TCT NA 4.4 by TCT Magazine

NORTH AMERICAN EDITION VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4 www.tctmagazine.com

MAG

3D SYSTEMS ON DEMAND MANUFACTURING HELPS TO RESTORE UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

THE MAGAZINE FOR DESIGN-TO-MANUFACTURINg INNOVATION

A Strong Future Stands Behind Us!

•1968•

YEARS

ARMSTRONG RM COMBINES OLD-WORLD CRAFTSMANSHIP •2018• •2018• WITH INNOVATIVE, ADVANCED MANUFACTURING SOLUTIONS . . . . . EVERY DAY •1968•

•1968•

YEARS

•2018•

•1968-2018•

AS9100 Rev. D & ISO 9001:2015 Certified • ITAR REGISTERED •1968-2018•

ARMstrongRM.com

email: sales@ARMstrongRM.com • tel: (315) 437-1517

FUNCTIONAL ALUMINIUM & PLASTIC PROTOTYPES RAPIDLY • Machined Aluminium Castings • One Shot Casting • Rubber Plaster Mold • Precision Air Set Sand • Graphite Die Casting • RIM – Reaction Injection Molding • CNC Machining & Hogouts • Painting, Finishing & Assembly

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

ISSN 2059-9641

Dozens of large parts to be functionally combined… One limited field-of-view to get the job done…

EDITORIAL HEAD OF CONTENT

Daniel O’Connor e: daniel.oconnor@rapidnews.com t: 011 + 44 1244 952 398 DEPUTY GROUP EDITOR

Laura Griffiths e: laura.griffiths@rapidnews.com t: 011 + 44 1244 952 389 ASSISTANT EDITOR

Samuel Davies e: samuel.davies@rapidnews.com t: 011 + 44 1244 952 390 NEWSDESK

+44 (0) 1244 680222 REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS

Todd Grimm e: tgrimm@tagrimm.com

ADVERTISING HEAD OF MEDIA SALES

Carol Hardy e: carol@rapidnews.com t: 011 + 44 1244 952 386 ADVERTISING MANAGER

Kelley-Jo Beattie e: kelley-jo.beattie@rapidnews.com t: 011 + 44 1244 952 365

Empower your powder-bed customers to make the large format parts they need by untangling your system’s laser spot size and field-of-view constraints with the AGV by Aerotech.

ADVERTISING MANAGER

Christine Joinson e: christine.joinson@rapidnews.com t: 011 + 44 1244 952 385 SENIOR SALES

Paul Lindon e: paul.lindon@rapidnews.com t: 011 + 44 1244 952 360 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE

Daniel Bradshaw e: daniel.bradshaw@rapidnews.com t: 011 + 44 1244 952 520

PRODUCTION Sam Hamlyn

Matt Clarke

MANAGEMENT C.E.O. / PUBLISHER

Duncan Wood

VP, CONTENT, STRATEGY AND PARTNERSHIPS

James Woodcock e: james@rapidnews.com t: 011 + 44 1244 952 391

SUBSCRIPTIONS PUBLISHED PRICES N. America Print Subscriptions USA/Canada/Mexico - FREE Outside of these territories - $249

Is the field-of-view of your galvo system big enough to get the most out of your powder-bed machine? Aerotech’s AGV-HP High-Accuracy Galvo Scanners Infinite Field of View (IFOV) unleashes the ability to make parts of any size through synchronized stage motion. Galvo and servo axes move together seamlessly to make your part, eliminating stitching issues and the interdependency of laser spot diameter and work area.

Also available on iOS and Android devices – including back catalogue and Buyers’ Guides.

The TCT Magazine is published bi-monthly by Rapid News Publications Ltd Carlton House, Sandpiper Way, Chester Business Park, Chester CH4 9QE, UK.

t: 011 + 44 1244 68022 f: 011 + 44 1244 671074

Visit http://go.aerotech.com/metal-additive or call an Aerotech Application Engineer for more information.

© 2018 Rapid News Publications Ltd While every attempt has been made to ensure that the information contained within this publication is accurate, the publisher accepts no liability for information published in error, or for views expressed. All rights for The TCT Magazine are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without prior written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited.

www.aerotech.com • 412-963-7470 AH0418B-LPM

FROM THE EDITOR

I TALK WAY TOO LITTLE “How was your trip?” “Good. Useful. Tiring.” “What were you out there for again?” “It was a conference where the users of 3D printing technologies come together and share ideas.” “…Not very interesting, is it?” The conversation ended abruptly. Maybe it was the jet lag, or my personal intolerance for small talk, or the two things compounded, but I had no retort to my taxi driver’s unconsidered and scathing evaluation of the industry in which I work. From my perspective, flying out to the United States to take on board the latest applications of additive manufacturing (AM) in the medical, aerospace and automotive sectors, at least makes for more compelling conversation than his next go-to topic: the weather – it had been raining. Again. As we powered down an English motorway and along the North Wales coast, it dawned on me my travel companion for the next hour wasn’t uninterested in AM, he was unaware. Unaware of the impact the technologies could have, and already are having, all around him, every day. The car he was currently operating, the movie he might watch that weekend, the medical applications he’ll hopefully never need. I could have tried to educate him, maybe I should have, but my subconscious favoured the sleep. Yet, when I awoke to the car pulling up outside my house, I realized the chance was gone. He’d dismissed 3D printing technology without a thought, and I hadn’t offered any reason why he

shouldn’t. I was vague, when I should have been demonstrative. If I had explained engine components can be completely redesigned to reduce material usage and weight, or that prostheses could be customised to exactly fit the wearer at an affordable rate, perhaps I’d be less irate some weeks later, and he’d begin to understand why people attend gettogethers like the AMUG Conference, and read magazines like this one. Maybe I’ll keep a copy of this issue for him. After all, it features TCT’s Head of Content, Dan O’Connor going behind the scenes at BMW and Deputy Group Editor, Laura Griffiths reporting on the use of Polymaker Industrial materials for every plastic part of an XEV electric car. We’ve also looked at how 3D printing is making its way into Hollywood. Its presence extends wider, into university research labs and casting foundries. The biggest companies in the world are using it, and the smaller ones are slowly catching up too. It’s crazy, then, to think how little is still known about AM, how it is being applied, and the rewards that can be garnered from said application up to three decades on from the processes’ inventions. I suppose all that can be done is to keep innovating, keep using, and keep enlightening when we can. Only then might my small talk be interesting enough, and only then might people start to get it. I chose to sleep the last time the opportunity presented itself, but hopefully the next 39 pages make up for that. SAM DAVIES, ASSISTANT EDITOR

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

Visit ExOne at IMTS in Chicago, IL from September 10 - 15, 2018 Booth 432308 (West Hall)

High resolution parts produced with standard MIM powders.

ExOne We are Binder Jetting ÂŽ

exone.com/dmquotetool

Realize your vision

TCT | VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

COVER STORY

6. REIMAGINING DRAGONS

3D Systems On Demand Manufacturing helps to restore UNESCO World Heritage Site.

AUTOMOTIVE

8. THE ULTIMATE PRINTING MACHINE

Head of Content, Dan O'Connor reports on his visit to BMW's Additive Manufacturing Center in Munich.

15. A 3D PRINTED CAR: FINALLY DELIVERING IT’S PROMISE

Italian car company, XEV teams with Polymaker to launch the LSEV, an almost entirely 3D printed electric car.

CASTING

23 ENTERTAINMENT 23. FAMOUS FACES

Assistant Editor, Sam Davies finds out how one Oscar-nominated animation studio is pushing the boundaries of 3D printing.

29. FIT FOR A QUEEN

Deputy Group Editor, Laura Griffiths speaks to the designer behind the futuristic costumes in Marvel’s Black Panther.

IMTS 2018

33. PREVIEW

A guide to the technologies and launches happening inside the Additive Manufacturing Pavilion at the bi-annual International Manufacturing Technology Show.

16. DIGITAL METAL

How a UK based design and manufacturing firm is revolutionizing its investment casting business with a desktop 3D printer.

37. UNDERSTANDING STOCHASTIC POWDER BED FUSION FLAW FORMATION & IMPACT ON FATIGUE

An update on Penn State University’s investigation into the impact of flaw formation during powder bed fusion AM.

38. FROM THE BENCH TO THE BEDSIDE

Dr. Anthony Anthony Atala discusses Wake Forest University's research into the bioprinting of human tissues and organs.

Todd Grimm discusses the principal of the Allure Quotient in AM adoption.

19. ON THE RADAR

21. RETHINKING CASTING

RESEARCH & ACADEMIA

40. WHAT’S THE ALLURE?

Mania Aghaei Meibodi, Senior Researcher at ETH Zurich, on combining the geometric freedom of 3D printing and the flexibility of casting. How a U.S. casting foundry used 3D printing to speed up production on a complex component for a driverless, electric vehicle.

REIMAGINED DRAGONS 3D SYSTEMS ON DEMAND MANUFACTURING EXPERTS HELP RESTORE UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE WITH SCAN-TO-CAD WORKFLOW AND SLS PRINTING.

rumors allege the dragons served as payment for royal gambling debts, experts believe the wood had simply rotted over time. An often-revisited topic for conservationists, The Great Pagoda has finally been returned to its former splendor, dragons and all, for the first time in more than 200 years thanks to the global 3D Systems On Demand Manufacturing team.

MINIMIZING THE IMPACT

As Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) began to explore methodologies for replacing the dragons, it faced a dilemma: not only would wooden replacements invite the same longevity issue as before, but the pagoda had not supported the weight of the dragons for two centuries.

D Systems On Demand Manufacturing has created an exact replica of a full-scale MRI machine for Philips in The Netherlands, helped Australia’s James Boag’s Premium Lager update a classic beer bottle that harkens to the past but points to the future, and manufactured production parts used by a renowned custom car builder in Burbank, California, to restore a vintage Porsche. So while answering a historic challenge centuries in the making might be considered daunting, it's pretty much business as usual for a worldwide team with more than 1,000 years of combined team experience. In this case, the challenge involved dragons - dozens of them.

