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EDITORIAL HEAD OF CONTENT

James Woodcock james@rapidnews.com GROUP EDITOR

Daniel O’Connor daniel.oconnor@rapidnews.com

Bridging the gap between product design & manufacturing

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Laura Griffiths laura.griffiths@rapidnews.com NEWSDESK

+44 (0) 1244 680222 REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS

Todd Grimm tgrimm@tagrimm.com

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Carol Hardy carol@rapidnews.com MEDIA SALES EXECUTIVE

3D Metal Printing • 17-4 SS • Aluminum AlSi10Mg

Kelley-Jo Beattie kelley-jo.beattie@rapidnews.com

• Cobalt Chrome

PRODUCTION

• Maraging Steel

Sam Hamlyn Tracey Roberts

M ANAGEMENT C.O.O. / PUBLISHER

Duncan Wood

• Inconel 718 • Inconel 625 • Titanium Ti64

C.E.O.

Mark Blezard

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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

CONTENTS

TCT | VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3

LEAD NEWS

CLEARLY IMPRESSIVE

A LAUNCHPAD FOR 3D MANUFACTURING

Cover star Asiga on how it’s digitizing the dental industry by streamlining the production of orthodontic clear aligners.

09 NEWS

A roundup of all the latest news from the last month, for more on each story visit www.tctmagazine.com

As the dust settles on RAPID 2016, we look ahead to 2017 in Pittsburgh where two pillars of the AM community will join forces to produce RAPID + TCT.

19 20

AUTOMOTIVE FOCUS

DARING TO BE DIFFERENT

Dan finds out how Renishaw’s 3D printing technology helped to create a truly unique suspension system for the TransFIORmers bike.

STEP INTO THE THIRD DIMENSION

Dan takes a look at the growing number of high-profile 2D companies from HP to Canon that are taking a leap into the 3D technologies market.

BLURRING THE LINES

Laura takes a look at how 3D printing and virtual reality are being used to reduce risk, time and costs in factories of the future and in healthcare.

THE CAR IN FRONT IS 3D PRINTED

Editor Daniel O’Connor investigates the various ways 3D printing is being used in the automotive industry today.

THE RISE OF DIY CASTING

Dan provides a brief history of casting and how one maker is bringing the process of metalworking out of the foundry and back to the home.

WELCOME TO YOUR FUTURE HOME

Assistant Editor Laura Griffiths speaks to the Chicago design team WATG about winning a global design competition to reimagine the way we build our world by designing the world’s first freeform 3D printed house.

IMTS PREVIEW

Ahead of the 2016 IMTS event, which features a dedicated additive manufacturing pavilion, we take a look at the technologies that are set to debut on the showfloor in Chicago.

REGULARS

05 23 48

EDITOR’S letter GUEST COLUMN

TODD GRIMM COLUMN

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FROM THE EDITOR BIG. BAD. NEWS.

t was said in the opening remarks at the International Conference for Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing in Nottingham, UK that the hype of 3D printing from 2013 and 2014 had been “consigned to the past”, and while it is hard to argue that we haven’t moved on from 3D printed Eiffel Towers, shards of that hype are difficult to clear, like a broken glass, you never get every single bit and when you least expect it, in your bare feet, you end up treading on that one shard you missed. The dreams of a 3D printer in every home were fuelled in part by the parallel trend of crowdfunding, at the peak of the hype there was barely a day that went by without a “revolutionary” new 3D printer launching via crowdfunding. If it wasn’t the first, it was the best, if it wasn’t the best, it was the fastest, if it wasn’t the fastest it was the cheapest. Over 100 3D printers have been fully funded on Kickstarter alone countless more on platforms like Indiegogo, GoFundMe RocketHub and the likes. Kickstarter is the biggest crowdfunding site and has been a platform from which fantastic companies like Formlabs, Zortrax and Printrbot have launched. Millions of dollars has flown from backers into launching 3D printers to the globe but crowdfunding has undeniably opened-up a less utopian world than the one the marketing depicts. The prompt for this theme of the editor’s letter was a video I watched with my mouth agape, it was an update posted on the Peachy Printer Kickstarter page. For those of you unaware, Peachy Printer raised $651,091 of a $50,000 goal for the “First $100 printer”, it is the fourth most backed 3D printer in history with 4,420 people pledging their hard-earned to a Canadian inventor’s dream to create a resin-based 3D printer for less than a slap-up meal for two. The video in question was posted on May 11th ominously entitled, “Big Bad News”. It starts with a phone call and some frequency waves like a 911 call on a grizzly Netflix documentary about murder and before we get the ‘truth’ the haunting baroque piano kicks in and the face of the Rylan Grayston – the inventor – fades in from black… dun dun duuuun. The video goes onto detail how Rylan’s co-founder, David Boe, had, instead of putting the money in a

secure company account, put it all in a personal account. Long story short; backers aren’t getting their machine but David does have a brand-new house. Further down the update page there’s an even more ridiculous video in which Rylan takes on the role of Bizarro feel-good TV show host as he brings backers to the HQ to surprise them with the news that they essentially backed some construction work for Dave’s swanky new pad rather than a 3D printer. Why Rylan and co. felt the need to add high-school production value to these videos I will never know; it felt like something from the HBO tech satire Silicon Valley rather than a serious admittance of embezzlement of over $250,000 by a company director. Peachy Printer aren’t alone in a failure to ship the product to backers the list of companies who haven’t shipped yet or have disappeared off radar is much too long (Bucaneer from Pirate3D anyone?), and they have left a bitter taste in the mouths of thousands of potential makers. We hope that we did our best to cut through most of that nonsense and focus on what is good, what real world applications there are and this issue is packed full of them. What’s important to know with crowdfunding is that you’re backing a vision not buying a product. Sometimes that vision is blurry and you might end up building a fraudster’s home but sometimes if it is as clear as Formlabs CEO, Max Lobovsky’s you’ll be rewarded with a handsome product as well as the knowledge you’ve contributed to the start of something special. Druck On

Daniel O’Connor Group Editor

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 www.tctmagazine.com

LEAD NEWS: ASIGA

Asiga PRO2 75 3D printer streamlines the production of

Orthodontic Clear Aligners



LEFT: A dental model is 3D scanned to commence the design process.

It’s difficult to name an industry that hasn’t been revolutionized by innovation since the turn of the millennium; whether that’s the manufacture of cars using robotics, the introduction the iPhone had to the cell phone market or, the example that gets championed most in the 3D printing industry, the effect additive manufacturing has had on the production of hearing aids – over ten million people now wear 3D printed hearing aids. As well as having a profound effect on our aural health 3D printing has totally transformed our oral wellbeing. Dentistry continues to offer a significant opportunity for 3D printer manufacturers with the global market expected to grow to $55 billion by 2019 thanks to digital innovations. In this article David Rodwell, who has been exploring how digital innovations can improve dentistry for over 20 years, explains how his laboratory uses Asiga 3D printing technologies in the production of one of dentistry’s most desired products…

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 www.tctmagazine.com

LEAR ALIGNERS HAVE proven to be a very useful addition to treatment plans for many orthodontists and dental practitioners around the world. Clear aligners are made from thin thermoformed plastic that gently apply a controlled force to gradually move or adjust a patients teeth in incremental stages to improve dental alignment. This has proven to be a popular treatment alternative for many patients wanting to avoid traditional braces or correct a relapse from previous orthodontic treatment. The process of clear aligners is fairly simple. In fact, the commercialized process using 3D printers has been around for nearly 20 years with Align Technology, USA, founded in 1997.

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

ABOVE TOP: Model

manipulation.

ABOVE: Model

production.

 ABOVE rIGHT:

Clear aligner production.

RIGHT: Finished

product.

Photos courtesy of Rodwell Orthodontic Laboratory

THE PROCESS INVOLVES 4 MAIN STEPS: 1. Digitizing a patient’s teeth. - by acquiring an image from either a dental impression or cast model using an in-house 3D scanner or directly scanning a patients teeth using an intra oral scanner. 2. Model manipulation - using specialized orthodontic software to manipulate the dentition in a strategic manner. 3. Model production - using an inhouse 3D printer, in our case the Asiga PRO2 75 to produce an analog production model. 4. Clear aligner production - by pressure forming a pre-fabricated plastic blank over each printed model. The Asiga PRO2 75 has proven to produce a very high standard model. At 50 micron build layer thickness, even the most

discerning practitioners should be more than satisfied with the model’s detail. The Asiga PRO2 75 uses DLP technology and also allows the use of many compatible third party materials including Dreve, Pro3dure, NextDent and Detax. I have found the Asiga Composer software very easy to learn. In fact, Composer software pretty much navigates the process from the time you add the parts to submitting the build to the printer. We have been successful in placing between 7 - 10 clear aligner models per build. We are currently scheduling two builds per day. At Rodwell Orthodontic Laboratory, our clear aligner business is in a very healthy growth phase and with this, we are finetuning and streamlining our process to be more productive. We are not alone. I believe the Asiga PRO2 75 has opened a door for many smaller specialized dental laboratories. A more manageable capital outlay and the

Clear aligners are made from thin thermoformed plastic that gently apply a controlled force to gradually move or adjust a patients teeth in incremental stages to improve dental alignment.

relatively small footprint of the Asiga PRO2 75 enables smaller laboratories like us, to easily accommodate the machine within their current business activities.  For more information visit www.ASIGA.COM

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 www.tctmagazine.com

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Company

NEWS

WACKER TO LAUNCH WORLD’S FIRST INDUSTRIAL 3D PRINTER FOR SILICONE 

Chemical giant, WACKER has unveiled plans for the launch of the world’s first industrial 3D printer, the ACEO Imagine Series K. Penned as a “milestone in additive manufacturing” the machine uses a drop-on-demand process whereby tiny silicone droplets are deposited on a substrate and built later by layer. The droplets flow together before being cured by UV light to form a homogenous part with injection moulded-like qualities. WACKER will shortly commence offering silicone 3D printing services under the ACEO brand via an online portal where customers will be able to upload their design and order 3D printed parts.

