FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
BUYING TIME
WITH SOMOS 3D PRINTED TOOLING
ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
FEBRUARY 2016
ISSN 1751-0333
EDITORIAL HEAD OF CONTENT
James Woodcock james@rapidnews.com GROUP EDITOR
Daniel O’Connor daniel.oconnor@rapidnews.com ASSISTANT EDITOR
Laura Griffiths laura.griffiths@rapidnews.com NEWSDESK
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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
FROM THE EDITOR Everything but the print
T
his particular editor’s letter started as a rant about clickbait hype in the 3D printing industry, it was inspired by one story in particular as well as a post-Christmas and CES 2016 bad mood
slump. The muse for the original rant came from one headline and a music video; “Watch a beautiful dancer turn into a ‘Wide Open’ 3D print in The Chemical Brothers’ new video”. I did as the SEO-laden headline asked me to, I watched it, and what was clear right away to me was that although I could see some resemblance to the filigree designs of Josh Harker, there was not anything in this video that was actually 3D printed. If 3D printing is the turning of digital to physical then a video featuring a dancer turning into a CGI lattice lacks that essential tangibility 3D printing offers. Not wanting to have a rant without facts to back it up I did some research and an article on the excellent fxguide.com switched this from being a rant about hype to a realisation that 3D printing is now so prominent, so established that two of the world’s leading music video directors are drawing on it as a source of inspiration. Long-term Chemical Brothers collaborators Dom & Nic worked with visual effects company The Mill in order to turn a dancer into a representation of a 3D printed mesh, inspired by not only Josh Harker’s work but the whole topological design world that is so entrenched in
3D printing. They didn’t just want dancer Sonoya Mizuno’s body to turn into a see through lattice design; they wanted to mimic the appearance and textures of the materials used in 3D printing. Even if this wasn’t 3D printed it had to look like it was. Perhaps this was a case of not judging a story by the headline, we’re all chasing the SEO dragon when it comes to getting visits to our respected websites or perhaps this was a case of scratching the surface of a story always leading to a more interesting story. Whatever it is, that music video feels like something of a turning point for 3D printing’s mainstream image, hopefully the stories dotted throughout this issue represent the incredible applications 3D printing is inspiring to creatives and makers across the globe. Druck on
Daniel O’Connor Group Editor
For a new era of manufacturing Applying over 40 years of cross-sector engineering Renishaw’s new metal powder bed fusion additive manufacturing system for industrial production features increased emphasis on automation and reduced operator interaction. Find out more at www.renishaw.com/additive
www.renishaw.com Renishaw's RenAM 500M project Strip ad TCT 0216.indd 1
27/01/2016 16:10:47 FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com 05
ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
CONTENTS
TCT | FEBRUARY 2016 EDITION
LEAD NEWS
08
BUYING TIME WITH 3D PRINTED TOOLING
51
12
DSM Somos on how Wehl&Partner are helping customers to bring products to market faster with additive manufacturing and its PerFORM material.
BACK TO OUR ROOTS
15
FEATURES
11
37
NEWS ROUNDUP
A roundup of all the latest news from the last month, for more on each of the stories visit www.tctmagazine.com
12
THE FINE ART OF FUSION
We look at how laser Metal Fusion expert, Sisma, is transforming manufacturing in the jewellery industry with application specific machines and precious metals.
15
LICENCE TO PRINT MONEY
Assistant Editor, Laura Griffths, speaks to Cooksongold about how its using lessons learned in the jewellery industry to open up possibilities in coin making.
21
FORMNEXT POWERED BY TCT REVIEW
We bring you our review of the inaugural formnext powered by tct in Frankfurt including the huge launches, comments and conference highlights.
27
MANUFACTURING GOES ORGANIC
How Materialise’s 3-maticSTL was used to optimise the design of a hydraulic valve at the VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland.
29
WHAT’S NEW AT SOLIDTHINKING?
TCT takes a look at some of the latest features in the 2016 editions of solidThinking Inspire and Evolve
Laura speaks to some of the leading names in the consumer 3D printing space about open innovation, partnerships and going back to basics.
Dan talks to Whispering Gibbon about how they created a software that specialises in bringing virtual content to life through 3D printing.
Laura speaks to Randy Swearer, VP of Education at Autodesk, to find out how the software giant is teaching future design and engineering skills through making.
61 59
RETURN OF THE KING?
34
Could the new high-speed stereolithography process, SLA Bot-1, be the most revolutionary thing we’ve seen from 3D Systems since the SLA 1, 30 years ago?
GAME OF DRONES
Editor, Dan O’Connor, finds out how Aurora Flight Sciences used Stratasys technology to create the world’s largest, fastest and most complex 3D printed UAV.
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THE GAME CHANGER IS TIME
Laura meets industry newcomers, NewPro3D, to find out about the world’s fastest 3D printing process yet and why they don’t want to be a 3D printing company.
37
TCT ASIA PREVIEW
With the second TCT Asia event just around the corner, we focus in on some of the technologies you can expect to see on this year’s show floor in Shanghai.
MANUFACTURING IN SPACE
47
CES 2016 REVIEW
Relive the best bits from the CES 2016 3D printing marketplace from the 3D Printing Conference to the latest consumer wares on the show floor.
A pick of some of the best 3D prints we’ve spotted over the last month.
REVERSE ENGINEERING THE GRAPHICS PIPELINE
CAN YOU TEACH INNOVATION?
Dan speaks to Andrew Rush, President of Made in Space, about how 3D printing could play a significant role in enabling humanity’s future in space.
PERSONALIZE PRINTING PRESS
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31
41
54
62
MACH PREVIEW
As the biennial MACH Exhibition returns, we spotlight some of the innovations you can expect to see in the new 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing Zone.
62 REGULARS
05 19 66
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK GUEST COLUMN TODD GRIMM COLUMN
FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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LEAD NEWS: SOMOS
Buying Time
with 3D printed tooling
OVER THE COURSE OF TWO DECADES COMPANIES SUCH AS BOSCH, AIRBUS AND PORSCHE HAVE USED WEHL&PARTNER FOR AN ARRAY OF PROTOTYPING NEEDS IN ORDER TO STAY AHEAD IN GERMANY’S STRONG PROTOTYPING MARKET AND KEEP THOSE BLUE CHIPS COMING BACK THE COMPANY PLACES INNOVATION AT THE HEART OF EVERYTHING IT MAKES. WHETHER THAT INNOVATION COMES FROM NEW TECHNOLOGIES, NEW MATERIALS OR JUST A NEW WAY OF THINKING, WEHL&PARTNER PRIDES ITSELF ON THE QUICK TURNAROUND OF QUALITY PARTS AND ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING IS KEY TO ACHIEVING THAT.
WORDS : SOmos
I
m a g i n e being able to produce short-runs of end-use parts to test a concept or for direct use in just days. How would it feel to be able to bring a product to market faster than the c o m p e t i t i o n? We h l & Pa r t n e r has been able to help customers realise just that using additive manufacturing and Somos PerFORM. What would typically take the team weeks to produce with a traditional machined metal tool has been achieved in one third the time or even less. Wehl&Partner has used traditional methods for their injection moulding projects for many years and still offer
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traditional aluminium tools when hundreds or a few thousand parts need to be produced. However the team have discovered great benefits by expanding the product offering to include tools produced with additive manufacturing, specifically made using stereolithography (SL). They have experimented with different materials and multiple technologies and have found tools made with SL and Somos PerFORM offer the best results. Tools made with Somos PerFORM have high strength and allow them to heat the inserts on the tool to produce real parts in various materials and real injection conditions. This was not achievable with other 3D Printing materials such as DigitalABS, as the inserts could not be heated and only allowed for the injection in a cold mould which was unrealistic. In addition, the strength and accuracy was also compromised. Wehl&Partner found that tools made with Somos PerFORM retained their high-strength properties and accuracy allowing for the production of high detail parts with fine features.
ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
“If the mould is designed properly, you can produce up to 40 to 50 parts using a 30% glass fibre filled material without problems
“We tried creating the tool with digital printing (PolyJet) and SL and the only technology that worked for the tooling application was SL with Somos PerFORM. Somos PerFORM is the only additive manufacturing polymer material where you can inject with real conditions with mould temperatures up to 120 degrees Celsius,” said Javier Garcia, CEO for Wehl&Partner Iberica. It is a process of knowing where you can go with materials, process and design. The life of the mould itself is based on the materials and properties that are being injected into the mould. If you are injecting polypropylene, the tool will stay intact for hundreds of parts as the material is soft. If you are using a glass fibre filled material, the life of the tool will be much shorter. “If the mould is designed properly, you can produce up to 40 to 50 parts using a 30% glass fibre filled material without problems,” said Mr. Garcia, CEO for Wehl & Partner Iberica. Wehl&Partner is one of the first to make this type of tool with Somos PerFORM and are pleased to provide real injection parts
for testing in a few days which has been ~70% faster as compared to conventional methods. They have already made 30 different moulds for several customers in the ten months since adding Somos PerFORM to their portfolio. If parts are simple, then you can mill a mould using traditional methods. If the mould is more complex or if quick turnaround time is needed, the additive manufacturing route is the way to go. “Our customers are delighted because you can send parts out in a few days. The process speeds up the process to 1-2 weeks versus 5-7 weeks,” said Javier Garcia. “This product and process combination buys you time. You are not buying parts, you are buying time.” When time is of the essence, Somos PerFORM can be used to create a high-quality tool for end-use parts. It is being used by customers to make parts to test under real conditions and gain approval of new designs which speeds up the product development cycle and ultimately shortens the time to bring new products to market. For more information visit www.dsm.com/somos-rapid-tooling www.wehl-partner.com
FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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.aerospace
MACHINE SOLUTIONS FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING WITH METALS
www.concept-laser.de Concept Laser GmbH An der Zeil 8 | D 96215 Lichtenfels T: +49 (0) 95 71. 1679 200 | F: +49 (0) 95 71. 1679 299 | info@concept-laser.de
Photos: uwe-muehlhaeusser.de, finamedia.de | Machine layout: newkon.info | Artwork: brandnew-design.de
Source: Airbus Operations GmbH
GERMAN FUTURE PRIZE The Federal President‘s Award for Innovation and Technology nominee 2015
NEWS ROUNDUP
DELCAM ADDS ROBOT FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING RESEARCH
Just 24 months after launching one of the most talked about machines in the industry, Markforged has announced its second-generation high-strength 3D printer, the Mark Two with a 40% faster fibre printing process and ability to add reinforced fibres into a 15 times smaller surface area. Using two print heads, the Mark Two builds the matrix materials, which in this case is nylon, while the other is a new composite print head, which lays those parts with carbon fibre, fibreglass or Kevlar.
LLOYD’S REGISTER LAUNCHES CERTIFICATION FRAMEWORK FOR METAL 3D PRINTED PARTS Lloyd’s Register has launched a new global certification framework to increase confidence in additive manufacturing in the energy and marine industries. Following the launch of a joint industry project with TWI, the global certification company is on a mission to provide certification guidelines that will enable companies to manufacture complex AM components efficiently and with confidence. The certification framework for AM metallic components provides a step-by-step approach to deliver a stabilising force for quality and safety.
NEWS
As this issue focuses on the consumer side of the industry, this roundup highlights some of the biggest updates at the opposite end of the spectrum from innovative industrial processes to strides in certification.
FOR THESE STORIES IN FULL CLICK TO WWW.TCTMAGAZINE.COM
Delcam has added an ABB robot fitted with a Fronius Cold Metal Transfer advanced welding head at its Birmingham site. The unit will be used for research into the programming of robots for metal additive manufacturing with Delcam’s PowerMILL Robot software. CMT welding was developed to join materials with different properties and uses very high frequency movement of the wire to give a clean, spatter-free material transfer. The arm offers six axes of movement, with an additional two axes provided by the table holding the material, which allows complex parts to be oriented into optimum position with less need for extra support structures.
STRATASYS TEAMS WITH ADOBE ON CREATIVE COLORS SOFTWARE Stratasys and Adobe have introduced Stratasys Creative Colors Software to simplify the 3D printing workflow. Powered by the Adobe 3D Color Print Engine, the tool forms a direct bridge between Adobe Photoshop CC and Objet Connex3 by combining advanced colour management with a direct design-to-3D-print workflow. The software features vibrant gradient colour palettes with expanded colour spectrums, improved textures and patterns support, as well as accurate, time saving colour previews.
MCOR LAUNCHES WORLD’S FIRST FULL-COLOUR DESKTOP PRINTER Irish 3D printing company, Mcor has taken its first step into the desktop space with the launch of the Mcor Arke capable of printing photorealistic full-colour models. Over the past decade, Mcor has perfected its paper-based 3D printing process which uses plain paper as the raw material, razors to cut each layer, inkjets to colour each layer and glue to both hold together and laminate the final layer. The Arke can produce models in a DPI of 4800 x 2400, twice that of leading industrial scale 3D printing machinery.
