EDITORIAL
HEAD OF CONTENT
Laura Griffiths
e: laura.griffiths@rapidnews.com t: 011 + 44 1244 952 389
GROUP CONTENT MANAGER
Samuel Davies
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HEAD OF SALES TCT PORTFOLIO
Carol Cooper
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PRODUCTION
Sam Hamlyn Matt Clarke Robert Wood
MANAGEMENT
C.E.O. / PUBLISHER
Duncan Wood
In a turbulent and tempestuous landscape, it is only natural to get caught up in the commotion.
The additive manufacturing (AM) industry, for all its defects, is a space filled to the brim with people passionate about the technology they work with. And that passion can bring about optimism and buoyancy, as well as a wariness and protectiveness.
For the few of us that must remain neutral, it can therefore be a challenging market to navigate. Hit the wrong tone, and you risk enabling the kind of hype that has disadvantaged the AM space, or perhaps worse, appearing contrarian, curmudgeonly, and cranky.
Neither are ideal if you wish to engage an audience of AM professionals. Which, across our several print, digital and event platforms, we do.
One latest attempt was an article that tackled the state of the AM industry, in the context of the Gartner Hype Cycle. The conclusions drawn were that many users and investors are disillusioned with AM technology, to the point where funding is slowing down, and machine sales have dipped. This caused many to bemoan the negativity of the AM media; ‘tunnel vision’ was said to be the cause and perhaps ‘click bait’ the motivation.
Beyond those remarks, there were interesting points raised. In response to the downward trends presented in the article, members of the industry noted how materials sales increased in 2023, while machine utilisation is perhaps a better indicator of an industry’s progress than machine sales. Though, one could argue that the utilisation of AM tech is still some way off satisfying the needs of the many OEMs that make up this market – hence investors cooling their interest
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in AM, and hence the article that sparked this discussion –there is clearly room for healthy debate on the topic.
But what must be stressed is that when the AM media highlight the industry’s imperfections, platform those concerned with the progress being made, and add context to the industry’s inherent optimism, it does so from the right place. At various junctures, the strapline of this magazine has communicated an intention to accelerate additive manufacturing innovation, and as you’ll see from this latest issue, we’re again featuring a slew of applications and advancements, with a smattering of reasoned insights.
TCT likes to think its output is unique within the AM space, but its motivation certainly isn’t. And though that motivation must balance the industry’s triumphs with some harsh truths, have trust that the success stories always cut through.
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6. BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
3D Systems combines the benefits of two AM processes in its latest technology.
09. PEAK PERFORMANCE
Sam Davies speaks to the TCT Award-winning team behind a circular approach to toolmaking that propelled Brumos Motorsport to success.
10. BMW GOES BIONIC
Laura finds out how BMW is deploying 3D printed robot grippers across its production system.
12. KEEP ROLLING
Laura visits DB ESG to find out how the rolling stock provider is leveraging 3D technologies across the rail supply chain.
15. A NEW TOY
From our new Additive Insight podcast series: The Feedback Loop, Toyota shares how it's putting Axtra3D’s Lumia X1 to work.
16. SPEED IS OF THE ESSENCE
Laura meets with Stewart-Haas Racing to learn how it's pushing AM technologies to claim victories on the racetrack.
19. MEDICAL MARVELS
A look at how Stratasys is developing new materials for hyper realistic medical models.
20. WE'VE GOT D’FUNC
Laura speaks to Olga Ivanova, Director of Applications & Technology at Mechnano about carbon nanotubes for AM.
23. FAST FORWARD
Following Forward AM Technologies’ spin out from BASF, Sam catches up with CEO Martin Back.
27. SHINE BRIGHT
Inspired by the rise of lab-grown diamonds, Laura ponders the reality of diamond 3D printing.
29. TAILORED TREATMENTS
Sam Davies speaks to Amy Locks about incorporating enzymes into 3D printable polymers for tailored therapeutics.
36. ON THE MAP
This issue includes our annual AM Service Provider Map – we speak to the people behind the prints.
38. KEEPING IT REAL
Laura reports from Realize LIVE where Siemens Digital Industries Software talked AI, the metaverse, and a little AM.
30. ‘WE’RE NOT WHERE WE WANT TO BE’
Stacey Delvecchio on writing the book on Women in AM and why, more than ever, we need to keep talking about diversity.
33. BUILDING BLOCKS
Sam hears how Alexis DabeeSaltmarsh is integrating DEI into engineering academia.
35. A STAR IN THE MAKING
This year’s SMF Rising Star winner talks being an ambassador for neurodiverse women in engineering, and creating the ‘TuCan’ assistive device.
42. REIMAGINING WASTE
Biomaterials specialist Sarah King shares how waste materials can generate creative and commercial opportunities with AM.
3D Systems merges two of its pioneering technologies to deliver the next generation of additive manufacturing.
Achieving “the best of both worlds” is a common aspiration shared by humankind. Often, it is about maximising benefits, avoiding compromises and balancing one’s needs to attain a better state. Perhaps this is for personal growth and development, or a better quality of life. Striving for this ideal state goes beyond our personal lives and is often sought after in the professional world as well. We would be hard-pressed to find a business that isn’t looking for solutions that maximise benefits without compromising to drive growth and revenue to maintain competitive advantage. Manufacturers are no exception.
Many industry-leading manufacturers have embraced additive manufacturing (AM) to produce parts with complex geometries that are not possible with traditional methods. AM enables just intime, on-demand production with reduced development costs and material waste. These benefits and more come together to accelerate innovation that transforms industries. AM solutions are built upon a variety of 3D printing technologies that use a breadth of materials and software to produce final parts. The earliest commercially available technology was Stereolithography (SLA), invented by Chuck Hull, and commercialised by the company he co-founded, 3D Systems. In his original patent application, Hull also envisioned light projectionbased 3D printing which 3D Systems commercialised as Figure 4.
“Manufacturers can unlock new possibilities.”
SHOWN:
SLA and projection-based 3D printing technologies are known for enabling numerous advantages for manufacturing such as producing parts with high resolution, fine details, and smooth surfaces. Additionally, both technologies are known for their speed, accuracy, and versatility, making them excellent choices for a breadth of applications. Now imagine the breakthroughs that could be achieved for manufacturing by combining the best of both these
INTRODUCING: THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS IN AM 3D Systems pioneered SLA and delivered a fresh approach to projection-based systems with its Figure 4 technology and materials. Now, the company is introducing the PSLA 270, the next generation in 3D printers that merges the speed and material benefits of Figure 4 projection technology with the firstarticle success, accuracy, and quality
Breakthrough in productivity for
The PSLA 270 is a high speed, projector-based SLA additive manufacturing solution with up to 5X faster print speeds than laser-based technology. Designed for timesensitive, high volume production parts that exhibit long-term stable mechanical properties, with high repeatability and short-turnaround times. Additionally, 3D Systems’ 3D Sprint software enables manufacturers to efficiently go from design to high quality, true-to-CAD parts without needing additional third-party
Production-grade materials for application flexibility: The PSLA 270 utilises 3D Systems’ Figure 4 extensive and expanding family of engineering-grade materials, which address a breadth of applications for direct production, end-use parts, functional prototyping, moulding and casting. The materials are available to deliver mechanical properties such as rigid and durable with thermoplastic-like behaviours, castable, heat resistant, and biocompatible capable materials. Additionally, materials can be efficiently changed with the Material Delivery Module (MDM) that has a simple, one-touch slide handle that locks the vat to the printer keeping it stable and aligned.
Easy to install, operate and scale: The PSLA 270 is fast to set-up, easy to operate for non-technical users, and with a compact footprint, easy to fit into tight spaces as well as scale to production manufacturing sites.
While SLA and projection-based 3D printing have individually contributed significantly to AM's advancements, the potential for even greater breakthroughs lies in their combination. By merging the strengths of these technologies, manufacturers can unlock new possibilities for producing parts with unprecedented resolution, detail, speed, accuracy, and versatility. This synergistic approach could redefine the boundaries of AM, leading to even more innovative and transformative applications across various industries.
Marty Johnson, Vice President, Product & Technical Fellow, 3D Systems, said: "With the PSLA 270 and Figure 4 materials portfolio, you've found the only printer solution you will ever need. It showcases the best of both worlds and more, reflecting 3D Systems' decades of innovation in AM software, materials, print processes, hardware, UI/UX, and application focus. Users can now operate and scale with ease, achieving exceptional quality and additive manufacturing excellence.”
Unmatched first article success: With vat-based printing and high powered, dual HD projectors, PSLA 270 delivers first-article success rates superior to other technologies. Support structures are also simple, with minimal material usage and touch points.
For more information or to speak with an application expert, visit: www.3dsystems.com/3d-printers/ psla-270
Sam Davies speaks to Airtech about a circular approach to toolmaking that helped Brumos Motorsport achieve Pikes Peak International Hill Climb success.
It’s Sunday, June 25th, 2023. Sixty-six cars are charging to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado, navigating the 156 turns across the 20 kilometres of road to hopefully be the fastest in one of six divisions of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
One of those cars is a 2019 Porsche GT2 RS Clubsport, driven by David Donohue on behalf of Brumos Motorsport in the Time Attack 1 division. Time Attack 1 is the division for two- and four-wheel drive vehicles, with only closed cockpit four-wheeled vehicles able to participate. Donohue leaves the rest of the division in his wake, completing the ascent in a record-breaking time of 9:18:053 to become Time Attack 1 division champion.
It was a success shared by the Advanced Materials Group of Airtech, which had contributed its additive manufacturing (AM) expertise in the hope, not only of helping Donohue over the finish line in record time, but of proving out its burgeoning additive tooling process.
In a TCT Award-winning project, Airtech 3D printed an 8.4ft mould for a carbon fibre splitter which works to divert air under the car and increase aerodynamic downforce. Airtech came to be involved in Brumos’ preparations for the Pikes Peak race on the back of an ongoing collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), which has seen
“This is reality. This is possible.”
the partners work to develop a circular lifecycle for moulding materials. Through this work, the partners are looking to understand the full carbon footprint of the material reclamation process, compare it to a traditional manufacturing workflow, and calculate the value proposition they are able to provide for their customers.
“[The work with Brumos] was a bolt on to that collaboration,” Gregory Haye, Director of AM at Airtech Advanced Materials Group told TCT, “because we’re thinking holistically and we had the opportunity to live it in this application.”
