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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Carol Cooper
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Matt Clarke
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Duncan Wood
There’s nothing I love more than the early-season TV montage. A sequence of moving pictures, soundtracked by a pop chart classic, an allusion to the changes between last year’s finale and this year’s premiere.
Not to dwell on the divorce, demise or departure, but instead focus on the new dawn. The characters returning are new forms of the same people, travelling now in a new direction, so let’s fast forward through the interim struggle and look ahead at what’s to come.
When we returned to work in early January, there were enough changes in the AM industry to fill a year’s worth of TCT Magazine issues. But the events we were catching up on occurred within the short window our office chairs were left vacant. We had missed fewer than ten working days,
yet the AM landscape had changed significantly. A federally approved acquisition in doubt, a prominent CEO out of a job, a metal AM vendor saved, a polymer AM vendor not, and another 200 AM professionals at risk of redundancy.
But we’re back. And though these off-season changes will likely inform the coverage moving forward, there is plenty more to keep track of. The AM market has more mood swings than a teenager, but you can’t keep from tuning into the soap opera.
Of course, it isn’t the soap opera it often seems. This is the manufacture of real parts we’re talking about, for real needs to avoid real consequences. And while the AM news cycle can often paint a picture of doom and gloom, it is in conversations with those in industry, academia, and – in this issue
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– a non-profit think tank where you find balance. In defence, updates to the US Naval Aviation Maintenance Program could prove significant (P11), while AM Forward’s InSPIRE facility is making good progress (P12) in Florida. In metals, AM is catching the eye in heat exchangers (P20) and hydraulics (P16). And in the creative world, AM continues to enable new designs, from light installations (P25) to handbags (P22).
At TCT, we also have a few changes of our own. Namely, the AM Edit – a quick runthrough of the industry’s biggest news items (P8); the Editor’s Insights – the AM sector from a reporter’s perspective (P34); and our regular inclusions of the latest academic research efforts (P19 & P32).
So, settle in and welcome back.
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06. FORGING THE FUTURE
SLM Solutions kicks off our defence focus with insights on how AM is reshaping the industry.
08. THE AM EDIT
The TCT editorial team rounds up the latest AM news and application stories. EDITORS’ PICKS’ 8
11. RAMPING UP WITH NAMP
Sam Davies reports on some potentially significant updates to the United States Naval Aviation Maintenance Program.
12. BUILD. TEST. TEACH
15. TEST YOUR METAL
After APWORKS announced the launched of its Scalmalloy CX material for cryogenic applications, we talk to the researchers testing the alloy’s capabilities.
16. WORLD IN MOTION
Laura Griffiths speaks to hydraulics manufacturer Domin about how AM is impacting the business.
19. PREDICT AND CONTROL
Virginia Tech Professor Prahalada Rao introduces the DynamicPrint model-based process control approach for laser powder bed fusion.
20. HOT AND COLD
With insights from Conflux, GE and PWR, we assess the application of AM in heat exchangers.
28. A DECADE OF NCAM
Laura visits the UK's National Centre for Additive Manufacturing.
31. REPEAT ISSUES
We get three viewpoints on one of AM's most enduring challenges.
32. GUIDELINES NOT GUARANTEES
Bournemouth University researcher Abigail Batley tackles the data sheets of three carbon fibre composites.
He also speaks to ASTRO America and Florida State University about the development of an AM Forward research and development facility. 34
22. INSIDE THE PRINT STUDIO
Digital Production Creation Manager provides a glimpse inside Tapestry’s 3D printing studio.
25. BRIGHT IDEAS
Laura speaks to AM engineer Anne Pauley about her use of AM to produce a series of light installation sculptures.
26. CIRCULAR STYLE
Laura speaks to Balena about building a circular fashion economy with sustainable materials and AM.
34. THE DEATH OF DEI?
To round off the issue, Laura addresses the risk of reversing DEI initiatives. 8
How additive manufacturing is reshaping defence manufacturing.
The defence sector has always demanded cutting-edge innovation, and in the past year, additive manufacturing (AM) has cemented itself as a transformative force within this space. From critical components for advanced propulsion systems to secure, on-demand production networks, the industry has witnessed a surge in both investment and real-world deployment of metal AM. With end-users pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, Nikon SLM Solutions is at the forefront, providing the technology that enables mission-critical advancements.
One of the most compelling AM success stories comes from Hunters’ Point, a Denmark-based firearms retailer that set out to redefine the performance of titanium suppressors. Faced with challenges in traditional manufacturing and seeking next-level design capabilities, Hunters’ Point turned to additive manufacturing for a solution.
Working alongside the Danish Technological Institute (DTI), they leveraged Nikon SLM Solutions technology to manufacture custom suppressors with optimised internal geometries that could not be achieved through conventional machining. The result? A lighter, more effective suppressor with improved noise reduction and durability, ready for field use. What began as a proof-of-concept has evolved into a full-scale production initiative, with Hunters’ Point now owning its own metal 3D printer while DTI continues to support training and operational guidance.
This case underscores a broader trend within the defence sector: AM is enabling decentralised, localised production, allowing critical equipment to be manufactured closer to the point of need, reducing logistical strain and increasing operational flexibility.
Beyond weapons systems, AM is making a profound impact on defence infrastructure. Eureka, a leading supplier in the Norwegian oil & gas and marine industries, partnered with Nikon SLM Solutions and Interspectral to revolutionise the manufacturing of pump impellers—a crucial component in fluid handling systems.
Traditionally, impellers took up to 20 weeks to manufacture due to complex design and material requirements. However, using SLM 280 technology with Free Float, Eureka was able to significantly reduce support structures, optimise geometries, and cut lead times to just one week. Additionally, Interspectral’s AM Explorer software enabled a comprehensive analysis of SLM.Quality monitoring data, ensuring each component met the highest performance and reliability standards.
For the defence sector, this model is a game-changer. Secure AM networks could dramatically reduce downtime, eliminate vulnerabilities associated with centralised manufacturing, and ensure mission-critical parts are available whenever and wherever they are needed.
Over the last 12 months, Nikon SLM Solutions has made significant strides in bolstering its AM capabilities for defence applications. The Nikon Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center in Long Beach, California, is a key component of this strategy, providing a secure facility for defence-focused AM development. The centre brings together Nikon, Nikon SLM Solutions, and Nikon AM Synergy, ensuring that customers have access to a vertically integrated ecosystem designed to drive industrial-scale AM adoption.
“The role of additive manufacturing in defence will only continue to grow.”
KEY INVESTMENTS IN 2024 INCLUDE:
• NXG XII 600 Expansion: The industry’s most powerful 12-laser system has seen widespread adoption in defence applications, enabling rapid production of large-scale components for aerospace, naval, and ground systems.
• Material Innovations: Collaborations with 6K Additive and Constellium have enabled groundbreaking advancements in high-performance alloys, including C-103 Niobium for hypersonic applications and Aheadd CP1 aluminium for lightweight defence structures.
• Strategic Partnerships: With defence primes, OEMs, and research institutions investing in AM at an unprecedented rate, Nikon SLM Solutions is actively working to bridge the gap between innovation and real-world deployment.
Nikon SLM Solutions remains committed to supporting the defence sector with cutting-edge AM solutions that enhance operational readiness, improve sustainability, and drive long-term cost savings. By working alongside key partners and defence innovators, we are setting the foundation for the next generation of mission-critical manufacturing.
For more, visit Nikon SLM Solutions at upcoming industry events throughout 2025 or nikon-slm-solutions.com
WHAT’S NEXT FOR AM IN DEFENCE?
As we move into 2025, the role of additive manufacturing in defence will only continue to grow. Some of the key trends shaping the future include:
• Scaling Hypersonic Applications: The demand for materials like C-103 will increase as the U.S. and allied nations ramp up development of next-generation flight and propulsion systems.
• On-Demand Production Networks: Secure, distributed manufacturing will shift from pilot projects to fullscale implementations, ensuring parts availability even in con-tested environments.
• Expanding AM’s Role in Naval Applications: The U.S. Navy and international defence partners are evaluating AM for shipboard manufacturing, opening new frontiers for in-theater logistics and sustainment.
Suppressors with optimised
TCT editors round-up the latest big news and applications.
EOS is working with AMEXCI and Saab to deploy metal AM as part of the Finnish Navy’s Squadron 2020 project. The collaborators are said to be developing capabilities for spare parts used by the Finnish Defense Forces (FDF) and rapid new product development.
According a statement from the FDF, the project “increases the capabilities of domestic industries in designing and manufacturing components for challenging military environments using AM.”
Squadron 2020 has been established to replace the seven vessels set to be decommissioned by the Finnish Navy with four new multi-role surface combatant corvettes, currently under construction in Finland, and designed to conduct Navy tasks at sea. The vessels are set to be delivered by the end of 2025.
Following the launch of its Defense & Space unit, Supernova has been awarded a 2 million USD subcontract under ACMI’s Critical Chemicals Pilot Program.
Supernova CEO & Founder, Roger Antunez told
TCT its flagship Viscous Lithography Manufacturing (VLM) technology brings “unprecedented manufacturing agility to the defence field.”
Supernova sees potential in military-grade energetic materials which can release
the big AM comeback story of last year.
They explained why they felt compelled to step in to save the Netherlands-based
significant amounts of energy through chemical and physical reactions. These materials could therefore be used in explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics, with solid rocket motors, bombs, countermeasure flares and bullet grains outlined as potential applications.
“While energetic materials have long been used in defence applications, our breakthrough lies in the ability to process them with high solid loads— over 88%—while also enabling complete design freedom,” Antunez said. “This capability allows us to overcome the traditional limitations of manufacturing, creating complex geometries and optimising performance in ways that were previously impossible.”
business after it filed for bankruptcy, and how they want Shapeways “to be the manufacturing engine behind other companies.”
Witte said, “There was plenty of room to support a decent company and there is still much opportunity.”