Billed as one-to-watch for 2016, Massachusetts-based 3D printing startup, Desktop Metal has announced a further two major strategic investments from GE Ventures and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures. Without so much as a prototype in sight, the company, which aims to make metal 3D printing accessible with a compact, desktop machine, has raised a total $52M in investment from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, New Enterprise Associates, Lux Capital and additive manufacturing giant, Stratasys who’s founder Scott Crump also serves as a board observer for the company.

NEWS

From 3D printed silicone to metal powders, this news roundup shows that the summer is by no means a shut down for the additive manufacturing industry. FOR THESE STORIES IN FULL CLICK TO WWW.TCTMAGAZINE.COM

HP ACQUIRES DAVID VISION SYSTEMS TO EXPAND ECOSYSTEM WITH 3D SCANNING 

THALES ALENIA SPACE AND POLY-SHAPE BUILD EUROPE’S LARGEST 3D PRINTED SATELLITE PART

HP has announced the acquisition of 3D scanning company, David Vision Systems GmbH to advance its Sprout 3D technology and wider 3D ecosystem.

COVESTRO FURTHERS DEVELOPMENT OF 3D PRINTING MATERIALS 

HP describes the German scanning leaders’ 3D hardware and software as “an essential enabler for Sprout” and builds on its mission to create a complete end-to-end 3D network paired with its recently launched HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution. HP will acquire David’s scanning, stitching and fusing solution that results in radical improvements in scan quality.

Covestro, one of the world’s largest polymer companies, is working with partners to develop a comprehensive range of filaments, powders and liquid resins for all common 3D printing methods. Following the recent opening of a new laboratory for 3D printing at its headquarters in Leverkusen, the company will soon be installing new equipment designed to develop and test material solutions developed by Covestro’s competence team for additive manufacturing and its partners. Covestro offers a broad choice of filaments for the fused filament fabrication process, from flexible thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) to high strength polycarbonate.

ALCOA OPENS 3D PRINTING METAL POWDER PRODUCTION FACILITY 

Lightweight metals leader Alcoa has opened its state-ofthe-art, 3D printing metal powder production plant to boost the manufacture of optimized powders for 3D printing for aerospace. Located at the Alcoa Technology Center in Pittsburgh, the world’s largest light metals research centre, the facility will produce proprietary titanium, nickel and aluminium powders. The plant is part of a $60 million investment in advanced 3D printing materials and processes that builds on the company’s 3D printing capabilities in California, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Texas.

European space telecommunications company, Thales Alenia Space has successfully 3D printed parts for the new South Korean communications satellites Koreasat-5A and Koreasat-7 in collaboration with Poly-Shape. The Koreasat-5A and Koreasat-7 antenna supports are Europe’s largest qualified metal 3D printed parts for satellites and were manufactured in AISi7Mg alloy using Concept Laser’s X line 1000R system at Poly-Shape. Identical lightweight components were installed in both satellites measuring 447 x 204.5 x 391 mm3 and weighing just 1.13 kg.

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 www.tctmagazine.com

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

GE VENTURES AND SAUDI ARAMCO INVEST IN 3D PRINTING STARTUP DESKTOP METAL 

MEDICAL

AEROSPACE

Hoeganaes Corporation, a world leader in the development of metal powders, has been the driving force behind the growth in the Powder Metallurgy industry for over 65 years. Hoeganaes has fueled that growth with successive waves of technology, expanding the use of metal powders for a wide variety of applications.

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AUTOMOTIVE FOCUS ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

The car in front is 3D PRINTED Daniel O’Connor looks at the applications of 3D printing in the automotive industry that are being used BY AUTOMAKERS today.

WOR DS : DA N IE L O’ C ON NO R

n National Harbor Washington D.C., there’s a new mode of transport coming; passengers summon the vehicle using an app to take you from your location to desired destination, fares can talk to the driver; ask questions about where is good to eat or have a drink in the locale and even ask what the weather’s going to be like after they’ve finished socializing. No, this isn’t another lift-sharing company like Uber and Lyft, this is Olli – Local Motors’ self-driving, electric bus, powered by IBM’s Watson super-computer and made possible thanks to 3D printing. “Olli offers a smart, safe and sustainable transportation solution

that is long overdue,” Local Motor’s CEO and Co-founder John B. Rogers said at the vehicle’s unveiling. “Olli with Watson acts as our entry into the world of self-driving vehicles, something we’ve been quietly working on with our co-creative community for the past year. We are now ready to accelerate the adoption of this technology and apply it to nearly every vehicle in our current portfolio and those in the very near future. I’m thrilled to see what our open community will do with the latest in advanced vehicle technology.” Local Motors has been making waves in the automotive industry since 2007 and it was two years ago at IMTS that, in collaboration

with Cincinnati Inc. and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the team 3D printed the Strati electric car in just 44 hours. Using Cincinnati Inc.’s Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) technology to directly print the car’s body in one go, adding the mechanical components by hand, it was a proof of concept, additive manufacturing can produce an entire car body but for Olli, 3D printing played a different role entirely. “The Strati project was a study in manufacturing methods,” James Earle, Advanced Manufacturing Engineer at Local Motors, tells TCT. “Specifically to figure out if large-scale additive manufacturing ››

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 www.tctmagazine.com

011

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AUTOMOTIVE FOCUS ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

could be used to produce complex structures like a car. We showed that it was indeed possible. From that point we were able to step back and figure out where else in the process of car production additive manufacturing would be beneficial.” Unless you knew the story behind Strati, you’re unlikely to walk into a car showroom and comment on what a thing of beauty it is, strati is Italian for layers and layers are the first thing you notice, the Strati looks like an 8-bit version of a car. Olli, on the other hand, is sleek and despite not being on the road until late 2016 looks very much like something that would take pride of place in a showroom. “The plastic panels on Olli were thermo-formed on 3D printed molds,” explains Earle. “We printed the molds using BAAM, machined them on our 5-axis router, and then hand finished.” This use of additive manufacturing is not uncommon, TCT has reported on numerous occasions on the use of 3D printing to make jigs and fixtures, Todd Grimm celebrated this with his talk on embracing the mundane at last year’s TCT Show and the Diamond Sponsor panel at AMUG 2016 unanimously agreed that tooling for 3D printing was ‘low-hanging fruit’. In few industries is this more applicable or beneficial than that of automotive, a report by Mold Making Technology suggests that spending by automotive OEMs on tooling is expected to grow to $15.2 billion by 2018. One man who is uniquely placed to see the benefits 3D printing can offer to the automotive world is Jim Vurpillat, Jim spent the best part of two decades working at various divisions at General Motors, most recently as Director of Global Marketing at Cadillac, before moving to Stratasys in October last year. “The automotive sector was one of the earliest adopters of 3D printing,” Jim tells TCT. “ What we’ve seen over the last few years is a wider adoption of 3D printing and additive manufacturing into

the manufacturing operations, primarily in jigs and fixtures and tooling application but clearly the automotive space is looking for new technologies and new ways to reduce cycle-times, reduce tooling expense and investment and be able to bring to market lightweight alternatives.” PIMPING ONE’S RIDE Henry Ford once famously said, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” Although this quote from his 1922 autobiography is thought to be tongue-in-cheek it was a reference to the productionline quick drying paint that was only available at the time in black. A vision for Local Motors Olli is that it will be used in theme parks and university campuses to ferry people to and from, the Ollis will be fully customizable to suit the brand and not just with a lick of paint, the whole system right down to the on-board computer will be fully customizable, want Olli to tell you the time of the next economics lecture? Just ask. Local Motors’ short run production methods using 3D printing means that tooling up for customization is less expensive and easier than it would be to a company like Ford.

The automotive sector was one of the earliest adopters of 3D printing

››

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Redefine your design

Explore the potential of additive manufacturing Renishaw’s additive manufacturing systems use powder bed fusion technology to produce fully dense complex metal parts direct from 3D CAD. Also known as 3D printing, this technology is not constrained by traditional manufacturing design rules. Create complex geometries such as conformal cooling

channels for tooling inserts, reduce component weight by only placing material where it is needed, and consolidate multiple parts in one assembly. Additive manufacturing is also complementary to conventional machining technologies, and directly contributes to reduced lead times, tooling costs and material waste.

■

No requirement for tooling.

■

Increased design freedom—complex geometries and hidden features.

■

Rapid design iterations right up to manufacture.

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AUTOMOTIVE FOCUS ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

5ABOVE: Olli interior RIGHT: (from top) Mercedes-Benz Trucks Spare Parts.

