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FROM THE EDITOR
I TALK WAY TOO LITTLE “How was your trip?” “Good. Useful. Tiring.” “What were you out there for again?” “It was a conference where the users of 3D printing technologies come together and share ideas.” “…Not very interesting, is it?” The conversation ended abruptly. Maybe it was the jet lag, or my personal intolerance for small talk, or the two things compounded, but I had no retort to my taxi driver’s unconsidered and scathing evaluation of the industry in which I work. From my perspective, flying out to the United States to take on board the latest applications of additive manufacturing (AM) in the medical, aerospace and automotive sectors, at least makes for more compelling conversation than his next go-to topic: the weather – it had been raining. Again. As we powered down an English motorway and along the North Wales coast, it dawned on me my travel companion for the next hour wasn’t uninterested in AM, he was unaware. Unaware of the impact the technologies could have, and already are having, all around him, every day. The car he was currently operating, the movie he might watch that weekend, the medical applications he’ll hopefully never need. I could have tried to educate him, maybe I should have, but my subconscious favoured the sleep. Yet, when I awoke to the car pulling up outside my house, I realised the chance was gone. He’d dismissed 3D printing technology without a thought, and I hadn’t offered any reason why he
shouldn’t. I was vague, when I should have been demonstrative. If I had explained engine components can be completely redesigned to reduce material usage and weight, or that prostheses could be customised to exactly fit the wearer at an affordable rate, perhaps I’d be less irate some weeks later, and he’d begin to understand why people attend gettogethers like the AMUG Conference, and read magazines like this one. Maybe I’ll keep a copy of this issue for him. After all, it features TCT’s Head of Content, Dan O’Connor going behind the scenes at BMW and Deputy Group Editor, Laura Griffiths reporting on the use of Polymaker Industrial materials for every plastic part of an XEV electric car. We’ve also looked at how 3D printing is making its way into Hollywood. Its presence extends wider, into university research labs, casting foundries, and even in settings devastated by disaster and conflict. The biggest companies in the world are using it, and the smaller ones are slowly catching up too. It’s crazy, then, to think how little is still known about AM, how it is being applied, and the rewards that can be garnered from said application up to three decades on from the processes’ inventions. I suppose all that can be done is to keep innovating, keep using, and keep enlightening when we can. Only then might my small talk be interesting enough, and only then might people start to get it. I chose to sleep the last time the opportunity presented itself, but hopefully the next 55 pages make up for that. SAM DAVIES, ASSISTANT EDITOR
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VOLUME 26 ISSUE 4
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COVER STORY
8
8. FORCE OF NATURE
How SLM Solutions’ additive capabilities are bringing Hirschvogel’s bionic designs to life.
AUTOMOTIVE
11
11. THE ULTIMATE PRINTING MACHINE
Head of Content, Dan O’Connor reports on his visit to BMW’s Additive Manufacturing Center in Munich.
17. A 3D PRINTED CAR: FINALLY DELIVERING ITS PROMISE
Italian car company, XEV teams with Polymaker to launch the LSEV, an almost entirely 3D printed electric car.
19. EU STRONG ON AM BUT THE WORK IS ONLY JUST BEGINNING Filip Geerts, Director General of CECIMO gives his takeaways on CECIMO’s Additive Manufacturing Conference.
CASTING
21
21. RETHINKING 3D CASTING
How a North Yorkshire based design and manufacturing firm is revolutionising its investment casting business with a desktop 3D printer.
23. DIGITAL METAL: AM FOR CASTING METAL PARTS IN ARCHITECTURE
ENTERTAINMENT 25. FAMOUS FACES
Assistant Editor, Sam Davies finds out how one Oscar-nominated animation studio is pushing the boundaries of 3D printing.
31. FIT FOR A QUEEN
25
TCT SHOW
39
Deputy Group Editor, Laura Griffiths speaks to the designer behind the futuristic costumes in Marvel’s Black Panther.
39. PREVIEW
RESEARCH & ACADEMIA
49. TCT AWARDS: THE NOMINEES
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35. PUSHING ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TO THE MOLECULAR LIMIT
New research proves advanced materials containing molecules that switch states in response to environmental stimuli can be made using 3D printing. Victor Sans, explains.
37. EYE ON THE PRIZE
Scientsists at Newcastly University have successfully printed a customised human cornea. Che Connor, Professor of Tissue Engineering, tells TCT how and why.
A guide to the technologies across the design-to-manufacturing spectrum at TCT Show 2018. Find out who has been shortlisted for this year’s 14 TCT Awards’ categories.
51. BEST IN THE FIELD
Sam speaks to a team of humanitarian aid support workers leveraging Industry 4.0 in remote areas ravaged by war and natural disasters.
54. NEWS
News in brief from this issue’s big focusses.
58. WHAT’S THE ALLURE?
Todd Grimm discusses the principal of the Allure Quotient in AM adoption.
31 51
Mania Aghaei Meibodi, Senior Researcher at ETH Zurich, on combining the geometric freedom of 3D printing and the flexibility of casting.
11
SLM SOLUTIONS’ ADDITIVE CAPABILITIES BRING HIRSCHVOGEL’S BIONIC DESIGN TO LIFE
A
s a global supplier, the Hirschvogel Automotive Group develops and produces high-strength parts for the automotive industry and several others. With nine plants across three continents, the vision of the company is to continually improve and to provide competent answers to new questions which arise with growing demands. Within the Group, Hirschvogel Tech Solutions is a service provider for part development and additive manufacturing (AM) in application areas that extend far beyond forging and automotive. Through a combination of three service components – part development, AM and materials/ failure analysis – the company supports its customers with optimum know-how for developing innovative products and high-strength components whether it’s series production for optimised metal components or demonstration parts and fixtures made with polymer Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) processes.
performance requirements demanded of the part were fulfilled including different load cases and stiffness, taking into account the given assembly space. To do this, specially developed methods and adapted CAx (Computer Aided Technologies) were applied to produce a fully optimised design that combines lightweighting and a high load-bearing capacity without the limitations imposed by current manufacturing methods. With a traditional forged part, features such as hollow spaces, free undercuts and interrupted walls are generally not easy to achieve. Therefore, the design process was carried out with AM in mind which allowed the part to be manufactured without the many additional internal support structures that would otherwise be required. Michael Dahme, Head of Hirschvogel Tech Solutions explained that a specific design process “inspired by lightweight principles and construction methods of nature” was applied which resulted in a mix of topologically optimised lattice structures.
STEERING KNUCKLE DEVELOPMENT Development work at Hirschvogel Tech Solutions is always carried out based on an integrated approach, with a focus on the entire process chain from generative part development to finishing. To fully exploit the maximum benefits from AM, the company specialises in what it calls “bionic designs” which leverage methods and structures developed by nature over millions of years, addressing functional requirements, and applies them to various areas of engineering and technology. This “bionic” approach was recently adopted on a steering knuckle, an automotive part which attaches to the suspension and steering system, where the team was able to achieve a significant weight saving of 40% in the neck area compared to a conventional forged part. All of the necessary
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SHOWN: SECTION OF A STEERING KNUCKLE WITH BIONIC INTERNAL STRUCTURE.
COVER STORY
SHOWN:
TOOL WITH INTERNAL COOLING FROM THE PART SPECTRUM OF HIRSCHVOGEL TECH SOLUTIONS.
Initially, a number of part variants were developed and assessed before selecting those which were best able to fulfil the given boundary conditions. This was then verified by appropriate calculations to ensure it met all of the necessary requirements. Skilful positioning of the part, which measures almost 600 mm in length, meant that it could be produced easily in Aluminium AlSi10Mg on the SLM 500, a high-performance multi-beam system designed for series production of large complex parts. Due to the part positioning and nature of this powder-based manufacturing process, it was also possible to produce the part with few support structures, and to completely do without internal ones which also resulted in minimal post-processing after printing. Tests carried out on tensile and notched bar specimens, which were built in the same process, showed that the part successfully matched the forecast values. In addition to significant weight savings, the additively manufactured part also benefitted from reduced internal stress and increased stiffness in two directions.
shows that revolutionary results can be achieved by additive manufacturing, depending on the application and the number of pieces. The path to day-to-day application and series production is mapped out.” Ralf Frohwerk, Global Head of Business Development at SLM Solutions Group AG confirmed: “The trust of automobile manufacturers in metal-based 3D printing is increasing daily. Thanks to growing understanding of “real and meaningful,” 3D-suitable designing, previously unimaginable designs for vehicle parts are being created. Knowing that nearly every automaker also has vehicle programs with numbers of pieces < 2000 – 3000 units per year in its portfolio, there are also already aluminum die cast components today, for example, that can be produced more economically using additive processes.”
“The “steering knuckle” demonstrator clearly shows the possibilities and potential of additive manufacturing,” Dahme added. “The weight reduction of 40% achieved in the neck area
ABOVE:
SPRAY NOZZLES FROM HIRSCHVOGEL TECH SOLUTIONS.
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TCT SHOW 2018 STAND M26
AUTOMOTIVE
THE ULTIMATE PRINTING MACHINE WORDS: DAN O’CONNOR
T
he opening keynote of the 2014 edition of TCT Show by Dr. Hans Langer, CEO of EOS, detailed how, as a start-up in the late 80s, the Munich-based company went, without a machine, looking for a customer. Using his years as a laser production professional, Langer managed to get through the doors at the BMW Group, where a team had analysed every detail of the 3D printers in the market and were becoming increasingly frustrated with the machinery’s constraints. Within a year of that meeting, EOS had built their first stereolithography machine to the exacting specifications of the BMW Group. The BMW Group has always been and still is, at the vanguard of 3D printing technology. Look at the recent investments in Desktop Metal and Carbon as well as its crucial role in the HP Beta Test program. It has been pushing the envelope of what is possible ever since those days in the
80s of prototyping with frustrating SLA machines. Dr.-Ing. Dominik Rietzel and Dipl.-Ing. Maximilian Meixlsperger head up BMW Group’s Additive Manufacturing Center for non-metal and metals respectively. Together with their teams, they have overseen something of a revolution within BMW Group that has not only advanced prototyping beyond fit and form but delivered on 3D printing’s promise to become a technology capable of both mass consumer customisation and the series production of parts.
PARAMOUNT PROTOTYPING
Prototyping is, like every other business in the world, still the core application for additive manufacturing technology within the BMW Group. You’d be forgiven for assuming that with 30 years of use, the BMW Group would claim to have perfected the process, but during a tour of the Additive Manufacturing Center (AMC) in Munich, Dominik was keen to demonstrate how this implementation is still, very much, an ongoing journey.
A project Dominik is particularly proud of involves a dashboard that he saved from recycling to put on display inside the AMC. This SLS printed dashboard appears, at first sight, to be like any other, but to the touch, the white powdery part is both spongy and stiff in the appropriate places. The dashboard’s feel is down to a PhD work on TPUs conducted at the AMC; the research led to the development of a printing technique that replicated the feel of foams used within BMW Group series production. “In prototyping, it is essential to have the real properties of the actual product,” stated Dominik. “For example, if you have an undercut that needs to be fixed to the dashboard, it might work with a stiff prototype, but when it comes to serial production one, maybe it might not work.”4
5 SHOWN:
THE BMW I8 ROADSTER FEATURES METAL 3D PRINTEDPARTS FOR THE FIRST TIME ON ANY COMMERCIAL VEHICLE.
