TCT Europe 25.2

EUROPE EDITION VOLUME 25 ISSUE 2 www.tctmagazine.com

ADDITIVE IS NOT AN ISLAND

RENISHAW ON INDUSTRIALISING METAL AM CREATING PREDICTABLE, PRODUCTIVE PROCESSES

SLM Solutions Group AG Roggenhorster Straße 9c | D-23556 Lübeck Fon +49 451 16082-0

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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

Front cover, part (left) designed and manufactured

by HiETA Technologies Ltd on a Renishaw AM system.

An Annular Radial Flow Recuperator for a Microgas Turbine System developed in the Innovate UK supported SLAMMIT project in collaboration with Delta Motorsport Ltd.

VOLUME 25 ISSUE 2

ISSN 1751-0333

EDITORIAL HEAD OF CONTENT

James Woodcock e: james@rapidnews.com t: + 44 1244 952 391 GROUP EDITOR

Daniel O’Connor e: daniel.oconnor@rapidnews.com t: + 44 1244 952 398 DEPUTY GROUP EDITOR

Laura Griffiths e: laura.griffiths@rapidnews.com t: + 44 1244 952 389 EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Samuel Davies e: samuel.davies@rapidnews.com t: + 44 1244 952 390 NEWSDESK

+44 (0) 1244 680222 REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS

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#BeBoldForChange

T

whistled at, spoken to inappropriately or touched when you don’t want to be, on a business trip is something we just pass off as no big deal, the positivity is sort of lost.

hat was the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day which took place in March to celebrate successes and recognise areas where change is needed for a more equal world. It resonates particularly strongly in the manufacturing industry where, let’s be honest, we’re pretty outnumbered.

I’m writing this letter on the flight home from the Additive Manufacturing Users Group Conference in Chicago where on numerous occasions, I sat down to dinner joined by only one other woman at the table. In a room of 1,600 delegates, there simply weren’t enough of us to go around.

In contrast, this issue is filled with stories from women who are using 3D technologies in businesses and labs across the globe. Kara Ann Noack is heading up BASF’s 3D Printing business in North America (p. 33), Alexandra Fletcher, is uncovering history in a reconstruction project for the British Museum (p. 21), and Stacey DelVecchio, Additive Manufacturing Product Manager at Caterpillar is flying the flag for women in engineering (p. 30).

But I wanted to use this Editor’s Letter, which Dan has kindly allowed me to hijack, to address something I’ve wrestled with for quite some time. In the TCT office, over half of our staff is female and the majority of those women have, in some way, shape or form, experienced harassment at a trade event, namely post-show events.

This industry is supposed to be progressive and in many ways it is. While it’s great that affirmative action is being taken to encourage more women into STEM roles, if being

I’m saddened, but not shocked which is incidentally even sadder, by the various accounts I’ve come across from women who have experienced this type of behaviour, the kind you might expect in a bar on a Friday night without the added benefit of never having to interact with the person again. Every sexist joke we’re expected to politely laugh along with, every inappropriate comment, every pleather cat suit, highlights a lack of consideration for the women in our industry due to something that is socially accepted as “harmless” fun.

This industry is all about forward thinking and we’re lucky to have so many intelligent women, and men (because this is by no means all men, far from it) that we should be championing what equality looks like. It may not be exclusive to our industry, but if we don’t crush the lingering stereotype in our own little piece of the working world, as insignificant as it may seem against a wave of inequalities and political steps backwards, all of our efforts to challenge statistics will be futile. Every one of us can do our bit to be bold for change, and not just for one day of the year.

Laura Griffiths

Renishaw Solutions Centres...

Equipped with the latest metal AM, machining and metrology systems staffed with knowledgeable engineers, a Solutions Centre offers you a fast, secure and accessible way to rapidly deploy this exciting technology in your business.

Find out more at www.renishaw.com/solutionscentres

www.renishaw.com Renishaw Solutions centres ad TCT Strip 0317.indd 1

20/03/2017 16:24:34 25 : 2 www.tctmagazine.com 05

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

FROM THE EDITOR

COVER STORY

08

ADDITIVE IS NOT AN ISLAND

25

NEWS

THE COLOUR EFFECT

Medical

Sponsored by:

14

EVERYONE AND THEIR DOG

Deputy Group Editor, Laura Griffiths takes a look at how Texas A&M’s veterinary school was able to perform life-saving cancer treatment on a dog using 3D printing.

16

3D PRINTED PROSTHETICS 2.0

Editorial Assistant, Sam Davies speaks to a dad looking to take 3D printed prosthetics to the next level.

19

DRIVING SURGICAL INNOVATION WITH K2M

K2M, a leader in spinal operation technologies, has turned to 3D printing for its latest range of cutting-edge spinal surgery.

Reverse Engineering

21

A FACE TO THE NAME

Sam reports on how The British Museum teamed up with ThinkSee3D to solve a 9,500 year old mystery with scanning and 3D printing.

22

BRIDGING THE GAP

How a combination of 3D technologies are being used to accurately recreate a scaled down version of Pittsburgh’s Roberto Clemente Bridge for the RAPID + TCT puzzle challenge.

IS THIS THE END OF PROTOTYPING AS WE KNOW IT?

SCANNING PERMISSION

Group Editor, Daniel O’Connor takes a look at a reverse engineering and architecture project for the University of Huddersfield by 3M Buckley Innovation Centre.

A roundup of the latest news from www.tctmagazine.com

41

Architecture

Our cover star Renishaw on the drivers for the industrialisation and importance of integrated process chains for metal additive manufacturing in series production.

13

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

CONTENTS

TCT | VOLUME 25 | ISSUE 2

27

Laura speaks to Joseph DeSimone, Co-founder and CEO at Carbon about the company’s new SpeedCell solution and vision for production manufacturing.

45

21

CASTING A LIGHT ON 3D PRINTING

Bryan Ratzlaff explains the importance of colour in 3D printed architectural models in an article adapted from the book, Digital Craft commissioned by Lee 3D.

How U.S. Architectural Lighting is using large-format 3D printing to save $50k annually on casting masters for outdoor lighting applications.

Women in AM

45

30

Laura meets with Stacey DelVecchio, Additive Manufacturing Product Manager at Caterpillar to discuss how the industrial equipment manufacturer is ramping up its AM capabilities for production.

BASF OPENS UP

Laura speaks to chemical giant, BASF about how it’s working on material collaborations with major players to open up the AM landscape.

THE REVOLUTION WILL BE METALISED

Dan visits the opening of the Metalysis’s Materials Discovery Centre in Rotherham to see how the company plans on bringing metalworks back to the Steel City.

CHANGING THE WORLD, ONE WOMAN AT A TIME

33

47

53

TCT ASIA REVIEW

41

We reflect on the 2017 edition of our Shanghai event including conference highlights and growing trend for 3D metal technologies on the show floor.

35

XAAR’S NOTTINGHAM 3D CENTRE IS THE FIRST STEP TO ACHIEVING COMPANY’S 2020 VISION Sam went along to the grand opening of Xaar’s 3D printing facility and spoke to Professor Neil Hopkinson about the lab’s 2020 vision.

16

53 REGULARS

05 39 58

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK GUEST COLUMN TODD GRIMM COLUMN 25 : 2 www.tctmagazine.com

07

COVER STORY

RIGHT:

Land Rover BAR race boat © Harry KH / Land Rover BAR

W O RDS : M ar c Sa u nde r s R e n is h aw

ADDITIVE IS NOT AN ISLAND INDUSTRIALISING METAL AM - creating predictable, productive processes

T

HERE IS A REAL SENSE OF A SHIFT in the use of additive technologies, away from low volume 3D printing and towards series manufacturing. What are the drivers behind this trend to industrial AM, and the technical developments that will be critical success factors in this transition?

What do we mean by industrial AM? Firstly, we are talking about a factory floor process rather than one that is used in the research lab or tool room, in which the focus is on making parts for series production rather than prototypes or tooling.

Here, our goal is to use the unique capabilities of AM to maximise product performance, rather than merely to compress manufacturing lead times.

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The outputs of an industrial AM process are consistent, qualified parts that exhibit high integrity and are suited to a long service life, rather than shapes for modelling or evaluation. Materials are chosen for their strength and integrity rather than their cosmetic appearance or ease of processing.

Equally, we need to consider far more than just the 3D printing aspect of an industrial AM process, extending our thinking to include the entire process chain that is necessary to design, build, finish and verify the AM products.

LEFT: Part designed and manufactured by HiETA

Technologies Ltd on a Renishaw AM system. An Annular Radial Flow Recuperator for a Microgas Turbine System developed in the Innovate UK supported SLAMMIT project in collaboration with Delta Motorsport Ltd.

Renishaw applies a staircase model of AM deployment to visualise the progression that many companies go through in their use of AM. The higher staircase levels involve more sophisticated design for AM (DfAM) practices.

Moving up the staircase, more and more capabilities of AM are used to create increasingly valuable products. The lower steps are primarily about production benefits such as time compression, tooling elimination and minimal material waste. Stepping up through part consolidation and into DfAM optimised parts, focus increasingly shifts to the impact that AM can have on product performance and the resulting lifetime benefits that accrue.

So, the value of industrial AM lies more in the product than in the production process. It is these product performance benefits that will ultimately drive the industrialisation of AM. By creating products that perform in new and better ways, or by using AM to deploy new business models that provide a superior service to customers, we will create the value that will justify investment in AM processes and factories.

This industrialisation will apply in many fields, and not just in early-adopter sectors such as aerospace and medical devices. Look out for lightweight, efficient, attractive and customised AM products in many other markets, including consumer products.

INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING PROCESS CHAINS

For an industrial AM process, we must consider more than just the additive process step. To be useful, every manufacturing process needs an effective chain of tools that work together to design, prepare, produce, control and verify the output.

AM is not an island: producing near-net shape parts is nowhere near enough within a production context. Anyone who promises that AM can make you anything you want provides a partial truth - few parts on exhibition booths are in the raw state that they emerged from the AM machine.

Therefore, AM must be underpinned by an effective process chain with userfriendly design tools and a range of post-processing and metrology ABOVE, ABOVE RIGHT activities before the & RIGHT: Titanium lugs designed for Robot Bike Co R160 parts it makes can customisable mountain bike frame Credit: Robot be used in anger. go through precise post finishing Bike Co. and inspection stages at Renishaw Information must prior to becoming a high-end use flow up and down product. the chain to link processes together, with control loops being used to minimise process variation.

Process chains of this type are now emerging, although the tools involved are not yet integrated and mature. One example is the work that we have undertaken as an official supplier to the Land Rover BAR team and Technical Innovation Group member to develop a manifold component for the racing boat to challenge for the America’s Cup. ››



ABOVE: Example of integrated process chain for Land Rover BAR race boat manifold using Renishaw’s AM and metrology systems

25 : 2 www.tctmagazine.com

09

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

DRIVERS FOR INDUSTRIALISATION

Meet the newest supplier of the latest technologies.

At GE Additive, we’re leveraging the resources of a global company to deliver innovative machines, materials and engineering consulting services to businesses around the world. From aerospace and automotive to medical and power applications, we’re committed to accelerating additive’s adoption and expanding the boundaries of what’s possible.

See the machines that can grow your business at geadditive.com.

COVER STORY ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

FUTURE PROCESS CHAINS The ideal process chain for industrial AM commences with CAD tools that are optimised for AM part design - an area of high focus for the CAD sector. Parts are designed for AM from the ground up, rather than undergoing an adaptation process from a conventional design as something of an afterthought.

We also need close links between CAD and the world of AM build file preparation and postprocess development. Our process development thinking must include optimisation across all the steps in the process chain, so that we don’t minimise costs in the build only to see them rise again in complex or manual finishing processes.