ORBITAL ATK SUCCESSFULLY TEST 3D PRINTED HYPERSONIC ENGINE COMBUSTOR Orbital ATK has announced a successful test of a 3D-printed hypersonic engine combustor at NASA Langley Research Center. The combustor, produced using powder-bed fusion (PBF) technologies, was subjected to a variety of high-temperature hypersonic flight conditions over the course of 20 days, including one of the longest duration propulsion wind tunnel tests ever recorded for a unit of this kind. The tests were, in part, to ensure that the PBF-produced part would be robust enough to meet mission objectives. Analysis confirms the unit met or exceeded all of the test requirements. FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
MARKFORGED LAUNCHES SECOND-GENERATION MARK TWO 3D PRINTER
JEWELLERY
BELOW: Silver decorative piece by Nuovi Gioielli SRL
THE FINE ART OF
FUSION W O R D S : L A U R A G R I F F I T HS
S
isma
first
started
developing additive manufacturing systems in 2011. Since that time, awareness of direct 3D printing processes with precious metals has grown for jewellers and customers in the luxury products market, and so too have Sisma’s technologies. Being active in the jewellery sector for such a long time, Sisma knows what the typical needs of the industry entail and already has a catalogue of complete machines for welding, marking, cutting and diamond tooling for goldsmith and jewellery applications. Sisma has leveraged this history and experience to develop an additive manufacturing technology that is completely dedicated to this type of production and brings increased flexibility and creative freedom to the jeweller’s toolkit. Sisma’s Laser Metal Fusion (LMF) process uses a high-power laser to build metal objects using fine metallic powders. The Sisma mysint series uses LMF to form metal pieces in white and red gold, silver, bronze, steel and cobalt chrome powders. Its jewellery-focussed system, mysint pm, has been designed to deliver the highest level of efficiency in terms of material use with a sealed working chamber and architecture that allows total recovery of unused powders.
ESTABLISHED IN NORTHERN ITALY IN 1961, SISMA IS A GLOBAL PLAYER IN THE DESIGN AND PRODUCTION OF HIGH PRECISION MANUFACTURING MACHINERY AND ALSO THE COUNTRY’S LARGEST MANUFACTURER OF LASER SYSTEMS. MORE SPECIFICALLY, BEING LOCATED IN THE HISTORICAL ITALIAN DISTRICT OF VICENZA, KNOWN FOR ITS GOLDSMITHING AND HOME TO ONE-FIFTH OF THE COUNTRY’S GOLD AND JEWELLERY INDUSTRY, SISMA IS ROOTED IN THE PERFECT PLACE FOR MAKING ITS MARK ON ONE OF ITS THREE KEY AREAS OF FOCUS: JEWELLERY.
ABOVE: Red gold and silver pendant by Nuovi Gioielli SRL
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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
N
ABOVE: Sisma mysint pm
ABOVE: Sisma myrev 100
more traditional process chain. In January Software and hardware solutions are Sisma has used its know-how to launch a implemented to optimise and reduce dedicated solution for the jewellery market, the amount of powder needed to the myrev 100. This latest machine is an SLA manufacture each piece. The software based technology and has been designed to can dynamically determine the optimal work with Sisma’s high definition castable and quantity of the oversupply needed to direct rubber mouldable resins. The system’s ensure the perfect powder deposition for unique patented three revolving platforms each layer. at 100 x 100 mm mean that the machine The mysint pm working cylinders are can continue to complete three unattended removable, interchangeable and available in cycles in one go. This means that production different diameters to allow users to adjust the are increased substantially. setting to suit the material, size and number of Software and capabilities With each of its specific solutions, Sisma pieces being manufactured. When creating a hardware is focused on two fundamental aspects piece of custom jewellery or trying out a new when working with precious metals: powder material, users can switch from the standard solutions are and quality of the final piece. 100 mm platform to the smallest set of 34.5 mm implemented management At formnext, the company hinted at its next and reduce the amount of material needed. to optimise project; a bigger second-generation machine Having open parameters also means users can experiment with new or used powders and reduce featuring a larger build platform with yet more solutions and the ability to handle and Sisma has already achieved impressive the amount dedicated more materials. results with precious metals such as white and of powder Sisma’s laser expertise has been recognised red gold, silver and platinum. by fellow players in the industry and back This open system also means that users needed to in 2014, the company announced a joint can fine-tune the technology to their specific manufacture venture with German manufacturing leader, application or requirements. For example, each piece. Trumpf, upon their re-entry into the additive a silver decorative item designed by Nuovi manufacturing market. The company’s LMF Gioielli combines different approaches in the technology was recently leveraged by the same piece to achieve the best quality for systems’ manufacturer in a joint venture into polishing in the external part and the most the R&D and production of a new range of defined details for the thin internal structure. Rather than marketing itself as a one size fits all, additive manufacturing platforms unveiled in Frankfurt in universal technology, Sisma’s mysint systems have been November. However, the company is keen to point out developed to meet three specific applications with the that the two are very much still independent from one highest level of efficiency. Along with jewellery, the another with Sisma offering its own unique production mysint 100 can be configured for the manufacture of capabilities for its three key verticals. With new systems aimed directly at opening up industrial parts that require handling of reactive materials such as titanium and aluminium and also for the dental manufacturing opportunities in the jewellery market, industry. Speaking at formnext, the team said they looked Sisma’s dedication and affinity with the jewellery at the combination of additive manufacturing and CNC sector positions them perfectly between the origins of an established and traditional industry and the game technology to deliver this particular vertical. When we talk about 3D printing in the jewellery industry, changing advances that 3D technologies can bring. it’s usually in the case of resin-based technologies where a 3D print is used for casting a piece as part of a much
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JEWELLERY ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
W O R D S : l a u r a g r i f f i t hs
Licence to
Print Money
The value of 3D printing speaks the highest volumes when it is used to produce the coveted ‘impossible objects’. Direct Precious Metal 3D printing has best demonstrated this in the jewellery sector where the process has opened up unique design and weightloss possibilities. So what happens when you introduce that level of innovation to a completely different traditional industry like coin making?
C
ooksongold’s Direct Precious metal 3D printing has already been applied to create several unique pieces of jewellery, which were highlighted in the recent PRECIOUS Project, a £471,000 research and development project into the additive manufacture of precious metal jewellery. Cooksongold, part of the Heimerle + Meule Group, has a long history of manufacturing precious metal products for the jewellery and watchmaking industries. Last year in collaboration with EOS, the company launched the Precious M 080, an advanced manufacturing technology that allows users to create complex jewellery and watch components in a range of Advanced Precious Metal Powders; 18 k gold, 950 Platinum and 925 silver. In its most recent project the technology was utilised to tackle a different kind of industrial manufacturing – at the mint. Cooksongold already supplies coin blanks to many mints around the world, which then strike their own images onto the coins. With that, the precious metals supplier decided to set itself the challenge of printing the world’s first truly 3D image directly onto the face of an existing blank coin using a different alloy. To achieve this, the build platform was first milled to house the existing 18k yellow gold coin blank. Using a CAD image of the
“crown” design, the image was 3D printed in 20-micron layers using 500g of 18k white powder directly onto the coin. The precious metal 3D printing process melted the powder directly to the surface of the coin ensuring strong adhesion between the metals. Utilising the unique production process meant it was possible for the coin to have undercuts and display a truly 3D image that is simply not possible using traditional stamping techniques. The build time took just one hour to complete and then a further 30 minutes to post process. Due to the lack of support structures, the coin was removed with ease and post-processed using conventional automated and hand polishing techniques. By splitting the coin blank down the middle, the team were able to confirm that their first effort demonstrated “fantastic adhesion” between layers of the two alloys. ››
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JEWELLERY ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
TWO SIDES OF THE COIN Following the success of the first case study, Cooksongold decided to experiment with the possibility of printing on BOTH sides of a fine gold coin, only this time using platinum. Using a similar process, the build platform was milled to house the gold 28.1 mm diameter, 2.00 mm thick coin blank, plus the 5.3 mm high relief of the “crown” image. The image was 3D printed onto the back of the coin and then repeated on the reverse. With minimal finishing, the entire process took 140 minutes to complete. Along with the ability to combine two metals, the second innovation shown in these studies is the freedom to produce a 3D image with a much higher relief than conventional stamping processes allow. Whilst a standard coin features a shallow relief of around 1.00 or 2.00 mm, Cooksongold were able to achieve a relief of 5.3 mm with 3D printing. Cooksongold recently showcased the results of these prints at the world’s largest coin fair, World Money Fair in Berlin. Members of the coin making industry were particularly excited by the potential to print hollow structures directly onto the surface of a blank therefore reducing weight and material consumption dramatically. “The key with precious metal 3D printing, is finding those right applications,” David Fletcher, Business Development Manager at Cooksongold, explained. “Printing directly onto the coin is the perfect example, there are no supports required and it’s the same with jewellery. If the designer has really thought about the production process they’re going to use then they
can produce things that they can’t imagine from any other production process that’s available today. It really is key, designing for 3D printing.”
Whilst a standard coin features a shallow relief of around 1.00 or 2.00 mm, Cooksongold were able to achieve a relief of 5.3 mm with 3D printing.
PLATINUM IS 3D PRINTING PERFECT The potential to use precious and notoriously difficult materials is an appealing prospect for coin makers and jewellers alike, particularly in the production of commemorative and custom pieces. David has been quoted singing the praises of platinum before but once again he iterates that “platinum is the holy grail of precious metal 3D printing” which is why this year at the Baselworld event in Switzerland, Cooksongold will launch the availability of its Platinum material and partnership with the Platinum
Guild. Traditionally, platinum is very difficult to cast and there are only a select few casters around the world that can do it successfully. However, it brings significant advantages to the 3D printing process where its lack of conductivity reduces energy consumption. The real challenge is producing the material itself. The ability to 3D print platinum has the potential to open up new product lines in the jewellery and luxury products industry where the density and weight of platinum has often restricted it’s use. With platinum on the 3D printing market, that could be about to change.
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Direct Precious Metal 3D Printing technology for the jewellery and watchmaking industries. Whatever’s in your mind, make it real. The Precious M 080 is the most advanced direct precious metal 3D printing system, which enables the creation of jewellery and watch components previously impossible to successfully manufacture from existing processes. Working closely with the M 080 are Cooksongold’s Advanced Metal Powders in 18k yellow, white and red gold. With 950 platinum and 925 silver coming soon.
The M 080 is designed to: • Increase designer freedom • Realise designs in just a few hours • Ensure maximum precious metal accountability • Remove the need for investment tooling. With our comprehensive service package, the technology provides end-to-end manufacturing and the only dedicated solution for jewellery and watchmaking...
making the impossible possible.