LEAP 71 successfully hot-fire tested an additively manufactured aerospike engine with 5,000 Newtons of thrust on the first attempt. Josefine Lissner, CEO and Co-Founder, said, “It’s a great validation of our physics-driven approach to computational AI.”
The M&A story which dominated much of 2023 and 2024 looks set to continue in 2025 after the departure of Nano Dimension CEO Yoav Stern and two lawsuits were filed against the company by Desktop Metal (DM). The second lawsuit alleges Nano breached the terms of its merger agreement with DM when it moved to acquire Markforged less than six weeks after the deal to buy out DM was made public.
It followed a first lawsuit filed by DM in December which claimed Nano had not used ‘reasonable best efforts’ to obtain regulatory approval of its proposed takeover ‘as soon as practicable’. The latest, which also named Markforged as a defandant, suggests that closing the Markforged deal first would jeopardise the closing of its own. Desktop Metal is seeking an order from the court - among other forms of relief - enjoining consummation of the Markforged merger until the Desktop Metal merger has closed. Markforged has stated it believes the claims are ‘without merit’ and intends to ‘vigorously defend’ itself.
machines are now in operation at Agile Manufacturing as it installs 9th large-format SLA printer from 3D Systems.
AMUG CONFERENCE | MARCH 30 - APRIL 3 | 2025
Speakers from NASA Jet Propulsion Lab and Scarbo Performance Corp are set to headline this year's Additive Manufacturing Users Group Conference. Taking place in Chicago and open to professional owners and operators of AM technologies, the conference promises a comprehensive programme of keynotes, panels, hands-on workshops, and networking opportunities, in addition to the 140+ exhibitor strong AMUGexpo, and evening activities.
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As governments and stock markets grapple with recent AI developments, the AM industry had its own moment with the launch of Backflip, a start-up from Markforged founders Greg Mark and David Benhaim, which emerged from stealth with 30 million USD in funding.
Its first product is an AI-powered design platform that allows users to input simple text descriptions or photos to create high resolution, 3D-printable models.
The funding was co-led by NEA and Andreessen Horowitz, with angel investment from Microsoft CTO and LinkedIn cofounder Kevin Scott, Android founder and AI futurist Rich Miner, and computer scientist Ashish Vaswani.
Mark describes what Backflip is building as “a giant leap forward in bringing design and manufacturing back to the U.S.”
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5,000 machines installed by EOS as Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing took delivery of M400-4.
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Sam Davies reports on some potentially significant updates to United States Naval Aviation Maintenance Program (NAMP).
The NAMP is everything,” says one additive manufacturing (AM) engineer working in the US Navy. “Every aspect of your job, start to finish, day in and day out, is directed by this program.”
This program is officially known as the Naval Aviation Maintenance Program and comprises 16 chapters, six appendices, and 1,922 pages.
When you do a Ctrl+F search in the document – which you will because it’ll take a month to read it cover to cover –for ‘additive manufacturing’, you finally get some results. Until late last year, you wouldn’t.
It has held the application of additive manufacturing by the US Navy back. The flightline at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, for example, is said to have first installed a 3D printer in 2016. And it quickly had its first replacement part application: a small clip made out of nylon. The CNC shop couldn’t make the part, so a team of engineers deployed their new toy. But everything relating to maintenance has to be aligned with NAMP, and there was no directive for 3D printed parts.
So, as the part moved through quality assurance, there was no internal literature to reference the component against. It was only that the technical directive relating to the original part was so vague - it did not say how the part should be manufactured - that the part was able to be deployed. From there on, however, the application of AM for spare and replacement parts has been difficult.
In tandem, the US Department of Defense was throwing a lot of weight and investment behind additive manufacturing technology. A myriad of contracts have been awarded to AM OEMs and tier suppliers, while the US Government’s Forward AM initiative had a heavy defence focus too.
Something had to give. Chapter 10 of NAMP – which concerns the standard operating procedures that sailors and marines have to adhere to – needed updating. This chapter represents a touch point for almost everyone working in naval aviation, from tool control to hydraulic contamination to maintenance safety. And when they exercise their finger muscles by scrolling and scrolling through the NAMP document, here’s what they’ll begin to see.
First, a policy for the identification of supply deficiencies and AM opportunities. The supply department – different from the maintenance department – will now come to daily meetings with a list of gaps in the supply chain that could be candidates for AM. For every supply chain problem, they will be asking ‘can AM solve it?’ and if the answer is yes, on they go.
Second, AM technical data packages are being introduced to the NAMP’s Central Technical Publication Library, bringing uniformity to how technical data is handled and used. Previously, AM technical data has had its own database that, while available for everybody in the fleet to access, would see people checking out data and checking back in. Now, any updates made to the technical data will be implemented immediately throughout the fleet, making the use of these packages more safe and secure.
And third, the supply department will now conform to NAVADMIN 226/20 –which provides information regarding Naval AM capabilities – and update the supply system when components are manufactured. This means that when additive manufacturing is used
in place of a conventional process to produce parts, that must be logged and communicated so as not to disrupt the existing processes and workflows.
According to those in the know, these updates to the NAMP are set to have a significant impact on how the US Navy deploys additive manufacturing, but it won’t be apparent overnight. It will likely take a month or two for departments to implement the changes, while the annual inspection from CNAF will highlight some kinks that need ironing out.
But, in time, it could be huge for AM’s application in the defence sector.
“Not only will this help the functionality and use of Naval Aviation sites, but this is also going to create what they’ve never had before, which is a workflow,” Mike Pecota, an AM expert who has worked in the defence sector for over a decade, told TCT. “With additive manufacturing, it was a passive capability. It was there when you needed it, but it wasn’t a workflow. [These chapter updates] cover the entire program: how the sailors and marines operate, day in and day out. It’s inspectable, they create regulations and policy that need to be enforced locally, they’re doing inspections every single day to make sure those are being done. This whole thing will become a selflicking ice cream cone.”
WORDS: SAM DAVIES
ASTRO America & Florida State University on how the InSPIRE facility will support AM Forward’s AM supply chain objectives.
When you think of Florida, what do you think of?
It’s beaches, isn’t it? Or Disney World. Or Universal Studios. Maybe Kennedy Space Center. Or the Everglades. But more likely the theme parks, the aquariums and, for our British readers, the sunburn.
Would it ever be a manufacturing research centre? Maybe one day. Perhaps, even, someday soon.
When the launch of the InSPIRE facility was announced last October by ASTRO America and Florida State University (FSU), it got the expected amount of fanfare. Although this came with links to the AM Forward initiative it was still, on the face of it, just another AM ‘centre of excellence.’ Most of us are immune to that phrasing by now, to the point that even when a new AM facility isn’t described as such, it’s all you can hear.
InSPIRE, thankfully, has been devised with a little more inspiration.
VALUE IS THE VISION AM Forward came about when a set of large defence and aerospace manufacturers - GE Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Siemens Energy, Northrop Grumman and later Boeing and Honeywell – grew tired of the United States’ limited forging and casting capacity, and recognised that their smaller suppliers were often struggling to buy into the proposed alternative technology: additive manufacturing (AM).
Too much of the United States’ casting and forging needs had been outsourced
to other nations, gradually diminishing the volume of domestic suppliers and the US’ skill level with it. It was causing issues when those aforementioned heavyweights would need to procure parts from their suppliers, especially when those parts were one-off replacement or spare components. Small suppliers were being met with urgent orders and unfavourable payment terms and the primes weren’t receiving the service they wanted. Nobody was winning.
But for AM Forward to be successful, those involved in the initiative understood, it was going to have to address three significant issues. First, as financial services firm Stifel has now done with its AM Forward Fund, it was going to have to open up access to capital to allow small and ambitious manufacturers to build out the required AM infrastructure. Second, as is being partially addressed with a common software platform that will remove the need for suppliers to re-qualify parts when selling to different primes, they needed to make easier process and part qualification. And third, they needed to place a greater focus on workforce development.
That will be a core focus of InSPIRE. But not the only one.
ASTRO America figures that the best way to accelerate AM adoption is to ‘co-locate every aspect of the supply chain under one roof.’ Across a projected (initial) 100,000 square foot of facility space, InSPIRE is being designed to house capacity for advanced
SHOWN: FSU Panama City campus
manufacturing, aerial testing and workforce development, with partners across government, academia and industry creating synergies that can address real-world issues. Work at the facility will be driven purely by industrial needs, with on-site capability being developed to ensure that all the required workflows are in place to create finished, qualified and industryready products.
“We’re really trying to understand what industry is needing to build up that supply chain and build a resilient, healthy economy, not what does the government think would be a great pet rock to address,” ASTRO America President Neal Orringer said.
“We’re going to be focused on value, and what that means for a lot of organisations is cost – not just the cost of the additive piece, if you’re going to do the additive piece, but the cost of the full workflow,” added Abdalla Nassar, VP of AM Forward Technologies at ASTRO America. “Additive is just one of the enablers that allows you to completely build a new product, and it needs to be done at a reasonable cost. If you can’t hit the appropriate cost and production targets, and the qualification requirements and the specifications that manufacturers set out, you can’t get anywhere.”
This is why cross-disciplinary collaboration has been deemed so important to the InSPIRE facility. A focus is needed on the wider workflow, and so anyone concerned with that workflow needs to be in the room. FSU employees and PhDs will be on hand to provide technical expertise, the presence of the suppliers and the primes will obviously be paramount, and InSPIRE will also tap into the
capacity of the Learning Systems Institute at Florida State, an internationally renowned organisation that has previously developed the school curriculums for entire nations, to support the upskilling of engineers.
An interim facility has been identified, with equipment on order and agreements in place for the site to be stood up over the next few months. Concurrently, ASTRO and FSU continue the search for a permanent site able to house hundreds of engineers, students and teachers.
“If we’re able to set up an interim space in the next 6-12 months where we can demonstrate the real value to industry, then I think we’ll be on our way to realising the vision that the AM Forward companies had,” Orringer noted.