As it is in all manufacturing processes, metrology is the ‘golden thread’ through this process, transferring datums, providing feedback and verifying conformance. At each link in the chain, process controls act to minimise variation and deliver predictable outcomes.

PRODUCTIVE AM PROCESSESS Successful industrial processes are productive and predictable.

Variation is the enemy of productivity and it can be squeezed out through rigorous control of the environment, inputs, set-up and operation of each process step.

Renishaw is used to taking this approach with conventional manufacturing processes such as machining. This rigour underpins the automated factories that produce everything from the sleek phone in your pocket, to the fuel-efficient car you drive and the reliable aircraft that you fly in.

Renishaw uses a framework that it calls the Productive Process Pyramid to identify and control manufacturing process variation.

Well-proven in the metal cutting arena, it applies equally to metal AM using our laser powder bed fusion technology for series production of industrial parts, by simply replacing the term ‘machining’ with ‘build’. It comprises four layers:

LEFT:

Renishaw Productive Process Pyramid

It is important to note that AM is relatively immature compared to conventional manufacturing methods and so some of the necessary controls are still emerging. This is an area of intense focus for system builders and leading AM users with developments at each layer of the pyramid.

The process foundation ensures that the operating environment is optimised and stable. Foundation controls include methods to calibrate the AM machine’s optical and motion systems and quick, periodic health checks of the laser system performance. A consistent approach to developing the build process, using proven laser parameters and build strategies, is also critical. Control of process inputs such as powder condition through sampling and test piece analysis, builds confidence that we are able to produce good parts.

Process setting involves the checks and controls that are run just before the laser first fires. Setting controls include ensuring that we have the correct build file loaded, and that

we have loaded our system with the correct amount of metal powder. It is necessary to check the condition of critical systems like the exhaust filters, and the position ABOVE: REVO 5-axis inspection system and alignment of measuring Land Rover BAR manifold our dosing ‘wiper’.

Equally, we must ensure that we have removed oxygen from the build chamber and that the operating temperature is correct.

Once we are up and running the focus moves to in-process control of the build itself. We need to be confident that each layer doses correctly, and that the previous layer is covered with fresh powder. We may also monitor the weld pool to be confident that we are processing powder consistently, and we can verify that we have achieved the correct overlap of weld tracks on critical component surfaces. Filtration of the gas flow and sieving of powder to remove under- and over-size particles and maintain powder quality are critical. We also want to monitor the chamber temperature and oxygen levels throughout to ensure consistent processing conditions.

Now that our build is complete, we need to verify that our parts conform to specification via post-process monitoring. Controls here will include inspection of the part dimensions and surface finish on a co-ordinate measuring machine or a gauging system, using a combination of contact and camera-based sensors.

Some users also inspect the part using X-rays and ultrasonics which can add vital detail, and a regime of test piece destructive testing can be necessary in some applications.

SUMMARY

Additive manufacturing’s development from a prototyping technology into a mainstream production process will be driven by applications that make use of AM’s capability to produce high-performing products that cannot be made any other way.

Capable production processes will be supported by chains of tools that span the entire production process from design to verification, not just the AM process step.

And industrial AM processes will be underpinned by layers of control that minimise variation and certify AM production quality.

With all this in place, AM can take its rightful place in the family of advanced manufacturing technologies used for series production.  25 : 2 www.tctmagazine.com

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T H E A L L N E W F 12 3 S E R I E S

Team player.

Smarter prototyping.

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From the leader in 3D printing comes a more capable, more affordable system your entire office can share. Create highly accurate, reliable prototypes for concept verification, design validation and functional performance. Design-to-print GrabCAD software makes it easier than ever. That’s real power for your business. And proof that at Stratasys, we shape what’s next.

THE 3D PRINTING SOLUTIONS COMPANY ™

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ST R ATASYS .C O M / F123

NEWS ROUNDUP ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD DEVELOPS DIODE AREA MELTING (DAM) PROCESS 

value sectors, the researchers believe this method is limited by its reliance on mirrors which deflect a single laser. The DAM process is said to overcome this by melting large areas while using an array of individual laser diodes. These laser beams can be switched on or off as they move across the powder-bed making it faster but also more energy efficient. 

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have developed a new additive manufacturing process using energyefficient diode lasers, which could lead to faster, smaller and cheaper 3D printing technologies. Though laser melting systems are being adopted more and more by high-

NEWS

GROUPE GORGE TO LAUNCH IPO ON PRODWAYS 

FOR THESE STORIES IN FULL CLICK TO WWW.TCTMAGAZINE.COM

DAIMLER ADOPTS RICOH 3D PRINTING TO ADVANCE AUTOMOTIVE PROTOTYPING 

World leading car manufacturer, Daimler has installed one of Ricoh’s additive manufacturing systems to further its rapid prototyping activity. The German automotive manufacturer has chosen the RICOH AM S5500P, a high-end polymer sintering production machine, to explore the use of polymer materials. Offering unique flexibility through many SLS materials, such as polypropylene (PP) and PA6GB, the machine will enable Daimler to produce prototype parts on demand while supporting its ability to develop new applications. In addition to installing the machine, Ricoh has also been providing training to Daimler engineers to support their continued innovation. 

COOBX LAUNCHES FLAGSHIP 3D PRINTER  Liechtenstein-based additive manufacturing company, Coobx has announced the launch of its flagship 3D printer, Exigo which boasts patent-pending LIFT technology. A 3D printing solution which changes how UV curing printing materials are processed, LIFT stands for Light Initiated Fabrication Technology. LIFT allows the printer to output continuously, process high viscous materials and infilled materials, and change the print resolution in XY automatically. With all steps, from pre-processing to post-processing, coordinated and matched together in the same workflow, the Exigo ensures a qualified process from start to finish. 

Groupe Gorge plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO) on its 3D printing division, Prodways Group to take it to what it describes as ‘the second phase of growth’.

Subject to market conditions, Groupe Gorge plans to launch the IPO this year on Euronext Paris.

The company intends to remain the largest long-term shareholder, and the initial offering will take the form of a capital increase to raise funding to step up the expansion of its 3D printing business.

COLORFABB AGREES TO RESELL LULZBOT 3D PRINTERS 

Aleph Objects, the LulzBot 3D printer manufacturer, has added colorFabb BV to its growing European reseller network. This new association reinforces an already strong bond between two leading desktop 3D printing brands – Aleph Objects already being a reseller of colorFabb 3D printer filaments. Aleph Objects has expressed its delight at securing this partnership extension and looks forward to increasing both awareness and adoption of the LulzBot Free Software and Open Source Hardware platform in Europe.  25 : 2 www.tctmagazine.com

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MEDICAL Sponsored by:



LEFT: Cootie during a treatment session

W O RDS : LAUR A GR IFFIT H S

EVERYONE AND THEIR DOG W Here at TCT we’ve reported on many of the amazing medical feats 3D printing has enabled from detailed medical models to metal cranial implants. But it’s not just humans that are benefitting from the numerous advantages the technology presents, as the veterinary world is discovering.

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HEN DR. MICHAEL DEVEAU, Radiation Oncologist and Clinical Associate Professor at Texas A&M’s Veterinary School, was researching treatments for Cutaneous Lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects the skin, he was introduced to Cootie, a small Bischon Frise who had travelled from New Jersey to Texas with her owner in search of an alterative treatment for this rare condition.

Having noted the potential for 3D technologies in his practice as both a teaching tool and surgical aide, it was Cootie’s case that inspired Dr. Deveau’s acquisition of a 3D printer.

Typically, when humans are treated for Cutaneous Lymphoma, they are awake and made to stand in a certain position so that the radiation only passes through a particular area of the body, not too deep into the skin to avoid hitting non-affected organs – as you can imagine, for a dog, it’s not that simple and so the treatment had been deemed impossible for animals affected with the disease. After performing some tests on a cadaver dog, which

Cootie

each took between two to three hours, Deveau realised it would be incredibly difficult to perform this particular form of radiation treatment on a living patient. So Deveau came up with the idea to use a custom mould that would position the animal in the optimum position for treatment and ensure repeatability throughout their course of treatment.

Having already performed CT scans on Cootie during consultations, the university had usable

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

3D data, which could easily be turned into a digital file for manufacturing. But as we know, making moulds is expensive, specifically for one-offs, so an alternative was needed. With little experience in the technology beforehand, Deveau invested in a Gigabot 3D printer, a large-format, open source machine manufactured by Re:3D, to print a custom mould, or ‘treatment shell’, for Cootie.

“With the moulds, it was a very creative solution to the problem, no one had gone down that route of “what if we encased these patients in something so that we had them not only immobilised but so that every time they came in we knew they were in exactly the same spot”,” Morgan Hamel, Global Sales Manager, at Re:3D explained. “If you tried to do that before 3D printing your options were



LEFT: Cootie before treatment

BELOW:

Cootie aftertreatment

advantage. If they want something printed they have to send it to an engineer or get it printed in another part of the university and it’s just not convenient. They would ABOVE: love the ability to have a dedicated veterinary 3D printer Cootie getting at their disposal so that they could really easily work on into the treatment shell treatment these use cases that they have in mind because there are so many applications for 3D printing in veterinary medicine, it’s just about implementing it.” limited, you’d be limited to literally making a mould of the patient, That’s exactly what’s happening now at Texas A&M as a result which is very costly.” of Dr. Deveau’s research. He’s now passing on his knowledge to These moulds are effectively a shell of the outer body that are other areas of the university where fellow professors and doctors placed around the animal to stop them from moving around and are keen to learn if something is possible with this technology. also act as a barrier to any infections during surgery. Cootie’s According to Dr. Deveau, there is a big push from the veterinary mould was printed in four pieces and took several days to sector to adopt more model-based training as the curriculum is recomplete at around 90% infill. The reason for this high infill level designed to deliver more clinically focussed scenarios for hands-on was to restrict the amount of radiation passing through the body experience. By giving clinicians the ability to visualise and pre-plan but also to take more radiation out of the body and put it into the for the optimal method of surgery, the technology is opening up the shell so that the radiation interacting with the shell could then doors to treatment for countless other animals. turn around and back scatter into the patient. By around the fifth Morgan added: “I think the biggest lesson he learned was treatment Cootie was in strong partial remission and by the end of that you can never anticipate all of the uses that will come out of the course of therapy, she was in complete remission. having a 3D printer because there’s pretty much an infinite amount So far Cootie is the only animal to have been treated using of things you can use one for. It’s just about getting it in front of Deveau’s method but the hope is that it can be adopted at other somebody and letting their imagination take over to figure out how veterinary centres around the world. Theoretically, that shouldn’t be they can make it practical too difficult. Unlike other 3D printed medical devices, the moulds for them.”  don’t require any certification but Morgan explains there is another potential barrier that the industry faces; education.

“I think a lot of people are hesitant to get into 3D printing if they haven’t been using it already and it’s true, there is a pretty hefty learning curve associated with 3D printing. What we’re finding is that there are a lot of vet schools already using 3D printing just not quite to its fullest ABOVE: 3D printed treatment shell 25 : 2 www.tctmagazine.com

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Medical Sponsored by:

RoboHand and E-Nable have captured the world’s attention when it comes to homebrew 3D printed prostheticS. Sam Davies speaks to a dad looking to take it to the next level.

LEFT: Ben Ryan

with his creation

3D PRINTED PROSTHETICS

“T

HIS TIME LAST YEAR, I didn’t know anything about 3D printing. It’s been quite a steep learning curve,” reflects Ben Ryan as he begins to divulge how he used 3D technology to, firstly, create a prosthetic arm for his two-year-old son, and secondly, how his new business, Ambionics, will do the same for other children, with enough financial backing.

