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HEAR AND NOW ENVISIONTEC TECHNOLOGY ENABLES MASS MANUFACTURE OF HEARING AIDS

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EDITORIAL HEAD OF CONTENT

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FROM THE EDITOR ADDITIVE’S COUCH TO 5K I

f you’ve been on the TCT Show website contact us page, you’ll notice a picture of a fellow that looks like he’s swallowed me. That is me, me at my heaviest, thanks to a little dieting, exercise and love for dating apps I shed approximately four stone. Recently, such is the way when one settles down, and a Greggs (a cheap bakery selling delicacies like a sausage and beans pasty) opens just a one-minute drive away, the weight has been creeping back. So I decided to take up running, previous attempts have failed miserably because I didn’t know how to pace myself, but this time feels different thanks to a pair of Bluetooth headphones, a proper pair of running shoes and a Couch to 5k app. I’m four weeks into the eight-week program and can feel the benefits of building up gradually. The Additive Manufacturing (AM) industry has also suffered from a lack of being able to pace itself. AM has always tried to run before it can walk, always talking about series production, Industry 4.0 or “Smart Manufacturing” when users were still depowdering in the middle of open-plan oﬃces or whizzing metal powders about in wheelbarrows. At TCT Show 2017 in the UK, AM got itself some proper footwear, some Bluetooth headphones, an app and even had a medical examination. The exam came from one of the only talks I managed to sit in on from the conference team’s excellent programme. The presentation was a joint one from the Manufacturing Technology Centre, UK and the UK’s Health and Safety Executive, HSE.

Chris Ryall and Samantha Hall examined the health and safety issues for workers exposed to metal AM powders including a study on the amount of metal found in urine samples! Immediately after that talk, I was on the stand of Guyson; the team was demonstrating its latest powder recovery system that removes a huge chunk of the manual elements of metal AM. Across the way was Russell Finex whose 80-years of sieving experience the industry is finally applying, around the corner was PDJ Vibro who have been deburring and polishing parts for over 50 years. I talked to Nick Allen of 3DPRINTUK on the diﬃculty of recycling SLS material; the same was true for PLA materials during a conversation with NatureWorks LLC. However, the very fact we’re touching on the environmental issues, the fact that we’re delving into occupational health, that we are taking ancillary technologies seriously and vice-versa, tells me AM is finally getting into its stride. I’m hoping to complete a 5K around the time of formnext powered by tct, let’s see if additive manufacturing can keep up the pace. Druck on.

DANIEL O’CONNOR, GROUP EDITOR

VOLUME 3 ISSUE 4

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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

TCT | VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 4

COVER STORY

6. COVER STORY

EnvisionTEC on enabling the mass manufacture of hearing aids.

Jewelry 9. LIKE CLOCKWORK

How a Dutch architecture graduate harnessed 3D printing to create a classical wristwatch.

DENTAL

Sponsored by Somos

35. 3D PRINTING EN. MASS

18. MAKING IT MATTER

Laura reports back from a tour of the hotbed of 3D printing that is Boston.

How HP aims to conquer manufacturing with an open arms approach.

21. REMANUFACTURING SINTERING MATERIAL GS Pro is looking to cure the SLS process waste issue.

22. THE POWDER PERSPECTIVE Group Editor, Daniel O’Connor goes behind-the-scenes at LPW.

40. TODD GRIMM COLUMN Guidance for the new sherpa.

25. OPTIMIZING METAL POWDERS Malvern on the critical role of metal powders for AM.

35 VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1

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HEAR AND NOW W

hile the likes of Adidas, New Balance and Under Armour duke it out in the attempt to bring customised wearables to the masses, boasting about the possibility of 3D printing 100,000 pairs of sneakers next year, hearing aid manufacturer Sonova can look at those figures and grin. Last year alone the company 3D printed over 1,000,000 unique custom pieces installed in millions of ears globally. Sonova may not be as well known as the sportswear giants but its two leading brands, Phonak and Unitron, are considered to be the best of the best when it comes to ‘in the ear’ custom hearing aids. In terms of market share, Sonova is very much the number one hearing aid manufacturer. A desire to be at the vanguard of hearing aid development sets Sonova apart from its competitors. Sonova’s early adoption of 3D printing and in particular EnvisionTEC’s DLP machinery over a decade ago left others trailing in the wake, eager to catch up with its leanmanufacturing process. “Together with EnvisionTEC, we collaborated quite intensively to bring this cutting-edge DLP technology into an on-demand manufacturing,” said Mujo Bogaljevic, VP of Operations, Sonova US. “We have completely transformed

the way custom hearing aids are made today.”

The collaboration went far beyond a typical vendor-customer relationship with Sonova pushing EnvisionTEC’s development in materials science. Sonova required biocompatible materials, safe for long-term use in the ear without causing irritation or discomfort. In turn, EnvisionTEC’s process inspired and enabled Sonova to switch to a finely-tuned digital manufacturing process. 3D printing has eliminated a traditional handcrafting process for custom hearing aids that weren’t always up to scratch. The tolerances for a perfect fit in the ear canal are so tight that a fraction of a millimeter in either direction can lead to severe discomfort. Today’s 3D printed shells are a precise replica of the ear impression taken by a hearing healthcare professional resulting in an excellent fit with more room for microelectronics. “It’s really important that we accurately reproduce that impression in order to make

VOLUME 3 ISSUE 4 www.tctmagazine.com

sure that we wind up with a very comfortable fit for the patient and good retention in their ear,” said Bill Lesiecki, Director of Business Services at Sonova US, “There are ears that are very challenging. 3D printing is made for that kind of customization, so it can really have an impact.” At Sonova’s Aurora Operations and Distribution Center in Illinois over 20 EnvisionTEC Perfactory machines churn out hundreds of hearing aid shells an hour. Sonova uses over 100 EnvisionTEC machines globally. Two shifts of 500 staff clean, assemble and qualify the hearing aids ready to make people’s lives better, and for Mujo Bogaljevic that’s the real beauty of what Sonova does: “The patient feels better; they’re getting smaller hearing aids that fit better, that are being retained in the ear better, that last longer, that have a cosmetic appearance that is acceptable to them. It is a great cause to help people improve their hearing, and that is what we do, we help people hear better and live life without limitations.”

COVER STORY

THE JOURNEY OF A 3D PRINTED HEARING AID A hearing healthcare professional takes a silicone impression of a patient’s ear.

1 2

The hearing aid healthcare professional sends Sonova the impression alongside a set of instructions and specifications for the hearing aid required.

THE NEXT GENERATION OF HEARING AID MANUFACTURING

Sonova may well have perfected a process using EnvisionTEC’s DLP technology, but CEO Al Siblani believes that its latest technological breakthrough, Continuous Digital Light Manufacturing (cDLM) offers substantial improvements when it comes to hearing aid devices. Because cDLM technology no longer has the peeling step between layers required in DLP, parts can be printed faster, smoother and, crucially for the hearing aid industry, more transparent. The two existing cDLM platforms can build in 25-micron Z-layer thickness in the same time it takes DLP technology to print parts with 100- micron layers. This added accuracy without added time means cDLM technology delivers uniform curing in Z and a refraction-free edge for transparent parts without the need to clear coat.

The parts in the photograph above were printed in the same material and cleaned with Isopropyl Alcohol. They were not polished or lacquered. The two parts in the center were printed with cDLM technology, while the parts on the outer edge were printed with DLP technology

The impression is 3D scanned by Sonova to generate a digital file.

4 The digital file is passed to the ‘Shell Lab’ where Sonova houses EnvisionTEC Perfactory printers which produce many shells at the same time.

5 6

The sealed hearing aid then goes through quality control including full electro-acoustic test.

A Sonova modeler then generates a tailor-made shell and lays out how the components fit inside the hearing instrument.

The shell is passed over to production who assemble the electronics and shell before sealing it.

Once the inspection is complete, the instrument is shipped out to the hearing healthcare professional who fits it to the customer.

TAKE A LOOK INSIDE SONOVA’S 3D PRINTING FACTORY AT WWW.ENVISIONTEC.COM

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jewelry ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

LIKE CLOCKWORK

WOR D S : SAM DAVIES

n alumnus of Delft University of Technology and son of an artist and restorer of classic cars has declared a new craft in watch-making.

He speaks a year on from his graduation, leaving Delft with a Masters in Architecture; four years after founding his own company, Holthinrichs Watches; and nine years after his fascination with timepieces began. From the age of eight it had been Michiel Holthinrichs’ dream to become an architect. Like his mother and father, Michiel wanted to put his creative ﬂair to good use, but after working in an architectural firm, he became disengaged. His interest in watches and fashion began to supersede that of architecture. “I became interested in style and art deco and clothing,” Holthinrichs remembers, “and I thought I should own a pocket watch. That was nine years ago. I bought an Amica pocket watch and when I opened it, it was just magical to see. It’s architecture in small. It’s craft and technology and design in one small piece. “I started collecting like a mad man. And then, after four years, I thought I’m actually educated as a designer and by that time I knew how a watch worked and how it was constructed. I thought I should be able to make one myself. That was the beginning.” Holthinrichs combined his childhood dream with his adulthood intrigue. It wouldn’t be the last time he would bring together the old and new.