BRINGING BACK THE DRAGONS

The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Kew Gardens, London, UK, is home to The Great Pagoda, a striking 163-foot structure commissioned in 1761 by King George III and built in ornate and highly fashionable Chinoiserie style. Central to the design were the 80 painted wooden dragons that adorned the octagonal corners of each successive level. The talk of the town for more than 200 years, the Kew dragons were removed in the 1780s to accommodate roof repairs to the pagoda and were never replaced. Although

www.tctmagazine.com

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

“One of the most challenging aspects of this project was to minimize the impact imposed by so many dragons on this grade one listed building,” said Craig Hatto, Project Director at Historic Royal Palaces. HRP was looking for a restoration solution that would answer the quality, weight, time and cost concerns inherent to the project. 3D Systems On Demand Manufacturing won the opportunity on the basis of being able to provide the global expertise, technology, quality and scalability required to fulfill the stringent project requirements.

DEALING WITH COMPLEXITY

The Kew dragons were brought to life as a collaborative effort between two sets of specialized designers. The exterior appearance of the dragons was recreated by HRP using the scarce historical information available to achieve the most accurate representation possible. Once designed, a dragon prototype was carved from wood to enable the digital manufacturing workflow created by the design and engineering team at 3D Systems. Seven additional wooden dragons were carved to adorn the first level of the pagoda, leaving 72 to be created using SLS printing. Using a reverse engineering workflow and a FARO Design ScanArm, the carved wooden dragon was scanned into a 3D design environment that would allow 3D Systems to address HRP’s concerns regarding weight. 3D Systems’ design experts used a variety of software including Geomagic Design X to reverse engineer the scan data into CAD and hollow the scan data to a controlled thickness, preserving both the exterior details and structural integrity in the process.

cover story When combined with the intricate exteriors of the hand-cut masters, the resulting hollow geometry was too complex to be manufactured traditionally. It required the type of free-flowing shapes that only additive manufacturing can produce. Using a digital manufacturing workflow enabled 3D Systems to seamlessly scale the dragons to achieve a slightly different size for levels two through ten of the pagoda. In total, 18 designs were prepared, comprising nine different dragon sizes and a left- and right-hand version of each.

5 SHOWN: 3D PRINTED DRAGON CREATED USING SLS 3D PRINTING AND DURAFORM PA (NYLON 12) MATERIAL ON A 3D SYSTEMS SPRO 230 PRINTER.

HIDDEN BENEFITS OF ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Following 3D scanning and design, early prototypes of the dragons were printed for analysis and testing to ensure the final designs were built in accordance with the stringent requirements of modern construction. Throughout this process, 3D Systems was conscious of the balance between the customer’s aesthetic requirements and the technical requirements of the builders. These considerations came into play as 3D Systems’ engineers determined how to best divide the SLS model for printing as well as position and conceal the various caps and closures for mounting. 3D Systems’ engineers incorporated a simple yet compelling feature into each of the dragon designs by adding built-in mounting mechanisms to the CAD files. The designs were devised and implemented by 3D Systems’ On Demand Manufacturing team in close collaboration with Hockley & Dawson, the other lead engineering team on the project. “The final dragons are essentially a perfect copy of the original, but have been improved upon in a way that is invisible to the observer,” said Nick Lewis, General Manager UK, 3D Systems On Demand Manufacturing. “We engineered internal elements for a secure mounting process, but designed them in such a way as to be completely concealed so no nuts, bolts or traces of construction are visible.” 3D Systems’ engineering expertise is built into each of the 18 different versions of the dragons that were SLS printed. As 3D Systems On Demand Manufacturing Regional Sales Manager Simon Hammond points out, the ability to match precision with variety is a consistent benefit of using additive manufacturing for production. “Many hours of engineering work went into the final designs, but by using a digital workflow, 3D CAD and 3D printing, we are able to move into production with 18 different outcomes without 18 sets of tooling and molds.”

PRODUCTION 3D PRINTING FOR HISTORICAL RESTORATION

Due to the large scale of the dragons, each with final dimensions in the 1.2 – 2 meter range, production was assigned to 3D Systems sPro 230 SLS machines. With a maximum build volume of 550 mm x 550 mm x 750 mm, the sPro 230 enabled the dragons to be produced in a low number of large pieces that were expertly assembled by the 3D Systems team.

The dragons were 3D printed in DuraForm PA, a polyamide 12 nylon material capable of producing a comparable look and feel to the original dragons. The resolution and mechanical properties of DuraForm PA make it an ideal candidate for complex parts with thin walls or snap-fit requirements. In the case of the Kew dragons, these features suited both the functionality requirement of installation as well as the cosmetic requirements of the historic restoration. Both SLA printed and wood-carved dragons were finished and hand-painted by the 3D Systems finishing department to ensure visual consistency. “It’s always exciting to see our teams address such complex and unique projects around the world,” said Tracy Beard, Operations Manager for 3D Systems in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, USA. “In addition to the rare opportunity to help restore a cultural and historical landmark, this project showcases the comprehensive capabilities of our worldwide facilities. We’re often called upon to provide diverse additive and subtractive processes across multiple stages of projects like this, from engineering and scalable production through to finishing.” More info at: 3dsystems.com/reimagined-dragons

ABOVE: 5

BRINGING THE DRAGONS BACK TO LIFE REQUIRED A UNIQUE COMBINATION OF RESEARCH AND REVERSE ENGINEERING - SCANNING A WOOD-CARVED DRAGON WITH THE FARO DESIGN SCANARM INTO 3D SYSTEMS’ GEOMAGIC DESIGN X REVERSE ENGINEERING SOFTWARE.

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

THE ULTIMATE PRINTING MACHINE WORDS: DAN O’CONNOR

he opening keynote of the 2014 edition of TCT Show by Dr. Hans Langer, CEO of EOS, detailed how, as a start-up in the late 80s, the Munichbased company went, without a machine, looking for a customer. Using his years as a laser production professional, Langer managed to get through the doors at the BMW Group, where a team had analysed every detail of the 3D printers in the market and were becoming increasingly frustrated with the machinery’s constraints. Within a year of that meeting, EOS had built their first stereolithography machine to the exacting specifications of the BMW Group. The BMW Group has always been and still is, at the vanguard of 3D printing technology. Look at the recent investments in Desktop Metal and Carbon as well as its crucial role in the HP Beta Test program. It has been pushing the envelope of what is possible ever since those days in the 80s of prototyping with frustrating SLA machines. Dr.-Ing. Dominik Rietzel and Dipl.-Ing. Maximilian Meixlsperger head up BMW Group’s Additive Manufacturing Center for non-metal and metals respectively. Together with their teams, they have overseen something of a revolution within BMW Group that has not only advanced prototyping beyond fit and form but delivered on 3D printing’s promise to become a technology capable of both mass consumer customization and the series production of parts. PARAMOUNT PROTOTYPING Prototyping is, like every other business in the world, still the core application for additive manufacturing technology within the BMW Group. You’d be forgiven for assuming

SHOWN: CUSTOMIZABLE 3D PRINTED SIDE SCUTTLES CAN BE PRODUCED WITH SLS, MJF OR CLIP TECHNOLOGY

www.tctmagazine.com

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

that with 30 years of use, the BMW Group would claim to have perfected the process, but during a tour of the Additive Manufacturing Center (AMC) in Munich, Dominik was keen to demonstrate how this implementation is still, very much, an ongoing journey. A project Dominik is particularly proud of involves a dashboard that he saved from recycling to put on display inside the AMC. This SLS printed dashboard appears, at first sight, to be like any other, but to the touch, the white powdery part is both spongy and stiff in the appropriate places. The dashboard’s feel is down to a PhD work on TPUs conducted at the AMC; the research led to the development of a printing technique that replicated the feel of foams used within BMW Group series production. “In prototyping, it is essential to have the real properties of the actual product,” stated Dominik. “For example, if you have an undercut that needs to be fixed to the dashboard, it might work with a stiff prototype,

AUTOMOTIVE but when it comes to the serial production of one, maybe it might not work.” Today, every single dashboard prototyped within BMW Group uses that method developed by their research. Prototyping, spare parts, jigs and fixtures, tooling, even augmented orthotic thumbs for assembly line workers whereas many companies are just gearing up for these applications, they have been standard processes for BMW Group for many years. What isn’t standard practice is two projects coming out of AMC in the past year. For years we’ve heard talk of additive manufacturing for series production, the truth is that relatively few companies have implemented a process with qualification and repeatability often the rate-limiters. Rather than wait around for the OEMs to bring the technology up-to-scratch or some organization to create documentation on best-practice for qualification, the AMC went and did it themselves, uniquely in both polymer and metal 3D printing. A MINI REVOLUTION The first project to hit the press was ‘MINI Yours Customised’, which sees the MINI brand make a play for the ever-expanding car personalization market.

Car personalization is big business; during 2017, in the UK alone, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency sold a record 374,968 personalized registration plates amassing 110 million USD. New marketing campaigns from the Nissan Micra and Citroen C3 focus on a wide array of colors and styling. Those campaigns are proving to be a hit with Nissan saying that 18% of customers are choosing to personalize their vehicle. Neither of those examples is true mass customization; registration plates have strict criteria to match, and there’s a finite number of possibilities; and with the exterior styling, the Nissan Micra has only 100 combinations to choose from. No, for true mass customization there’s only one tech you can turn to, 3D printing and BMW Group has done just that. Using the MINI Yours Customised configurator, a customer can select a color, change the pattern, add their name and add an icon to door sills, a door projector, a cockpit fascia or/and the side scuttles. The latter two are both 3D printed enmasse by Dominik and his team at the AMC using a host of 3D printing platforms including Carbon’s CLIP, HP’s Multi-Jet Fusion (MJF) and EOS’s SLS technology. 4

5 SHOWN:

THIS SPECIAL EDITION MINI HATCH MADE FOR THE ROYAL WEDDING AND AUCTIONED OFF FOR CHARITY HAD 3D PRINTED COCKPIT FASCIA AND SIDE SCUTTLES.

