be adjusted in the slicing process so that the removal can take place without damage. At the same time, the system should be designed in such a way that few additional components as possible are required and at the same time, almost all possible parts can be handled. For example, it makes sense to have several printers maintained by one robot on a mobile platform so that the robotic system is profitable for a huge workload. One of the advantages of AM is also one of the biggest challenge for robotics - due to the fact that virtually any possible geometry can be printed, the requirements for grasp points, gripper jaw design, required opening widths of the gripper or the post-processing strategy, are complex and diverse. These must be taken into account and integrated into a coherent overall concept. Overall, further automation of additive manufacturing is inevitable. The more objects that are mass-produced using AM, the more important it becomes to continuously monitor and detect

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Q&A with Additive Industries CEO

Additive Industries CEO Ian C. Howe on the future of additive manufacturing. Q: You took over as Additive Industries’ CEO back in April. What have you been focusing on since coming on board? A: The focus is on preparing the company for the next stage in its development. Since its foundation in 2012 the focus was heavily on developing the technology and the MetalFAB1 with specifically chosen key customers. The next phase will focus on profitable growth driven by five strategic pillars: • Technology Leadership in industrial large frame metal AM (continuing to drive productivity leadership for large frame systems) • Commercial Excellence (investing in commercial team to bring our solutions to targeted customers where we clearly add value to their business and strategy, and to deliver best in class customer service) • Service Offering (creating customer engagement and service to ensure delivery of best OE Availability, Utilization, Reduced Scrap)

• Exploring adjacent markets / technology areas Q: You’ve previously worked in the aerospace, energy, and automotive sectors. From your experience, where do you see the biggest opportunities for AM right now? A: Currently in terms of spend, growth and technocommercial fit for Large Frame Industrial metal AM solutions, the largest opportunities lie within the following market verticals: • Medical (€1.1b in 2021, growing CAGR 27%, to €3.7b in 2026) • Space (€800m in 2021, growing CAGR 24%, to €2.5b in 2026) • Automotive (€600m in 2021, growing CAGR 28%, to €2.1b in 2026) • Industrial (€500m in 2021, growing CAGR 22%, to €1.5b in 2026) • Aviation (€200m, growing CAGR 35%, to €900m in 2026) • Energy (€200m, growing CAGR 26%, to €700m in 2026)

• High Tech (€300m, growing CAGR 30%, to €500m in 2026) Q: We’ve seen more emphasis put on the opportunities for AM in Spare Parts/Legacy Program management over the last years. What are your thoughts on the role AM can play? A: AM as a technology is already fulfilling customer

needs here as the digital nature of AM perfectly manages the complexity of such problems. Imagine high value capital goods that have useful life cycles of decades. How can one manage all those spare part inventories, specifications and drawings, not to mention production toolings etc over many decades. AM provides the ideal digital solution to manage the complexity in a

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE cost efficient manner. This awareness is spreading and OEMs are deploying such cases to drive their strategies. Q: At last year’s Formnext, Additive Industries debuted the MetalFAB-600. Can you give us an update on the progress being made there? A: The company took a strategic decision to keep its innovation focus on productivity leadership and driving down cost / kg of AM produced metal components on the MetalFAB1. This was a conscious decision based on customer demand / needs and has led to the launch of the MetalFAB G2, the next generation system in productivity leadership, at Formnext 2021 amongst other improvements. We still have large demand for solutions that can only be realized with faster and more cost-efficient solutions, hence this focus area/ opportunity remains in focus. However, we have indeed still progressed innovation of some of the critical systems such as the Optics development. Q: What are the benefits of more laser power? A: More laser power indeed provides direct possibility to increase productivity / build rates. However, it needs also to be balanced with ensuring

the quality of materials properties and component integrity Q: What challenges do you think AM still faces in establishing itself as a mainstream production technology? A: There are a number of challenges: • Cost effectiveness versus traditional manufacturing solutions, including end to end processing. Currently the technology is addressing the very high value components segment. • Standardization of processes, applications and materials enabling design engineers to choose AM as a robust and reliable process alternative • Scarcity of competent professionals and scientists/engineers in a fast-growing industry Q: Where is Additive Industries’ technology making the biggest impact today? A: Currently we have deployed our technology into customers within the Space, Aviation Turbine, Automotive, Industrial and High-Tech market verticals. Q: Can you share any launch plans for Formnext 2021? A: We are excited to announce several new

developments for our (prospective) customers during Formnext 2021: • MetalFAB G2 – Launch of next level productivity leadership: The MetalFAB G2 is offered in three key configurations, depending on customer needs; • MetalFAB G2 CORE • MetalFAB G2 AUTOMATION • MetalFAB G2 CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION Alongside our new system, the next generation MetalFAB, we are going to announce innovations that improve both the accessibility of its machines and users’ quality assurance capabilities during operation. We are presenting a multibeam qualification tool, which is a big step forward in multi-laser system quality assurance. Additionally, we are revealing the integration of a beta version of Sigma Labs’ PrintRite3D offering into the MetalFAB, the launch of the latest build processor it has developed in partnership with Materialise, the launch of our Additive Studios, a new additive manufacturing consultancy services and training program, and a