This application saw Airtech deploy a Thermwood 1040 Large-Scale Additive Manufacturing printer and its Dahltram C-250CF Polycarbonate to manufacture the autoclave capable tool that would be used to produce Brumos’ aerodynamic splitter. The material was developed from a recycled formulation, with ORNL providing the personnel and equipment for the cutting, shredding and repalletization of the previous generation 3D printed mould. Verus Engineering,
another collaborator in the project, added its aerodynamics expertise to the effort, creating new surfaces for the revised splitter mould design, as well as simulation prior to manufacturing. Post-print, the near-net mould surface was machined on a 5-axis CNC to high tolerance.
It all helped to enable Donohue to take steep and sharp turns at 140mph, knowing the splitter would give the car the required traction to maintain stability. And while one might think achieving such an engineering triumph would come at a cost, Airtech suggests there was a reduced total spend in the manufacture of the tool compared to conventional processes, inclusive of an approximate 25% cost saving on materials and a lead time reduction of a couple of weeks down to 3-4 business days.
The project also saved more than 300lbs of material from being disposed in landfill, with Airtech able to reclaim 100% of the previous generation mould material for use in future programmes. Airtech also says less new polymer and energy-intensive carbon fibre was produced from raw feedstocks.
“This is reality. This is possible,” Haye said. “The highest levels of motorsport in the world are interested in this technology.”
Airtech is now working to build on the success of the Brumos splitter tooling project and has expressed a willingness to adjust its design methodologies to conform what people are used to. For while Airtech is hoping to convince people of its tooling approach, it is not doing so stubbornly, and nor is it prepared to do so without being able to back up its sales pitch.
“We’re trying to change people’s minds to do this not that. So, the value proposition has to be strong,” Haye finished. “People have to have a reason to want a change, otherwise you never see change in the industry. So, it has to be value rich, and it has to be transparent, otherwise people would just do as they’ve done before. [We want to] further expose our customers to the value proposition of sustainability in this technology. I hate just talking about things. I love when we do things, and we have evidence.”
Laura Griffiths speaks to Jens Ertel (JE), Head of BMW Additive Manufacturing, and Markus Lehmann (ML), Head of Installations Technique, Robotics, about BMW’s design and deployment of customised 3D printed robot grippers.
TCT: Tell us about that first iteration of the 3D printed robotic gripper. How did BMW identify this as a potential application for additive manufacturing?
JE: The BMW Group production system is constantly evolving, and there is always a drive to integrate new innovations, for example to optimise time, cost, and CO2 emissions. The example of the gripper for the CFRP roof handling in plant Landshut shows that for the very lightweight roof, a very heavy gripper was used. It was therefore clear that there was enormous potential to minimise the weight of the gripper. Of course, there are additional forces like the mass of the control units and actuators that the gripper must withstand. Nevertheless, we were very confident that we could achieve a significant weight reduction. After performing a topology optimisation, one of the most important tools for calculating lightweight designs, the result showed a rather complex shape. In recent years, new printing technologies have become increasingly available on a large scale, so that large, topologically optimised components like large grippers can now also be manufactured using additive manufacturing.
TCT: The gripper has been optimised with a new ‘bionic design.’ Can you talk us through the optimisation process?
JE: For the topology optimisation we first needed a so-called design space. This is the region or volume within which the optimisation algorithm is allowed to distribute material in order to find the optimal structural design. The design space represents the available physical space or domain where the structure can be placed. Additionally, the nondesign spaces are defined. These are mostly mounting plates that are needed to later fasten add-on parts and to attach the gripper to the robot and that will be integrated in the bionic structure during the optimisation. After that, the forces and torsional moments acting on the gripper are estimated and the allowed deformation is defined. Also, the material properties and a minimum strut
thickness are set. With all these values and some additional details the topology optimisation can be started. Through the clever combination of two different optimisation approaches, the resulting geometry of the optimisation is already of such high quality, that only minor manual editing of the design is necessary. The usually time intensive redesign of a topology optimisation result is replaced by an automised workflow, that accelerates the design process enormously. The optimisations of the bionic grippers were done in the software Synera.
TCT: The gripper uses a mix of different forms of 3D printing. Why were each of these processes selected?
ML: The gripper for the CFRP roof production at the Landshut plant utilises a mix of different 3D printing processes to take advantage of the unique benefits that each technology offers. The selection of these processes was driven by the technical and economic considerations for the specific components of the gripper. The approach is not to simply ‘print everything’, but rather to use the 3D printing technology that provides the most benefits for each individual component. This strategic approach ensures that the overall gripper design is optimised for both technical performance and costeffectiveness. For the vacuum grippers and the clamps of the needle gripper used to lift the CFRP raw material, the selective laser sintering (SLS) process was selected. SLS allows for the production of these intricate and complex parts with the required precision and durability. On the other hand, the large roof shell and bearing structure of the gripper are manufactured using large-scale printing (LSP) technology. LSP is well-suited for producing large, stiff components in an economical and sustainable manner. Furthermore, in a subsequent optimisation step, the weight of the bearing structure was reduced even further. This was achieved by employing aluminium sand casting technology, where 3D printed shapes and cores were utilised. This approach allowed the full potential of
topology optimisation to be exploited, leading to a significant reduction in the overall weight of the gripper.
TCT: Why was weight optimisation such an important factor for this particular application?
ML: Basically, we want to reduce the weights of grippers in the production system, as this can reduce the moving masses and thus also the cycle times, energy consumption and CO2 emissions. In addition, the service life is increased and smaller robots can be used in the future. When optimising manufacturing processes, installation sequences can change so that higher loads must be moved with the existing setup. The reduction of the gripper weight also enables flexible adaptation here. In special cases, weight reduction isn't the only target, it can also be the increase of the stiffness of the gripper system.
TCT: This kind of application encapsulates how additive manufacturing doesn’t necessarily have to mean direct printing in a production environment. How does this gripper story demonstrate the potential for AM as an enabling technology?
ML: Essentially, we do not simply want to print everything, but rather utilise technology where it provides the greatest technical and economic benefits. 3D printing is another tool in the technology arsenal that complements and supports other technologies. Advancements in technology and materials open up new technological and economic applications. As seen in various exciting 3D printing projects at the BMW Group, 3D printing technology can be a key to success. In the case of bionic lightweight grippers, the full potential of topology optimisation can only be realised through the 3D printing technologies employed, allowing the maximum potential for weight savings to be exploited. Tool-free manufacturing enables rapid and economical deployment as well as accelerated iteration cycles.
TCT: What has been the impact of this bionic design and has it influenced any further developments along the production line?
ML: The use of additive manufacturing in the production system has been established for some time now. The first hybrid grippers, where, for example, only individual, smaller elements were
“3D printing technology can be a key to success.”
printed, have also been in use for several years. This was also an initiator for the first trials with the printed large-format grippers. The CFRP roof grippers at the Landshut plant have now become a permanent part of the production, so that all CFRP roof grippers for this manufacturing step are produced exclusively by 3D printing. To fully exploit the potential of topology optimisation, there was a further development towards the bionic gripper, which is manufactured using sand casting and printed moulds. In addition to the Landshut plant, this type of gripper is now also used in the Munich plant for the production of the BMW i4. Further grippers are planned for additional plants.
TCT: Speaking more broadly about BMW Group’s deployment of AMmore than 400,000 parts were printed last year worldwide. How would you characterise 3D printing’s significance across the BMW Group production system?
JE: 3D printing has now become an essential and integral part of the product development process and the production environment of the BMW Group. The availability of 3D printers in the individual plants has significantly increased the creativity and innovative power on-site. Through the short distances and the fast, local production within a few hours or even minutes, customised solutions can be implemented quickly. The plants are connected in a tight network, in which applications and experiences with 3D printing are exchanged. This allows all locations to benefit from mutual support in terms of ideas, technologies and materials. Overall, 3D printing has become firmly established throughout the BMW Group. The number of applications and the penetration of the technology across all plants is steadily increasing. This way, 3D printing contributes decisively to the increase of efficiency, flexibility and innovative power in production.
Laura Griffiths
There’s a level in Tomb Raider III where Lara Croft must traverse the London Underground, through an abandoned tube station, and locate the secret lair of a mysterious brotherhood. It’s a right pain, full of cracking tiles, flame traps, and yes, being incredibly careful to ‘mind the gap.’ But as I meet with the team at DB ESG in the video game heroine’s hometown of Derby, UK, I quickly learn how getting additive manufacturing (AM) into the rail industry is perhaps an equally challenging mission.
“The rail industry tends to be cautious about adopting new technology,” says Daniel Hartley, Digital Manufacturing Business Lead for DB ESG, telling a familiar story of a traditional sector with a natural hesitance to break away from established practices, while adhering to stringent regulations.
And yet, against that backdrop, the rolling stock provider and engineering consultancy is deploying 3D printing and 3D scanning technologies, both in-house and outsourced, to address numerous rail supply chain and engineering challenges, specialising in large-scale technical integration projects
“To really simplify that,” Hartley said, “we put stuff on trains.”
It was a customer request in 2018 to explore 3D printing for part obsolescence that inspired DB ESG’s own digital manufacturing journey. As Nathan Russell, Digital Manufacturing Team Lead tells TCT, the team started with a simple list of five parts and components, nothing too adventurous, but parts they believed could be a good fit for printing. They did some redesigning and testing before settling on two components – an arm rest and a seat back handhold – printed using FDM in Stratasys Ultem 9085 black material and finished in a rail-approved coating. The project took just three weeks, and while more expensive, it was a significant improvement on the original project costs
which would have required a minimum order of 10 units and a lead time of four months. By 2019, DB ESG became the first provider in the UK to place 3D printed parts into commercial service on a passenger train. Those parts are still in service on those vehicles today.
The rail industry is uniquely challenged by part obsolescence. According to the Office of Rail and Road statistics, the average age of rolling stock for all passenger train operators as of March last year was 16.7 years, but they can run much longer before being retired. Much of British Rail legacy vehicles are made up of cast aluminium parts made by someone, somewhere, now long retired, and the impact of privatisation also means that manufacturers of many of those earlier vehicles simply don’t exist anymore or designs have been lost.
“One very common challenge is the design has been changed, but nobody's recorded that change,” Hartley
explained. “We have a unique problem there that is quite specific to rail. When you scale this up across the many different variations of the ‘same’ vehicle, with their different owners and operators, all uniquely changed over decades, then factor in the more common supply issues like minimum quantities and long lead times, that’s where 3D printing, for us, became quite cost-effective.”
In 2022, DB ESG established a sub team committed to its digital manufacturing services, and has since supported over 100 individual projects for 20 different customers. It has also tested a host of different AM processes and materials including polymer selective laser sintering, stereolithography, and, more recently, metals. DB ESG is not tied to any single manufacturer or materials company, and it works with suppliers to direct the right technology to each unique problem. Sometimes, that might not mean additive at all.