Call: 0121 233 8192 for more information now or visit: www.cooksongold-emanufacturing.com TCT 192x136 typewww.tctmagazine.com area_AW2.indd 1 FEBRUARY 2016 0184186 DMLS
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FRANK COOPER
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W O R D S : F R A N K C O O PE R
goal of the Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre (JIIC) and its parent institution, the Birmingham School of Jewellery, UK, is to encourage its students to develop, design and produce computer aided design (CAD) examples of jewellery products to challenge, prove, and democratise the processes and materials required for the application of precious metal direct metal laser melting (DMLM) technology into the production facilities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the UK jewellery manufacturing sector. After a piece of jewellery has been designed and before it can be manufactured using DMLM a small number of core activities need to be both clearly understood and to take place: he
Frank Cooper is the Technical Manager at Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre, his knowledge and experience in additive manufacturing for the jewellery industry is unrivalled. The following column is an adapted extract from a full research article entitled “Sintering and additive manufacturing: ‘‘additive manufacturing and the new paradigm for the jewellery manufacturer’’ from Springer’s ‘Progress in Additive Manufacturing’ journal. http://rd.springer.com/ journal/40964
frank.cooper@bcu.ac.uk
If a jewellery designer understands, even on a fairly superficial level, what is involved in each of these core activities then they will be able to better design jewellery
Pre-processing (preparing pieces for manufacture). This essentially refers to all front-end software-related activities including the design process. Processing (manufacturing jewellery items using DMLM). This refers to the actual manufacturing process using DMLM technologies. Post-processing (manual and automated finishing and polishing processes). This refers to the post-DMLM manufacture processing stages up to the point where an article is ready for sale. If a jewellery designer understands, even on a fairly superficial level, what is involved in each of these core activities then they will be able to better design jewellery that not only takes advantage of the geometric freedoms that DMLM offers but also can be suitably post-processed to an acceptable quality of finish. FINISHING TECHNIQUES FOR DMLM PRINTED JEWELLERY Mechanical, or mass finishing, techniques are often found to be the best for this stage because the DMLM of jewellery will probably prove to be most commercially effective when used to
produce geometrically complex designs. These designs by their very nature will present many unique and product specific challenges when ready to be polished and finished. Mass finishing technologies are based on the correct application of media flow pressure and speed to the jewellery item to be polished. Generally, the higher the pressure exerted by the media on the jewellery, and the faster the media flows across the jewellery parts, the faster the desired finishing results can be achieved. But this flow has to be either uniform or directed, depending where the polishing is required. Centrifugal disc finishing is an industrial mass finishing process adapted for the surface treatment of jewellery. The process is carried out in a cylindrical container, which is open at the top, while the bottom consists of a turntable-like disc separated from the container wall by a microscopically small gap. During operation, the work pieces and the grinding or polishing media in which they are immersed rotate at a high speed, creating a toroidal abrasive flow of the media; the relative difference in speed of the components and media produces the polishing effect. The contact between the jewellery pieces and the medium generates a very intense finishing effect which is up to 20 times more efficient than can be achieved with conventional systems like vibratory finishers. A process refined by precious consortium partner Finishing Techniques Ltd is the ‘stream finishing’ process (sometimes referred to as immersion polishing). This is a fairly new concept to jewellery polishing and features short processing times because the medium is compressed against the wall of a large spinning bowl (centrifugal disc finishing) and the parts are held and rotated in this flow by use of a rotating fixture similar to an electric drill chuck on an extended shaft. Because the rotating head is fixed but with an adjustable angle of attack when immersed into the bowl, it can be easily automated and has shown excellent reliability and repeatability. The use of small, light media can produce an excellent finish, the finishing energy coming from the relative speed of both the jewellery part and the medium. A final polish by hand completes the process. FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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trip to Frankfurt is a passtime TCT is no stranger to but for our most recent venture to the Frankfurt Messe, the show floor was ours and we were joined by an international mix of industry luminaries who chose the inaugural formnext powered by tct as the perfect place to introduce the latest technologies in additive manufacturing and tool making. Over 230 exhibitors took to Hall 3 of this truly stunning exhibition centre with some of the biggest exhibition stands we’ve ever seen, for four days worth of launches, conferences, seminars, special shows and networking amongst 9,000 valuable and engaged attendees. november
formnext powered by tct
Review A PLACE FOR INNOVATION If there’s one thing our maiden outing showed, it’s that formnext powered by tct is the place to launch new technologies and the show floor was packed with cutting-edge innovations from some of the industry’s most prominent thought leaders and newcomers alike. Concept Laser launched a new integrated machine concept under the title of “AM Factory of Tomorrow” promising a new level of additive manufacturing in terms of quality, flexibility and performance. Metal 3D printing solutions manufacturer, EOS decided to launch its latest metal AM machine and monitoring system on its home turf. The EOS M 100 Direct Metal Laser Sintering machine is the company’s smallest metal system and is said to be an ideal choice for those considering an entry intro additive manufacturing. Renishaw set its sights on production with three new product lines including the RenAM 500M, the company’s first production-ready industrial metal additive manufacturing system, the AM400 flexible metal additive manufacturing system and a new software solution, QuantAM.
W O R D S : l a u r a g r i f f i t hs
formnext also saw the highly anticipated launch of Additive Industries’ metal AM system, the MetalFAB1 which, due to its mammoth size, was exhibited through a virtual reality environment to show potential customers what the ‘factory of the future’ might look like. EnvisionTEC launched three new products at the show, the Vector 3SP, Micro Plus Hi-Res and Micro Plus Advantage alongside its full range of 3D printing solutions and several new material choices. 2015 was the year of the big names coming into the industry and one of those was established imaging and electronics company, Ricoh. The company debuted its first branded industrial 3D printer, the RICOH AM S5500P, designed in collaboration with Aspect for the production of large, high-definition, durable parts. Following its recent collaboration with Hunan Farsoon Tech Ltd, Prodways launched a new range of industrial laser sintering systems. The ProMaker P series features five machines available in two families, ProMaker P2000 and ProMaker 4000. German laser manufacturer Trumpf also launched new Laser Metal Fusion and Laser Metal Deposition systems for the production of small-medium sized complex metal parts. It wasn’t just advanced hardware that has visitors occupied as Belgian company, Materialise demonstrated with the latest release of its Magics software, Magics 20. more on these launches and more in our formnext video interview archive: mytct.co/formnext15
HERE ARE JUST SOME OF THE COMMENTS FROM EXHIBITORS: “In our view, formnext’s first event has been a rousing success,” KAROLINA RADOSEVIC, STRATASYS, EMEA EVENT MANAGER, commented. “Our strong commitment to formnext was definitely the right decision – we’ll be back next year for sure.” DAAN A.J. KERSTEN, FOUNDER AND CEO OF ADDITIVE INDUSTRIES, said: “We couldn’t have made a better decision than to schedule the product launch of our 3D metal printing system, MetalFAB1, for formnext. Attending formnext 2015 enabled us to reach the exact target group we have in mind.” RAINER LOTZ, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF RENISHAW GMBH, commented: “The additive industry is showing off its best side here; there’s nothing else like it in the world. For our service department involved in contract manufacturing with additive metal components, the contacts we’ve gained have made formnext our best event of the year.” STEFAN RITT, VP OF GLOBAL MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS, SLM SOLUTIONS, said: “formnext presents a great deal of potential for the future. We’re also very pleased with the professional quality of those who attended. Every conversation we had was based on a specialist background, which is hardly the case at other events.”
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RIGHT: The conference theatre design was a breath of fresh air for those used to the usual low ceilings
Formnext 2015 Conference Review
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wealth of logistics, planning and conference execution experience and over 20 years heritage in 3D technologies resulted in a well organised, well executed, well attended conference concentrating on the role of additive technologies in design, development and manufacturing. ringing together a
A NEW CONCEPT The concept for the formnext 2015 conference was to deliver, over four days, a program that was accessible to all levels of experience and knowledge with additive ABOVE: The Opening Ceremony participants from technologies. As left to right: Johann Thoma, President, Mesago Messe Frankfurt GmbH; Uwe Behm, Member of the Executive such, the first day was Board Messe Frankfurt GmbH, Tarek Al-Wazir, MdL Minister of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional; for beginners or those Oliver Edelmann, Concept Laser GmbH, Partner/Sales needing a refresher, & Marketing Manager; Wolfgang Marzin, President and middle two Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Messe Frankfurt GmbH. the days concentrated on cutting-edge applications and developments of the technologies themselves, while the final day presented sources of ongoing information for attendees. The very first occurrence on the conference stage was the grand Opening Ceremony, during which representatives from
TCT’S PARTNERSHIP WITH MESAGO MESSE FRANKFURT FOR FORMNEXT POWERED BY TCT 2015 CREATED AN UNPRECEDENTED OPPORTUNITY FOR THE TEAMS TO DEVELOP A CONFERENCE PROGRAM THAT SURPASSED THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE INDUSTRIES WE SERVE. the government, Messe Frankfurt, Mesago and Concept Laser formally announced the arrival of formnext 2015 and spoke on the importance of cutting-edge 3D technologies to addressing local, national and global problems. Next on stage was Graham Tromans, veteran of the additive manufacturing space, to deliver an extended Introductory lecture aimed at newcomers to the industry or those wishing to be brought quickly up to speed on the latest technology developments. Graham’s presentation covered the basics of the technologies available today, an overview of the latest machine releases and highlights of some of the leading application areas. ›› FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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LEARNING FROM REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE Predictably the attendees to the inaugural formnext had a great breadth and depth of experience with additive technologies and beyond, so the second and third day of the event were handed over to applications presentations from the biggest industries. Applications studies give a real-life insight into the various additive technologies, their modes of operation and realistic return on investment. Opening the conference proper was a representative of one of the industry’s longest-established and most influential companies, EOS. The company’s combination of metals and plastics technologies allows them to innovate in fields as diverse as consumer goods and aerospace, and Chief Technology Officer Tobias Abeln walked attendees through company history as well as these fascinating user stories. The second keynote speaker of the second day exemplified the convergence of additive and ‘traditional’ technologies perfectly. Michael Breme is head of the toolmaking division at Audi AG, and has year’s of experience getting the most from combining additive and non-additive technologies. His highly-anticipated opening presentation showed how the combination of technologies had given Audi’s toolmaking division an innovative edge in one of the most highly competitive manufacturing industries. The Thursday morning session brought the head of another large influential 3D printing veteran company to the stage — Stratasys CEO David Reis. David’s presentation focussed on the role of 3D printing technology in the various supply chains of modern manufacturing, specifically where the technologies could have revolutionary impact. Joined on stage by two impressive 3D printed speakers — demonstrated to applause during the presentation — David explored 3D printing as both a standalone manufacturing technology as as an adjunct to ‘traditional’ technologies. In contrast to the ‘veterans’ who opened the conference days, the closing keynote came from a newcomer to the additive world, HP. Scott Schiller, VP, Global Head of Customer and Market Development at HP 3D Printing brought attendees up to speed with some of the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of HP’s move into the 3D printing world. The company’s Multi Jet Fusion technology promises to shake up the industry we know today, and the presentation was well received by the audience.
ABOVE: This image of Keynote David Reis was taken through one of the incredible 3D printed speakers he brought on stage.
ABOVE: Graham Tromans’ introduction to 3D technologies once again proved popular with newcomers to the industry.
Applications studies give a real-life insight into the various additive technologies, their modes of operation and realistic return on investment.
A total of 12 other presentations were made across the Wednesday and Thursday of the conference covering additive technologies in medicine, automotive, aerospace, toolmaking and as part of future process chains. Additionally presentations were made that explored the legal implications of 3D printing — from a content and production standpoint — and instructions for how to assess and implement 3D technologies today. A NEW CONCEPT, WITH A NEW LOOK Unlike most exhibition-based conferences, which are relegated to another part of the trade show hall, the formnext 2015 conference was held right on the show floor. Thanks to the unique design of Halle 3.1 and the sound-deadening carpet throughout the hall, the conference managed to be a calm oasis of learning amidst the hustle and bustle of business being done. It’s also worth mentioning that, as shown in the images here, the whole setup was executed exceptionally well, making for a relaxed environment for attendees. The food provided was also very good! Looking forward to formnext powered by tct 2016 attendees can expect to hear from the cutting-edge producers, users and analysts — but should also expect as twist as we explore new ways of reaching the information that really matters. formnext powered by tct is scheduled to return to Frankfurt in 2016 on 15-18 November.
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rganic O MANUFACTURING GOES
W O R D S : L A U R A G R I F F I T HS
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there’s point Materialise wanted to drive home last year, it was that Materialise has an entire backbone of software solutions for the AM industry. “The tool of choice for the 3D printing industry”, as Stefaan Motte, Vice President of 3D Printing Software, at Materialise described. The company’s flagship Magics and 3-maticSTL software are enabling companies to verify and help ensure the printability of even the most bold and disruptive innovations. One of those organisations is the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Northern Europe’s largest multidisciplinary research centre. VTT needed to create an optimised hydraulic valve for their customer Nurmi Cylinders, a manufacturer of industrial products for marine and offshore applications. VTT relied on Materialise software 3-maticSTL to enhance the design, topologically optimised with Altair software. Typically, conventional hydraulic valves are manufactured from a solid block of material in which internal channels are created through subtractive drilling processes. This can often mean that some auxiliary drillings need to be plugged, which creates the risk of leakage. In order to combat this, researchers at the centre decided to look to an alternative manufacturing solution that would generate a much lighter component with better fluid flow, minimal risk of leakage and ultimately increase the part’s performance. Topology optimisation allows engineers to reduce the weight of a part without compromising strength. The result is usually a very rough organic f
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form that is not always ideal to print. Therefore, the part needs to be cleaned up and redesigned, which often takes days. After the initial optimisation process, VTT used 3-maticSTL to clean up the data in just a matter of hours and then applied an FEA simulation to confirm that the final model had no signs of stress. After enhancing the hydraulic valve in 3-maticSTL, VTT were able to position the part, create supports in Magics and then send the file direct to an SLM Solutions metal printing machine. The added benefit of Materialise’s custom SLM Build Processor, designed to enhance the communication between software and machine, meant that the part was sent to print, divided into slices and printed with the optimum laser scan strategy. “Additive Manufacturing has a huge impact on several industries. The freedom of design allows companies to create parts that could not be produced without AM,” explains Manuel Michiels, engineer at Materialise who supported VTT with their project.
IMAGES:
VTT and Nurmi Cylinders Oy
“ T h i s extraordinary technology requires a new way of thinking. Therefore engineers and designers need powerful 3D printing software that can help them to unlock the full potential of AM and create high-performant parts like Nurmi Cylinder’s hydraulic valve”. The final printed part weighs just 600 g, a huge 76% saving in comparison to the original subtractive manufactured part and a substantial benefit to both the manufacturer and efficiency of the part over its lifetime. By using the topology data and 3-maticSTL, VTT saved itself the often time-consuming and difficult task of directly redesigning the topology data to CAD. In addition, the smooth transitions between the internal channels improve the flow of fluids, and since no auxiliary drillings were necessary the risk of leakage is greatly reduced. Proving that the benefits of AM are “not a future dream”, Materialise’s innovation-filled 25-year history and the recent release of its Magics20 edition software, show that that the company is continuing to help businesses bridge the gap between meaningful applications and AM systems, be that through adapting established business models and products or helping to kickstart new ones.
FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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During a sneak peek of solidThinking’s product offerings for 2016, Jaideep Bengal, Application Engineer for the software developer, said: “This is going to be a game changing year for everyone.” With significant improvements and additions on both the Inspire and Evolve ends of its portfolio, it looks like software is going to play a big part in that change.
What’s new at
solidThinking?
ABOVE: solidThinking Inspire workflow
Inspire is solidThinking’s design optimisation tool which provides engineers with the most efficient designs possible and in 2016, those optimised designs can be simulated and sent straight to a 3D printer, speeding up the product iteration process once more. Starting with an improved user interface with section cuts that allow 2D cross sections and a Move Tool for manipulation, Inspire has a lot to shout about this year. The PolyNURBS toolset now allows you to create free-form solid geometry quickly and includes new wrap, loop, bridge and sharpen tools that provide enhanced control over part geometry. Speaking of geometry, you can now use a Midsurface Tool to find and extract 2D sheets from stampable thin, solid geometries whilst Scale, Mirror and Revolve buttons allow you to resize, reflect and rotate selected parts. Analysis and optimisation now includes Buckling Analysis, which detects when a part will collapse or bend and a Compare function, which allows users to compare analysis and optimisation runs. Setup tools have been added to allow users to determine enforced placements when the magnitude of a force applied to a part is unknown. Angular Velocity and Acceleration lets users define the speed of rotation and axis of a model whilst the g-Loads and Temperature Loads features let you simulate acceleration and temperature changes. In addition to this, a new 1 Step Stamping Module allows you to check feasibility or formability based on geometry and inverse analysis technology.
IT’S NOT JUST INSPIRE THAT’S EVOLVING Inspire’s sister product, Evolve, is also getting a refresh for 2016 with over 30 new features added in this year’s release including improved rendering capabilities, new modelling tools and enhanced user interface. It’s all about adding convenience to the Evolve toolset and giving designers the power to get to end results faster and more efficiently. solidThinking Evolve 2016 allows designers to develop forms faster, visualise products and produce realistic rendering in real time. ››
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“ A great design is strong. Even when 18 kg lighter.” Dr Atsushi Kawamoto Senior Researcher/Program Manager, Toyota Cantral R&D Labs., Inc., Japan
Materialise Software: • Lattice structures: 3-maticSTL • Build preparation: Magics • Data Processing: Build Processor
Enabling 3D Printing of Large and Complex Geometries Working with Materialise, Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Central R&D Labs Inc. produced a lightweight car seat prototype with a minimal volume and an optimal heat capacity. The manipulation, transfer and build of this very complex and extremely large file (250GB) could only be achieved with Materialise’s Slice-Based Operations Technology. The final result was that Toyota’s car seat volume could be reduced by 72%, which corresponds to a weight reduction from 25kg to 7kg.
Discover how we can make 3D Printing work for you: www.software.materialise.com
SOFTWARE FEATURE ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
Can you teach
INNOVATION?
WEBINAR:
“Stop Designing Like It’s 1999” Join solidThinking for a TCT hosted interactive webinar on 30th March 2016 at 3pm (GMT) to learn how to leverage the full potential out of additive manufacturing. Jaideep will present strategies for reducing part weight and increasing performance by pairing additive manufacturing with early-stage topology optimisation.
IMAGE: Randy Swearer
In last year’s edition, the biggest improvement was in the new PolyNURBS toolset and this has been improved once again with a host of new features like the Create Bridge button which allows edges and faces to be bridged together more efficiently and new auto-align axis to facilitate face editing. Again, the interface has had a makeover with manipulation tools, Snaps, default camera controls, Snapshot feature and other subtle improvements that improve usability and visibility. On the modelling side, a Draft Analysis tool has been added which improves the design of products for injection moulding. Improvements in Curve, Trim and Loft and Sweep tools offer more control over alignment, curvature and trim direction. Allowing designers to test their ideas more quickly, rendering has been given a boost with improvements to the Interactive Rendering display mode so that it always uses GPU and stops when the specified samples per pixel have been reached. Textures have been adjusted to support brightness and contrast in texture maps whilst a new Metallic Flakes option has been added which allows users to include metallic flakes to the base colour of plastic materials. Customers in various industries have been using the product and testing in beta for the last few months and according to Jaideep they’re already saying “we need this today”. Luckily for them both software products are set for release as this issue goes to print.
When I was in my first year of high school, I remember my art teacher saying, “You can’t teach art”. At the time, that made a lot of sense to me. Art is subjective, there is no immediate right or wrong and being creative is a personality trait, not a skill, or so I thought. That stayed with me for a long time, right up until I went to university where, in the first week, we were given a class on being an “ideas person”. This was odd to me. You can’t make someone an ideas person, you simply have ideas, or you don’t, surely? Now as softwaregoliath, Autodesk states, “our thing is to teach innovation”, that thinking has been thrown into question all over again. “Autodesk is all about making things, we always have been”. Those are the words of Vice President of Education at Autodesk, Randy Swearer, as we sit down in a quiet room away from the constant bustle of bodies that fill the Sands Expo for the annual Autodesk University (AU) event in Las Vegas. Along with robots making cocktails, Stormtroopers and DJs at 10am, innovation and the future of design were huge at AU from the unique projects on stage at the Innovation Forums to Autodesk’s strides in generative design providing the perfect pathway to additive manufacturing. Six month’s in, Randy is still a newbie to the company when we meet but with a lengthy career in the education sector at institutions like University of Philadelphia and University of Texas on his resume, and a passion that’s evident when he speaks about Autodesk’s plans for education, he’s confident about making a change. Innovation is the word of the week at AU, and Randy is singing the same tune when it comes to education whether that’s in high schools or universities and doing so in a way that works with a new generation of digital natives to create meaningful and fruitful curriculums. “If you’re not passionate about something, you’re going to be unhappy and you wont last,” Randy explains. “A lot of people are thinking about the relationship between making and learning which is one of the areas that I’m really passionate about. How does this new maker culture and disruption in education affect each other and what are the results of that in the classroom? How will that change the way universities and high schools operate in the next 20 years?” ››
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In the 3D technologies industry, education is talked about a lot. But there’s a problem. Adoption isn’t fast and even with a 3D printer or software in the classroom, there are teachers who, without proper support, are still learning about this technology, lacking the confidence to integrate things like CAD and 3D printing into their lesson plan - something Randy describes as “tragic”. But just as 3D printing is forcing us to change the way we think about designing, educators have to adapt to a new way of teaching. “When we think about our curricula and going into classrooms to help students learn, we’re thinking about ‘how do you teach innovation through making?’ and that’s different than teaching making,” Randy says. “If you go to our Design Academy and you look through the curricula and the projects, they’re heavily influenced by design thinking innovation. Innovation is a leveller.” Autodesk has got stuck into several projects that take a different approach to learning including self-described New York City-based ‘disruptive platform for social learning and entrepreneurialism’, Makeosity. As part of the project, a group of students aged 12 and 13, designed an electronic ‘Energy Scooter’ using Fusion 360, which caught the eye of President Obama who invited the young designers to present the scooter at the White House. Even more unconventional, Randy was also on the board of game-based high school, Quest to Learn. A ‘game-based’ education concept might seem like the complete opposite of what you would expect from a school but by using game theory, where failure is a necessary part of the learning experience, the school has won several awards in its two years. Randy comments: “The students are so fun, passionate, engaged, they are thinking fundamentally differently about who they are and how they’re going to affect and change the world but they’re often way ahead of the teachers. So we’ve got to create a world where they can play.” One way Autodesk is looking to change this is with ‘Teachers in Residence’. Much like its ‘Artists in Residence’ program at Autodesk’s uber trendy Pier 9 home in San Francisco, this new hub of creativity – or ‘temple of making’ as Randy describes – will be based in Boston and incorporate both teachers and artists in residence in a museum-like warehouse where people can witness 3D printing, advanced robotics and traditional crafts happening right in front of them.
ABOVE FROM LEFT : AU Keynote; Autodesk University on the showfloor ; Carl Basson stage at AU; Autodesk Design Academy project
I think we have had more influence in this one year than we could have in one year in the prior ten because the barrier to access is now gone
ABOVE: Energy Scooter
Autodesk also recently celebrated the oneyear anniversary of its free software for the education sector initiative. This means that students and educators all over the world can benefit from over 100 professional software products like Fusion 360, AutoCAD and Maya and use them in the classroom to gain valuable digital skills. “In terms of projects and adoption around the world, I think we have had more influence in this one year than we could have in one year in the prior ten because the barrier to access is now gone. Students can download it, play with it, do whatever they want and they do it by the millions,” Randy says. So can you teach innovation? Like myself in the first year of university after living in the comfort of things I had been led to believe as concrete from age 11, education has to be open to change. Not everyone has the ability or even desire to be a maker/inventor/tech-genius but the fact that the world is waking up to realise that textbooks, whiteboards and one computer at the back of the classroom, just doesn’t reflect the time we currently live in, is a positive move in the right direction. “If there’s one thing that educators need to remember, one word, it’s integration,” Randy concludes. “The new proposition in education is not about individual discipline, it’s about integrating together multiple disciplines into real world situations. And now we’re in the additive manufacturing world where all these different composites and pieces can come together in organic learning shapes and make incredibly new pathways for students - what an amazing time to be in education as much as it is to be in technology.”
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DRONES
W O R D S : DA N I E L O ’C O N N O R
THERE ISN’T A 3D PRINTING TRADE SHOW ON THE GLOBE THAT DOESN’T FEATURE AT LEAST ONE COMPANY SHOWCASING THE BENEFITS OF THE TECHNOLOGY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF DRONES, WHETHER THAT’S MARKFORGED SHOWING HOW ITS CARBON FIBRE REINFORCEMENTS MAKES FOR DRONES THAT CAN BE CRASHED WITHOUT BREAKING, VOXEL8 SHOWING HOW ITS MULTI-MATERIAL 3D PRINTING IS CAPABLE OF BUILDING A QUADCOPTER WITH INBUILT ELECTRONICS OR FORMLABS SHOWING HOW ITS ARRAY OF MATERIALS IS USED TO BUILD MARBLE’S TOPOLOGICALLY OPTIMISED COMMERCIAL MRB-1, DRONES AND 3D PRINTING GO TOGETHER LIKE JOFFREY AND SOME POISONED WINE.
T
here are lots of parallels when you look at the world of 3D printing and that of drones; both have seen themselves reach peak hype over the past few years, both have seen an upturn in consumer level investment without that killer application, both have seen scaremongering over security in the mainstream press, both have been around for a lot longer than most realise, both have more technical nomenclature – additive manufacturing (AM) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and both are seeing an uptake in investment from substantial commercial and governmental operations. The synergy between industrial AM and commercial UAVs was never more evident than at the Dubai Air Show at the back end of 2015, where Stratasys and the Aurora Flight Sciences – a leader in the advanced aerospace sector – unveiled the largest, fastest, and most complex 3D printed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) ever produced. Capable of speeds in excess of 150mph the 80% 3D printed drone was designed and built in half the time it would have taken traditionally. “At Aurora we build drones, we’ve been building drones for 30 years, before it was cool,” says Dan Campbell, Aerospace Research Engineer at Aurora Flight Sciences. “We’ve been using 3D printing for four years but it is only over the last two years and even the last year that the business as a whole has become really interested.”
CASE FOR THE DEFENSE Whereas lots of the 3D printed UAVs are from startups and hobbyists as Campbell says Aurora are an established player, one who, in August of 2015, won a
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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
UAV DIY?
At Aurora we build drones, we’ve been building drones for 30 years, before it was cool $15.4 million contract modification on top of an initial $6 million one from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to begin moving forward with a U.S. defense research program to develop and insert new aircraft automation into existing planes and helicopters. “A lot of the drones we make are low rate initial production, they are one offs,” explains Campbell. “Most of our costs are labour, so what we see from 3D printing is it really allows us to compress the schedule and become more efficient with the labour, which is hugely cost effective.” With its in-house Fortus 450mc Aurora primarily uses FDM technologies and the ULTEM material, which passes several internationally recognised aerospace safety requirements. “The biggest worry I used to get from engineers was ‘isn’t FDM brittle?” Says Campbell. “But they’ve begun to realise that 3D printing is becoming the
path of least resistance; resistance is time, money and hassle. We all gravitate towards the path of least resistance and if you don’t then you become less competitive.” Though the initial idea was that the printing of complex parts with curvature would do away with the substantial costs of tooling, Aurora are, like many companies who’ve invested in the technology, starting to see the potentials in using 3D printing for tooling. “A lot of our money comes from the Department of Defence and their research projects but for the 3D printing of tools we’re putting our own money into it because we see so much promise. “It is a learning process for us because it’s not an exact replacement for aluminium tooling. We have to alter our manufacturing process to work with 3D printing tools but we’re getting there.” Campbell adds.