A former teacher, and a lifelong tech hobbyist, Ben welcomed Sol into the world as a baby in full health. A moment burned into the father’s memory is Sol squeezing his thumb with both hands. Half an hour later, a suspected forceps injury would mean the newborn’s left arm would have to be amputated from below the elbow. Immediately, Sol underwent exploratory surgery, and ten days after his birth, doctors were confident there would be no bone left below the elbow to ever be useful to Sol. Without knowing exactly what options may be available to give Sol the best mobility he could have, Ben persuaded doctors to leave an inch of bone under the arm’s key joint to preserve any potential function. The Ryan family

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simply didn’t want to close any doors.

Rather than close, a door opened before the year was out, specifically the door of Bangor University’s Pontio Innovation Centre.. Ben was invited to tour the facility in December 2015 and was introduced to 3D printing in the form of Ultimakers, Stratasys’ Connex3s and a sample of printable materials.

2.0



LEFT: Ben began by printing parts on an Ultimaker machine

with intellectual property (IP) should Ben be reliant on the centre’s technology. Through the Life Science Hub in Cardiff, Ben was able to maintain IP and allowed access to Autodesk’s Fusion 360 software. Before too long, he was working side-by-side with Paul Sohi, an Autodesk Product Designer, who had used the same software to design Paralympian Denise Schindler a high-performance prosthetic leg.

Fusion 360 allowed Ben and Paul to work both collaboratively and independently. Its cloud-based nature, and equally its capability to house comments from both users, enabled an efficient workflow which suited both parties, who were often in different time zones. Then, there was the software’s T-Splines modelling space.

“For prosthetics, you have to deal with a very complex geometry,” Paul explains. “Trying to replicate what a calf looks like in 3D, for example, can be quite difficult but [Fusion 360’s] organic modelling space was more like working with clay. What we would do is bring a scan in of Sol’s arm and shrink wrap the shape of a [prosthetic] socket around the elbow. [As a result] we could build sockets in less than 30 minutes.”

This ability to design sockets at such an increased speed has Ben in a position to step up production. Now able to go from scan to printed product in around 48 hours, Ben projects meeting Sol’s quite literal growing demand by producing sockets every three to four months. The resulting 3D printed sockets contain a fluid-filled cavity inside which accepts

the expansion of growth, while a rubber insert over the socking on Sol’s stump maintains traction and comfort.

Ben and Sol’s journey has been epitomised by the notion of trial and error. Changing software, scanner and even support institutions along the way, Ben is finally happy with how the development of Sol’s prostheses are progressing. Concurrently, and more, fortunately, Sol’s health has remained steady. Two years after convincing doctors to leave an inch of bone below Sol’s elbow, a risky move even by Ben’s own admission, it is so far so good. Sol has not required any follow-up surgery to remove the bone, is comfortable in his prosthetic and able to manipulate objects with it.

While Ben’s DAHB technology received a timely boost with Stratasys’ Agilus polymer, the company is also upgrading the Connex machine Ben uses at Bangor University to print Sol’s prosthetic models. Now, SUP706 soluble support material will be compatible to allow prosthetics to print with even more accuracy.

These advances have come at the perfect time for Ben as he looks to launch his new business.

Originally a project solely to benefit Sol, it has snowballed into the start-up of Ambionics.

Seeking to use the DAHB technology, and Autodesk’s Fusion 360 software, Ambionics will provide similar prosthetic limbs to children just like Sol. An Indiegogo crowdfunder has been launched to raise £150,000, but payment issues on the platform has led to Ben setting up PayPal on the Ambionics website. The money will be used to hire a design engineer team to create power-assisted prosthetics using DAHB; enable Ambionics to publish its DAHB and deformable, fluid actuated grip patents before the midOctober deadline; and start medical device usability trials on sample young attendees.

Through the course of the last two years, the technology and its application can only take half the credit. The tightest of family bonds has been the groundwork for the whole project; Ben even refers to Paul Sohi as a big brother pulling him through the hard times. Out the other end, Ben and his family, both conjugal and figurative, are now looking to offer a helping hand to other children in the same situation as Sol. 

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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

Between this and Sol’s amputation procedure, Ben had begun creating prosthetic prototypes using a Double Acting Hydraulic Cylinder. His brother Kevin was pursuing an idea based on polypropylene bellows. Ben’s idea was made from 15mm copper pipe with two blank ends. Creating a piston and rod assembly with small O-rings glued on the outside, Ben proceeded to test how much resistance there was in this system through ten different prototypes. Realising he could trigger quite strong activation of the rod with his little finger, and recognising the output from Sol’s stump was just as powerful, Ben knew the system was practical. Drawing on Kevin’s own research after a discussion around their parents’ kitchen table, the brothers developed DAHB: Double Acting Hydraulic Bellow technology.

Ben explains: “What the DAHB is, is a double acting cylinder but instead of having seals inside a moving piston rod assembly, it has collapsible walls, so it is essentially a two-way acting cylinder which is created out of something that can be 3D printed.”

The DAHB technology capitalises on Stratasys’ new Agilus30 polymer, designed to withstand repeated creasing and flexing.

With DAHB acting as the foundation for Sol’s prosthetic, 3D technology would then complement it, while alignments with Life Sciences Hub Wales and an Autodesk software specialist brought extra doses of inspiration right when they were needed.

On the imaging side, Ben started with an Artec scanner.

Describing his time using the Artec technology as ‘laborious’, citing his tendency to lose tracking with the device, Ben was looking for another solution. He was instructed by Dr Ian Barwick, COO of the Life Sciences Hub, to use an Xbox 360 scanner, which he duly did while Sol was asleep. With the 360-scan complete, Ben then needed to work on the design.

Bangor University had offered Ben free access to SolidWorks software, though it soon became apparent there would be issues

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Medical

S

DRIVING SURGICAL INNOVATION WITH K2M

INCE ITS INCEPTION, K2M has designed, developed and commercialised innovative complex spine and minimally invasive spine technologies and techniques used by surgeons to treat some of the most complex spinal pathologies. Most recently K2M has leveraged these core competencies into Balance ACS (BACS), a platform of products, services, and research to help surgeons achieve three-dimensional spinal balance across the axial, coronal and sagittal planes, with the goal of supporting the full continuum of care to facilitate quality patient outcomes.

With the focus of three-dimensional solutions involved in the new Balance ACS strategy, K2M has turned to 3D printing to create spinal devices and planning tools that can account for the complex anatomy inherent with spinal pathologies in ways traditional two-dimensional technologies never could. In partnership with 3D Systems’ Precision Healthcare Solutions team, K2M has developed their Lamellar 3D Titanium Technology - a porous, surface roughened titanium biomaterial that has been built from the ground up to be biologically superior to the traditional solid titanium and polymeric biomaterials traditionally used in interbody and corpectomy fusion devices.

Additionally, K2M has tapped into 3D System’s medical imaging and modelling expertise to offer surgeons BACS Anatomical Models, which can be used as intraoperative references for surgeons when conducting the most complex of spinal procedures. The BACS Anatomical Models utilise CT imaging and 3D Systems’ software and machines to create precise 3D replicas of a patient’s spine that allow a surgeon to visualise anatomy before and during surgery in a manner that was never before possible.

“As we were developing Balance ACS, our philosophy around the importance of three-dimensional balance in the spine, we saw so many tremendous opportunities with advancements in 3D modelling and manufacturing that we knew we wanted to partner with the company that showed the most expertise and experience in the medical applications of these technologies.

Between the progress we’ve made with our Lamellar 3D Titanium Technology and the introduction of our BACS Anatomical Models, it is evident we have found the right partner in 3D Systems,” said Eric Major, President and CEO, K2M. The Lamellar 3D Titanium devices incorporate 500-micron longitudinal channels, which are intersected by transverse windows to create an interconnected lattice to allow for the potential of bone ingrowth

into the 70% porous structure. The surface roughness throughout these devices is controlled to the range of 3 – 5 microns, which has been shown to have an enhanced cellular response in comparison to smoother titanium surfaces. The devices are 3D printed on the ProX DMP 320 metals printer from 3D Systems using Ti 6AI4V material. 3D Systems operates as an equipment supplier for K2M and has also recently signed an extended partnership deal that delivers unique software solutions and the BACS Anatomical Models for advancing the three-dimensional treatment of spinal pathologies.

“The unique vision of K2M is a perfect example of how 3D printing and software solutions offered by 3D Systems are changing the paradigm of manufacturing in many disciplines, but most notably in healthcare and medical applications,” said Gautam Gupta, VP of Business Development, Healthcare at 3D Systems. “At 3D Systems Healthcare, we believe that 3D printing technology is at an inflexion point, and is now enabling an efficient pathway to introduce new innovative products to the market in a way that can change people’s life and become the new standard of care.” 



ABOVE: K2M BACs spine implants

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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

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Reverse Engineering ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

TCT’s Sam Davies delves into the world of high-tech archaeology as academics seek to solve a 9,500 year old mystery with scanning and 3D printing.

A FACE TO THE NAME I

T’S BEEN 64 YEARS SINCE ARCHAEOLOGIST, Dame Kathleen Kenyon, excavated seven human skulls in the Palestinian City of Jericho at the site of Tell es-Sultan.

Having passed away in 1978, Kenyon hasn’t been around to see one of her most revered discoveries undergo a complete facial reconstruction with the help of a 3D Systems Inc ProJet x60 3D printer – A reconstruction so successful, the leading minds steering the project believe they have an incredibly accurate portrayal of what this human looked like.

Amazing in itself that a skull, thought to be up to 9,500 years old, had survived so long, the British Museum and its partners wanted even more. Covered in plaster, filled with soil and with seashells to represent the skull’s eyes, the fossil only just resembled that of a human head. Yet, there was a real human, and an untold story, within the remains of this skull.

In the early stages, Alexandra Fletcher, who led the reconstruction project for the British Museum, and her colleagues, did not know whether they were dealing with a man or a woman. Among these colleagues were Jessica Pearson, a specialist in human osteology and University of Liverpool, UK, academic, and later Crispin Wiles, a professional anatomist at the Imperial College London. It was a CT scan which would tell the team not only that the skull belonged to a man, but a host of other things too. Fletcher’s team could derive that the man had abscesses in his jaw where his rotting teeth had caused an infection, and also that he had undergone artificial cranium modification

RIGHT:

3D printed reconstruction of Jericho skull man’s entire head. Image courtesy of the British Museum.

when he was younger, perhaps in an attempt to make him look better or mark his status, according to Fletcher.

Then 3D printing was introduced in a bid to find out what this man looked like – a tough ask since its lower jaw on one side was missing. At this point, ThinkSee3D were brought in to 3D print replica skulls.

“We used a 3D Systems ProJet x60 which is perfect for bone models as it uses a gypsum-based powder and reproduces the surface colour too,” Steven Dey of ThinkSee3D told TCT. “A human skull has complex internal and external geometry, so 3D printing on a powder-based printer was the best option as there are no issues with supporting structures.”

A power cut midway through one of the replicas meant a half-printed skull, which fortunately resembled a medical cross-sectional view. This, and one other complete skull model have recently been exhibited in the British Museum, while a second complete replica was used as the starting point for the reconstruction team.

Creating a replacement lower jaw by replicating the bone structure on the other side of the skull, as well as

referring to the skulls it was found with and consulting data of average jaw sizes in humans from that period, the reconstructionists were ready to find out what this human looked like. Fusing an acrylic resin in gypsum, a soft sulphate mineral, before building muscles on the base and tissue on the face of the skull, a reconstruction of such accuracy was carried out that Fletcher believes the man would be recognisable, but for the non-existence of time travel.

“This technique was developed from the police having unidentified human remains that they needed to match to their missing person’s list.

They had an immense success rate in being able to have family members recognise their relatives” she told TCT. “So this technique is a real tried and tested technique. We can be confident that if we were able to travel in time, bring people who lived (in Jericho) around 9,500BC into the room of our reconstruction, they would recognise this person.”  25 : 2 www.tctmagazine.com

021

The City of Bridges, Pittsburgh hosts the inaugural edition of our partnership with the SME. RAPID + TCT 2017, May 8-11, drops anchor at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center on the banks of the Allegheny River, right next to the Three Sisters Bridges.