“We don’t 3D print just for the sake of it,” Hartley affirms, “we still do welded fabrications, or use CNC machines – we use whatever production method is right for the specific use case.”
DB ESG is not trying to be a printing service provider; it wants its customers across the rail industry to learn about these technologies. The company regularly hosts drop-in lunches at train depots to give engineers opportunities to get hands on with parts and 3D scanners, and they typically leave with ample suggestions
“Every single customer has come back to us for another project.”
for potential challenges for which 3D technologies might hold the answer: part redesigns for reliability and performance, bespoke manufacturing aids, or even completely new designs. In one example, a customer needed a more streamlined way to clean dust from a vehicle’s power unit. Previously, this required removing the power unit, taking it away from the vehicle, and blowing air through it. Instead, the team printed a large funnel which can be hooked onto the vehicle in-situ and connected to the fans to blow dust away, turning a sixhour process into a half-hour job. In another, much smaller example, a simple bung used to cap an open tube on a seat design that was prone to popping out was redesigned so that it could be glued in. To a passenger, it’s “a nothing part” as Russell explained but it saved the customer “a real problem and hassle, and a lot of time and cost that they didn't need to have.”
3D scanning has also proven a useful third prong of its digital manufacturing business, not only for digitising parts, but to measure accuracy and investigate failures. DB ESG was recently tasked by a customer with scanning the fuel tanks of several different vehicle classes to alleviate concerns around structural integrity. The scans, compared against a model created from the original drawings, provided such a high level of detail that they were able to produce a full structural report containing indicators of distortion, weld-failure and even failed internal baffles.
‘Trust’ is a word that permeates the conversation as we tour around DB ESG’s offices and 3D print lab, which features a pair of 3D scanners alongside two FDM printers, one desktop, another large-format. A third has been added since TCT visited. That means trust in the technology, using the right process to avoid disillusionment, and trust from the customer and end-user, to ensure their buy in.
“We have a lot of people in the industry that have done the exact same thing and used the same supplier for a long time,” Hartley explained. “You're not only asking them to move away from that trusted supplier relationship that they’ve held for many years but you're also asking them to do it with a technology that they're not familiar with, in a safety critical industry.
“Every single customer we've had has come back to us for another project. It is a trust thing. It's a new and novel technology. We have an industry that's kind of reluctant to new things. Nobody wants to be the first to do something because the first comes with risk.”
But 3D printing can also be used as a tool to reduce risk. Across the way from the 3D print lab is a prime example, where the team has built a full-scale 3D printed mock-up of a new train cab desk. It’s wired in with functional lights and buttons to feel like the real thing and allow drivers to familiarise themselves with a new layout before going into production.
“They're involved right from the start. Does this layout work for you? Is everything in the right position?” says Hartley. “It's probably an expensive thing to do to just produce one desk using a traditional method. With 3D printing, we can do that very quickly, relatively cheaply and if something has to change, we can change it very quickly.”
Compared to sectors like aerospace and automotive, the rail industry has taken more time to embrace AM. While those industries come with their own standards and regulations, which AM suppliers have historically focused efforts on, rail has its own unique set of requirements. Parts must meet specific rail fire compliance standards, which don’t easily translate from existing fire-compliant products on the market. Today,
more focus has been put onto specific solutions that match the UK rail industry standard EN45545-2, and DB ESG is also part of the Mobility Goes Additive network which sees several European rail companies working alongside AM technology providers to ensure standards are met.
The DB ESG print lab is filled with examples of where AM has proven effective: in a re-engineered cab handset for a London Underground train, which was 3D scanned and redesigned to remove common failure points, or the large power brake controller cover, which was printed in ULTEM 9085 and found to be a suitable replacement. The team never knows what kind of challenge will come through the door, whether it's a train door opening on the wrong side, or a solution for tactile signage, but it has spent the last six years building its capabilities as a rolling stock digital manufacturer to ensure it has a solution.
"We've done lots of R&D to get our printers to a point where they can make parts that are acceptable for in-service use,” Russell said. “Being a rail consultancy, we know all the standards, we know what to do to get stuff approved on the vehicle. And we can also make those parts as well.”
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Toyota has invested in Axtra3D’s Lumia X1 Hybrid PhotoSynthesis (HPS) 3D printing technology and is running the machine at its North American TILT Lab.
TCT exclusively revealed Toyota as a user of Axtra3D’s flagship technology in a recent episode of the Additive Insight podcast.
Toyota was first introduced to Axtra’s HPS technology at a RAPID + TCT event, with Axtra3D selling William ‘Dallas’ Martin, an Additive Manufacturing Engineer at Toyota, on the Lumia X1’s dual light sources. HPS utilises Digital Light Projection and lasers to create a ‘harmonised light engine’ that combines the benefits of both light sources.
Though the sample parts on the booth demonstrated the promise of high resolution and fine feature capability, and though Axtra3D had offered to supply some benchmark parts, Martin sought the assistance of Met-L-Flo to produce a range of test parts that he could then present to his superiors at Toyota.
“We always talk to a customer, not just the company,” Martin explained. “I like to see where a customer struggles. It’s a good benchmark.”
Met-L-Flo produced a set of injection mould tools that Toyota then trialled, with Martin quickly coming to the conclusion that: “We needed to acquire the system. For the price of the system and the software and technology you get, it’s an amazing deal. There’s not a lot out there that offers the sidewall finish and stability you get with this machine for the price.”
It has led to Toyota utilising the HPS technology to address a longstanding issue. Since it has found it difficult to get vendors to accept jobs with order quantities of around 10,000 pieces, the automotive company
has brought some of its tooling requirements in-house, deploying the Lumia X1 for low volume moulds.
“The tooling cost is just astronomical versus the part cost,” Martin said. “This is where this technology stepped in and really helped us.”
Toyota has used the machine to produce moulds for the production of as little as 1,000 pieces, and even though the tool might only last for 3,000 shots, it is still said to be more efficient to print three or four moulds in-house than enduring the lengthy lead times involved in outsourcing
“Our engineers are amazed at the resolution.”
tooling production. The company has also started to consider how else it might utilise the technology, with Toyota engineers said to be keen to begin expanding its application range.
“This is blossoming into something that could actually turn into something very big,” Martin said. “The initial reason I brought it in is spinning off very well, as well as getting high resolution parts off of it. Our engineers are amazed at the resolution that this machine is able to achieve.”
Toyota Additive Manufacturing Engineer William ‘Dallas’ Martin was joined by Met-L-Flo President Carl Dekker, Axtra3D CEO Gianni Zitelli and Axtra3D CSO Rajeev Kulkarni on the first episode of a new Additive Insight podcast series, The Feedback Loop
Lumia X1
Build size 249 x 140 x 495 mm
Volume 17.3L
Layer resolution 25 to 200 microns
Resolution 45 microns
Materials Open system, compatible with 405 nm resins
You can listen to the full episode here: https://tinyurl.com/37z3a883 SHOWN: The Lumia X1 machine WORDS: SAM DAVIES
WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS
When the first stereolithography (SLA) machine from 3D Systems arrived at Stewart-Haas Racing’s North Carolina facility six years ago, Production Manager Reneau Van Landingham held his breath. Would it be able to run throughout the weekend? Would it be fast enough to deliver dozens of parts by the following week?
Quickly, Van Landingham tells TCT, it became quite normal that the answer was, yes.
“Wednesday night, we would deliver parts to the tunnel, ready to be tested at six in the morning the next day, just in time,” Van Landingham shares. “Sometimes we would bring parts off the printer directly to the wind tunnel.”
The NASCAR team is co-owned by threetime NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart and Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation, North America’s largest machine tool maker. Last year, the team entered a three-year technical partnership with 3D Systems to deploy additive manufacturing technologies to further increase the speed of its racecars, and at RAPID + TCT 2024 in Los Angeles, the two have come together to tell the story.
As Van Landingham puts it: “We want our cars to go fast with the best technology that's available.”
“We get tremendous learnings,” adds John Murray, VP, Global ISG Segment & Business Development for 3D Systems, of the motive behind the partnership. “We started with technical partnerships back in the late 1990s, both in NASCAR as well as Formula 1. No one pushes harder than motorsports teams. It's a 24/7 job feeding these wind tunnels that have enormous appetites. The ability to produce accurate parts and do it quickly was critical. We learned and developed quickly regarding materials, processes and the needs of our customers. That allowed us to apply it to other industries as well. But in motorsports it's go fast or go home.”
Speed is, naturally, the championshipwinning NASCAR team’s key driver and it has relied heavily on 3D Systems’ ProX 800 stereolithography and Figure 4 Standalone 3D printers to improve speed and performance across its vehicles, of which it fields four in the NASCAR Cup and two in the NASCAR Xfinity series.
“We're in the wind tunnel every week on a regular basis, and we're wanting to test dozens of parts – it's very expensive to do that,” Van Landingham explains. “If parts don't show up at the wind tunnel in time to test them, then we're wasting a lot of money and people's time and effort.”
The team had previously used 3D printing to produce individual parts for its cars but now, with a larger capacity SLA system in-house, it’s able to produce much bigger and accurate parts to the point where its engineers can divide the whole body of a racecar into smaller pieces to prototype and swap out hundreds of optimised aerodynamic shapes for wind tunnel testing. On the recent 2024 NASCAR Ford Mustang Dark Horse, it did just that with various 3D printed tiles fastened to the sub-structure of the full-scale car to analyse aerodynamic coefficients and determine the optimum shape for speed before making the final carbon fibre body panels.
“Now, printing hundreds of parts like that over a few weeks' time is not only possible,” Van Landingham says, “but it's kind of normal.”
Not only has it become the norm, but it’s also enabled the team to explore entirely new applications. That’s largely down to the scope of engineering-grade materials, which have opened up opportunities not just for prototyping and fit function testing, but production parts such as TV camera, pit gun, and pit cart components, as well.
“With these printers come materials that we weren't used to using,” Van Landingham explains. “We began to explore rubber materials and now all of a sudden our engineers were able to do
gaskets and flexible bellows and things that they weren't doing yesterday. The technology opens up a whole world of possibilities that we didn’t have before.”
3D Systems has even developed a material specifically for wind tunnel testing. Instantly identifiable by its purple hue, Accura Composite PIV was developed in collaboration with BWT Alpine F1 Team to build aerodynamic parts for Particle Image Velocimetry testing. “It's very purposely purple,” according to Murray, who explained how the bold colour helps to reduce the laser reflection effect from background surfaces other than airborne particles when taking reliable PIV measurements.
Motorsport truly is a 24/7 operation to be the best. Machines run at full capacity as much as possible, and the team often outsources to Ford’s Additive Manufacturing Center in Dearborn, MI or service providers to meet demand.