Soon after completing his first watch design, the first 3D printed house was built in his homeland’s capital. The Amsterdam 3D Print Canal House garnered a lot of attention, and assuredly piqued Holthinrichs’ interest. Thinking it might be possible to harness 3D printing for the manufacture of watches, he began to reach out to machine suppliers, one of them being Renishaw, who pointed him in the direction of Koen Tackx, and his business, Aldema, who had just purchased a Renishaw AM250 machine. Their collaboration still continues to this day, even after Aldema was acquired by Materialise. Tackx helped Holthinrichs with the prototyping of the parts, testing how appropriate the designs were for 3D printing. When Holthinrichs appeared in a Materialise promotional video, also featuring the AM250 system, his foray into 3D printing came full circle. Renishaw invited Holthinrichs to an Additive Manufacturing Solutions Center where he has been able to develop his first wristwatch, the Ornament 1. He makes the watch by hand, the dials, for example, made in the traditional manner, but leans on 3D printing for a few of the more aesthetic features. 

left: FRONT AND

REVERSE OF THE ORNAMENT 1 WATCH

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Holthinrichs exported his design into the QuantAM build preparation software, where Renishaw staff showed him how he could check and configure the parts on the build plate, applying supports where necessary, and ensuring a quicker workﬂow. The files were then sent to a Renishaw AM 400 metal 3D printing system, chosen due to its ﬂexibility and ability to produce fine detailed designs. Post-processing and machining of the parts was outsourced, before Holthinrichs finished them with hand filing and polishing techniques. Post processing, assembly and adjustment by hand took a further 30 hours per watch. “Even for a watch case you already have to have a precision of one hundredth of a millimeter, and the high-end section of 3D printing is capable of coming somewhat close to that, but not [exactly]. You have to have post - processing,” Holthinrichs explained. “That was very educating because now I know I must accept a phase of post processing inside of the process. Therefore, I think I could make a new design with that in mind, and make it better because you have to calculate with it. That means you have to have some extra marks on some parts, or maybe leave parts rough. There are a host of opportunities, but post processing is necessary.” The past four years in themselves have been a huge learning curve for Holthinrichs, and the adoption of 3D printing has contributed to that. His watch-making project has been an amalgamation of creative attributes and ambitious aims. The wild collection of old watches, which kicked off Holthinrichs’ journey, assisted the venture later when he came to repair and sell them to fund his efforts. His mission was made harder by the lack of

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

He decided to print three components of his Ornament 1 watch design - the buckle, the case, and the crown - in stainless steel 316L, which would take around 30 hours per batch. The case was designed with a diameter of 38mm and is 10mm thick. On its edge, it has a raised inscription of the Holthinrichs’ brand, while on the reverse it has the words ‘stainless steel’, ‘3D printed case’ and ‘Swiss movement’ in upper case lettering.

shown: THE ORNAMENT 1 WITH 3D PRINTED CROWN, CASE AND BUCKLE.

vibrant watch industry in his home nation. Fortunately, he came by the assistance of Tackx, Materialise and Renishaw, after being inspired to pursue 3D printing by the Amsterdam 3D Print Canal House. It has not only played a major part in the development of the Ornament 1, but he suspects could do the same for many other players in the watchmaking game if they become more open-minded. “I call 3D printing a new craft in watch-making. It is a process added to an already old tradition,” Holthinrichs says. “I think most brands or watch makers will see 3D printing only as a prototyping medium, but I think they are maybe too conventional in that sense, too conservative. I think it could add to the industry.” An addition to the industry for sure, is Michiel Holthinrichs. His watch collection still boasts

around 80 timepieces, but since the development of the Ornament 1, completed in January 2016, it hasn’t left his wrist – some feat for a fashion obsessive. He has a wealth of ideas, if not quite the finances to execute all of them. One is the use of titanium for the 3D printed parts, because of its highlypolished finish, suitability for chemical post-processing, and lightness. Whatever he decides, Holthinrichs will continue to pioneer the use of Additive Manufacturing (AM) for watch-making. Acknowledging the efforts of Montfort, a Swiss Automatic Watches company teaming with Digital Metal to 3D print watch dials, he’s eager to learn more about watch-makers harnessing AM for production. He’s eager to push on with his next creations: “Architecture is never finished,” he offers thoughtfully. In the future, he wants to go further than just 3D printing the aesthetic parts of the watch and explore the printing of moving parts, the gears for example. But before then, as his very own atelier in Delft city centre opens, he wants to grow his team, and deliver the next models of the Ornament series. “I’m going to expand my company with two or three other people, to have all my attention at research and design,” Holthinrichs concludes. “My goal is to have a main line, of which Ornament 1 is the first. There should be some choices, like next models, maybe four. And this one [will be] the most conservative model, because I learned a lot. There’s so much possible with 3D printing that it should show a little bit more. I would also like to have an ultimate personalization version [where] finish and design are pushed to the maximum. That’s what really interests me.”

shown: THE BUCKLE OF

THE WATCH 3D PRINTED IN STAINLESS STEEL 316

above: MICHIEL HOLTHINRICHS HAND FINISHING THE CASE OF THE ORNAMENT 1. VOLUME 3 ISSUE 4

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DENTAL

WOR D S : LAU R A G R IF F ITH S

THE DIGITAL DENTISTRY MOVEMENT S P O N S O RE D BY

t last year’s Additive Manufacturing User Group Conference, Virginiabased dentist, Dr. Perry E. Jones, talked about the ability for 3D technologies to take the “goo” out of dentistry. That “goo” refers to the traditional processes creating a dental impression which continues to be used commonly throughout dental practices and labs. Gradually, that process is being displaced as desktop manufacturing systems, 3D scanners and materials become increasingly advanced, and more importantly, accessible. The 2017 Wohlers Report estimates that the medical and dental sector currently represents 11% of the overall additive manufacturing industry. It’s a respectable chunk of the application-heavy divide but if you look at the bigger picture - the dental equipment market was valued at $6,342.3 million in 2015 and is expected to surpass $10 billion by 2024 - adoption is far from widespread. To tap into this potential market, equipment manufacturers are delivering more costeffective solutions and materials that make 3D technologies an attractive proposition for small and medium sized businesses. Here we take a look at the latest developments and speak to the every-day dental professionals that have already made the shift.

WHAT’S NEW? Formlabs recently expanded its dental offering with an additional material, Dental LT Clear engineered for printing splints and retainers. This is its first long-term biocompatible resin for manufacturing orthodontic applications on a desktop machine and is said to be Formlabs fastest material to date with the ability to print a full build platform of up to seven splints in under two hours. The Boston-based company has also improved its Dental SG resin, released last year, to reduce print speeds for surgical guides by up to 50 percent on the Form 2 printer, with its latest PreForm software update. According to Dávid Lakatos, Chief Product Oﬃcer at Formlabs, the company now claims it has “the largest dental 3D printer user base” in the industry and is growing at a pace of “over 600 percent” year on year. Formlabs also estimates that “over 50,000” surgeries have been performed with a surgical guide printed on one of its machines.

certified biocompatible LuxaPrint materials. Similar to Formlabs’ technology, the DLP-based system uses Sharebot’s proprietary WARP system to reduce the light-curing time for individual layers to just a few hundredths of a second, speeding up printing to around 100mm per hour. The 3Delux is the first dental focused machine offered by Sharebot in partnership with its distributor DMG, a company with over 50 years of expertise in dental products. DMG is also behind the 3Delux’s compatible materials, with its first “additive digital prosthetics” range including five resins for models, functional trays, casts, drilling templates and splints. 

below: METAL CROWN PRINTED BY SINTEREX

Over on the hardware side, at TCT Show 2017, Italian 3D printer manufacturer, Sharebot, launched a new dental-specific machine, the Sharebot 3Delux, which enables printing in a range of