strategic collaboration with a machining company Makino, resulting into an end-to-end process chain for scaling metal 3D printing Q: Can you talk about your overall vision for the future of the company? A: Additive Industries is the driving force for large frame metal additive manufacturing. Our vision is to transform the metal components industry with the largest, fastest, highest quality metal AM technologies, to enable our partners to realize sustainable and profitable growth. The next phase is about executing the strategy for profitable growth driven by technology leadership in industrial large frame metal AM, commercial excellence: bringing our solutions to customers, offering world class, and exploring adjacent markets/technology areas. Visit Additive Industries at Formnext (Hall 12.0, booth D119). For more information contact: sales@ additiveindustries.com

CMY

Research & academia

WORDS: SAM DAVIES

hat’s interesting about this Zoom call, in which two MTC employees are joined by one University of Bristol lecturer to discuss their respective research efforts in electrification, is that the departments represented don’t work together – not yet anyway – and two of the three have never even met virtually before. TCT speaks to Dan Walton, Senior Research Engineer, MTC; Hoda Amel, Technology Manager, Additive Manufacturing, MTC; and Nick Simpson, Senior Lecturer, Electrical Engineering, University of Bristol as the two organisations are ironing out how exactly they might collaborate. For years, they have been working independently to explore how additive manufacturing (AM) technology could improve the performance of electrical machines and components which, in a time when more efficient sources of power are desired in a range of sectors, is increasingly important. Having generated some promising results around 3D printed motor casings and windings, both sides are now exploring how they can come together: to pool their respective expertise, to generate momentum and, ultimately, take their solutions into industry. “Nick has got an incredible amount of academic background on [electrification],” Walton begins. “He’s been looking into this since 2015, and

I think Nick’s design tools are brilliant, but the UK-based supply chain for this is pretty limited. This is a really nice example of how Nick’s maturing this specific technology around AM for electrification, ultimately wants to get it to industry, and that’s where MTC fits perfectly, in this so-called valley of death that we were set up to address in 2010. If we can get large OEMs who are producing at scale interested in what Nick’s doing, they can start shaping their machines now to look at adopting what Nick’s working on.” What Nick has been working on is a set of design capabilities that have allowed him to demonstrate how AM can enhance the performance of electrical windings. During the design of electrical windings, the designer will typically pay close attention to the magnetic and electrical loadings, which work together to create the torque, as well as the structure of the component and how that affects the effective efficiency of the motor and its effective thermal performance, all in a bid to mitigate AC loss. Last year, Simpson authored a paper that demonstrated a 20% improvement in

continuous output capability when using Direct Metal Laser Sintering to produce an electrical winding component. That there were also ‘significantly greater performance improvements indicated for transient operation over the operation torque-speed envelope’ led the paper to conclude that AM and its topological optimisation capabilities show great promise in improving the specific output of electrical machines. Simpson elaborates: “If you’ve got a winding slot to a rectangular shape that’s almost entirely filled with copper, it’s effective thermal conductivity is very high. If you’ve got a 50% copper and 50% insulation material, it then drops off a cliff, so you’ve constantly got this battle between the losses that you’re generating and your effective thermal performance in your winding. Now, with additive manufacturing, you’re able to select a particular kind of loss mitigation strategy which dictates the topology of the winding that you’re creating as a function of space, so at the front of the slot closest to the rotor you have more AC loss effect. [Therefore,] you might want to use a different configuration of winding that you would at the back of the slot. The design tools that we’ve developed allow you to do that and it allows you to play around with the topology [and] take advantage of the full geometric freedom of AM, which conventional tools don’t let you do.”

SHOWN: SHAPED PROFILE ELECTRICAL MACHINE WINDING, CuCrZr. CREDIT: DR. NICK SIMPSON, UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

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Research & academia The significance of the work Simpson and co are doing comes in the context of the likes of the Advanced Propulsion Centre and Aerospace Technologies demanding significant advancements in electrical power systems, whether it be in their weight, reliability, maintainability or efficiency. One of the demands is for greater power density of electrical systems, aiming for up to 25 kilowatts per kilogramme by 2035 compared to between just two and five kilowatts per kilogramme today. To improve the power density of an electrical machine, Simpson notes that the losses, which manifest as heat, need to be reduced; the ability to extract the heat needs to be enhanced; and the temperature rating of the electrical insulation materials need to be improved. By printing windings, instead of making them conventionally, Simpson suggests that different electrical insulation coatings can be used to give a ‘much higher temperature survivability’. Meanwhile, the geometric freedom of AM can open up new geometric freedom and cooling features can also be integrated into the parts of a winding that currently only serve a structural purpose, rather than a functional one. “The end windings of an electric machine are essentially wasted,” Simpson says. “Electrically, they have to be there because you’re continuing the circuit, but in terms of producing useful output torque per amp, it’s pretty much wasted. So can we use that dead space to start to introduce cooling fins by extending surfaces and creating a heat sinking structure or can you directly incorporate liquid cooling into the winding itself so you can directly extract that heat?” Simpson isn’t alone in exploring AM’s capacity for the integration of cooling capabilities into electrical components. At the MTC, Amel and her team have been working on the additive manufacture of a casing for a power-dense electric motor. Utilising the high-strength A20X aluminium alloy on a powder bed fusion process, the MTC has been able to develop a casing with liquid cooling channels that enabled the motor to produce more power without overheating, while also reducing size and weight by 30% and 10%, respectively.