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Today, every single dashboard prototyped within BMW Group uses that method developed by their research. Prototyping, spare parts, jigs and fixtures, tooling, even augmented orthotic thumbs for assembly line workers whereas many companies are just gearing up for these applications, they have been standard processes for BMW Group for many years. What isn’t standard practice is two projects coming out of AMC in the past year. For years we’ve heard talk of additive manufacturing for series production, the truth is that relatively few companies have implemented a process with qualification and repeatability often the rate-limiters. Rather than wait around for the OEMs to bring the technology up-to-scratch or some organisation to create documentation on best-practice for qualification, the AMC went and did it themselves, uniquely in both polymer and metal 3D printing.
A MINI REVOLUTION The first project to hit the press was ‘MINI Yours Customised’, which sees the MINI brand make a play for the ever-expanding car personalisation market. Car personalisation is big business; during 2017, in the UK alone, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency sold a record 374,968 personalised registration plates amassing £110m. New marketing campaigns from the Nissan Micra and Citroen C3 focus on a wide array of colours and styling. Those campaigns are proving to be a hit with Nissan saying that 18% of customers are choosing to personalise their vehicle. Neither of those examples is true mass customisation; registration plates have strict criteria to match, and there’s a finite number of possibilities; and with the exterior styling, the Nissan Micra has only 100 combinations to choose from. No, for true mass customisation there’s only one tech you can turn to, 3D printing and BMW Group has done just that. Using the MINI Yours Customised configurator, a customer can select a colour, change the pattern, add their name and add an icon to door sills, a door projector, a cockpit fascia or/and the side scuttles. The latter two are both 3D printed en-masse by Dominik and his team at the AMC using a host of 3D printing platforms including Carbon’s CLIP, HP’s Multi-Jet Fusion (MJF) and EOS’s SLS technology. “We took the momentum to approve different technologies and different materials,” explains Dominik. “If we go through this routine of qualification once on a powder based technology and a resin-based technology then we learn so much for the next project.” By setting up MINI Yours
SHOWN:
CUSTOMISABLE 3D PRINTED SIDE SCUTTLES CAN BE PRODUCED WITH SLS, MJF OR CLIP TECHNOLOGY
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Customised, many different disciplines, like IT, sales, materials research and design needed to work closely with the AMC in a start-up manner to create this unique offering. Once the design is complete and the customer places an order, the job appears in the same customer ordering system as an internal prototype part ordered for a car five years away from production with AMC acting like an in-house service bureau. “If you work at the BMW Group you can upload a part directly from CATIA into our system and say I want to have a prototype in a specific AM technology with this specific material,” reveals Dominik. “You see an online pricing system, and you place the order. We developed this software platform years ago and are still improving it.” Manufacturing an individually tailored part like the cockpit fascia for a premium brand like MINI isn’t as easy as when, others print off a personalised phone case. The cockpit fascia has to be configured to the tightest of tolerances - so accurate that the customer can easily snap-fit and remove if needed. The part has to stand up to the rigours of constant sunlight, plummeting and skyrocketing temperatures, drink spills, grubby hands, finger drumming and most-importantly crash impacts. Therefore, the team developed an own “Digital Craftsmanship” process that includes printing of the parts, surface finish and manual painting according to premium automotive standards.
AUTOMOTIVE
Unlike the exterior side scuttles, an interior part like the cockpit fascia has to withstand a full impact crash and not shatter. If it were to break the shrapnel could cause injury. The testing to get the parts to a point whereby BMW Group were happy for the components to be placed inside a car has taken a considerable amount of time. Because of the safety requirements the cockpit fascia is currently only printed using polyamide 11 on SLS systems, whereas the side scuttles can be manufactured on EOS, HP or Carbon machinery. “We start, we learn and we improve,” says Dominik. “In the area set up for [Carbon’s] CLIP technology we’re testing with robots for automation; opening the machine, getting the build job out, placing the tray, getting the parts out of it, putting them into the oven all automatically. We are still in a test mode, but as soon as I have this cell working, we can create all the documentation around it and then we scale it up. I will know how many robots I need for how many printers, how many part washers, what kind of ovens. We benchmark all the products in the process chain; we benchmark ovens, we benchmark the robots, we benchmark the grippers. We are not only working on 3D printing.”
the official Royal Wedding charity, Children’s HIV Association. The care and attention given to the Royal Wedding car comes as standard for every part that leaves the AMC. The life of every component can be readable using a camera monitoring system; the printed part contains a host of information including a machine code, a materials code and a customised part ID. Each part is inspected at every step of the process documenting the quality and appearance. In doing so, the team has also worked out a comprehensive blacklist of text that inhibits consumers from using offensive language or infringing copyrights. If any part does not meet the BMW Group’s exacting standards, the AMC starts the process again. The traceability even helps in the long run: “Let’s say there’s been a crash, and a side scuttle was damaged,” considers Dominik. “I can go back to the system and see the part ordered ten years later and reprint that exact same part for the customer.” 4
One of the first MINI Yours Customised cars to be seen in the wild was designed as a gift for the royal wedding of Harry and Meghan. The MINI Hatch model had Harry and Meghan side scuttles as well as a 3D printed fascia and was auctioned for
5 SHOWN:
THIS SPECIAL EDITION MINI HATCH MADE FOR THE ROYAL WEDDING AND AUCTIONED OFF FOR CHARITY HAD 3D PRINTED COCKPIT FASCIA AND SIDE SCUTTLES.
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ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
SMALL-VOLUME BATCHES MATERIAL DIVERSITY
OPEN SYSTEM HIGH QUALITY FUNCTIONAL PARTS
INTUITIVE OPERATION
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AUTOMOTIVE
A NEW SERIES
Since the dawn of metal 3D printing at the turn of the millennium, OEMs have been shouting from the rooftops about the potential of series production. However, relatively few projects have seen the light of day with GE’s LEAP fuel nozzle proving pretty much the only visible project in the world. There’s no denying the LEAP fuel nozzle’s ingenuity and worth - it proved the catalyst for GE’s billion-dollar metal 3D printing acquisitions but we learned about that five years ago. We need another example of metal 3D printing’s capacity else the cries of one-trick pony may start ringing in the ears of machine buyers. Step forward Dipl.-Ing. Maximilian Meixlsperger, who heads up metal additive manufacturing at BMW Group. Max and his team are here to silence those naysayers with the first costeffective series production of a metal additively manufactured component in the commercial automotive industry. This is not an impeller for a one-of-a-kind racecar or a reverse-engineered handle for a classic car; two of these components are on every model of the BMW i8 Roadster. The part in question is a topologically and production process optimised fixture for the folding mechanism of the BMW i8 Roadster’s soft top; folding mechanisms are traditionally quite cumbersome and add significant weight to cars all while taking up valuable boot space. Optimise the AMC did, not only did they make a 10 times stiffer part than the plastic injection moulded counterpart, they made the metal part 44% lighter at the same time as developing some novel printing techniques and build orientations to ramp up cost efficiency. “Normally underneath a part like this you’d have support, but we optimised it to a point where we no longer needed support structures,” states Max. The part has two little feet that are the only connection to the base plate. Using this method we were also able to stack them into each other and take the build from 51 to 238 parts per platform.” Realising all this they made the part cost efficient up to 60,000 components against metal die casting. The fixture is currently manufactured in the AMC using one qualified SLM Solutions machine, printing round the clock in AlSi10Mg. Max’s team is now working on qualifying a second and third SLM Solutions machine, one installed at the AMC and the other in the BMW Group plant in Landshut. “We took about half a year exploring the qualified machine,” said Max. “Understanding, optimizing and technically safeguarding the way that we produce today. We did a lot of reproducibility testing; doing the same test over and over, taking parts out, testing them and in the end, we showed that this is now a reproducible production process.”
SHOWN:
I8 ROADSTER’S 3D PRINTED FIXTURE USING SLM SOLUTIONS’ METAL POWDER-BED FUSION TECHNOLOGY.
The BMW i8 Roadster and the MINI Yours Customised projects have proved, without question the viability of 3D printing technology in the automotive industry. With a move to a new €10 million Additive Manufacturing Campus pencilled in for early 2019, Jens Ertel, Head of the BMW Group’s Additive Manufacturing Center and the future campus director, adds: “Our new facility will be a major milestone in additive manufacturing at the BMW Group. The team there will evaluate new and existing technologies in both plastics and metals printing and develop them to series maturity. Our goal is to provide the optimum technology and process chain, be it for individual components, small production runs or even large-scale manufacturing.” *Both the Mini Yours Customised and the i8 Roadster bracket have made the shortlist for the 2018 TCT Awards.
Dominik Rietzel will be presenting this case study at TCT Show on 27th September.
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AUTOMOTIVE
A 3D PRINTED CAR: FINALLY DELIVERING ITS PROMISE
I
f there’s one subject that gets enthusiasts’ tongues wagging and cynical tweeters tweeting, it’s that of the 3D printed car. The domain of concept designs and novelty trade show exhibits, 3D printing’s impact on the automotive industry has typically been under the hood and on production lines. Until now. Earlier this year, Italian car manufacturer XEV unveiled a proof-of-concept model for a mass-producible 3D printed electric car, the LSEV, developed with Chinese 3D printing materials company, Polymaker. XEV has just secured its first “mega factory” in Jiangsu, right next to major automotive companies like Kia Motors and Hyundai, where it plans to begin production on the vehicles next year. The LSEV is a two-seater car made almost entirely with 3D printing, minus structural framework including steel chassis, roll cage and glass windows. It features a total of just 57 plastic components which can be produced in just three days, a substantial reduction from the approximate 2,000 SKUs found in a traditionally manufactured vehicle of a similar size. In traditional car manufacturing, the majority of the cost comes from supply chains, tooling and various manufacturing processes. To be successful, XEV CEO, Stanley Lou believes that manufacturers need to check three boxes; how does the car look, feel and how much will it cost? Get any of that wrong and you’ve wasted a lot of time and money. Using 3D printing and data as an inventory, that risk is much lower which is why XEV is producing 2,000 of its own large-format plastic extrusion 3D printers to be used inside its factories. The process has already reduced production waste by around 70%.
WORDS : LAURA GRIFFITHS
“It’s nothing really new here,” Luke Taylor, Marketing Manager at Polymaker explains. “What they’ve built is a very robust, high-temperature industrial 3D printer. The technology is well-known in the industry it’s just a new way of applying it and then applying the post processes on this kind of scale. That has never been done before.” Parts are being produced in four different grades of polyamide and TPU, powered by Polymaker’s WarpFree technology which improves the printability of Nylon filaments. The polyamide materials are being applied to impact and heat resistant areas while flexible TPU is being used for the bumper and other internal features. The plan is to have an onsite extrusion line based at every factory to produce materials on-demand. The magic is in the Vacuum Lamination post processing which Polymaker has
SHOWN:
VACUUM LAMINATION IS USED TO FINISH THE 3D PRINTED PARTS.
developed with XEV. Parts are printed around 2mm smaller to allow a film of polyamide to be layered on top, similar to vacuum forming, which hides FDM layers and eliminates the need for painting. The first orders have already been placed by Poste Italiane who have commissioned 5,000 customised vehicles which include a storage box to carry mail in place of the passenger seat. Other companies like Holiday Inn and Pizza Hut are also exploring the potential for the LSEV in their dayto-day operations. For consumers, Taylor imagines a commissionbased online “car builder platform”, akin to Shapeways, where designers can upload new skins and parts and customers can order customised pieces. XEV have produced 15 vehicles so far which are being put through all of the standard safety tests before certified road-ready for 2019. It even has a crumple zone area, found in standard vehicles, designed to take impact in the event of a collision. The LSEV, set to ship for around 8-10,000 Euro, is just the beginning. XEV plans to scale up with designs already in the works for four new cars including a sedan style model and a sports car. “No one has tried to do this mass produced, easily customisable car. The automotive industry is already doing this [customisation] but it’s taking it even further. Every car is unique and I think that will really appeal to the customers, especially the fact that it’s going to be a very competitive price, and with the rise of electric vehicles we think it’s going to be very successful.”