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DENTAL DENTISTRY IN DUBAI Dubai based Sinterex, a company specializing in the manufacture of customized 3D printed products, has been working within the dental sector since opening its business in February 2017. At its facility in Jebel Ali, Sinterex has installed an EOS metal system and 3D Systems MultiJet printer and is currently offering customers metal 3D printed crowns, bridges, removable partial dentures, surgical guides, and resin dental models. Managing Director, Julian Callanan explained: “We have seen good growth of our customer base and noticed that once companies convert from manual production techniques to our digitally enabled 3D printing processes, they don’t go back.” The company primarily serves the UAE but has also exported products to other neighboring markets. Yet Julian believes its location is playing a key role in the company’s success as Dubai states its intentions to become a hub for 3D printing since announcing its 3D printing strategy last year. Along with impressive initiatives like the 3D printed “oﬃce of the future” and the signing of an MoU between The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and GE to collaborate on additive manufacturing, dental will steal some of the focus as the Dubai Health Authority carries out its plans for the Dental Services department to make greater use of the technology. Speaking about the future for Sinterex and 3D printing in Dubai, Callanan commented: “We are excited by recent advances in digital dentistry and also in the medical sector. We want to add new product lines and use the strategic and logistical advantages of Dubai to grow into a regional business.”

shown: WAY2PRODUCTION SOLFLEX PLUS 3D PRINTER

014

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S P O N S O RE D BY

AN APPLICATION-BASED APPROACH Singapore-based company Structo first launched in 2014 as a dental 3D printing solutions provider. The company has launched two machines onto the market, the OrthoForm and most recently the DentaForm, based on its proprietary MSLA (Mask Stereolithography) technology promising greater speeds than other SLA-style printers. The process consists of numerous individual light sources under what Structo calls a “digital mask” that controls which area of the build platform is illuminated at any given time. When light is allowed to pass through to the resin it can form an entire layer in a single exposure. Adopting an “application-based approach” to hardware, the DentaForm was developed for restorative dentistry offering a 50 micron print accuracy and large 200 x 150 x 100 mm build volume, to deliver speed and throughput for prosthodontics (crowns and bridges). The OrthoForm delivers a 100 micron accuracy for orthodontic applications such as clear aligners. Focusing on speed, with this technology, Structo says it can print up to 30 orthodontic models in just 92 minutes.

“ONCE COMPANIES CONVERT FROM MANUAL PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES TO OUR DIGITALLY ENABLED 3D PRINTING PROCESSES, THEY DON’T GO BACK” - SINTEREX

DENTAL

BELOW: 3D PRINTED ARCHES IN

ORTHOPRO PEACH FROM STRUCTO

S P O N S O RE D BY

as crowns) work, creating its restorations in-house with the help of several dental milling machines. Shane Williams, co-owner and CAD/ CAM specialist, works at the lab with a team of more than 20 staff, maintained by a huge market demand, which sees the lab looking to expand for a second time to a larger facility. “The OrthoForm was designed from the ground up with a local customer here in Singapore,” Jonathan Lim, Marketing Manager at Structo explained. “After which, one of our very early customers, Glidewell Dental purchased several units and runs them 24/7 in their production line. We have a very healthy working relationship with Glidewell. Their engineering team have provided a lot of feedback over the past few years which led to lots of improvements that were incorporated during the design phase of our second printer, the DentaForm. In fact, Glidewell was our launch customer and beta user for DentaForm before it was made available to the mass market.” Glidewell, one of the world’s largest dental labs, has invested in five Structo machines so far, even choosing to replace other existing 3D printing hardware at its facility in Newport Beach, California. David Leeson, director of engineering at Glidewell, described the technology as “just the type of innovation the industry needs” thanks to its high throughput and relatively low upfront costs. “Digital dentistry is a very big movement in the industry,” Jonathan commented. “Not only does it help dental professionals save valuable time on traditional processes - time they can instead spend on more clinical cases or interacting with patients - but it also helps deliver better patient outcomes.” Structo positions itself somewhere in the middle of the 3D printing hardware spectrum, claiming to be faster than other desktop models but cheaper than some of the larger industrial machines. It believes cost and the “perceived” learning curve are two major factors hindering the widespread adoption of digital dentistry. Commenting on the steps Structo is taking to lower these barriers, particularly for labs and practices just beginning to adopt digital processes, Jonathan added: “With the help of MSLA, we are trying to solve that problem by designing printers with high throughput that helps dental professionals see their ROI in a much shorter timeframe and hopefully contribute towards the widespread adoption of digital dentistry and eventually making dental appliances more accessible to a wider demographic.” MILLING HALVES PRODUCTION TIME Over in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Studio 32 Dental Laboratory has been vigorously pursuing full zirconia (metal used to create durable dental structures such

“We’ve been aggressive in the full zirconia market,” said Williams. “We had been outsourcing our zirconia work, and when I ran the numbers, the cost-effectiveness of owning our own equipment was clear.” The lab bought its first Roland milling system in 2011, which is still running today and allows the team to work with a their preferred milling tools and materials. After discovering their output increased dramatically, the lab now houses four Roland DWX-50 5-axis dental milling machines along with a 3Shape D700 dental scanner and other milling technologies. “After we got our first DWX, our workload went up from 20 units a month to 300-400 a month, and then up to 750 units a month – and that’s just the zirconia work,” said Williams. In addition to its zirconia work, Studio 32 mills all of its wax for golds, ceramics and porcelain fused to metal (PFM), as well as for castings and pressings. All four DWX mills are controlled by a single computer and put to work from morning until whenever the last job goes in, sometimes running overnight to keep up with demand. Since adding the DWX mills, Studio 32’s production times have been reduced from two weeks to one, and rush jobs can be done in a single day if needed. “I’m really doing the same job I started with,” says Shane who was employed as a waxer for eight years. “Now I just wax with a computer and a Roland mill. Same process, different tools.” Keeping a close eye on the work being carried out by dentists in the local area, the lab has observed that only a small number of dentists have adopted intra-oral scanning systems into their practices. To encourage growth, Studio 32 offers its scanner out to local practices so that dentists can get started with the technology and in turn, generates more businesses on production of restorations for Studio 32. Looking to the future, the lab is looking at the possibility of accepting digital files, printing models, and creating removable restorations for its orthodontic department. Before it takes the plunge to install any new technology, Shane says demand will need to increase in order to make it a worthwhile investment but confirms, “that’s a trend we’re seeing”. 

SHOWN: FINISHING MILLED DENTAL MODELS AT THE STUDIO 32 LAB

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A MATTER OF TIME Milling machines can often be a stepping stone to 3D printing in the dental lab. Spanish dental firm, Cambicon, has been investing in the newest dental technologies for the last 15 years to produce custom, functional dental prosthetics. Starting out with milling systems, the company has since installed a 3D printer. “3D printing changes the way we work, continuing what started with milling machines years ago, making the shift to a digital laboratory,” Kevin Reger, Product Manager at Cambicon explained. “The dental technicians of today, need to have basic computer skills in order to be able to model by computer instead of by hand. This enables us to make use of new materials and better technologies mproving the end result in thus creating a better product for the patient.”

possibilities around three years ago, the company now uses a Way2Production SolFlex Plus 3D printer to produce splints in a more time and cost effective way. “Splints that have been designed once virtually and printed are reproducible,” Kevin continued. “That means that the same splint can be printed over and over again in the case that the patient loses or breaks it. That possibility reduces time and effort for the dentist, technician and the patients.” The desktop stereolithography system developed by the Austria-based company, features a patented VDFS (Vat Deﬂection Feedback System) that monitors and controls the separation

The most common applications at Cambicon are dental models and splints, swapping out products which have traditionally been made by hand, to using intra-oral scanning and milling to improve quality. After beginning to experiment with 3D printing

process to reduce manufacturing by up to 40%. As “time is a big factor” in the dental sector, according to Kevin, the reduction can be game-changing for an independent business wanting to deliver high-quality, custom products to patients. The SolFlex range is also engineered to be open so users can apply their own preferred materials including clear, transparent, biocompatible, and filled resins to produce night guards, drilling templates and patient-specific models. Kevin explains that whilst digital is starting to infiltrate the dental sector, the initial investment and upkeep with material expense and time does prevent some dental labs and practices from being able to get started, suggesting that an improved digital workﬂow and lower consumable costs will ultimately make going digital, “the only right decision”. For smaller and medium sized businesses this accessibility will ultimately allow them to stay competitive and turn a profit. Similar to the adoption of milling machines, Kevin believes for laboratories, the 3D printer will eventually become a “normal and necessary” tool.