as key focuses within the organisation’s electric motor development efforts. “The interest [in both aluminium and copper] would be to see how the high conductivity aluminium in AM would actually compare with the copper in AM because aluminium gives you lower weight and is a more sustainable conductive material compared to copper,” Amel says. “So, our preference would be to see if we can get similar performance from aluminium in terms of conductivity to copper.” The 3D printing of copper has been one of the big challenges for the likes of Simpson when starting out in this field of research. Back in 2015, when copper wasn’t a market-ready 3D printing material, Simpson would be frustrated that the properties of his alternative metal material were only half as good as copper. Even in more recent times, with a range of 3D printing systems now supporting copper, the capacity within the UK hasn’t been easily accessible for the University of Bristol, who typically outsource their 3D printing requirements to industry partners in the auto and aero fields. Recently however, the MTC has placed an order on an AM platform capable of processing copper. This machine will

SHOWN: SHAPED PROFILE ELECTRICAL MACHINE WINDING WITH INTEGRATED HEAT EXCHANGER, PURE CU. CREDIT: DR. NICK SIMPSON, UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL; DR. ARUN ARJUNAN AND JOHN ROBINSON, UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON

primarily be used for an ESA project, but with it in the building at MTC’s Coventry facility, it could yet support other research efforts. It’s convenient timing as two organisations – both with years of research in the additive manufacture of electric systems behind them – look to take the next steps, make the jump across the valley of death, and leave their mark in a range of industries. “The adoption of AM for electric machines specifically is an enormous opportunity,” summarises Walton. “They are a couple of years away, but I think we should start bringing the good work that Nick’s doing and what other academic institutes are working with to industry. I think we can start seeing a little bit of change in what we’re getting out of products for aerospace or highend automotive.” “It’s all trickle-down technology,” Simpson adds. “At the moment, we’re developing technology for very advanced, high-performance applications because, effectively, they can afford it. If you go back to the three things that are needed to improve power density, we can do that through AM – I haven’t come across any other technology that allows us to do those three things simultaneously. And so, there is potential for step changes in performance improvement using these technologies, but there’s a long road to get there. If your measure of importance is an official roadmap that says, as an industry, 'we need this by this time,' then the work that we’re doing is hugely important because we can make significant inroads to meeting those targets by 2035.”

SHOWN: INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF HEAT EXCHANGER, MULTI-MATERIAL EXAMPLE CU, AG, CU-AG. CREDIT: DR. NICK SIMPSON, UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL; DR. ARUN ARJUNAN AND JOHN ROBINSON, UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON

The A20X alloy material was explored in adherence to the MTC’s 2021/22 roadmap for additive manufacturing, in which high-strength aluminium is listed alongside a ‘maturity assessment of copper in AM’

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Industry Challenges – Skills, Education, and Training Additive Manufacturing industrialization is happening at a rapid pace. However, challenges still exist that need to be addressed to advance the growth further. Creating a workforce with the right skills, education, and training is one of the significant challenges that the industry is facing. New innovations and breakthroughs are taking AM to the next level of technology advancements, making it challenging for education and training programs to catch up. This lag in the pace between technology advancements and the implementation of education programs has generated a gap in the availability of a skilled workforce to meet the demand for the AM industry. So the strategy for AM education should be concurrent with the technology trends and agility to respond to any change quickly. Since AM is growing rapidly and supporting such growth, short-term courses through continuing education are the way to accelerate the development of an AM talent pool. AM competency training

programs typically cover basic, intermediate, and advanced level courses. The basic level courses are for those with no previous exposure or knowledge in additive manufacturing and cover general additive manufacturing processes, applications, advantages and limitations, and concepts of the additive manufacturing workflow. The intermediate-level courses cover a much deeper body of knowledge addressing various aspects of end-toend AM process chain. The advanced level course is meant for AM engineers who intend to dive deep into different elements of the AM process chain and can execute concepts and skills in AM material selection, design, data preparation, processing, inspection, and quality control. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of AM technology, acquiring AM skills requires a structured skills-based curriculum to learn the art. There are several roles such as Design Engineer, Quality Engineer, AM Operator, Safety Manager, Data Analyst, Materials Engineer, NDT specialists to perform

different functions in the AM value chain. These different roles need to work independently and interact with other roles. Therefore, beyond an overall understanding of the process, people should be trained for specific roles. Another way to address the skills gap is to re-skill, up-skill, and cross-skill the current workforce with AM-specific skill sets. A person working in the manufacturing sector can be re-skilled with AM knowledge through courses from entry-level to advanced. Also, someone already working in AM can be up-skilled with the latest developments in a specific domain and advance to the next level. Similarly, individuals from the current workforce can be crossskilled by providing training in multiple domain skills such as Testing and NDE.