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

Our People Know Our People Know how to scale from plastic prototyping to production with Figure 4 TM

UP TO 20% UP TOLOWER 20% COST

PER COST PART WITH TOOL-LESS LOWER MOLDING* PER PARTDIGITAL WITH TOOL-LESS DIGITAL MOLDING*

COMPRESSED COMPRESSED PRODUCT PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT DEVELOPMENT CYCLES CYCLES

15X

HIGHER

* 15X THROUGHPUT

HIGHER

* Part cost compared to traditionally manufactured parts and operations. Throughput improvement* compared to other 3D printing systems.

THROUGHPUT

* Part cost compared to traditionally manufactured parts and operations. Throughput improvement compared to other 3D printing systems.

For prototyping through to production of end use parts,

For prototyping through to production of end use parts, Figure 4™ is the industry’s first tool-less digital molding platform.

Figure 4™ is the industry’s first tool-less digital molding platform.

Learn more from more our experts www.3dsystems.com/figure4 Learn from at our experts at www.3dsystems.com/figure4

o w olw le .3 ss ds ys Dig te it m al s.c M om ol /fi din gu g re 4

AUTOMOTIVE

“We took the momentum to approve different technologies and different materials,” explains Dominik. “If we go through this routine of qualification once on a powder-based technology and a resin-based technology then we learn so much for the next project.” By setting up MINI Yours Customised, many different disciplines, like IT, sales, materials research and design needed to work closely with the AMC in a start-up manner to create this unique offering. Once the design is complete and the customer places an order, the job appears in the same customer ordering system as an internal prototype part ordered for a car five years away from production with AMC acting like an in-house service bureau. “If you work at the BMW Group you can upload a part directly from CATIA into our system and say I want to have a prototype in a specific AM technology with this specific material,” reveals Dominik. “You see an online pricing system, and you place the order. We developed this software platform years ago and are still improving it.” Manufacturing an individually tailored part like the cockpit fascia for a premium brand like MINI isn’t as easy as when, others print off a personalized phone case. The cockpit fascia has to be configured to the tightest of tolerances - so accurate that the customer can easily snap-fit and remove if needed. The part has to stand up to the rigours of constant

sunlight, plummeting and skyrocketing temperatures, drink spills, grubby hands, finger drumming and most-importantly crash impacts. Therefore, the team developed an own “Digital Craftsmanship” process that includes printing of the parts, surface finish and manual painting according to premium automotive standards.

process chain; we benchmark ovens, we benchmark the robots, we benchmark the grippers. We are not only working on 3D printing.”

Unlike the exterior side scuttles, an interior part like the cockpit fascia has to withstand a full impact crash and not shatter. If it were to break the shrapnel could cause injury. The testing to get the parts to a point whereby BMW Group were happy for the components to be placed inside a car has taken a considerable amount of time. Because of the safety requirements the cockpit fascia is currently only printed using polyamide 11 on SLS systems, whereas the side scuttles can be manufactured on EOS, HP or Carbon machinery. “We start, we learn and we improve,” says Dominik. “In the area set up for [Carbon’s] CLIP technology we’re testing with robots for automation; opening the machine, getting the build job out, placing the tray, getting the parts out of it, putting them into the oven all automatically. We are still in a test mode, but as soon as I have this cell working, we can create all the documentation around it and then we scale it up. I will know how many robots I need for how many printers, how many part washers, what kind of ovens. We benchmark all the products in the

One of the first MINI Yours Customised cars to be seen in the wild was designed as a gift for the royal wedding of Harry and Meghan. The MINI Hatch model had Harry and Meghan side scuttles as well as a 3D printed fascia and was auctioned for the official Royal Wedding charity, Children’s HIV Association. The care and attention given to the Royal Wedding car comes as standard for every part that leaves the AMC. The life of every component can be readable using a camera monitoring system; the printed part contains a host of information including a machine code, a materials code and a customized part ID. Each part is inspected at every step of the process documenting the quality and appearance. In doing so, the team has also worked out a comprehensive blacklist of text that inhibits consumers from using offensive language or infringing copyrights. If any part does not meet the BMW Group’s exacting standards, the AMC starts the process again. The traceability even helps in the long run: “Let’s say there’s been a crash, and a side scuttle was damaged,” considers Dominik. “I can go back to the system and see the part ordered ten years later and reprint that exact same part for the customer.” 4

5 SHOWN:

THE BMW I8 ROADSTER FEATURES METAL 3D PRINTED PARTS FOR THE FIRST TIME ON ANY COMMERCIAL VEHICLE.

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

011

Your partner for innovative manufacturing

ASSESS OUTCOMES

CONTROL PROCESSES

SET UP EQUIPMENT

Layers of control build upon one another—driving out variation from the machining process. CHECK PERFORMANCE

As manufacturers ourselves, we understand the challenges you face. For 45 years, Renishaw has been creating breakthrough innovations that solve manufacturing problems and move productivity into top gear. Our suite of advanced solutions allows automotive manufacturers to work to ever-tighter tolerances and significantly improve throughput. From additive manufacturing to post-process control, our proven technologies are found at the forefront of intelligent production systems. Equator™ gauging systems— repeatable, thermally-insensitive, and reprogrammable gauging for the shop floor

Allow us to show you how the integration of innovative manufacturing techniques improve overall productivity and how we can be your partner for innovative manufacturing.

www.renishaw.com/automotive

Renishaw Inc 1001 Wesemann Drive West Dundee, IL, 60118 T 847-286-9953 F 847-286-9974 E usa@renishaw.com

www.renishaw.com

AUTOMOTIVE

cmyk pms black

A NEW SERIES

Since the dawn of metal 3D printing at the turn of the millennium, OEMs have been shouting from the rooftops about the potential of series production. However, relatively few projects have seen the light of day with GE’s LEAP fuel nozzle proving pretty much the only visible project in the world. There’s no denying the LEAP fuel nozzle’s ingenuity and worth - it proved the catalyst for GE’s billion-dollar metal 3D printing acquisitions - but we learned about that five years ago. We need another example of metal 3D printing’s capacity else the cries of one-trick pony may start ringing in the ears of machine buyers. Step forward Dipl.-Ing. Maximilian Meixlsperger, who heads up metal additive manufacturing at BMW Group. Max and his team are here to silence those naysayers with the first cost-effective series production of a metal additively manufactured component in the commercial automotive industry. This is not an impeller for a one-of-a-kind racecar or a reverse-engineered handle for a classic car; two of these components are on every model of the BMW i8 Roadster. that we produce today. We did a lot of reproducibility testing; doing the same test over and over, taking parts out, testing them and in the end, we showed that this is now a reproducible production process.”

The part in question is a topologically and production process optimized fixture for the folding mechanism of the BMW i8 Roadster’s soft top; folding mechanisms are traditionally quite cumbersome and add significant weight to cars all while taking up valuable boot space. Optimize the AMC did, not only did they make a ten times stiffer part than the plastic injection moulded counterpart, they made the metal part 44% lighter at the same time as developing some novel printing techniques and build orientations to ramp up cost efficiency. “Normally underneath a part like this you’d have support, but we optimized it to a point where we no longer needed support structures,” states Max. "The part has two little feet that are the only connection to the base plate. Using this method we were also able to stack them into each other and take the build from 51 to 238 parts per platform.” Realizing all this they made the part cost efficient up to 60,000 components against metal die casting. The fixture is currently manufactured in the AMC using one qualified SLM Solutions machine, printing round the clock in AlSi10Mg. Max’s team is now working on qualifying a second and third SLM Solutions machine, one installed at the AMC and the other in the BMW Group plant in Landshut.

The BMW i8 Roadster and the MINI Yours Customised projects have proved, without question the viability of 3D printing technology in the automotive industry. With a move to a new 10 million Euro Additive Manufacturing Campus pencilled in for early 2019, Jens Ertel, Head of the BMW Group’s Additive Manufacturing Center and the future campus director, adds: “Our new facility will be a major milestone in additive manufacturing at the BMW Group. The team there will evaluate new and existing technologies in both plastics and metals printing and develop them to series maturity. Our goal is to provide the optimum technology and process chain, be it for individual components, small production runs or even large-scale manufacturing.” *Both the Mini Yours Customised and the i8 Roadster bracket have made the shortlist for the 2018 TCT Awards.

“We took about half a year exploring the qualified machine,” said Max. “Understanding, optimizing and technically safeguarding the way Dominik Rietzel will be presenting this case study at TCT Show on 27th September.

SHOWN:

I8 ROADSTER’S 3D PRINTED FIXTURE USING SLM SOLUTIONS’ METAL POWDER-BED FUSION TECHNOLOGY.

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

013

AUTOMOTIVE

A 3D PRINTED CAR: FINALLY DELIVERING ITS PROMISE

f there’s one subject that gets enthusiasts’ tongues wagging and cynical tweeters tweeting, it’s that of the 3D printed car. The domain of concept designs and novelty trade show exhibits, 3D printing’s impact on the automotive industry has typically been under the hood and on production lines. Until now.