“3D PRINTING CHANGES THE WAY WE WORK” - CAMBICON

SHOWN: FORMLABS DENTAL LT CLEAR SPLINTS

www.structo3d.com

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MATERIALS

MAKING IT MATTER

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HP HAS EMBARKED ON A QUEST TO REINVENT MANUFACTURING WITH ITS ‘TRULY DISRUPTIVE’ MULTI JET FUSION SYSTEM. THE COMPANY STANDS AS ONE OF THE GIANTS OF TECHNOLOGY, WORTH AROUND $50BN. DUE TO THOSE RICHES, THE $6BN 3D PRINTING MARKET HAS NEVER BEEN ALL THAT APPEALING. THE $12TRN MANUFACTURING ONE, HOWEVER… WOR D S : SAM DAVIES

othing has really changed in manufacturing for about 100 hundred years,” HP CEO, Dion Weisler said at the company’s Reinventing Manufacturing joint event with Deloitte on 24th August 2017. “There’s a meaningful way to make a very broad impact on the way companies all around the world design, procure, manufacture and deliver their products to customers. “When you 3D print, complexity is free. That enables you to change the design in a very different way, and so now companies all around the world can think very differently about how they manufacture in the future.” The cornerstone of these efforts to disrupt manufacturing – Weisler hopes in a similar vein to Netﬂix’s disruption of media and Amazon’s disruption of retail – is its Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) 3D printer, backed by the Open Applications and Materials Lab which launched this Spring in Corvallis, Oregon. The size of the task at hand is best exemplified in the comparison of material selection between 3D printing and injection molding. “If you look at how the world works today with injection molding, there are tens of thousands of materials. Maybe even more than that – 50,000,” begins Dr Tim Weber, Head of the Open Applications and Materials Lab. “And people who aren’t engineers and who haven’t played in that space [might ask] ‘why are there so many materials?’ It’s because each material company tailors a material for a specific application, for a specific customer.” It is a widely-held opinion that material selection has held additive manufacturing back. It forms one of six ‘strategy levers’ that will help HP ‘unlock the market’ (others include product capabilities; material

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above: HP OPEN MATERIALS LAB price; design for additive; supply chain; and standards and regulations). While HP is a daring, confident and ambitious company, it’s also a self-aware one. Rather than go it alone in a state of hubris, it has recruited the likes of BASF; Evonik; Arkema; and Henkel to work in the Open Applications and Materials Lab to develop materials for its MJF platform. “Four or five materials is not going to cut it. We need thousands of materials,” stresses Weber. “This is where the open materials platform was born. There’s no way we have the resources to do that. Materials companies have been doing it for years and years on their own, and we got to the point where we want to have an open materials platform, and let materials companies do what they’ve done, which is tailor materials for their specific applications.” Participation in the lab is expected to grow quickly and significantly.

“FOUR OR FIVE MATERIALS IS NOT GOING TO CUT IT. WE NEED THOUSANDS OF MATERIALS.”

Weber says HP is confident another ten companies will sign up and is in communication with a further 40 after that. Currently, on any given day, you can expect between 10 and 20 people in the lab carrying out tests and other experimentations. Color-coded lab coats are used to differentiate between companies, designed to avoid any accidental spillages of information that might compromise respective intellectual properties. It’s a controlled environment, but an unconstrained one. 

MATERIALS ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

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HP is keen to emulate the Apple App Store, giving developers the creative freedom to produce materials they feel will be purposeful. Weber’s team will then certify it through its Materials Development Kit, making sure the MJF system supports it, and it meets certain quality and reliability standards. The Materials Development Kit is a multi-step process thought up by HP to standardize the results of the research and development taking place in the lab. The first step will see the material developer make a batch of 100g to make sure it can be turned into a powder and spread. Then, the company will need to produce around 5 kg of the material for a simple fusing test in a powder bed of 6 inches cubed. If it is compatible with the MJF system, and its fusing and detailing agents, the material can be tested on the third step after a few iterations to make clear what the melt and crystallization points are. This third phase sees 50 kg of the material tested against the Material Build Unit, Weber’s team assessing how it runs through the delivery system – refinements may be needed at this stage. Finally, if the material has come through the three steps, between 500 kg and 1,000 kg will be run through an MJF 4200 and parts will be printed. Though the concept is in place, Weber says the Materials Development Kit still needs stabilizing. It is partly the reason why HP won’t set time frames against its

“THAT’S WHERE THE POWER OF THE CERTIFICATION PROGRAM WILL COME IN. I EXPECT COMPANIES TO DO THOSE VARIATIONS WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS AND I THINK WE’LL SEE AN EXPONENTIAL GROWTH OF MATERIALS AS WE MOVE AHEAD.” Materials Roadmap. The company has released a brief insight into some of the material types it is looking to release. Nine branches are displayed, covering the PA12 High Reusability that is already available, as well as elastomers, polyamides, thermoplastics, commodity plastics, and high-performance materials. Each of these types or ‘platforms’ as Weber refers to them, will have some variations each tailored to specific applications. “You can imagine as we have stabilized our business, as we have stabilized our hardware, and we’ve learned to certify, we’ll start to see a lot of variations, first of the polyamides,” Weber expands. “We will sooner than later introduce a number of elastomers, probably GPE, GPU, polyurethane – we are working on some low-cost manufacturing material that will be coming out shortly. We’re not throwing a date out there, but they are on their way, being delivered in the building I am in today, as we speak.” The segment of HP’s roadmap revealed to the public gives a fair reﬂection of what is to be developed in the Open Applications and

Materials Lab, but doesn’t quite tell the whole story. Moving forward, and in addition to the many variations of each platform, Weber expects to see more work done on colored materials – even white – which will do away with the ‘Any color as long as its black’ policy it has borrowed from early 20th century Ford. He also confirms HP’s partners are exploring conductive inks to enable the printing of circuit boards; static charge dissipation of plastics to prevent charges building up in electrical parts; and in HP Labs in Palo Alto, investigations are taking place in relation to metals and ceramics. Together, they all contribute to an extensive roadmap and a potentially prolific 3D printing material development program: “We can probably do a couple of new platforms a year, but the ability to do many, many variations for those at the same time,” concludes Weber. “That’s where the power of the certification program will come in. I expect companies to do those variations with their customers and I think we’ll see an exponential growth of materials as we move ahead.” An approach HP believes will help to reinvent manufacturing.

TOP: CHECKING

THE SPREADABILITY OF NEW POWDER

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materials

common misconception of 3D printing is that the industry just uses what raw material is needed having zero waste. While it is true, the industry uses significantly fewer materials than subtractive processes, anybody who has operated a selective laser sintering (SLS) machine will tell you that waste is a huge problem. “SLS materials must be refreshed at rates of between 33% to 50%,” says Dr Sören Grießbach Managing Director of GS Pro GmbH. “Not refreshing or refreshing with less virgin powder can cause inappropriate parts. On average, SLS builds yield or consume about 6-8% of the powder in a whole part cake, losing approximately 25-40% of the unfilled PA12 powder because suggested refresh rates are around 50% part cake material. A mid-frame machine has an average throughput of about 1 kg/h meaning that 0.25-0.4 kg of waste is created per hour. Production machines run about 5,000 h/year, potentially losing 1.3-2 tonnes per machine per year. “In financial terms, this translates to throwing away about 60,000-120,000EUR per year.” For companies like Digits2Widgets, a UK based service bureau that prides itself on its powder refresh rates, it isn’t just the cost of the waste material; there’s a cost for collection and disposal. “Used powder is considered hazardous both regarding the inhalation of fine particles and also because it’s highly combustible,” says Design Director at Digits2Widgets, Jonathan Rowley telling the cautionary tale of exploding windmills when the miller lit a pipe, igniting the ﬂour particles in the air. “We accumulate the waste powder until our designated storage area is full. We then order a collection, and the disposal costs a couple of hundred pounds about four times a year.” Dr Sören Grießbach’s company, GS Pro has been working on a proprietary remanufacturing process from their Chemnitz, Germany base, which seeks to improve this wastage issue. “Our recycled powders and associated process parameters can create parts with superior mechanical properties as compared to OEM powders,” Says Sören. “GS Pro refines powder for repeated use, and there are several ways to use

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it. It’s possible to use standalone refined powder or to create a closed loop of material use and recycling.

the part cake gets saved, sent for remanufacturing and the customer gets their recycled powder back to use as virgin powder, with no wastage.”

“Instead of mixing in 50% virgin powder it is possible to reduce that amount down to 10-15% by using 35-40% refined powder alongside regular overﬂow, and part cake blend.”

As well as a reduction in your carbon footprint, other benefits include less outgassing and condensation of vaporized polymers on filters, sensors and lenses, potentially extending a machine run time between service calls. But, material properties are the number one priority for end-users, how do GS Pro’s refined materials compare?

GS Pro has been working with clients across the globe for the past eight years to establish some best practice when using refined powders. The technology is verified to work on 3D Systems SLS machines including its HiQ, higher speed range and recent test results have proven the possibility to run it on EOS and Farsoon systems. “Some customers run 100% refined powder mixed with overﬂow powder for the best surface finish, part quality and mechanical properties,” explains Sören. “The benefits include the ability to eliminate the sieving of the part cake powder and because our system is a closed loop process

“The values for impact strength and Elongation at break are approximately two times higher than regular OEM nylon 12,” says Sören. “Not only are we able to attain higher peak values, but we can also get more stable material characteristics and part quality across the entire build. With our fully tested machine parameters, it is now possible to build parts with stable quality even at cold spots of the part bed.”