Effect Skins 3D Printed on the Stratasys Fortus 450mc Production 3D Printer.

Customers will be able to choose and tweak more than a dozen base patterns in ten different colors created by renowned designer Kota Nezu and 3D modeling artist Sun Junjie.

Customization for mass-manufactured cars has moved on incrementally since that Model-T, yes we have a range of colors and trims now but take my car for instance; a ‘Limited Edition’ Vauxhall Corsa, in Phantom Grey with black trim alloys, the only thing individual about it is the scratch down the passenger door done by a creative vandal with a key, there are at least six more of the exact same car in the business park in which TCT towers stands. “The difficulty in offering the customer the personalization of the car is that typically means lower volume numbers,” explains the Worldwide Marketing Director for Automotive at Stratasys, Jim Vurpillat. “Put that against a financial business case of the tooling expense that is used to create that individual look you run into a lot of barriers.” Jim and the team at Stratasys have been exploring ways to lower those barriers with Japanese automotive manufacturer, Daihatsu. Using Stratasys’ FDM technology the oldest automaker in Japan will offer customers customized design elements for the front and rear bumpers of the Copen 2-door convertible model called Effect Skins. Customers will be able to choose and tweak more than a dozen base patterns in ten different colors created by renowned designer Kota Nezu and 3D modeling artist Sun Junjie. The Effect Skins are printed using a Stratasys Fortus

››

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CAD/CAE SOFTWARE 3D PRINTING ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING MOULDING & TOOLING MACHINE TOOLS METROLOGY INSPECTION

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AUTOMOTIVE FOCUS ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

450mc machine in Stratasys’s ASA material, the material properties of which are extremely UV resistant – essential when it comes to enduse parts. “The project we did with Daihatsu is a great example of 3D printing providing the solution to customization,” said Vurpillat. “Doing it cost effectively, quickly and be able to offer the customer something unique to them. AM is solving a lot of the solutions to allow automakers to meet the trend of customers wanting something a bit more unique than the guy down the street.” TIME TO SPARE 3D printing has now proved its worth at various stages of the automotive manufacturing process, from the early days of rapid prototyping, to tooling and customization, the technology is now being applied to after-sales life of a vehicle. We’ve all seen the Jay Leno videos in which a broken classic car part is scanned, remodeled, 3D printed and molded in order to make a new part. The manufacturing of spare parts has just gone from Jay’s

Additive manufacturing gives you the ability to minimize inventory and be able to print the parts off where and when you need them

garage to worldwide adoption as Mercedes-Benz Trucks announced that it would be supplying more than 30 spare parts directly from a 3D printer. The available spare parts consist of high-quality plastic components printed using EOS SLS technology. Covers, spacers, spring caps, air and cable ducts, clamps, mountings and control elements are just a few examples of economical spare part production in top quality made possible by using the 3D printing process. “Additive manufacturing gives you the ability to minimize inventory and be able to print the parts off where and when you need them,” explains Stratasys’ Jim Vurpillat. “Anytime you can fulfill a request quickly but limit inventory is beneficial, especially when you have to keep spare parts for model year upon model year, that can get pretty cumbersome from both an inventory and warehousing stand point.” As one of 3D printing’s early adopters the automotive sector is showcasing just how many aspects of a business the technology can touch from design to repair. 

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AUTOMOTIVE ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES



LEFT: Additively manufactured wishbone printed in one part is 40% lighter than original and more rigid.

DARING TO BE DIFFERENT

WORD S : DA N I E L O ’C O N N O R

f you were to strip away the branding and sponsorship, line-up all of the bikes in the Moto2 paddock, the likelihood is you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart, but there is one, thanks to the completely different front suspension system that would stick out like a sore thumb, that bike is called TransFIORmers and takes its name from the maverick French Bike designer, Claude Fior. Fior believed that his suspension design dramatically improved the handling of the motorcycle, allowing for improved stability and later braking into corners, rider of a Fior designed 250cc competition bike in the 80s, Christian Boudinot, concurred. Three decades down the line Boudinot formed his own Moto2 team, Team Promoto Sport and is dedicated to bringing his mentor’s suspension design back with an additively manufactured twist. “Jean-Baptiste Péjoine, of I3D Concept introduced us to additive manufacturing,” Jérôme Aldeguer, Mechanical Engineer, TransFIORmers, tells TCT. “We wanted to identify what would be the most suitable component to 3D print. As the idea of using metal additive manufacturing for structural parts is still not widely spread, we thought making the wishbone would be a good demonstration of the capability of the process and to prove we can make real parts, not only prototyping.”



ABOVE: The original wishbone was made with 12 parts

Using topological optimization, we’ve been able to take advantage of the additive manufacturing possibilities to design a component not only lighter but also more rigid.

That wishbone component is key to the FIOR suspension system and the original wishbone consisted of 12 individually machined or welded parts in steel. Working with I3D Concept the TransFIORmers team set about making those parts in one shot using I3D’s metal 3D printing system, Renishaw AM250. “Using topological optimization, we’ve been able to take advantage of the additive manufacturing possibilities to design a component not only lighter but also more rigid,” says Aldeguer. “We’ve reduced the weight by almost 40%. Achieving that gain is really important in that kind of part to improve the “bump following” ability of the suspension.” The finished part is printed in titanium Ti6AI4V alloy and weighs 600 g less than its traditional counterpart at the same time as being more rigid with a tensile strength in excess of 1100 MPa. Thanks to that rigidity, weight-loss and the totally new riding experience the team won its first ever Moto2 GP race in June 2016. So successful has Renishaw’s metal 3D printing proved the team are looking to see what other parts of the bike could be additively manufactured. “We are totally convinced additive manufacturing has a great future in motorsports,” says Aldeguer. “We are already working on the upper plate to do an even more light part, using topological optimization. But we are also looking further; building a titanium chassis is something we are thinking about.”  FIND OUT more about renishaw’s Am solutions at IMTS on BOOTH E-5509



LEFT: 3D printed wishbone in place.

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2D to 3D

LEFT: Invent Medical put

the company on hold in order to wait for HP’s 3D Printing solution.



Step into the

BELOW: HP’s Barcelona HQ

THIRD DIMENSION WOR DS : Da n ie l o ’C o n n o r

Editor, Daniel O’Connor investigates the growing number of major 2D printing players entering the 3D printing market.

he worlds of 2D and 3D printing have, in the main, only shared nine letters. Not only are the technologies hugely different but the target markets have been vastly unalike; desktop additive manufacturing devices have been nothing like ink or laser jet printers in terms of adoption or ease-of-use and large format industrial machines from both the 2D and the 3D world are almost polar opposites when it comes to speed. However, a raft of recent news and launches from the biggest companies in the 2D world suggests that the dimensions are becoming increasingly blurred. During a tour around the Barcelona HQ of HP last month it was evident that the company, which launched its Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) technology at RAPID in May, sees similarities in the routes to market for enterprise 3D printing from its dominance in the ink printing sectors. HP is using its extensive knowledge

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VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 www.tctmagazine.com

HP is using its extensive knowledge of successfully bringing digital printing technologies to market in order to leverage deals in the 3D world.

of successfully bringing digital printing technologies to market in order to leverage deals in the 3D world. The MJF technology is being manufactured, tested and optimized alongside the likes of the Indigo large-format 2D printing press. The gathered media was even shown

how parts in HP’s latest large-format 2D printer have been made more efficient using in-house 3D printing. And it is not just HP that has stepped from the second dimension into the third; Ricoh, Canon and Xaar are three companies famed for their 2D printing technologies that have respectively launched technology, announced an intention to or hired people with the nous to do so. Drupa – the trade show mecca for 2D printing – saw the launch of both Highcon’s Rapid Layer Manufacturing, which essentially turns cardboard sheets into huge three dimensional objects, and that of Massivit’s machine, which is targeted towards the same sectors as HP’s large format printing; advertising and marketing. “I think a lot of people saw the reticence of major 2D printing companies such as HP and Ricoh to enter the market as a failure on their parts,” says Canalys 3D Printing Analyst Joe Kempton. “I think these companies were extremely cautious with their strategies.

2D TO 3D ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES



RIGHT: HP’s 3D printing material cartridge system. The MJF and postprocessing station side-by-side.