A successful approach to address the gap in skills, education, and training is through public-private partnerships. This helps to understand the industry needs and develop training programs to match the requirements. Additive manufacturing education programs are growing across the globe through different entities such as universities, professional bodies, solution providers and are becoming the pipelines for the future AM workforce. A series of initiatives are underway from different organizations, such as ASTM International, to identify the education and workforce development needs and strategize the deployment of appropriate training programs to fill the skills gap. For AM education and training details, visit https://amcoe.org/

EDUCATION & SKILLS

MAKING SKILLS SUSTAINABLE WORDS: SAM DAVIES

5,000+ suppliers, is passionate about localising manufacturing and recognises the need to make sure that the domestic manufacturing skills that exist today ‘don’t disappear.’ “I think it’s very important we build [manufacturing] internally,” Xometry Chief Strategy Officer Laurence Zuriff tells TCT. “The more local you make something, the less your CO2 output is on a global basis. That’s just a truism. The United States has a very large network of small machine shops that can help localise production and that’s what we really want to firm up because we don’t believe that we can meet the success required to reduce CO2 output without that type of manufacturing reorganisation.” Through its work with thousands of machine shops in the United States, Xometry has observed that the ‘cohort’ of manufacturing professionals is ageing and when the engineers running those companies retire, there needs to be skilled people to take their place. Two years ago, Dara Treseder – Carbon’s former CMO who now heads up Peloton’s Global Marketing & Communications – told TCT there are no pipeline issues when it comes to STEM sectors, rather there are opportunity issues.

SHOWN: ADDITIVE MINDS DIGITAL TRAINING

rom Brexit, COVID-19 and blockages in the Suez Canal to the impending climate crisis, how we manufacture parts and where we manufacture parts have never been more under the microscope. In nearly every TCT Magazine issue over the last two years, we’ve had business leaders, industry analysts and academics discuss the ideas of adopting additive manufacturing (AM) to add supply chain flexibility and reshoring production to reduce risk and CO2 emissions. But to do either of those things – or both – and make it work, companies and countries need the relevant skills, and ample amounts of them.

SHOWN:

BAE WILL SUPPLY 3D PRINTERS TO 70 SCHOOLS

With more and more products being manufactured in cheaper Asian markets, there has been a gradual decline in the need for domestic manufacturing labour, and with it, a steady decline in manufacturing expertise. Today, in the US, UK and parts of Europe, studies suggest there is a skills gap, which is going to make manufacturing goods more sustainably a bigger challenge than it already is.

finding the right talent said to be 36% harder now than it was in 2018. The reasons manufacturing jobs are going unfilled includes 'new entrants having different expectations for jobs and careers' (38%), a 'lack of interest in the industry' (36%) and 'the retirement of baby boomers' (34%). More than 75% of the manufacturers surveyed by Deloitte believed they would have ongoing difficulties attracting and retaining workers beyond this year, while diversity, equity and inclusion was presented as both a challenge – one in four women are said to be considering leaving the industry, as an example – and a potential solution to manufacturing hiring and retention.

A report published by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute earlier this year, for example, suggested the manufacturing skills gap in the US could leave up to 2.1 million jobs unfilled by 2030, with

This report was cited by Xometry recently as it announced its partnership with Howard University to create the Xometry Scholars Program. Xometry, an on-demand manufacturing network that comprises

Xometry is seeking to address those opportunity issues and has aligned with Howard University – one of the US’ largest Historically Black Colleges and Universities – to pledge 900,000 USD to provide eight scholarships over the next four school years to Mechanical Engineering students. The motivation here is provide eight students – selected by Howard University – with every opportunity to complete their degree and pursue a career in engineering, should they wish to, with no obligation that they need to work for Xometry when they do. “One of the reasons we’re providing mechanical engineering degrees to Howard is we want to make it as easy for someone who wants to do that, to do that. It’s often hard,” Zuriff says. “We’re trying to expand