Density

Tensile Strength

Young Modulus

Charpy impact strength

Units

g/ccm

MPa

kJ/m²

Datasheets by 3D/EOS

0,95-1,00

43-48

1.600-1.850

Recycled

0,98-1,02

45-52

1.600-1.900

>100

ABOVE: GS PRO’S MATERIAL MECHANICAL BEHAVIORS

SHOWN: ISO-TENSILE BAR MADE OF PA12-RC ON SPRO60HD-HS BY 3D SYSTEMS

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ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

REMANUFACTURING SINTERING MATERIAL

MATERIALS

THE POWDER PERSPECTIVE

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shown: CONTAMINATION SCREENING AT LPW USING SEM AND EDX ANALYSIS

DANIEL O’CONNOR EXPLORES HOW LPW ARE PICKING UP THE BATON WHEN IT COMES TO TRACEABILITY OF METAL POWDERS FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING.

n July 19th, 1989 United Airlines Flight 232 departed Denver, Colorado bound for Chicago with 296 souls on board. One hour and seven minutes into the ﬂight, during a shallow right turn at 37,000 feet, the fan disk of the DC-10’s tail-mounted engine disintegrated. The plane lost all hydraulics, and the captain declared an emergency to air traﬃc control. With the odds stacked against them, the crew attempted to land the aircraft on runway 22 at Sioux City, Iowa, traveling and descending almost at double the speed as would be required for a safe landing. The plane’s right wing hit the runway first causing the vehicle to cartwheel landing upside down and immediately catching fire. Remarkably the actions of the crew and emergency services on the ground meant 185 lives were saved; there were 111 fatalities. The National Transportation Safety Board identified the cause of the accident as a failure by United Airlines maintenance processes and personnel to detect an existing fatigue crack. That fatigue crack, however, resulted from a microscopic contamination

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of tungsten in the titanium used to make the engine’s fan disk. Contamination of this kind keeps Dr. Phil Carrol, CEO of LPW, up at night: “If you go into some powder mills making nickel and steel alloys, it is like going back 100 years, there’s a wakeup call required. Within the titanium powder that people are using for their additive manufacturing (AM) processes today, there are risks around tungsten contamination.” A PHARMACEUTICAL PHILOSOPHY The tungsten contamination conversation was brought on by a recent visit to LPW’s soon to be former HQ in Runcorn, UK. Upon entering, at reception, we were asked to hand in any ball-point pens. Ball-point pens often contain, you guessed it, tungsten. This level of thoroughness makes its way past reception throughout the premises as a whole. “At LPW, we’re taking a pharma mindset and putting that into powder manufacturing environment so that we don’t have a repeat of the DC-10 incident in AM,” explains Phil. “We need to instill a clean-room discipline and develop a culture with all our employees to think about contamination at all times.”

Dr. Phil Carrol attained his Ph.D. in Alloy Development from the University of Sheﬃeld. After working with companies like Siemens, TWI and Trumpf developing machines and AM processes, Phil realized that no matter how good the hardware and processes were if the materials weren’t consistent, parts never could be. Phil has a mantra, which if you meet him he’ll be sure to repeat, it’s a slightly less clean version of, ‘you get out what you put in.’ He set up LPW to ensure what was going in was good enough for stringent aerospace qualifications. Since employee number two, hired in 2012, the company has grown to 90 employees and within the next 12 months is predicting to have upwards of 200 members of staff on board, dotted in locations across the globe. “The numbers miss a couple of subtle points,” explains Phil. “It has been a challenge to grow from a consultancy of a couple of engineers with PhDs through to all the skills you need to run a lean manufacturing facility that makes powders, develops software and manufactures hardware.” 

MATERIALS

A significant challenge for Phil and his ever-growing team is the fact that nobody has done this before, everything LPW is doing from its array of materials called PowderRange to its material lifecycle solution, PowderLife, is brand-new R&D. “In traditional manufacturing, a company would buy material, get a certificate of conformance to say the material is good, they’d go off and use it, and that’s it,” states Phil. “The difference for metal AM is that the economics only work with the reuse of the material. “The elephant in the room for AM is the powder surrounding the part during build; it changes, and it can degrade. For example, some [of the powder] might pick up oxygen; a higher oxygen content means a stronger but more brittle material. If you’re making a paperweight, nobody cares, but if you’re in production, you need a component to have consistency no matter if the powder is used once or used ten times.” To achieve said consistency Phil believes the solution lies in PowderLife, LPW’s platform consists of five products; PowderTrace - a hopper for controlled metal powder storage and transport; PowderEye sensors to measure powder condition; PowderFlow - a simple powder ﬂow measurement kit; and PowerLab - LPW’s analytical testing and consultancy services. All of which provide data for powder lifecycle management software, PowderSolve. “With PowderLife, operations teams have the benefit of traceability,” says Phil. “The second benefit is that data generated by PowderEye means you can start to do predictive trends, you can start

to see before the material goes out of specification before making a part, saving a lot of time and money.” FUTUREPROOFING A keyword in Phil’s quote is data. In a world where GE is bringing its “Brilliant Factories” to fruition complete with digitization at every juncture, firms will begin to require their entire supply chain to be ‘smart.’ As a materials supplier with a complete monitored solution and a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade in its trophy cabinet, LPW looks to be way out ahead of the competition, and Phil believes big data will be the driver for further success. “In the consumer world, we’ve talked about the use of big data with Apple, Facebook and Google trying to utilize our data to sell us products,” says Phil. “In an industrial environment, it is harder to integrate because you’ve got the encumbrance of big machinery that you’ve

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

A SMART SOLUTION

spent a lot of money on and it’s not just about putting sensors in left, right and center you have to change cultures. “But AM and specifically us at LPW we can get that right from the outset. We’re building a new factory; we’re not inheriting a powder atomization factory that has been there for ten or twenty years, we’re building an AM materials plant, specifically to be digital.” There’s a further benefit to gathering data at every step, by monitoring processes and analyzing trends the ability to develop new alloys is significantly improved. In August this year, LPW announced a Royal Academy of Engineering fellowship with Professor Pedro Rivera of Lancaster University - a world leader in alloy development. Phil believes that the data gathered will help this LPW / Royal Academy of Engineering Chair develop statistical models, which consider powder size, composition, and atmospheric conditions, as well as component properties, like strength and ductility, allowing for the creation of robust processing parameters and novel alloys. All this points to a rosy future for manufacturing in the UK, but Phil offers a word of warning about the current state of AM affairs: “It is important the focus, for now, should be about doing what we do now with more stability. Everybody talks about production, but there are very few in full production. So let’s iron out the creases and deliver on the hype, let’s walk before we can run.” We can start by handing our ball-point pens in at the door.

RIGHT: LPW’S

POWDERTRACE SMART HOPPER DESIGNED EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE TRANSPORT AND STORAGE OF METAL AM POWDERS

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023

A GLOBAL LEADER IN METAL AM

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materials

WOR D S : Cath r yn Lang ley, As s o c i at e P r odu ct M anag er – A n a ly t i c a l Im ag ing , M alver n Ins t ru m e n t s

hen additive manufacturing (AM) was in its infancy, developing a machine that could ‘print’ a component was challenging enough, and the focus was very much on reaching a point where the hardware was commercially viable. However, those working at the forefront of AM soon realized that the hardware was only half the story; the powder was equally important. As the knowledge base grew, it became evident that existing metal powder supplies did not serve the AM market. Today we understand far more about how to identify, optimize, manufacture and recycle metal powders for AM, and indeed the critical role that advancing this understanding will play in our realization of the full potential of the technology. SO, WHY DO AM POWDERS NEED TO BE DIFFERENT? As AM moves from a design and prototyping technology to a manufacturing support tool, it is being exploited more and more for metal applications. In particular, its ability to produce complex parts in a single piece, without design constraints, has attracted many industries to its promise.

fuel nozzles for the GE LEAP engine are 25% lighter and five times more durable than the previous part – making them a highly attractive choice. In these challenging applications, however, powder selection, production and quality are of critical importance. Depending on which AM process and machine is used to create a part, the powder used will be subjected to different ﬂow, stress and processing regimes. Ensuring the raw material can stand up to the job is the difference between metal AM success and failure.

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

OPTIMIZING METAL POWDERS FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

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AUTHOR BIO: Cathryn joined the diffraction and imaging development team at Malvern Instruments in 2012 after completing her PhD studies in Chemistry at the University of Oxford. She has recently taken up a new position as Associate Product Manager for Malvern’s Analytical Imaging and Laser Diffraction products following an 18 month secondment at Malvern Japan.