The vision that AM Forward has is a national one. In the short-term, however, InSPIRE’s focus is on the state of Florida. FSU was selected to be a key partner because of the university’s focus on fundamental and transitional research, particularly in high-speed aerodynamics and commercial aviation applications, as well as the state’s wider space and military base capacity. ASTRO also found a willing partner in FSU because of Florida’s appetite to diversify its economy. No longer does Florida want to rely so heavily on the tourism trade, but instead use funding allocated via the Triumph Gulf Coast Incentive Fund to generate economic opportunities in other markets. Florida’s tourism trade has been known to encounter boom and bust cycles, with extreme weather events and accidents like the BP oil spill of 2010 – which brought about the Triumph fund – able to significantly disrupt the economy.
Around 165 million USD from this fund is being used to kickstart the InSPIRE project, but that investment is reliant on national funding being added to the kitty. This is where InSPIRE starts to look beyond the state of Florida. The plan is to nail the execution of the facility in the Northwestern Florida region, addressing industry challenges and creating a host of jobs as part of a growing and diversified economy, before seeing the site
used as a model for other locations around the country.
“We hope this is not going to be the only one,” said Farrukh S. Alvi, a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at FSU. “We hope this becomes a model for some other concentration, [where the nation has] complementary facilities perhaps. Metal additive manufacturing is our initial focus, and we’ll have other applications, but we don’t want to do everything for everyone, because then we’ll do nothing for no one.”
ASTRO America and FSU are keen to stress the care being given to make sure this investment is spent wisely. Local stakeholders have been with them every step of the way so far and will be as they stride into the future – they’ll understand just how much impact is made.
For that reason, Orringer, Nassar and Alvi call for patience. They appreciate grand announcements can be followed by cynicism if
progress isn’t made quickly, but nobody wants to rush the foundational work currently ongoing. The first goal is to create a centre for aero propulsion, advanced manufacturing and workforce development like no other. And the second is to make sure there are many others.
“We have a desire to help the industry transition,” Orringer finished. “You’re never going to replace cast, you’re never going to replace forging, and you shouldn’t. Additive has its place, and it’s not to replace all those capabilities wholesale, but when it comes to low volume, high mix capabilities, particularly for certain interesting geometries and other mechanical properties, additive has the potential to help these small, medium sized machine shops transform into Swiss Army knives for manufacturing, to build out that resilient supply chain, certainly in the state of Florida, but hopefully also create a model for the rest of the country.”
Sam Davies speaks to the researchers behind the first tests of APWORKS’ Scalmalloy CX metal additive manufacturing alloy.
brought them into contact with APWORKS. The institute had an eye on the standard Scalmalloy material in the past due to its lightweight properties – making it a metal of interest in mobility, for example – but its limitations meant it was not suitable for cryogenic applications.
Scalmalloy,” APWORKS CEO Jon Meyer told TCT last year, “isn’t a single material. It’s a material concept.”
A concept that would go beyond the attractive strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion resistance the industry had come to know of Scalmalloy. Scalmalloy has represented a good ‘allrounder’ alloy, but increasingly, APWORKS has been looking to unlock very specific mechanical properties, still using scandium, but in different compositions.
It has seen the company venture into high temperature properties with one Scalmalloy variant (HX), high electric and thermal conductivity in another (EX) and, in the first to be launched, strong performance at cryogenic temperatures (CX).
Application development with Scalmalloy CX is underway, with APWORKS running the material on its own machines internally before making it more widely available down the line. But one other organisation has been able to get hold of the new alloy.
Alongside APWORKS official announcement of Scalmalloy CX, the Institute of Technical Physics (ITEP) of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) was revealed to have carried out a series of tests on the material. KIT is the German Research University within the Helmholtz Association mainly working in energy, mobility and information, spanning research up to a technical readiness level of seven or more. Within this organisation the interest of ITEP in mobility and energy, particularly rotating machines like motors and generators, is what has
“Scalmalloy, in the past, was not that interesting for cryogenic applications due to its embrittlement at low temperature,” Klaus-Peter Weiss, Head of the Cryogenic Material Test Lab (CroyMaK) at KIT, told TCT. “But with CX, with the idea to have lightweight, high structural strength, this is where we now have an interest.”
CryoMaK at KIT-ITEP has therefore aligned with APWORKS to learn more about Scalmalloy CX. Among its tests were microstructural analyses, whereby cross sections vertical and horizontal to the building direction were used to evaluate the material’s microstructure features against the standard alloy, and tensile tests at room temperature, 77K with liquid nitrogen and 20K with liquid helium.
From the microstructural investigations, CryoMak is said to have found that the precipitations are different within CX compared to the standard Scalmalloy material and could potentially enable engineers to manipulate the dispersion and chemical composition of the precipitation to enhance its performance.
Meanwhile, during the tensile tests at different temperatures, CryoMak noted the strength of Scalmalloy CX increased as the temperature decreased – as one would expect – but also found several points of difference compared to standard Scalmalloy. As KIT Research Associate Zahra Abbasi explained: “When we compared the CX material with the standard Scalmalloy, we realised the increase in ductility, which was at the expense of the strength, but we also saw the increase in the fracture toughness of the material – a good factor when we want to design it for engineering applications – and, specifically, when we look at the material characteristics at 77 K, we realised the fracture toughness is two times higher
for the CX material compared with the standard alloy.”
When APWORKS launched Scalmalloy CX, the company spoke specifically of cryogenic temperature applications, particularly relating to hydrogen storage and hydrogen management. From the findings
CryoMak is able to share so far, Weiss suggests the findings would point in that direction, while also noting the material’s potential for application in cables, magnets and motors.
But CryoMak emphasises that more tests are needed. Not least tensile tests with liquid hydrogen at 20 K – CryoMak has the relevant hydrogen chambers on site – but also heat treatments to find out whether the reductions in strength can be compensated, and more investigations in the area of precipitate adaptation.
CryoMak will reveal the results of those next investigations in due course, but so far, its researchers believe in the potential of Scalmalloy CX.
“On the market, we have high-strength materials like titanium and nickel-based alloys, which are meant to be used in cold environments and possess improved thermal conductivity and good mechanical properties at cryogenic temperatures,” KIT Research Associate Camelia Schulz said.
“Scalmalloy CX beats the other alloys in terms of low density, and it’s meant to combine lightweight, good mechanical and physical behaviour. Nevertheless, CX is a young alloy and we’re still in the beginning of the testing phase. But it has high potential and it’s worth looking at in more detail.”
The ‘killer app’ is additive manufacturing’s holy grail. Find something that only 3D printing can do or do better, and you’ve cracked it. For Domin, a UKbased manufacturer of high-performance hydraulic valves, that moment came from a series of fortunate events and a conviction that additive manufacturing, somehow, somewhere, could be used to change an industry.
“We thought that metal printing could be the vehicle with which we could solve some of the problems around us,” Marcus Pont, Domin CEO told TCT. “We didn’t quite know which problem to solve to begin with, but we thought that printing was going to do it, and that it would do it at scale.”
Pont recalls, though he’s not quite sure if it’s the truest memory, being handed a set of metal 3D printed parts from 3T Additive Manufacturing, and together with cofounder Andrew Collins, thinking “there’s something here.” That was over a decade ago, but it set them on a path, researching materials, design opportunities, economics and skills sets, which eventually took them to hydraulics, an industry, they believed, was ready for disruption.
“There were a lot of problems in the industry that were looking for solutions,” Pont said. “And we believed that those solutions could be brought by metal printing.”
The hydraulics sector, Pont details, can be prone to waste and resistant to change, with technologies developed in the 1950s amid the boom of powered flight, still being relied upon decades later. But it’s also ripe for organic forms, the kind that promote efficient fluid flow, the kind that additive happens to be very good at producing.
“We found that the best way for us to disrupt this industry was not to look at the way things are done today, but to completely start from scratch,” Pont explained. “This isn’t just an opportunity for 3D printing, this is an opportunity to create the new stable technology and products within hydraulics and motion control.”
‘Liberating’ is the word Pont uses to describe the development process. There was no blueprint, no existing mould to fill, but with that liberation also came challenges; like, how far do you take the prescribed additive tagline of ‘anything is possible’?
“With great power comes great responsibility,” Pont explained. “For the first five or six years of the company, what we were really trying to do was reduce the definition of what was possible. So, the first thing we did was understand how strong the material was. That gave us a limit of what was possible from a
material side. How much does it cost? That gave us a limit on, if we use a hundred grams of metal, we must add this much value. Those limits allowed us to invent new things, so you have this situation where, by applying more constraints, it gave us more freedom.”
Even within those self-imposed parameters, they tried lots of different ideas. But instead of diving head-on into the weird and wonderful, they started simple, choosing to experiment with tubes and arcs first over the complex lattices and elaborate structures that are typically the trademark of an additively manufactured part. Crucially, Pont believes, they treated AM
“The best way for us to disrupt this industry was to completely start from scratch.”
like any other manufacturing process. The goal was simply to add value.
“It’s incredible how using the process in a simple way can add a lot of value,” Pont said. “There are some things you can make. And there are some things you can’t make. And if you can find the answer to a very simple equation, which is: ‘Does the part that I print add more value than it costs me to make it?’, you’ve got a production process, and that’s what we did.”
There is no inherent value in just printing a part. If it can be made better with CNC machining or more cost effectively through casting, then that’s probably what you should be doing. Manufacturers don’t typically care how something is made – it just needs to work and work well. Yet 3D printing has long had a sort of quality, those honeycomb channels and complex geometries adding intrigue and perceived value. But do Domin’s customers, those in the aerospace, automotive and manufacturing sectors, really care about 3D printing?
“Most customers don’t care,” Pont said. “Most customers we sell products to don’t ask how we make them. They ask, how does the product work? Is the product reliable? Does it solve my problem? Is it fast enough?”
The feeling is mutual at Domin’s Technology Centre in Bristol where 3D printed parts are, Pont says, “just part of the fabric.” There are three Renishaw metal powder bed fusion systems on-site, two of which were installed in that last 12 months, including a pair of RenAM 500Q Ultras equipped with TEMPUS – a new technology from Renishaw that’s powered by a new scanning algorithm and said to cut production times by up to 50%. Then there are the steps that happen after printing, the lathes, grinding machines, and CNC mills, that ensure parts are fully finished and ready for assembly into final products.