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THE LSEV 3D PRINTED ELECTIC CAR.
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GUEST COLUMN
EU STRONG ON AM BUT THE WORK IS ONLY JUST BEGINNING
Author and TCT Expert Advisory Board Member Filip Geerts is the Director General of CECIMO, the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries. In June CECIMO organised its Additive Manufacturing Conference and here, Filip gives TCT his takeaways.
A
dditive Manufacturing (AM) has been a hot topic in European manufacturing for many years. Since it is now reaching production status, the EU is increasingly setting its sights on the technology, as AM is seen as a way of upgrading the continent’s industrial base. At the fourth edition of the Additive Manufacturing European Conference (AMEC), organised by CECIMO at the European Parliament on 21 June, the EU set down a clear message that more investment is needed to encourage the industrialisation of the technology.
the EU’s flagship research programme. This funding stream is also made up of public-private partnerships (PPPs), grants, pilots and platforms. Recent figures confirm that the EU is taking more decisive action on AM. In only the first three years of its implementation period, Horizon 2020 funded 27 AM projects with €113 million, 70% of what the previous programme (2007-2013) spent on AM. For 2007 to 2013, the budget amounted to €160 million for a total of 60 EU projects – in other words, the EU now dedicates more money per AM project.
The European Commission discussed at length its measures to foster the uptake of AM across the continent. For instance, the Digitising European Industry initiative appears to be playing an especially major role in this regard. So-called Digital Innovation Hubs were tipped as one of the four priority areas; together with regulations, skills and research partnerships.
GLOBAL COMPETITION
The Hubs will consist of decentralised competence centres across Europe – building on existing AM knowledge and information at a local level. The goal, also discussed at AMEC, is to create ecosystems of companies, research centres and universities that would ultimately allow any company – big or small and located anywhere across the continent – to benefit from digital innovation.
R&D plays an instrumental role in the country, to boost knowhow and accelerate the deployment of AM at a large scale. This included the establishment of a new AM-related R&D centre, aiming to attract foreign companies to invest in China.
And while Digital Innovation Hubs encompass a broad range of technologies and sectors, AM clearly emerged as one at the forefront. Decentralisation, as European Commission officials explained at the conference, is seen as a key ingredient for turning the Hubs into a success. Digital Innovation Hubs are tools that can create space for bottom-up initiatives to emerge. The examples of collaborative activities on laser technologies – a field closely interconnected with AM – were presented as a successful case of ongoing Digital Innovation Hubs.
RISING FUNDS, RISING GROWTH
The type of EU investment pouring into the development of the Hubs is part of a larger R&D funding pool embedded in Horizon 2020,
Other countries and regions are advancing on the technology too, so it remains important for Europe to keep up. In December 2017, China launched the Action Plan on Additive Manufacturing as part of its ‘Made in China 2025’ long-term initiative.
In the United States, America Makes – the country’s publicprivate partnership on AM – has so far managed a portfolio of about $115 million for AM R&D and workforce in its six years of implementation. As the voice of the AM industry in Europe, CECIMO gave a clear message to Members of the European Parliament and European Commission officials joining the Additive Manufacturing European Conference 2018. Together with a supportive regulatory framework in Europe and bolder standardisation actions, a long-term EU funding commitment to the growth of AM must be guaranteed. The kick-off of the new EU multi-annual budget programme in 2021 offers critical opportunities to step up investment in additive technologies and keep up with the likes of the US and China. CECIMO will follow budgetary negotiations among EU institutions very closely, to ensure AM carves out a central role in the EU research budget and concrete investment pledges are made to those involved in the ecosystem.
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GUEST COLUMN
RETHINKING 3D CASTING W WORDS: DAN O’CONNOR
hen you think of a British investment casing foundry one envisages masses of molten metals being poured from crucibles into furnaces that look like they’ve grown organically from the ground and been in use since medieval blacksmithing times. The reality is that the Great British foundry industry is one of the most technologically advanced industries in the world. With a little help from 3D printing, one North Yorkshire-based company is leading the charge
Sylatech, founded in 1964, boasts a client and partner base including Airbus, BAE Systems, Thales and last year won a 10-year contract worth £13.2m with SAAB, for the manufacture of antenna boards for their air surveillance product range. Amongst the many manufacturing services on offer, it boasts investment casting is one of its more vital business areas. Such is the kind of intricate work Sylatech is involved with, one would expect the company to be a prime candidate for mainframe-sized SLA printers using a castable resin like 3D Systems’ Quickcast or SOMOS Element. However, an industrial-sized additive manufacturing system would represent a significant investment in capital, labour and floor space. After frustrating experiences with an investment into a jewellery-level wax 3D printer, Sylatech turned to a much cheaper option, an Ultimaker 2+. Such has been the rapid return on investment, Sylatech now has three machines running full capacity.
negative into which molten metal is poured. Sylatech is not, however, 3D printing your usual fare with its desktop plastic extrusion-based device. “We never give out plastic prototypes, it’s always metal,” explains Gordon Gunn, Commercial Director at Sylatech. “We are a foundry, and when it comes to rapid prototyping, we embrace it as a complementary technology to our process.” From a PLA 3D print, Sylatech can present clients with a fully dense metal prototype within a few days. To achieve this Sylatech attaches a plastic 3D printed model to a wax frame, places that frame into a container, filling it with a ceramic slurry and burning the 3D print out in an oven to leave a
After that has cooled Sylatech finishes the metal part with traditional post-processing techniques and that metal part is then ready for testing. These prototyping steps ultimately mean that when a client does invest roughly three to four thousand pounds in tooling for manufacture, it is less likely that expensive adjustments will be required. There’s a certain snobbery at times to desktop 3D printing, but not from Sylatech. The company is not only using the Ultimaker to revolutionise its prototyping but is beginning to implement it into the printing of jigs and fixtures as well as robotic-arm parts for its automated CNC process. “The use of 3D printing has clearly transformed the way we do business. And we will continue to use 3D printing and the Ultimaker to deliver benefits to our customers,” says Gordon.
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CASTING
DIGITAL METAL: AM FOR CASTING METAL PARTS IN ARCHITECTURE
L
Mania Aghaei Meibodi, Senior Researcher, Digital Building Technologies (dbt), ETH Zurich.
arge bespoke metal parts have been commonly used in architecture as part of facades, bridges, beams, columns and connections. Cast metal allows fabrication of strong freeform, intricate, integral elements with design features such as undercuts, overhangs, internal structures and the threedimensional differentiation of thickness, that cannot be obtained by other fabrication methods. However, the degree of geometric complexity achievable in a metal part is constrained by our ability to fabricate the necessary mould. Additive manufacturing (AM) of metal can bypass mould making and offers the ability to produce customised leighweight parts with complex geometry without moulds. The most common method is powder bed fusion. Major drawbacks of employing this technology for the building industry are small build volumes, long print times, material limitations and cost. Printing methods for larger dimensions, such as robotic metal arc welding have been developed but are limited and require expensive post processing to reach high-quality surface finishing.
OUR APPROACH
To overcome these challenges, at DBT we employ AM to print the moulds for metal casting which benefit from the geometric freedom
moulds, reducing the overall fabrication time and effort.
SHOWN: “DEEP FAÇADE” BY STUDENTS OF MAS DFAB AT ETH ZURICH 2018
The constraints of metal casting were encoded in the algorithm which generates the geometry of the joints and moulds, ensuring cast-ability, dimensional-accuracy and good surface finish. AM automatically integrate details such as the gating system which allowed integration of a gating system for the liquid metal into the channels the molten metal to mould, thus considerably reduced the mold cavity. Ideally, we can generate the required fabrication tolerances and fabrication time. As a result, the fabrication of all joints data for any geometry at the took less than two weeks. push of a button and send it to the 3D printer. The casting In 2018, a six-meter-high and process itself can follow the four-meter-wide “Deep Facade” traditional setup and can be was designed and constructed of done within a short period of 26 three-dimensionally articulated time. panels up to the size of 2 sqm, that were also cast using 3D TWO EXPERIMENTAL printed sand moulds. A modified PROJECTS To demonstrate the proposed differential-growth algorithm was used to generate the ornamented method in an architectural structure that expresses the context, two 1:1 scale projects were designed and built together liquidity and strength of metal as a building material. Here we used with the students of the Master an open cast principle, which of Advanced Studies in Digital Fabrication at ETH Zurich. These helped us to reduce the size of the necessary moulds. projects highlight possible IMAGE BY JETANA RUANGIUN
offered by 3D printing and flexibility of metal casting. When combining 3D printed moulds with casting, we can efficiently create large bespoke elements and cast practically any kind of metal. To fabricate sand-moulds, we focus on binder-jetting technology where a liquid agent is selectively dropped on thin layers of sand to bind it. Binder-jetting offers a unique combination of geometric freedom, intricate detailing and large print-bed dimension. Moulds can be printed at a precision in the range of a tenth of a millimetre and in dimension of up to 4 x 2 x 1 metres. In our research, we develop computational methods to design and optimise bespoke metal elements which integrate the casting constraints. An important aspect here is to facilitate the design of moulds for any given shape. We try to
application for structural metal nodes and articulated façade elements. The metal connection in combination with standard tubular profiles enables the construction of large freeform spaceframe structures. The facade elements allow control of transparency and shading properties though porous 3D structures. In 2017, “Liquid Pavilion”, a five-metre-high space-frame structure was designed and built from 182 non-repetitive lightweight joints using off-theshelf metal profiles. All joints were digitally designed and fabricated using 3D printed
OUTLOOK
Linking the ancient fabrication method of casting to state of the art 3D printing opens the door for revival of cast metal in architecture. Coupling this fabrication approach with computational design, we can unlock an entirely new vocabulary of shapes for architecturally exposed metal structures, previously unavailable with traditional mould making systems.
6 BELOW: 3D PRINTED SAND
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MOULD AND ALUMINIUM CAST JOINT (MAS DFAB AT ETH ZURICH 2017)
IMAGE BY MA XIJIE
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ENTERTAINMENT
WORDS: SAM DAVIES
I
t’s 2013 and a production company whose latest stop animation movie is about to earn it a third consecutive Academy Award nomination in the Best Animated Feature category arrives at a crossroads. Founded only eight years earlier, through Coraline, Paranorman, and in 2014, The Boxtrolls, LAIKA had established itself as one of the most impressive filmmakers in its genre.
in a solid white plastic, before hand-sanding would smooth out the surfaces and hand-painting would add colour. More than 20,000 different faces were produced this way, while typically a stopanimation movie can expect only 800.