YOU’VE MADE YOUR POWDER BED, NOW LIE IN IT!

POWDER PERFECTION IS ESSENTIAL

Powder bed AM processes involve construction of the component on a progressively retracting platform, with a fresh layer of powder spread across the bed following the selective fusing of specified areas. A roller spreads the exposed powder across the bed to create a thin, uniform layer around 20 to 50 microns in depth. A cycle of spreading, melting and fractional platform retraction is repeated, up to thousands of times, to build the finished component, layer-by-layer.

Current AM machines offer little opportunity for any form of responsive control, meaning that inconsistent input material properties will translate directly into inconsistent finished component properties. Reduced powder quality can produce defects in the end part including pores, cracks, inclusions, residual stresses and sub-optimal surface roughness, as well as compromising throughput. 

In the aerospace and automotive sectors where part failure risk is everyone’s nemesis, delivering metal parts that have consistent strength throughout can be a real advantage. For example, AM-produced

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025

Welcome to

Manufacturing

UNBOUND Arcam brings together best-in-class additive manufacturing systems, the highest quality materials, and real-world production expertise, changing the way manufacturers conceive and produce metal components. As the leading provider for titanium additive manufacturing solutions, we use our collective knowledge to inspire and disrupt conventional thinking for production. Welcome to manufacturing unbound. Welcome to Arcam.

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Part of the Arcam Group

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materials ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

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Beyond chemistry, it is the physical characteristics of a metal powder that define AM performance. These characteristics include both bulk properties of the powder and properties of the individual metal particles. Key bulk properties are packing density and flowability. Powders that pack consistently well to give a high density are associated with the production of components with fewer flaws and consistent quality. The ability to spread evenly and smoothly across a bed, to form a uniform layer with no air voids is essential – and this, the flowability of the powder, is also critical. Both bulk density and flowability are directly, though not exclusively, influenced by particle size and shape. METAL POWDER ANALYSIS Particle size distribution and morphology data to help determine packing density and flowability can be measured using laser diffraction and automated imaging techniques. Laser diffraction measures particle size distributions by measuring the angular variation in intensity of light scattered as a laser beam passes through a dispersed particulate sample. Large particles scatter light at small angles relative to the laser

beam and small particles scatter light at large angles. The angular scattering intensity data is then analyzed to calculate the size of the particles responsible for creating the scattering pattern, using the

“UP TO ONETHIRD OF THE PRODUCTION COST OF AN AM COMPONENT IS THE COST OF THE POWDER USED, WITH COMMERCIAL VIABILITY RESTING ON ESTABLISHING A ROBUST SUPPLY CHAIN AND EFFICIENT POWDER RECYCLING STRATEGIES.”

Mie theory of light scattering. The particle size is reported as a volume equivalent sphere diameter. Automated imaging systems capture tens of thousands of particle images

in just a few minutes and, from these, generate statistically valid size and shape distributions which can be used to characterise particle morphology in a more precise, objective and robust way than is achievable with, for example, Scanning Electron Microscopy. Those involved in metal AM, including powder suppliers, machine manufacturers and end users, are well advised to use these technologies to ensure the characteristics of the powders they select will meet their end part requirements. FUELLING THE AM REVOLUTION Up to one-third of the production cost of an AM component is the cost of the powder used, with commercial viability resting on establishing a robust supply chain and eﬃcient powder recycling strategies. It can be a real challenge to establish specifications for AM metal powders, especially when their application is broadening every day. Many savvy players are turning to complementary analytical techniques, such as laser diffraction and advanced automated image analysis, to identify and specify suitable powders, optimize AM processes, monitor batch consistency, implement effective powder recycling strategies and achieve consistently high-quality parts. Together, if we can build a supply chain of consistent and appropriate quality, the feasibility, reliability and long-term viability of metal AM across countless industries may be closer than we think.

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“2017 IS, I HOPE, THE YEAR THAT EVERYBODY ACKNOWLEDGES THE FACT THERE IS A MASSIVE DESIGN-KNOWLEDGE DEFICIT, A MASSIVE DESIGNPROCESS DEFICIT OUT THERE. IF WE WANT TO MAKE METAL 3D PRINTING REALLY POPULAR, WE HAVE TO START GIVING COURSES ON HOW TO DESIGN USING 3D PRINTING.” – GORDON STYLES, STAR RAPID FOUNDER, SPEAKING TO TCT MAGAZINE IN DECEMBER 2016.

o be built up and then knocked down is par for the course whenever someone or something passes through the limelight. The hyperbolic estimations serve as only a future context to measure that the subject isn’t all that it was cracked up to be. It offers a new angle when the first one becomes obsolete. It leaves the subject at a crossroads, in need of a solution to return to the heady status it once enjoyed. The outcries for the educating of engineers and designers is not only cited as a reason for 3D printing not living up to the hype, it is also a product of it. It turned out the hype was ill-measured. While evangelists of the technology were predicting a printer in every home, 3D printing was about to enter a transitional phase, from a ‘hobbyist environment to a hardcore manufacturing’ one, as Gordon Styles would put it in a second interview with TCT in August 2017. There was an increased interest in 3D printing, and sales brieﬂy shot up. Now, with some manufacturers’ sales coming down by 25-40%, the industry is experiencing a hangover to its celebrity.

knowledge of the technical capabilities and implications, we can’t fulfill the potential of additive.” “PhDs and material scientists, [people from] those types of backgrounds, are paramount for innovation,” in the opinion of Paul Bates, Manager of Underwriters Laboratories’ (UL) Additive Manufacturing Competency Center and President of AMUG. “They are there to feed in to the newest development, the next step, the next technology, the next material, which is absolutely critical for additive in the long run. Also, universities and schools teaching operator techniques and skill sets – without that side of it there will be nothing to innovate for because the industry [ceases] to exist.” The call for education represents a shift in focus for the industry. Plastic processes were deemed simple enough not to need it, but the industry has been caught out supposing metal processes would be much the same. They are ‘fundamentally different’ – so much so, Styles believes mentioning them in the same breath is to do both a disservice. Now, it has been realized the approach for metal printing needs to be different.

Firstly, extra consideration must be given to the design. With plastic parts, thinner designs are printed using SLA or SLS platforms, thicker parts with multi-jet modelling technologies. If needed, supports can be used and easily removed by hand. Users can move on from inappropriate designs, without having to worry about the financial implications, or the possibility of a part falling to pieces, like with metal. “Once you’ve actually done some building you get it. You really get it. When you see a build fall apart you [realize] you made a classic mistake. And then when you’re designing later in life, you’ll know not to design it like that because the thing will fall apart. It’s practical knowledge,” reasoned Styles back in December 2016. “If people can design for the process, they can find more and more appropriate applications for metal 3D printing,” he added later. 

LATE REGISTRATION Many have concluded that education is the solution. For one, Professor John Hart, who leads MIT’s annual ‘From 3D Printing to the Factory Floor’ course and will also head a webinar titled ‘Additive Manufacturing: From Prototyping to Production’ in December. “[Education] is absolutely essential, and I base that on my understanding of the capabilities of additive manufacturing. Knowledge is the power to take action, and without the

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EDUCATION ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

in November. Meanwhile, in the last 12 months; GE Additive has invested $10m into two educational programmes; ThreeD Materials is now supporting 100 schools in the implementing and advancing of 3D printing initiatives; Jabil is tackling the ‘definite skills gap’ as Head of Additive Manufacturing, Geoffrey Doyle describes it, by conducting internal webinars to educate its designers; UL is looking to extend its education effort around the world. There are plenty more examples too. Styles is pleased with the collective effort, which goes further than his original plea for education to target the design-knowledge and process deficits, though he acknowledges the importance of not expecting too much too soon.

“In the sense of design for additive,” comments Bates, “we’re trying to look at taking advantage of what design engineering skills are already there in the student. We look at what is traditional additive manufacturing today, what are the tools you have for design, how do we re-evaluate additive, whether it’s current design or designing something from scratch for additive. What are the key stages in the process that we can affect by design? It’s one thing to design a part that does what you want it to do, and that’s pretty cool, but why don’t you design a part that takes advantage of additive manufacturing?” UL is responsible for a multi-tier training curriculum which Ricoh has harnessed and teaches at facilities in Lawrenceville, Georgia and Irvine, California. The program targets identified skills gaps in the additive industry, including focuses on design, processes, and health and safety. UL covers safety precautions with all 3D printing technologies, but in the area of metal, Bates describes the education as ‘extensive’. He feels with the risks mitigated, the technology can be used ‘very successfully.’ Those risks exist because metal machines have heated print beds and high-powered lasers, while the powders used can be explosive if exposed to oxygen or moisture. Supports can’t be removed by hand if you value your fingers. And parts are built at extremely high temperatures. “If you have these high powered, heated machines, you need to know you cannot build, for example, square horizontal holes greater than 2 mm in size, you need to know that you can’t have overhangs of 3, 4, 5 mm without them having to be supported. Then you have to start cutting those supports off, it’s not like plastic where you can tear them off with your fingers, you’ve got to get some hardcore engineering equipment to get them off,” stresses Styles. A FOR EFFORT Nine months on from Styles’ plea for education across the board, his company has successfully run the first of an initial three Metal 3D Printing Training workshops. Days earlier, EOS had announced an expansion of its Additive Manufacturing Academia Programme – the ‘Scientist’ grade seeing a greater focus on metal powders. Additionally, the German company has partnered with the IESE Business School to provide a program on AM and other technologies under the Industry 4.0 umbrella.