Bridging the Gap

022

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Reverse Engineering ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

N

OT ONLY ARE THE THREE SISTERS BRIDGES unique for the fact that they’re the only trio of near identical bridges in the U.S., but they are also the earliest working examples of self-anchored suspension bridges on the planet.

It is, therefore, apt that a trade show focusing on ingenuity in engineering should honour these feats of construction by making one of the bridges the centrepiece of the long-running feature - The Puzzle Challenge.

The Puzzle Challenge helps attendees explore the different additive manufacturing technologies and materials represented on the show floor. You’ll have the opportunity to collect the pieces of a puzzle and assemble them into a complete design.

The design will be 3D printed by RAPID + TCT 2017 exhibitors. At TCT Towers we use previous years’ Puzzle Challenge to demonstrate the many different technologies to new starters.

This year’s Puzzle Challenge is a scaled down model of the Roberto Clemente Bridge, and to model it, the SME enlisted the help of Faro Technologies, Direct Dimensions, and the NextManufacturing Centre at Carnegie Mellon University. The collaboration was required to take the first-ever 3D scan of the most westerly of the Three Sisters Bridges, reverse engineer it, split into puzzle pieces and dole out to the relevant additive OEMs. SME Event Manager, Maria Conrado, expressed her

delight at recreating city landmarks with additive technology for the showcase event.

She said: “Rapid + TCT 2017 showcases the latest growth and advancements in the additive manufacturing and 3D printing industry.

The manufacturing industry is important to Pittsburgh, and it is exciting that we are using additive technology to

reproduce 3D models of a special landmark in this city.”

A Faro Technologies Focus3D Laser Scanner was used to conduct the scan of the iconic bridge. Direct Dimensions will be converting the raw laser scan data into a 3D CAD model. It will then be in the correct format needed to make the 3D-printed physical models.

Michelle Edwards, the Applications Engineering Manager of Faro Technologies, believes the scanning of the Roberto Clemente Bridge can spur other innovators on to create similar models.

She said: “3D scanning technologies allow physical objects to be captured and transformed into 3D digital models with incredible detail. Scanning something as recognisable as the Roberto Clemente Bridge can spark many conversations.

“People have never seen this bridge as a 3D point cloud. Once they see that, thy begin to question their own processes. That’s how innovation happens.”

Sandra DeVincent Wolf, the executive director of the NextManufacturing Centre at Carnegie Mellon University, was present when the scan took place and noted that it symbolises the region’s current position as a hub for 3D printing and other advanced manufacturing technologies. 

For more information on and to register for RAPID + TCT 2017, head over to www.rapid3devent.com

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OR F E T A D A !

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Reverse Engineering + Architecture

SCANNING PERMISSION

W

ITH BOTH A REVERSE ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE FEATURE in this issue it was hard to pigeonhole this story into one of the sections. As a team at 3M Buckley Innovation Centre (3M BIC) in Huddersfield has set about a huge reverse engineering task to capture the entire University of Huddersfield Campus.

Over £100m has been invested into the University’s main Queensgate Campus and its growth has been extraordinary. Documenting it has been no mean feat but Paul Tallon, Consultant Designer at 3M BIC and Visualisation Assistant, Luke Phillips were happy to put 3M BIC’s scanning, modelling and printing resources to the test.

“The aim is to get a complete virtual campus to help Open University and international students navigate around the campus,” explains Luke. “We have been gathering data, plans and pictures, on each building in the campus and recreating them in 3D.” The buildings were entirely modelled from 2D elevations and existing building plans, anything requiring greater detail the team photographed and modelled it. The buildings were modelled in 3DS Max then scaled to an existing plan view map of the town for the perfect scale.

The CAD data that the 3M BIC team has created will appear both virtually on the University’s website as a visual aid and physically as a 3D printed model for the foyer. The team have created 3D printable models of each building on the campus and printing them on the in-house EOS Formiga P110.

The team did not stop at exteriors; some buildings, like that of



ABOVE & BELOW: Business school render and 3D print



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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

WORDS : Daniel O’Connor

the Business School, have their interiors mapped out both virtually and, when printed, physically. “We’ve worked on it for six months,” says Luke. “It takes roughly two to three days of modelling per building, once modelled the buildings can be converted to an FBX file format and put into Unreal Engine, a game engine. In here you can walk around the buildings and also use an Oculus or any VR headset to navigate around campus.”

An addition to the virtual tour will be an avatar of the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Bob Cryan. “We scanned the vice-chancellor using an Artec Spider Scanner,” says Luke. “We scanned his head and shoulders and then reconstructed him in Z Brush and rigged up a character A render of the that can walk round the virtual campus. The vision is campus to have the vice-chancellor pop up and speak to you in any language to give potential students a better understanding of the university.”

The digitisation of the campus will also serve as an interesting study in town planning, as the team look to capture the entire university first, their work has also extended to some major landmarks in the city centre such as the train station. The team is in discussion with a company to scan the campus using drone mounted photogrammetric scanning of the topography and buildings to give us the 3D Prints height map of the of Firth Street including the campus. impressive creative In the RIBA white paper arts campus at the back on Digital Planning former Chair of the RIBA Planning Group and chartered architect, Peter Stewart says that current town planning is stuck in a “Digital Stone Age”, so how could scanning a whole city differ from, say using Google Maps Street View? This comment from Peter’s white paper gives us a clue: “The kind of digital imagery we are used to seeing on Time Team, with successive phases of building on an archaeological site reconstructed in ‘fast forward’ fly-throughs, could be used for future project proposals and made available for consultees to review on a local authority website. Or a dynamic imaging app could allow you to hold up your iPad in front of you on site and view a new scheme overlaid on reality, as it would appear from that viewpoint. Increasingly detailed digital city models already exist, and with more detailed data, greater computing power and better applications, the possibilities for inserting schemes in a digital world are exciting.” 

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Architecture ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

After completing his Master of Architecture (RIBA Part II) at the University of Westminster, 3D printing bureau, Lee 3D, commissioned Bryan Ratzlaff to write Digital Craft. The book focuses on the relationship between the architect, the model and the 3D printer and in this article, adapted from the study, Bryan, now of SPPARC Architecture, talks us through the importance colour plays in 3D printed architectural models.

THE COLOUR EFFECT B 

EYOND THE FACT THAT A 3D PRINTED MODEL’S materiality differs from that of a traditionally crafted one, architects can exploit the technology to have a discernable effect on other physical details and qualities of appearance. Combining the capabilities of both a modelling software and a 3D printer, models can easily be coloured, texture mapped, incorporate any physical texture, include minute details and be tailored for printing at any scale.

Many of these qualities are an extension of the basic geometry being more accurate since a model is composed of a single object rather than a sum of parts. This means each face of geometry will be exactly where it should be and should multiple models be required to fit together; tolerances can be designed into the objects that will allow a perfect fit.

Advantages of the technology’s accuracy also extend to the data set of a project as a whole. Models can be built at a particular scale and will precisely match a drawing printed at the same scale. This can also be advantageous in instances where digital information is projected onto the physical object.

The independent information resource

BELOW: This model was used at a public consultation for the new Camden Town underground station. The 3D printed model suspended on acrylic rods is combined with an Ordinance Survey map printed on the base accurately projecting the location of entrances and underground infrastructure.

Colour is also used to communicate various elements of this design proposal. Photo by Bryan Ratzlaff.

and discussion forum focused on London’s built environment; New London Architecture (NLA), has taken advantage of this trait with their newly digitally produced London model. According to NLA Chairman, Peter Murray this model, ‘is so much more accurate than the previous hand built model, that we can outlay Ordinance Survey data just by taking it straight from OS drawings and we just project it on, and it is millimetre accurate.’

The use of colour in 3D printing can increase levels of realism and create options for representing information that would otherwise be difficult to communicate with an object fabricated from a single material. Used in a similar fashion to a multi-medium traditional model, colour has the ability to convey a range of architectural information and imply materiality.

While machines with inkjet powder technology can print effectively any colour, many architects also make use of the range of greys that can be printed to emphasise spatial qualities or delineate specific information about a project. ››

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C O L O U R

3 D

P R I N T I N G

www.lee3d.co.uk | 0207 582 3904

Architecture ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

Aside from communicating architectural information, the use of colour is also an effective technique to imply a range of materiality in the object itself. As is common with traditionally crafted models, differentiating the base of model can have a desirable effect on the aesthetics of the object. Consisting of a single material, a stand-alone 3D printed model requires the use of colour if this or other material effects are desired. Again, the use of greys can be particularly useful in this manner, as they also retain a level of neutrality that is often desired by architects.

Despite the ability for 3D printing to easily create coloured models, colour remains a challenging feature to correctly translate on a model.

This issue of expressing accurate colour, perhaps, is exacerbated with 3D printing, due to some technical variables within the technology.

First, there are hardware considerations that need to be understood – primarily print head alignment on an ink-jet 3D printer – for the printer to achieve consistent colour results. Furthermore, achieving a colour match for the desired colour can be difficult; the machine’s ultimate  ABOVE & BELOW: This output uses a CMYK process, whereas many interactive model has digital modelling programs primarily handle the qualities of an illustration. Bold use colour in RGB, and the colour samples that of form and colour architects attempt to match are likely to be in has been used to show RAL or Pantone colour systems. the structure at a major regeneration To aid conversions between colour codes area in West London, and the printed output, 3D printing bureaux produced by Plowman and modelmakers can create a range of Craven in Revit from laser scanning colour samples upon which accuracy tests and other survey can quickly be based. Despite the possibility techniques. Photo by of accurate colour, many architects shy Lee 3D courtesy of Plowman Craven away from its use. According to Senior Associate Partner at PLP Architecture, Neil

Merryweather, ‘colour is so emotive and so risky to get right, it is just not practical’ for regular use in practice.

The difficulty of using colour in architectural models helps to introduce one of the more obvious and identifiable physical characteristics of a 3D printed model: literally how it looks. Whether it is the difficulty in matching colours or the architect’s desire for neutral models, the 3D printed model has become well associated with the colour white. Further embellishing this neutrality is the fact that entire models are made out of a single material, compared to models crafted in more primitive materials, where an additional medium could visually separate a base or detail.

These limitations of the technology are what form the requirement for computer modelling to be creative, maximising the visual purpose of the model.

Although this trend of monochrome 3D printed models may imply a lack of creative input to their style, it could be argued that architects have in fact converged upon a conventional aesthetic. Evidence of this can be seen in the way architects have drifted away from the full-colour model samples used to sell the technology to them in the first place.

The vision of the Z Corporation engineers that created the full-colour ink-jet 3D printing technology was one where the machines would be used to their fullest capabilities, producing colourful, realistic models. However, architects have long had a tendency to refrain from this kind of modelling, preferring a ‘less is more’ aesthetic. As Peter Murray notes, ‘totally realistic models have to be done very carefully. Otherwise they can look terribly naff and crude.’ 

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CHANGING THE WORLD, ONE WOMAN AT A TIME

AMUG Technical Competition 2nd Place Winner

WORDS : Laura Griffiths

Deputy Group Editor, Laura Griffiths talks to Stacey DelVecchio, Caterpillar, at AMUG 2017 to DISCUSS women in additive manufacturing and how the industrial equipment manufacturer is ramping up its AM capabilities for production.

ABOVE: Stacey DelVecchio 030

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EETING WITH STACEY DELVECCHIO at the Additive Manufacturing Users Group Conference (AMUG) was like meeting a friend for coffee. Friendly, open and honest, the Caterpillar Additive Manufacturing Product Manager is a breath of fresh air, partially due to the lack of female interaction common to a week spent at any additive manufacturing (AM) conference, but largely as we get to talk about the most exciting developments in AM and why the trend for women leaving engineering roles is ever present.