“Our most precious commodity is time,” Van Landingham said. “We race every weekend, and everybody sees that on TV or at the track. But on the engineering side, we're racing between the races against
“On the engineering side, we're racing between races against our competitors.”
our competitors to design and 3D print parts for our race cars for that next race. That's how we compete between the races. And we can't do it without this technology and this partnership. We're a competitive sport, so we use technology to try to advance our cars faster and better than our competitors.”
Stewart-Haas Racing has embraced additive. That’s largely down to a want to win but also a willingness from its engineers, particularly its younger cohort, who have grown up with 3D printers in their bedrooms and are now getting to play with that same technology on an industrial scale. But Murray believes there’s another important factor at play.
“It always takes leadership,” Murray said. “You can have all the machines and all the resin you want, but you have to have people with vision and people who really are dedicated to making it perform.”
Van Landingham added: “Like any new technology, we have to get used to it internally, how to run it, how to operate it. But once that honeymoon period was
behind us, these machines have just been workhorses for
us.”
And the machines have been put to work. There’s the driver's side mirror housing used for speedway tracks at Talladega and Daytona, which not only holds a reflective mirror so that the driver can see outside but also acts as an aerodynamic device that reduces drag to make the car go faster. Then there are the printed hose couplers which can be quickly connected and disconnected to the top of the driver’s helmet to provide air conditioning. When NASCAR recently began permitting racing in the rain, there was a sudden requirement for vehicles to include a new windshield wiper, lights and a way to defog the windows. A system was designed,
SHOWN: Windshield defogging system
SHOWN: 2023 NASCAR Xfinity
printed and mounted on top of the dash to allow fresh air to blow to the inside of the windshield and keep it from fogging.
“Because we have the additive manufacturing tools in house,” Van Landingham elaborates, “it allowed us to even conceive of this system.”
Then of course, there’s the critical weight reduction advantages and StewartHaas Racing’s engineers are constantly evaluating the designs of countless parts to uncover where more weight can be taken out.
“It's amazing, year after year we think we've got the car as light weight as it can be within the rules that NASCAR provides,” Van Landingham says. “But inevitably our engineers are tweaking the parts over and over again to reduce the weight. Not only that, but to lower the centre of gravity of the overall mass of the car, which is really important in racing.”
In the six years since that first installation, Stewart-Haas Racing has added more machines and materials to its toolkit. Van Landingham says he’s keen to get his hands on 3D Systems upcoming PSLA 270 high speed, projector-based system, which is said to combine the accuracy of SLA with the speed and materials of Figure 4. That need for speed keeps them focused but the team’s ambition is even grander.
“If we could just 3D print the whole car, that would be great,” says Van Landingham.
Is he serious?
“Oh yeah, I'd love to do that,” Van Landingham says, turning to Murray, “So, hurry up!”
There is no one size fits all in additive manufacturing. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the medical industry where every patient and case is different. So, shouldn’t the technology be different, also? That theory was the guiding light when Stratasys set out to establish its Medical Solutions group back in 2015.
“Up until that time people used whatever Stratasys had as a generic product, a printer, a material, and they just utilised it for the medical industry,” Ido Bitan, Director of Product Management at Stratasys Medical Solutions Department told TCT. “Ever since the Medical department was incepted, we made a major transition.”
Over the last ten years, the additive manufacturing (AM) company has worked with users across the medical industry, from device companies to hospitals and universities, to identify their needs, the technology gaps, and application opportunities for medical devices, surgical aids, and lifelike anatomical models.
“We always try to push the envelope and do things that are out of the ordinary,” says Bitan.
Medical is about people, and often, that can mean life or death. That plays “a dramatic role” in its innovation roadmap, according to Bitan. Its medical models, printed using its PolyJet technology in unique material combinations that vary in softness, flexibility and density to mimic the human body, are being deployed in complex pre-surgical planning and realistic scenarios for surgical training. Today, Stratasys offers the only 3D printing solution that provides a biomechanical report to show that its printed models, created using patient data, behave bio-mechanically like the real thing.
"We made a lot of effort to make sure that, first of all, we can print materials that are softer, which was a challenging project on its own, but it wasn't enough just to say, it kind of feels the same,” Bitan explained.
“We actually created, in collaboration with industry leaders, reports that show their resemblance to cadaveric tissues and
literature values to the measured values from the printed models. We've proven two things. First of all, that our models behave bio-mechanically like the real tissues. And the second thing is that the results are very consistent and repeatable, which is something that you don't get from a cadaver.”
With models that behaved like the human body, the next request was to explore how those models performed under imaging. In 2022, Stratasys introduced a new material for its Digital Anatomy 3D printers, making it possible to produce ‘radio-realistic models’ which are visible under CT scan or X-ray. RadioMatrix is described as the first radiopaque material and can be added to a 3D printed model and viewed under radiopacity values from -30 to 1000 Hounsfield Units (HU). Bitan says there’s already a library of ideas from customers, with one early use case from the manufacturers of CT machines, who were able to reduce their development times by printing pathologies and unique cases to test their ability to capture images or even reduce levels of radiation.
Bitan explained: “You can do a study and then take a model, not a patient, scan it 500 times – different methods, different energy levels, different timings – and then see what is the best method to identify the pathology,
but then reduce the amount of radiation exposure for the patient.”
A recent study between Stratasys and CollPlant Biotechnologies looks to explore what is thought to be additive's next frontier: regenerative medicine. The companies are embarking on a pre-clinical study to develop a 3D bioprinting solution for regenerative breast implants, printed on an Origin system using rhCollagen-based bioinks, to test the implant's ability to promote natural tissue growth and completely degrade over time –resulting in real breast tissue.
“That's the future of 3D printing, in my opinion,” Bitan said. “It’s basically replacing the human body with the human body.”
It’s all about making an impact and one of the ways Stratasys is aiming to do that is by focusing on accessibility. At RAPID + TCT, the company launched the J5 Digital Anatomy 3D printer, designed for the production of life-like, patient-specific models that mimic the behaviour of real human tissue, skeletal structures and vasculature, but packaged in a machine that’s small, lightweight and can be placed in an office environment.
“I think for the medical industry, the number one factor in point of care is the accessibility,” Bitan said. “I think that everyone understands and knows that 3D printing, when it's used in a procedure, the outcome is going to be improved.”
When Lipps Inc. invited listeners to Funkytown, it is unlikely that the '80s disco group had in mind carbon nanotubes - not least because it would take until 1991 for researcher Sumio Iijima to identify the material. But for the team at Mechnano, an Arizonabased additive manufacturing (AM) materials start-up, carbon nanotubes are a fundamental part of their daily reprise, and their lab on the Arizona State University Polytechnic campus, known affectionately as Funkytown, is where D’Func was born.
“There are several stages in our process of producing carbon nanotube composites – one of them is functionalisation, but let's be realsaying ‘functionalisation’ over and over again can get old fast!” Olga Ivanova, aka Dr.O, Director of Applications & Technology at Mechnano, shared with TCT. “So instead of saying ‘functionalised carbon nanotubes’, we just started to call them ‘funky flakes’ because they are like flakes in a dry form. That's kind of how D’Func came to be.”
D’Func – discrete, dispersed, and functionalised carbon nanotubes –is the name given to Mechnano’s proprietary technology that addresses the challenges associated with utilising carbon nanotubes. This technology has been successfully applied to polymers for additive manufacturing, in turn, opening up possibilities for printed parts with better mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties.
“Carbon nanotubes offer a vast array of benefits that make them valuable in various industries,” Ivanova explained. “They are incredibly strong, which is perfect for industries like aerospace, electronics, healthcare, defense – you name it.”
Carbon nanotubes – or CNTs – are cylindrical structures of pure carbon. With a wall thickness of just a single atom, they are 10,000 times smaller than a human hair, 100 times stronger
than steel, and possess 1,000 times the current capacity of copper. Yet, it’s been more than three decades since that initial discovery, and what was thought to be the next revolution in materials science hasn’t quite lived up to its potential, at least not for AM.
According to Olga, “Carbon nanotubes have a lot of impressive attributes. With that said, they tend to clump together during the manufacturing process and when they're all clumped up, they can't effectively share their unique properties with the material they're mixed in.”
This challenge is the basis of Mechnano’s innovation with D’Func. It has been engineered to overcome the natural tendency for carbon nanotubes to agglomerate. Mechnano’s team of material scientists have applied different chemistries to the sidewalls of CNTs to ensure they remain stable and dispersed within a material matrix, ultimately delivering better performance and the potential to add new properties, such as conductivity.
“It's not just an innovation by improving the performance but also making a positive impact in the tech industry,” Ivanova said.
Mechnano was the first company in AM to fabricate parts with CNTs using material jetting and vat photopolymerization systems. The company came out of stealth in 2021 with a product that offered improved impact, tensile performance, and ESD (Electrostatic discharge) properties. Its discrete tubes can be tailored to specific requirements and processes, and Mechnano is now delivering ESD-safe additive materials through its proprietary masterbatches and readyto-use resins, powders and pellets. When asked about Mechnano’s bold ambitions to ‘change the world’ with its ESD materials, Ivanova, who oversees Mechnano’s marketing but has spoken candidly about the pitfalls of an overhyped AM industry, is keen to put those ambitions into context.
“Carbon nanotubes offer a vast array of benefits.”
WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS
T50B masterbatch and parts
“ESD-safe products are essential for keeping electronic devices safe from static electricity damage,” she explained. “They’re also paramount in reducing the risk of fires and explosions in environments that are prone to that and obviously protecting living organisms. So, if you think about it, yes, we are changing the world, by protecting the world.”
Mechnano’s materials have attracted users from a range of industries, particularly aerospace and electronics, where a multitude of applications face elevated risks of damage from electrostatic discharge and demand innovative solutions to safeguard electronic components within intricate machinery and systems.
“Every innovation comes in waves,” Ivanova observes, suggesting that scalability, cost and, most importantly, consistent quality are amongst the biggest hurdles affecting further adoption of CNT materials. Mechnano has extended an open invitation to additive OEMs and users to collaborate on adding D’Func to their capabilities. Last year, for example, the company worked with
Tethon3D to develop a new hightemperature ESD resin suitable for the fabrication of custom components that can withstand numerous thermal exposure cycles. Mechnano’s materials have also been validated and adopted by AM machine manufacturers such as Photocentric, Nexa3D, Arburg and Farsoon for the manufacture of static-dissipative parts. Last year Mechnano’s eco-friendly Polyketone ESD powder, its first laser sintering product, was qualified by Farsoon, and was also named as a finalist in this year’s TCT Awards Materials category. The material leverages Jabil’s low carbon footprint PK 5000 powder and incorporates D’Func technology to ensure parts with consistent electrostatic discharge properties at 107 ohms, while closely retaining Polyketone’s mechanical performance.