“I think [the progress] is excellent,” he assessed. “What you’ll find is as people leave universities and go out into the real world you’ll see that inﬂux of experience with how to design with 3D printing, but that might take five, ten, 15 years until we see that effect.” ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL While it might be reassuring to see an industry-wide commitment to education falling into place – something International Strategy reports have recommended – it can’t be relied on unilaterally. Across the pond, Tim Minshall, the Head of the Center for Technology Management, Department of Engineering, Cambridge University, is calling for greater communication between innovators and educators. In 2016, the UK National Strategy for Additive Manufacturing found standardization and characterization of AM processes to be the biggest problem faced by the industry, ahead of education. 

“KNOWLEDGE IS THE POWER TO TAKE ACTION, AND WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES AND IMPLICATIONS, WE CAN’T FULFILL THE POTENTIAL OF ADDITIVE.” - PROFESSOR JOHN HART

Added Scientific followed suit with a series of additive manufacturing (AM) courses, one of which will have an in-depth look at metal 3D printing

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The problem stems from players in the AM space being reluctant to share information for fear of losing a competitive edge. In turn, Minshall suspects industrial companies are likely to continue with traditional manufacturing methods, where decades of data can showcase their capabilities, rather than risk a lesser-known quantity in AM. It has an indirect impact on the education that is offered to designers and engineers. There are worries some educational courses are obsolete, with educators struggling to keep up with the fast-paced developments of AM technologies. “The problem is the technology has not completely stabilized. It’s continuing to evolve quite rapidly,” Minshall offers. “Whatever you’re teaching, you need to be aware that it is going to be different in the future. That’s a problem with any emerging technology, but particularly of additive.”

the people defining the standards for the technology engaged in this. We need to have the people who are designing these education programs talking to the people who are defining the standards. We need to have the people who are developing the technologies talking to the people doing the standards and the education. I could go on, but it’s having a joined-up approach because as soon as you break that chain, as soon as people start going off and doing things separately, that’s when problems will occur.” He also believes educating people on how to use the technology is an obvious and necessary service, but it needs to span wider than that, to the business side as well as the technical side. People need to know when to use additive, as well as how. They need to know what the technology can realistically do, and how it could fit into their business model.

understanding of how additive works and it can be incremental or massively disruptive, that leads to all sorts of benefits.” Bates, meanwhile, outlines that UL will continue to create additive manufacturing courses because the need will always be there, no matter how much the industry grows. They will cover the broad aspects of 3D printing, from design to processes. UL is committed to keeping its education offering as up to date as it can, ensuring the students gain the ability to harness AM safely and productively, and encourages the industry to do the same. Partner, Ricoh is determined to broaden minds as it looks to the future. “There’s a saying in education: ‘Teach how to think, not what to think.’ That applies in AM training, too,” said Hess. “We can teach tomorrow’s AM engineers current best practices and use cases, but by giving them a strong foundation in the complex, rich capabilities of AM, education gives engineers the tools to look at hurdles and goals from all angles and find new and exciting ways to address them, because they will know AM inside and out. Putting a generation of well-educated AM engineers out into the world creates countless opportunities for innovation.”

Ryan Hess, Additive Manufacturing Strategy Leader, Service Advantage, Ricoh USA, concurs: “One of the biggest challenges with educating designers and engineers in this space is the pace at which technology evolves. Courses must be constantly updated, or they will quickly start to become outdated, and thus of no use to those who need it most.”

“[AM] has enormous potential in lots of different areas,” Minshall stresses, “but the fact is we need to be training people in the core knowledge. If they have the core

The solution, Minshall suggests is “taking a joined-up approach. We need to have

“WHATEVER YOU’RE TEACHING, YOU NEED TO BE AWARE THAT IT IS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT IN THE FUTURE.” - TIM MINSHALL

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3DP IN BOSTON

3D PRINTING EN MASS. WOR D S : Lau r a G r if f ith s

s if Carol Hardy and I hadn’t filled our yearly quota of time spent in an Uber back in January (CES Las Vegas to LA - the road trip that never was), we decided to head back to the U.S. this past Summer, this time to Boston, where the Ubers are in abundance and 3D printing companies are aplenty. Additive manufacturing is everywhere in Massachusetts (MA). Whether in industrial estates across its neighbouring towns, or in the window of a University of Boston lab, it’s almost as prevalent as Harvard paraphernalia and seafood restaurants. Our first stop was Arcam, the metal additive manufacturing leader that made headlines last year thanks to a major 76% acquisition from GE as it laid the foundations for its new GE Additive vertical. Known for its Electron Beam Melting process, the Swedish-founded company has been around since 1997 and offers a range of metal systems specifically designed for the manufacture of enduse orthopaedic and aerospace components. The transition for Arcam following the GE purchase is an ongoing process. We arrive at the facility shortly after Arcam reported the sale of ten of its systems to the company, further solidifying the engineering giant’s commitment. Arcam has recently undergone a rebrand, adopting GE blue, and together with Concept Laser, the other firm to be acquired by GE for a sum of $1.4 billion, will have one of the biggest spots on the show ﬂoor at formnext powered by TCT this year. Arcam truly is a global operation. In the space of an hour we cover activity in China, UK, Europe and the U.S, including China’s first certified orthopaedic part produced using EBM and the role Arcam is playing in the new GE Additive Engineering Services. Lots to keep a close watch on over the next year as the company ramps up its activity as a GE Company. Across the way is industry newbie Rize. The tech may be new but the team behind it boasts a level of experience most startups could only dream of. In January the company introduced the Rize One oﬃce-friendly printer promising true functional prototypes with limited post-processing thanks to a unique Augmented Polymer Deposition process

ABOVE: OUTSIDE RIZE 3D HEADQUARTERS

BELOW: FORMLABS

HARDWARE INNOVATION

that creates a layer between print and support, meaning supports can literally be popped off - it is an oddly satisfying process. We took a tour around the lab with Julie Reece and the company’s new President, Eugene Giller. As one of its founders, Eugene has temporarily taken the reigns following the departure of Frank Marangell (now President of BigRep America) in May while the company continues an executive search for a permanent CEO. Rize is purely interested in the industrial plastics space which it believes represents the bulk of the market at around 80%. Within that, it’s ideal for mechanical assemblies, spare parts, tooling and low volume custom parts. It could benefit a range of industries, particularly medical due to the safety of the material and process, and also applications where the printer would enable field-based

on-demand manufacture for parts that can be labelled using its durable blue ink functionality. A closer look at the machine, and a quick peek behind the scenes, shows that the Rize One has been smartly built with room for upgrades. Whether that’s color or possibly electronics due to its unique blend of FDM and inkjet, the roadmap for the near future is very open. In Cambridge, Dutch desktop printer manufacturer Ultimaker is putting its latest family of 3D printers through its paces with a range of functional materials. Ultimaker has only been in the U.S.

“RIZE IS PURELY INTERESTED IN THE INDUSTRIAL PLASTICS SPACE WHICH IT BELIEVES REPRESENTS THE BULK OF THE MARKET AT 80%.”