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AM Safety Certificate Provides knowledge on the general elements needed when setting up facility for AM and the safety issues to be considered during the life of the AM processes AM Quality Assurance Certificate Provides an understanding on the routes to releasing products requiring quality assurance and control AM Cybersecurity Provides concepts to ensure the integrity and security of the entire AM value chain Design for AM Certificate Provides foundational knowledge, design methods and techniques, an overview of design technologies, and practice exercising this knowledge AM Data Certificate* Provides foundational knowledge on data science and analysis, and using data in AM. AM Economics and Sustainability Certificate* Covers the concepts of creating a suitable business case for your organization, with real world technical and business case studies Intro to Inspection & Quality Assurance of AM* Provides the fundamentals of part inspection and quality assurance for AM Hands-on Metal AM Training* Provides hands-on exposure to the additive manufacturing metals process covering the end-to-end skills needed to build parts safely and successfully *Dates subject to change

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EDUCATION & SKILLS

3 LEFT:

BAE SYSTEMS' AIR SECTOR AM LEAD JENNY MANNING

manufacturing, you’ve got a car, but you don’t know how to drive. So, it needs to be an integrated approach. We’ve seen with the businesses that I’ve worked with, they have an idea of what AM is, but they haven’t been able to spot the opportunities.” Scott observes that much of the AM training that is currently available needs to focus more on the fact that AM is a workflow, rather than just a single machine or process, and that there needs to be more initiatives. Through its Academy offering, Additive Minds is one such organisation working to deliver them. the cohort and educate the cohort at the engineering level. And then next step for us is more at the technical level. We’re going to see how the Howard programme works over time and expand it if appropriate.” In the UK, BAE Systems has made its own 300,000 GBP investment to facilitate digital skills programmes that will support 7,500 Lancashire students aged 12-16 in 70 schools. Splitting the investment equally between CREATE Education and InnovateHer, the former will provide 3D printers and training to 50 schools to ‘empower students to become creative innovators’, while the latter will provide online education and resources to female and non-binary students to build their skills and confidence. “As a large employer in the North West [of England], we have a role to play to make sure we’re inspiring future generations about different pathways and routes to get into engineering and technology professions,” Jenny Manning, AM Lead in BAE Systems’ Air Sector, says. “There is work to do to make manufacturing and technology more inclusive to young people from diverse and underprivileged backgrounds, and we’re proud to play our part in doing this through this initiative.” Manning joined BAE Systems 2007 as an aerospace engineering apprentice and is now ‘at the heart of developing new manufacturing technology’ to transform how the company ‘designs and manufactures parts now and into the future.’ BAE has bet big on 3D printing, acquiring four Stratasys F900 FDM systems, while also outlining its plans to additively manufacture 30% of the parts on its Tempest fighter jet, for example. But as it looks ahead, the company can’t ignore that research by the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership shows fewer than one in six of the Lancashire digital workforce is female and that there is a dearth of employees below the age of 25.

“Adoption is great but if you don't have the skills, you have a car but you don't know how to drive.” “We’re nurturing new digital skills in Lancashire to address skills shortages and support a levelled-up recovery from the pandemic,” Manning adds. “Investing in these skills will create a pipeline of highly skilled experts that are crucial to our future as a leading manufacturing nation.” Ensuring the UK is a leading manufacturing nation is also the remit of Made Smarter, which supports manufacturers across four main areas – adoption, innovation, leadership and skills – in order to keep them competitive in the marketplace. Increasingly, this involves investing in new technologies which, of course, require the acquisition of new skills. Through her role as a Made Smarter AM specialist, Claire Scott observes that businesses “don’t have the skills or expertise in-house to adopt the technology,” but that they still “recognise the need to invest, and are willing to invest, in the technologies.” Scott’s efforts largely fall within the ‘adoption’ pillar of Made Smarter’s services where she works with business leaders to assess the business case for investing in AM. “84% of the manufacturers we’ve worked with said, ‘it’s been fantastic, productivity has increased and we’re able to engage in digital supply chains,’” Scott says. “Now, adoption is great, but if you don’t have the skills to be able to use it, especially with technologies such as additive

Since last year, the company has been offering digital trainings that bundle its consulting and technical training experience into ‘knowledge snacks, learning modules, comprehensive learning paths and whole learning programmes.’ These have all been designed to prepare users for specific roles such as application specialist, data preparation specialist and AM designer, with the required competence able to be built up within 4-6 weeks. So far, Additive Minds has focused its efforts on professionals, but as it continues to evolve its offering, intends to partner with universities to provide academic programmes that ‘enlarge the talent community’, as well as work with federal agencies to support job seekers with re-training programmes. Xometry, meanwhile, is planning to support vocational schools and community colleges in the poorest regions of the US to help students obtain the skills they need to make the next step. BAE Systems is looking to collaborate with other organisations to encourage STEM subjects and skills, while Made Smarter is offering businesses access to free training courses through its Engage platform and is working on some awarenessraising courses for a variety of digital technologies. There are many more organisations doing likewise and the urgency is outlined by Patrick Schrade, Head of Additive Minds Academy. “The pace of digital transformation continues to redefine the way we work,” he says. “Production in general needs to become more digital, decentralised and flexible to adapt to ever changing market requirements and customer needs, which additive manufacturing can perfectly address. Responsible manufacturing is a journey – AM technologies play a crucial role in reducing global CO2 emissions through sustainable manufacturing with spare parts on demand, sustainable design by reducing materials needed, and sustainable education through online training.”