"It picks up and then it slows down,” Olga said of the rate of innovation in CNTs, and AM in general. “We are facing challenges of adoption. There is a lot of hesitation from industries that heavily rely on traditional manufacturing to fully embrace additive. Innovation happened with carbon nanotubes, especially in resins, three or so years ago, but the actual integration and acceptance of these solutions into manufacturing processes requires a significant period of time for widespread adoption.”
For Ivanova, materials are about “expanding the capability and versatility of additive manufacturing processes.” Today, Mechnano is focused on doing just that. Its customers are looking for new properties like conductivity and electromagnetic shielding, with demand for the latter being led by the aerospace sector. With a solid portfolio of resins, the team’s efforts are being placed on expanding laser sintering and pellet extrusion products.
“I think materials companies really pushed the limits [of AM],” Ivanova concludes. “Not to the limits but push the limits and keep on pushing by developing new composites and materials with unique properties that eventually, hopefully soon, will lead to wider adoption of additive technologies.”
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Chemistry is one key enabler,” a BASF spokesperson told TCT, “for the transition from using 3D printing for prototyping to the broad industrial use in series products.”
It was October 2017, Volume 25 Issue 5 of TCT Magazine, and BASF was opening up on its newly established 3D printing business. Such a development was a significant one for the additive manufacturing industry as it represented one of the world’s leading chemical firms stepping in to provide materials solutions to a burgeoning sector.
Seven years on, however, BASF has stepped back from that commitment, selling its Forward AM division and Sculpteo service offering to focus on its core businesses. And while it could spark some doom and gloom, those leading the now independent entity are full of buoyancy.
Forward AM Technologies is set to continue the good work commenced in 2017, with the spin-out company bringing with it more than 400 patents from 90 IP families, continuing with the technology agnostic approach it is hoping to make the industry standard and building on an already extensive materials portfolio.
“I have a huge respect and recognise the effort that BASF has made,” Forward AM CEO Martin Back told TCT. “Having created this unique setup is a great starting point. Now, exploration is not enough. We need
to commercialise on the potentials that have been created. This is what we [set about doing] in around 2022, clearly improving the focus on customers need and their applications and how to provide an offering which makes it easy for customers to leverage the advantage of additive manufacturing. And in that field, I would say everyone in additive manufacturing is only scratching the surface.”
Forward AM Technologies sees its responsibility as helping users to dig deeper. BASF first entered the market back in 2017 because it could see the potential in the technologies, and that vision has carried through to the now independent Forward AM Technologies business. Harnessing its strong IP catalogue, the company has commercialised a series of ULTRASINT powders for powder bed fusion processes, ULTRAFUSE filaments and pellets for extrusion-based technologies, and ULTRACUR3D photopolymers for SLA and DLP systems. In its bid to become the leading partner in 3D printing materials, it has also facilitated metal 3D printing on desktop FDM machines. Across these portfolios, the company has commercialised 62 materials in seven years, enabling such applications as the Canyon bike computer mount (pictured), which was additively manufactured with the
Ultrasint PA11 Black CF material with 50% reduced weight and improved stability.
Wins like this, Forward AM is keen to stress, is still only the start.
“I don’t believe in revolution,” Back said. “There are some areas where we will have a disruptive impact, but overall, it’s an evolution. Organisations and business models of our industrial manufacturing companies that we work with, they also need to adapt. But that’s why we are here. We want to streamline every manufacturing process with layers of additive manufacturing.”
This belief flows through the Forward AM Technologies business. It is not discouraged by BASF carving out the business, it is instead motivated. Despite the significant progress made by Forward AM as a BASF vehicle, it was becoming apparent that the 3D printing business needed those calling the shots to be focused on AM. Back and his colleagues are just that.
He comes from the automotive world, so understands the challenge of meeting stringent industry requirements and high volumes, but also sees the opportunities: the constraints of traditional manufacturing methods, the burden of warehousing, and pitfalls of inflexibility; the pains of lot size thinking and waterfall project management. Additive manufacturing, Forward AM believes, can provide solutions to all of the above. And as it was in 2017, chemistry is a key enabler. Forward AM may have its impact through evolution rather than revolution, but that’s not to say it plans to move slowly.
The company has made its start, and is now looking to pick up the pace.
“In our world of uncertainly and volatility, sometimes it’s not the good ones who beat the bad ones, sometimes it’s just the fast ones who beat the slow ones,” Back assessed. “Additive manufacturing stands for making changes fast. I would like to spread the word much more in our traditional manufacturing industries.”
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Laura Griffiths asks: can you 3D print a diamond?
When Sandra Bullock and co pulled off the world's biggest jewellery heist in Oceans 8, a trusty MakerBot Replicator, and Rihanna, were all the gang needed to print a zirconium replica of a Cartier diamond necklace and get away with it. Sadly, there is no desktop, nor industrial, 3D printer that can turn you into a master jewel thief, but aspirations around diamond 3D printing aren’t as far-fetched as you might think.
In 2015, while at Lockheed Martin, David G. Findley filed the first of several patents related to ‘3D diamond printing.’ The filing proposed how manufacturing with a “diamond forming pre-ceramic polymer and a diamond nanoparticle powder” may allow for the creation of complex diamond objects, such as industrial tools, which take advantage of the material’s unique carbon properties.
Four years later, Sandvik, the Swedish engineering company, which specialises in mining, rock excavation, and metal cutting, unveiled what it believed to be the first 3D printed diamond composite. As noted by the company’s additive manufacturing arm at the time, the material didn’t sparkle but was thought to unfurl new applications “from wear parts to space programs” due to its high hardness, exceptional heat conductivity, and corrosion resistance. It was made possible using stereolithography and proprietary post-processing whereby composite material is printed in a slurry, made up of mostly diamond, but cemented in a very hard matrix material, which keeps its physical properties close to pure diamond.
The methodology is perhaps closest to those currently being commercialised by ceramics AM specialists like Lithoz, whose Lithography-based Ceramic Manufacturing (LCM) technology uses slurries, largely formed of high-purity aluminium oxide, to manufacture parts for demanding industries like healthcare, aerospace and electronics.
“Some comparisons could certainly be drawn,” Christoph Hofstetter, Director of Materials Engineering at Lithoz told
TCT. “Our raw ceramic materials, such as alumina and zirconia, all use a variety of powders to make the viscous slurry. So, if a diamond powder was used, it would also be possible to print with this material using LCM.”
According to Hofstetter, the translucent aluminium oxide ceramic already on the AM market today is similar to diamond in terms of hardness and optical properties. But Hofstetter acknowledges that the processing of a raw diamond can be demanding due to it’s high hardness and requires special knowledge, skills and equipment. Yet, the benefits, particularly around AM's unique design freedoms, could enable the creation of entirely new products and applications.
Hofstetter believes there is demand for the 3D printing of diamond substrates and diamond composites for industrial applications, but what about the sectors we might conventionally associate with the application of these precious stones? Some manufacturers in the jewellery industry, for example, have
been championing lab-grown diamonds, whereby a diamond is formed by exposing a small piece of diamond to extreme heat and pressure or carbonbased gases, in an effort to make diamond-sourcing more ethical and sustainable. Could 3D printing present another alternative?
“I see a lot of potential there,” says Marie Boltenstern, Founder and Head of Design at Boltenstern, an Austrian jeweller, which uses precious metal 3D printing to create complex fine pieces.
“I think that the whole industry needs to rethink how materials are being generated.”
Despite what Boltenstern describes as a huge step in the industrial production of diamonds, the field of lab-grown diamonds has been met with criticism, with some high-end jewellers viewing them as artificial or questioning the true environmental benefit across their entire value chain. Perhaps AM, which is inherently about adding rather than cutting away material, could combat some of those concerns.
"Like with anything that you're 3D printing, the great feature is that you have minimal waste,” Boltenstern said. “If you cut a diamond, you cut away a lot of preciousness.”
Boltenstern believes the industry is “still quite a way” from exploring the potential of 3D printed diamonds, and in any future where diamond 3D printing is a reality, its successful adoption would ultimately be about understanding and leveraging its value.
“For our work, we always say it's an expansion to what has been possible so far because we produce pieces that cannot be done by hand or any other technology,” Boltenstern said.
“I think that could be the same thing for diamonds in the future, that you can generate shapes that you couldn't cut, and that might make the diamond shine even more. Because what's the purpose of the diamond? It's to shine. I always think that it's important to think about what the purpose is first, and then you explain the technology afterwards.”
WORDS: SAM DAVIES
In the biomedical space, a technology is earning a reputation for enabling personalised medical solutions, and the bespoke drug delivery capabilities of enzymes is gaining traction too.
At the convergence of the two is a research effort being led by Amy Locks, a PhD candidate at the University College London School of Pharmacy and Department of Chemistry.
Backed by the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Transformative Pharmaceutical Technologies, Lock is exploring the incorporation of enzymes into 3D printable polymers to catalyse the tailored release of therapeutics. In doing so, Lock is taking inspiration from Invisalign moulds and hearing aid shells to take advantage of 3D printing’s capacity to enable personalised medical devices, and the selectivity and specificity of enzymes to facilitate the development of more effective drug delivery products. All the while, she is considering the prevalence of microplastics all over the world and in the human body, so has set her focus on biocompatible materials that can be fully degraded by the enzymes to leave no presence of microplastics.
Working with PLA and PCL materials, Lock prints 3D lattice structures and integrates enzymes onto the part post-print – the lattice structure providing a high surface area for the enzymes to be loaded on. Enzymes are loaded onto the polymer via simple load absorption or covalent bonding, with an enzyme screening process being carried out beforehand using a compound that acts as a drug mimic. Once cleaved by enzymes, this generates a brightly coloured para nitrophenoxide ion that can be easily quantitatively assed by absorbance.
“I screened many enzymes based on what had already been done in literature,” Locks told TCT. “And this was narrowed down into kinetic analysis of what produced that phenoxide ion most quickly to the three best performing enzymes, and then I tested those three best performing enzymes on my 3D printed constructs.”
Having tested those enzymes – Esterase from Porcine Liver, Lipase B from Candida antartica, and a metageomically sequenced enzyme called PLAse that has been purified in-house and specifically degrades PLA – Locks has reported that they successfully integrate and stay active within 3D printable biodegradable polymers, delivering customisable release strengths. The PLA and PCL constructs
because it is more personalised and targeted to the tumour site,” Locks said. “It would also reduce the environmental impact because it wouldn’t need to be an implant that would need to be removed.”