“That’s a key part of successfully utiliing additive, you really benefit more if you can do some of the fine tolerancing on post-machining,” Pont explained. “One of our design philosophies is make the printed part complex and the machining simple.”
There are, however, often reservations in conservative industries to embrace newer processes like AM, and Domin has invested heavily in securing qualifications and embedding itself in projects that are actively seeking to revolutionise established sectors. Last year, its production processes were certified for maritime applications, where valves are typically required to operate under harsh environments on boats and rigs, having tested thousands of parts to ensure confidence and manage perceived risks. It’s also on board a project from the Advanced Propulsion Centre to develop an integrated wheel motor and active suspension technology for EVs alongside YASA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz AG, and Cranfield University.
“What we are trying to do is prove that we have enough process control and enough understanding of the material, the product, and the requirements so that we can prove that the product is fit for purpose,” Pont said.
Look anywhere and you will find examples of hydraulics and motion control - from a production line to the brakes in your car. For Domin, that ubiquity has led to interactions with customers from across the industrial gamut; like Peerless Engineering, the sawmill operator which, after having to replace the valves on its planking machine every six months, upgraded to Domin’s Domin S6 and S10 Pro valves five years ago, and hasn’t replaced them yet. Or INEOS Brittania, the British sailing team, which adopted a customised version of Domin’s product, quickly iterated through 3D printing, to improve the control accuracy of its hydraulic systems, and won last year’s Louis Vuitton Cup. In 2024, Pont estimates that Domin printed around 10,000 components. This year, he expects that to double.
“It’s a binary switch for us,” Pont concludes of AM’s impact on the sector. “We wouldn’t have been able to solve all the problems that we’ve solved and create all the benefits that we’ve created for our customers at all. It’s a zero to one thing. It’s hard for me to imagine an alternative reality. I don’t know what I’d be doing, I don’t know what the company would be doing, I don’t know that the company would exist.”
The modern defense industry is experiencing a sharp increase in the demand for military goods production, shedding light on its historically slow and rigid manufacturing processes. The need for rapid and localized production, supply chain resilience, and innovative material solutions have reached a pivotal point, forcing the global defense industry to examine the capabilities of new manufacturing technologies outside of its current domain.
Additive manufacturing (AM) is an ideal fit for the defense sector’s current needs, providing a methodology grounded in the current digital era, and an ability to bypass the long lead times associated with casting, molding, and other traditional manufacturing methods. EOS, the leading pioneer in laser powder bed fusion (LBPF) industrial 3D printing, is poised to deliver the technology’s strengths to help mitigate current supply chain challenges and help mainstream one of the most adaptable technologies in modern defense manufacturing.
While the AM process provides flexibility through digital application design and inventory, the materials used in LPBF technology allow for additional adaptability to supply chain pitfalls. In recent collaboration with Phillips Federal and Austal USA, EOS CopperAlloy
CuNi30 was engineered to address the specific demands of U.S. Navy submarine platforms. Developed to combine high strength, ductility and corrosion resistance in saltwater environments, CuNi30 created a solution for additively manufactured maritime and submarine applications. In comparison to previously employed casting methods, AM reduced the lead time and provided opportunity for localized, on-demand production — a critical advantage in mitigating supply chain vulnerabilities.
AM is a formidable solution to many of the current defense manufacturing pressures, but there remains a steep learning curve associated with AM adoption creating a time commitment many are reluctant to meet. To close this knowledge gap, EOS’s AM Turnkey Program affords defense manufacturers the ability to leverage EOS’s AM expertise and infrastructure, accelerating AM adoption for defense applications. Organizations can begin production on EOS systems installed at a secured EOS facility, while AM expert optimize the machines for specific applications. With this accelerated roadmap, production readiness can be achieved far faster than traditional approaches allow. Once the production methodology is cemented, the AM engineers can begin the knowledge transfer with the organization’s team and provide an AM production ready solution ready for immediate use.
In addition to material and organizational innovations, EOS technology can play a central role in advancing defense capabilities in military environments, as illustrated in Finland’s Squadron 2020 project. The ongoing project focuses on using AM to enhance spare part production capabilities and new components for multi-role corvettes, creating further supply chain resilience and operational readiness. Building local industrial competencies is key to localizing defense manufacturing and strengthening national security to address the complex challenges of worldwide military operations.
From strengthening defense applications at the metallurgical level to tackling widespread workforce development and spare parts production, EOS is ready to deploy its entire AM toolbox to strengthen and streamline manufacturing in the global defense industry. Combatting the demands of heightened military production needs and the current geopolitical environment requires the strengths of many, and additive manufacturing is already proving its place in the arsenal of defense manufacturing.
For a deeper dive into EOS additive solutions for defense manufacturing, learn more here:
Prahalada Rao, Associate Professor at Virginia Tech, introduces the DynamicPrint model-based feedforward process control approach for rapid part qualification and defect mitigation in laser powder bed fusion (LPBF).
BELOW:
FIG 1 | DynamicPrint improves surface integrity and geometric fealty of internal cavities that are impossible to finish machine
During the LPBF process, the part is subjected to continual heating and cooling cycles. This so-called thermal history touches every aspect of the part’s quality, from its microstructure, defects, geometric fealty, surface integrity, residual stresses and build risk, and ultimately, determines its functional properties, such as strength and fatigue life.
The thermal history is a complex physical phenomenon governed by the shape of the part, processing parameters (laser power, scan velocity), machine environment (gas flow, laser focus), feedstock material properties, part orientation and supports, build conditions (number of parts, time between recoat), and stochastic effects. Any change in these factors will modify the thermal history and part properties.
The current practice for LPBF process qualification relies on an empirical buildand-break approach. Simple shapes in the form of small cubes, cylinders and mechanical test coupons are built under different processing conditions, with the microstructure and metallurgical aspects of the parts characterised with X-ray CT, optical and electron microscopy, and mechanically tested. Once these coupon tests are completed, the optimal processing parameters are used for building functional parts. Alas, practitioners have found that the processing parameters optimised from simple coupon shapes seldom transfer nor scale to complex parts, which necessitates further rounds of buildand-break tests. All in, the build-and-break approach may cost several million dollars and years of engineering effort. Surely, there must be a smarter, faster, and more affordable path toward rapid part quality qualification?
The answer lies in understanding the fundamental thermal physics of why coupon optimised parameters fail to scale. Even when built under identical conditions, the thermal history of a test coupon is markedly different from that of a complex
impeller part. Ergo, the microstructure and properties of the two will differ radically. To complicate matters further, the cross-section of a complex part, and consequently, its thermal history will change between layers resulting in anisotropic, inhomogeneous properties. For example, a 41 mm tall stainless steel 316L bell crank part that tends to accumulate heat in the latter layers due to poor thermal conductivity of the powder will see its bottom layers cool more rapidly compared to the top layers, as the build plate absorbs heat faster. Indeed, LPBF practitioners innately know that maintaining constant processing parameters across all layers is a recipe for sadness.
The solution to rapid part quality qualification and achieving consistent part quality lies not in optimising the processing parameters, but tightly controlling its thermal history. With this basic concept in mind my research group at Virginia Tech developed and implemented an approach called DynamicPrint which adjusts the processing parameters layer-by-layer to maintain a consistent thermal history and reduce variation in part properties. The secret sauce in DynamicPrint is a patented mesh-free graph theory computational thermal simulation model that is about ten times faster than non-commercial finite element approaches, and has been experimentally validated to predict the thermal history within 5% error.
DynamicPrint uses the graph theory thermal model to war-game the effect of changing process parameters layerby-layer on the thermal history. It then autonomously generates a layer-wise processing plan within hours before the part is printed to obtain an ideal thermal history. A form of digital feedforward model predictive control, DynamicPrint enforces process parameter boundaries set by the operator, e.g., the laser power can only be changed within certain limits.
DynamicPrint was tested with a variety of stainless steel 316L parts on an EOS 290 system at the Commonwealth Center of Advanced Manufacturing, Virginia. DynamicPrint eliminated recoater crashes, deleted supports, reduced microstructure heterogeneity, and improved surface finish and geometric integrity. For example, FIGURE 1 compares the X-ray CT cross-sections of the bell crank part produced under uncontrolled (constant parameter) conditions and DynamicPrint. Bottom line – for rapid qualification of LPBF parts it is essential to understand, observe, predict, and control the thermal history. This research was supported by the NSF, NIST, and DoD.
To read the full study go to: https://tinyurl.com/mrxaf3aw or contact prahalad@vt.edu
It is not a fool-proof way of assessing a technology or an application; it will not tell you all you need to know about the strengths, the weaknesses, the commercial viability.
But it is, at the very least, a good indicator of the trust a fellow manufacturer places in the process.
Additive manufacturing OEMs have been ‘eating their own dog food’ for years. From RepRap-inspired desktop FDM vendors to HP’s long-running supply chain initiative, printers printing parts for printers is nothing new.
At Formnext, DMG Mori was the latest to showcase its use of additive manufacturing (AM) to manufacture parts for its AM machine. But it wasn’t a rudimentary housing, or bracket, or connector component. It was a metal 3D printed heat exchanger. A part critical to the performance of the machine. A part that had been consolidated from many assembled pieces into a single component. A part occupying less space than its conventionally made predecessor, costing 47% less to manufacture, and boasting an optimised internal structure that allows the use of a smaller pump to enable gas flow.
“You could spend hours and hours assembling those parts,” Jan Riewenherm, Head of Technical Sales and Marketing, told TCT, “and they won’t reach the same level of quality. This comes with huge potential.”
Across the show floor, there were many other examples of AM heat exchangers. Start-up OEMs and their
sample parts, market-leaders and their certified aerospace applications, Conflux Technology and its entire business built around the idea.
Additively manufactured heat exchangers are all the rage at an AM trade show. But what about in industry?