Earlier this year, Italian car manufacturer XEV unveiled a proof-of-concept model for a mass-producible 3D printed electric car, the LSEV, developed with Chinese 3D printing materials company, Polymaker. XEV has just secured its first “mega factory” in Jiangsu, right next to major automotive companies like Kia Motors and Hyundai, where it plans to begin production on the vehicles next year. The LSEV is a two-seater car made almost entirely with 3D printing, minus structural framework including steel chassis, roll cage and glass windows. It features a total of just 57 plastic components which can be produced in just three days, a substantial reduction from the approximate 2,000 SKUs found in a traditionally manufactured vehicle of a similar size. In traditional car manufacturing, the majority of the cost comes from supply chains, tooling and various manufacturing processes. To be successful, XEV CEO, Stanley Lou believes that manufacturers need to check three boxes; how does the car look, feel and how much will it cost? Get any of that wrong and you’ve wasted a lot of time and money. Using 3D printing and data as an inventory, that risk is much lower which is why XEV is producing 2,000 of its own large-format plastic extrusion 3D printers to be used inside its factories. The process has already reduced production waste by around 70%.

WORDS : LAURA GRIFFITHS

“It’s nothing really new here,” Luke Taylor, Marketing Manager at Polymaker explains. “What they've built is a very robust, high-temperature industrial 3D printer. The technology is well-known in the industry it's just a new way of applying it and then applying the post processes on this kind of scale. That has never been done before.”

The magic is in the Vacuum Lamination post processing which Polymaker has developed with XEV. Parts are printed around 2mm smaller to allow a film of polyamide to be layered on top, similar to vacuum forming, which hides FDM layers and eliminates the need for painting.

Parts are being produced in four different grades of polyamide and TPU, powered by Polymaker’s WarpFree technology which improves the printability of Nylon filaments. The polyamide materials are being applied to impact and heat resistant areas while flexible TPU is being used for the bumper and other internal features. The plan is to have an onsite extrusion line based at every factory to produce materials on-demand.

The first orders have already been placed by Poste Italiane who have commissioned 5,000 customized vehicles which include a storage box to carry mail in place of the passenger seat. Other companies like Holiday Inn and Pizza Hut are also exploring the potential for the LSEV in their dayto-day operations. For consumers, Taylor imagines a commission-based online “car builder platform”, akin to Shapeways, where designers can upload new skins and parts for customers to order.

SHOWN:

VACUUM LAMINATION IS USED TO FINISH THE 3D PRINTED PARTS.

XEV have produced 15 vehicles so far which are being put through all of the standard safety tests before certified road-ready for 2019. Safety is paramount, it even features a crumple zone area, found in standard vehicles, designed to take impact in the event of a collision. The LSEV, set to ship for around 8-10,000 Euro (9-11,000 USD), is just the beginning. XEV plans to scale up with designs already in the works for four new cars including a sedan style model and a sports car.

5 ABOVE:

“No one has tried to do this mass produced, easily customizable car. The automotive industry is already doing this [customization] but it's taking it even further. Every car is unique and I think that will really appeal to the customers, especially the fact that it's going to be a very competitive price, and with the rise of electric vehicles we think it’s going to be very successful.”

THE LSEV 3D PRINTED ELECTIC CAR.

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

015

DIGITAL METAL: AM FOR CASTING METAL PARTS IN ARCHITECTURE WORDS: Mania Aghaei Meibodi, Senior Researcher, Digital Building Technologies (dbt), ETH Zurich.

BESPOKE METAL ELEMENTS IN ARCHITECTURE

metal materials that can be printed. Printing methods for larger dimensions, such as robotic metal arc welding-based AM — where stainless-steel rods are printed through welding layer by layer — have recently developed. However, this technique is still limited in printable forms and requires expensive post-processing to reach a high-quality surface finish.

Cast metal can find application in architecture wherever strong parts with three-dimensional geometry are needed. Through casting, molten metal can be shaped into any desired shape. Casting allows fabrication of intricate, integral elements with design features that cannot be obtained by other fabrication methods, such as undercuts, overhangs, internal structures and the three-dimensional differentiation in thickness of parts. However, the degree of geometric complexity achievable in a metal part is still constrained by our ability to fabricate the necessary mold, which is traditionally very labor and time intensive.

OUR APPROACH: COMBINING THE ADVANTAGES OF 3D PRINTING AND METAL-CASTING

Cast metal has been widely used in architecture - for facades, bridges, beams, columns and connections. An historical example is the exposed cast-iron arches and columns in the Sainte-Geneviève Library France built by architect Henri Labrouste.

Today, additive manufacturing (AM) of metal can bypass mold making and offers the ability to produce customized lightweight parts with complex geometry without molds. Multiple technologies of metal 3D printing exist. However, each have major shortcomings for the application in architecture, where large-scale parts with detailed surfaces need to be produced. One of the most common methods is powder bed fusion (e.g. SLM, EBM, and DMLS), which is commonly used for manufacturing small, low volume, complex metal parts. Major drawbacks of employing this technology for the building industry are the small build volumes, long print times and the limited available

016

www.tctmagazine.com

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

To overcome these challenges, in our research at DBT, we employ AM to 3D print the sand-molds for metal casting rather than 3D printing the metal part directly. We do this to benefit from the geometric freedom offered by 3D printing and the flexibility of metal casting. When combining 3D printed sand-molds with metal casting, we can efficiently create large bespoke elements without being limited to specific metals or alloys – we can cast practically any kind of metal. To fabricate sand-molds, we use binder-jetting technology where a liquid agent is selectively dropped on thin layers of sand to bind it. For applications in architecture, binder-jetting technology offers a unique combination of geometric freedom,

CASTING

The metal connection in combination with standard tubular profiles enables the construction of a large freeform spaceframe structure. The facade elements allow precise control of transparency and shading properties though porous 3D structures.

6B ELOW: “DEEP FAÇADE” BY STUDENTS OF MAS DFAB AT ETH ZURICH 2018 IMAGE BY JETANA RUANGIUN

In 2017, “Liquid Pavilion”, a five-meter high space-frame structure was designed and built from 182 non-repetitive lightweight joints in combination with off-the-shelf metal profiles. All nodes were digitally designed and digitally fabricated using 3D printed molds, reducing the overall fabrication time and effort. The constraints of metal casting were encoded in the algorithm that generates the geometry of the nodes and their molds, which then ensure cast-ability, dimensional-accuracy and good surface finish. AM allowed integration of a gating system for the liquid metal into the mold, thus considerably reduced tolerances and fabrication time. As a result, the fabrication of all nodes took less than two weeks, which is considerably faster than casting with the traditional process of mold-making or direct 3D metal printing. With commercially available metal printers, large connections would even have to be split into smaller parts to fit into the build space. In 2018, a six-meter high and four-meter wide “Deep Facade” was designed and constructed from 26 three-dimensionally articulated panels up to the size of 2 sqm, that were also cast using 3D printed sand-molds. A modified differential-growth algorithm was used to generate the ornamented structure that expresses the liquidity and strength of metal as a building material. Here we used an open cast principle, which helped us to reduce the size of the necessary printed sand-molds.

intricate detailing and large print-bed dimension. Molds can be printed at a precision in the range of a tenth of a millimeter and in dimensions of up to 4 x 2 x 1 meters. In our research, we develop computational methods to design and optimize bespoke metal elements which integrate the casting constraints. An important aspect is to facilitate the design of molds and casting system for any given shape. We try to automatically integrate details such as the gating system which channels the molten metal to the mold cavity. Ideally, we can generate the required fabrication data for any geometry of a part at the push of a button and send it directly to the 3D printer. The casting process itself can follow the traditional setup and can be done within a short period of time.

OUTLOOK

Linking the ancient fabrication method of casting to state of the art 3D printing opens the door for a revival of cast metal in architecture. It will allow us to structurally optimize metal components and reduce the amount of material. Coupling this fabrication approach with computational design, we can unlock an entirely new vocabulary of shapes for architecturally exposed metal structures, previously unavailable with traditional mold making systems. We can design and produce parts in a new and radically expressive aesthetic.

TWO EXPERIMENTAL PROJECTS

To demonstrate and evaluate the proposed method in an architectural context, two 1:1 scale projects were designed and built together with the students of the Master of Advanced Studies in Digital Fabrication (MAS DFAB) at ETH Zurich. These projects highlight possible application of the proposed fabrication method for structural metal nodes and three dimensionally articulated façade elements.

3L EFT: 3D PRINTED

SAND MOLD AND ALUMINIUM CAST JOINT (MAS DFAB AT ETH ZURICH 2017)

IMAGE BY MA XIJIE

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

017

EXPERIENCE THE ENTIRE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY AT ONE EVENT

SAVE THE DATE 2019 AMUG CONFERENCE HILTON CHICAGO CHICAGO, ILLINOIS MARCH 31 - APRIL 4, 2019 ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING USERS GROUP 31ST ANNUAL EDUCATION & TRAINING CONFERENCE • Technical Presentations and Panel Discussions • Hands-on Workshops for Plastics and Metals • Networking with AM Industry Experts and OEMs

REGISTRATION OPENS OCTOBER 1, 2018 WWW.AMUG.COM

FOR USERS. BY USERS.