“I think it goes a lot to the culture,” Stacey explained. “Women are just leaving engineering.

There is a lot of work with outreach, some of the stronger messages are about not forgetting the women you have, don’t just put your money towards the 5th and 6th graders, make sure that your programmes are really supporting your women because it’s hard to replace someone who’s got 20 years’ experience in engineering.”

We meet on the second day of AMUG 2017 where Stacey delivered an engaging keynote presentation on the strategic aspects of applying AM in applications beyond prototyping at Caterpillar, the world’s leading global manufacturer of construction equipment. But before we even get into the business of additive, our conversation goes straight to women in engineering.

Having served as President of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Stacey knows her stuff and talks enthusiastically about efforts to encourage more women into engineering and manufacturing roles.

Engine housing

“I am a big supporter of Change The Equation which talks about how we talk about engineering,” Stacey explained. “It’s really more about asking, “How do you want to change the world?” not “What do you want to be?” and engineering is really the way to do it. I’m kind of biased! But there are so many facets of engineering so think about how you want to change the world and then figure out how to do that.”

One of the ways Caterpillar is getting involved in influencing change and empowering women and girls is through the Caterpillar Foundation. The Foundation’s goal is to alleviate poverty by placing 50 million people on the path to prosperity by 2020, which sounds like a tall ask, but since 1952 the Foundation has contributed over $685 million towards creating sustainable solutions around the world. On the surface, Caterpillar is using its resources to do what you might expect from an industrial company, build roads and donate tools to communities. But when you dig a little further, the Foundation is focused on breaking the cycle of poverty through a collaborative approach to partnerships that addresses the root causes, which

Women in Engineering ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

they refer to as Together.Stronger. One of the ways in which the Foundation is working to create sustainable change is through investments in women and girls as they play an essential role in community and economic development. They refer to this effort as ‘To Get HER Stronger,’ a subset of Together.Stronger.

“It just gives me the chills,” Stacey says referring to the Foundation’s ‘To Get HER Stronger’ interpretation. “As Caterpillar works to build a stable societal structure, our Foundation is focused on building human infrastructure through programs that support basic human needs, education and the environment.

I look at that and I think how could that not excite girls when they want to do more humanitarian things.”

Caterpillar is also championing diversity throughout the business having been named in DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies in 2016 with ambitions to grow its workforce from the current 20% to 30% by 2025.

ABOVE:  Ball check valve LEFT:  Ribbon cutting on Additive Manufacturing Factory

ABOVE: Caterpillar Additive Manufacturing Factory

Piston bowl gauge

Fuel swirler

ACCELERATING ADDITIVE

Stacey began her career at Caterpillar in 1989 as a chemical engineering graduate. She freely shares that one of the reasons she ended up there was to be in the same city as her boyfriend, who also works at the company. He’s now her husband and in all these years, they’ve only ever had one meeting together so it all worked out pretty well. Occupying various roles within the company throughout her career, in 2014 Stacey was elected President of the SWE and put on special assignment in human resources. Upon her return to Caterpillar a year later, she found herself at a crossroads and had to decide either to stay within that area of the business or go back to engineering - that’s where additive came in. Since then Caterpillar has cut the ribbon on its dedicated Additive Manufacturing Factory as part of its 3D Printing & Innovation Accelerator.

“I can’t imagine the people that have been here [in additive manufacturing] for 30 years,” Stacey commented. “To think about the people that have done the work all those years ago, it’s definitely exciting and has so much potential. I’ve never worked with something where so many people, my mom, my brother are asking, “What are you doing this for?”

“What is that?” It’s a good place to be.”

In fact, Stacey’s passion is so infectious that halfway through our interview, a guy stopped by to say that even though he doesn’t work in construction, after watching the morning’s keynote, if he had to buy a piece of equipment now, it would be Caterpillar. Job done, I say.

Caterpillar has been using AM since 1991 when it first opened its Rapid Prototyping lab in Mossville, Illinois. In Stacey’s keynote, she shared an interesting

statistic that 50% of Dow Jones companies, from that same year, have now disappeared from the list.

Caterpillar is still there at the top and Stacey pins that down largely to the company’s ability to innovate and adapt, as it has done over the last 90 years in construction and engine development.

In 2015, Caterpillar closed is Rapid Prototyping lab to make way for its Additive Manufacturing Factory designed for prototyping, low volume service tools and functional parts.

The facility houses a range of technologies from Stratasys, 3D Systems, SLM Solutions, ExOne and Carbon, the latter of which Stacey is particularly excited about thanks to its acclaimed productionquality material properties.

“Being a chemical engineer and coming from the materials and non-metallic background, being able to print rubber is super cool. In the beginning when I would go to these places and they would say “we can print rubber-like material”. That doesn’t make any sense, you’re talking to a technical person, why would you use the word “like” in that! The fact that Carbon is founded on materials science is great.”

The wider industry is seeing a lot more collaboration between big players and customers to streamline AM and set the course for production. This application/ customer focussed mind-set means that AM machine manufacturers are more willing than ever to listen to the needs of big industrial adopters like Caterpillar to deliver solutions that suit their applications and needs.

Recently the company struck a strategic partnership with FIT AG to design and print aluminium and titanium parts, which will give Caterpillar access to FIT AG’s AM technologies and accelerate adoption even further. The key now is to boost the profile of additive’s capabilities to get engineers thinking differently about how it can be applied and build on Caterpillar’s legacy of innovation and invention.

“I talk to engineers at least once a week who don’t realise that we can print in metal and that it can get the level of quality and material properties that it can. I’m still impressed by it. People think now is not the time and it will eventually get there but I think, no now is the time.”  25 : 2 www.tctmagazine.com

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HEMICAL GIANT BASF is known for providing some of the world’s biggest industries with the materials that make them possible. With a 150 year history spanning industries such as energy, to pharmaceuticals and plastics, the company has most recently turned its attention to the demand of the additive manufacturing (AM) sector by establishing a dedicated AM business and extending its expertise to AM-specific materials.

Speaking to TCT, Kara Ann Noack, who joined BASF’s 3D printing effort in 2015 as Head of 3D Printing North America, said that customers across markets are looking to apply the polymers they’re already operating with to 3D printing applications.

“It’s very varied across markets, across technologies. I would say the common thread is we want more, more choices, and we want better materials that are going to be able to enable functional parts,” Kara ABOVE: explained. “3D printing HP Jet Fusion started off primarily material cartridge being a prototyping technology but now people want to be able to make functional parts that go into production or enable them to go further through their testing lifecycle. The robustness and functionality of the parts have to be greatly improved and they need material innovations for that.”

Collaboration appears to be key in this industry and BASF has been developing integrated system solutions for customer applications together with industrial partners such as Prodways, Laser Sinter Service (LSS) and Farsoon. Most notably, last May BASF was one of the first big names announced as part of HP’s Jet Fusion Open Platform, which invites materials manufacturers to collaborate on the development of new materials for its Jet Fusion 3D printing technology. The focus is being driven by the “low-hanging fruit” application demands of end-users

to produce industry specific and general material offerings.

“We believe that open platform strategies are going to really help 3D printing explode,” Kara commented. “It’s great to be able to directly engage with end-users on what their material needs are and then also work with the HPs of the world to optimise those materials on their technologies. I think everyone wins in that kind of situation so we’re really excited about that.”

BASF has established a new dedicated business unit within BASF New Business GmbH (BNB), which identifies and develops long-term trends into new ventures. The company has also invested in an Application Technology Center for 3D printing in Heidelberg, Germany dedicated to developing customised material solutions and downstream applications with some of the world’s leading AM firms, such as Farsoon with whom the company co-developed a polyamide-6 powder for laser sintering. Inside the centre they’ve got just about every major additive technology on hand, ready to be put to the test with new material formulations.

BASF were in attendance at this year’s Additive Manufacturing Users Group Conference and the number of different materials on display was bigger than any of us had anticipated from the company with everything ranging from plastic

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

BASF opens up

Materials

Kara Ann Noack, Head of 3D Printing North America

filaments to metals. The company was also keen to show fellow additive users how its BASF materials can be useful in just about any project through a Design Contest. The contest goes hand in hand with BASF’s acknowledgement that education is one of the primary factors, coupled with machine and peripheral innovations, that needs to be addressed in order for this industry to move forward.

“It’s kind of a perfect storm of more open material platforms, more material innovations from companies like BASF,” Kara added. “It’s really also about the technology innovations from the equipment manufacturers and perhaps one of the most important things too is the education build up of the design engineers knowing how to implement 3D printing and not think in just traditional manufacturing ways. I think when all those things start snowballing we’ll see a real escalation and tipping point in 3D printing and its applicability to production and functional parts.” 



LFFT: Working gear mechanics printed in BASF’s Ultrasint PA6 X028 in one piece.

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Xaar ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

Xaar CEO, Doug Edwards (left) and Xaar Director of 3D Printing, Professor Neil Hopkinson lift the 3D printed veil, produced with a Xaar printhead in a Voxeljet HSS machine, to reveal the commemorative plaque.

XAAR’S NOTTINGHAM 3D CENTRE IS THE FIRST STEP TO ACHIEVING COMPANY’S 2020 VISION

WORDS : Sam Davies

M

ARCH 29TH, 2017 will be remembered for something other than Xaar’s grand opening of a 3D printing facility in the city of Nottingham.

Even in the foyer of the new centre as dozens gathered to tour Xaar’s 3D printing laboratory, it was impossible to ignore. As Xaar’s CEO, Doug Edwards and Director of 3D Printing, Professor Neil Hopkinson lifted a veil, 3D printed by Voxeljet, to uncover a commemorative plaque, Prime Minister Theresa May was triggering Article 50 to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union.

It was the topic of much discussion as partners, press and other industry personnel assembled pre- and post-tour. What would it mean for Xaar?

Moreover, what would it mean for the rest of the 3D technology industry? Just over 1% of Xaar’s revenue comes from the UK, while European custom is responsible for around 45%. As the UK and EU enter two years of tense negotiations, the future is uncertain. Just as well then, that Xaar has the technological expertise, and now the facilities, to need not worry.

WHY NOTTS?

Having attracted Professor Hopkinson to the company a year ago, Xaar has the inventor of High Speed Sintering (HSS) heading up its 3D Printing Division. Having held expertise in the supplying of inkjet printheads, Xaar’s recent move into the mainstream 3D space parallels some ambitious plans through to the next decade. A host of objectives will need to be achieved to reach these targets.

As the 3D Centre based on Nottingham Science Park opened its doors, one objective was.

Born and bred in Nottingham, it was more than just the romance, and convenience, that has seen Professor Hopkinson launch Xaar’s 3D Centre in his hometown.

With his associations to three Universities connected by one of the UK’s main motorways, Neil has launched a facility in a strong catchment area. One of the 3D Centre’s current employees first

worked with Neil at the University of Sheffield. Then a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate, the employee was supervised by Neil during his final year project on High Speed Sintering. With this new centre in a prime location, Neil almost guarantees there will be a similar route from local universities to employment with Xaar in the future. “[Opening the new facility] has been extremely gratifying,” Neil told TCT. “It has been a lot of hard work from the original idea [of developing HSS] to now getting ourselves a well-equipped facility with the right people to drive this technology to market.

“What we wanted to do was position ourselves to get the best graduates to understand the technology. There’s an M1 (A British motorway) corridor of academic teaching and research, Sheffield, Nottingham and Loughborough Universities, who, between them, produce a few 25 : 2 www.tctmagazine.com

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Xaar ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

hundred graduates each year who have studied in 3D printing and we want to put ourselves where they are.”