Serving the motorsport, aviation and defence sectors, Conflux has identified a series of potential gains in the performance of heat exchangers by deploying metal AM. As CEO Michael Fuller told the Additive Insight podcast at Formnext, AM can allow it to deliver weight reduction to its aircraft customers, process intensification benefits to its energy customers, and a reduction in form factor on an offshore rig.
The potential everyone is aware of. GE Aerospace, for example, has been exploring the additive manufacture of heat exchangers for around 15 years, while PWR – boasting decades in the radiator and heat exchanger game – has recently stood up an AM production facility with an eye on printing commercial heat exchanger products and systems.
But has this application of metal AM reached maturity? Not even Conflux would say so. For Fuller, “We’re not even at the start gates yet.” GE and PWR would concur.
At GE, its heat exchanger development is considered highly confidential. Yet, we know that the GE9X engine is equipped with a F357 heat exchanger, additively manufactured in a single piece (down from 163 assembled pieces) with a 40% weight reduction using a Concept Laser
“The capabilities that additive brings are too good to leave on the table.”
SHOWN:
SHOWN:
Heat exchanger additively manufactured by Conflux
M2 machine. It is considered more durable than its predecessor, with fewer potential failure points.
That success has led GE to continue thinking differently when it comes to the manufacture of heat exchangers. Benito Trevino, General Manager of AM at GE Aerospace, explained: “A typical heat exchanger assembly made conventionally has a lot of internal tubes and pins that are brazed together in a bigger assembly. And it’s very difficult to control the thermal properties in that process as you construct a part, especially at the smaller scale. What we see with additive is you could have a number of internal geometries very tightly controlled, which drives reduced cost and reduced weight.”
The focus on additively manufactured heat exchangers has been intensified at GE concurrent with the continued development of AM machinery. Per Trevino, enhancements to ‘the optics, capability and overall machine control’ has allowed the company to ‘drive fine feature producibility.’ With tens of heat exchanger parts ‘at various stages of development’, he says GE Aerospace is working through the ‘nitty gritty elements of heat exchanger design.’
PWR, meanwhile, is allowing itself to think additively, but not allowing itself to forget about the capabilities of conventional means. Even as a small job shop that deals in the production of high value products in small volumes, PWR assesses that, more often than not, a conventionally made heat exchanger will outperform an additively manufactured one. And/or be cheaper to make, easier to scale, and easier to sell to the oftenconservative customer.
For that reason, its portfolio of Bar and Plate, Tube and Fin, Liquid Cold Plate, and Micro Matrix Heat Exchangers (MMX) are typically manufactured by machining or brazing metals in billet or sheet form. The MMX systems, for example, are PWR’s highest-performing coolers and see tens of thousands of hypodermic needle-scale micro tubes stacked into a compact volume, maximizing heat transfer and space claim via a manufacturing process that is AS9100, Nadcap, ISO 14001 and ITAR accredited. Its Liquid Cold Plate products, meanwhile, are manufactured through the brazing of two pieces of billet, with the internal fluid galleries being machined out to leave potentially complex internal features. If required, this also allows PWR to add thin foil fins for improved heat rejection as cooling fluid passes through the final thin-walled brazed component.
“Traditionally manufactured heat exchangers still have a lot to offer,” said Toby Maconachie, Additive Manufacturing Engineer at PWR. “They’re very well-established materials and methods, the customers have a lot of confidence in them, and we know a lot about them. We understand the different materials that are used to make them, their advantages and disadvantages, so when it comes to pure performance, in additive, it’s very hard to compete with those.”
AM is most likely to be deployed by PWR for complex shapes and packaging volumes, or for individual components
that supplement conventional parts within a heat exchanger assembly. Currently, the company says it can achieve finer feature sizes – down to tens of microns in thickness – with conventional methods of manufacture than it can with AM, while depowdering the enclosed volumes of a heat exchanger still requires too much time and labour for there not to be a guarantee that every last bit of unsintered material has been removed. These limitations, as well as the inherent variance of AM, feed into the intrinsic conservatism of engineers when it comes to changing how things are made. GE Aerospace would also add a need for higher temperature AM alloys to things that need to improve.
“We’ve got a lot of ways we can do it and we can get very high performance, so there needs to be some specific advantage in additive. We don’t do additive for additive’s sake,” said Maconachie. “We only use additive when it’s necessary to justify the cost, the time, the risk.”
As you might have guessed, there are enough of those occasions at PWR to keep Maconachie and his team busy. Pipes with a changing diameter, the need for internal fluid galleries where heat exchange components can be added to other parts, and complex shapes that deliver more organic fluid paths are all instances where AM will come into play at PWR, while GE is leaning on the technology to address two other considerations.
“We’re always looking at how to reduce weight and cost. And additive is unlocking that,” Trevino said. “It’s going to be a matter of, we industrialise, we commercialise, we make progress with the regulatory bodies, and then you’re going to see that adoption, that shift. The capabilities that additive brings to that very specific application is just too good to leave on the table.”
So, manufacturers won’t. Whether it’s tier 1 suppliers of which heat exchangers are just another system to be manufactured or whether it’s manufacturers whose core competencies lie in the transfer of heat, AM will remain front of mind. How widespread, how scalable, and how quick. Who knows? It mightn’t be for us to worry about.
“We’re probably addressing something like a six-billion-dollar market now,” Fuller assessed. “As the size of the printable volume increases, the productivity improves, and the cost comes down, where do our returns diminish in terms of market saturation? It’s probably a long time after I’m dead and gone.”
Tomer Emmar (TE), Digital Production Creation Manager, 3D Print Studio at Tapestry, Inc., explains how 3D printing has become an essential tool for the parent company of Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman.
TCT: Tell us about the role of additive manufacturing as an enabling tool at Tapestry.
TE: 3D Printing at Tapestry, Inc. has evolved from a very-nice-to-have to an essential part of our product creation process for our product development and design teams.
We are leveraging 3D printing for earlyphase concept developments as well as late-stage product validation on all hard-good product categories from intricate jewellery and complex hardware mechanisms for handbags to full-colour, multi-material 1:1 scale footwear mock-ups including outsoles & uppers, large-scale visual merchandising props, and more.
We can prototype complex products inhouse, quickly and accurately for design approval or to make correction in timely manner before they go into production. We enable faster decision-making facilitating design optimisation before investing in expensive traditional sampling techniques. We eliminate costs associated with minimum order quantities, transport, import taxes and tariffs on samples that technically have commercial value but cannot be sold in stores. Overall, reduced costs and streamlined development.
Although we use the same tools day in and day out and leverage our expertise in additive manufacturing to help designers realise their vision, the project is always different; if you ask me what the team will be working on next week, I have no idea… it can be anything from a locking mechanism to skateboard wheels.
TCT: Can you share any specific applications where 3D printing made a significant positive impact?
TE: Last year at RAPID + TCT, I showcased the Coach Spring 2023 Runway jelly bag we prototyped internally. The design team wanted to see 5 different options for the bag so they could land on the design before going into production.
Instead of waiting weeks on end and spending $15,000 per iteration/mould, we leveraged 3D printing for this process to prototype the bag within a matter of days and only spend $123.88 per prototype, all done in-house in a shorter time span. Leveraging 3D Printing for this process decreased prototyping costs by 99.17% per
iteration. When other design teams learned about the ROI, this product was adopted from the Coach Runway to Retail to Outlet, and was even explored by our other brand, Kate Spade.
TCT: We’ve seen 3D printing creeping into more end-use applications in apparel and consumer goods. Is that something you’re exploring?
TE: We’re always exploring prototyping and end-use applications for 3D printing. OEMs are excited about end-use applications because it will unlock exponential growth; I see the potential, but the use cases are too specific and there are still too many constraints to deploy 3D printing for end-use components at scale; for us, scale isn’t in the hundreds or even thousands, it is in the 10,000 to 100,000s when considering individual components in our collections.
Post-processing and finishing 3D prints remains a huge unspoken challenge; both from the perspective of hands-on work it takes to process a 3D print and the waste created by the machines. Marketing departments at 3D Printing companies do a great job selling you a machine without mentioning all the work that goes into creating, for example, and optically clear prototype.
Once you buy the machine, you must figure it all out on your own, I believe everyone will benefit if there was more effort in personalised training and education as well as ongoing support to uncover applications and apply processes at scale. I don’t believe the industry is quite upfront about the challenges of deploying 3D printing technologies beyond small scale prototyping, yet they still want their technology to be used for end-use parts.
It's important to consider everything that happens after acquiring equipment; including the people who will be operating the
machines, the effort it requires to finish a part, space constraints and outfitting a workshop, machine maintenance, and how to remove the large amounts of waste created by 3D printing machines, etc.
TCT: There’s sometimes hesitation when newer technologies and processes come in that they might impact or take away that human element in the creative process. How does 3D printing complement your creative process in your work?
TE: The luxury fashion industry is built on desire, scarcity, and craftsmanship and technology can be perceived as the antithesis to the foundation the industry is built on; it is crucial to change the story from technology as the antagonist to technology as an enabler for greater creativity, not only for design, but for all.
When re-building the workspace from the ground up inside Coach’s leather-making workshop in New York City, I saw a unique opportunity to rebrand our team from the 3D Printing Lab to the 3D Print Studio; it seems silly but in fashion, perception is everything. I wanted to strategically align more closely with the language designers and other creatives in the company understand so they can see us as
collaborators and partners in the product creation process so they can adopt 3D printing earlier on and extract the most value out of it; our aim is to complement and augment their creative work with early visibly, accuracy, and speed.
Besides an internal rebrand of the team, curiosity goes a long way. Many people in fashion are specialised in their respective functions, not 3D printing; asking questions about the way they work is instrumental in uncovering use cases and applications for emerging technologies within the organisation. Most teams work differently than one other, even teams who are designing for the same categories, so taking a personalised approach to their process helped increase adoption and bridge the gap to serve them more effectively.