WWW.AMUG.COM

3D Metal Printing | Heat Treatment | Machining www.3DMT.com

Materials Titanium Aluminum Inconel 625/718 Maraging Steel Cobalt Chrome Stainless 15-5/17-4

Printers 11 - EOS M280 1 - EOS M400 2 - Concept M1 1 - Concept M2 3D printed Implatable Talus made of Cobalt Chrome

3D printed Aerospace part made of Inconel 718

Metal Additive Manufacturing Prototype and Production ISO 9001 / AS9100 / ITAR / FFL

Metal Injection Molding Plastic Injection Molding

Magnesium Injection Molding Metal Stamping

+1-386-626-0001 Headquarters: Central Florida

CASTING

ON THE RADAR W

hether it’s wax casting patterns created on the desktop or large sand cores made with binder-jetting, additive manufacturing (AM) is fast becoming a universal tool in the casting arena.

shown: COMPLETED CASTING FOR WING MIRROR BRACKET

One Michigan-based foundry, Aristo Cast, has been combining the flexibility of casting with the design freedom of AM since 1998, and recently applied the technology to the production of a unique automotive part with a tight timeframe for completion. The part in question was a wing mirror bracket which forms part of a radar system, set to be installed onto a soon-to-be launched driverless electric vehicle. Unlike a manual car, the bracket doesn’t actually hold a mirror but rather an advanced sensor system with acts as the eyes of the vehicle to gather information and ensure safe operation throughout the passenger’s journey. The customer and model are being kept firmly under wraps, but Aristo Cast says this autonomous vehicle is already in production as we speak. The singular, complex component includes several pockets and hollowed out features designed to make it as lightweight as possible, particularly important in an electric car where less weight means increased battery life and efficiency. The customer approached Aristo Cast with a design already in-hand but the team were able to modify the design by eliminating sharp edges and adding additional features which would allow for a better casting result. “We do a fair amount of work with automotive companies using additive manufacturing,” Paul Leonard, Aristo Cast explained. “We will print patterns and create castings for them while their die casting tooling is being created when they need parts, but this one worked out well where we were printing the patterns and producing

shown: RAW CASTING

the hard tooling for the parts ourselves. Being an autonomous vehicle, the quantities are a lot lower than that of a regular vehicle.” The lower quantities made this project a perfect fit for investment casting. Aristo Cast utilised its in-house Voxeljet VX1000 powder-based machine which uses PMMA material to produce precise 3D printed patterns, ideal for complex parts which do not require large volumes. This method eliminates the cost for hard tooling and the time it takes to create patterns, whilst also reducing the overall lead time. As a result, Aristo Cast were able to start supplying castings within just three weeks using the 3D printed patterns, a significant saving on the estimated 12 weeks it would have taken for hard tooling to be completed. The initial patterns were used for testing while the hard tooling, used to produce production level wax patterns, were being built. “3D printing helps us get a jump start,” Leonard commented. “A lot of the time when the

customer comes to us just to quote a job, we'll run some samples through the system and we'll provide a sample pattern off the printers or we will use that sample to help in the quoting process to determine tooling costs and how we're going to put the part through the process.” The first castings were heat treated, machined, coated and put through initial tests. During those tests, the customer realized there were a few tweaks that would allow the part to function better and reduce final part assembly time. So, Aristo Cast went back and altered the design, did some additional tests, which proved successful, and incorporated the verified design into the final hard tooling. With 3D printing, making those last-minute design alterations, barely made a dint in the production timeline. In fact, the entire process was able to be completed without increasing overall lead time. Leonard added: “Once everything functioned correctly, they finalized the design and these were incorporated into the hard tooling without missing a beat or increasing the hard tooling completion date”.

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

019

IMTS 2018 Conference September 12, 2018 McCormick Place Chicago

Discover the industrial 3D printing applications of today, shaping the manufacturing of tomorrow.

CASTING

RETHINKING 3D CASTING W WORDS: DAN O’CONNOR

hen you think of a British investment casing foundry one envisages masses of molten metals being poured from crucibles into furnaces that look like they’ve grown organically from the ground and been in use since medieval blacksmithing times. The reality is that the Great British foundry industry is one of the most technologically advanced industries in the world. With a little help from 3D printing, one North Yorkshire-based company is leading the charge Sylatech, founded in 1964, boasts a client and partner base including Airbus, BAE Systems, Thales and last year won a 10-year contract worth $16m with SAAB, for the manufacture of antenna boards for their air surveillance product range. Amongst the many manufacturing services on offer, it boasts investment casting is one of its more vital business areas. Such is the kind of intricate work Sylatech is involved with, one would expect the company to be a prime candidate for mainframe-sized SLA printers using a castable resin like 3D Systems’ Quickcast or SOMOS Element. However, an industrial-sized additive manufacturing system would represent a significant investment in capital, labor and floor space. After frustrating experiences with an investment into a jewelry-level wax 3D printer, Sylatech turned to a much cheaper option, an Ultimaker 2+. Such has been the rapid return on investment, Sylatech now has three machines running full capacity.

Sylatech is not, however, 3D printing your usual fare with its desktop plastic extrusion-based device. “We never give out plastic prototypes, it’s always metal,” explains Gordon Gunn, Commercial Director at Sylatech. “We

are a foundry, and when it comes to rapid prototyping, we embrace it as a complementary technology to our process.” From a PLA 3D print, Sylatech can present clients with a fully dense metal prototype within a few days. To achieve this Sylatech attaches a plastic 3D printed model to a wax frame, places that frame into a container, filling it with a ceramic slurry and burning the 3D print out in an oven to leave a negative into which molten metal is poured. After that has cooled Sylatech finishes the metal part with traditional post-processing techniques and that metal part is then ready for testing.

These prototyping steps ultimately mean that when a client does invest roughly three to four thousand dollars in tooling for manufacture, it is less likely that expensive adjustments will be required. There’s a certain snobbery at times to desktop 3D printing, but not from Sylatech. The company is not only using the Ultimaker to revolutionize its prototyping but is beginning to implement it into the printing of jigs and fixtures as well as robotic-arm parts for its automated CNC process. “The use of 3D printing has clearly transformed the way we do business. And we will continue to use 3D printing and the Ultimaker to deliver benefits to our customers,” says Gordon.

TOP: SHOWN: ASSEMBLY FIXTURE

THE 3D PRINTED PLA PLASTIC PARTS DEVELOPED ARE ATTACHED TO A WAX FRAME AND ON HP’S MULTI JET PLACED INSIDE A CONTAINER FUSION PLATFORM

LEFT:

THE PLA PLASTIC PART AND THE RESULTING METAL PROTOTYPE

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

021

ENTERTAINMENT

WORDS: SAM DAVIES

t’s 2013 and a production company whose latest stop animation movie is about to earn it a third consecutive Academy Award nomination in the Best Animated Feature category arrives at a crossroads. Founded only eight years earlier, through Coraline, Paranorman, and in 2014, The Boxtrolls, LAIKA had established itself as one of the most impressive filmmakers in its genre.

department, LAIKA was using an Eden 260 PolyJet machine and printing faces in a solid white plastic, before hand-sanding would smooth out the surfaces and hand-painting would add color. More than 20,000 different faces were produced this way, while typically a stop-animation movie can expect only 800.

“WE CONSTANTLY NEED TO PIVOT AND DRIVE THE TECHNOLOGY IN A CREATIVE WAY”

Central to that immediate success was an inventive new approach to character design through replacement animation. Replacement animation of characters’ faces has traditionally been done through the hand sculpture of hundreds of different facial expressions, which are then photographed and replaced with another expression. Knitting those images together achieves the sense of movement, and movies are made.

What you’ll learn about LAIKA, though, is it’s a company relentless in its quest for improvement, not just of itself, but the art it practices too. Coraline went on to gross 124 million USD and gain a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 90%. LAIKA, before its debut film had even premiered, had ripped up the process and started again. Through its Rapid Prototyping (RP)

“We thought they were cutting edge at the time, but they were really us trying to find creative solutions for some technical limitations, because the faces were printed out of a single material. We wanted to have some complex paint jobs on the characters’ faces,” Brian McLean, Director of LAIKA’s Rapid Prototype department, told TCT. “We wanted Coraline to have freckles on her face, we wanted Other Mother to have lipstick on.” The painters tasked with implementing these features couldn’t afford to misplace them – it takes 40 hours to generate three seconds of footage, and there’s no undo button at any stage. For the freckles, the RP team would spend weeks dialling in their depth, usually around 3,000th of an inch deep, to make it easier for the painters. After printing, sanding, priming and coating the face with a lacquer skin tone, the painter would then add a drop of color to fill the freckle. 4

5 ABOVE:

MONKEY FROM KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS

LEFT: ALTERING MONKEY’S FACIAL EXPRESSION IN THE DESIGN STUDIO.

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

023

“WE WERE RUNNING INTO SCENARIOS ON SOME OF THE CHARACTER DESIGNS ON KUBO THAT WE KNEW THE TECHNOLOGY WAS NOT GOING TO WORK”

PLAYING TRICKS This activity was largely kept under wraps by LAIKA, a company still finding its way and wanting not to publicize its secret weapon. That all changed as the company’s second film, Paranorman, was released. Paranorman was the first stop-motion movie to use a color 3D printer, a feat that earned the eponymous ghostwhispering character TCT Magazine Cover Star status in Volume 20 Issue 5. LAIKA’s mouth-zipped-shut policy, as you’ll have worked out, wasn’t the only change during those years. Z Corp, who would later be taken over by 3D Systems, had released to market the Z650, powered by Z Print technology, which sees powder spread across liquid binding material. The Z650 also boasted the added capability of printing in color, which enticed LAIKA to purchase five of them.

“We were giving up everything that had really made this successful on Coraline. The dimensional accuracy, the repeatability, the material being stable, the machines being reliable,” McLean recalls. “Everything about color 3D printing at the time was very inconsistent: results from print to print, the printers themselves. There were a tremendous amount of things that we were sacrificing, but we were trading that off for the ability to print color, and that was worthwhile to us.” It was a move away from hand painting to provide color, yet one that wouldn’t have worked without the texture artists’ expertise. Among that group was Tory Bryant, who was now being asked to paint

The Boxtrolls | 2014 56,000 3D printed faces. Z Print for faces; PolyJet for internal head components.

2009 Coraline | 2009

20,000 3D printed faces. PolyJet & mostly hand painting for color. Eden 260, Eden 500 and Connex 500. All faces were hand painted, (expect for Other Mother V3, she was printed in black and white resin).

2012

Paranorman | 2012 40,000 3D printed faces. Z Print for faces; PolyJet for internal head components.