“WE CONSTANTLY NEED TO PIVOT AND DRIVE THE TECHNOLOGY IN A CREATIVE WAY”
Central to that immediate success was an inventive new approach to character design through replacement animation. Replacement animation of characters’ faces has traditionally been done through the hand sculpture of hundreds of different facial expressions, which are then photographed and replaced with another expression. Knitting those images together achieves the sense of movement, and movies are made.
What you’ll learn about LAIKA, though, is it’s a company relentless in its quest for improvement, not just of itself, but the art it practices too. Coraline went on to gross $124m and gain a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 90%. LAIKA, before its debut film had even premiered, had ripped up the process and started again. Through its Rapid Prototyping (RP) department, LAIKA was using an Eden 260 PolyJet machine and printing faces
“We thought they were cutting edge at the time, but they were really us trying to find creative solutions for some technical limitations, because the faces were printed out of a single material. We wanted to have some complex paint jobs on the characters’ faces,” Brian McLean, Director of LAIKA’s Rapid Prototype department, told TCT. “We wanted Coraline to have freckles on her face, we wanted Other Mother to have lipstick on.”
The painters tasked with implementing these features couldn’t afford to misplace them – it takes 40 hours to generate three seconds of footage, and there’s no undo button at any stage. For the freckles, the RP team would spend weeks dialling in their depth, usually around 3,000th of an inch deep, to make it easier for the painters. After printing, sanding, priming and coating the face with a lacquer skin tone, the painter would then add a drop of colour to fill the freckle.
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MONKEY FROM KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS
3 LEFT:
ALTERING MONKEY’S FACIAL EXPRESSION IN THE DESIGN STUDIO.
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PLAYING TRICKS
“WE WERE RUNNING INTO SCENARIOS ON SOME OF THE CHARACTER DESIGNS ON KUBO THAT WE KNEW THE TECHNOLOGY WAS NOT GOING TO WORK”
This activity was largely kept under wraps by LAIKA, a company still finding its way and wanting not to publicise its secret weapon. That all changed as the company’s second film, Paranorman, was released. Paranorman was the first stop-motion movie to use a colour 3D printer, a feat that earned the eponymous ghost-whispering character TCT Magazine Cover Star status in Volume 20 Issue 5. LAIKA’s mouth-zipped-shut policy, as you’ll have worked out, wasn’t the only change during those years. Z Corp, who would later be taken over by 3D Systems, had released to market the Z650, powered by Z Print technology, which sees powder spread across liquid binding material. The Z650 also boasted the added capability of printing in colour, which enticed LAIKA to purchase five of them.
“We were giving up everything that had really made this successful on Coraline. The dimensional accuracy, the repeatability, the material being stable, the machines being reliable,” McLean recalls. “Everything about colour 3D printing at the time was very inconsistent: results from print to print, the printers themselves. There were a tremendous amount of things that we were sacrificing, but we were trading that off for the ability to print colour, and that was worthwhile to us.” It was a move away from hand painting to provide colour, yet one that wouldn’t have worked without the texture artists’ expertise. Among that group was Tory Bryant, who was now being asked
The Boxtrolls | 2014 56,000 3D printed faces. Z Print for faces; PolyJet for internal head components.
2009 Coraline | 2009
20,000 3D printed faces. PolyJet & mostly hand painting for colour. Eden 260, Eden 500 and Connex 500. All faces were hand painted, (expect for Other Mother V3, she was printed in blank and white resin).
2012
Paranorman | 2012 40,000 3D printed faces. Z Print for faces; PolyJet for internal head components.
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ENTERTAINMENT
to paint digitally instead of manually. Bryant was using Photoshop to paint texture maps which would be wrapped around the face designs and sent to the Z650 printer. But by harnessing the traditional skills of crosshatching and colour layering, she found a way to expand the colour capabilities of the machine far beyond what anyone thought possible. “She wasn’t just picking a skin tone and doing a solid skin tone, she was building up skin tones with cyans, megentas and yellows. That worked really well for the printer, because with a Z Printer, it is actually printing colour a little bit into the surface of a part,” McLean eulogised. “Just the act of Tory building up these colours meant the results far exceeded the colour gamuts that the printer companies thought were capable.” McLean referred to this invention as ‘tricking’ the Z650 printer into being more colour literate than it was. It saw LAIKA through the production of The Boxtrolls movie, but the machine’s inconsistencies with dimensional accuracies still left the RP team unfulfilled. It combatted these limitations
Missing Link | 2019 102,000 3D printed faces. PolyJet (J750) for faces; PolyJet (Connex3) for internal head components.
2016
through sheer production volume – building and processing thousands of faces, and throwing 40% of them away. All the while, LAIKA’s animators wanted characters more akin to people in reality, whose facial expression could change more fluidly in between frames. “The beginning of Kubo [and the Two Strings] was the first time that we started to recognise that the technology we had been using for the last four years had hit its ceiling. We had squeezed as much out of it as we could,” McLean said. “We were running into scenarios on some of the character designs on Kubo that we knew the technology was not going to work.” These included sharp angles and tiny features. The problem LAIKA had with the Z Print technology was the prints came out as powder and before post-processing were very fragile and prone to breakage at the point of handling. With fine-feature detailed characters like Beetle, Monkey and Moonbeast to negotiate in the making of Kubo, it was time for another process revamp. 4
2019
Kubo and the Two Strings | 2016 64,000 3D printed faces. Z print (human) & PolyJet for (creature) faces; PolyJet for internal head components.
4 RIGHT:
SHOE, A STARRING CHARACTER IN THE BOXTROLLS
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ENTERTAINMENT
SHOWN: COLOUR ME SHOCKED
A HOST OF MONKEY’S FACES COMING OUT OF THE CONNEX3 MACHINE
LAIKA had continued using Polyjet technology for the internal structures of the puppets’ head, maintaining relations with ObJet, now a Stratasys business. At this stage, circa 2013, the Connex3 was in early beta. Similar in many ways to the Connex2 LAIKA had been using, this new version now enabled the mixture of three colours at once. Though potentially a step back from the Z650 in terms of colour capabilities, it was a significant mark up where machine reliability, dimensional accuracy and repeatability were concerned: “We had made it work with the Z Corp printers but it was hell and back,” McLean reasoned. Again, LAIKA found a way around the colour limitations. It began using Jon Hiller and Hod Lipson’s AMF tool to control the droplets of raw material when mixing colours. Instead of selecting fixed colours from a drop-down menu, now the team could create a gradient and make tweaks by changing dithering patterns. To create a shade of orange, the dithering patterns of yellow and magenta were made to be equal, and then inside an Excel spreadsheet the number of droplets in each colour could be fine-tuned to create a custom shade. Using this technique, LAIKA had increased the Connex3’s colour range from 46 to 256, and would manufacture more than 64,000 faces for use in the Kubo movie. The making of Kubo was the first time LAIKA felt like it had total control over the hardware and software it was using to produce the characters’ faces. Before, it had largely accepted what was on offer and worked within the constraints. The movie was another hit. But through its relationship with Stratasys, LAIKA was privy to the development of another colour 3D printing platform, the J750. The company was using this machine three years prior to its release and today has six of them working around the clock. The machine offers more than 500,000 colour combinations and is the only platform used to print 102,000 faces for the Missing Link movie, to be released next spring. LAIKA has changed the way it does this so many times, but it has evolved again not without reason. Movies are shown at 24 frames per second. In standard stopanimation, it could be two or three frames of a film before a facial expression is replaced with a new one. In Missing Link, LAIKA has managed to achieve 12 to 24 different faces per second. Up to one face per frame. Each one with a subtle shift, a pair of eyebrows slowly rising, or a smile turning into a frown. Now, there’s little painting after the print, and 80% of the faces you will see on the
big screen next year haven’t required hand-sanding. From the printer, the supports are washed off, the faces soaked in sodium hydroxide solution for an hour, then soaked in water for another hour, then dried. Residual support material is picked out, then, if required, the faces are sanded, before crystal clear coating is added and gloss coats are hand painted on. The detail is profound, and the results indisputable. From the crossroads LAIKA stood at just a few years back, it trusted its instincts, took a chance on the colour capabilities of a Stratasys machine, and profited from that relationship when the J750 came along. LAIKA is a company not afraid of change, in fact it embraces the challenges change presents, and has so far reaped the rewards of its boldness. It’s why when its tendency to change additive manufacturing workflows so often is questioned, the answer is easy.
SHOWN: A TRAY FEATURING AN ARRAY OF FACES PRINTED FOR THE BOXTROLLS
“It’s all about the desires of the studio of trying to both produce stop motion movies that we were not technically capable of just a few years prior, but also to service the types of story that we want to tell,” McLean explains. “The fact we are constantly raising the bar of what stop motion medium is capable of doing in both its stories and its visuals, that’s our main driving force. To do that, we constantly need to pivot and drive the technology in a creative way.”
SHOWN: ADDING THE FINISHING TOUCHES TO MADAME FROU FROU, A STAR OF THE BOXTROLLS MOVIE
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ENTERTAINMENT
FIT FOR A QUEEN WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS
HOW 3D PRINTING HELPED TO BRING FUTURISTIC WEARABLES TO LIFE IN ONE OF THIS YEAR’S BIGGEST FILMS.