TCT: Roles including 3D printing tend to veer more towards traditional engineering skills and perhaps fashion doesn’t seem like the most obvious career route! Should we be encouraging more on creative minds to look towards AM careers?
TE: Yes, without a doubt! We should absolutely encourage more creative minds to look towards careers in AM. It’s still quite niche but it’s growing and I see opportunities popping up everywhere.
When I look at candidates, their 3D printing experiences plays a very, very small role in the decision-making process as teaching 3D printing is the easiest part. I can teach them everything about the technical aspects of operating a 3D printer; I am most interested in the way the think, their mental models, their perception of how the world works, how they make decisions, and how they solve problems.
An engineering skillset is part of the equation, but I’d also consider industrial designers, jewellery designers, architects, and even fine artists such as people with sculpting experience as viable candidates for the team. After all, no one goes into university to obtain a degree in 3D printing but there are many adjacent skills that translate well into our studio environment. Most importantly, I am looking for people who are excited about working with their hands and aren’t afraid to use the fabrication tools we have in our studio.
3D printing is only small part of the process, you do that day in and day out, after a while it becomes second nature; it’s in the creative application of the technology where the real impact lies
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Beams of light reach out across a crowded dancefloor, their neon streaks reacting to the rhythm, and amidst the glow, a constellation of polymer structures shaped like giant water droplets cascade from the ceiling, projecting a kaleidoscope of colour.
These pieces form Rainbow Raindrops, a series of sculptures from Anne Pauley, an engineer and Technical Program Manager at Google, which uses the unique attributes of filament-based 3D printing to create prism-like surfaces that diffract light in unique ways.
Made from clear, fully recycled PETG, this modular light installation, which runs on fully addressable RGB LEDs, is not only an example of what’s possible with circular, consumer-focused design, but also, how 3D printing can be explored as an artistic medium, as Pauley told TCT.
“There’s the creative part of it that’s using 3D printing to make art and then there’s more of a process side of it,” Pauley said. “I put a lot of effort into fine tuning the printing process in order to make these specific kinds of parts. It’s kind of using the 3D printing process as part of the art.”
Each raindrop features thick and functional layer lines, calibrated so that when printed in a clear material, mimic the effect of a Fresnel lens, a style of lens first popularised for use in lighthouses in the 1700s and consisting of a series of concentric grooves which act as light refracting surfaces. So integral is each layer to the effect that if the same shape were to be made in a different way or at a different layer height, the diffraction effect would be completely different.
“I got a little bit lucky in the design that it just perfectly diffracts the light up and down the layers,” Pauley explained. “And because they’re thick enough to let the light through and they’re really well tuned so that they’re clear, it takes points of light and diffracts them so they look like beams of light.”
Lucky but also incredibly intentional. Pauley went through a lengthy development process, testing materials and parameters to optimise print speed, temperature and part geometry. If the speed was off, for example, so was the
layer consistency. If the temperature wasn’t right, the material would appear frosted, and any unwanted stress concentrations would cause the layers to crack.
“The process is very susceptible to material defects, minor changes in temperature and environment, and part geometry,” Pauley said. “If it started getting even a tiny crack in it, then it was a lost part. I did several different versions of it just changing the curvature until it was just dialled in that it balanced the stresses out.”
For the material, Pauley worked with Greengate3D, a filament manufacturer which specialises in turning PETG scrap into 3D printable materials. Creating a circular journey for each sculpture, which all start from recycled materials and can be disassembled and recycled again, was an integral part of Pauley’s design philosophy. It’s why the installation can be operated using standard electronics modules which can also be repurposed.
“This ties into my day job,” Pauley explained. “I work in consumer electronics, so we put a lot of consideration into designing our electronics so that they’re repairable. That means thinking about not just installing parts but removing parts.”
This blend of engineering, creativity and conscious design is what Rainbow Raindrops aims to embody. With installations in art and music environments like unSCruz, an official Burning Man event, Pauley hopes the project, which was shortlisted in last year’s TCT Awards, will help to change the narrative around 3D printing, positioning the technology as not just an engineering tool, but an enabler for creativity and sustainability.
“A lot of times with 3D printing, you have to come from both directions,” Pauley added. “You have to come from the artistic but also the engineering direction.”
Laura Griffiths speaks to Galy Levy, Head of R&D at Balena about building a circular fashion economy with 3D printing and sustainable materials, and partnering with modular 3D fashion designer Brigitte Kock of Variable Seams.
TCT: Balena worked with Variable Seams to co-create a collection of flexible, ready-to-wear 3D printed garments. What was your shared vision?
GL: Our collaboration with Variable Seams was driven by a shared ambition to redefine the boundaries of fashion through 3D printing, biobased materials, and sustainability. Together, we aimed to demonstrate how 3D printing can create flexible, ready-to-wear garments that are both flexible, durable, wearable, and fully circular. By leveraging Balena’s BioCir Flex3D material, we combined technical excellence with a sustainable lifecycle, showcasing how cutting-edge materials and computational design can revolutionise the way fashion is produced and consumed. At the heart of our vision is a commitment to creating a better, more sustainable future for fashion.
TCT: The collection is made using Balena’s compostable BioCirflex3D material. Can you tell us about the make-up of this material and its unique attributes?
GL: BioCir Flex3D is a game-changer for sustainable design. It’s a biobased, compostable material with a rubber-like texture that provides strength, flexibility, and agility. What makes it so special is that it’s derived from sustainable sources like castor beans and polysaccharides, ensuring it’s both functional and environmentally responsible.
At Balena, we’ve developed a unique formulation that blends biodegradable polymers, naturally occurring bio-based components, and other biodegradable
modifiers. This combination doesn’t just make our materials circular; it also ensures exceptional durability and functionality.
What’s exciting about BioCir Flex3D is how versatile it is. It’s designed to twist, flex, and withstand impact, meaning it not only lasts longer but also opens up new creative possibilities for designers. Its print-ready properties allow for precise, on-demand manufacturing, making it the perfect choice for creating future-forward designs.
TCT: Can you elaborate on what this proposed circular journey looks like?
GL: At Balena, we’re building a truly circular system that gives brands complete control over the lifecycle of their products. This means providing multi-end-of-life solutions, where materials can either be recycled or biodegrade on demand. Through our end-of-life network, we connect brands to a streamlined process for recycling, composting, and biodegradation, making it easier than ever to transition from creation to disposal while fully closing the loop.
Our BioCir materials are designed to contribute to this vision of a circular economy. For example, BioCir Flex3D is certified industrially compostable, meeting global standards like ASTM D6400-04 and EN 13432. This ensures that the material biodegrades fast and safely in controlled composting facilities. At the same time, it’s fully recyclable, meaning it can be reprocessed and reintegrated into new production cycles,
helping to reduce the need for virgin material and achieving zero post-industrial waste.
Especially in 3D printing, where there’s a lot of trial and error, we’ve shown how these circular principles work in practice. During the development process, the material was not only tested but also recycled and reprinted, proving its durability and versatility. This project showcases how a fully circular journey can be achieved, even in complex processes like additive manufacturing.
TCT: How attainable is this future of circular fashion economies?
GL: A fully circular textile fashion industry is absolutely attainable, but it requires collective effort across the entire value chain. At Balena, we’re enabling this future by developing innovative materials like our BioCir range, which are designed for recyclability and compostability. What’s unique is that these materials integrate seamlessly into existing manufacturing processes, allowing brands to transition to circular practices without the need for a complete overhaul.
“This project is a milestone in integrating AM with sustainable material science.”
That said, achieving this vision goes beyond materials—it requires collaboration between material innovators, designers, and manufacturers, along with stronger regulations and growing consumer demand for sustainable solutions. Infrastructure for collection and recycling is still a challenge, but advancements in technology and partnerships like ours are proving that a circular economy isn’t just an idea—it’s scalable and within reach. Progress may take time, but with the right systems and commitment, the fashion industry can fully embrace circularity.
TCT: Historically, 3D printed fashion has taken the form of wearable concepts or accessories rather than fully wearable garments. What does this project show us about the potential future of sustainable fashion?
GL: This project represents a groundbreaking step in 3D printed fashion, moving beyond accessories and concepts to create fully wearable garments that combine functionality, comfort, and sustainability. Historically, materials used in 3D printing have been too rigid or brittle for practical wear, but with the development of BioCir Flex3D, we’ve introduced a material that offers the flexibility and durability required for ready-to-wear applications.
From a technical standpoint, this project is a milestone in integrating additive manufacturing with sustainable material science. It showcases the potential for precise, on-demand production, waste reduction, and circularity through compostable and recyclable materials.
This is just the beginning of what’s possible when cutting-edge materials and technology converge to reshape the industry.
TCT: What are your thoughts on materials as an enabling force for 3D printing innovation?
GL: Materials are undeniably the driving force behind the evolution of 3D printing, transitioning the technology from prototyping to creating functional, real-world applications. The mechanical properties, flexibility, and sustainability of materials dictate the scope of what can be achieved, especially in industries like fashion, where durability and wearability are critical.
At Balena, we’ve experienced this firsthand with BioCir Flex3D. Its unique combination of flexibility, impact absorption, and circular properties not only facilitates innovative design but also enables scalable, sustainable manufacturing. This material's biobased composition ensures compatibility with circular economy principles, while its print-ready properties streamline production for both precision and efficiency.
As material science advances, we expect to see improvements in strength, elasticity,
and processability that will push 3D printing into new territories. These developments will unlock applications ranging from fully wearable garments to industrial-scale production, ensuring that 3D printing becomes a key technology for sustainable innovation. The future of 3D printing relies on materials that can seamlessly integrate performance, versatility, and environmental responsibility, and their ongoing evolution will redefine what’s achievable across industries
TCT: You’re also using desktop FDM machines, which I think sometimes we can underestimate the power of! Why did you choose these technologies?
GL: We chose desktop FDM machines because they strike an ideal balance of accessibility, precision, and scalability, perfectly aligning with the goals of this project. FDM technology allows us to fully optimise the unique properties of BioCir Flex3D—flexibility, durability, and printability— while offering cost efficiency and versatility. These machines are widely available, often found in households, making them accessible for designers and brands to experiment with sustainable 3D printing without requiring specialised equipment.