In 2014 engineers at the University of Virginia were takes by the Department of Defense to investigate the feasibility of producing a military standard UAV using 3D printing and off-the-shelf hardware like a smartphone, it turns out it was very feasible and it was printed in little over a day at the cost of $2,500, so is 3D printing making it easy to manufacture drones? “It takes years and years of practice to become a skilled enough tradesman to manufacture a small aircraft traditionally,” says Campbell. “With 3D printing the learning curve is much smaller. So now I’m able to design and build my own aircraft.” As scarily easy as that sounds most people aren’t Dan Campbell, most people aren’t lead engineers at the University of Virginia, flight is not something we’re naturally gifted in. Designing a military grade aircraft is not imminently likely for the layman and though most of this article might make creating a UAV seem like a doddle, Campbell is keen to point out that the technology has its drawbacks. “They say 3D printing offers design freedom but to really take advantage of that as an engineer I want more control over how I tell the machine to operate. In aerospace the goal is to get every single gram out so even though the software lets you do the sparse fill, you can design your wall thickness etc. I think there’s still more we could do if we had more control in optimising the design.” FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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The 3D printer that makes memories tangible for the visually impaired.
Our industry has created something almost unbelievable for the visually impaired. It is now possible to calculate three-dimensional representations of treasured photographs and print them out as sculptures. These are memories to have and to hold. But you can only discover the 3D printing ideas of tomorrow if you get to know the best of today’s crop. drupa 2016, which features more than 1,500 exhibitors from over 50 countries, is far and away the most important pacesetter for the global print and media sector. Here you’ll find the innovations that will determine your future business. drupa: turning visions into innovations.
Arcam provides Electron Beam Melting systems through Arcam AB in Sweden, powder metals through AP&C in Canada and implant contract manufacturing through DiSanto in the U.S.The company is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and the Head Office is located in Mölndal, Sweden. The UK office is located in Warwick.
Arcam expands and seeks
Application Engineers – Additive Manufacturing
Get the whole story and even more news from tomorrow at www.drupa.com/blind
Read more about this position, and others at
touch the future
www.arcam.com
May 31 – June 10, 2016
For further information please call our recruitment consultant Peter Ternebring at Confidera Urval + 46 70 639 88 89. You can also read more about Arcam at www.arcam.com
Düsseldorf/Germany www.drupa.com
Send your application, marked ‘Application Engineer UK & Ireland – Arcam’, as soon as possible to recruitment@confideraurval.se
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For further information contact: International Trade Shows Link Ltd. Ramsay House, Marchmont Farm _ Link Road Hemel Hempstead _ Hertfordshire HP2 6JH Tel. +44 (0)1442 23 00 33 _ Fax +44 (0)1442 23 00 12 info@itsluk.com
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Arcam provides cost-efficient Additive Manufacturing solutions for production of metal components. Arcam’s Electron Beam Melting (EBM®) technology offers design freedom combined with excellent material properties and high productivity. Through our solutions orientation Arcam is an innovative partner for advanced manufacturing, primarily in the aerospace and medical industries.
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02.02.16 10:20
TCT ASIA PREVIEW ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
THE INAUGURAL TCT ASIA + PERSONALIZE WAS SUCH A SUCCESS THAT WE THOUGHT WE’D DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN! ON THE 10TH, 11TH AND 12TH OF MARCH 2016 THE WORLD’S LEADING 3D PRINTING COMPANIES WILL CONVERGE ON THE SHOW FLOOR AT THE SHANGHAI CONVENTION & EXHIBITION CENTER OF INTERNATIONAL SOURCING FOR THREE DAYS OF SHOWCASING THE LATEST AND GREATEST IN 3D TECHNOLOGIES.
TCT Asia + Personalize 2016 Preview
T
he 2015 edition proved a huge success as over 9,000 visitors packed in to see exhibits like the 3D printed wedding dress that attracted global media interest from Xuberance, machine launches from Stratasys and Prismlabs as well as a host of never before seen machinery and products. Running alongside TCT Asia + Personalize will be the TCT Asia Summit, which if last year is anything to go by is sure to be a sell out as a line up of renowned speakers take turns to inspire their respective audiences. Last year’s line-up included the first ever talk from MakerBot CEO Jonathan Jaglom, who outlined there and then the Brooklynbased manufacturer’s vision for the future. All speaking engagements will be simultaneously translated meaning that everyone can benefit from the host of Chinese presentations as well as talks from the likes of HP’s J. Scott Schiller and Renishaw’s Marc Saunders. The 2016 edition will also see the return of the 3D printing contest that drew students in from universities across China, Inspired Minds. The 2015 winner travelled over 2,000 km to demonstrate his moving parts foldable mobile phone holder. Here are some of the features you can look forward to in 2016: ››
BOOTH
C20
BEIJING TIERTIME TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
UP mini 2 --- Superb Performance, Mini Price
Beijing Tiertime will be showcasing its latest innovation at TCT Asia; the new generation of its popular UP mini 3D Printer. The UP mini 2 is designed to get you 3D printing in no time at all. As the second generation of UP mini, UP mini 2 is the first consumer ready desktop 3D printer in the UP Series that uses touch screen control and WiFi connection. UP mini 2 retains many of the features that made the first generation UP mini so popular but Beijing Tiertime has added a raft of upgrades to the machine:
• • • • •
Better print quality – Capable of printing in 0.15 mm layer thickness with new mechanical design. Touch screen control - to provide better 3D printing user experience; WIFI connection. WIFI support, enabling better user control of the 3D printer via mobile Apps. Built-in HEPA air filtration – Reduce 3D printing air emissions and provide healthy and safe 3D printing environment. Aluminum handle, and separate spool container with build-in toolbox – Easy to carry and handy to use.
FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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Lighter, Stronger Parts without the Learning Curve
Inspire delivers an easy-to-use set of tools for generating structurally efficient concepts. When paired with a 3D printer, users often reduce costs, development time, material consumption, and product weight while increasing part performance. ď‚Ź Learn more at solidThinking.com/TCT
Š 2016 solidThinking, Inc. and solidThinking Inspire. All Rights Reserved.
An
Company
TCT ASIA PREVIEW
D40
BOOTH
D46 BOOTH
G25 CREAFORM
Famed for its advanced 3D scanning technologies Creaform are heading to TCT Asia armed with the latest in handheld reverse engineering;
HandySCAN3D/GoSCAN3D
The New generation of HandySCAN3D/ GoSCAN3D is developed and manufactured with highaccuracy, high-resolution and fast measurement speed at the forefront of the team’s mind. The next-gen device is also more lightweight and portable than previous generations and it isn’t bother by the size of you scan – big or small.
GUANGDONG SYNDAYA 3D TECHNOLOGY CO. LTD
A debut for TCT Asia is Syndaya 3D Technology, the somewhat unknown company has a selection of high-end metal 3D printing machinery, the latest of which is the DiMetal-280: DiMetal-280 • Maximum molding size: 250*250*300 mm • Laser type, power: Optical fiber laser 400 W • Processing layer thickness: 10 μm - 100 μm • Minimum forming characteristic: 100 μm • Molding material: Stainless steel, titanium alloy, cobalt chromium alloy, Aluminum Alloy etc.
RAISE3D INC.
After a massively successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in 2015, Rase3D are ramping up production and marketing of its series of FDM machinery: N2/N2 Plus
Raise3D Large Format FDM 3D Printer N2/N2 Plus
• Huge Build Volume • High Layer Resolution • 7 inch Capacitive Touch-screen:
• • •
•
XYZprinting
On the back of another huge CES, XYZprinting come to TCT Asia armed with a host of new machinery renowned for affordability. On the Taiwanese manufacturer’s booth you will be able to see:
BOOTH
C30
da Vinci Mini
This ultra-small device will be XYZprinting’s most affordable 3D printer, perfect for the general public. The small, but versatile 3D printer comes with Wi-Fi capabilities, and also includes USB ports. 30% smaller than the 2015 da Vinci Junior, this printer maintains the same build size. It is the ultimate, light-weight desktop 3D printer for those that value desk space, simplicity and portability. da Vinci Junior 2.0 Mix
Bringing more color to life, the da Vinci Junior 2.0 Mix is capable of blending two colors by using a brand new, dual-extruding single nozzle that combines two filaments to create a print that gradually changes color.
Model / Printing Preview, Graphical operator guidance and instructions Remote Control: Remote monitoring and print job management, Via Ethernet / Wifi All-metal hot-end up to 300: Compatible to over 10 filaments, Dual printing Resume printing after a power interruption: Li-on batteries provide essential power to the printer when power loss Building Plate: Pre-calibrated at the factory, Leveling-free (only N2 / N2 Plus), Borosilicate glass plate with BuildTak applied
Prismlab China Ltd.
RP600S
At TCT Asia 2015 Prismlab launched its new RP400 3D printer to a packed out media event. This year the company will showcase the innovations it has since achieved with that series of machine by showcasing the RP600S. The rapid-prototyping machine that uses stereolithographybased technology benefits from Prismlab’s patented MFP technology, which allows faster printing at a bigger build volume than most SL technologies. Prismlab’s newly-designed RP600S, is devoted to deliver high printing precision and perfect printing quality, in order to comprehensively increase the quality level of 3D printing parts for the whole market.
BOOTH
C30
BOOTH
D20 RENISHAW
QuantAM file preparation software
Renishaw has a long and successful track record of engineering software development, with a team of over 300 experienced software developers all working in-house. QuantAM is software used for build file preparation and is designed by Renishaw, specifically for the company’s additive manufacturing systems.
The RP600S features four main advantages:
•
Large Build Volume print large models up to 580*325*580 mm. • High Output Efficiency delivering up 10 times faster printing production with hourly output of 1500 g. • High Print Accuracy - Print up to 100/75 μm accuracy for any parts of 600 mm high. • Outstanding R&D Capability
FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
BOOTH
SPACE ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
MANUFACTURING IN
SPACE
ABOVE: Archinaut Concept
WOR DS : DA NIE L O’ C ON NOR
There was a time in the not too distant past were pretty much every mainstream news article about 3D printing started with a description of the Star Trek Replicator, fortunately those days have been and gone when talking about manufacturing on terra firma but forgive this erstwhile writer for dragging that metaphor back from the dead for this article.
“Manufacturing in space has been something that has been a given in science fiction since time immemorial, since HG Wells,” Andrew Rush, President of Made In Space, tells me and it isn’t just the realms of science fiction that the concept has been floating around for a long time. The Space Studies Institute ran a bi-annual conference from 1977 called Space Manufacturing until 2010 and the idea of 3D printing in space can be traced back to 2001 when NASA were testing a Stratasys FDM machine on a micro-gravity KC-135 flight. The conclusions from that experiment were: “Solid Freeform Fabrication has significant potential as an enabling technology for long-duration manned space flight. Rapid development of an International Space Station (ISS) flight experiment is supported.” And a four-year programme was recommended. So it seems quite strange that the first proper usable item 3D printed in space was a ratchet on the ISS by Commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore some 13 years later. While one may wonder why it has taken so long Andrew Rush points out that there are so many more factors than just micro-gravity to consider when 3D printing in space. ››
Manufacturing in space has been something that has been a given in science fiction since time immemorial, since HG Wells
ABOVE: Made In Space Zero Gravity 3D Printer FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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SPACE ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
RIGHT: Butch and the Made In Space Wrench
“There’s no natural convection in a micro-gravity environment and heat is a huge thing for any 3D printing and we had to really factor in the human safety,” says Rush. “3D printing material is often hydrocarbon based and toxic in some ways when heated so we had to ensure that we had systems in place to protect the astronauts. We also don’t use support material on ISS because it can allow a foreign object to breed on station, so designing moving parts prints like the ratchet without support material is another level of difficulty.” Made In Space made a total of 25 parts in a total of 28 hours on its initial Zero-Gravity 3D Printer on board the ISS but the ratchet is rightfully the most famous of those. It wasn’t a test part like all of the other designs that had been planned meticulously before its launch it was a spare of the moment opportunity Andrew Rush and his team seized upon. Commander Wilmore had gone to the printer to remove a little a sample socket head - designed to prove that spare parts could be produced in zero gravity – he looked at the part and laughed. “The ISS is about the size of a house with six people living in it and just like you often lose things in your own home, where you have gravity to hold them down, the astronauts lose things on occasion,” Rush
says, sticking up for Commander Wilmore’s misplaced torque wrench. “It was a really awesome opportunity to design something useful for Butch.” Bearing in mind the fact that they could not use support material the Made In Space design team set about making a single-part torque wrench in just a day and asked NASA if they could not only schedule in some time in Butch’s busy schedule for him to pick the print up but also use the space agency’s notoriously confidential uplink process to send the part to the machine. “Within three and a half hours the famous picture of Butch was taken, he was very happy with it and crucially we proved that if things go array on a mission, we can fix it with 3D printing.” THE FINAL FRONTIER Ratchets and spare parts are one thing but Made In Space goal from its inception in 2010 is to ‘enable humanity’s future in space’. The Zero Gravity 3D Printer is just the first step of an incredibly ambitious and thorough plan. Next is a more fully rounded additive manufacturing facility, called AMF, that is slated in to be launched to the ISS in Q1 of 2016 and the aim of that commercially operated machine is not only to allow companies and researchers to test in space without having put the wares onto a rocket but also to put into action the next step for Made In Space’s galaxy quest.