024

www.tctmagazine.com

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

2014

014

ENTERTAINMENT

digitally instead of manually. Bryant was using Photoshop to paint texture maps which would be wrapped around the face designs and sent to the Z650 printer. But by harnessing the traditional skills of crosshatching and color layering, she found a way to expand the color capabilities of the machine far beyond what anyone thought possible. “She wasn’t just picking a skin tone and doing a solid skin tone, she was building up skin tones with cyans, megentas and yellows. That worked really well for the printer, because with a Z Printer, it is actually printing color a little bit into the surface of a part,” McLean eulogised. “Just the act of Tory building up these colors meant the results far exceeded the color gamuts that the printer companies thought were capable.” McLean referred to this invention as ‘tricking’ the Z650 printer into being more color literate than it was. It saw LAIKA through the production of The Boxtrolls movie, but the machine’s

Missing Link | 2019 102,000 3D printed faces. PolyJet (J750) for faces; PolyJet (Connex3) for internal head components.

2016

inconsistencies with dimensional accuracies still left the RP team unfulfilled. It combatted these limitations through sheer production volume – building and processing thousands of faces, and throwing 40% of them away. All the while, LAIKA’s animators wanted characters more akin to people in reality, whose facial expression could change more fluidly in between frames. “The beginning of Kubo [and the Two Strings] was the first time that we started to recognize that the technology we had been using for the last four years had hit its ceiling. We had squeezed as much out of it as we could,” McLean said. “We were running into scenarios on some of the character designs on Kubo that we knew the technology was not going to work.” These included sharp angles and tiny features. The problem LAIKA had with the Z Print technology was the prints came out as powder and before post-processing were very fragile and prone to breakage at the point of handling. With fine-feature detailed characters like Beetle, Monkey and Moonbeast to negotiate in the making of Kubo, it was time for another process revamp. 4

2019

Kubo and the Two Strings | 2016 64,000 3D printed faces. Z print (human) & PolyJet for (creature) faces; PolyJet for internal head components.

4 RIGHT:

SHOE, A STARRING CHARACTER IN THE BOXTROLLS

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

025

Metal Powder Recovery System. Convey, Screen, Recover & Reuse Additive Manufacturing Powder Recovery System (AM-MPRS) Conveys, Screens, Recovers and Reuses Metal Powders including Inconel, Stainless Steel, Cobalt Chrome and Haynes 282. ClosedLoop System eliminates operator and plant exposure to metal dust.

Cuts Metal Powder Recovery Time by 85%! Visit www.vac-u-max.com/AM-MPRS and fill out an RFQ!

Booth 121035 East Bldg, Level 2

www.vac-u-max.com

(800) VAC-U-MAX

ENTERTAINMENT COLOR ME SHOCKED LAIKA had continued using Polyjet technology for the internal structures of the puppets’ head, maintaining relations with ObJet, now a Stratasys business. At this stage, circa 2013, the Connex3 was in early beta. Similar in many ways to the Connex2 LAIKA had been using, this new version now enabled the mixture of three colors at once. Though potentially a step back from the Z650 in terms of color capabilities, it was a significant mark up where machine reliability, dimensional accuracy and repeatability were concerned: “We had made it work with the Z Corp printers but it was hell and back,” McLean reasoned. Again, LAIKA found a way around the color limitations. It began using Jon Hiller and Hod Lipson’s AMF tool to control the droplets of raw material when mixing colors. Instead of selecting fixed colors from a drop-down menu, now the team could create a gradient and make tweaks by changing dithering patterns. To create a shade of orange, the dithering patterns of yellow and magenta were made to be equal, and then inside an Excel spreadsheet the number of droplets in each color could be fine-tuned to create a custom shade. Using this technique, LAIKA had increased the Connex3’s color range from 46 to 256, and would manufacture more than 64,000 faces for use in the Kubo movie. The making of Kubo was the first time LAIKA felt like it had total control over the hardware and software it was using to produce the characters’ faces. Before, it had largely accepted what was on offer and worked within the constraints. The movie was another hit. But through its relationship with Stratasys, LAIKA was privy to the development of another color 3D printing platform, the J750. The company was using this machine three years prior to its release and today has six of them working around the clock. The machine offers more than 500,000 color combinations and is the only platform used to print 102,000 faces for the Missing Link movie, to be released next spring.

SHOWN:

A HOST OF MONKEY’S FACES COMING OUT OF THE CONNEX3 MACHINE

the faces soaked in sodium hydroxide solution for an hour, then soaked in water for another hour, then dried. Residual support material is picked out, then, if required, the faces are sanded, before crystal clear coating is added and gloss coats are hand painted on. The detail is profound, and the results indisputable. From the crossroads LAIKA stood at just a few years back, it trusted its instincts, took a chance on the color capabilities of a Stratasys machine, and profited from that relationship when the J750 came along. LAIKA is a company not afraid of change, in fact it embraces the challenges change presents, and has so far reaped the rewards of its boldness. It’s why when its tendency to change additive manufacturing workflows so often is questioned, the answer is easy.

SHOWN:

A TRAY FEATURING AN ARRAY OF FACES PRINTED FOR THE BOXTROLLS

“It’s all about the desires of the studio of trying to both produce stop motion movies that we were not technically capable of just a few years prior, but also to service the types of story that we want to tell,” McLean explains. “The fact we are constantly raising the bar of what stop motion medium is capable of doing in both its stories and its visuals, that’s our main driving force. To do that, we constantly need to pivot and drive the technology in a creative way.”

LAIKA has changed the way it does this so many times, but it has evolved again not without reason. Movies are shown at 24 frames per second. In standard stop-animation, it could be two or three frames of a film before a facial expression is replaced with a new one. In Missing Link, LAIKA has managed to achieve 12 to 24 different faces per second. Up to one face per frame. Each one with a subtle shift, a pair of eyebrows slowly rising, or a smile turning into a frown. Now, there’s little painting after the print, and 80% of the faces you will see on the big screen next year haven’t required hand-sanding. From the printer, the supports are washed off,

SHOWN:

ADDING THE FINISHING TOUCHES TO MADAME FROU FROU, A STAR OF THE BOXTROLLS MOVIE

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

027

High Speed 3D Printing SLM | Concept | Arcam | EOS | TRUMPF

Metallurgical Services

A GLOBAL LEADER IN META METAL T L TA AM

Powder Analysis Metrology & Design CT Scanning Mechanical Testing HIP Services

Sintavia is a leading Tier One additive manufacturer for critical industries, including Aerospace & Defense, Oil & Natural Gas, and Power Generation. No other independent Tier One additive manufacturer has the same vertically aligned quality system and successful track record of working with OEMs to produce optimized metal AM parts for existing and future programs. To learn more visit Sintavia.com.

www.sintavia.com

ENTERTAINMENT

FIT FOR A QUEEN WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS

HOW 3D PRINTING HELPED TO BRING FUTURISTIC WEARABLES TO LIFE IN ONE OF THIS YEAR’S BIGGEST FILMS.

hether it’s the Formlabs’ Form 1 cameo in Ant Man or Star Lord’s 3D printed mask in Guardians of the Galaxy, 3D printing has found itself a reoccurring role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Whilst fanboys and girls look for timeline anomalies in their favourite franchises to dedicate crowdfunding campaigns to (Google Star Wars: The Last Jedi), I for one am usually fangirling about the quirky prop piece that must have been 3D printed or why that 3D printer “doesn’t work like that” – yes, I am that person. One of the biggest movies of this year was Black Panther, which for a comic book character little-known to the average moviegoer, became something much bigger than just another superhero instalment by breaking boundaries in terms of box office numbers and diversity in mass media. Black Panther is however no exception to the Marvel 3D printing trend and in fact features one of the most striking applications of the technology we’ve seen in the MCU, so far. The film centres on the fictional country of Wakanda, a unique civilization located in Sub-Saharan Africa, which visually fuses together traditional African designs and futuristic elements evident throughout its environment and character costumes designed by Oscar-nominated costume designer Ruth E. Carter. In order to bring these styles together, Carter approached Julia Koerner, an inter-disciplinary designer specialized in 3D printed wearables, to collaborate on a collection of cutting-edge accessories fit for Queen Ramonda played by actress, Angela Bassett. “The director of the movie Ryan Coogler and the costume designer Ruth E. Carter wanted the costume to blend tradition and hypermodernity,” Koerner told TCT. “Inspired by traditional African patterns I developed 3D digital morphologies to transform the traditional craftsmanship into digitally crafted designs. Utilizing 3D printing technology was the ultimate goal to achieve a futuristic look for Queen Ramonda’s regal attire.” 4

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

029

International exhibition and conference on the next generation of manufacturing technologies Frankfurt, Germany, 13 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 16 November 2018 formnext.com

Discover the future of manufacturing at formnext! Is your head full of ingenious ideas? Are you looking for innovative partners to realize them using additive manufacturing and the latest manufacturing technologies? We provide the ideal platform.