BELOW: Massivit Prints are targetting marketing departments unlike most 3D printers

While the market was sizeable four or five years ago, it was still lacking some major industrial customers. I think most of these large 2D companies realized that the enterprise space held the most promise.” These thoughts were echoed in the opening statements of the HP Multi Jet Fusion press day as the company showcased some of the early adopters of the technology, names like Nike, BMW, Siemens, Jabil and Johnson & Johnson flashed across the screen and took to the stage. One name that we hadn’t seen before was that of Invent Medical, CEO Jiri Rosicky was returning from advanced negotiations to invest in another polymer-based 3D printing solution, he was ready to sign on the dotted line when HP announced its intention to launch a 3D printer at the back end of 2014. Jiri put that investment, and essentially his whole company, on hold. A theme, according to Kempton, that is not uncommon. THE TRILLION DOLLAR QUESTION It’s been written a thousand times, but is worth noting that six years ago HP entered a short-lived pilot with Stratasys that saw the U-Print FDM printers from Stratasys rebranded as ‘HP DesignJet’ series. That scheme seemed to end pretty quickly without much of a fanfare, what wasn’t clear at the time was just how beneficial the experience has proved for a re-entry to market. “As you know we did an OEM with Stratasys,” Alex Monino HP’s Worldwide Marketing and Sales Strategy Director for 3D printing, tells TCT. “We learned the market and wanted to validate some go-to-market hypothesis with that pilot. We are applying those lessons as we move forward. That gap between the

pilot and now is because we feel like we did not have something disruptive to really add to the industry, until now.” That technology, MJF, involves heating a bed of powdered plastic (initially PA12) to a temperature below the melting point, applying a fusing agent using HP’s inkjet technologies perfected in 2D printing. The fusing agent lowers the temperature of a selected area and a detailing agent is applied in order to inhibit fusing of further material and then passing infrared lamps over the bed in order to fuse the specified layer. The process is executed in the style one would expect from a Fortune 100 company, with sleek presentation and a thoroughly thought out post-processing station that not only speeds up cooling, allows cleaning of the part but also acts as a material recycling station. Throughout the two days in Barcelona we heard a great deal about HP’s plans to grow the industry, sound bites like, “We don’t want to capture the biggest chunk of the market and not let it grow”, may sound

like platitudes of a company with the might HP have behind them but it is all about the numbers. Estimates suggest that the current 3D printing industry stands at about $4 billion, capturing even a significant chunk of that does not represent return on investment for a company who turned over $57 billion in 2014, this is about the longer game. “We are not entering the market to be a player in a $4 billion market,” Helena Herrero Managing Director of HP Iberia said. “We want to lead the way in taking on the $12 trillion market of manufacturing with 3D printing.” Canalys’ Joe Kempton agrees that the lure of the brand names like HP, Ricoh and Canon, names most companies will already be comfortable with, will help them unlock doors where others may have struggled but once HP have wedged those doors open HP’s Alex Monino the whole industry will benefit. “You will spark thinking and big changes like in companies like Nike or BMW,” says Monino. “No 3D printing technology will be able to do everything. This is why we’re taking a very open approach because we believe that we cannot do this alone.” That open approach has seen them create partnerships with renowned chemists like Arkema for the development of better 3D printing materials and take a driving seat in the 3MF consortium for the creation of a file format that allows voxel level manipulation, which HP sees as vital to the future of MJF technology. One thing is clear, HP is in this for the long game and the noises coming out of Canon, Ricoh, Xaar, Highcon and Massivit suggest that 2D has finally stepped into the third dimension.  VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 www.tctmagazine.com

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ARCHITECTURE ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

Made for

MANHATTAN Architecture is one of those applications that 3D printing has just always fitted with; the ability to create physical models quickly has become a priceless tool in an architect’s tool kit. LGM has been perfecting the process since 2000 and Senior project Manager, Patrick Fleege, talked us through creating an incredible 3D printed model for a futuristic Big Apple apartment complex.

LGM

developed a working relationship with DDG Partners, a real estate design, development, construction, and asset management firm, building various models for projects in New York. While DDG initially approached LGM for concept, structural and basic massing models, they began pushing the boundaries to include more elegant and detailed models as their knowledge of 3D printing and its CAD requirements increased. The sales team was looking for a dramatic sculptural piece that would anchor the showroom. LGM selected a scale of 1:96 scale model and began making samples on plaster (CJP/”ZCorp”) printers and SLS parts to determine the best way to produce the 6 foot tall print. LGM primarily uses powder-based processes because they allow complex overhanging geometry like decks, railings, and trusses to be built without supports. In addition, due to the partial recyclability of powder processes, material costs are lower for large hollow objects. Cost saving and aesthetic reasons meant DDG chose plaster models but the weaker material properties meant that certain details were “too thin to print”. Fortunately LGM is a multidisciplinary shop with

LGM’s high capacity enabled them to complete the actual printing on seven gypsum printers in roughly a week of machine time.

laser cutting, engraving, and CNC machining, the team crafted the primary structure and then inset laser cut acrylic windows with laser cut window frames to provide the higher resolution look, traditionally associated with hand assembled architectural modeling. The main challenge was not the overall timeline, but the fact that the teams were aware that changes would occur late into the build cycle. In particular, the penthouse, entrance, and some amenities in the middle of the structure were designed much later than the residential floors. To deliver the model in time, LGM needed to find a way to build a structure without starting at the bottom, top, or middle. DDG wanted each apartment to light up either individually or in combination with similar units, controlled by a tablet computer. The model needed to answer buyer questions like “Where are all the 3 bedroom units located?” or “Show me where the meeting rooms are.” The lighting package required the interior of the model to be divided into discrete spaces designed to prevent light leaking from one space into another but simple to wire and assemble. Therefore the model required room for a control computer, power supply, and Wi-Fi antenna. Designs are seldom printed directly from the architect’s native CAD, there is considerable manipulation and “virtual modelmaking” where an experienced scale modelmaker interprets the original design

to create a product that looks appropriate at scale and works within the material and build properties of additive. For the DDG model, brick patterns, corner detail, and window trim all had to be modified. The digital interior was stripped out and replaced by light box walls, LED mounts, and 3D printable wiring chases for the LED controllers and power cables. The roof mechanical enclosure was engineered to hold the electronics while the power supply was located inside a marble plinth built by the project masons in New York. Due to the relative weakness of the gypsum plaster prints, the model was constructed with a 2” aluminum pipe as a spine that also served as a conduit for power to the computer. LGM completed the actual printing on seven gypsum printers in roughly a week of machine time. The team started with floors 7 through 15 and worked around missing data, when a unit changed, it was reprinted independently, without disturbing the rest of the structure. The final assembly should have been the simple stacking of prints onto the aluminum spine and gluing them in place. As nothing in prototyping goes perfectly, the aluminum arrived oversized and had to be hammered into place in a white-knuckle operation. Fortunately nothing broke. Commercial additive fabrication combined with traditional modelmaking craft yielded a product that was innovative, cost effective, and upheld the contemporary aesthetic of this unique real estate project.

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ARCHITECTURE T h e way w e l ive is ch angin g. P e o p l e ar e n’ t buy i ng h o use s l ik e th e ir par e n ts d id and th o se th at do a r e i n vitin g str ange r s to co m e and stay, l ik e a bed a n d b r e ak fast via aN ap p. Co m m u n al , stu d e n t- st y le l i v i ng am o ng yo u ng ad u lts is be co m ing a so ught a f t e r way o f l iving; sin gl e be d s, sh ar e d spac es, ga m e s r o o m s and al l , l e ad ing to th e be l ie f that “ m i l le n n ial s wan t e x p e r ie nce s n o t p o sse ssions”. S o n at ur al ly, if th e way w e l ive is ch an ging, th e way we des i g n an d bu il d th e p l ace s w e inh abit, w il l too.

Welcome to your future home WOR D S : L a u r a G r iffit h s

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initiative invited designers to explore how we build our world in a bid to deliver an architectural world first. Typically as a person who spends their days trawling through so-called ‘3D printed world first’s, it’s only natural to be both excited and sceptical about such a claim. That said this particular first by the WATG Urban Architecture Studio, has been validated in the global competition commissioned by Branch Technology, which asked designers to investigate how 3D printing can improve our built environment with the world’s first freeform 3D printed house. The winning project ‘Curve Appeal’ was designed by the Chicago-based team, which includes Daniel Caven, Chris Hurst, Miguel Alvarez and Brent Watanabe, who proposed a design that embraced both the recent

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

unique capabilities of 3D printing and the home’s proposed natural environment. The brief was for a single-family home with a standard kitchen, bath, living area and one bedroom. The structure features two main components, an interior core and exterior skin and reimagines traditional aesthetics, construction and ergonomics of the average home. Though 3D printing has never been used in this way before, the team already had experience using the technology as a design tool, which proved beneficial when they began thinking about how to apply it on a large scale. “We see 3D printing as a tool to bridge the gap between digital technology and design,” the team told TCT. “Depending on the accuracy of the 3D modeling the designer is able to execute forms to exact specifications without the normal high costs associated with construction.” Curve Appeal looks like the kind of place Tony Stark might downsize to. It’s got the contemporary curved style of a billionaire superhero’s modern hideaway, but with an organic relationship to its environment that manages to look both futuristic and like a pop-up house from a post-apocalyptic utopia

surrounded by greenery. Popular culture has given us a good idea of how our future dwellings might look; white, minimalistic, sterile, modern, cold, are usually the most common descriptors depending on your take on these typically bubble-like pods. There’s definitely a hint of that in these images but it’s less about predicting a Tron-like aesthetic for future living and more about laying a foundation for what 3D printed architecture could achieve.

CELLULAR FABRICATION Unlike other examples of 3D printed homes that are primarily of the crude concrete extrusion form, this home is to be manufactured using a patented method from Branch Technology called “Cellular Fabrication” or C-Fab. The technology, developed by a group of architects and engineers, combines 3D printing, industrial robotics and conventional building materials with the world’s largest freeform printer. C-Fab builds structures in a similar way to nature, using optimized geometries filled with economical construction materials to provide the function and strength of a wall assembly. This doesn’t look like any common

We see 3D printing as a tool to bridge the gap between digital technology and design

››

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The Most Productive Additive Metal Manufacturing Systems More Laser Power, Larger Build Envelope, Faster Build Speeds All systems in the SLM Solutions product line feature a common development and laser platform with transferrable parameters for high quality metal parts from the lab to production. Offering build volumes up to 22% larger and build time efficiencies up to 70% faster than the competition, SLM Solutions can enhance your capabilities with selective laser melting!