ABOVE: 1.5 tonne moon dust building block
produced as a demonstration courtesy of ESA
“It costs roughly $20,000 per kilo to get something into space,” explains Rush. “If you came to me and asked to launch a CubeSat (miniaturized satellite for space research) it would take at least six months to get a launch date, get it qualified to fly and then to wait around for that rocket to blast off. But by having a manufacturing facility stationed in space we can save thousands of dollars and cut the time down significantly.” In his CES 2016 presentation Rush described the ability to manufacture and deploy satellites in orbit as being the second in a paradigm shift for human space exploration from what he described as the current “camping trip model” of packing everything up before we go. If the first paradigm shift has been achieved and the second sounds feasible, the third is positively HG Wellsian. “In every single frontier we’ve had tools to manufacture living spaces and we currently don’t have those for space,” says Rush, with the emphasis being on currently. Made In Space is working on a technology that will allow us to print huge objects in space from a smaller machine, a technology that may solve a problem that is hurtling towards us in less than a decade. ›› FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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DESKTOP SPACE 3D PRINTING ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
COURTESY OF ESA and FOSTER PARTNERS LIFE AFTER ISS You only have to take a look at UK column inches and airtime dedicated to Tim Peake’s blast off to the ISS to see how relevant the research and living quarters remains. Yet it’s long past halfway of its lifecycle; in 2024 the plan is to dump the $150 billion asset in the ocean. In March of 2015 Roscosmos and NASA confirmed that the Russian and US space agencies would work together on building a new space station, which would help with the ultimate goal of a mission to Mars. Rush believes that the only option to do so would be to manufacture it in situ. “The ISS was built via shuttle over 40 missions, we don’t have the benefit of shuttle anymore. Currently, if you want to create something big in space you have to pack it all down like origami to fit into a rocket and though we’re really good at that, it creates points of failure which are the engineer’s worst enemy.” Made In Space’s answer is Archinaut technology being developed under NASA’s Tipping Point Technologies fund. Archinaut aims to enable spacecraft to manufacture and
assemble unlaunchable structures in orbit. Though this genuinely does sound like something from sci-fi Rush tells me that there are four key factors to manufacturing and assembling in space and three of them have already been achieved; 3D printing in a micro-gravity environment; 3D printing with vacuum rated materials; and in-space robotic assembly, which robotic arms already on the ISS would be capable of. The final factor is the ability to manufacture extended complex structures in orbit, which is where Archinaut steps in. For this project Made In Space is teaming up with Northrop Grumman - to provide expertise in electronic interfaces and external thermal control - and Oceaneering Space Systems, who will design and build the manipulator arm. This ability to robotically manufacture in space gives kudos to the plans of NASA’s European peers at the European Space Agency (ESA) who announced earlier this year that they are going to push ahead with an idea that even they have labelled as “crazy” in the past. The basic principle has been in this magazine before; we would send robots to the moon, they would use moon dust as the raw material to build habitats, which humans could inhabit and then we could then launch longer missions from. In a press conference General Director of the ESA Prof. Jan Woerner said:
“I looked into the requirements I see for a project after ISS. As of today, I see the Moon Village as the ideal successor of the International Space Station for (space) exploration. The moon would be a stepping stone or a pit-stop, that’s crucial, because we have to test, for instance, how to build structures on a planet, instead of bringing all the stuff there,” echoing those sentiments Andrew Rush made. When asked about the feasibility about a lunar village the Made In Space President was surprisingly upbeat about the idea. “We don’t have enough moon dust to just play around with, we didn’t bring enough back, but there is volcanic ash and soil that simulates the properties of moon dust really well. We have printed objects and structures with it that could be suitable for the building blocks of a lunar habitat. With any lunar mission there’s a lot of engineering and a lot of planning to do but the basic concept works.” With all of this talk of moon dust, as our conversation came to an end, I had to ask Andrew Rush if he finds the conspiracy theories about the moon landing funny or infuriating? After laughing he said: “It is only frustrating when it gets to the point where it is actually threatening real science and fortunately that’s less prominent with the moon conspiracies than it is with vaccinations.”
FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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DESKTOP 3D CES PRINTING REVIEW ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
SPONSORED BY
From the CES 2016 Show Floor
WOR DS : DA N I E L O ’C O N N O R
I
t isn’t the New Year until team TCT jet off for Las Vegas for the monster trade show that is CES. For the third year running TCT + Personalize presented both the 3D Printing Marketplace and the 3D Printing Conference at CES 2016. Although the walk to the Sands Expo (dubbed Tech West for the duration of CES) felt familiar, the atmosphere inside was wholly different from previous years. Despite this being the ‘Consumer Electronics Show’ 2015 did feel like the year that the consumer 3D printing dream died somewhat, particularly with the departure of consumer 3D printing’s biggest advocate, Avi Reichental, from 3D Systems. You’d be mistaken though if you thought that because we’re not talking about printing fashion, toys and trinkets that the
desktop 3D printing community at CES is dwindling, on the contrary. It became quickly apparent as I perused the show floor and saw the scale of ambition in the booths of companies like Lulzbot, Airwolf and Formlabs that desktop 3D printing had found its feet. Gone are the Yoda busts, 3D selfies and chess pieces, in their place are machines making wearables with embedded electronics (Voxel8), jigs and fixtures (MarkForged), working speakers (Formlabs) and 3D printed biohacking (OpenBCI and Lulzbot). It wasn’t just the exhibitors who’d got 3D printing this year, visitors, of which there were thousands, seemed more knowledgeable too. Overheard conversations and anecdotal evidence suggested that those on-booth conversations were less; “What can I print with this?”
Desktop 3D printing may well have been in the trough of disillusionment in 2015 but the CES 2016 show floor suggested that we’re emerging from that ditch and accelerating into the plateau of productivity.
and more; “I need to print this can your machine print with Nylon?” The remarkable growth of companies like Lulzbot, Airworlf and Formlabs, who concentrate on applications, reliability and innovation in comparison to the demise of those who push the 3D printer in every home dream has showed that there is a dedicated non-professional market for desktop 3D printing, you just have to talk to target the markets appropriately. Desktop 3D printing may well have been in the trough of disillusionment in 2015 but the CES 2016 show floor suggested that we’re emerging from that ditch and accelerating into the plateau of productivity. I even saw the CubeJet (3D Systems’ much-talked about and longawaited desktop version of Z-Corp technology) in action! ››
FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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CAD/CAE SOFTWARE 3D PRINTING ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING MOULDING & TOOLING MACHINE TOOLS METROLOGY INSPECTION
10-12 MARCH 2016
SHCEC, Shanghai, China
REGISTER NOW
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DESKTOP 3D PRINTING CES REVIEW ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
SPONSORED BY
THE CES 2016 CONFERENCE This is something of a bold claim, an own trumpet blowing bold claim at that, but the 3D Printing conference at CES 2016 was not only the best TCT conference line-up to date but the best conference this editor has ever been to full stop. On the opening day of CES ‘3D Printing: A Catalyst for Innovation’ kicked off a day of talks curated to cover three main topics: Innovation breeds innovation: The latest technology developments from the 3D printing industry and how they’re used. Disrupting development cycles: How 3D printing is being used to change designers and engineers turn ideas into products. 3D printing is everywhere: A look at some of the unexpected places you can find 3D printing. First up on stage was Voxel8’s CEO Professor Jenny Lewis, who surprised many in the audience with the declaration; “Our desktop Devloper’s Kit printer is by no means representative of our industrial offerings.” Voxel8’s Developer’s Kit is designed to whet the appetite for the possibilities offered with multi-material embedded electronics printing. From the startup that is Voxel8 to a huge company
The three harbingers of innovation have spoken here at CES; HP, Carbon3D and Voxel8
attempting to leverage themselves into 3D printing in a big way, HP 3D Printing’s VP, Global Head of Customer and Market Development, J. Scott Schiller. Schiller outlined to a standing-room only crowd how HP’s open approach to its Multi Jet Fusion technology will significantly increase not only the rate of adoption but also that of innovation too. Often the focus of CES talks are about the consumer technologies available on the show floor and less about the technologies that allow those technologies to exist. Jabil are one of the biggest manufacturing companies on the globe, and a joint talk from Girish Wable & Bill Garon went into great technical depth about the results they are seeing from 3D printed antennae in smartphones. Easily the most anticipated talk of the day came directly after lunch; early last year Dr Joseph DeSimone launched Carbon3D - ‘The world’s fastest 3D printer’ onto a TED audience and it has since become the most watched 3D printing video on YouTube. CES 2016 represented the first opportunity since that unveiling for Joseph, a member of all three US national academies,
to demonstrate a more in-depth look into the benefits of Carbon3D’s CLIP technology. Although the Carbon3D focus has been on speed, Joe expertly shifted this onto how that speed enables, through complex chemistry, huge leaps in material properties for 3D printing. Polyurethane Elastomers are his particular favourite materials, claiming that the properties of 3D printed elastomers by Carbon 3D are even better than injection moulded counterparts. One of our favourite speakers here at TCT is Todd Grimm, the reasons we hold Todd in such high-esteem were on display as he followed Dr DeSimone onto the stage, instilling the audience with the belief that innovation is coming and that “The three harbingers of innovation have spoken here at CES; HP, Carbon3D and Voxel8”. Todd went on to echo sentiments offered up by Canalys 3D Printing Analyst, Joe Kempton earlier in the day; that although 2015 seemed like a tough year for 3D printing on the stock market the actual market had grown significantly. It’s hard to cram all of the excellent thoughts from a day’s conferencing into this summary but if you subscribe to the TCT YouTube Channel (http://mytct.co/ TCTYouTube) all of the exceptional talks will be available shortly.
FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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DESKTOP CONSUMER 3D PRINTING 3DP
ROOTS
From enjoying a good few years of headline grabbing hype, boldly heading for every home, down to the closure of brick and mortar stores and the decision to do away with one of the industry’s biggest online consumer marketplaces, consumer 3D printing has had its fair share of highs and lows.
H
BELOW: MakerBot Smart Extruder
WOR DS : L A U R A G R I F F I T HS
owever, if this
year’s CES demonstrated anything, it’s that there are several areas where the consumer industry is upping its game and even learning lessons from its origins. We spoke to some of the players who are leading the way … TOOL-HEADS ARE BETTER Besides the usual crop of machine debuts at CES, consumer 3D printing names were out to show what their machines are truly capable of with hardware upgrades that are bringing more power to the desktop. UK-based CEL unveiled a new dual material extruder head for its flagship 3D printer, the Robox. Designed to adapt to future upgrades, the team at CEL is making that as straightforward as possible with a dual 3D printing head that’s as simple as printing with one. Chris Elsworthy, founder and inventor of the CEL Robox 3D printer, commented: “We don’t want to add hardware and go backwards and make it more difficult to use. We want to make sure that dual material is just as easy as single material.” Industry-giant, MakerBot also brought a new print head to the table in the form of an improved MakerBot Smart Extruder +. The add-on comes in response to the woes suffered by users of MakerBot’s fifth generation machines, which succumbed to criticism for its unreliability and resulted in many users turning their backs on one of the industry’s most recognisable brands. Coming back fighting, this latest addition has been heavily tested by both teams at MakerBot and parent company Stratasys for 160,000
We’re going to change 3D printing all over again after 30 years CATHY LEWIS, 3D SYSTEMS.
BELOW: CEL Dual Extruder
ABOVE: nGen filament in black
hours, to ensure that the Smart Extruder + provides greater reliability and improved print performance over a longer period of time. “What we’re providing here is a best in class, high-end professional solution that works at the consumer price point,” Anthony Moschella, VP of Product, at MakerBot, explained. “We can say with confidence that this is the most reliable tool head that’s ever existed in the industry.” THE POWER OF OPEN INNOVATION The team behind the popular LulzBot desktop machines, Aleph Objects have had another record-breaking year with sales tripling to around $15 million in 2015. Firm believers in the power of open innovation, the company recently partnered with colorFabb and Eastman Chemical Company to deliver a new industrial co-polyester material, nGen, that has been designed specifically for use in 3D printing. “In the 3D printing industry in general and even outside of it, we’re seeing collaboration being the way forward,” Harris Kenny, Vice President of Marketing, Aleph Objects, explained. “The desktop industry wouldn’t
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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
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LUTIONS
We think there’s going to be this explosion of user generated content
Source3 already have Street Fighter creators, Capcom and Epic Rights on board using their tools in beta to create 3D printable products and they’re set to announce more in the first half of 2016. “One thing we’re positive about is that as users get more comfortable with the technology as they get more access to scanning and printing and the materials, then people are going to create stuff. We know that users use technology to create cool stuff and as they do that we think the consumer adoption will continue to grow.”
SCOTT SELLWOOD, SOURCE3.