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The Ultimaker 3 line, launched towards the end of 2016, represents the biggest portion of the company’s sales and much of that is a result of this surge in industrial customers including Jabil and Volkswagen, which Kawola says has made the desktop become a “serious contender” in the space (full interview in TCT Europe 25.5). In contrast to the other companies we visit during our stay, family - owned business, Armstrong Mold doesn’t manufacture machines but it sure knows how to use them. We were met by Vice President, Paul Armstrong and Marjorie Finer, VP New Business, who took us on a whistle stop tour of Boston before we sat down to chat at the company’s new oﬃce in Hingham, MA. Armstrong has a long history of craftsmanship behind it and will be

celebrating its 50th anniversary next year. Blending tradition with technology, it has never been adverse to trying new things in terms of the latest manufacturing technology. Paul tells us Armstrong was the first company in the state to buy an SLA system and now operates a close-to-100,000 square feet production facility at its New York headquarters for short-run manufacturing of metal and plastic components. The evolution of the company can be seen in the examples of handcrafted wooden pieces, a highly-skilled process, which has now evolved to modern techniques

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

for little over three years and the MA oﬃce, its third in the country, is manned by a small team of 12. We sat down with Ultimaker North America President, John Kawola to talk expansion, the Ultimaker 3 and its growing roster of industrial customers that are showing there is more to the desktop than trinkets and consumers.

having spent the 1990s primarily focusing on its rapid prototyping business. Now with multiple stereolithography technologies under its belt, it facilitates production for some major brands, all of which are kept on the quiet, including some in the Boston area. We will be covering more from Armstrong next year in honour of its milestone anniversary. This was a trip of serious office envy and a visit to Formlabs had us ready to hand in our resumes thanks to an R2D2 at reception, staff polaroids on the fridge and cute dogs hanging around the office. The Formlabs’ building is huge with multiple levels of office space and a workshop on the ground floor where its new Fuse 1 selective laser sintering system was going through its final stages of development before it becomes available for general sale later this year. After launching to the industry in June with a system that came as a complete surprise for the desktop stereolithography leader, it was great to see the machine in person and hear about the company’s plans to disrupt the industry all over again with an affordable and reliable SLS solution. The Formlabs story is one of crowdfunding success. Just five years ago the little-known Somerville company launched its Form 1 printer, raising almost $3 million on Kickstarter and the story of its iteration decorates the walls of its current home where various development pieces of the Form 1 are displayed. Now it’s out to try something new and from the application examples we saw on our trip including a set of flexible headphones printed in nylon on the Fuse 1, it could lower the barriers to industrial 3D printing even further. 

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Split between oﬃce space and a production facility for a team of around 150 people, the workshop tells a story of how Desktop Metal’s Studio and Production Systems came to be with everything from software to sintering equipment all in development under one roof. There are a row of machines, both desktop and industrial, that the team use to to test and prototype and a selection of beta Studio units which are used to test parts for potential customers, of which there is already a lengthy queue lining up to be the first to get their hands on the system. For a company that has only just unveiled its technology, and already has been named in the MIT Technology Review’s list of 50 Smartest Companies (and most recently, TCT Rising Star), it will be interesting to see how those customers start implementing the technology when machines begin shipping. New systems are all fair and good but some of the most interesting stories in the industry are of users applying these technologies in real world applications. A fantastic example and our last stop before we headed home was Reebok where of course there was a full scale running track circling its sprawling campus.

cut and there is a diverse compilation of prototypes on display in the lab that range from the experimental to the downright strange. But that’s the beauty of 3D printing in this environment, you can go a little crazy and for those designs that do make it, Carlos says it’s rewarding to see those shoes eventually go to retail. The work here is not all about the general consumer and Reebok has had some interesting partnerships with string of famous names thanks to its former contract with the NFL and one that was a little more from the left field, a project with musician, Alicia Keys. The lab was involved in making a metal belt clip for the singer which was originally intended for direct metal printing. A quick run through the Objet machine followed by electroplating saved around 50% on production costs compared to a direct metal printed version. Plus we got a closer look at the the Reebok Checklight, an impact indicator worn on the head to provide a visible display of impact severity, which took around four-years of development, relying heavily on 3D printing to put prototypes through around 15,000 drop tests.

ACCELERATING 3D TECHNOLOGIES

Oﬃce-envy round two arrived in the shape of Desktop Metal’s Burlington oﬃce where there’s a comprehensive production area and a stage for TED Talk-style presentations. This encapsulates the company itself (bold but with the goods to back it up) which for the last two years has been teasing its revolutionary new technology that could change the metal AM game, supported by serious investment - over $210 million to date - from the likes of GV, GE Ventures and BMW. Validating the hype is a team is made up of leaders and engineers from software to robotics and beyond, who have been working behind the scenes since 2015, to ensure that this technology lives up to its claims. On its launch at RAPID + TCT it certainly appeared to and our visit showed how much the company has grown substantially since then as it gets ready to start shipping machines.

is a model example of what happens when that is put into play. Our trip was merely a snapshot of the 3D activity happening here and that’s before you even begin looking at the software collective with the likes of SolidWorks and OnShape calling Massachusetts home. With big names gravitating to the area, and startups taking their first steps in MIT labs, that community can only continue to ﬂourish.

BELOW: DESKTOP METAL HQ

Reebok is in the process of moving its HQ to central Boston where it will have a rapid prototyping space including a room dedicated to powder technologies and another for resins. In terms of any future tech installations, Carlos says ﬂexible multi-color is high on the wish list. Reﬂecting on the journey home, the university legacy in the area means it’s no surprise that Boston is a hotspot for innovation. In our last issue, John Hart, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, suggested that academic institutions have a critical role to play in driving the AM industry forward and Boston

Reebok has been using rapid prototyping for two decades and at the helm of its Rapid Prototyping Lab is long-time friend of TCT, Gary Rabinovitz, alongside Rapid Prototyping Specialist, Carlos Bolanos. Carlos gave us an all access tour of the lab which is equipped with Z Corporation and Stratasys machines, and its latest installation the Carbon M1. The MA facility is purely focussed on prototyping. Not every design makes the

SHOWN: REEBOK

PROTOTYPING LAB

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grimm column

GUIDANCE FOR THE NEW SHERPA WOR DS : TODD G R IM M

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

n previous columns and presentations, I have promoted the idea of finding a Sherpa to assist in navigating the diverse and ever-changing additive manufacturing (AM) landscape. Based on feedback, it seems that this concept has resonated with those tasked with finding the right solution. However, the overwhelming pace of change that dictates the need for a Sherpa may, in turn, lead to an overwhelming and daunting task for those newly appointed to this role. It is often asked, “How do I get started?” The path is simple, but far from easy — there are no shortcuts to uncovering an ideal solution for your AM needs. As the navigator of AM options, the Sherpa must be observant, inquisitive, vigilant and diligent. Start with what is known and expand the knowledge base by asking questions and being on the lookout for any alternatives. I also recommend that the Sherpa be both pragmatic and optimistic. The Sherpa is responsible for the investigation but does not need to be the sole source of fact-finding. Instead, enlist the resources of others and befriend credible, likeminded outsiders that are also investigating AM. Another aspect of pragmatism is to have a goal of finding the perfect solution but being realistic in accepting an answer that is good enough. Without this balance, it is easy to fall into the trap of paralysis by analysis. When trying to chart a course, you must know where you want to go. For the AM Sherpa, this means that you must start with an understanding of the target applications and associated requirements. This information is then used as a filter through which all technologies that you discover pass. Whether an alternative passes

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through or is filtered out, use it as a springboard for exploring other solutions. Now the Sherpa is ready to discover all of the potential AM candidates. My recommendation is to begin by becoming familiar with ASTM’s classifications of AM technologies. A high-level understanding of the general characteristics of each class can narrow the scope in which to invest time for investigation. For example, if you are not interested in metals or photopolymers, you can immediately disregard anything in the directed energy deposition and vat photopolymerization classes. However, note that within each class there can be many permutations, which creates subsets of capabilities. Also note that while many AM companies use the ASTM class names to categorize their technology, just as many do not. For the research phase, you will want to both go to the information and let it come to you. For the latter, subscribe to AM publications, and AM news feeds. As a reader of TCT Magazine, you have the publication aspect covered, but you may want to consider other magazines as well. For news feeds, in addition to TCT’s AdditiveInsight, I use Google Alerts, TenLinks and 3D Printing Industry. As the news comes at you, give a quick look at each item and pass it through your requirements filter. Going to the information will require travel to trade shows. I

recommend starting with shows that are focused on AM. These will bring a large number of AM suppliers to one location, allowing you to get a feel for what is out there in a general context. Depending on your industry and application, you may also elect to visit a show that caters to these while also having AM representation. You will not get as broad of a view at these shows, but those that exhibit are likely to be a bit more aligned to your needs. Regardless of the show type, walk the ﬂoor with the intent of absorbing as much information as you can and ask as many questions as possible. Also eavesdrop, a conversation between the supplier and another attendee may give you insight into the questions you should be asking or an idea of competitive technologies. For the shows, you cannot visit, visit their websites for a listing of exhibitors that are in the AM space; this can provide company names to add to your list for further investigation. In this same vein, you could also turn to online databases like those from Aniwaa or Senvol. However, don’t think that a repository of equipment will make the journey comfortable. With the breadth and depth of alternatives, it is diﬃcult to keep the information up to date and impossible to characterize all of the criteria on which you will be filtering. Investigating the AM landscape is a journey that requires time and effort. There are no shortcuts for those that want to find the right solution. Invest the time, be diligent, and be inquisitive. The journey may be exhausting, but the rewards are worth it.

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