In addition to drawing in some of the UK’s best young talent in the 3D technology space, Xaar is also leveraging the skills and applications of already-established industry players. The company recently announced a partnership with Materialise, which will see Xaar use its Magics and Build Processor software to not only design parts as the development of HSS continues, but also offer new customers a more comprehensive solution by supplying Xaar’s printheads with Materialise’s programs in one package.

Developed in 2003, Loughborough University filed base patents for HSS technology two years later, with Neil as the lead inventor. Licensing the technology out to a number of companies, including VoxelJet, who printed the fabric part for the unveiling of the Xaar 3D Centre’s plaque on a High Speed Sintering machine with a Xaar printhead. The aim has always been to take the technology to market, and it was this goal that lured Neil from Sheffield University to Xaar.

In 2013, a three-year scheme to develop supply chain and full-scale production of novel additive manufacturing, Factum Project, was launched. One of the technologies at the centre of this project was HSS. Xaar was a partner of the project for the duration. Its role was to optimise the performance of third party fluids with its printheads. By 2016, it was evident to Neil that High Speed Sintering was ready commercially but needed that extra push to get there.

“Universities quite rightly prioritise teaching and research,” Neil said. “It struck me to maximise the commercial impact of this technology; it would make more sense to work for an organisation where commercialisation is the number one priority. Moving into industry was just the natural thing to do.”

Neil with his invention, High Speed Sintering.

A 2020 VISION

Converging with Neil’s arrival, was the inception of Xaar’s 2020 Strategy.

The 3D Centre, which will serve Original Equipment Manufacturers, material suppliers and end users, resembles a significant part of that strategy.

Meanwhile, Xaar will be designing, but not selling, 3D printers from its Copenhagen ABOVE: Many of the recrutis at Xaar’s new centre are recent base. It all focuses graduates from the universities Neil has ties to. on an inorganic growth approach, which involves Xaar’s forward. With an innovative technology, acceleration of HSS, an increase to its several state-of-the-art facilities and printhead sales, and also the acquiring a robust framework of determined of subsidiary companies, such as EPS in personnel in place, Xaar has a strategy Vermont, which will significantly increase to establish itself among the leaders of the company’s revenue. additive manufacturing. Said personnel are “Xaar currently turns over £100m a year confident that with this structure in place, selling printheads into markets like ceramic not even a political development the size tiles. That is an example that flipped over of Brexit will stop them. from screen printing to digital printing a few “In terms of Europe, it’s hard to say at the years ago,” said Neil. “That flip over is what moment. I don’t know enough about how I expect to see in many applications in 3D this is going to play out,” Neil concludes. “But printing, going from injection moulding or I am pretty upbeat that we’re still going to CNC machining to High Speed Sintering. be able to supply our products and services The plan is to double our revenue by 2020, very effectively, largely because we have a and to increase it to £500m by 2025.” lot of technical strength behind what we do.

Xaar and Neil joining forces in early It’s very difficult to manufacture printheads.

2016 was the perfect match – one that It’s very difficult to become an expert in terms is mutually beneficial. Xaar’s ambition of protons of High Speed Sintering. I’m to double its revenue by 2020 and then confident that our technical expertise more than double it again by 2025, will is sufficiently valuable, and rare, need Neil’s nous and supervision as HSS to ensure that we will is commercialised. To maximise HSS to maintain a strong its full capacity, Neil needs a similarly position.”  aspiring company to drive his invention

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Guest Column

WORDS : Michael Armani

CEO and Co-founder of M3D, Michael Armani is a motivator, energiser, think out of the box-er, maker, philosopher and bioengineer by trade. He graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a PhD and completed his degree in partnership with the National Cancer Institute.

Michael and his co-founder, David Jones, launched M3D in 2014 and are continuing to innovate with the launch of two new printers, the Pro and Micro+, in 2016.

T

HERE’S NO DENYING THAT CROWDFUNDING gets a lot of attention and can raise funds at the level of a series A round. When looking at the successful funding – Pebble Time and The Coolest Cooler, both raised more than $10 million in under 60 days.

Platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo also allow creators to get that “first to market” brand awareness, which can be a massive advantage as long as the creator delivers a quality product and great customer support. Crowdfunding also builds a strong community of loyal backers that become the voice for the brand, and gives the company the opportunity to use funds without the interference of investors.

The allure of being first is also toxic for the platform and creators. In an effort to claim first to market awareness in the fast-paced field of technology, creators may be launching increasingly risky projects - unknowingly - in a kind of accidental marketing “ponzi scheme.” They want to offer massive value to compete, but end up giving away product at near cost, hoping to recoup the value later with orders that may never come. Then they never get investment or recurring sales, and realise the costs are much greater than they thought due to the complexities of R&D and manufacturing. The end result is

the failure we’ve seen with recent multimillion dollar failures like with the Zano Drone, Coolest Cooler, and Tiko3D. In addition, project creators in these categories are often great designers, or perfectionistic technologists, but they aren’t necessarily good at running a business. Because competition is fierce, margins are tight, and any issues that come up increase the chance of failure. The average failure rate of projects is stated to be 9% on Kickstarter, but the hyper-funded and technology/design categories have significantly higher failure rates.

The crowdfunding platforms do little to support businesses after getting funded. The value they provide mainly includes access to non-refundable preorders funding and greater visibility or amplification of their product launch marketing efforts. For complex projects like those in the technology and design categories, this can contribute to their failure. Traditionally these types of businesses were supported by strategic investors, but without them, creators have nowhere to turn for help, whether it’s for advice or deeper pockets to sustain the business when things don’t go according to plan. So the allure of removing investors from the business plan increases their chance of failure.

With outcomes like these becoming increasingly visible, more crowdfunding “super-backers” – those who repeatedly

support projects and create the majority of the revenue for platforms like Kickstarter – are getting vocal. Many are commenting that they have “learned their lesson,” “my wife won’t let me back any more projects,” or that this is “the last project they’ll back.”

The problem is the crowdfunding platforms themselves. The platforms have no due diligence on important factors like cost of goods or technical feasibility. They mainly require that a project has a working prototype. Thus they are setting projects up for failure as projects aim for lower price points with no limitations.

In the end, the reputations of crowdfunding platforms are suffering.

Platforms like Kickstarter, who have been around the longest have the greatest “trust debt” because they’ve had the most time for projects to mature or fail. In some ways it’s become a wild-west, discount platform because it takes a portion of the proceeds in exchange for access, which doing little to vet the projects before launch or support them after a successful round of funding.

In order for crowdfunding to become a viable platform for emerging technology companies, it’s critical that trust is restored. Trust is the most valuable commodity in today’s market, where loyalty is at an all time minimum. Thus the companies that create a movement by having a strong purpose, and vision that aligns with their customer will be the winners. Along these lines what help defines trust is transparency, congruency, and honesty, which are often lacking on platforms because creators are not required by law to provide full transparency.

And lastly, platforms need to re-affirm what made them amazing in the first place - that is democratising the way economies work by allowing the people to vote for which products should exist with their dollars, rather than having big companies dictate how it should be done. These are people who value, believe in, or simply admire innovation and want to be part of the process by communicating as a group, donating their time, and backing with their dollars. And they deserve a platform that shows it cares by reducing the risk of getting involved.  25 : 2 www.tctmagazine.com

039

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Carbon Launch ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

WORDS : LAURA GRIFFITHS

IS THIS THE END OF PROTOTYPING AS WE KNOW IT?

A

LMOST A YEAR AFTER IT DEBUTED ITS M1 3D PRINTER at the Additive Manufacturing Users Group Conference, Carbon returned to AMUG, this time in Chicago, with a new pair of machine solutions and vision for production manufacturing.

It’s called SpeedCell, a new system of securely connected devices designed for the manufacture of production quality parts and features two new technologies, The M2 3D printer and Smart Part Washer.

The M2 is the second system based on Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP), Carbon’s breakthrough 3D printing technology that uses programmable, production quality resins. With a build chamber of 190mm x 118mm x 326mm, the machine offers twice the build volume of its predecessor for the manufacture of larger or more parts per build with the same high resolution. It also includes manufacturing-ready features such as locked printing parameters for validation and the option to serialise parts for traceability.

The Smart Part Washer, designed for easy cleaning and easy part finishing, has two primary benefits. First, it addresses the industry-wide pain of post processing as a solvent-based rinsing device that turns to remove excess resin whilst eliminating labour. The second

benefit is connectivity, something that the Silicon Valley company has advocated from the start thanks to its cloud-based system that’s continuously being wired with the latest updates. The Washer is connected to the printer via NFC communication readers to create a traceable digital thread that captures data as parts move through the build or wash cycle.

The message from Carbon is that SpeedCell allows you to “stop prototyping and start producing” and seeing the two in action at AMUG, you get a feel for how these machines working together will make things infinitely more streamlined on the

ABOVE: Carbon lab production floor. Heralding the end of prototyping, an application which remains the primary function for many users of 3D technologies, might raise more than a few eyebrows but speaking with Joseph DeSimone, co-founder and CEO of Carbon, when you break it down, the intentions are good and not as pie in the sky as they sound.

“We’re doing something very different,” Joseph explained. “When you look at the four fundamental steps you have with the product development cycle for customers, it’s designing parts, prototyping those parts, developing the tooling to manufacture those parts and then actually manufacturing those parts.

That’s the classic product development cycle. When you think about the way 3D printing has been practiced up until this point, everybody has been, for the most ››

BELOW: Carbon SpeedCell with

Smart Part Washer, M1 and M2

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Carbon Launch

part, designing parts on a fabrication tool that does not allow you to scale it up. What we’re learning with our customers is if you design a product for the means of production whether you’re making one or a million of those parts, then that is a fundamental disintermediation of those four steps. So we eliminate prototyping and tooling and our customers are designing products directly on the means of production.”

DATA IS KING

SpeedCell is compatible with a robotic interface to enable automated part removal after printing and also features automated handling and recycling compatibility for solvents to make the process more environmentally friendly and cost effective. Additional benefits which act as future proofing tools are the Carbon Connector expansion ports which will support supplementary system capabilities in the future, including automated resin dispensing and temperature controlled resin cassettes. With all that to come, current manufacturing-ready benefits such as part serialisation through a part lifecycle are already ensuring that these machines are prepared for industry including challenging regulated markets.

Joseph, explained: “This is a new world now where data is king and understanding the quality, authenticity, branded parts, especially in highly regulated industries like medical and aerospace, is increasingly desired by every other sector. Having encrypted design files, that’s what we do, everything you would expect from a Silicon Valley company focussed on manufacturing. A data centric environment is what we’re all about, improved products, improved economics and the ability to make things that were un-makeable.”

At launch, SpeedCell is available in two configurations, Design SpeedCell and Production SpeedCell. The Design option

Smart Part Washer

couples one M Series printer with a Smart Part Washer to allow designers and engineers to iterate concepts that can be turned into real parts, whilst Production is designed for industrial manufacturing applications with multiple M2 printers and a Smart Part Washer. Both machines will follow Carbon’s unique subscription based pricing model, with the M2 available at $50,000/year and the Smart Part Washer at $10,000/year.

With several highprofile partners already using CLIP including BMW, and General Electric, Carbon says SpeedCell was a direct reaction to the needs of those customers and strategic partners, including new customer and launch partner, Fast Radius, which is adopting SpeedCell in partnership with UPS. “A vision without resources is a hallucination so we’ve been fortunate here



RIGHT: Part printed on The M2

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043

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

Joseph DeSimone holds large-scale Carbon part

to have an amazing team,” Joseph explained. “We’ve raised $220 million, the last [funding] round brought in some customers that weren’t in the fold before, so we’ve got GE, BMW, Icon, JSR and we’ve got a couple of others in the wing. So it’s having that momentum with customers and our product evolution is responding to their manufacturing needs, doing something they’ve never done. As we launch products, you’ll see our customers are launching products much faster because they stopped prototyping and as we go through iterations on the means of production, which is what you can do on the speed cell, it allows one to produce in ways that accelerates product introductions, allows bespoke manufacturing, mass customisation, it allows evolution in real time in ways that the speed of business really wants to go to today.”