VISIT US at IMTS Booth N-71 FREE WHITE PAPER: 7 Must Ask Questions Before Buying a Metal 3D Printer DOWNLOAD AT: http://goo.gl/LN6pEy SLM Solutions is a leading provider of metal-based additive manufacturing systems and technology that support fast and flexible metal part production for the aerospace, automotive, energy and medical industries. SLM systems define the gold standard for best-in-class operator safety and greater recoating speed.

SLM Solutions NA, Inc.

www.slm-solutions.us I info@slm-solutions.us 28350 Cabot Drive, Suite 100 I Novi, MI 48377 I 248-243-5400

ARCHITECTURE ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

3D printing either. Similar to the methods we’ve seen in the likes of MX3D in their Amsterdam-based bridge project, where a six-axis robotic arm is used to build the structure rather than constraining the part to a build plate, this method employs a robot and rail system. Building in this way means designers are not limited by space or slow layer-based processes and can create large, complex structures without the need for supports. “The design was inspired by the new possibilities and freedoms afforded by 3D printing,” Daniel commented. “The curved shapes of the freeform walls are impossible to create using conventional construction methods. So when designing this house we use these new technological possibilities as a starting point for design, using the new forms and shapes available to us. Curve appeal also considers the human experience of dwelling in a unique way compared to other recent 3D printed houses. Not only are the interior spaces well planned for the practicalities and nuances of life; the use of warm materials, brightly day lit interiors and the strong connection to the outdoors make for a comfortable and enjoyable place to dwell.”

JUST LIKE NATURE Branch’s unique technology takes inspiration from how cellular structures in nature are made. The intricate cell formations are fabricated with 3D printing

to create the foundation whilst the standard construction materials are used to fill them. Of course we’re not at a point where an entire house, windows and all, can be 3D printed in one go, so certain features like the glass enclosures and interior finishes will be crafted using traditional methods. WATG believes this will set the standard for using 3D printing commercially through a combination of 3D structures and traditional on-site construction. “As it becomes more widespread it will only get better and in the hands of more people around the world,” Daniel commented. “We see Curve Appeal as a prototype towards new progressions of architecture through its process of construction. We see architecture shifting towards very radical designs in the future and 3D printing makes it possible. Within our studio, we are always pushing the limits of parametric and generative design leading architecture down a new path of experimentation; this in turn opens opportunities to surpass past inclinations of construction.” Layer-based printed ‘homes’ are nothing new but this will be the first home produced through a unique combination of freeform 3D printing and conventional construction materials. The house is set to commence construction in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The entire project is expected to take just over a year to complete but this will include

all construction and extensive testing. The actual fabrication, assembly and finishing will take a matter of months. The team is currently in the testing stages where each element is being modeled and produced on a small scale before they begin printing the first sections of the house in early 2017. “The challenges we face are that this has never been done before, so each step forward is a step into the unknown,” Daniel added. We probably won’t see 3D printing used to produce your typical housing en masse any time soon but that’s not the aim here, the speed, materials and costs just can’t compete yet. For now the 3D printing we do see in architecture will likely continue to be in the scale white SLS form that has been used by architects for many years now to conceptualise designs and communicate ideas. The good news is, projects like this are showing where it could be used on a more adventurous scale as speeds, materials and costs become more favourable for designs that while futuristic are not so alien anymore, and provide a glimpse at how we might build our world in the future. Daniel added: “3D printing technology isn’t to the point where it can fully print a complete house but with the rapid advancements of technologies we see this new form of construction coming in the near future.” 

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To push the envelope for Additive Manufacturing:

Just add Arcam.

Welcome to Arcam – a pioneer and proven leader in cost-efficient Additive Manufacturing solutions for the production of orthopedic implants and aerospace components. At the heart of our total offer are Arcam EBM® systems, based on cutting-edge electron beam melting technology, that offer freedom in design, excellent material properties and high productivity. The build chamber interior is designed for easy powder handling and fast turn-around times. What’s more, you can rely on our highly competent application engineers to support you from design to production – adding value every step of the way. With the Arcam EBM® process, you can take full advantage of powerful electron beam melting technology to differentiate your products and boost productivity. • Freedom in design • Easy to use operator interface • Latest generation EB gun • Fast cooling

See what you can achieve with Arcam. Visit www. Arcam.com

IMTS PREVIEW ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

IMTS Preview Since 1927 The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) has been a showcase for the latest and greatest ways of making things, it is testament to the strides additive manufacturing companies have made that 3D technologies are now a key selling point for the largest manufacturing trade show in North America.

HIS YEAR’S SHOW (September 12-17) will see the debut of the Additive Manufacturing Pavilion located at a key point near the entrance of the North Building of Chicago’s premier exhibition venue, McCormick Place. Although several additive manufacturing technologies have been showcased at previous editions of IMTS, the dedicated pavilion demonstrates the significant shift additive manufacturing has had towards mainstream manufacturing. “Additive manufacturing is a reality for the industrial marketplace. It’s not fully mature, but the technology has progressed far enough that if you’re ignoring 3D printing at IMTS 2016, you’re making a big mistake,” says TCT Show keynote speaker, founder and principal of Global Business Advisory Services, LLC, David Burns. “Fortunately, within the IMTS Additive Manufacturing Pavilion, you’ll find companies that offer a full suite of 3D products, and they’re good at explaining the benefits.” The pavilion allows the chance for companies like ExOne, 3D Systems, Renishaw etc. to demonstrate how additive technologies can be and are already being implemented into manufacturing workflows

whether that is PolyJetted plastic jigs and fixtures, LaserCUSED metal machine tool heads or the production of gears at prices and speeds that beat injection molding. “The Additive Manufacturing Pavilion showcases essentially every component necessary for a manufacturing cell,” says Peter R. Eelman, Vice President — Exhibitions & Communications at AMT — The Association For Manufacturing Technology. “In addition, the technology has progressed so far that you’ll also see it on the show floor. Several of the leading machine tool providers will demonstrate ‘hybrid machines’ that integrate 3D printing and traditional machine tool capabilities.” Local Motors are a prime example of where 3D printing technology will be seen elsewhere on the show floor. As mentioned in the automotive section of this issue (page 11) the automaker has made a habit of producing showstoppers at the biennial event, first building its Rally Fighter car on the show floor in 2012 and then going one step further by 3D printing the entire body of a car using Cincinnati Incorporated’s Big Area Additive Manufacturing. This year the company located in C Hall of the North building (Stand NC-780) will be discussing its 3D printed, self-driving electric bus, Olli.

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IMTS PREVIEW

EOS OF NORTH AMERICA BOOTH N-79

IMTS PREVIEW

EOS will be showcasing how its holistic approach to additive manufacturing in which it sees the interconnectivity of materials, processes, and systems as key to part consistency and repeatability, is allowing companies like MercedesBenz Trucks to go into series production of spare parts. EOS will be demonstrating its latest Formiga P 110 plastic selective laser-sintering machine on the booth as well as hosting its North American User Day on Wednesday, September 14. 

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“The EOS NAUD 2014 exceeded our expectations with 500+ attendees, who learned about the advancements in industrial 3D printing technology. IMTS represents the traditional subtractive manufacturing community, which are the future users of additive manufacturing, so it was a great place to bring both together since we know that both need to coexist in the marketplace and on the plant floor.” Andrew Snow, Senior Vice President, EOS of North America, Inc.

3D SYSTEMS BOOTH N-68

3D Systems (3DS) will continue to showcase the shift back towards more industrial applications that the company has concentrated on since the appointment of President and CEO, Vyomesh Joshi (VJ), in April 2016. VJ himself will launch 3DS presence with the event, Strategy and Solution to Accelerate Digital Manufacturing, this half-day program will bring together key partners, customers, media, analysts and company leaders to present and discuss the vision for the future of 3DS. Attendees will have an opportunity to see the latest solutions for digital manufacturing and hear about 3DS’s strategy to grow the business; 3DS are also opening the floor for questions and feedback from customers to management. 

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 www.tctmagazine.com

IMTS PREVIEW ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

MITSUI SEIKI (USA) INC BOOTH S-8519

A name that may well be new to those in the additive manufacturing world but not to IMTS regulars, Mitsui Seiki Inc. have been demonstrating its high-precision subtractive machinery since the 80s. At this year’s IMTS Mitsui Seiki will demo a new development of hybridtechnology combining a precision-built traditional CNC vertical machining center with a spindleadapted powder feed nozzle. Named Vertex 55X-H, it will have the ability to print parts from nothing or deposit material to existing parts using the nozzle that is loaded onto to tool head like any traditional tool head.