ABOVE: LulzBot Dual Extruder v2 exist without it but what’s exciting is that, as it matures and gets more sophisticated, those efforts are compounding and more people are getting together and coming up with better ideas. We think that that’s the most true in the materials space.” The material is made from Eastman Amphora AM3300 and colorFabb says they see this as the crucial shift away from materials specifically designed for 3D printing away from common materials like PLA and ABS. “For 3D printing to ultimately grow and become even bigger than it is right now you have to have a collaboration between hardware, materials and software,” Alex Dudal, Market Development at Eastman Chemical Company, commented. “I think there’s been a lot of development on the hardware side, there’s new printers being introduced constantly, there’s definitely been a lot of development in software and now you just need the materials that can really help enable to take full advantage of the hardware that’s been designed.” Materials aren’t the only place where open collaboration is making the biggest impact. Aleph Objects also recently announced the Dual Extruder V2, of which the initial version was born out of its open source community. With over one million hours of in-house printing in the last year, backed up by years of collaboration with RepRap developers and the LulzBot community, the v2 is now available to purchase as an upgrade to the TAZ 3D printer range. 3D PRINTING WITH BIG BRANDS Licensing and IP protection are a continued conversation topic in the 3D community. One company that’s hoping to create a stable platform for the distribution of 3D content is Source3. Born out of a background in licensing for digital music at Google and 3D Systems alumni, the team at Source3 have been working with a number of brands to lay the foundations for a licensing infrastructure. “We were looking for the next big rights management challenge at scale and lurking at the confluence of all of these amazing technologies we think that there’s going to be this explosion of user generated content,” Scott Sellwood, Co-founder at Source3, explained.
SWITCHING FOCUS Though it may appear that the 3D printing pioneer is turning its back on the consumer space with the closure of Cubify and discontinuation of the Cube 3, 3D Systems are very much invested in changing the way consumer products are made with 3D printing. “We’re focused on showcasing how people really use 3D printing to create new businesses, enhance existing businesses and really change their entire supply chain,” Cathy Lewis, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, 3D Systems, explained. One example of this is in collaboration with footwear company, New Balance, who have used 3D Systems’ DuraForm Flex TPU SLS material to create the world’s first commercially available 3D printed midsole which is set for release in April. Together with companies like PQ Eyewear who are using 3D scanning to create eyeglasses that are customised to the wearer, 3D Systems are now trying to show how their technologies are fuelling the products that will transform the consumer experience.
LEFT: 3D Systems and
New Balance 3 printed midsole
“3D Systems has really gone back to our roots, we’re focussed on our core customers which are business professionals, people that need to produce an end product or design a new product,” Cathy commented. “They’re the ones who made us who we are today and that’s where we’re turning our focus.” With new products tailored to the metals industry and concepts like Figure 4 that provide a fast and automated 3D printing experience, they’re adamant that they’re going to “change 3D printing all over again after 30 years”. Watch these interviews in full at: mytct.co/CES2016Video FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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PERSONALIZE
CES 2016 was a veritable treasure trove of great 3D prints, we saw four of the following items on display at various booths in Las Vegas. All of them feature 3D printing at some stage of the process whether that be the final prints or prototypes. A couple of them are literally out of this world…
PRINTING PRESS Voxel 8 working watch During her excellent talk at the CES 2016 conference Voxel8 CEO, Professor Jenny Lewis, was keen to demonstrate this Morris Vanegas design, which combined two huge areas of popularity in Vegas; 3D Printing and Wearables. The watch was made using the Voxel8 Developer’s Kit everything other than the battery and LEDs was 3D printed, circuitry and all.
First ever 3D print from alien material Planetary Resources used the new 3D Systems ProX DMP 320 metal 3D printer to create this prototype model of a spacecraft. Nothing unusual there one might think... until you find out that the material used was actually a pulverised asteroid. This print goes someway to showing that we could manufacture in space using in-situ materials, more of which is featured on page 41.
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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
CRP Group Energica Ego Bike CRP Group USA were at CES demonstrating what can be achieved additively manufacturing with Windform materials. The 2015 edition of the fully working Energica Ego motorbike has several parts, like the casing, fully 3D printed and most of the other working features of the bike were prototyped in-house. When revved up the bike certainly drew attention at CES 2016.
First Order Stormtrooper During the four days of CES 2016 there was an incredible total of 1,278,870 mentions of the event on social media, up 25% on the 2015 event. According to the Buzz Radar report one of the peak interests was this Stormtrooper on the 3D Systems stand. The Anovos Productions Stormtrooper was prototyped in stereolithography on 3D Systems ProX 800 and ProX 950 machines.
Haiku Though, on this page, these polyamide 3D prints by design duo Drzach & Suchy may not look much, when placed in water they reveal a haiku in the shadows. The Swiss pair specialise in 3D printing coded messages and this Haiku project along with their transparent ‘Got M?’ prints that change shape depending on where the source of light is located earned them the i.materialise designer of 2015 award.
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Tradition and Innovation Sodick’s new OPM250E combines 3D printing and CNC milling in one machine
The new and unique Sodick OPM250E combines the latest metal 3D printing technology with the very best integral linear motor drive milling centre - creating the first one-step solution for the entire metal 3D printer process. So, if you are looking for the rock solid security of Sodick’s unsurpassed machining expertise, together with the ultimate flexibility of 3D printing technology, in order to outperform your competitors, you need to check out the OPM250E - on show in the UK for the first time ever at MACH. Come and see the OPM250E for yourself on Sodi-Tech’s stand 5470 Sodi-Tech EDM, sole UK distributor of Sodick technology. Rowley Drive, Baginton, Coventry, CV3 4FG Tel. +44 (0)24 76 511 677 Email sales@sodi-techedm.co.uk www.sodi-techedm.co.uk
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DESKTOPVIDEO 3D PRINTING GAMES ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
REVERSE ENGINEERING THE GRAPHICS PIPELINE
D We were always looking to print in-game creations out and realised that that was a problem that hadn’t been solved.
W O R D S : DA N I E L O ’C O N N O R
a brief flash of curiosity and potential entrepreneurship last year I pondered what a good idea it would be to take the architectural stadium models from the football-based video game FIFA and 3D print them. The in-game stadia are generated using sophisticated 3D scanning software and then rendered into the parameters of the game. How difficult could it be to 3D print them? Well, too difficult is the answer to that question. Although the stadia may be beautifully rendered and the software to export them into Blender is straightforward turning those into anything near a printable model proved impossible for a layman 3D modeller such as myself. The idea was benched. In January 2016 a UK-based company sealed a sixfigure investment round in order to bring to market its software that specialises in bringing virtual content to life through 3D printing. Whispering Gibbon is the brainwave of CEO Joe Stevens and his team and it all started with gaming. “We’ve worked for some of the industry’s biggest companies so our background is very game orientated,” explained Stevens. “We were always looking to print in-game creations out and realised that that was a problem that hadn’t been solved. Because 3D printing has been around for so long we assumed that there would be a method to pick up any 3D content and print it out.” The Whispering Gibbon team boasts of 60 years of building the engines that games are built upon, they began to create games that would allow users to generate 3D content and then the software on top of it to extract that model into a watertight printable file. uring
“One of the games we worked on was a virtual bonsai tree,” said Stevens. “You plant the seed and it grew in 3D, each person’s tree was unique depending on the way you kept it, bent the branches, chop the branches and you were then able to get a 3D printable model for your creation.” This “reverse engineering of the graphics pipeline,” as Joe Stevens describes it, might well have become Whispering Gibbon’s Post-it note moment. Famously 3M scientist Dr Spencer Silver was attempting to create a super strong adhesive and instead invented a low tack substance that left no marks on the surface when removed, it went on to form the basis of one of the most popular stationery items in the world. By cracking the niche subject of grabbing 3D content from games with their software, RenderFab, the team may have solved a wider 3D printing problem. “The starting point was to develop a piece of software which would enable you to grab any 3D content that had been optimised to be displayed on screen and 3D print it,” detailed the CEO. “Primarily this was for gaming but game content is actually the most difficult to grab because within a game so much of what you see on screen is faked. Once you’ve cracked that then it becomes pretty trivial to do the same for an architectural model and other CAD data.” The power of RenderFab has proved quite the draw for Whispering Gibbon, not only has the company had the aforementioned funding from Northstar Ventures and been voted into the prestigious Develop100 game developers ones to watch list but it is also attracting attention from outside companies looking to use this piece of software, which was developed for in-house use, to extract 3D content for industrial means. Despite that interest it is gaming that remains at the heart of the company and it would seem my entrepreneurial hunch may have been a viable business after all… “We did a careers day at a school recently the thing the kids wanted to recreate the most was goals in FIFA. “They wanted to capture a 3D print of them scoring a specific goal against their mate, I thought it was going to be more traditional user generated content like Minecraft but really they wanted to print that experience they’d created and shared with somebody else.” FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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AMUG PREVIEW
AMUG 2016
T
here are a handful of must visit events in the additive manufacturing calendar, the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) is most certainly one of them and the 2016 edition in St. Louis Missouri, is set to be the biggest in the event’s illustrious history. The ability to bring together engineers, designers, managers and educators from around the world to share expertise, best practices, challenges, and application developments in additive manufacturing stands AMUG apart from most other industry events. Along with the chance to rub shoulders with some of the most important people in the industry at the many networking opportunities offered at AMUG 2016, the conference line up is nothing short of stellar. Some highlights of the four day conference through April 3-7 include keynotes from Todd Grimm and Jason Lopes, an on-stage interview with Scott Crump as well as
a host of presentations covering all areas of the additive manufacturing industry from material science to funding solutions. Just a selection of the tracks include talks from the likes of the U.S. Patent Office, GKN Aerospace, Dept. of National Defense Canada, Aerojet Rocketdyne and many many more. For full conferencing details head to www.additivemanufacturingusersgroup.com/ AMUG also offers the opportunity to learn hands-on with a host of workshops and training from the many returning sponsors including Concept Laser, Renishaw, Stratasys, DSM Somos, SLM Solutions, ExOne, HP as well as offering a chance to see some brand-new technology first hand with the likes of Carbon3D and XJet also becoming sponsors this year. All of the sponsors will be exhibiting their wares at the two day AMUGexpo.
2016 Additive Manufacturing Users Group 28th Annual Education & Training Conference April 3 - 7, 2016 2016 AMUG CONFERENCE April 3 - 7, 2016 St. Louis Union Station St. Louis, Missouri
2015 AMUG Innovators Showcase
The Head of Klarg (Realize, Inc.)
2015 Advanced Finishing Technical Competition Winner
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In-depth education and training sessions by AM industry experts and OEM representatives.
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Those that have access to, use, or operate AM equipment
For a current list of all sponsors visit www.am-ug.com
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revolutionise the industry when he knows full well that he has already done it once and might have something up his sleeve to do it again. The SLA Bot-1 concept is a work in progress, not a finished product so as yet there’s no release dates. “We’re working with some key customers in
Return of the King? WOR DS : DA NIE L O’ C ON NO R
At CES 2016 Chuck’s legacy filled the entire marketplace but you’d be hugely mistaken if you think that doesn’t mean the great man and his company are not still innovating at the top of their game. At the Las Vegas event, Todd Grimm pointed me towards something on the 3D Systems stand that he said may go unseen by the passing public, in fact one person in the industry I spoke to thought it was merely an application demonstration. On the contrary the SLA Bot-1 might just be the most revolutionary thing out of 3D Systems since the SLA 1, released 30 years ago. “This (The SLA Bot-1) is really just a demo of some new technology we’ve got coming,” explained Scott Turner, Sr. Researcher at 3D Systems “What we have underneath is what we’re calling codename: Figure 4. If you look at Chuck Hull’s original patent it had an image of how to do stereolithography upside down printing through a membrane, that’s what this machine is doing at really high speeds.” That membrane Scott mentions is key to fast SLA 3D printing, fast is all the rage at the minute what with Carbon3D and companies like Newpro 3D (who both use DLP technology) and both use a sort of membrane in order to speed up that process. The SLA Bot-1 or Figure 4 is forming shapes in front of my eyes as Scott talks me through the process, the torso model in the above picture took 24
minutes to print, and yes I said minutes. “The Figure 4 is a real highspeed stereolithography process the reason we want to do that is we can get into hybrid materials. Those hybrid materials can have multi-mode polymerisation so we can have elastomerics, we can have toughened parts because we can use other energy sources to do secondary polymerisation,” says Scott. It is clear that Chuck is still very active at 3D Systems and I believe that he has been a huge part of this new innovation. It was interesting to see Chuck watching on at the TCT 3D Printing Conference at CES as companies like Voxel8, Carbon 3D and HP discussed how they’re going to
ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
30 years ago Chuck Hull invented stereolithography (SLA) and with that came the industry that our magazine is entirely dedicated to, 3D printing.
The SLA Bot-1 concept is a work in progress, not a finished product so as yet there’s no release dates.