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A20X: THE STRONGEST ALUMINIUM ALLOY. WORLDWIDE! Get to know the aerospace-approved A20X: A unique aluminium alloy for high strength and temperature castings as well as for additive manufacturing, presented by ECKART. ECKART, as member of the ALTANA group, is one of the leading global players with decades of experience in the field of atomization of pure, spherical aluminium powder. With the acquisition of TLS, ECKART extended the portfolio with a variety of different metal alloy powders, titanium, aluminium and copper based, as well as the option to provide customized solutions. We are your partner of choice for DIN EN 9100:2018 certified production. Let us meet at formnext, Frankfurt, November 16 – 19, 2021, at booth 12.0-A101. We look forward to your visit! For further information please contact: ECKART GmbH · Guentersthal 4 · 91235 Hartenstein · Germany E-Mail: dominik.reuschel@altana.com · info.eckart@altana.com

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TCT 3SIXTY REVIEW “TCT 3Sixty was the ideal opportunity for us to get back in front of AM enthusiasts after nearly two years away. It provided good conversations and the chance to get up close & personal to new kit.” Catherine Aspinall, Marketing Manager, TRI-TECH 3D & CADSPEC

3SIXTY REVIEW WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS

he last conversation I had as TCT 3Sixty wound down on a late September afternoon was with Stratasys EMEA President Andy Langfeld, who noted he was ‘very pleased’ with the show and that, although the colour of the carpet had changed since the UK’s largest additive manufacturing (AM) trade show had undergone a rebrand, he hadn’t seen much of it. That’s because despite COVID-19 – and an inconveniently timed fuel shortage within the UK, designers – engineers and other manufacturing professionals were clearly itching to get back to AM trade shows. Whether it be to sit in on the two conference stages, to survey the latest technology introductions or to network in a physical setting in the first time in forever, there was plenty to take in. But for a few lucky visitors who may have attended events in the US or Asia, TCT 3Sixty was the first in-person event many will have participated in for nearly two years. For me, it meant frequent doubletakes when realising, although I’ve been writing about the Formlabs Fuse 1, for example, for several months, it was the first time I had actually seen it – or parts printed with it – in the flesh. At the show, Formlabs featured a bicycle with various 3D printed components produced on the Fuse 1 in Nylon 12. Nearly all of the 3D printed components were topologically optimised,

with the pedals and bottle holder presented as examples of end-use applications and the bike saddle as a prototype application. Formlabs will no doubt exhibit the Fuse 1 again at Formnext, but if you want more information before then, take a look at our Professional AM feature in the last issue. Just a few weeks after its IDS launch in Cologne, Photocentric’s LC Opus platform was another 3D printer to make its UK debut at TCT 3Sixty. This platform has been described as an ‘excellent all-rounder’ by Photocentric, with the company expecting it to have a strong play in the dental and industrial sectors. With a build volume of 310 x 174 x 220 mm and the promise of cure speeds of 2 seconds per layer at 50µm, Photocentric believes the LC Opus will be at home in a dental practice or on the factory floor. Users will be able to acquire the machine for 6,295 GBP and pair it with a range of materials owed to Photocentric’s open materials policy (partnerships with BASF and Keystone Industries are ongoing) and its in-house developed offering of resins. “When you look at the dentals models – 22 models in 45 minutes – that shows the speed for batch production,” Photocentric Sales Director Sally Tipping told TCT. “That’s one of the key characteristics, the consistency,

it’s got a very robust system and we’ve really gone for high quality components.” There was more. In partnership with CoreTechnologie, Photocentric also announced the license-based Photocentric Additive software offering for part design and production. This software can be paired with Photocentric’s Magma 3D printer – compatibility with the LC Opus is to come – and will provide users with more latticing and texture capabilities, opening up applications in the automotive interiors, sports goods and footwear segments. There was plenty going on at the Matsuura stand too. On one side of its sizeable stand, it had the HP 5200 platform running alongside DyeMansion’s post-processing technology to demonstrate how this end-to-end polymer workflow