SODICK BOOTH E-4802

Hybrid technologies represent something of a theme at the 2016 IMTS as another huge machine tool manufacturer is to debut a machine at the Chicago show. Sodick is introducing the OPM250L Metal 3D Printer at IMTS 2016. Sodick says that beyond merely printing complex metal shapes, the OPM actually performs high-speed milling throughout the laser sintering process, allowing it to produce a finish to existing 3D printers, even on hard to reach internal structures. Launched in Japan last year, IMTS represents the first chance to see the machine in North America. The OPM250L has already been named as one of the 10 best new products by Japanese business media company Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun. These awards have been given each year since 1958 to encourage the development of the Japanese manufacturing industry. OPM250L was considered due to its promise of bringing metal 3D printing to the mainstream mold industry. 

MACHINEWORKS BOOTH E-3327

MachineWorks will showcase brand-new features of its CNC simulation and verification component software, MachineWorks and of solid modeling software toolkit for processing polygon mesh, Polygonica at IMTS. The forthcoming MachineWorks release contains developments like the support of cloud-based applications for CNC simulation and verification. This new feature allows networked devices such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops and desktops to visualise MachineWorks simulations running in the cloud. A new geometry query API makes rendering integration much easier for applications. It has been designed to be future-proof and flexible. Customers who use both MachineWorks and Polygonica will benefit from a new API to provide a seamless transition between the toolkits, allowing direct and efficient transfer of geometry and associated data.

The process is under full adaptive control as we are making the part, ensuring that as we’re moving back and forth between additive and subtractive, we are maintaining the intended surface or feature as it’s being produced,” said Robb Hudson, Technology and Business Development Manager at Mitsui. “In addition to developing the integrated spindle-adapted fiber laser and powder-feed system, this is the main benefit that Mitsui Seiki offers as compared to other hybrid systems on the market: our machine maintains common center line integrity between nozzle and tool as users go back and forth between the additive nozzle and the subtractive tool and offers a sub-15 micron volumetric accuracy within the work envelope.

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International exhibition and conference on the next generation of manufacturing technologies

Frankfurt, Germany, 15 – 18 November 2016 formnext.com

Touch tomorrow! Over four days in November, professionals of the industrial manufacturing industry will meet in Frankfurt am Main, Germany to be inspired by solutions designed to bring product ideas to life more quickly and efficiently. With its unique combination of additive manufacturing and conventional technologies, formnext powered by tct presents the next generation of intelligent manufacturing solutions – from design all the way to mass production. It will definitely be worth the trip, so don’t miss out!

Where ideas take shape.

Exhibition Movie 2015

Information: +49 711 61946-825 formnext@mesago.com

@ formnext_expo # formnext16

IMTS PREVIEW

ONE TO WATCH RIGHT: Vader MK1

BELOW:

Vader’s MagnetoJetting technology

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

EDITOR’S

FEATURES The Emerging Technology Center (ETC) at IMTS this year will showcase displays of the most exciting new products made through additive manufacturing including a home, vehicles, and medical implants. Ran by the Association For Manufacturing Technology (AMT) the ETC is dedicated to displaying extraordinary manufacturing possibilities and the 2016 is no different with three incredible proof of concept 3D printing projects:

VADER SYSTEMS – N85

rguably the most intriguing booth on the Additive Manufacturing Pavilion will be that of Vader Systems. The father and son team have created a wholly new metal additive manufacturing technology that has already seen Lockheed Martin and Aurora Machine strike up deals to become Vader’s first clients. IMTS will represent the first chance to see Vader System’s first commercial machine, the Mk1. “Vader has developed a revolutionary machine that will radically change the metal manufacturing industry,” said Jonathan Amoia, President of Aurora Machine. “With the Mk1, we will be able to not only produce our customers’ parts faster and more cost efficiently – with much less wasted material – but the Mk1 also opens up new design possibilities that will help our customers gain a competitive advantage. We were fortunate to meet the Vaders early on and position our growing company to be part of a very elite list of first run customers.”

That machine has been years in development and uses a totally different process in order to 3D print in metal, “We went down many roads in that first 12 months, but kept coming back to our unique application of magnetohydrodynamics (now coined as MagnetoJet and patent pending),” said co-founder, Scott Vader. “To make a part as sound and as dense as machined or cast metal, we knew we would have to deliver from a liquid form... The challenge there was figuring out how to control molten liquid metal at 1400 Degrees Fahrenheit. Once printing through liquid form was accepted as the only way forward, there was no question that the optimal way to move molten metal was through magnetism.”

• The “additive bionic human” showing additive manufactured medical implants and body parts. • The AMIE (Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy) project from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) demonstrates rapid innovation through additive manufacturing to connect a natural gas-powered hybrid electric vehicle to a highperformance building that produces, consumes and stores renewable energy. • An all-electric Shelby Cobra replica and a 1952 Willys Army Jeep reproduction. Using Big Area Additive Manufacturing, or BAAM technology, the ORNL advanced manufacturing team produced the Shelby Cobra replica in only 24 hours at DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL.

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RAPID UPDATE ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

A Launchpad for 3D Manufacturing WOR DS : l a u r a g r i f f i t hs

If you have any desire to get into the additive manufacturing space, this is the event to go to of - Shaun Kroeger, Director inking Partner Sales at SolidTh

All of the 3D ecosystem is here - manufacturers, software, applications, customers. It’s unique – we couldn’t miss this opportunity - Ramon Pastor, Vice Pre

sident and General Manager at HP

The range of technologies on display from basic FDM printers to really sophisticated machines, everything is here it’s incredibly exciting - Paulina Perepelkin, Community Manager at GrabCAD

h a wealth There’s suc dge in this of knowle st people mo room and hare. If you to s are willing n answer here can’t find a ure one exists I’m not s y, Foun

arkle - Bob M nsion im rd D e der of 3

HE COMMENTS ON the left were just a selection that followed this year’s buzzing RAPID event in Orlando, Florida where North America’s industry heavyweights and startups flocked to showcase their latest technologies at what has been a staple of the additive manufacturing calendar in the U.S. for 25 years. Across the pond, our very own TCT Show has become the go-to event for additive technologies in the UK with a 21-year history in bringing cutting edge manufacturing innovation to the forefront of the additive community and is gearing up for its 2016 edition next month. Both of these events have established themselves as launch pads for many leading companies to showcase their latest wares to their respective global audiences, which this year included debuts from the likes of HP, Stratasys, EnvisionTEC and XJet to name a very small few. Next year, the two platforms will unite. Just in case you missed the news or

couldn’t make it to Orlando, owner of TCT Group, Rapid News Publications and organizer of RAPID, the SME are to combine their nearly 30 years of additive manufacturing experience to produce the 2017 RAPID + TCT event. It was encouraging to hear comments from industry leaders at RAPID 2016 who were excited about the joint future of these two pillars of the additive manufacturing community. The TCT team interviewed several companies on the show floor and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. “I’ve been involved with the RAPID show since its inception in the early 90s and it has always been a launch pad for new products in the U.S. as is the case with the TCT Show where we launch new products to the European community,” Al Siblani, Founder and CEO of EnvisionTEC, commented. “They are the most important shows whether we’re talking on the U.S. side or the European side and we always choose them as a launch pad for our products.” Over the last few years the landscape

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for 3D printing events has become heavily saturated – you don’t have to travel very far to find an event boasting some form of 3D technology and as organizers, partners and visitors to trade events across the globe, we understood that the demand from the industry was to deliver on quality rather than quantity. That’s why the decision to combine our resources and create an event that the industry could really benefit from, as we have done so with our Mesago partners on the formnext + tct event in Germany, was the best move forward for the industry as a whole. “At The TCT Group we have been looking for ways to share our expertise while serving our community of readers, viewers, subscribers, visitors, advertisers and exhibitors — we appreciate the time and financial commitments on both sides, and simply launching new products to fuel expansion would have been wrong. Instead we have evaluated the markets and sought practical and meaningful partnerships. In North America this decision was incredibly easy — SME’s RAPID event is the pre-eminent exhibition and conference for North America with the history and reputation to back that up,” explained TCT’s Head of Content, Jim Woodcock. “Working in partnership we believe that the whole will be worth more than the sum of its parts and we are looking forward to working with SME to ensure the continued growth and success of what is now RAPID + TCT for every visitor, exhibitor, speaker and sponsor.” So much work goes into making a successful event and over the last few months both teams have been working hard behind the scenes to put plans in place for RAPID + TCT. Along with another busy show floor, around 150 industry leaders will take to the various stages in 2017 to lead technical sessions and discuss how additive manufacturing can solve industry challenges. The talks will cover everything from the basics of additive manufacturing to advanced applications and processes.