Where ideas take shape. Offical event hashtag #formnext

ENTERTAINMENT

Black Panther’s technologically advanced environment is home to several futuristic gadgets such as electromagnetic levitating trains and vehicles controlled by virtual reality. Therefore, it was important for the costumes to reflect that forward-thinking aesthetic rather than a conventional hand-crafted look. Based on Carter’s initial sketches and illustrations from Phillip Boutte, Koerner developed a series of digital patterns and parametrically generated geometries to create a Zulu inspired crown and shoulder mantle. The designer also worked closely with partner, Kais Al-Rawi who specializes in complexity on a large-scale having previously worked on huge architectural projects including stadiums and museums. To bring the pieces to life, Koerner collaborated with Belgian 3D printing company, Materialise. The two have worked together on various projects across product design and haute couture over the last decade and were able to use their joint expertise to realise Koerner’s vision. Valérie Vriamont, Business Development Manager at Materialise said: “Julia explained to us that it was a garment that needed to be wearable, but it also needed to deliver an imposing look and effect. Where I think we play an important role is that we have a very diverse material database that we can choose from, combined with the know-how on which material will be best suited for the application.” The pieces were printed using selective laser sintering (SLS) and after trialling a few different materials at Materialise’s Factory for 3D Printing, Polyamide 12 powder was chosen as the most suitable. The material

customized 3D printed frames for spectacles with the likes of Yuniku and Safilo Group. selection was heavily influenced by the design itself and may seem a little unusual due to PA12’s typically strong and stiff properties. However, a combination of the technology, material and Koerner’s cleverly considered geometries, resulted in finished pieces which were both flexible and comfortably wearable. “That's really down to Julia’s expertise,” Vriamont added. “Her knowledge of exactly how to design for 3D printing when it comes to garments; her expertise in knowing how to work with the wall thicknesses to achieve the right functionality, which kinds of structures can be 3D printed. That’s really her strength.” The pieces appear several times throughout the film in different iterations including one particular headpiece which was printed in PA12 and dyed black to finish. Materialise believes this final step is a key component in turning a standard 3D printed part into a real wearable product, similar to the company’s work on

Vriamont added: “We really see that 3D printing is becoming a standard for these types of applications. It has become part of the technologies portfolio that designers and fashion designers are considering when creating a collection. It’s becoming widely accepted and utilized because we can finish it and make it wearable.” The project was very top secret and Koerner was given just a codename and very few design indicators when she began working on the pieces. It wasn’t until the products were completed and Marvel began filming around a year before the film’s release in February that Koerner learned more about where her designs would feature on the big screen. “When I was working on the 3D design of the costume, I did not know much about the movie,” Koerner explained. “Traditional African patterns served as inspiration and I knew they needed to look technologically advanced and required to be produced with 3D printing technology.” With another six Marvel films scheduled for release before the end of next year alone and many others still untitled in the pipeline, there’s a good chance that 3D printing has already reprised its role in the franchise as these instalments wrap up production. It might be a case where, like Queen Ramonda’s crown, you could spot its intricate geometries from a mile away or perhaps it’s being applied behind the scenes to create prototypes and moulds for the next collection of costumes or props. Either way, there is no denying that 3D technologies, whether 3D printing or carefully considered 3D design, are fast becoming an indispensable tool in the film and fashion worlds alike.

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

031

THE WORLD’S ONLY

INTERNATIONAL 3D RECRUITMENT AGENCY

Our specialist candidate driven career consultants work exclusively within the Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing sectors. We offer a unique, dedicated 3D recruitment service and pride ourselves on speed, knowledge and integrity, ensuring a 100% candidate match is found in terms of skills, personality and motivation. Other sectors include 3D visualisation, Virtual & Augmented Reality and Architecture.

UP TO

25%

DISCOUNT Place a vacancy with 3ecruit before 15th October 2018 and quote “TCTNA2018” to receive a 25% discount on the final fee.

0044 (0) 1728 666 225 hello@3ecruit.eu Terms and Conditions apply

(888) 496-3406

dinsmoreinc.com/contact

DESIGN FOR PROTOTYPING® • 3D PRINTING • ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING Dinsmore is advancing the use of innovative 3D printing technologies to go beyond prototyping and find new application opportunities for true additive manufacturing. Parts Shown: Customer, BIOLASE, who replaced urethane cast parts with Carbon DLS technology for accurate, repeatable additive manufacturing.

Industries Served Aerospace

Medical

Consumer

Industrial

Dental

Automotive

3/26/18 8:38 AM

IMTS PREVIEW

IMTS BEEFS UP ITS ADDITIVE OUTPUT

he biennial manufacturing trade show returns to McCormack Place with more than 2,400 exhibitors showcasing their wares to over 100,000 attendees.

For the 2018 edition of IMTS, the Additive Manufacturing Pavilion has been expanded to the entrance of the West Building to accommodate over 50 exhibitors including major industrial players such as 3D Systems, HP, Renishaw, SLM Solutions and EOS alongside a handful of desktop 3D printing companies including Ultimaker, Formlabs and Aleph Objects.

BIGREP | BOOTH 432005 Large-scale 3D printing will be on display at IMTS with BigRepâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s award-winning, German-engineered BigRep ONE and BigRep STUDIO, which provide a high-quality, reliable additive solution for industrial professionals. See industrial parts from jigs and fixtures to robotic grippers, prototypes and more. With a build platform of up to 1 x 1 x 1 m, discover how BigRep's large-format 3D printers are enabling engineers and designers to design big without limiting the size of their ideas.

EXHIBITOR HIGHLIGHTS ADDITIVE INDUSTRIES | BOOTH 432006

DIGITAL ALLOYS | BOOTH 432001

The Dutch metal additive manufacturing OEM will showcase its 4-laser MetalFAB1 system launch at IMTS. With significant customers already within the aerospace and automotive sectors Additive Industries technology is aimed at large-series production where repeatability and automation are essential. MetalFAB1 will be running live during IMTS with its 4-full field lasers, covering the entire 420 x 420 mm powder bed.

ADDUP | BOOTH 432400 AddUpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s modular metal additive manufacturing system now has a pre-fabricated turnkey FlexCare System designed to promote better health and safety standards when 3D printing with metal. The containerized FlexCare System houses the FormUp350 industrial metal 3D printer, including all inert, ancillary powder charging, evacuation and recycling equipment required to safely operate the 3D printing process. An integrated washing machine cleans plates and parts as they exit the system. The system includes an integrated HVAC system with airlock technology to control the atmosphere and exchange of air, and is designed to protect operators and avoid the risks associated with metal additive manufacturing.

Backed by Boeing, Lincoln Electric, Khosla Ventures, and G20 Ventures, Digital Alloys, a new provider of high-speed metal 3D printing, is showcasing its exciting new Joule Printing technology for the very first time. For manufacturers of hard metal parts, Digital Alloys says additive manufacturing with its Joule Printing is radically simple and delivers the highest speed and lowest cost. Initial applications include conformally cooled tooling for the automotive and consumer products industries and high-quality titanium parts for the aerospace industry.

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

033

The CONFERENCE for Design-to-Manufacturing Innovation

Tct conference @ formnext is a world-leading event focused on additive manufacturing | 3d printing | design | cad/cae | metrology and inspection.

14 15 16 NOVEMBER 2018 FRANKFURT, GERMANY

World-class companies constantly improve every part of their design-to-manufacturing process chain. With over 60 presentations, TCT conference @ formnext 2018 shows how you can apply new technologies across design, development, engineering and manufacturing functions.

CONFERENCE

BOOK YOUR TICKETS

WWW.tctconferenceformnext.com

IMTS PREVIEW EOS | BOOTH 432007

SLM SOLUTIONS | BOOTH 432304 increase machining accuracy and part quality and achieve even higher levels of productivity, flexibility and profitability. Mazak continues to evolve its original Done In One Multi-Tasking concept with new combined processes focused on improved throughput via the completion of parts in simple single steps.

This year at IMTS, EOS will unveil a new metal industrial 3D printing platform, the M 300, that significantly raises the level of Additive Manufacturing (AM) productivity while delivering part quality via an automation-ready, future-proof, and scalable platform. In-booth, EOS will feature its new machine, as well as a virtual reality station featuring the industrial-ready EOS P 500 polymer platform, and spotlight cutting-edge applications, materials, and software. EOS's team of experts will be on hand to answer your 3D printing questions no matter where your organization is on your AM journey.

EXONE | BOOTH 432308 Launched at RAPID + TCT in Fort Worth earlier this year, ExOne's Innovent+ machine can process powders for Metal Injection Molding (MIM). Based on ExOne's compact and budget-friendly Innovent platform, the Innovent+ is designed for use in the lab for research and education, offering twice the print volume of prior models (160 x 65 x 65 mm) and increased powder handling capabilities. The machine features an ultrasonic recoater designed for fine powder material flexibility and ease of use. The finer powders improve feature resolution and surface finish.

MAZAK | BOOTH 432000 Mazak will further expand its MultiTasking technology when it unveils the new VC-500A/5X AM HWD MultiTasking Machine. As with all of Mazak’s growing models of HYBRID technology, the new machine offers manufacturers part processing capabilities beyond those of conventional multi-tasking to reduce lead times and part costs,

OPTOMEC | BOOTH 432204

This year at IMTS, Optomec will highlight advances made in hybrid manufacturing with the LENS Machine Tool Series it launched at IMTS in 2016. Building on the success of the LENS Machine Tool Series and demonstrating Optomec’s commitment to make additive manufacturing more affordable to industry, Optomec will introduce a new product model - the LENS 860 Hybrid Controlled Atmosphere System. With a bigger build envelope and higher power, the LENS 860 can produce and repair larger parts more cost-effectively. It is also more versatile with the ability to process fine-features for thin wall structures to cladding for coating applications.

RENISHAW | BOOTH 431607 Renishaw will present InfiniAM Spectral, a new AM process monitoring software, Developed for use on Renishaw systems; the software package helps AM users gain a greater understanding of their processes and overcome the difficulties with AM in critical applications, process stability and part quality. InfiniAM Spectral is part of a developing family of products that help users capture, evaluate, present and store process data from Renishaw laser powder-bed fusion (LPBF) technologies.

The German-based metal additive manufacturing OEM will unveil an update to its popular SLM 280 at IMTS. The pillar of the SLM Solutions’ metal 3D printer lineup will be revealed with a new body encasing the machine, filters and closed-loop powder sieving station into one seamless design. Along with its 280 x 280 x 365mm build platform, bidirectional powder re-coating and open system architecture, a new enhanced filter module reduces consumable costs, significantly increases runtime, and reduces process waste and waste disposal costs. The process waste can be safely disposed of as a dry mixture while the filter can be re-used continuously.