One such customer is Dinsmore, a U.S. based 3D printing service provider, which was also one of the first companies to offer CLIP technology as a service.

Jay Dinsmore, President and Founder of Dinsmore, Inc. commented: “Our customers trust us to be their go-to subject matter expert across an array of new and developing technologies.

We are a trusted partner to Carbon and are constantly working with them to explore new and exciting application opportunities for CLIP technology. The new M2 and Smart Part Washer are the next step on that journey.”

Production is here and we’re seeing evidence of that throughout the industry across both metals and plastics. When Carbon says “prototyping is over” it doesn’t mean that designers and manufacturers are going to stop iterating, but what it does allow them to do is iterate quickly and transform concepts into finished products all on the same platform using those all-important ‘real’ materials that Carbon has become renowned for, all of the way through the process.

Joseph added: “The take home for us is this whole realisation that you can stop prototyping, and that dramatically enhances the speed of business. This is a whole new approach and we’re focussed on manufacturing and production.” 

CASTING ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

RIGHT: 3D printed piece

CASTING A LIGHT ON 3D PRINTING

ABOVE & below: Aluminium casting top and bottom

U

.S. ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING is a manufacturer of luminaries, outdoor site and area lighting options for public spaces and industrial settings. Based in Palmdale, California, its product range includes over 400 standard items and the unique ability to offer customised solutions to meet the technical challenges of rain, wind, snow, and sun in specific settings.

The development team at U.S. Architectural has implemented a large format 3D Platform printer into its standard product development process for creating aluminium castings. As a result, it has increased the speed at which it can offer unique solutions in custom designs, while at the

same time cutting cost dramatically.

Tim Carraher, Lead Engineer at U.S. Architectural explained how his team had approached new designs prior to bringing a 3D Platform printer in house. “With our old process of product development, we used to spend on average $50,000 a year with an outside service bureau printing mostly SLA parts.

The average part was over $3,000 and we would have to wait two to three weeks or more to get it in our hands.”

Tim estimates that in just 18 months the team completed 40 projects totalling 15 complete multiple part luminary designs.

“The first few months we spent developing FFF 3D printing skills and had some success, but things really took off for us as we found the sweet spot and dialled it in. That’s when the machine really began to make a big impact for us. In what we saved versus going outside to have things printed, the machine paid for itself within six months.”

At an average cost of $3,000 per part, the 40 projects would have totalled

LEFT: Lighting manufactured 

by U.S. Architectural

$120,000 in 18 months. With an install cost of about $30,000, it means that in that timeframe having the 3D Platform printer has added about $90,000 to the bottom line.

The process begins with a CAD model being printed on the 3D Platform printer using a standard PLA filament. At times, the team will segment the model and print only a section of a part to test printability or quick cast a portion before going to the foundry. They’ve also found that PLA parts printed via the FFF process are stronger, compared to the SLA parts previously used. Once the PLA print is completed, they will spend minimal time filling ridges and sanding the part.

The part is then taken to the prototype shop where the part will be manually pressed into a type of self-binding “green sand” to create the temporary match plate pattern. Next, they will pour the aluminium into the sand, quickly producing the first metal prototype.

Upon removal of the part is where the process plays to U.S. Architectural’s strength in metal finishing as they work the aluminium part to achieve the desired final surface finish.

“We’ve found that trying to sand the PLA, while possible, can be risky. We would try to use a tool on it, end up putting a hole in the part and then have to start over. So, we find it’s much easier for the little finish work we need to do to use a die grinder or other tool on the aluminium,” Tim explained.

Once the aluminium part is accepted, it will go on to the foundry and become the master used in creating the production level cope and drag pattern.

Having this large-format 3D printer in-house allows the entire process from CAD to casting to happen in a matter of days, not weeks. This gives U.S. Architectural a competitive speed advantage and eliminates the outside cost for prototype prints.  25 : 2 www.tctmagazine.com

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Metalysis ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

The Revolution will be

Metalised



BELOW: Metalysis Materials Discovery Centre in Rotherham

Daniel O’Connor heads over to a new metal processing facility in Heavy Dutyfind Optima out how one the STEEL CITY to company plans on showing its mettle as the UK leaves the EU.

A

S MYSELF AND TWO OTHER MEMBERS OF TEAM TCT headed over the Pennines on the winding single-lane road known as the Snake Pass, we were stuck behind an Air Products tank truck carrying Argon. I joked to my colleague that we could probably just follow it all the way and it will take us to Metalysis, who were opening a Materials Discovery Centre on the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Rotherham, Yorkshire.

We finally lost the truck as the Sat Nav said we were a mere ten minutes away, and when arriving at the postcode fed into Google Maps it began to dawn on the third colleague that perhaps we weren’t at the correct address. The lock-ups we were sat outside didn’t look very ‘advanced’. Somebody, namely me, had put in the old address for Metalysis in Rotherham without questioning that a ‘Grand Opening’ may be at a new address. When we recalibrated and arrived at the new HQ just 15 minutes away, there was the Argon gas truck near a huge upright tank flanking a gleaming new building with a marquee outside, we should have followed that truck.

The new research and development facility has some pretty illustrious neighbours. Rolls Royce has its Advanced Turbine Blade Casting Facility across the way, CNC manufacturer Nikken is nextdoor, Materialise has its UK HQ on the same site, along with Fripp Design and Sheffield University’s AMRC. Both McLaren and Boeing are expected to move into premises either side of Metalysis’ new facility.

It is not the neighbours of present or future that is immediately most appealing to Metalysis’s CEO Dion Vaughan about this locale its the companies of days past that he thinks will help the company to commericalisation. Being in the region of Sheffield means that the metal materials company can tap into a knowhow ingrained into a citizens since the city became renowned for the manufacture of knives in the 14th Century, this is, after all, the Steel City.

“It is important to be here,” says Dion. “You can get all misty eyed, which I frequently do about this sort of thing, but the hard business reality is that there are people here with skills that are highly appropriate to what we do. The ability to man complex machinery at temperature in potentially challenging ›› 25 : 2 www.tctmagazine.com

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Metalysis ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

environments, if you’ve worked in a steelworks this is second nature and these are the kind of people we’ve brought on in our team.

“We started out in Cambridge, Cambridge University, bless them, would be absolutely the last place you’d want to build an industrial process. Having too many PhDs, and I’m a PhD myself, naval gazing on the wrong aspects of the technology would be absolutely the worst thing to do whereas here we’ve struck the perfect balance of genius and practicality, this region has that in abundance.”

Metalysis’s solidstate process puts a powder in and a powder out

LEFT: Lord Prior cuts the ribbon to the new facility

HAPPY ACCIDENT NUMBER ONE

In the simplest of terms, traditionally, in order to make metal alloys you have had to melt elements together. This process, which has only been incrementally changed in the thousands of years it has existed naturally causes all sorts of difficulties when you try to mix elements with drastically different melting and boiling points. Metalysis is producing powders using a totally different method, by electrochemically blending materials.

“In the simplest terms, it is a different way of cooking,” explains Dion. “We are trading temperature for time, so we’re cooking for longer at a lower temperature instead of for a shorter time at a much higher temperature and the simple truth is if you do it that way you save a lot of money and people never imagined that.

The approach of melting goes back to the desert 5,000 years ago. The clever way is to cook at a lower temperature for longer, which means you can make many exotic alloys and you also save money in making conventional metals.”

The Metalysis method is based on the Fray Farthing Chen (FFC) process developed in

Cambridge University. Just like dynamite it was actually discovered by accident when Derek Fray, Tom Farthing and George Chen were trying to purify titanium. The researchers wanted to remove titanium’s Achilles heel – a small amount of dissolved oxygen near its surface using electrolysis. They found that the layer of oxide that developed on the surface when the metal was exposed to air converted back to the pure metal during electrolysis.

They tested this process on pellets of titanium dioxide, which, sure enough, turned into titanium metal. According to the Metalysis CEO the process has an infinite number of possibilities: “Imagine if you were to mix five or more elements together in roughly equal proportions, drawing down from a recipe which contains potentially up to 60 elements from across the periodic table. This can produce 10 to the power of 40 different alloy combinations that are yet to be made by human kind because of the constraints of conventional melting, this is a truly incredible number, to put in context it is a number roughly similar to the number of stars known in the universe.”

HAPPY ACCIDENT NUMBER TWO

Metalysis’s “black box” (the technology’s machinery) has an input and output of powders with high levels of purity.

This, of course, means it is perfect for producing metal powders for additive manufacturing (AM). The fact that the process can make exotic alloys and reduce the cost of producing more common alloys is music to the ears for 25 : 2 www.tctmagazine.com

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Metalysis ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM



ABOVE: The process has already proven to be feasible and cheaper than many metal powders for AM

metal 3D printing. Current metal powders are seen as something of a rate-limiting step for metal AM in that they are both expensive and not all that varied. Renishaw was present at the open day and are “very excited” by the developments here at Metalysis.

Was Metalysis aware of the powder-bed fusion technology being developed almost in parallel to its own process?

“No,” states Dion. “Our electrochemical process had a variety of different feedstock, it used to be big lumps that then converted into metals. When you’re a metals company people imagine you want big lumps in and big lumps out, metals currently deal in big lumps. For various technical reasons, yields and efficiency of big lumps weren’t what we wanted so we started working towards putting smaller and smaller things in and we ended up putting powders in. That coincided in the lift off for 3D printing. A lot of our commercial discussions and a lot of our commercial relationships that we have today are with big OEMs is around 3D printing. It is fair to say we didn’t set out to address the problems of 3D printing but part of the company has morphed into doing that. Often in life, the best opportunities are realised that way.”

The additive side is being perfected with Metalysis’s Generation 4 (“Gen 4”) expansion, now underway, which can provide hundreds of tonnes per annum of valuable speciality metal alloy powders.

The next stage of growth for its modular technology, Generation 5, presents distributed manufacturing options for thousands of tonnes per annum of high value metal alloy powders.

The technology R&D is not what is happening at this new facility; instead the Materials Discovery Centre is more what it says on the tin, it’s all about the materials. The infinite amount of alloys the Metalysis product can produce means the company expects to develop partnerships with large OEMs who require specific materials for specific applications.

“In the coming years fresh investment will allow computer programmes to scan the entire world of possibilities for alloys that could be made,” says Dion. “Those programmes will refine the possibilities to a limited range of compositions. Our machines, which will eventually be automated and robotised, will create trial batches that a customer will be able to take on board in tonnage quantities, directly for 3D printing. Historically that journey may have been a decade’s work we believe we can condense it down to a six to eight month programme.”

Coming one day after the British Government triggered Article 50 to leave the European Union and Having Lord Prior of Brampton, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), who once said that leaving Europe was a ‘terrible mistake’, cut the ribbon meant Brexit was on the tip of every tongue.

The Advanced Manufacturing Park on which the Materials Discovery Centre is based was, in part, funded using money from the European Regional Development Fund and amongst the exhibitors at the grand opening was the European Powder Metallurgy Association. Although Lord Prior may have reservations about the vote he made it clear that companies like Metalysis should see it as an opportunity and he is better placed than most to see a potential resurgence of British manufacturing in Sheffield.

“I joined British Steel in 1980 so I’ve spent a fair bit of time in South Yorkshire,” said Lord Prior in the opening speeches.

“Continuous casting came out of Sheffiled, stainless steel came out of Sheffield but by the mid 80s we had demonstrably lost the plot. It was just after the steel strike in 1980, when people first came back to work we suddenly realised that the Germans and the Japanese were bigger and better than we were, their product was better than ours and I remember when North Sea Oil was being developed we couldn’t produce the pipe we had to go to Japan.