When the enzyme is degrading the structure, it is producing lactic acid, a chemical the body will tolerate since it already produces it naturally. Since the application of proteins and 3D printing continue to grow in the biomedical space, and the 3D printing enabled Spritam drug for the treatment of partial-onset seizures has been FDA-approved, Locks also has confidence that her method could one day also receive regulatory approvals.
are said to keep the enzyme stable for up to four months before use without a significant loss of activity and can be reused. Locks has also observed that the enzymes cause formation of pores in the 3D construct, proving that the structure is breaking down.
As Locks looks forward, she identifies prostate cancer treatment as one application of her 3D printed structures for enzyme-controlled drug release. The drug mimic she has used so far is Abiraterone, a pro drug for prostate cancer, with the pH of her enzymes aligning with the pH of cancerous tumours. While further testing is still to come, Locks is confident her research could lead to alternative and less invasive treatments for what is the second most common cause of cancer death in males in the UK.
“It could improve the efficacy of treatments while reducing systemic side effects
For now, though, her research continues. One area of focus has been to synthesize and test custom material formulations, engineered to provide tailored mechanical properties to control degradation rate and thermal behaviours. With this work, Locks has printed formulations that provided high stiffness that would be more suitable for applications like scaffolds, and softer parts able to be rapidly degraded in a few hours that would be more suitable for implants that eliminate the need for surgical removal. There is also scope to create structures with memory properties, so they return to their original shape once implanted within the body.
But what comes next is this: “Testing with the pro drug compounds now that I have a robust system with the drug mimic. Testing on biological models to help assess that applicability to prostate cancer and translation from current in vitro testing. And some more 3D printing of other shapes so that I can assess how much I can customise the release profile of that drug.”
On October 23, 2024, Locks will present the findings of her research at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) in Salt Lake City.
To learn more, contact Amy Locks at: amy.locks.21@ucl.ac.uk
TCT: You've served many roles as an advocate for women in engineering. What motivates you?
SD: I grew up in a very idyllic setting. My parents were married. It was a happy marriage. I had three siblings. They encouraged me to pursue a career in math and science because I always loved that, I was always really good at it. And really, I didn't realise that there was such a thing as, people wouldn't welcome me into a STEM profession.
I'm very active in Society of Women Engineers, which is where I do most of my advocacy, and it wasn't until I started working and I started experiencing just a little bit of not being included or people thinking I was getting special treatment when I wasn't.
Then I started to hear the stories about women that didn't have a family like [mine], that had teachers that maybe discouraged them, that had parents that didn't think they could do that.
I had this motivation that something is needed because not everybody grew up in the environment I grew up in.
So, I thought, if I'm comfortable doing it, I might as well use that to my advantage to help other women coming up through the ranks and make sure that people hear the stories and hear the need for including women.
TCT: How early do we need to start?
SD: I think the earlier the better. A lot of the research says that grade five is a key time just to let kids know that it's okay to think about this. This is terrible but ‘engineering’ as a word has bad connotations to it. Same with ‘manufacturing.’ I know there's some curriculum in Minnesota where they have something each year, starting off when kids are really little, five or six years old, and they build a birdhouse. Well, a birdhouse has a lot of components to it, and if you think about it, there's a lot of schools, when kids are really little, where they build a birdhouse but do they really
talk about, ‘Look, we're going to make sure that these things fit together and how they fit together’?
There are things that are in the aspect of a manufacturing or a technical degree with something like building a birdhouse and if we could just kind of squeeze that in when people don't even realise they're learning about it, then they start thinking that's just the way life is.
TCT: You, quite literally, wrote the book on Women in 3D Printing. Within that you ask whether additive can help ‘fuel the fire for gender diversity in manufacturing.’ Why do you think AM has the ability to do that? And is it unique to AM?
SD: Additive manufacturing is still relatively new, so it maybe has less stigma to it as far as, ‘that's not what girls do.’ From that aspect, I feel like people's eyes might be open a little bit more.
So, it's a little unique to additive manufacturing, but it also could be any sort of new industry that comes along.
Now, unfortunately [AM] still tends to be more heavily male dominated, but maybe not as much as some areas. I still feel there's hope for it because it doesn't have the stigma.
TCT: When you introduce the book’s female authors, you describe them as technical leaders who happen to be women. Do you think we need to be conscious of making sure when we are talking about diversity, we’re not placing this responsibility on women and overshadowing their achievements as engineers?
SD: Yes, absolutely. Exclamation mark! Exclamation mark! The last 10, 20 years, we’ve talked about diversity, we've talked about women in engineering, and we don't just want to be like, ‘oh, they're the best woman engineer,’ ‘they're the best female pilot,’ ‘they're the best, woman doctor.’ People want to be the best engineer, the best pilot, the best doctor.
10 years ago or something, I went to a wonderful tribute to Sally Ride, the first woman in space from the U.S. There were some of the astronauts there that all happened to be women and they were talking about their kids - their kids just knew that all these [women], their moms, were astronauts. At one point, one of the sons said, ‘Well, I want to be an astronaut, but maybe only women can be astronauts?’ And it's just the reverse of what our little girls usually see. They usually see the flip of it so let them see that these technical careers happen to have women in them.
TCT: Do you think there are clear, actionable steps that organisations can quickly act on to start making a change?
Laura Griffiths speaks to Stacey DelVecchio, a lifelong advocate for gender equity in STEM, about fueling the fire for gender diversity in manufacturing.
SD: I know in universities, if they have more women professors that are in the STEM fields, it immediately translates into their retention and the graduation rates. Some of the bigger universities have really put a push on getting engineering professors that are women on their staff and they're approaching equity in the graduation rates, which is amazing that you can see such a direct linkage. Granted, the average person's not going to be
“There's hope for AM because it doesn't have the stigma.”
able to have an impact on a university hiring more engineering professors, so making sure you look at your leaders, [...] there should be some intentional effort in order to get more women into leadership ranks. And I'd say just making sure there's the welcoming aspect. Don't ignore the elephant in the room and just assume it's everybody's responsibility to make sure that they feel welcome in the workplace, in the classroom, or wherever you may be.
TCT: Sometimes, there is push back on diversity initiatives like WI3DP - people will ask, what is the need for it? Is that something you’ve come up against? How should we respond to that sort of thinking?
SD: Yes, I've come across that. [...] Women in 3D Printing or Society of Women Engineers, their mission is to
promote women engineers or achieve parity in some of these fields. None of these organisations are exclusive to women. Men can belong to them. And it's usually the men that realise that this is an issue and they want to help. So join us. It’s not like it's a secret club or an exclusive club where only women can join.
It's about solving one of these issues where we can bring more of these people to industry and solve these grand challenges that we have for the planet and all that type of stuff. So, I kind of push back with 'well, we keep talking about [how] we're going to have a shortage of engineers, why wouldn't you want to encourage women who are 50 percent of the population to be engineers?' I don't understand why you wouldn't want to do that!
TCT: A final thought, why do we need to keep talking about diversity?
SD: We're not where we want to be. I think we've seen political climate change, especially in the United States, where people, companies in particular, are pulling back on publicly supporting diversity. [...] So it's important to talk about it because then you have some of these not-for-profits that are trying to move the needle and make progress and if they don't have any of the public support of some of the big players, it makes it hard for them to say, 'people really want this' because then policymakers are like, ‘well, nobody else is talking about it except for the non-profits.’
We've made progress. We don't want to backslide now because people have stopped talking and go underground because it might not be politically correct.
We still need to talk about it because it's not embedded in the way we think yet. Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
To listen to the full interview, subscribe to the Additive Insight podcast.
How a college lecturer is instilling diversity, equity and inclusion practices into the teaching of aerospace and motorsport engineering courses.
It started with the assembly of ABS building blocks, maturing over time to the design of models in CAD and the realisation of those models with FDM 3D printing, and now to the teaching of these skills at Wales’ largest further education college.
There is, arguably, little extraordinary about this pathway. Until you learn the person is a mixed-heritage woman with a long-term disability. The industry has not necessarily been designed for people like Alexis Dabee-Saltmarsh, but through her role at Coleg Gwent, she is working to piece together a more diverse and inclusive future engineering workforce.
“Creating a diverse and inclusive learning environment is a deeply personal commitment for me,” DabeeSaltmarsh tells TCT. For these efforts, Dabee-Saltmarsh was recently awarded a Silver Award in the Pearson National Teaching Awards, while Coleg Gwent was commended in 2023 for its diversity and inclusion initiatives at the CIPD Awards. She is also an active member of the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) group, an advocate for the Women’s Affinity Network, and works with Create Education as a STEM Ambassador.
Providing opportunity and leading by example are points of passion for DabeeSaltmarsh. She has helped to address internal policy gaps, such as those in the college’s family leave policy, and has helped to set up outreach programmes to ensure the college is engaging with local organisations and Welsh Government to support diversity and inclusion. And then there's the primary focus of the Automotive and Aeronautical Engineering Lecturer.
“We promote inclusive teaching by ensuring that our curriculum reflects diverse perspectives, histories,
and contributions from various cultures, genders and communities,” she says. “We also adopt teaching methods that accommodate different learning styles and abilities, and we provide resources that reflect the diversity of our student body.”
It is potentially good news for the additive manufacturing (AM) industry since Dabee-Saltmarsh is set to teach at Coleg Gwent’s new 9 million GBP High Value Engineering (HiVE) facility, which will equip learners with ‘cutting-edge technology and innovations’ that ‘align with industry standards.’ Students will have hands-on access to robotics, composite materials and industrial AM machinery, enhancing the motorsports and aerospace courses that Dabee-Saltmarsh helps to deliver, while enabling new programmes too.
Those motorsports and aerospace courses cover Level 3 to Level 5, and are ‘meticulously designed’ to ensure ‘students acquire the necessary skills to excel in these specialised fields.’ Students already have access to such technologies as 3D printing, but the HiVE facility will represent a significant upgrade.
“The module selection is highly focused, equipping students with expertise tailored to their future careers,” DabeeSaltmarsh explains. “Students are actively encouraged to make full use of the available technologies and facilities as part of their learning. With the additional space and resources provided by the
HiVE facility, they will find it even easier to engage with these cutting-edge tools, enabling them to deepen their understanding and practical skills to a greater extent than ever before.”
In tandem, Coleg Gwent continues with its outreach efforts to ensure the people utilising this equipment and workspace are as diverse a bunch as possible, with each student able to confidently embrace their interests and passions. Dabee-Saltmarsh is keen to encourage young people from under-represented backgrounds to never lose sight of their ambitions. A career in engineering may be demanding, she says, but with determination and passion, you can achieve great things and help pave the way for others too.