RIGHT: The SLA bot-1 in action at CES 2016
particular verticals to kind of map out the exact specifics of how we make it readily available but the materials is the really interesting part. “We want to show is that it is not a machine,” says Scott. “It is a module that you can integrate into your particular manufacturing environment. Here we’re demonstrating it with a six-axis off the shelf robotic arm and not only is the robotic arm picking up parts when they’re done, relocating them, it is actually part of the building process lifting up the tray as the imager is firing and creating the object. 2015 was a tough year for 3D Systems falling stock prices, a departing CEO and the ceasing production on a range of other machinery but if the SLA Bot1 is anything to go by 2016 is going to be an exciting year indeed.
LEFT: Part produced in
rapid time
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NEW PRO3D
L
WOR DS : L A U R A G R I F F I T HS
March, Joseph DeSimone, announced that in just 12 months, Carbon3D would release its CLIP technology with speeds up to 100 times faster than current 3D printing methods as a full product. Since then the 3D printing world has been engrossed by the idea of a technology that could completely change the game in terms of speed and efficiency but in that time, another name has quietly entered the race to the title of ‘fastest 3D printing technology’, Canada-based start-up NewPro3D. But unlike Carbon3D, there was no TED Talk, millions of YouTube views or Terminator comparisons to bring the industry to the attention of a company that believes it’s taken the lead on speed. Instead, a modest stand in the middle of the CES 3D Printing Marketplace and a sign that simply but boldly stated: “World’s fastest 3D printer”. It’s easy to brush off a “world first” in this industry where every technology is just that one extra word away from the perfect marketing opportunity and you would have been forgiven for walking by and thinking exactly that. However, the difference here is that NewPro3D’s machine was there, printing large, complex lattices to completion in minutes and doing so right in front of your eyes. ast
“We are really a research and development company, frustrated by the time it took to 3D print,” Diego Castanon Seoane, founder of NewPro3D, explained. “We ended up developing a 3D printer so now we are a 3D printing company.” After spending two years in R&D, NewPro3D believe they have come up with a technology that has “revolutionised the speed of 3D printing”. Similar to DLP, Intelligent Liquid Interface (ILI) technology is a resinbased method that integrates a transparent membrane between the curing resin and the light source, which is designed to create a “dead zone”. This eliminates the mechanical repositioning used on similar processes and instead allows the object to grow at record speed.
Today we are the fastest but to keep that we need to keep working.
NewPro3D says the technology is neither size nor geometrically limited with an object as big as 25 feet long not out of the realms of possibility – a prototype of this size is currently underway. Promising that this machine is designed for “so much more” than prototyping, the Vancouver-based company says this technology has the potential to speed up manufacturing in industries like dental, medical and jewellery where a ring cast can be printed in just under a minute. What may come as a surprise is that the team at NewPro3D have no desire to be a 3D printing company. They are inventors first and foremost and right now the idea is to seek potential licensing opportunities rather than manufacture the machines themselves. The company is apparently already in active talks with various blue chip companies to do just that. “We’re open to all business opportunities,” Nick Findler, Marketing Manager at NewPro3D. “We want to look at all licencing and other opportunities that come our way and our ears are definitely open. We’ve only been around for two years now but the sky is really the limit with us.” Despite it’s presence at a consumer event, NewPro3D insists that this technology is for more than just the garage tinkerers - though judging by the “Take my money please!” comments on YouTube, they’ve already got a captive audience. They believe the real value of this technology is in industrial sectors such as aerospace and automotive where 3D printing acts as a much faster and viable alternative to traditional processes like injection moulding. “Mass production is going to change, it’s already changing but the game changer is time,” Diego, commented. “You can’t take 18 hours to print an object. So we’re bringing that to the table … I understand that today we are the fastest but to keep that we need to keep working. There’s always going to be somebody that’s going to beat you.” That is why they’re not stopping with resins and are in fact already moving onto their next venture - building the world’s fastest metal 3D printer. With metal 3D printing in a whole other league to their current technology, it will certainly be interesting to see what the team at NewPro3D come up with and how its challengers to the speed-crown respond. FEBRUARY 2016 www.tctmagazine.com
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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
The Game Changer is Time
MACH PREVIEW SPONSORED BY
LASER LINES
2016 to answer questions and demonstrate the power of 3D printing first hand with live product demonstrations, all backed up by a wide variety of models and samples. Products on show will include the Stratasys Polyjet Objet260 Connex, FDM Fortus 250mc and an Evatronix EviXscan Heavy Duty Quadro 3D Scanner.
(BOOTH: 4652) Laser Lines Ltd is a Total Solution Provider for 3D Printing, Additive Layer Manufacturing and 3D Scanning. Their team of product specialists will be present at MACH
MACH Preview W O R D S : L A U R A G R I F F I T HS
THE BIENNIAL MACH EXHIBITION WILL TAKE PLACE THIS YEAR AT THE NEC, BIRMINGHAM ON 11-15 APRIL BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES ASSOCIATION (MTA). WITH OVER 600 EXHIBITORS AND 23,000 VISITORS EXPECTED FOR THE 2016 EDITION, THE EVENT WILL BRING TOGETHER PROFESSIONALS FROM ACROSS ALL AREAS OF THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY, SHOWCASING THE LATEST ADVANCES AND FOR THE FIRST TIME WILL FEATURE A DEDICATED 3D PRINTING AND ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING ZONE.
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TCT WILL BE THERE TO PRESENT THE 3D PRINTING AND ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING CONFERENCE TRACK FEATURING SPEAKERS FROM SOME OF THE UK’S LEADING VOICES IN THE AM COMMUNITY.
CDG
(BOOTH: 4766) UK-based CDG will focus on the latest Direct Metals technology from 3D Systems at MACH 2016; including the new production-ready ProX 320 manufacturing machine and the superfine layer ProX 100 metal printer. On display will be dozens of examples of 3D Printed metal parts in materials including Stainless Steel, Titanium, Aluminium, Cobalt Chrome and more.
BOOTH
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CREAT3D
BOOTH
4753
(BOOTH: 4753) UK 3D printing specialist, Creat3D, will debut MarkForged’s latest machine, the Mark Two. With faster carbon fibre printing and the ability to add reinforced fibres into smaller surface area, the desktop machine is ideal for moulds, jigs and fixtures as well as motorsport and aerospace applications. What’s more the company will also be bringing cloud 3D printer management system, 3DprinterOS, to the UK along with CEL’s new dual material extruder upgrade kit for the Robox. The team will also be offering free consultations throughout the show to discuss if and how desktop 3D printing can be incorporated into business processes.
4660
BOOTH
RENISHAW
STRATASYS
(BOOTH: 4760) This year’s MACH will see Stratasys offer visitors an endto-end demonstration of the efficiencies that can be achieved by integrating AM throughout the product development process. Attendees will see a diverse application zone, demonstrating how customers are saving time and costs through the use of AM during concept development and functional prototyping, but also throughout a number of traditional manufacturing processes. As a first for the show, Stratasys invites visitors to its Consultancy Corner for free advice on how they can strategically implement AM to optimize the technology across their product development process. Customers today are realising significant benefits in concept development, research and prototyping phases, but visitors will be given a deep dive into the added value Stratasys additive manufacturing represents within the tooling process, the manufacturing of production aids and final part production.
ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES
SPONSORED BY
BOOTH
5730
(BOOTH: 5730) Renishaw will take to the MACH show floor to demonstrate more than just its additive manufacturing capabilities with an booth dedicated to its fully integrated advanced production workflow from design to manufacture and measurement. The UK-based world leader in precision management and metal 3D printing will showcase the full scale of its metal additive manufacturing production chain including the recently launched production-ready RenAM 500M metal AM system, sophisticated QuantAM software and extensive range of metrology solutions.
BOOTH
4650
PROTO LABS
(BOOTH: 4650) Proto Labs, the world’s fastest provider of prototype and lowvolume production parts, will be showcasing some real prototyped parts from their injection moulding, CNC machining and 3D printing services. Visitors will also have the opportunity to upload their parts for on-site analysis and advice whilst trained experts will be on hand to offer guidance on specific projects. Proto Labs’ Commercial Direction, Damian Hennessey, will also lead a talk about the Product Evolution on 12 April at 1pm.
The 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing Zone will also feature exhibits from EOS, Canon UK, GoPrint3D, ANSYS SpaceClaim and more. CONFERENCE The 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing conference track, presented by TCT + Personalize, will take place in Hall 4 on 13th April at 10am. The conference will feature talks from Dr. Phil Reeves at Stratasys Strategic Consulting, David Wimpenny from the Manufacturing Te c h n o l o g y Centre, Renishaw, Creat3D and more.
To register, visit:
www.machexhibition.com
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GRIMM COLUMN
CUTTING THROUGH THE CLUTTER
T
WORDS : TODD GRIMM
he 2016 ces Show and its 3D Printing
We are in an age of 3D printing innovation; so many unique solutions will be coming our way.
Todd Grimm
is a stalwart of the additive manufacturing industry, having held positions across sales and marketing in some of the industry’s biggest names. Todd is currently the AM Industry advisor with AMUG
tgrimm@tagrimm.com
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Conference, powered by TCT, had a different vibe. Rather than being awe-struck with the concept of 3D printing, visitors were seeking insight to make good decisions. I witnessed this shift first-hand as I stepped from the stage following my recap of what’s new in the industry. A dozen or more attendees queued up to speak with me. All of them had questions emanating from a central theme: how to get a grasp on all that is available and how to select a solution. With the rush of new products and startups coming to the 3D printing industry, they have found it increasingly difficult to determine a path to success. Overwhelmed and perplexed, these inquiring minds were seeking answers from within a dynamic, chaotic industry. They were seeking details that are blurred by the quality of information that is available. The sheer number of options makes decision-making a challenge. However, this is compounded by the quality of information that is presented. The vendors’ stories start to run together and sound the same. When there is an attempt at differentiation, it is often accompanied by unsubstantiated and unqualified claims like “leader,” “best,” “fastest,” “revolutionary” and “first.” If driven to know everything in order to find the absolute best solution, you should be prepared for a long journey with lots of investigation. Research will be needed to determine the validity of the claims and to determine the unique advantages of one solution over all others. For those that don’t desire a journey, there is a simpler solution: make it the vendor’s responsibility to convince you that its solution is unique and that its claims are valid. And don’t hesitate to cut a vendor from the consideration list if they fail to do so. In essence, act like a Dragon seeking to invest in a promising proposition. On the TV show Dragon’s Den, contestants have just seconds to capture attention and create interest. In the sales and marketing realms, they present “unique selling propositions”, which are concise statements that clearly differentiate one solution from competitive offerings. If not compelling enough,
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the Dragons write them off. If intrigued, they then look for details substantiated by facts. Should a contestant make unbelievable, unrealistic and over-generalised claims, those with the money pass on the investment opportunity. The last element is a discussion of weaknesses and the plans to improve. Those that are not realistic in understanding their challenges are ushered off camera with empty pockets. You are making an investment, although in a different way, when selecting 3D printing solutions so why not use the same approach? There are a lot of 3D printing options; cut through the clutter by finding reasons to remove a company from consideration. Sounds like yet another “me too,” move on. Too much hyperbole and too many questionable claims, find a better partner. Although the callers weren’t looking for money, I played the role of Dragon in back-toback phone calls last week. One call was from a hardware vendor, competing in a crowded 3D printing segment. The other was from a solutions provider that had a service that appeared to be like many others. The hardware vendor conveyed an arrogant attitude of being the leader and the best, followed by a statement that it was soon to be the first with a specific type of material. These were all claims I knew to be inaccurate. When I pressed for substantiating details, the caller responded, with a condescending tone, “It is clear that you don’t know us.” My reply, “No, it is clear that you have given me no reason to get to know you.” Harsh, yes, but necessary considering that time is limited. The solutions provider was the exact opposite. The caller concisely stated three differentiating factors; offered substantiated fact; and avoided questionable claims. He had my attention, although there are others attempting the same thing. In the ensuing conversation, we covered the details, including weakness. This conversation motivated me to keep an eye on this up-and-comer. We are in an age of 3D printing innovation; so many unique solutions will be coming our way. Some will be worthwhile while; others will be worthless. Find the winners amongst them by placing the burden of proof on the vendor. If they don’t intrigue, excite and convince you that they are worth looking at, move on, quickly, to those that do.
For a new era of manufacturing
See us Hall 5,
at: 730
stand 5
Renishaw’s new metal powder bed fusion additive manufacturing system for industrial production, RenAM 500M, features increased emphasis on automation and reduced operator interaction. The system is the first to be designed and manufactured in-house by Renishaw, applying over 40 years of cross-sector engineering excellence that spans electrical, mechanical and optical technologies. Highlights include: • Renishaw designed and engineered optical system with 500 W laser • Automated powder sieving and recirculation • Patented dual SafeChange™ filter system • Renishaw RESOLUTE™ linear encoder on Z-axis for precision and accuracy
Find out more at www.renishaw.com/additive
Renishaw plc Brooms Road, Stone Business Park, Stone, Staffordshire ST15 0SH T +44 (0)1785 285000 F +44 (0)1785 285001 E additive@renishaw.com
www.renishaw.com