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“This year’s event attracted all the big names in AM, plus a few brilliant smaller suppliers that I’ve never heard of but certainly will consider in the future. The range of speakers was massive and all interesting. Put on safely this year with COVID too.” Matthew Guy, Manufacturing Engineer COLLINS AEROSPACE

it could be beneficial to customers, such as service providers, who are printing parts in their thousands. On the other side, the company was also representing Desktop Metal, exhibiting a Studio System machine which will soon be installed at its AM centre. Matsuura wasn’t the only high-profile reseller exhibiting. Tri-Tech’s stand was the point of contact for anyone wanting to catch a glimpse of what Stratasys’ newest technologies could offer, with parts printed with the Selective Absorption Fusion (SAF), Programmable Prohotpolymerisation (P3) and NEO Stereolithography featured across the booth. Stratasys also had representation from Laser Lines, who exhibited the company’s Fortus 450mc and F770 FDM machines, as well as its PolyJet technology and GrabCAD Print software. Laser Lines also presented the Xact Metal XM200C metal powder bed fusion system and announced it had become an authorised reseller of DyeMansion’s finishing and colouring portfolio while at the show. DyeMansion has also extended its partnership with the Digital Manufacturing Centre (DMC), who will pair a DyeMansion Powerfuse S vapour polishing system to support the Stratasys H350 SAF platform – the first production facility in Europe to combine the two technologies. Kieron Salter, the CEO of the DMC, said the installation of the Powerfuse S would help the organisation “realise the full potential of commercial-scale, connected additive manufacturing.” Elsewhere on the show floor, E3D was introducing the RapidChange Revo family of hotends, which all include 0.25, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8mm brass RapidChange nozzles, with more sizes to be added later. The RapidChange Revo portfolio has been designed to allow users of extrusion-based 3D printing systems to change nozzles rapidly with just a screw of one’s fingers at room temperature. The

hotends can reach maximum temperatures of up to 300°C, with any printer said to be able to drop in the Revo Six hot end as a direct replacement for the E3D V6 HotEnd. The Revo Micro, meanwhile, is the recommended option for E3D newcomers and is half the mass of the E3D V6, helping the printhead to print at quicker speeds while also taking up less space. E3D expects to start shipping the RapidChange Revo before the end of the year. Just a brief walk down the hall was Wematter, the Swedish providers of an ‘office-friendly’ Selective Laser Sintering system. At the show, the company had its Gravity 2021 platform front and centre, with a table full of sample parts off to the side. Among the parts on that table were components printed in Wematter’s Aurora TPU material, newly launched at TCT 3Sixty and developed to allow users to produce soft and flexible parts in the medical, automotive and consumer goods sectors. Aurora TPU is said to be a durable material that does not absorb water and is resistant to UV light, oil, grease and solvents, with Wematter suggesting the material is capable of producing parts with fine details and smooth surfaces, while retaining high abrasion and resistance. On the opposite side of the hall, 3D Systems was occupying its usual place on the front row. The company was there to exhibit a whole range of hardware, software and materials products – chief among them the scalable Figure 4 platform – and some of its latest 3D printing applications. One of the more notable parts featured was a silicon wafer table (featured in TCT Magazine 29.2) which was produced with the DMP 500 platform to optimise the thermal management and improve the throughput and accuracy of semiconductor capital equipment. Not a predominant feature of the 3D Systems stand was Oqton; the software firm at the centre of a $180m takeover announced back in September was located

elsewhere on the TCT 3Sixty show floor. On the Oqton stand, General Manager for Inudstrial Manufacturing Mark Forth and General Manager for AM Ulf Lindhe were on hand to tell visitors about its software’s Internet of Things, Manufacturing Execution System and Design capabilities which, they would tell TCT, has been designed to make manufacturing more sustainable, both for the environment and for each business that adopts the platform. As they continue to work with companies using AM for production, Oqton has aligned with the likes of EOS, TRUMPF, Stratasys and HP – all of whom could be considered 3D Systems competitors – but have been assuring anyone who asks that a firewall will be put up between 3D Systems and its other partners so nobody on either side can see any of the data being generated across the various collaborations. Another interesting facet of the acquisition is that Oqton will remain an independent company (with their own stands at trade shows). “We are not going to be sucked up into the 3D Systems organisation,” Lindhe said. “On the contrary, we will get all the 3D Systems [software] people and products into Oqton, so that means that Oqton will continue to be independent, and we will get a lot more resources.” In the coming weeks, we’ll be bringing you more from some of the above companies and conversations, but that wasn't all TCT 3Sixty had to offer. Turn over for our conference highlights.

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TCT 3SIXTY REVIEW

developers, helping to engineer a competitive landscape where vendors prioritise the green credentials of their 3D printers and AM workflows.

At opposite ends of the TCT 3Sixty hall high-profile users of AM were delivering presentations from the North Stage and the South Stage. As part of TCT 3Sixty’s Evaluation, Adoption and Optimisation themes, industry analysts, academics and consultants were also present to impart their insights. Altogether, the conference agenda had been compiled to provide attendees with insights that could help inform them of whether to invest in AM and then how to take full advantage of the technology. On the South Stage, Boeing’s VP of AM Melissa Orme kicked things off by detailing how and why the aerospace firm is using 3D printing to a packed-out audience. Rolls Royce Manufacturing Engineering Manager (Test Operations) An Duong followed Orme on the South Stage, delivering a presentation that covered the company’s utilisation of Additive Layer Manufacturing to create new designs and reduce weight of aerospace components. Over on the North Stage, Arke AM Technical