W
hether it’s the Formlabs’ Form 1 cameo in Ant Man or Star Lord’s 3D printed mask in Guardians of the Galaxy, 3D printing has found itself a reoccurring role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Whilst fanboys and girls look for timeline anomalies in their favourite franchises to dedicate crowdfunding campaigns to (Google “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”), I for one am usually fangirling about the quirky prop piece that must have been 3D printed or why that 3D printer “doesn’t work like that” – yes, I am that person. One of the biggest movies of this year was Black Panther, which for a comic book character little-known to the average movie-goer, became something much bigger than just another superhero instalment by breaking boundaries in terms of box office numbers and diversity in mass media. Black Panther is however no exception to the Marvel 3D printing trend and in fact features one of the most striking applications of the technology we’ve seen in the MCU, so far. The film centres on the fictional country of Wakanda, a unique civilisation located in Sub-Saharan Africa, which visually fuses together traditional African designs and futuristic elements evident throughout its environment and character costumes designed by Oscar-nominated costume designer Ruth E. Carter. In order to bring these styles together, Carter approached Julia Koerner, an inter-disciplinary designer specialised in 3D printed wearables, to collaborate on a collection of cutting-edge accessories fit for Queen Ramonda played by actress, Angela Bassett. “The director of the movie Ryan Coogler and the costume designer Ruth E. Carter wanted the costume to blend tradition and hypermodernity,” Koerner told TCT. “Inspired by traditional African patterns I developed 3D digital morphologies to transform the traditional craftsmanship into digitally crafted designs. Utilising 3D printing technology was the ultimate goal to achieve a futuristic look for Queen Ramonda’s regal attire.” Black Panther’s technologically advanced environment is home to several futuristic gadgets such as electromagnetic levitating trains and vehicles controlled by virtual reality. Therefore, it was important for the costumes to reflect that 4
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forward-thinking aesthetic rather than a conventional hand-crafted look. Based on Carter’s initial sketches and illustrations from Phillip Boutte, Koerner developed a series of digital patterns and parametrically generated geometries to create a Zulu inspired crown and shoulder mantle. The designer also worked closely with partner, Kais Al-Rawi who specialises in complexity on a largescale having previously worked on huge architectural projects including stadiums and museums. To bring the pieces to life, Koerner collaborated with Belgian 3D printing company, Materialise. The two have worked together on various projects across product design and haute couture over the last decade and were able to use their joint expertise to realise Koerner’s vision. Valérie Vriamont, Business Development Manager at Materialise said: “Julia explained to us that it was a garment that needed to be wearable, but it also needed to deliver an imposing look and effect. Where I think we play an important role is that we have a very diverse material database that we can choose from, combined with the know-how on which material will be best suited for the application.” The pieces were printed using selective laser sintering (SLS) and after trialling a few different materials at Materialise’s Factory for 3D Printing, Polyamide 12 powder was chosen as the most suitable. The material selection was heavily influenced by the design itself and may seem a little unusual
due to PA12’s typically strong and stiff properties. However, a combination of the technology, material and Koerner’s cleverly considered geometries, resulted in finished pieces which were both flexible and comfortably wearable. “That’s really down to Julia’s expertise,” Vriamont added. “Her knowledge of exactly how to design for 3D printing when it comes to garments; her expertise in knowing how to work with the wall thicknesses to achieve the right functionality, which kinds of structures can be 3D printed. That’s really her strength.” The pieces appear several times throughout the film in different iterations including one particular headpiece which was printed in PA12 and dyed black to finish. Materialise believes this final step
is a key component in turning a standard 3D printed part into a real wearable product, similar to the company’s work on customised 3D printed frames for spectacles with the likes of Yuniku and Safilo Group. Vriamont added: “We really see that 3D printing is becoming a standard for these types of applications. It has become part of the technologies portfolio that designers and fashion designers are considering when creating a collection. It’s becoming widely accepted and utilised because we can finish it and make it wearable.” The project was very top secret and Koerner was given just a codename and very few design indicators when she began working on the pieces. It wasn’t until the products were completed and Marvel began filming around a year before the film’s release in February that Koerner learned more about where her designs would feature on the big screen. “When I was working on the 3D design of the costume, I did not know much about the movie,” Koerner explained. “Traditional African patterns served as inspiration and I knew they needed to look technologically advanced and required to be produced with 3D printing technology.” With another six Marvel films scheduled for release before the end of next year alone and many others still untitled in the pipeline, there’s a good chance that 3D printing has already reprised its role in the franchise as these instalments wrap up production. It might be a case where, like Queen Ramonda’s crown, you could spot its intricate geometries from a mile away or perhaps it’s being applied behind the scenes to create prototypes and moulds for the next collection of costumes or props. Either way, there is no denying that 3D technologies, whether 3D printing or carefully considered 3D design, are fast becoming an indispensable tool in the film and fashion worlds alike.
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RAPID PROTOTYPING
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Research & Academia
PUSHING ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TO THE MOLECULAR LIMIT WORDS: Victor Sans, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
T
here is a profound and fundamental divide between the way engineers and physical scientists work in academia. Engineers are excellent in providing cost-effective and workable solutions to complex problems, such as providing food, chemicals, infrastructure, etc. at large scales. Nevertheless, there is a limitation in the toolbox of materials they can access in their designs and solutions, which somewhat limits the scope of innovation they can achieve. Physical scientists, in concrete in the chemical sciences, excel in the understanding of molecular interactions, thus being able to create molecular and nanostructured materials with novel and emerging properties. Despite the level of sophistication achieved, the translation into practical materials and devices is cumbersome and typically requires lengthy timescales without any guarantee of success throughout the process. At the University of Nottingham, we believe that additive manufacturing (AM) has an untapped potential to bridge this gap. AM enables the rapid design and manufacture of unconventional geometries in a transformational fashion from an engineering point of view. The possibility to generate complex geometries in an increasing variety of materials, including polymers, ceramics and metals is having an increasing academic impact. Amongst the different materials that can be employed for AM, polymers are especially attractive
4 figure 3:
PIL precursor printing
Anion Metathesis
STRATEGY TO INKJET PRINT VISCOUS MONOMERS BY SUCCESSIVE FUNCTIONALISATION OF PRINTED LAYERS. ADAPTED FROM ACS SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY & ENGINEERING, 2018, 6 (3), PP 3984–3991
due to the broad range of functionalities that can be added by material design. Polymerisable ionic liquids (PILs) are a class of polyelectrolytes with analogous functional units and properties to bulk ionic liquids (ILs), which are salts with highly tuneable properties depending on the choice of cations and anions. The large number of molecular functionalities that can be combined makes ILs and PILs highly versatile for a broad range of applications including catalysis, energy storage, antimicrobials and organic electronics. Furthermore, ILs and PILs are excellent media to stabilise advanced materials, like carbon materials, nanoparticles and biomolecules. It is highly surprising that despite the huge potential for applications from PILs, it has not been exploited for 3D printing. In 2014, the group of Professor Timothy Long in Virginia Tech demonstrated for the first time the possibility of 3D printing PILs employing microstereolithography. Recently we have demonstrated for the first time the possibility to 3D print PILs with photoactive molecular materials employing digital light processing (DLP) (Figure 1). Devices with tuneable properties (e.g. hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity) were manufactured in a sequential fashion. In addition to the molecular functionalities
5 FIGURE 2:
PHOTOCHROMIC DEVICE 3D PRINTED WITH DLP BASED ON A SCHWARTZ P SURFACE CUBE
Quaternisation
added by the PILs, the introduction of molecularly engineered hybrid organicinorganic molecular metal oxides known as polyoxometalates (POMs). The finely tuned combination of organic and inorganic functionalities allows us to control the bandgap to yield efficient photosensitisers. POMs absorb in the UV spectra in an oxidised state, while they exhibit a dark blue colour in the reduced state. A synergy between the polymers and the photoactive molecular materials allows us to manufacture devices with the POM in a dormant state. Upon controlled reduction with light, the POM reduction leads to a spatially resolved photochromic behaviour that was effectively reversed oxidising the material with oxygen (Figure 2). Developing reversible photochromic materials will lead to a broad range of interesting applications, the most obvious being the storage of information employing the controlled redox properties of the POMs, being the oxidised state a ‘0’ and the reduced state (blue colour) the ’1’. The success of this approach will require to simultaneously develop novel molecular materials, polymers and strategies for printing with high resolution techniques, like inkjet (Figure 3) and two-photon. The possibility of effectively manufacturing molecularly designed materials with 3D printing via the employment of finely tuneable PILs is now an achievable method to bridge the gap between discovery and application. This approach will hopefully set a roadmap for engineers and scientists to work closer together to develop next generation devices with exciting emerging properties.
3 FIGURE 1:
ARTISTIC CONCEPTUAL REPRESENTATION OF 3D PRINTING OF MOLECULARLY FUNCTIONALISED PHOTOCHROMIC DEVICE (ELLA MARU STUDIO). 26 : 4
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Research & Academia
EYE ON THE PRIZE B io-printing isn’t a new phenomenon. In fact, research into the printing of various body parts has been going on since the late 1990s. It’s potentially offering medical professionals alternative ways of conducting medical transplants. For 20 years, Che Connor, Professor of Tissue Engineering, Newcastle University has had his focus on the component of the eye that gives us the ability to focus in the first instance. After successfully printing a customised human cornea, TCT Magazine asked how and why.
Can you explain why there is a need for this kind of research to be undertaken?
Che Connon (CC): Globally, there are almost five million people who are corneal blind in both eyes, and the people that are corneal blind in one eye raises that number to 23 million. Currently, corneal donor tissue transplantation is the only widely accepted treatment to restore sight. It’s estimated over 12 million people are on a waiting list for transplantation. There’s a severe shortage of donor corneas worldwide, and that means only one in 70 individuals in need receive transplants. Another point is that over 50% of the world’s inhabitants don’t have access to corneal transplantation. That’s why this work needs to be done.
the current systems for donors. The shape of your donor cornea is not bespoke and that can cause problems with the patient’s vision, stigmatism, for example, is often caused by a poor match of the shapes of the donor tissue with the patient’s own eye. With 3D printing, you should have complete control over the final shape of the tissue. That means the patient’s vision should be predictable following that transplant.
What were the biggest challenges you faced during this research?
CC: These challenges have been addressed over 20 years of my research. They include how you extract and grow the cells appropriately so they maintain the right phenotype, the right function; what materials can you use to mix them with; and also when we print
Can you explain how the process of bio-printing a human cornea works?
CC: We take a population of corneal stromal stem cells that sit inside the corneal matrix, extract those cells, grow them up and then combine them with a bio ink. The bio ink is extruded through the printer to make a printed tissue. It needs to have several attributes. It needs to flow. It needs to maintain viable cells. And it needs to have enough mechanical properties to hold its shape following the extrusion. We developed a novel bio ink that contains collagen, one of the main structural components of the cornea. We combine that with alginate, a polysaccharide derived from seaweed, which has some good characteristics: it’s very self-friendly, it also cross links and forms a very stable matrix without harming the cells. Once we have that bio ink, we extrude it into a mould which has been taken from an actual patient’s corneal shape. That data is collected using normal ophthalmic cameras that they use for fitting contact lenses. That gives you the shape of the cornea. We recreate the negative images of that cornea in a mould, and then we extrude the positive image through the bio ink into that mould, holding its shape, forming a corneal shaped tissue that has the appropriate stromal cells within it.
How important is customisation for 3D printed corneas to work in the human body?
SHOWN:
DR STEVE SWIOKLO, LEFT, AND PROF CHE CONNON, RIGHT.
the cornea, we are giving the cells within that printed cornea very specific cues, which then direct those cells to become organised in a way that they would do in the normal cornea. Some of those challenges were ‘what are those cues? What is it inside a normal cornea that directs those cells to be corneal-like?’ And it’s our understanding of those cues which form a fundamental part of our breakthrough technology.
And what challenges lie ahead?
CC: One challenge is how do we keep the printed cornea in place once it is transplanted. We need to think about how exactly they are going to surgically implant this cornea. Is it going to be sutured? Is it going to be glued? This is a challenge we face.
How much of an impact do you think this research can have?
CC: The need for corneal transplants is growing. Our idea with a 3D printing approach is that it facilitates the manufacture at the site of need. The printing process should be low cost so the impact will come from having accessibility to corneas at an affordable price. A combination of those two will lead us to have a real impact across the world.
CC: The shape of the cornea is important in terms of transplantation and that isn’t easily addressed with
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TCT SHOW PREVIEW
TCT SHOW 2018 PREVIEW F SHOW
or 23 years, the TCT Show has been providing a platform for advanced manufacturing technologies that will shape the future of how things are made. From the early days of rapid prototyping to Industry 4.0., the landscape has changed as new technologies and applications emerge to help us to make better products in more efficient ways.
This year TCT’s flagship event will welcome some 250+ exhibitors to Halls 3 & 3A of the NEC, Birmingham on 25-27th September to showcase the most innovative and dynamic technologies and services across the design-to-manufacturing value chain. As you walk around the show floor you’ll get a first look at the key trends that will form our smart factories and production lines of the future from planning stages to design to manufacture and inspection. In this preview, we bring you just a taste of the technologies you’ll be able to see on our biggest show floor to date and how those innovations could play a role in the ‘factory of the future’.
SHOWFLOOR SPOTLIGHT Automation
AMFG, a provider of automation software for additive manufacturing (AM), will show its new software platform that uses artificial intelligence to automate AM production for the first time on stand J42. AMFG’s AI-powered capabilities provide manufacturers with automation for end-part production, including scheduling automation, printability analyses and post-processing. “Our vision is for our software solution to enable autonomous additive manufacturing,” explained Keyvan Karimi, CEO of AMFG.