ABOVE:be Debbie Holton, vice president ofm o Events and Industry Strategy at SME opens RAPID 2016.

a re



LEFT: Duncan Wood, chief operating officer, Rapid News Publications on stage at RAPID 2016

The combined expertise of both TCT and SME will ensure that next year’s event is an unrivalled platform of knowledge and quality that will truly accelerate the adoption of 3D manufacturing in real-world applications. “As the additive manufacturing industry continues to grow at such a fast pace, we realize our partnerships are more important than ever,” said Debbie Holton, vice president of Events and Industry Strategy at SME. “Our new RAPID + TCT event will

valuable experience for exhibitors and attendees because of this partnership. The event will continue to deliver the latest 3D Manufacturing technology and industry developments and expertise with expanded opportunities for all participants. The industry response has been extremely positive from all parties as our two proven organizations join forces to produce a powerhouse event.” Next year’s event will take place on 9-11th May 2017 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Centre, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh is a particularly fitting location for RAPID + TCT’s joint mission to ‘Accelerate 3D Manufacturing’ as it’s home to more than 120 research centers and 3,000 advanced manufacturing firms that employ nearly 96,000 people. What was once the epicenter of automotive manufacturing for North America is now being revived as somewhat of a hub for additive manufacturing with companies like ExOne opening up a Design and Re-Engineering for Additive Manufacturing Center at North Huntingdon Township facility and General Electric investing $39 million in a new flagship additive manufacturing center which opened in April. We hope you’ll join us there next year.  For more information visit www.rapid3devent.com



LEFT: Over 150 industry leaders will take to the stage at RAPID + TCT 2017

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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

Blurring

VIRTUAL REALITY

the lines

WOR D S : Laur a G r iffit h s

S A BIT of a geek who’s been to her fair share of video game expos, I’m no stranger to playing around with virtual reality (VR) but if you’ve witnessed the buzz and disregard for trespassing laws brought about by the recent Pokémon Go hype, you’ll know I’m not the only one. However I must confess, I’ve often questioned the value of these futuristic headsets outside of anything other than making you feel like you’re sat in a cockpit or shooting repetitive Zombies. Much like 3D printing, VR has suffered the same level of novelty and leaving to gather dust thanks to a groundswell of premature hype and a dizzying number of headsets on the market from Google Cardboard to the much-praised HTC Vive ranging anywhere between $15 to $800. It’s because of this that you would be forgiven for overlooking the opportunities where it could add real value but such prospects are becoming much clearer as industrial players get their hands on it. Over the past two decades, numerous companies have been applying VR in industrial applications for real-time product evaluations in advance of physical builds. Increasingly companies are finding innovative use cases for the technology in major industries, in a similar way 3D printing has and in many cases with 3D printing working alongside it, to do things like create the factories of the future or transform healthcare. Global engineering company, Siemens recently announced that it is deploying VR at one of its sites as part of its drive towards the ‘Digital Factory’. The site manufactures variable drives for motors for customers primarily in the automotive, aerospace and machine building sectors. The drives are used to control the speed of the motor, increasing efficiency and reducing power use. However, production can be costly and though there are only a small number of product ranges and systems, their modular style means that Siemens can go through thousands of potential product configurations – which isn’t cheap. As an

LEFT:

MSF are using 3D printing and VR to design emergency hospitals

Typically, we’re finding that we are reducing the snagging list of a new cell design by 90%

alternative, the company turned to VR to conduct its design reviews for new cells on the factory floor. The site has installed a Virtalis ActiveWall with a projected wall and floor combined with optical tracking for group and collaborative activities. It is being employed to visualize new working environments to pick up clashes or problems that might otherwise be unclear on a CAD workstation

and even in everyday uses such as office moves. “Typically, we’re finding that we are reducing the snagging list of a new cell design by 90%,” Anil Thomas, a transformation manager at Siemens, commented. “We are even finding more and different snags virtually and solving them in VR. This will certainly have a positive impact on our product lifecycle. We are not resting on our laurels, as it is apparent there is much more we can do with this technology.” Siemens aren’t the only company taking a dip into the virtual world. The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) installed a similar system at its Boeing RollsRoyce Factory of the Future and is also the owner of the first mobile Virtalis ActiveWall System, the ActiveMove. Researchers at the centre create different concept methodologies for various businesses to help reduce waste and cost and speed up processes, starting in CAD and moving on to VR. VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 www.tctmagazine.com

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VIRTUAL REALITY ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

CHANGING HEALTHCARE Away from industry, VR is proving a cost effective solution in areas of healthcare and humanitarian work. Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been reinventing the idea of emergency aid with a technology concept that combines both VR and 3D printing to design better hospitals. The organisation used this new approach to create a proof of concept model for a hospital in Cantahay, the Philippines following the devastating Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. The original plans were transformed into a digital model and then 3D printed for use in a VR experience that simulated a virtual environment where users could navigate through the centre and see themselves inside the hospital. Compared to a traditional approach, this method will allow doctors to test new hospital models for their specific environments and demonstrate capabilities before a single brick has been laid. This particular project took four months to complete but with the foundations now in place, MSF believe they’ll be able to create future models much faster, anywhere in the world. MSF have commented that there is “no doubt” this is the way they will work in the future. Inside these hospitals, healthcare professionals are also are using a combination of 3D printed models and VR as training tools, like 3D Systems’ Simbionix line for VR medical simulation, to prep for complex surgery or test patientspecific implants. “One of the biggest opportunities for VR is rapid 3D prototyping where, due to limited resources, teams cannot afford to run multiple trials and test runs of physical models,” Clifton Dawson, Analyst at VR and augmented reality research company, Greenlight VR, told TCT. “An example of this is maxillofacial surgery in the healthcare industry. Given the nature of surgery and the intricacies of those regions of the body, surgeons cannot afford to make any mistakes when it’s time to actually operate on a patient. Thus, there is a large amount of planning beforehand; traditionally, this planning process has consisted of creating plaster models as well as resin models of patients created from stereolithographic data, which is significantly expensive to collect. In this case, VR can provide a lower-cost testing environment to run trials and see various ideas in action.” HP has also ventured into the area, populating the chasm between the real and virtual worlds with its ‘blended reality’ concept, presented compactly in its Sprout

ABOVE: Siemens using VR in Digital Factory. RIGHT: Virtalis ActiveWall

desktop device which features both 3D scanning and modeling, allowing users to scan an object and manipulate it within seconds on screen. This was recently given a boost with the acquisition of David Vision Systems to further its push into the 3D technologies market with the HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution. The company also recently launched its Tech Ventures venture capital arm formed to invest in early stage VR, 3D printing and Internet of Things start-ups. THE REALITY? VR may still be in its infancy but it has clearly caught the attention of the Fortune 500 elite including Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, recently commented that he believes VR will play a major role in making society better informed through augmentation. Likewise, Facebook was fast to purchase one of VR’s most prominent brands, Oculus designed by a then 17-year old sci-fi geek Palmer Luckey who first launched the tech on Kickstarter, and sold it to the social media giant for the not too shabby sum of $2 Billion.

As with any technology that’s still finding it’s feet, often the problem is lack of applications and for VR, the few applications we’ve seen in the mainstream are primarily targeted at gamers, but that’s probably doing it a disservice. Its true value is in applications like these where we’re able to put people in situations they wouldn’t otherwise be able to experience and trial actions before any have to be taken to improve safety, reduce risk and save time and costs. Like 3D printers, as costs have decreased, more people have been given the opportunity to experience the technology and do some amazing things but there remains a question about what place it has in the wider world. VR faces similar obstacles and in some areas, there’s even an argument about whether it could replace 3D printing altogether as a prototyping tool for certain applications in industries like architecture and healthcare. Of course there are instances where simulation just won’t be able to rival the benefit of holding a tangible object in your hands – like demonstrating a surgical procedure to a patient with a patientspecific model. Instead VR should just be another part of a technology ecosystem that helps reduce time to market and improve workflows. Its fate will ultimately be determined by market reaction as VR becomes more accessible. Dawson added: “The timeline for VR to substitute or complement 3D printing as a prototyping tool will depend on numerous factors, including the proliferation of developer kits, more university and corporate training programs, and the initial reception of consumer headsets.” VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 www.tctmagazine.com

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CASTING

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

Daniel O’Connor takes a look at the role 3D printing is playing in firing up foundries by remixing old casting techniques.

The Rise of

DIY Casting

uman beings have been melting metals and fashioning objects out of them for thousands of years, the earliest known example of casting discovered predates 3D printing by over 5,000 years. It is a copper frog from around 3200 BC created in Mesopotamia around 600 years before the first known pyramid in Egypt was constructed. Mesopotamians, in what is now thought of as the ‘cradle of civilization’, began to melt down metals, pour them into molds, wait for it to set before presenting the complex metal shape as a gift or using it to barter with, human beings had only ever forged metals. In fact, there’s roughly the same amount of time between the first forged metal tools (9000 BC), the first casting (3200 BC) and Chuck Hull’s first 3D print (1983), give or take a millennia… The effect that the Mesopotamian amphibian and the techniques developed in the region that is now (roughly) modern day Iraq has had on civilization is unparalleled

in manufacturing terms. Casting is used to make everything from precious jewely to functional parts on aircraft. But from that first fire of Chuck’s laser to cure a resin 3D printing has been heralded as a replacement for traditional methods like casting and milling. During those hype-fuelled years of 2013 and 2014 it was even said that additive manufacturing was the first truly new way of making things since that frog was cast, Henry Ford and his massmanufacturing production line may beg to differ. As it has come to pass additive manufacturing is nothing like a replacement for traditional manufacturing in fact, if anything, it has reignited some traditional techniques and democratized access to the ability to cast. Desktop stereolithography machinery with wax-based resins, in particular, has given lone-jewelers a leaping off platform in order to create beautiful pieces of work that once may have been out of reach. According to Frank Cooper, Senior Lecturer

& Technical Manager at Jeweler Industry Innovation Centre, that additive step is far from the most important factor when it comes to jewelry manufacture. “There isn’t a machine, 3D printer or robot that can produce a beautiful piece of finished jewelry,” says Frank “The technology simply makes life a little easier for the jeweler but it still requires those hard won and learned artisan craft skills to transform the technological output into a finished piece of contemporary jewelry”. ››

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CASTING

Casting has been around for millennia but in the past 100 or so years it seems like it has increasingly become the reserve of foundries and industrial enterprises, do you think the ability to make patterns using a cheap desktop 3D printer could bring casting back to the makers?