“The scientific and industrial talks, as well as the panel discussions, were great and touched upon the challenges that face the 3D printing industry in the postpandemic world.” Moataz Attallah, Professor of Advanced Materials Processing AMPLAB UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Consultant Robin Dallen and Reeves Insight founder Dr Phil Reeves offered thoughts on the key considerations to make when investing in and adopting additive manufacturing in back-toback presentations. Orme and Dallen would also both feature in a panel session titled ‘The Sustainability of 3D Printing for Aerospace’, hosted by Women in 3D Printing, alongside MTC Senior Research Engineer Hoda Amel and the NAMRC’s Technology Lead for AM Udi Woy. The panel discussed the current pros and cons of additive manufacturing in the context of sustainability, noting how AM can be very wasteful, especially for new adopters, because of the amount of build failures that are scrapped as the user gets to grips with the technology. They also discussed how, although consolidated parts are less likely to fail, there can be difficulties in repairing consolidated applications because companies now have to replace the full piece, rather than a single component that had previously been part of an assembly. Another key takeaway from the conversation was that the panelists believe users need to demand greener products from technology

Elsewhere, ADM Manager Pat Warner outlined how the Alpine F1 Racing Team is using AM; Dr Rahul Gore of Tunbridge Wells Hospital discussed the process of identifying medical applications for 3D printing; and CEO Richard Vellacott talked visitors through how BiologIC Technologies is using AM to ‘build a new industry’ with its ‘desktop PC of biology’ device that allows scientists to design biology within a smaller footprint. Dr Jennifer Johns was also present to discuss the opportunities and challenges of AMled distributed manufacturing, while AM consultant Kevin Ayers presented a guide and checklist designed to help visitors purchase the right AM equipment. Once the speakers had delivered their presentations, attendees were encouraged to stop by the Knowledge Bar where they could ask questions and garner further insights from the experts one-to-one. The DMC, whose CEO Kieron Salter participated in a panel session hosted by EOS, was also offering free consultancy sessions and project guidance to show visitors across the three days. And as the show drew to a close on days 1 and 2, exhibitors had the chance to network over a few drinks. For the first time in two years, AM professionals convened at a UK-based trade show. It was like we had never been away. And the next one will be with us before we know it as TCT 3Sixty 2022 returns on the new dates of June 8-9.

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TCT CONFERE FORMNEXT: P A look at the speakers and sessions headed to Frankfurt.

he TCT Conference @ Formnext returns in-person to its usual home of Frankfurt on 16-19th November, with over 35 industry experts scheduled to present on the latest additive manufacturing adoption trends and developments. Across four days, the conference Main Stage will feature talks on aerospace, healthcare, business and more led by leading AM users and research institutes such as Boeing, Siemens Technology and Fraunhofer. From insights on transport by Deutsche Bahn to construction and sustainability with Mighty Buildings and Aectual, the TCT Conference @ Formnext promises to be an inspiring and educational experience for delegates across all industries and will provide a welcome opportunity to hear from and meet with high-level industry peers away from your laptop screen. Complementing TCT’s Main Stage content will be the TCT Introducing Stage sponsored by HP which will provide a one stop shop for visitors to see the most exciting new technologies from across the show floor. After almost two years of virtual events, for many visitors, the Introducing Stage will offer a first look at the many AM technologies launched over the last year and with a range of dynamic sessions and speakers, attendees can quickly get up to speed without the sales pitch.

SAM’S CONFERENCE PICKS AM Ecosystem Strategy – A framework to evaluate and choose the right partners in your AM ecosystem ANKUSH VENKATESH | Strategy Fellow, AM – Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College TUESDAY 16TH – 15:00-15:30 Disruption of supply chains through mobile additive manufacturing: use of containers as repair and spare parts printers MARKUS HEILEMANN | Head of DED Systems – Fraunhofer IAPT WEDNESDAY 17TH – 13:15-13:45 Building a Digital Warehouse: Impeller Part Family Example ANNA D’ALESSIO | Director of Engineering – Ivaldi Group FRIDAY 19TH – 13:45-14:15

Take a look at just a selection of TCT Conference @ Formnext highlights from TCT’s Sam Davies, Laura Griffiths and Lu Tikrity.

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FORMNEXT

ENCE @ PREVIEW

TCT Europe 29.6

Articles inside

ADDITIVE INSIGHT ROUND-UP

FORMNEXT PREVIEW

TCT 3SXITY REVIEW

LITHOZ AT 10

MAKING SKILLS SUSTAINABLE

THYSSENKRUPP TALKS AM

FUELLING THE NEXT MANUFACTURING REVOLUTION

PRESERVING THE CRADLE OF CIVILISATION

A REAL DIFFERENCE

GOING FOR GOLD

AUTOMATION AND ERROR DETECTION IN AM

INTRODUCING 4D BIOMATERIALS