Blockchain
Link3D will showcase a first-ofits-kind blockchain technology for industrial 3D printing processes on stand E35. For OEMs, blockchain provides the ability to securely certify and validate service bureau processes throughout the production lifecycle when outsourcing mass produced and mission critical 3D parts. Link3D’s Digital Factory, launched at last year’s show, has also seen several updates to streamline and fully configure order submission forms to trace and track data based off of comprehensive OEM workflows.
“Our software achieves this by incorporating machine learning algorithms to provide an end-to-end solution for the additive manufacturing process.” On stand 35, 3YOURMIND will exhibit its latest software platform, the 3YOURMIND AM Part Identifier, which enables companies to identify the best parts for AM, resulting in increased machine utilisation and reduced overhead costs due to streamlined single part to entire inventory analysis.
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TCT SHOW PREVIEW
“WHAT A GREAT SHOW. MET SOME FANTASTIC PEOPLE, MADE CONTACTS TO HELP SOLVE SOME PROBLEMS, LEFT WITH A HUGE SHOPPING LIST!” PAT WARNER, DIGITAL MANUFACTURING MANAGER, RENAULT SPORT RACING F1 TEAM.
Don’t forget the desktop
Huge companies like Jabil and Volkswagen have already proven the power of the desktop in large manufacturing environments whether it’s making tooling or providing engineers with the flexibility to get hands-on and innovate faster. Ultimaker, whose machines are used by both companies and more, will bring its latest machine, the Ultimaker S5, a larger dual extrusion system with advanced connectivity features, to the TCT Show floor on stand R18. Lars Bognar, a Research Engineer in AM at Ford said: “The Ultimaker S5 allows our engineers and designers to fully iterate and test certain functional prototypes to as real conditions as possible without scaling.” On stand F26, Formlabs will showcase its entire Form 2 stereolithography ecosystem including Form Wash and Form Cure which provide an automated approach to post-processing prints. The process allows for “setting and forgetting” within a printing workflow, while maintaining consistent prints and optimising parts’ mechanical properties. Visitors to the booth will also be able to see Fuse 1 which is bringing the industrial power of selective laser sintering to the bench top. Tiertime will demonstrate its three latest machine models for 2018 on stand K44. This includes the UP mini 2 ES, the UP300, and the X5. The mini 2 ES is already available in the US and Europe whilst the UP300 and X5 will be launched at the TCT Show. The UP300 boasts the UP line’s largest build volume to date and is designed for optimal thermoplastic extrusion with a wide variety of materials. The X5, shortlisted in the TCT Awards, is a new concept, designed from the ground up as a continuous 3D printing system for low-volume manufacturing.
Materials
Powder characterisation specialists, Freeman Technology, will be exhibiting a range of solutions aimed at optimising process performance, increasing productivity and improving quality in a diverse range of sectors, including AM. On display on stand D48 will be the FT4 Powder Rheometer, a powder tester which uses patented dynamic methodology, automated shear cells (in accordance with ASTM D7891) and a series of bulk property tests to quantify powder behaviour in terms of flow and processability. On stand G41, M&I Materials will showcase its Wolfmet 3D process which uses selective laser melting technology for the manufacture of highly complex tungsten components such as collimators and radiation shields in imaging systems. Wolfmet 3D can quickly and cost-effectively produce geometries not possible with traditional milling or turning for components which are non-magnetic, non-toxic and environmentally safe.
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Confimaterials, gure the modular MetalFAB1 system Larger capacity, Multiple Additional Larger capacity, functionality Multiple materials, Additional functionality to fit your applications
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TCT SHOW PREVIEW
Additive Manufacturing
On stand N44, TRUMPF, which offers both laser metal fusion (LMF) and laser metal deposition (LMD), will show the TruPrint 1000, a compact and robust 3D printing machine for the generative production of small industrial single parts and series. In addition, visitors will be able to see the TruPrint 3000, a universal medium-format machine with industrial part and powder management, designed for flexible series production of complex, metal components. Making its European debut at TCT, Stratasys’ newlylaunched Fortus 380CF Production 3D Printer will be running live on stand H36. Launched earlier this year, the Fortus 380CF is available in a range of price points featuring Stratasys’ high-performance Nylon 12 Carbon Fiber thermoplastic material which contains 35% chopped carbon-fibre. Visitors will learn how Dutch Service Bureau, Visual First, is using FDM Nylon 12CF to replace metal machine parts for its customers, reducing costs by 60% and lead times by 75%. On the EnvisionTEC stand N35, visitors will see a wide range of 3D printing solutions from the desktop through to large frame 3SP models for large scale production and Continuous Digital Light Manufacturing for fast printing. There will also be examples from the Viridis RAM sand printer, which uses a proprietary print head attached to an ABB robot arm and exclusive binder jetting technology to print sand moulds for casting up to 60 x 138 x 183cm in size.
new facility will house MetalFAB1 demonstration systems and offer process and application development. Xaar will exhibit its High Laydown (HL) Technology for material jetting on stand J21. The Xaar 1003 printhead enables the jetting of fluids with viscosities of up to 35cP and with the addition of HL Technology, even higher viscosity fluids can be jetted at significantly increased throughput as demonstrated using BASF fluids. This facilitates faster printing of 3D parts with improved mechanical properties such as tensile strength. On stand L24, 3D Systems will be showcasing new 3D printing solutions for plastics and metals. This includes the scalable Figure 4 production platform which takes users all the way up to complete Digital Moulding, the new entry-level industrial grade FabPro 1000, and high throughput DMP Flex 100 for entry-level metal and dental applications. Visitors can also experience handson demonstrations of Geomagic, Cimatron, 3DXpert and 3D Sprint software. In addition, visitors can see examples of AM in the aerospace sector on Materialise’s stand N43, where the Belgian company will be showcasing overhead spacer panels 3D printed for the Airbus A320.
Swedish 3D printing company 3DVerkstan will launch a high temperature version of its Olsson Ruby nozzle on stand D42. The Olsson Ruby High Temp can handle temperatures up to 500 degrees Celsius (900°F) and features a coating with non-stick properties, resulting in smoother and cleaner prints in heat resistant composites, such as carbon-filled Ultem, or PEEK. Inventor, Anders Olsson, says the nozzle could be particularly beneficial in the automotive and aerospace sectors where high temp 3D printing materials could potentially replace metal parts. On stand S36, Additive Industries will be talking about the launch of its Process and Application Development Centre for the UK & Ireland. The MetalFAB1 is the only metal 3D printing system on the market that integrates powder bed fusion with post processing to enable consistent quality and unattended operation. The
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Cambridge Sensotec, specialists in measuring oxygen in protective gas atmospheres and manufactures of the Rapidox range of gas analysers, have been working with the leading AM machine manufactures to supply high performance oxygen analysers. The analysers are supplied as an OEM component to integrate seamlessly into metal 3D printers and come with many standard features. The Rapidox sensor can measure from sub ppm to % O2 and can operate in temperatures of up to 600°C. For more information, contact the experts in oxygen gas analysis. www.cambridge-sensotec.co.uk sales@cambridge-sensotec.co.uk +44 (0)1480 462142
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TCT SHOW PREVIEW
“I WOULD RECOMMEND ANYONE TO EXHIBIT WITH TCT. YOU GUYS HELPED US HAPPEN,”
EDWARD FENG, PRESIDENT OF RAISE3D.
Post-Processing
Shot blasting and mass finishing equipment manufacturer, Rősler UK invites visitors to find out more about the appropriate surface finishing equipment for the treatment of 3D printed and AM parts on stand T42. New at the show will be the Rösler “plug and play” trough machine, a compact, mobile and versatile system for finishing both plastic and metal AM parts. Rosler will also be showing a blast cabinet that’s quickly becoming the industry standard for the post-printing blast cleaning of plastic parts.
application include thermal cleaning of injection moulding tools, determination of annealing loss, and the debinding of additively manufactured ceramic products.
Over on stand J48, Nabertherm has been developing and producing industrial furnaces for many different applications for over 70 years. At TCT Show 2018, the company will present the new L ../11 BO ashing furnace with integrated exhaust gas cleaning, specially designed for processes in which larger sample quantities have to be incinerated. Fields of
On stand S48, Volkmann will be showcasing the new PowTReX vacuum conveying system for use within the AM industry for the safe powder transfer, recovery and extraction of AM materials from build chambers for re-use or storage. Utilising an ultra-sonic sieve, to screen product before being stored or conveyed back to the AM machine, and with options for inert gas re-circulation and oxygen monitoring (with inert gas purging) the PowTReX offers high levels of safety and security for the operator and the industry.
On stand S44, Industrial finishing equipment manufacturer Guyson International will be showcasing their new Euroblast Ex range of blast systems at the show. Designed for use with potentially explosive powders and certified to the directive ATEX 2014/34/EU the systems are coded; II 2/3 D Ex h T135 °C Db/Dc. The systems are particularly relevant in AM applications where the use of fine powders of materials such as aluminium, titanium and Inconel, can create potentially explosive atmospheres. The Euroblast Ex range features four sizes of blast cabinet, a cyclone reclamator and Guyson C600 dust collector.
Inspection
On stand J16, MKS Instruments will present the industry’s first non-contact laser beam monitoring system for AM. Ophir BeamWatch AM is a lightweight, compact system designed for real-time measurement of focal shift during laser startup of powder bed fusion manufacturing processes. It measures key beam size, position, and quality parameters, including focus spot size and beam caustic. These measurements allow users to more easily determine when the beam is aligned and in focus, providing more consistent metallurgy. Also highlighting the importance of measurement in AM, global engineering firm Renishaw, will be showcasing its range products and services in measurement, motion control and versatile gauging on stand N36 along with its portfolio of machines and software solutions for metal AM
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TCT SHOW PREVIEW
TCT Conference
It’s not just the show floor exhibits where you will see examples of design-to-manufacturing innovation. Across three stages, over 60 world-class speakers will deliver key insights into AM technologies, materials and processes in our free-to-attend TCT Conference programme. The TCT Show Conference is divided into streams to ensure a takeaway for every level of experience whether your interests lie in healthcare, transport, materials and processes, design or the latest research. The TCT Main Stage is the place to be to hear from Blue Chips, SMEs and research and academia leaders, including Airbus, Natural History Museum and a panel session with this year’s TCT Hall of Fame inductees. Over on the TCT Introducing Stage, visitors can expect talks on the latest developments in hardware, software, materials and services in an open auditorium style forum while the Tech Stage will cover current issues in the manufacturing world including crucial matters such as data ownership, standards and skills.