“Now with a company like Metalysis there is a chance to have a new renaissance in metal processing in Sheffield. I know that this is the day after the triggering of Article 50 and of course there are risks, it would be stupid for me to say there are no risks in coming out of the European Union there are significant commercial risks but there are also some huge opportunities. We can capitalise on this entrepreneurial spirit that we have, the first industrial revolution is born in places like Sheffield, there’s no reason why the fourth industrial revolution can’t be born here.”

For Dion and Metalysis, Brexit can only be an opportunity, there is no other option.  25 : 2 www.tctmagazine.com

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TCT ASIA REVIEW ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

2017 Review

WORDS : Daniel O’Connor

O

N THE FIRST DAY OF TCT ASIA 2017 what struck me immediately was the sheer number of machines on the show floor, granted the space had expanded but every direction you looked there was machinery I’d never seen before or certainly never seen in Asia.

Like a growing family moving from a hatchback to an SUV, 2017 was the year in which TCT Asia outgrew the Shanghai Convention & Exhibition Center of International Sourcing - home to the first two TCT Asia outings - and moved to the massive Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC).

With 20 times the amount of available floor space at SNIEC the show now has the room to expand and this year’s exhibitor numbers surpassed the 150 mark (151 to be precise). The exhibitors at the 2017 edition of TCT Asia were amongst the most diverse ever seen at a trade show. From plastic to metal AM machinery, from start-up to established player, from

RIGHT: TCT

Asia ran from March 8-10, 2017 at SNIEC

domestic to international, an array of exhibitors displayed their wares to 12,641 visitors up 18 per cent on 2016’s already impressive figure.

The amount of new machinery was quite staggering. Shining 3D alone summed up the sheer array of technology on offer. Best known for a range of affordable, extrusion-based desktop 3D printers but at TCT Asia

2017, Shining showed how ambitious it is with expansions into new areas of additive manufacturing technology.

Across two aisles the Chinese company demoed one of the widest ranges of equipment in 3D tech today. On one side there was the Einstart range, which had been used to 3D print an impressive looking, human-sized Gundam robot, as well as the new EinScan Pro+ 3D scanner. ›› 24 : 6 www.tctmagazine.com

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DESKTOP 3D PRINTING A selection of the Chinese manufactured metals machines on the show floor

Unveiled at CES 2017, the EinScan Pro + drew quite the crowd as the team accurately scanned a traditional Chinese woodcarving. One of the novel features of the EinScan Pro+ is that it works as a handheld but also comes with a tripod and rotating scan platform, giving a flexibility that some affordable scanners lack.

Across the aisle is where things really got interesting, last year Shining acquired a large proportion of shares in a Chinese laser-sintering manufacturer called E-Plus 3D. E-Plus 3D’s portfolio of industrial scale additive manufacturing machinery is extensive and includes selective laser melting metal machines. This ambitious collection now means, by my reckoning, Shining has the broadest range of technology in the industry today.

New metal printers were something of a theme at TCT Asia, on the final day I decided to take a tour looking for metal machinery I’d not seen before, even discounting Farsoon’s metal 3D printer, which I was aware of, I saw 13 new machines in total. The following

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companies debuted at least one metal machine on display at TCT Asia:

■ BEIJING LONGYUAN AUTOMATED FABRICATION SYSTEM ■ BRIGHT LASER TECHNOLOGY ■ GUANGDONG HANBANG 3D TECHNOLOGY ■ HAN*S LASER ■ JOINT X ■ QIANSHAO PRECISION MACHINERY ■ SYNDAYA 3D TECHNOLOGY ■ TSC LASER TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT ■ SHINING 3D ■ YN LASER ■ ZRAPID I asked TCT Asia speaker, industry expert and Chief Consultant to the Chinese 3D Printing Technology Industry Alliance, Graham

Tromans, why there was such a proliferation of metal machines coming out of China.

“China has that manufacturing mind set and in China metal AM is seen as more of a production process compared to the plastic processes,” said Graham.

“The automotive and aerospace sectors are of the utmost importance to China’s manufacturing economy and that is why so many of the companies are developing metal machines. Despite the rise of Chinese machinery the western companies maintain strong sales in China owing to a more refined process.”

That final point about the strength of western firms in China is validated by the fact that international exhibitors were up by 33% this year, with SLM Solutions, Concept Laser, EOS and Renishaw all having a significant presence at the show as well as a first chance to see the newly formed GE Additive both exhibit and talk.

Metals also played an expanded role in the three-day 3D technologies conference held on the show floor. Some 1100 conference delegates attended

TCT ASIA REVIEW the roost, the Chinese 3D printers are fast becoming the printer of choice.

There’s a host of different extrusion-based 3D printers in the market ranging from a MonoPrice $200 machine to a Fortus 450mc that could set you back as much as $250,000.

Companies like Stratasys, Ultimaker, MarkForged, etc. think there is a sweet spot for professionals looking to prototype who will not buy those bottom or top-end 3D printers, they are looking for something in between.

Another company after that same clientele is Raco 3D, a Chinese manufacturer who debuted their wares at TCT Asia, and from the looks of its Raco FDM + machine it has, indeed, hit that sweet spot.

The FDM+ is a high-precision machine capable of printing at a layer height of 0.02 mm.

This resolution is possible thanks to a precise nozzle but more importantly, its lead screw structure axis and mechanical guide rails that do away with the more traditional belt-based system, which can degrade over time. Recently, a prominent CEO in the industry said to me,

‘belts are for toys’, Raco recognise this.

The machine also features a controlled chamber and boasts an industrial-grade 32-bit Double CPU circuit board. Although users can use any material, they like Raco recommend its range of PLA materials that is optimised for this particular machine.

The parts on display at the company’s booth ranged from incredibly precise models that look like they have come off an SLA machine to snap fit prototypes not possible on many desktop FDM machinery due to limited accuracy.

The accuracy also lends itself to creating easily removable supports that leave littleto-no witnesses of supports. In all this is a nifty machine, Raco is currently seeking out distributors in the west and will be attending RAPID + TCT in May. With year-on-year growth and increased international attendance TCT Asia is establishing itself as one of the leading 3D technology events within the Asia market.

2018 will witness further expansion in Asia with the introduction of TCT Korea as part of the global TCT Group portfolio. We recognise the niche global markets and provide our exhibitors and visitors with consistent quality shows tailored to help them enter foreign markets. The industry outlook is currently rather positive and the relocation for 2017 ensures that TCT Asia has the opportunity for further growth in terms of exhibition space and remains a leading 3D manufacturing technology event in China. 

TCT Asia 2018 will take place 1-3 March, 2018, Hall N1, SNIEC, Shanghai, China.

LFFT: Shining 3D printed a human-sized Gundam robot using its Einstart series of machines

RIGHT: The

Raco 3D FDM+ machine with beltless drive system

display, TPM3D are on the Stratasys booth here at TCT Asia showing large, exceptionally smooth parts that boast wall thickness that can get down to as little as 0.10 mm. There are four sizes of sintering equipment, and TPM says it has been manufacturing and repairing laser sintering devices for more than ten years.

Will we see these Stratasys laser sintering machines outside of China anytime soon? Not according to the TPM3D on the booth at TCT Asia.

There is always plenty of FDM printing at Asian shows and what is clearer now than ever before that these companies are focussed on engineers and SMEs as opposed to chasing the consumer. The quality of machinery in China is truly impressive and similar to the drone industry where DJI rule

A packed out summit

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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

presentations from 45 high-level global speakers, with tracks on aerospace and automotive applications leading the interest in metal AM. Outside of metal printing there was plenty of interest in the polymer side of 3D printing.

One thing of particular interest to me was in the corner of Stratasys’ booth. While people crowded around for a first look at the new F123 series of machines, some parts that seemed unlike any other Stratasys parts I had seen at trade shows. They were selective laser sintered parts, good ones too.

The story behind the sintered parts starts some time ago at Solid Concepts, which was later to become part of Stratasys Direct Manufactring. Solid Concepts had a working relationship with a company called Trump Precision Machinery (TPM) for the supply of plastic powders for the sele. TPM worked with Solid Concepts to make machines to process said powder and when Stratasys acquired Solid Concepts in 2014 that connection was solidified into a joint venture.

Although there was no actual machine on

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GRIMM COLUMN

TIME FOR A REBOOT WOR DS : TO D D G R I M M

To unleash the potential, we must free individuals, departments, companies and industry from traditional thinking and conventional wisdom.

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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A

DDITIVE MANUFACTURING (AM) makes models, prototypes, patterns, tools and parts — nothing out of the ordinary. It makes those items in metal, plastic, ceramic and composite — again, nothing unusual. It has the potential to cut costs and reduce time — two common goals applied to all process selections. Within this mindset, AM is often viewed as just another process for design and manufacturing. This is a big problem.

As you are likely aware, and as experienced AM professionals will attest, AM is quite different than moulding, machining, casting and forming.

It effectively inverts our understanding of what drives costs, what impacts time and what is possible. AM distorts the reality for design and manufacturing that has become ingrained in our day-to-day operations.

In this context, it is insane to limit the technology to the same old applications, expecting the same output with marginal improvements in time, cost or quality. Yes, it can be beneficially used in this way, but this approach imposes artificial constraints that undermine the real potential. To capitalise on AM’s possibilities and to leverage all that it offers, it is time for a reboot that recalibrates perception, understanding and expectation.

To unleash the potential, we must free individuals, departments, companies and industry from traditional thinking and conventional wisdom. A successful reboot is one where there is a major shift in mindset. As Albert Einstein said, “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” Simply considering AM as an option to what is already being done well is not a significant change in thinking. If we heed Einstein’s advice, we set new goals and search for the challenges and opportunities that are poorly served by conventional processes.

Mindsets where rebooting is needed abound, but those that I find most frustrating are linked to personnel that have embraced AM without considering that there is a new reality. Forging ahead with little contemplation, and often with little understanding, those in need of a reboot fail to appreciate the differences. As a result, they cannot capitalise on what makes AM unique.

Three scenarios top my personal list for rebooting.

Reboot #1 is for all those that opt to use AM “because they can” even if there is little advantage, or possibly a disadvantage.

Enamoured with the technology, the AM machines are asked to serve ill-fitted applications. The

better approach is to investigate what is needed, determine if AM can offer value and then make the selection. The mindset shift is about finding practical applications where AM is uniquely qualified for the task.

Reboot #2 is an absolute necessity when applying AM to anything beyond the product development phase. Every printed part must be evaluated for a redesign that improves the product by capitalising on the design freedom that is offered. The mindset change is to begin by asking “How can the design be changed for AM?” before asking how much it will cost and how long it will take.

Reboot #3 is to recognise that AM is an enabling technology that is best viewed as an alternative, not a replacement. If current processes are satisfactory, look elsewhere for AM applications. To find the big gains and robust outcomes, investigate the current challenges and opportunities that cannot be addressed by nonAM processes. As an alternative, AM may be able to make the impossible or impractical a reality.

When this happens, the value is immense.

Another aspect of Reboot #3 is to squash the beliefs that AM can be a universal replacement for conventional processes. AM won’t be the best solution for each and every application currently addressed by moulding or machining. There is a time and place for both new and established technologies. To believe differently will lead those that need a reboot into a skirmish that is unwarranted and unwinnable.

For each reboot, the key is knowledge.

Without an understanding of what makes AM unique and why that difference is advantageous, individuals will continue to overlay what they know onto the alternative reality that AM creates. Yet, knowledge alone will not initiate a reboot. For that to happen, there also must be a willingness to change.

Knowledge and a desire to change are a lot to ask of those that are not immersed in AM. Rather than subjecting rebootable minds to an intensive, crash course in additive manufacturing, AM professionals should use each inquiry and each print request as a teachable moment. Take some time to show them the light and act as a consultant to nudge them into our new reality. 

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