TCT 3SXITY 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

WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS

3SIXTY REVIEW

The 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

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 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.

“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

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

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

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.