Presentation Picks
Life in the Fast Lane - The Thrills and Spills of Start-Ups in Manufacturing Technology Dave Burns | Founder and Principal, Global Business Advisory Services LLC. 25th September | 11:00 – 11:30 | Main Stage
Advancements in AM Facility Safety Standards Balakrishnan V Nair | AM Lead Development Engineer, UL 25th September | 14:00 – 14:30 | TCT Tech Stage
More than just a Geometry … Laser Sintered Parts with Anti-Bacterial Properties Candice Majewski | Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, University of Sheffield 26th September | 14:30 – 15:00 | Main Stage
Processing of a Particulate Apatite-Wollastonite and PLLA Biocomposite Priscila Melo | PhD Student, Newcastle University 26th September | 15:00 – 15:30 | Main Stage
“TCT SHOW, ONE OF THE GREATEST EVENTS FOR 3D PRINTING; A DELIGHT SEEING INNOVATORS, ADOPTERS AND ALL AMAZING 3D PRINTING PEOPLE!” ACHALA DE MEL, VISITING ACADEMIC, UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM
AI and Automation: The Next Frontier in AM Keyvan Karimi | CEO AMFG & Dr. Martin Baumers | Assistant Professor and Researcher, University of Nottingham 26th September | 14:30 – 14:50 | TCT Introducing Stage
3DTALK at TCT Show Women in 3D Printing and Cyant 26th September | 11:30 – 13:00 | Tech Stage SEE FULL PROGRAMME AND REGISTER FOR FREE AT WWW.TCTSHOW.COM
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TCT AWARDS
FINALISTS ANNOUNED FOR TCT AWARDS 2018
F
inalists have now been announced for the TCT Awards 2018. This year’s TCT Awards are to be held at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole on the evening of Wednesday 26th September. Each finalist entry will be sent to the TCT Expert Advisory Board where the judging process will commence. The judges will collectively use their expertise from varied industries to pick a winner from each category. After long consideration of an abundance of high standard entry applications, we are pleased to announce the TCT Award finalists 2018.
TCT Aerospace Application Award 2018 • Carbon Fibre Wing Repair Kit | FDM Digital Solutions, Airbus • Liquid Rocket Engine Injector | 3D Systems, DLR (German Aerospace Centre) • Overhead Spacer Panels | Materialise, Airbus • Project MELT | BEEVERYCREATIVE, European Space Agency TCT Automotive Application Award 2018 • Bespoke functional dashboard prototypes | Ricoh, Volkswagen • BMW i8 roadster SLM bracket | SLM Solutions, BMW • Custom carbon fibre motorcycle seat | Markforged, Auto Fabrica • LightHinge+ | Simufact Engineering, Edag Engineering • LSEV - 3D Printed Urban Car | Polymaker, XEV TCT Consumer Product Application Award 2018 • Carbon Fibre Bike Frame | AREVO, Studio West • IKEA Omedelbar Hands | Wazp, IKEA • Luxury Faucets | 3D Systems, Kallista • MINI YOURS Customised | HP, Carbon, EOS, BMW • Vitamix Nozzle | Carbon, Vitamix TCT Creative Application Award 2018 • Ancient Roman Helmet | Custom Prototypes • Diplodocus skull | Laser Prototypes Europe, Natural History Museum • Embrace: Jewellery with embedded gemstones | Cookson Gold, Boltenstern • Life Size Star Wars Executioner Trooper | 3D Systems, Disney / Lucas Film • Pleated costume for Beijing Opera | Sinterit, Royal College of Art TCT Hardware Award 2018 - Non-polymer systems • Desktop Metal Production System | Desktop Metal • Dynamic Multi Laser Assignment | Additive Industries • GTarc 3DMP technology | GEFERTEC • LightSPEE3D | SPEE3D • Olsson Ruby FDM Nozzle | 3DVerkstan Nordic
TCT Hardware Award 2018 - Polymer systems • Apium M220 | Apium Additive Technologies • E3D Tool-changer | E3D Online • EOS P 500 | EOS • Essentium High Speed Extrusion (HSE) | Essentium • Figure 4 | 3D Systems • High Speed Sintering | Voxeljet • Mimaki 3DUJ-553 | Mimaki USA • Tiertime X5 | Tiertime Corporation TCT Healthcare Application Award 2018 • 125kg weight bearing prosthetic | HP, Prosfit Technologies • Acetabular Cup Cutter | GE Additive, Endocon • DURAN® DFAM lab equipment | Laserteck, DWK Life Sciences • Pre-op planning model aids world-first surgery | Axial 3D, Belfast City Hospital • Single socket upper limb prosthetics | EOS, Glaze Prosthetics • Topology optimised spinal implant | 3D Systems, NuVasive TCT Industrial Application Award 2018 • 3DP Investment casting patterns | Ultimaker, Sylatech • 80% time saving in tool fabrication | Ultimaker, Jabil • Andbarb fastening system | Andbarb • DFAM Condiment Nozzle | Frazer Nash Manufacturing, Grote Company • DFAM Rollertrain Bearing Cages | Bowman Additive Production, John Handley Bearings • Mass Customisation of copper inductors | trinckle 3D, PROTIQ TCT Materials Award 2018 - Polymers • Biocompatible Temporis Photoshade | DWS Srl • DuraForm ProX FR1200 | 3D Systems • EPX 82 | Carbon • Formlabs ceramic resin | Formlabs • SABIC EXL AMHI240F filament | Sabic • Windform RL | CRP Technology
TCT Materials Awards 2018 Non-polymers • Additive LFRP Composites | Impossible Objects • Aluminium alloys for AM | Arconic • Copper C18150 | Stratasys Direct Manufacturing • NanoSteel BLDRmetal L-40 | NanoSteel • Vibenite 290 hard steel | VBN Components TCT Metrology Award 2018 • Aircraft Damage Assessment | 3D Systems, Easyjet • Artec Leo | Artec 3D • Creaform Academia | Ametek Creaform • Faro Design ScanArm 2.0 | Faro Europe TCT Post-Processing Award 2018 • ‘Print-to-Product’ workflow | DyeMansion • DLyte: Metal DryLyte Electropolishing | Steros GPA Innovate S.L. • PostPro3D - Automated part finishing | Additive Manufacturing Technologies • Russell AMPro Sieve Station | Russell Finex • Sinterit Sieve for Sinterit Lisa | Sinterit • Hybrid DECI Duo System | PostProcess Technologies TCT Software Award 2018 • AMFG | Autonomous Manufacturing • Axial3DinPrint | Axial 3D • Cura Connect | Ultimaker • Digital Supply (Block)Chain | Identify3D • Discovery Live | Ansys UK • LINK3D Digital Factory | LINK3D • Materialise e-Stage for Metal | Materialise • Support Optimization Module for LBM | Additive Works For more details on the shortlist nominations and to book your early bird tickets, head to tctawards.com
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The Event for
Design-to-Manufacturing Innovation 3d printing | additive manufacturing | inspection machine tools | cad/cae/cam/plm software | materials metrology | moulding and tooling | post processing
25 26 27 SEPTEMBER 2018 NEC, Birmingham, UK
Being recognised as a world-class company is only achieved by constantly improving every part of your design-to-manufacturing process chain. The pace of development in technology, materials and software is incredible and with over 300 cutting edge exhibitors that CAN help you enhance your design and manufacturing process, it is no surprise that more than 10,000 professionals from product development, engineering and manufacturing functions choose to attend the TCT Show every year. Join them this September.
Whatever your mission, find your insights, intelligence and inspiration at TCT Show.
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SHOW
Industry 4.0
BEST IN THE FIELD A
midst a severe earthquake that registered 7.8 on the Richter magnitude scale, Nepal was shaken, villages were levelled, avalanches triggered, and millions affected. Nearly 9,000 died, around 22,000 injured, and 3,000,000 were made homeless.
As aid and rescue teams from countries near and far descended on Nepal, ‘tent cities’ were erected, and within them, similarly constructed hospitals cared for the injured. These make-shift emergency centres are critical in crises such as this, saving hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives at each catastrophic event. But they rely on a consistent electricity supply, something an earthquake-ravaged setting can hardly guarantee. In one particular clinic in Nepal in 2015, there was an outage. Suddenly the chances of survival for each patient was cut dramatically.
“A huge electrical socket had broken. That represented about 25% of their capacity and that meant the ward did not have electrical power. What they needed was a fixture to put it back in place. A unique item that would have had to be shipped in, then they would have had trouble finding it. [We] were able to engineer a new one at a fraction of the cost of what the replacement would be, and restore the power for the ward.” “It took us about a day and a half to take it all apart, measure it up, then print it out. Bringing in a new part was virtually impossible for
WORDS: SAM DAVIES
them because the piece of equipment was made in Italy and, it was really typical, they didn’t make that piece of kit anymore so there weren’t any spare parts to be had. It was a 3D printed part but it was a like-for-like for replacement. Even if the spare part had been available I probably wouldn’t have bothered in that case.” Telling the story is first Eric James, the co-founder and Director of Field Ready, and second, Abi Bush, a Global Technical Advisor of the multinational humanitarian aid organisation using the latest technology to manufacture locally and reactively in the context of the problems that arise in global crises. Since the 25-strong team’s first deployment in Haiti in 2014, the aid workers have offered their services in South Sudan, the South Pacific, Syria, Turkey, Jordan,
Iraq, the United States and the Virgin Islands, and, of course, Nepal. What distinguishes this team, so busy and geographically widespread that all 25 are yet to be in the same place at the same time, is its approach to humanitarian aid, inspired by the principles of Industry 4.0. When the Field Ready team arrived in Nepal, as is the case wherever they go, needs assessments were carried out to calculate where their local manufacturing capabilities were most urgently required. In healthcare centres, inventory checks source the missing items, and Field Ready sets about manufacturing replacements. 3D printing disposable tweezers and kidney trays are easy wins, while otoscopes and umbilical cord clamps have also been well received. 4
SHOWN: TAKING APART A FAN TO PROTOTYPE A WIND TURBINE
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“Probably the most impactful one was a simple wrist brace,” Bush says. “We just printed out a flat shape in PLA and if you put that in hot water it becomes malleable and you can form it to exactly fit a patient. We gave a couple to a clinic and they just kept demanding more. We ended up making a tonne of those, and to print it out of PLA, a flat shape, it didn’t take very long. The whole thing costs about $2.”
redesign to make the cook stove more efficient, carving it out of wood proved too complicated. Enter Field Ready. And enter 3D printing. Working side by side, a CAD model was developed, several iterations completed, and then finally printed. It was sent to the sand casting factory who made a prototype in metal, tested it, and soon after Madhukar got a contract for 210,000 cook stoves.
It’s not only within health clinics that Field Ready provides replacement and spare parts. It could be anywhere, like up a mountain with a desktop 3D printer hooked up to a car battery, or beside a property, the machine living off the power generated by solar panels.
“One single print for a chap with the right idea had a sand casting factory employed at capacity for one and a half years,” Bush said. “It gave his business a huge boost, and you’ve also got 210,000 homes with cleaner air. That’s a huge win from one single print.”
And though primarily a humanitarian aid organisation, Field Ready is also on hand to help with general development issues. In Nepal, the team met a local entrepreneur, Madhukar KC, who for ten years had been working on the design of a biomass cook stove. His new grill design would help maintain the oxygen flow throughout the burning of the fuel which would mean cleaner air in homes, and fewer lives lost. Madhukar, was bidding to win a government contract, bringing the manufacture and retail of cook stoves into Nepal instead of a mass importation of cookers from South Africa, for example. He had the idea, but no means of manufacture to execute it.
The wrist brace and cook stove case studies put the work Field Ready does into proper context. One helped Nepali people in the short term, and the other is set to have a lasting impact on not just people’s wellbeing, but their economy too.