That does, however, require organisations to facilitate those ambitions. Per DabeeSaltmarsh, educational institutions should strive to ensure their teaching staff reflect the diverse background of their learners, have leaders that are willing to actively model inclusive behaviour, and offer training in, for example, anti-racism, suicide prevention, and wellbeing.
It is proving worthwhile for Coleg Gwent –the Teaching team and collaborative HiVE team have been shortlisted as finalists for the STEM Team of the Year at the Wales STEM Awards 2024 – and will go a long way to creating an environment that is inclusive for everyone. But it doesn’t get students into that inclusive environment. For that, Dabee-Saltmarsh suggests more can be done to recruit people from under-represented background into the engineering space.
“It is essential to start early.”
“It is essential to start early,” she finishes. “While there has been progress in promoting diversity, initiatives aimed at supporting girls and young women often begin too later in the educational journey. Research shows that students often decide on their career paths when selecting their GCSE subjects, meaning outreach efforts must start well before this point. Since many children develop an interest in subjects as early as eight years old, it is crucial to introduce them to engineering technologies during primary education.”
Charlotte ‘Lottie’ Bridgewater is the 2024 winner of the Sanjay Mortimer Foundation Rising Star Award, an award which recognises neurodivergent young people who have the potential to contribute greatly towards engineering. As a student at Newcastle University, Lottie created the “TuCan”, an assistive technology device that helps individuals with low grip strength to open beverage cans. Here, Lottie tells Laura Griffiths about the TuCan, her career ambitions, and being an ambassador for neurodiverse women in engineering.
TCT: Lottie, you are this year’s recipient of the SMF Rising Star Award - congratulations! How does it feel to be recognised for your achievements?
L: Thank you! It’s incredible to be recognised, especially after years of navigating the challenges of being an autistic woman in a field where I've often felt the need to go the extra mile to have my academic achievements stand out.
TCT: When did you first discover 3D printing and your passion for design? What drew you to it?
L: I’ve been passionate about design my entire life—from LEGO kits and train tracks as a child, to a GCSE in Design and Technology as a teenager, and now studying engineering while building projects in my spare time. I’ve only had access to 3D printers for about a year through the Newcastle University engineering department, but they’ve been a game changer, allowing me to regularly create my designs and explore new mechanisms that are difficult to achieve without print-in-place technology. I’m excited to see where this journey leads!
TCT: Tell us about the “TuCan” and the inspiration behind it.
L: The ‘TuCan’ is the name of my third-year dissertation project, an assistive device to help those with low dexterity open drinks cans. It came about when I was talking to a friend of mine at the start of the academic year. She has a disability that affects her grip strength and dexterity, and while we were on the phone she was struggling to open a drinks can. I did some research and discovered that there wasn’t really anything on the market that didn’t rely on some grip by the user to take the top of the can off entirely, so I decided to pursue it as a project. It has been really rewarding, and so far I’ve managed to 3D print a semiworking prototype. The mechanism uses a print-in-place design, which is something I’ve really enjoyed having access to, as it opens a lot of doors. Hopefully I’ll be able to reach a fully functional version over the next year.
TCT: When the SMF’s Teula Bradshaw welcomed you on stage at the TCT Awards, she said you were an ‘excellent ambassador for neurodiverse women in engineering.’ Do you feel that responsibility with this recognition?
L: I do - I think that though engineering can be an excellent career for neurodivergent people, it can be hard to get through all the stages of education to get here. I hope my work now, and in the future, can show neurodivergent people that it's possible and worth it, and also show those involved in creating and maintaining support systems (which is everybody) what can be achieved when neurodivergent people are given the support they need. Support and understanding of neurodivergence can look different for women, but a diversity of minds in engineering is crucial. It allows us to approach problems from lots of unique perspectives, leading to more innovative and inclusive solutions.
TCT: You’ve just finished your thirdyear dissertation while studying Mechanical Engineering at Newcastle University. What are your ambitions for your engineering career?
L: After I finish my Master’s course next year (Mechanical Engineering with Biomedical Engineering), I hope to go into designing assistive devices that can be useful, accessible and fun. While this is an area that’s seen lots of improvement recently, a lot of assistive devices are still bulky, expensive or ugly, which makes them inaccessible to a lot of people. Eventually I’d like to apply for CEng status. Overall, I hope to spend my time creating devices that make life not only more accessible but more enjoyable for everyone.
Our annual AM Service Provider Map, enclosed within this issue, offers a guide to some of the UK’s leading providers of 3D printing services. Here, we asked the people behind the prints about their successes, top tips, and when it makes sense to outsource.
JERRY SUTTON | Managing Director at Incremental Engineering
“We are essentially just another tool for OEM manufacturers to use. We aim to be a really boring, perfectly reliable, supplier of parts. Why should you use a service bureau instead of bringing AM in-house? Experience. That would be my one-word answer. To expand a little, we see hundreds of different parts coming through every day and while most industry marketing would have us believe that we are running Star Trek Replicators and perfect things pop out at the touch of a button, we are not. To get the best possible quality and repeatability of parts takes experience and a thorough understanding and monitoring of the processes and how they achieve the end product.”
“Our journey began with passion for innovation and quality, now leading us to specialise in cuttingedge micro 3D printing technologies like BMF’s 2µm resolution, amongst our extensive additive manufacturing and CNC workshop. We’re creating ultra-precise microfluidic plates and micro needles arrays for major med-tech developments, drastically reducing their product time-to-market and improving product performance. Consider 3D printing for its unparalleled design adaptability and rapid prototyping. By partnering with a service bureau like IPFL, you gain access to specialised expertise and advanced technologies without the high in-house costs.”
CHARLIE ADAMSON | 3D Printing
Technician at Paragon Rapid Technologies
“There are many different types of AM which use many different materials. If a customer decided to bring a technology in-house, they would be limiting themselves to just a couple materials. Whereas if the customer used a service bureau they could give themselves access to DLS, MJF, SLA, SLS and many more, which includes a lot of different materials with a lot of diversity in the properties. Therefore, the customer doesn’t have to go through the hassle of setting up their own 3D printing facility, they don’t have to worry about all the costs included and they still have access to a wide range of materials, which they might not have access to in-house.”
DAVID BENNETT | Bureau Manager at 3D Print Bureau
“Automotive manufacturers often face the challenge of producing accurate, quickturnaround parts, especially when frequent changes to jigs, fixtures, and tools are required. One of our recent success stories includes a well-known car manufacturer, who relied on our expertise in additive manufacturing to support the creation of several jigs and fixtures for their production line. Impressed by the results, they expanded their use of 3D printing to prototype models, including the development of an exact 33% scale model of a new car design using a combination of FDM and PolyJet technologies. These projects had such an impact that they purchased their own F770 printer with our sister company Tri-Tech 3D, after successful trials with the bureau team.”
VICKI MAY | Head of Sales & Marketing at Prototal UK
“There is a void between in-house rapid prototyping and production additive manufacturing. We firmly encourage our customers to utilise the benefits of 3D printing, and bringing the technology in-house is a great way to cheaply and quickly prototype and iterate designs. We pride ourselves on the production of high-volume, high-performance end-use components, which is where smaller platforms and cheaper AM solutions may fall short of what you need. Quality control, material traceability, repeatable build parameters and robust post-processing are a necessity for end-use production, and that is where Prototal UK excels.”
DANIEL JOHNS | CEO at 3T-AM
“For us, the focus isn’t on a specific application but on perfecting the manufacturing system. Success hinges on optimising the internal value chain, digitisation, and automation. When you can get that right, any application can pass through the system and achieve commercial viability. With an in-house value chain you reduce the supply chain into one organisation. Meaning you can go from ordering material from a foundry, in our case powder, to delivery of the product to a customer. So, you have only two suppliers and an end customer in the chain. With that comes a more efficient way of producing a component and using that efficiency we can demonstrate our net zero agenda, providing carbon zero certificate on every component.”
“We provide a variety of metal and plastic AM services that enable our customers to produce parts with complex geometries that are impossible with traditional manufacturing methods. AM also supports rapid design iterations, speeding up development and reducing time to market. More and more we are finding that customers are turning to AM for low-volume production because it allows for the creation of highly customised products tailored to specific needs. If you're looking to drive innovation in design, lower costs, and quickly adapt to market demands, AM is a technology you should consider.”
“Andrew Edwards, the world-renowned sculptor behind the iconic Beatles bronze sculpture on Liverpool’s waterfront, has been a valued partner of 3DPrintworx for many years. Our collaboration began with assisting Andy in 3D scanning and enlarging his initial maquettes. In the past two years, however, Andy has taken his sculpture to new heights—literally—by utilising large-volume 3D printing to create master models for his larger-than-life bronze sculptures, some standing over 7 feet tall. This innovative approach has been made possible through our use of Uniontech SLA 3D printers, which excel in large-scale production with bed sizes reaching up to 2.1 meters. This allows us to produce massive parts cost-effectively, often at prices competitive with traditional milling.”
“For prototyping and modelmaking, AM should be considered as there are huge cost and time savings to be realised, allowing product development cycles to be greatly reduced and more elements tested, improving designs. For production, the question should be ‘is it suitable?’. A lot of the time it isn’t and traditional methods such as injection moulding, CNC machining or casting are still the way to go. Material properties, tolerances required, quantities and cost per part (and overall product cost) all need considering. If AM is the way to go, designs can be optimised to further save costs, weight, improve quality and lead times.”
Editor’s note: Comments have been edited for brevity and clarity.
GRAEME BOND | Technical Director at FDM Digital
“A time-served engineer, I had an early 3D printer in my garage and realised the technology would be transformational. From a tiny lock up with one printer we now have a state-of-the-art 10,000 sq ft manufacturing facility. The business has grown via the F1, aerospace, automotive and industrial sectors. We have now added tooling design and manufacturing to our capabilities and invested in a large-format hybrid machine capable of printing up to 4 metres to support large tooling. After Ultem 9085 was UL94V-0 certified and approved for use by Airbus, we began writing AM standards and printing end-use components for our aerospace customers. To date, we have placed over 57,000 Ultem 9085 printed parts on commercial aircraft.”
BRYAN DRANSFIELD | Founder of Digital Echo Ltd
“Digital Echo was formed 25 years ago when a modelmaking studio invested in the latest digital sculpting technology - which we showcased on the Tomorrows World TV programme! - and was looking for an affordable 'office modeller' as an output. The wax polymer it used was also perfect as an investment casting pattern and a new 3D printing service was born. Working alongside foundries, we have recently facilitated the development of a new gas turbine engine from design to test bed in two years – an industry first. Our contribution was to produce complex casting patterns without the need for very expensive tooling, allowing the development process to make rapid design changes while using the same materials that would be used during manufacture.”