FDM machines also excel in rapid prototyping, enabling precise adjustments to material performance, wearability, and settings like infill patterns and layer adhesion. While we’ve focused on FDM for its accessibility, BioCir Flex3D is versatile enough to work across various 3D printing technologies, including industrial-scale systems. This ensures compatibility with both standard and advanced workflows, demonstrating that circular materials like BioCir Flex3D can deliver scalable, sustainable solutions for diverse industries.
TCT: Balena has worked on numerous projects within the fashion sector. Can you share more on those projects or plans for future ones?
GL: Absolutely. One of our recent collaborations was with Bruno Tognin, a trailblazer in 3D-printed fashion. Together, we explored the transformative potential of BioCir Flex3D, by designing a groundbreaking 3D printed top that demonstrates how sustainable materials can be crafted for today’s needs and recycled into tomorrow’s creations.
This project is just the beginning. Using his innovative recycling machinery, Bruno will take the same top and reimagine it into an entirely new design later in 2025, showcasing how BioCir Flex3D empowers designers to create, recycle, and push the boundaries of sustainable fashion.
We’re so excited about what’s next— this is just one example of the exciting collaborations we have in the pipeline. Balena is committed to driving innovation in the 3D printing and fashion industries, and there’s much more to come.
For the last ten years, the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) has been home to the UK’s National Centre for Additive Manufacturing (NCAM); an open, technology-agnostic hub, equipped to cover the entire AM process chain. Over those ten years, machines have evolved, footprint has gotten bigger, projects grander, but a fundamental mission – to increase the adoption of AM in the UK –has remained.
When TCT first visited NCAM back in 2015, we hailed it as “the fresh face of UK manufacturing”, owed to its contemporary look and plans to inspire Great British manufacturing with the possibility of what was, at the time, still very much a hyped technology. Walking through the doors in 2025 as the centre celebrates its milestone anniversary, that sentiment still feels appropriate: optimism but grounded in proof as build plates filled with technical research benchmarks are presented with as much enthusiasm as a huge wire arc 3D printed propeller showcase piece.
"Different industries are adopting AM at different speeds,” Ruaridh Mitchinson, MTC’s Technology Manager for additive manufacturing tells TCT. “I think that's been a really big learning curve for us, being pragmatic and realistic with adoption of technology and trying to educate customers – and many of them know this – but just hammer home, here's what reality looks like, and here's a project that gets you to where you want to be.”
The shop floor of the NCAM is an engineer’s dream. There are 26 AM platforms installed on-site across polymers, metals and ceramics, from desktop to large-format. On one side, for example, you’ll find a CEAD robot-based printer that was recently used by Weir Minerals to develop large polymer alternatives to its traditional wooden sandcasting patterns, which can now be recycled with the help of an in-house extrusion line that’s being used to turn parts into reusable feedstock.
On the other side, you’ll see a 20 ft khaki green shipping container featuring SPEE3D’s XSPEE3D printer, which is being evaluated to test on demand production of metal parts in remote locations and harsh conditions. NCAM views itself as an innovation partner for SMEs working on de-risking their AM adoption, all the way through to Fortune 500 companies working on multi-million pound projects. Then there are its 90+ collaborative member companies, and additive OEMs who will often work with NCAM to de-risk new hardware or software before putting it onto the market. It’s agile, machines shift around as needs evolve and new industry challenges come forth, paying attention to government strategies and industry roadmaps. As a member of the UK’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult, supported by Innovate UK, its funding, Trepleton explains, enables the centre to invest in and explore the technologies that users will want not just today, but the near future.
“We're uniquely positioned in the TRL space, we work really closely with our academics to understand what they're pushing through, what they think is going to be the next generation,” Ross Trepleton, Associate Director for Component Manufacturing, said. “Then we've got our industrial membership base and our position as Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) and Ministry of Defence (MOD) AM steering group chairs to understand industry needs.”
“We want to see an order of magnitude growth of AM adoption in the UK.”
Those industry needs are being met by more than just machines. At NCAM, there’s dedicated space for powder characterisation, post-processing and metrology & NDE, which illustrate not only the full, often hidden, AM workflow, but also how we might think about reshaping our UK supply chains with in-house capabilities. Its open access metal powder bed facility, which quite literally sticks a glass window up to every AM unknown, from powder handling to material benchmarking, has seen more than 100 organisations come through, at least half of which are SMEs, to explore new application and material opportunities. Today, an AMCM metal powder bed system equipped with two nLIGHT lasers is churning out copper, aluminium, and titanium parts for applications thought to be next frontiers of AM adoption: electrification and hydrogen fuel cells. But the NCAM team is also not afraid to say when AM isn’t the right technology. In fact, it’s a very common conversation. AM, oftentimes, can be a tightrope between passion and pragmatism.
“You need to have people going along that whole development journey,” Trepleton said. “Actually getting parts into production is not easy and you need to go in with your eyes wide open and you need senior stakeholder buy in. It's not quick. AM has huge potential but it's not generally an easy path to get there.”
NCAM is many things to many stakeholders. It’s one of five ASTM AM Centres of Excellence around the world, contributing to the development
SHOWN:
DED propeller demonstrates hybrid capabilities
of AM standards, and has completed nine projects as the European Space Agency’s AM Benchmarking Centre. When NCAM first opened its doors, it had just finished a programme with Rolls-Royce to produce a flight-ready front bearing structure, which at the time, was one of the largest jet engine metal components ever printed. The two went on to establish a pre-production facility focused on electron beam melting, which supplied 240 aerospace standard components to Rolls Royce’s UltraFan Engine development programme. Another early MTCsupporter, ATI, funded a project called DRAMA focused on the acceleration of AM throughout the aerospace supply chain and helped 25 aerospace supply chain companies in their adoption of the technology. The MTC was also a key voice in the UK’s national strategy for AM published back in 2017. The initiative, which made recommendations to the UK government around the potential for AM, was not adopted by the Government’s Industrial Strategy that shortly followed, but today, the MTC/NCAM is taking a different approach to embedding AM on a national level. Most recently, the MTC worked together with the Aerospace Technology Institute's (ATI) to develop an AM strategy that targeted significant growth in the number of flying AM parts in civil aerospace, designed and delivered by an end-to-end UK supply chain.
“We don't necessarily see a need for a refreshed national strategy at the moment,” Trepleton said. “We see AM fitting within and being a key enabler to deliver sector specific strategies, not a strategy in its own right.”
Defence and clean power are two sectors where the NCAM is seeing momentum. As defence manufacturers look to AM as a way to rapidly produce essential equipment and re-build sovereign supply chains, and the demands for greener fuel sources through hydrogen and electrification grow, NCAM sees opportunities to explore new materials and develop components that can't be made in any other way.
“We're transitioning away from just using AM to replicate a casting or forging,” Trepleton said. “That is the tip of the iceberg, having fully optimised structures made out of bespoke materials will unlock the true potential of AM.”
Education is a key part of that next frontier. That means building capabilities across the supply chain, and confidence
in process and materials so that AM reaches the highly coveted position of ‘just another tool in the toolbox.’ It’s the reason skills form such a huge part of the NCAMs output. It’s a long-term effort, according to Trepleton, which is why alongside its AM apprenticeships, advanced manufacturing training programmes, and university partnerships, the MTC has supported over 30 AM PhDs to date to ensure those skills are embedded right through to industry.
“We see it as part of our role here,” Trepleton said. “Not just training people but also seeding industry with experts.”
In 10 years, NCAM has completed more than 700 projects and today, across the MTC, there are more than 100 people working on AM at any given time, whether that’s testing large components in multi-laser PBF or evaluating new machine capabilities in ceramics. Over that last decade, understanding and industry acceptance of AM has developed, the hype has subsided, and the technology has reached a level of maturity required by critical applications in demanding industries from aerospace to healthcare.
“If we can help make AM boring,” Mitchinson says, then, “we’re doing our job.”
It’s a role NCAM will continue to champion into the next decade to ensure the acceleration of AM adoption in the UK through meaningful research, collaborations and applications that provide real solutions to real challenges.
“The fundamental is still there,” Trepleton said. “We want to see an order of magnitude growth of AM adoption in the UK, and we want to have organisations using AM effectively and getting those organisations to see some sort of return on investment.”
Mitchinson said, “Even though progress sometimes seems slow, it's crucial to recognise and celebrate successes. It may not always feel like we're making headway, but capturing and reporting these achievements is vital. In this challenging landscape, the more data we gather and share, the better equipped we'll be to advance as an industry. This collective effort will ultimately drive us forward.”
Trepleton concludes, “We're just starting.”
At the 2024 TCT UK User Group, repeatability was identified as a key challenge, with attendees expressing a disconnect between machine users and makers. So, who’s responsible for the repeatability of AM? And how do you currently manage repeatability challenges? We asked the industry.
ROB HIGHAM | Founder | Additive Manufacturing Solutions
“Repeatability, our age-old friend and close relative with reproducibility. Like many areas of AM, we have all the data we need to help prove or calculate the expectations here. What we do not have is a central “hub” or arena to share and help create sector focussed data points. We do not have industry wide acceptable deviations or standards of what to measure and how. Finally, we still do not have the appetite to share and for those that do then are we comparing apples and pears with the data we create? Meanwhile machine OEM’s miss the point, the end part, the drawing, the digital data is what we are producing too. That is king/queen. We are a metal focussed company using laser powder bed fusion. I expect my machine(s) to produce repeatable geometries within a tolerance, which is geometry dependent. I do however expect this repeatability acceptance value to drift if we are reusing powder as the dynamically changing factor in a fixed process will cause some drift. Ultimately, we always expect geometric performance to meet the drawing, and we measure and ensure alterations can be made to provide geometric repeatability.
If we were to mass adopt CT scanning (or insert other new NDT technique to provide similar quantification for presence of defects) we would also see the density deviations and could also adjust to provide maximum repeatable performance and minimise failures. That is what we need repeatability to show for us and our customers, at the right price, lead time and every other constraint we must conform too. Simple, right?”