The original process involved Madhukar carving a pattern out of wood before a sand casting factory made a sand mould form of that shape, and then pour molten iron into the cavity to produce the design. After a
“We try do things for as little as possible so they’re more easily replicable, but also if we’re making humanitarian supplies closer to where they’re needed, using local materials in the local market, then we’re actually supporting livelihoods and we’re contributing to the local economy far more than organisations that might spend $5m on 50 bits of equipment that they import from Kentucky or wherever. That does nothing for the local economy,” Ben Britton, Innovation Advisor, Nepal, Field Ready reasons. The mind-set that dictates this will to localise manufacturing runs parallel with the philosophy of shortening supply chains for a much more efficient delivery of essential resources in the height of crisis. It makes little sense for a product manufactured in Pakistan to be shipped to the UK for storage, then be flown out to Nepal via Dubai, when it can instead be manufactured and distributed within the same country. “If we can directly make things there on the ground and pass those skills on, teach others to make things, the significance of that is enormous,” James says. “And then teaching other aid agencies that this is actually a way that you can reduce costs, and on average we’re talking about a 50% reduction in costs. You can help that many more people, you can build people’s resilience through this local training, possibly leading to new income generation or new livelihood for some people.
3 SHOWN:
3D PRINTING A WATER PIPE FITTING IN NEPAL
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Industry 4.0
“In a lot of ways, this is what the fourth industrial revolution is all about. What we’re doing is applying a lot of those principles to aid work.” It’s why three years on from the earthquake, Britton still leads a squad of six technical staff in Nepal. His team has been instrumental in the development of the Nepal Innovation Lab in Kathmandu Valley which, funded by World Vision International, works to find smarter, cheaper and better ways of providing humanitarian aid. Central to that approach, and Field Ready’s ambition to have a lasting impact on the country, is the development of a 3D printing filament production capacity. It caters for a modest market, but one that is currently spending way over the odds, up to $60 on 1kg of filament, thanks to import taxes. The facility has a team dedicated to the production of commercial-standard ABS filaments, with other types of plastics potentially to come, that cost around $6 to produce and $10-12 to buy. With supply of the raw materials rarely straightforward,
the filament development base is looking to recycle e-waste whenever it can, upcycling objects like printer housings from landfill. While it will reduce the cost for the end user, it also helps to educate Nepali people at the other end of the operation. Nepali has a wealth of young, talented engineers, but they’re typically emigrating to places like the U.S. or Australia, so Field Ready is helping to fight this ‘brain drain’ by laying down foundations to enhance skills, and in turn, the local economy. The thing with humanitarian crises is they’ll always keep happening. Global warming is going to see tropical cyclones become more intense, while tectonic plates can shift at any moment, and the ever-present pursuit of power will continue to see conflicts destroy communities. The troubles in
5 ABOVE:
ABI BUSH ON ASSESSMENT IN TIMOR LESTE
5S HOWN: Syria is one of the most topical examples of the latter, and yet Field Ready hasn’t hesitated to deploy members of its team in Eastern Europe and Western Asia to lend a hand and save lives. Field Ready has cut the supply chain, used the resources at hand, and found solutions in harrowing scenarios. One example is people being trapped under the wreckage of bombings. Field Ready has developed heavy lift airbags that are filled with pressurised air and can lift up to 17 tonnes in weight. “They tend to be very expensive pieces of kit, and they weren’t available in northern Syria, so we’ve made those with a huge reduction in cost, and completely locally using locally available materials, using basic things to bind pieces of rubber together,” James explains. “There’s no real high-tech exponential technology there, it was just basic engineering work but applied in a new way.” There’s a plethora of other ways Field Ready finds solutions to critical problems - the wrist braces, cook stove, and airbags are just the tip of the iceberg. The team restores solar panels, sets up hydroponic farms, installs water pumps, and manufactures too many replacement parts to list. It’s all done locally, using local resources, with and for local people. Supply chains are concise, cost and wait-time reduced, and
LOCALLY MANUFACTURING PARTS IN SOUTH SUDAN
the latest manufacturing tools are brought to areas where they’ve scarcely been seen before. “Part of our name, Field Ready, is about fielding new technologies in this humanitarian and development aid space, that would otherwise slowly trickle down from other areas – in other words, the best [developed] parts of the world would benefit first but not people in dire situations. That’s part of what we’re trying to do,” James concludes. “Applying things in a new way using design thinking to come up with some local solution that hasn’t been done before. “When it comes to the airbag story, that’s directly saved people’s lives. To me that’s incredible. When we’re talking about restoring power to people in the Caribbean, that hadn’t been done before as far as I know. There’s certainly been putting in solar panels as part of aid programs before but to actually repair them immediately following a hurricane, everybody should be doing this this way.”
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AND IN OTHER NEWS
MORE STORIES ON THIS ISSUE’S BIG FEATURES
CASTING FORMLABS RELEASES CASTABLE WAX RESIN FOR JEWELLERY Formlabs has announced it is now shipping its Castable Wax Resin, a wax-filled material aimed at the jewellery industry for direct investment casting with zero ash content and clean burnout. The material was formulated to deliver smooth surface finish and increased part strength for printing intricate parts on the desktop. Formlabs worked closely with
jewellery manufacturing partners in China, Japan, and India to ensure that Castable Wax Resin could reliably print challenging ornate pavé pieces and large filigree bracelets, which are particularly popular pieces in those regions. Castable Wax Resin is 20% wax-filled for clean casting and is suitable for a standard burnout schedule or a short 8-hour schedule using strong investments like R&R’s Ultravest Maxx, developed specifically to withstand faster heating for photopolymer casting. This resin does not require postcuring, after a quick wash in isopropyl alcohol, parts are clean and ready to handle, with no residual tackiness.
NEWS
AUTOMOTIVE ALFA ROMEO SAUBER F1 TEAM UPGRADES 3D PRINTING CAPABILITIES Sauber Motorsport AG, the company operating the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team, has installed five new 3D Systems ProX 800 SLA 3D Printers at its headquarters and engineering facilities in Hinwil, Switzerland. Sauber’s Additive Manufacturing department already includes six selective laser sintering systems from 3D Systems amongst other printing technologies.
SLS and SLA 3D printers are used for everything from front wings, brake ducts and suspension covers to engine covers, internal ducts and hand deflectors. Reto Trachsel, head of aero design, at Sauber commented: “There have been times when the wind tunnel, which is also used by our third party customers, has been running 24/7 and we have been leveraging our 3D Systems’ solutions to produce 200 to 300 plastic parts per work day.”
Extensively used for wind tunnel testing, tooling for carbon laminating and vacuum casting for silicon parts, the technology has been applied to a 60 percent scale test model of a Formula 1 race car.
RESEARCH AND ACADEMIA ORNL DEVELOPS SCALABLE TECHNIQUE FOR 3D PRINTING PLANT-BASED COMPOSITE Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a scalable processing technique for 3D printing a plant-based composite material. Scientists leveraged the properties of lignin, a key component of plant cell walls that provides sturdiness to create a new material which reportedly delivers excellent printability and performance. The method combines lignin, rubber, carbon fiber and ABS to 3D print structures with 100 percent improved
weld strength between the layers over ABS alone. “To achieve this, we are building on our experience with lignin during the last five years,” said ORNL’s Amit Naskar. “We will continue fine tuning the material’s composition to make it even stronger.” A current byproduct of the biofuels process, researchers believe lignin could now become a valuable coproduct with this new use whilst offering an additional revenue stream for biorefineries.
ENTERTAINMENT
3D PRINTING FINDS A WAY INTO JURASSIC WORLD MOVIE Large-format 3D printers were used to produce lifesize dinosaur models for the recent Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom movie. Produced by UK-based company, The CNC Factory, the four raptor models measuring four metres each in length were printed primarily on the Builder Extreme 2000 using Builder PLA. Rather than using traditional foam, the body was printed in 10 separate pieces to reduce the need for supports whilst smaller features like the raptor’s
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teeth were printed on the smaller Builder Premium system. After printing, the parts were glue together, sanded and hand painted. “The benefits of 3D printing props for movies is that you can create affordable largescale props within several days/weeks,” Niels Hunck, Sales Manager at Builder 3D Printers B.V. told TCT. “The props are steady and will not break that easily but are also light-weight, so they can be carried around.” The props were actually used in the movie and also as promotional items during the press tour.
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grimm column
WHAT’S THE ALLURE? WOR D S : TODD G R IM M
TODD GRIMM is a stalwart of the additive manufacturing industry, having held positions across sales and marketing with some of the industry’s biggest names. Todd is currently the AM Industry advisor with AMUG
A
tgrimm@tagrimm.com
dditive Manufacturing’s (AM) allure is obvious, yet its use is not as pervasive as industry participants would like. From machine shops for prototypes and tools to production operations for manufactured goods, many find reason to discount or ignore AM’s obvious benefits. Sure, we could cite technical and financial reasons for the somewhat limited use, but I believe there is a more fundamental obstacle that must be removed. That obstacle is buried deep within the psyche of individuals and corporations. It is the battle between prospective gains and the bias towards the known experience we call status quo. To move forward, with AM and in any aspect of life and business, the motivation to act must outweigh the discomfort of moving beyond status quo. This is represented by a simple equation I call the Allure Quotient. The Allure Quotient is a qualitative measure that adds intangible and non-monetary considerations to a return on investment (ROI) calculation. It is a subjective method to predict action (and resistance) on an AM initiative. If the quotient is too low, it is time to regroup and rethink your plans. If it is high, you will find ways to barrel through the challenges of making the gains a reality. The quotient is basic: divide all the hopedfor value by the combination of investment, effort and perceived risk, and then multiply the result by the number of parts affected. The numerator in this equation is the motivation; how badly does the company want what AM offers? The denominator is the demotivator; how hard will it be to realise the potential. The multiplier is a representation of how broad AM’s impact will be. Since this is an expansion of an ROI with qualitative aspects, make sure to add all the intangible benefits to the motivator (value).
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Think beyond time reduction and cost improvement. Add in part performance gains, improved operational effectiveness, and anything else that you or the company would relish. You will likely need to go beyond time and money to overcome the demotivator because status quo has the upper hand in this respect. For status quo—same process, same material and similar part design— the denominator is one. You have experience and knowledge, which negates risk and avoids the need for research, investigation, training and testing. For AM, the denominator is much, much larger, at least until it has become a staple for the intended application. The effort to understand, characterize, quantify and assess AM is quite a burden. Factor in the wildcard of perceived risk, which exists any time change is made, and the demotivator can stall the best intentions for AM. The Allure Quotient sheds light on why series production with AM is mostly limited to high-value components while tools (jigs & fixtures) are becoming widely used for parts of any value. For production, the multiplier is small due to low breakeven volumes; the denominator is huge due to the need
to characterize everything about the process and the output, as well as the risk associated with product failure. So the numerator must contain substantial gains that aren’t likely with commodity components. Conversely for tools, the multiplier is very large since one jig can influences hundreds of thousands of parts; the denominator is reasonable, primarily because the risk is low. This means that the numerator for tools does not have to be nearly as large. Given plenty of time, the AM denominator will significantly decrease. Maturity will deliver education, experience, information, guidance, standards and hard data. It will no longer be the burden of individual companies to derive the insights and understanding. This will naturally expand the AM applications because it improves the Allure Quotient. But I don’t recommend waiting. Instead, find the high-value opportunities and invest time and effort to gain the understanding and insights, now. Then build on this success to chip away at the demotivators for more demanding applications. So, what’s the Allure? Determining that is the first step in a new, successful AM initiative.
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