Not in masses, but to some extent I do think so. I started casting metal with my late father when I was around 12-years-old. We built a charcoal fired furnace from scratch based on a Lindsay Publications reprint of an 1880’s foundry manual. This was long before the rise of the Internet, so the

Jeshua Lacock is an engineer, designer inventor, and maker, his videos on homemade casting using 3D printed parts printed on a desktop FDM machine in PLA have gone viral. He uses the 3D prints to explore techniques like that of lost wax casting and most recently sand casting using nothing but a PLA plastic part to act as a void which the molten metal fills.

information we had was rather limited. The problem we always struggled with was that we could only make a cast of something that we had a pattern for. We didn’t have a 3D printer, CNC machine or even a lathe, so we were mostly limited to casting copies of other parts. For instance, the cast in the image (from 1989) was made using a water gun as the pattern. That said, I don’t think casting metal is for everyone. It takes a special kind of interest, willingness and patience to learn how to set-up a foundry and to safely use it. It’s far more hands on,

How long have you had the idea of being able to cast in metals using 3D printing? Did it stem from a frustration with getting parts made yourself, like the part you made for the CNC machine?

1 2

It was before I ordered my first 3D printer, which was an Ultimaker kit almost exactly four years ago, it was the primary reason I ordered the kit. I had experience

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

GOING IT ALONE Despite the fact that we can now 3D print a pattern for casting the majority of casting is still produced in specialized foundries and factories that use industrial scale processes to professionally and repeatedly make parts. There is however, one man, who is bringing the process of metalworking back to the home, or the garage at least.

The results are quite extraordinary. We spoke to Joshua about his love of mixing new and ancient ways of making. *** PLEASE NOTE JESHUA’S TECHNIQUES ARE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, TCT DOES NOT RECOMMEND THAT YOU TRY THIS AT HOME ***

requires a great deal more work and is much more potentially dangerous than just printing something. It always requires far more available space to dedicate than a desktop machine. In other words – it’s something you really have to want to do. with the lost wax method and I thought that PLA should burn practically as clean as wax does. My first attempt nearly came out perfect with the exception of one defect that was due to ash left in the mold. On the following attempts I used compressed air and/or a vacuum to clean out the mold first. The parts had extremely tight tolerances and fit perfectly without any machining. ››

6 

ABOVE + RIGHT: 1 Part printed in PLA. 2: Printed part in a mix of 50% playground sand, 50% plaster of Paris and water. 3: The set molds in a furnace 4: The moulds still quite hot set in dry sand with aluminium cans used as sprue extensions that provide more head pressure. 5: After melting a crucible full of aluminum (with some added copper), skimming the dross, it is time to pour. 6: Perfect fitting part. “I made the plastic part perfectly fit the extrusion, then printed it again at 102%. The extra 2% is precisely how much the aluminium shrunk as it cooled.” Explained Lacock.

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045

CASTING



LEFT: The Bearded Yell printed in PLA with 10% infill and placed directly into green sand, with molten metal poured directly into the 3D print. This was the result without any finishing applied.

Q Q

You have had several processes with the latest being your 3D Printed Lost Shell Sand Casting Technique, can you talk us through the discovery and trial and error process you went through? The number one complaint I have received with all the interest in the lost PLA process was that it looked like it was too much work and too time consuming. I have had a lot of success with the Lost Foam method, where molten metal replaces Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam without having to burn out the foam before hand. The method works with both sand and investment casting methods. I knew a solid plastic print would not burn out as readily as a foam pattern, so I thought that if a mold cavity was mostly a void (creating a fill density roughly similar to foam - or ideally even less dense), and giving the metal a large enough volume to fill, it should vaporize the relatively thin shell of plastic and work about the same as the Lost Foam process. That indeed turned out to be the case. Well mostly the case. It seems whatever plastic doesn’t immediately vaporize is more buoyant so it just floats to the top. That’s good news for the process too - since a slight infill can still be used with it. Most geometries will happily print with say 10-15% infill - not nearly as many will happily print with 0% infill.

breaking open the mold is always one of the most exciting aspects of metal casting, and when your hard work pays off I think it can be extremely rewarding.

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VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 www.tctmagazine.com

You can tell from the sand-casting video you shared online that there was a genuine excitement when you first took the bearded yell part out, do you think that thrill of making is something we’re beginning to see more of and do you think 3D printing has played a big role in that? We were unusually excited about the success because, while our first attempt showed promise, it didn’t turn out well enough to share. That said, breaking open the mold is always one of the most exciting aspects of metal casting, and when your hard work pays off I think it can be extremely rewarding. I do think 3D printers are encouraging more people to make things, and while it can be a great deal less involved than casting something, I still think the results can be quite rewarding. Even if you print someone else’s design - I think people feel entitlement.

Q A

Do you think we will start to see thermoplastic filaments, like we do with resin materials that can help make this process more accurate? Not really - at least short of metal printers becoming affordable to consumers, which I think is definitely coming in the future. As it is now, with the Lost PLA method, I don’t think it’s really possible to cast more accurate parts. With the Lost Shell method, I think the accuracy is more of a function of the sand’s limitation versus the thermoplastic.

Q A

What has the response been to your video, have people been in touch asking you to make specific parts? People have been very receptive to the videos for the most part. I have had enough interest in the process to start a new venture that will be offering the service at Metalprinted.com 

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GRIMM COLUMN

IT’S WORTH IT WOR DS : TODD G R IM M

sign that the hype has subsided and emotional reactions have been superseded by logical decisions. That sign is the return of decision-making based on financial justification. Rather than assuming the value of additive manufacturing (AM), those that want it must prove that it is worth the investment. Those close to AM recognise, and count on, the value of the technology. Simply put, they know that it is worth it. Countless experiences document the benefits and advantages in product development, manufacturing process development and production. The unique combination of speed, efficiency and automation, all without negative consequences when building complex geometry, is undeniable. However, the undeniable benefit can be difficult to monetise; difficult to prove through hard numbers and measurable results that show a substantial improvement in a company’s financial performance. The crux of the challenge is twofold. First, it can be hard to determine the value of time. Sure, you can receive prototypes a week earlier, or you can do two product revisions without missing a deadline, but how does that translate to cost reduction or income gains? Faster is better, but speed can have a nebulous connection to the finances. Second, AM’s low-quantity orientation means that the relative impact of cost reduction can be somewhat small when compared to higher-volume processes. Maybe the average cost reduction is $200 each, but if only 1,000 are produced in a year, the savings amounts to “just” $200,000. That is real money, but it is often a poorer return on investment when compared to other capital equipment expenditures. The two-fold challenge is clearly seen in the oft-used, common approach of justifying AM as an alternative to outsourced work, both for AM and traditional methods. Undoubtedly, there will be a cost reduction and a responsetime improvement. Yet, the significance to the company’s overall expenditures may be marginal and easy to dismiss. To expand the gains, this conventional approach to financial justification often needs to be augmented in a way that monetizes the unique advantages of AM. The difficulty is in here is yet another

Todd Grimm

is a stalwart of the additive manufacturing industry, having held positions across sales and marketing in some of the industry’s biggest names. Todd is currently the AM Industry advisor with AMUG

tgrimm@tagrimm.com

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VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 www.tctmagazine.com

making those advantages tangible, measurable and real. This may not be simple, and regrettably, there isn’t one strategy that works for all. However, there is a tactic that can work for everyone. Start by identifying a current, ongoing problem within the product development or manufacturing processes that has a measurable, negative impact on costs. If AM can be shown to be the best option to resolve this problem, the savings are then a part of AM’s return on investment. For example, if mould rework is a frequent issue that has management’s attention and management has identified an associated cost, the benefit of multiple design iterations, made possible by AM, shifts from a convenient advantage to a practical cost-saving measure. Of course, this assumes that the decision makers accept that more edits lead to fewer mistakes. On the production floor, the target could be a lack of fixtures. It is very common that a need for a fixture has been identified but not acted upon. Leveraging AM’s speed and efficiency, it could be the tool that makes if practical and convenient to get the fixture deployed. The measurable result is either a decrease in cycle time or scrap rate, and both have an associated cost. The added advantage of this application for justification is that there is a one-to-many relationship. One fixture affects the manufacturing process of every production part. Assume a production run of 250,000 units and a burdened labour rate of $20.00/hour. If that fixture reduces cycle time by 20 seconds, the total savings is over $25,000. This far exceeds the savings upon which most try to justify AM: the cost difference between printing and machining the fixture. So the key to justification is to capitalize on the problems and challenges that have management’s attention and that have direct correlation to the costs of doing business. In the justification, document that financial impact and show AM as the solution to the problem. Make AM a good investment rather than a discretionary expense. Justifying AM will be a process. It may not be easy, but it will definitely be worth it. 

Justifying AM will be a process. It may not be easy, but it will definitely be worth it

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