PAUL MOLONEY | Founder and Managing Director at Midlands 3D
“With a focus on quality and innovation, the company has expanded its capabilities through strategic acquisitions and investments in advanced technologies like Multi Jet Fusion. Adding Multi Jet Fusion to Midlands 3D’s capabilities has significantly expanded our capacity and range of offerings. This technology has enabled us to increase production speed, expand material options and improve part quality.”
WORDS:
Strolling down the Las Vegas strip, amid the clashing sounds and neon lights of a hot May evening, I’m not so quietly reminded that engineering is everywhere. From the motor drives and control systems that cause the Bellagio Fountains to dance in sync to Sinatra, to the stationary drive machinery of the monorail which takes visitors from one castle-themed hotel across to the tropical motif of another. It is the latter where Siemens Digital Industries Software is hosting its flagship event, outlining the impact it believes artificial intelligence and the industrial metaverse will have on the future of industrial software.
But not before a quick additive manufacturing (AM) reality check.
“Overhyped” is the word chosen by Tony Hemmelgarn, President and CEO of Siemens Digitial Industries Software and a veteran of PLM, to describe AM during an opening keynote session. Before I can take off my 3D printing editor hat and shuffle away quietly, he contextualises that AM is “making a tremendous difference” but it’s just not the cool new kid on the block anymore. While not particularly controversial or sobering, it is an interesting take from a company sharing with the 2,000 attendees at Realize LIVE Americas how similarly hyped technologies will fundamentally change how products are designed and manufactured. Hemmelgarn believes we’re “on the cusp of an innovation that’s going to greatly accelerate,” and when I sit down with Aaron Frankel, VP Additive Manufacturing Software Program, later that day, it’s clear Siemens is taking a sensible approach to pursuing these emerging technologies.
“AI can help in so many ways, it's really up to our imaginations at this point and working through different scenarios,” Frankel told TCT, suggesting that for AM, some of those scenarios could include anything from scanning through a catalogue of parts to find the best fit solution to resequencing of scan vectors.
Is AI the new AM, I wonder? With everything from cooking recipes to vacation itineraries being sought on AI platforms, it's certainly riding a similar path, where a boom in consumer interest turned an otherwise 'techy' product into a tool for the generalist. Yet, while AM was propelled by Star Trek references and ‘revolutionary’ headlines, that buzz led to a lack of understanding and then disillusionment around the technology's real value and industry acceptance. Siemens is conscious of that in its push towards meaningful adoption of AI, targetting generalists over experts.
“I think sometimes companies treat it as special,” Frankel said of AM. “Sometimes you have to do that to get started but if you continue to treat it as a special thing, it's never going to become a part of the fabric and the culture of the organisation that needs to adopt it, and that's something I think that companies need to be made aware of. Don't treat it as special because if you do, only a handful of people are going to end up using it.”
But Siemens has plenty of customers that are successfully implementing AM at scale. Frankel shares how Schubert Group remapped its spare parts supply chain using AM on demand. Leveraging Siemens’ Additive Manufacturing Network and NX Software, the machine builder’s subsidiary Schubert Additive Solutions GmbH has reported a 90% reduction in lead times and 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. It also used NX and digital twin technology to develop its in-house Partbox 3D printer, halving development time and allowing engineers to perform tests and ‘prototype’ the machine within a digital environment. Now, customer orders are all processed within the Additive Manufacturing Network, and the entire workflow is facilitated with NX.
“When it comes to additive, I believe that we're in a leadership position as far as being able to offer a digital thread solution, all the way from the idea to the part,” Frankel explained. “I think we’re in this unique position because our approach
“When it comes to additive, I believe we're in a leadership position.”
has been to develop software tools that fit into the tools that all of the engineers and manufacturers use from our portfolio, and give them the ability to take advantage of additive, whether it's design, simulation, or manufacturing.”
For additive, there are numerous steps between concept and end part, which have historically meant multiple tools and software products. But as Frankel posited, manufacturers don’t have time to figure out niche tools for every step, and are instead “looking for a single solution that they can easily learn and then grow into additive.” Bolstering that notion, the theme of the ‘digital thread’ was one of the event’s major takeaways, but linking up every part of that workflow, and making the most of the valuable data generated along the way remains a challenge for manufacturers.
"One thing that's maybe interesting about additive manufacturing over other manufacturing processes is that its capabilities are expanding rapidly,” said Frankel of the technological developments that make AM an ever-changing landscape. He points to the dramatic rise in multi-laser technologies which have seen machines launched with daunting laser counts, each requiring different capabilities to support. Frankel says Siemens works closely with its customers that are operating “on those bleeding edges,” observing the technologies
they’re adopting and where they are going, in order to define its product roadmap through in-house capabilities and partnerships.
“I think that in many cases, companies that are looking to adopt [AM] will be frustrated if it doesn't work in the thread that they're trying to build,” Frankel said. “So, I think there's more to do there. There's more openness that's needed. There's more collaboration that's needed in order to support some of these more advanced capabilities that are being developed so rapidly.”
Within NX for manufacturing, Siemens is paying close attention to AM, from design and build prep, to postprocessing and process management. Frankel says it has invested heavily in its simulation capabilities within the build process, and recently "made strides” focused specifically on metal powder bed fusion that aim to address that "generalist” user.
Across three days at Realize LIVE, I clock plenty of AM, but as Hemmelgarn observed in his keynote, it’s typically not the headline story. Sintavia, for example, the Floridabased metal AM supplier to the aerospace and defence sector, partnered with Siemens Digital Industries Software back in 2020 to develop an end-to-end AM software solution as a part of Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio. The mutual exchange has seen insights shared between the two for future AM solutions, and Sintavia has since implemented an extensive part of Siemens' portfolio including NX for design, Simcenter for the simulation of new products, and Teamcenter for executing production orders from customers in highly regulated industries.
“It's an amazing story,” Frankel said. “The team that delivered this for this small-medium business started with three young engineers who were given this task to pull together a big aspect of managing a digital thread and executing it in production, and given a short amount of time to do it. They totally delivered.”
A new mixed reality device from Sony has attendees lining up for a demo following a keynote presentation and leaves me pondering the relevance of 3D printing as a prototyping technology, which remains its most valuable use case, in a world of virtual environments and metaverses. The HMD (head mounted display) was designed using Siemens' NX software and features 4K
OLED Microdisplays and controllers to allow virtual interaction with 3D objects.
“I think they're complementary,” Frankel argues. “I think instead of having to look at a digital model on a flat screen, to be able to see something that almost feels like you're holding it in your hand is going to be great but then I also think people are going to want to be able to, in some cases, touch and have that tactile feedback. I think these two worlds are always going to continue to come together.”
So, AI might not be the new AM, and it seems we’re only on the cusp of exploring how these tools will work together in this digital future.
“Maybe someday we'll get to the point where we don’t need to produce it first and try it out,” Frankel concludes. “Maybe we are seeing some progress in that direction, which is fine, because I don't see 3D printing as a prototyping tool, so I'm okay with the digital element of it. If we can get to the first part without having to print things or fail any of the builds getting there? That would be killer.”
SHOWN: Schubert Additive Partbox 3D printer built with NX
SHOWN: Modelling in Siemens NX
FDM Digital Solutions Ltd t: +44 (0) 1282 968 928 w: www fdmdigitalsolutions co uk Unit 4, AMS Technology Park, Billington Road, Burnley, BB11 5UB LFAM CMS K
M
ufacturing Hybrid 3D print / 5-Axis CNC up to 4M x 2M x 1M (metres)
High Performance Polymer Specialists, FDM, FFF, HP MJF, PAEK, PEEK, PEKK, CF12, Flammability materials
Laser scanning, Reverse Engineering, Tooling Design and Manufacture, SR30 Soluble core specialists & Flight approved manufactured parts F1, High end Automotive, Automotive & Aerospace approved
Sarah King, Biomaterials Specialist and Practitioner at innovation hub STEAMhouse, explores the creative potential for biomaterials.
From creating homeware from coffee grounds, sculptures from eggshells, and bricks from recycled paper, I have been educating and inspiring businesses on the creative and commercial opportunities of waste materials for over eight years.
While many of those businesses are looking for ways to lower consumption, reduce carbon footprints and move away from the take, make and waste systems, there is still an abundance of waste streams and materials which are not being optimised by large global industries. Many of these we encounter every day: the eggshells from our breakfast, the paper from our old meeting notes, or the orange peel from our afternoon snack.
Collectively, these raw materials provide a wealth of biomass material which can be combined - without any synthetic ingredients - to produce valuable products which are kinder, cleaner and healthier for the planet than their current manmade alternatives.
Like myself, creatives and innovators across the country are recognising the huge potential of organic waste and turning to technology to explore ways in which these raw materials can be repurposed for future growth. Additive manufacturing and 3D printing have received growing attention in recent years, but what is less talked about is the volume of waste that can be produced through these processes. It has been estimated that as much as 33% of 3D prints end up as waste which, in the UK, could mean that 1.5 million kg of plastic waste could be generated per year.
Myself, and the community of passionate practitioners at STEAMhouse, are turning waste to wonder on a daily basis, showcasing how biobased materials – which are both abundant and regenerative by nature – can be repurposed and transformed into valuable new products through material innovation and the use of cutting-edge technology.
One area of my work is the repurposing of the coffee grounds from our in-house
café at STEAMhouse. When considering the number of coffee shops in the UK, it comes as no surprise that around half a million tonnes of ground coffee waste ends up in landfill each year; not to mention that it will take at least three months before it starts to decompose. But rather than viewing this as a problem to be managed, I see this as an opportunity. Using coffee grounds, which been roasted and served under our very roof, I have been creating vases, mugs, plates and bowls: a perfect example of circularity.
At STEAMhouse, we have also offered support to businesses across the country and helped them realise the potential of their waste: Waste Projekt, an innovative startup which uses eco-friendly composite materials from food waste to create biodegradable plant pots; and Mafa Studios, which has created a sustainable material alternative made from cow manure, to name a few.
Waste products and biomaterials provide endless opportunity for sustainability and circularity, but the biggest barrier we currently face is mindset. Although slow, change is starting to happen; regenerative materials are gradually
infiltrating into some industries such as high-end fashion and architecture, as well as developments in the technology needed to repurpose waste. Experimental and forwardthinking communities of practice are also driving this innovation forward, through interactive sessions and workshops that explore biomaterials and 3D printing.
Organisations such as STEAMhouse are actively encouraging people to question how waste products can be embedded into other products and materials. As we step away from linear economy models, education, collaboration and innovation are what will ultimately lead to transformation. This will be the driving force behind culture change.
Visit: steamhouse.org.uk
“Biomaterials provide endless opportunity.”
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