“Repeatability & reproducibility (R&R) are essential for aligning additive manufacturing performance with the rigorous demands of production environments. Laser powder bed fusion has emerged as the leading technology in the metal AM sector, but its widespread adoption is contingent upon demonstrating consistent R&R. This necessitates compliance with standards and robust qualification pathways across the entire AM value chain. While part manufacturers are ultimately responsible for delivering high-quality, repeatable components, this goal cannot be met without strong support from machine OEMs.
At EOS, we embrace this shared responsibility by
SANDRA POELSMA | Print Process
Architect | Additive Industries
“I agree that repeatability of the laser powder bed fusion process for manufacturers is a key requirement in system hardware. This has been a challenge for some users as the technology has evolved, but this is also the reason that from the first MetalFab design schemes at Additive Industries we placed system repeatability and system-to-system repeatability at the heart of our design philosophy. To achieve this fundamental goal, we developed an automated system for calibration of all of our lasers, with a unique in-line camera design allowing for fast, regular and accurate checking and calibration of the key beam profile, laser-to-laser alignment and laser power measurement. Further, we also automated our build plate zeroing sequence through our accurate and repeatable kinematic mounting design and recoater torque feedback, meaning that human operator inconsistency is taken out of the equation in job starts. The final piece of the jigsaw is our completely contained, closed loop powder control - including loading, extraction, sieving and distribution - which ensures that the powder used in our system is at all times inert and in specification, a fundamental building block of producing repeatable, high-quality parts.
However, even with all of this in place it is important to recognise that once a customer buys a system, they must continue working closely with the system OEM to get the consistent requirements for their specific applications, as there will always be some level of tuning required to go above and beyond a standard allowing them to be competitive.”
collaborating closely with customers and stakeholders, including standards organisations (SAE, ISO/ASTM, API) and funding bodies like NIST and NCDMM (America Makes). Together, we aim to enhance qualification methodologies, improve accessibility to material and machine performance data, and reduce associated costs. These efforts are critical to mitigating risks and ensuring consistent, high-quality production. Simultaneously, EOS is pushing the technological frontiers of LPBF through advancements in software, hardware, and optical systems, such as the development of next-generation light engines. By addressing both foundational and cutting-edge challenges, EOS is committed to driving AM towards its full potential as a reliable and scalable industrial production method.”
WORDS: Abigail Batley, Engineering Design Lecturer at Bournemouth University
As additive manufacturing (AM) matures, the use of carbon fibre composites has increased, promising lightweight, highstrength solutions for critical applications in demanding industries. Despite the appeal of manufacturer-provided data sheets, discrepancies between these claims and real-world performance persist. My recent study evaluated the tensile strength, repeatability, and print quality of three carbon fibre-reinforced AM materials, providing insight on their actual performance and reliability. The research focused on three materials utilising OEM-recommended parameters:
1. ABS-CF10 – A Stratasys material with 10% chopped carbon fibre, designed for greater strength and stiffness than standard ABS.
2. Onyx – Markforged’s nylon base reinforced with micro carbon fibre, known for enhanced toughness and stiffness.
3. Onyx + Continuous Carbon Fiber –Reinforced with continuous strands of carbon fibre, touted for delivering significant strength improvements.
Dog-bone specimens were printed following ASTM D638 standards and subjected to tensile testing using digital image correlation (DIC) to map strain distribution and assess mechanical properties. Microscopy analysis provided detailed insights into print quality, defects, and the microstructure of the composites.
DISPARITIES IN TENSILE STRENGTH
The study uncovered a mix of
overperformance and underperformance compared to manufacturers’ claims:
• ABS-CF10 fell short of expectations, achieving tensile strength 12.36% lower than advertised. Weak fibre-matrix adhesion and large voids were identified as primary contributors.
• Onyx exceeded the manufacturer’s stated tensile strength by 8.66%. Consistent bonding and minimal voids highlighted the advantages of proper process controls and material quality.
• Onyx + Continuous Carbon Fiber delivered 15.31% higher tensile strength than claimed but also exhibited the lowest repeatability and dimensional accuracy among the three materials.
This variability presents challenges in achieving uniformity across parts, even when using the same printer and build parameters.
Microscopy analysis revealed that the quality of fibre-matrix wetting and void content significantly influenced mechanical properties. Poor fibre-matrix wetting in ABSCF10 led to weak interfacial bonding, limiting load transfer and resulting in fibre pullout during tensile testing. This issue, coupled with the presence of large voids, reduced the material’s strength below expectations. In contrast, Onyx demonstrated good wetting, even fibre distribution, and low void percentages. These characteristics allowed for better load transfer and overall structural integrity, leading to its superior performance.
Onyx + Continuous Carbon Fiber, while strong, revealed larger voids around the reinforcement layers, affecting repeatability and dimensional precision.
The incorporation of continuous carbon fibre presents a double-edged sword.
While it significantly boosts tensile strength, its inclusion complicates the manufacturing process, reducing consistency between builds. The study’s tensile tests showed wider deviations in strength for Onyx + Continuous Carbon Fiber compared to the other materials.
Stress-strain graphs further revealed a twophase response: the composite’s stiffness diminished after the carbon fibre layers failed, with only the nylon matrix remaining to carry the load.
This variability underscores the challenges of reliably integrating continuous fibre reinforcement into printed parts.
1. Data Sheets as Guidelines, Not Guarantees: While OEMs provide baseline data, actual performance depends heavily on printer calibration, material quality, and adherence to optimal print settings. Engineers should validate materials for specific applications rather than relying solely on published specifications.
2. Quality Control: Meticulous attention to print parameters, such as layer height, infill patterns, and build orientation, can greatly influence performance. Quality control measures, such as ensuring new filament reels and using calibrated printers, were key to achieving high-performance results.
3. Balancing Strength and Repeatability: For applications demanding consistent results across multiple builds, chopped carbon fibre composites like ABS-CF10 or Onyx may offer more predictable performance. However, for applications where strength is the primary concern, continuous fibre composites like Onyx + Continuous Carbon Fiber remain unmatched, albeit at the cost of repeatability and dimensional accuracy.
The use of carbon fibre composites in AM continues to expand the possibilities for highperformance parts. However, as this study shows, discrepancies between manufacturer claims and real-world performance remain a critical issue. Designers and engineers must approach material selection and validation with care, understanding that factors such as fibrematrix wetting, void content, and print quality significantly impact results.
For the AM industry to fully realise the potential of carbon fibre composites, bridging the gap between advertised and actual performance is essential. With better process controls, rigorous testing, and a commitment to transparency, AM can deliver on its promise of producing reliable, high-strength components for the most demanding applications.
WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS
What is that rolling sound? Is it my eyes spinning to the back of my head or is it the sound of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives tumbling back to the dark ages? Oh, it’s both.
The bros have spoken. DEI is dead; failed experiment, board up the windows, abandon ship.
As I write this, NASA has become the latest to join a disappointing list of highprofile organisations that have decided to decommission their DEI programmes. Day by day, big names, many of which we’ve featured in this very magazine, are being added, each making it easier than the last to get rid of recruitment goals or scrub their websites of anything that sounds like progress.
It’s a trend that has been slowly creeping in as organisations have begun to phase out initiatives – initiatives which have accelerated since 2020 – but are now rapidly decelerating in response to new government mandates and concerns around litigation.
During a Q&A about creating intentional workplace cultures (which you can watch in full from February 17th at tctmagazine. com), I asked Eliana Fu, Business Development Manager, Aerospace at TRUMPF, for her thoughts on whether, in light of all this, we are now at risk of quickly reverting to ‘the way we’ve always done things’? Fu said, “Going backwards would be a detriment to everything we’ve learned and developed so far.” We should all be inclined to agree.
Intentionality is key. I have no doubt that the language around every back pedal will have been communicated to employees as levelling the playing field to provide equal opportunities for all staff, disguised under ‘common sense’ statements about ‘securing the best talent’. And that all sounds lovely, doesn’t it? But it’s just not reality. Sometimes, you must be intentional to make change happen.
In some ways, additive manufacturing, a 40-year-old technology, doesn’t really
have a ‘the way we’ve always done things.’ We’re still a relatively young industry and while we straddle the line between manufacturing and tech, the traditional and new, innovation is supposed to be at our core. DEI is as much about diversity of thought as it is about diversity of people. In a conversation about binder jet developments just last year, Atomik AM CEO Prof Kate Black told TCT, “I believe that the technology we need already exists and it’s scattered around the world like a large jigsaw. It needs people to bring those pieces together, but we can’t bring those pieces together when we have cultures that alienate half the population.” In an industry like ours with its unique challenges and untapped opportunities, that mix of minds is crucial. So why wouldn’t we want to work harder to engage them?
In another conversation, Stacey DelVecchio, former Additive Manufacturing Product Manager at Caterpillar and former president of the Society of Women Engineers, cautioned that diversity initiatives were at risk of going underground due to political climate change, with companies “pulling back on publicly supporting diversity.” She suggested that if the job is left to non-profits to move the needle without the support of big players, it makes it harder to push change through with policymakers. The reversals being made today, which risk turning DEI into a hushed topic, are surely only going to place the burden on those groups more heavily.
I understand that when times are tough, companies have to choose where to prioritise. As businesses grapple with challenging economies, DEI initiatives might not top the list of concerns. But when I see huge, influential companies reversing decisions on supplier diversity spending goals or removing DEI-related content from training materials, it all just sounds a little bit too much like a case of hard work. I get the sense of fatigue around DEI but it’s being treated like a trend that can be discarded like a pair of skinny jeans, as if all
“Sometimes, you must be intentional to make change happen.”
the initiatives and resources that have been invested in over the last five years were some sort of failure. And it’s being allowed because companies have effectively been given the signal that ‘hey, you don’t need to do this anymore.’
Despite what these recent moves may seem to suggest, representation does matter, visibility matters, role models
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