VOLUME GRAPHICS | BOOTH 135903 Additively manufactured parts are nothing without their inspection and one of the leading tools is Volume Graphics software, which unlocks the full potential of industrial CT, a highly precise, non-destructive technology that looks inside your products and finds defects that would otherwise remain hidden when using other inspection methods. For IMTS 2018, Volume Graphics has released version 3.2 of its software product family. In version 3.2 of the software for the analysis and visualization of industrial computed tomography (CT) data, users benefit from new options for tool and geometry correction, quicker analysis of repetitive structures, a completely reworked automation tool, a more meaningful assessment of mechanical effects of porosity, and much more.

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

035

The Event for

25 26 27 SEPTEMBER 2018 NEC, Birmingham, UK

Being recognised as a world-class company is only achieved by constantly improving every part of your design-to-manufacturing process chain. The pace of development in technology, materials and software is incredible and with over 300 cutting edge exhibitors that CAN help you enhance your design and manufacturing process, it is no surprise that more than 10,000 professionals from product development, engineering and manufacturing functions choose to attend the TCT Show every year. Join them this September.

Whatever your mission, find your insights, intelligence and inspiration at TCT Show.

SHOW

Research & academia

At rapid + tct, america makes announced the awardees of its aDDITIVE mANUFACTURING project call. we take a closer look at pENN sTATE UNIVERSITY APPLIED RESEARCH LABORATORY'S RESEARCH.

UNDERSTANDING STOCHASTIC POWDER BED FUSION FLAW FORMATION & IMPACT ON FATIGUE

team led by the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State (ARL Penn State) and the Center for Innovative Processing thru Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D) have begun work on a $1.4M project to understand the “effect of defects” under the Maturation of Advanced Manufacturing for Low-Cost Sustainment (MAMLS) program funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) through America Makes. The scope and impact of this work aims to significantly advance the usability of additive manufacturing across industries by investigating long-standing issues and finding possible solutions. Laser Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing (LBPF-AM) offers the ability to build complex geometry not achievable with conventional manufacturing techniques. However, during part production rogue flaws (flaws observed in post-production that can’t be explained) can occur. This issue has been a major impediment to full-scale adoption of AM within the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and the wider aerospace sustainment community.

“With aerospace, there’s a lot of concern about the fatigue aspects of a part, and whether it can withstand the high stress cycles that often characterize the useful life of machinery and parts used in aircraft,” said Dave Siddle, Senior Program Manager at the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM).

does not focus on preventable, systematic flaws. Rather, the team will be examining stochastic (i.e. random or rogue) flaws and how they affect fatigue performance. Powder quality (such as heavily re-used powder versus virgin powder), machine type, and surface finish, are the primary variables being considered. Specifically, this research will quantify the effects of defects by building fatigue test coupons in order to generate statistically significant, pedigreed Ti-6A1-4V fatigue data, then deeply investigating the defects present in the outliers. Work will be carried out on a 3D Systems ProX-320 and a Renishaw AM250. “Prior to hot isostatic pressing (HIP), we’ll be performing x-ray computed tomography (CT) scans, which will identify the characteristics of flaws. This information will then be correlated to outliers in the fatigue data,” said Ted Reutzel, Associate Research Professor at Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory.

A parallel effort is being undertaken to develop improved understanding of the nature of flawformation mechanisms through use of high speed video linked to an advanced, multi-sensor suite installed on the 3D Systems ProX 320 at Penn State’s CIMP-3D. “Improving the understanding of defect formation mechanisms within LPBF-AM could be really significant. This could lead to more effective defect suppression methods and

The presence of these outliers in fatigue data was observed in recent work conducted jointly by ARL Penn State and NAVAIR, but it is yet to be explained. What sets this work apart from previous efforts is that it

countermeasures,” said Paul Guerrier, Engineering Manager at MOOG.

Further goals of this work are to provide support for the development of design and inspection guidelines for components of direct relevance to the DoD sustainment community, as well as enabling machine suppliers and end-users to produce higherquality components overall. “The importance of this work for industry, particularly aerospace and defense, is difficult to overstate,” Abdalla Nassar, Assistant Research Professor at Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory commented. “While it is not generally known, some in industry have indicated that rejection rates for AM components already in production are higher than expected given the cost and effort that goes into process optimization. This impacts costs in two ways. First, rejected parts cost money, and more importantly, identifying which parts to reject requires expensive nondestructive evaluation techniques.” Results from this study will be shared with America Makes members, the Department of Defense, and government regulatory agencies. The team expects the findings will be rapidly disseminated and implemented by the AM community over the next two to three years.

5 SHOWN ABOVE:

AN EXAMPLE OF A STOCHASTIC FLAW OBSERVED IN TI-6AL-4V PBF AM BUILDS AFTER HIP (ARL PENN STATE).

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

www.tctmagazine.com

037

Research & academia

FROM THE BENCH TO THE BEDSIDE WORDS : SAM DAVIES

rom 1999 through 2006, a decade and a half’s worth of research at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) culminated in a world first. In those seven years, seven people aged 4-19 received laboratoryengineered urinary bladders and upon publishing the paper in the spring of '06, Dr Anthony Atala’s research was heralded as a new era in transplant surgery. But at the time, Atala stressed it was just “one small step in our ability to go forward in replacing damaged tissues and organs.”

He did so because through his 16 years of research up to that point, he found engineering organs by hand had a ceiling. But it also now had a platform from which to push off and smash through the glass. “Our interest in bioprinting was there before the term bioprinting was even coined,” Atala, M.D., Director of the WFIRM, told TCT. “But a lot of our interest there was based on the fact that we can make these tissues by hand. That’s nice, but now how do we automate the process? How do we scale up the process? It’s okay to make them by hand if you’re working on a small number of patients, but it’s not okay if you’re going to be creating tissues for thousands of patients.” In the late 90s and early 00s, those bladders were engineered from the patient’s own cultured cells which were then placed onto a specially constructed biodegradable scaffold shaped like a bladder and left to grow for up to eight weeks. The engineered bladders were then sutured to the original organ during surgery, with the scaffold degrading as the bladder tissue integrated with the body. All seven recipients of these engineered bladders remain alive and well today. Aware that there’s a much greater need for organ transplants than just the

038

www.tctmagazine.com

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

seven research participants, Atala has for more than ten years now been working on a bioprinting technique. Using this method, a piece of tissue less than half the size of a postage stamp is taken, the cells teased apart and then grown outside of the body using cell culture. Once expanded, the cells are put in printing cartridges with specific and compatible bio inks that have been developed by Wake Forest, and create a 3D structure. This is then placed in an incubator which simulates the conditions within a human body, and can then be implanted into the patient. The required measurements and shape will have been generated using imaging techniques prior to the printing process. Atala and his team have developed the Integrated Tissue and Organ Printing System (ITOP) after realizing the structural integrity limitations of using desktop inkjet printers. ITOP uses nozzles that extrude maximally compressed cells as a liquid down to two microns. The cells can survive for larger constructs thanks to a lattice of micro-channels being imprinted allowing

nutrients and oxygen to diffuse into the structures. ITOP is supported by a software program which downloads the patient’s imaging data to enable personalization. The personalization element of the process will be facilitated by a library of processes and materials which will consist of base bio inks, for example, which can then be modified to be made suitable for the patient’s requirements, and a range of materials for users to mix and match with. It’s a platform that will help standardize the process, and through its role as a serving national resource will welcome other researchers and health care professionals to contribute and benefit. And while setting that library up with Rice University and the University of Maryland, Atala and his hundreds of colleagues are focusing on printing the several tissues it has successfully engineered by hand, including skin, cartilage, muscle, urethras, vaginal organs and, of course, urinary bladders, to potentially serve 7,000 instead of just simply seven. “We have over 400 people here all working together to bring these technologies from the bench to the bedside,” Atala finished. “I think what bioprinting does is give you scalability, better reproducibility, a computer is guiding the creation as opposed to making it by hand, so there’s more precision, and lower costs.”

3 SHOWN:

BLADDER SCAFFOLD IN PROCESS ON WAKE FOREST’S ITOP SYSTEM

(CREDIT: WFIRM)

THE DIRECTORY

THE DIRECTORY Metal Additive Manufacturing Solutions In House CNC Shop AS9100/ISO9001/ITAR www.print3d4u.com 888-266-1837 Indianapolis, IN

3D Printer Sales & Print Services Prototypes & Low Volume Production

www.cimquest-inc.com sales@cimquest-inc.com

866-277-8778

( )

To advertise here and have your business seen by over 5,000 design and manufacturing professionals MAG

Please contact Carol Hardy on +44 (0) 1244 952 386 or email carol@rapidnews.com

WHAT'S THE ALLURE?

grimm column

WORDS : TODD GRIMM

TODD GRIMM is a stalwart of the additive manufacturing industry, having held positions across sales and marketing with some of the industry’s biggest names. Todd is currently the AM Industry advisor with AMUG

tgrimm@tagrimm.com

dditive manufacturing’s (AM) allure is obvious, yet its use is not as pervasive as industry participants would like. From machine shops for prototypes and tools to production operations for manufactured goods, many find reason to discount or ignore AM’s obvious benefits. Sure, we could cite technical and financial reasons for the somewhat limited use, but I believe there is a more fundamental obstacle that must be removed. That obstacle is buried deep within the psyche of individuals and corporations. It is the battle between prospective gains and the bias towards the known experience we call status quo. To move forward, with AM and in any aspect of life and business, the motivation to act must outweigh the discomfort of moving beyond status quo. This is represented by a simple equation I call the Allure Quotient. The Allure Quotient is a qualitative measure that adds intangible and non-monetary considerations to a return on investment (ROI) calculation. It is a subjective method to predict action (and resistance) on an AM initiative. If the quotient is too low, it is time to regroup and rethink your plans. If it is high, you will find ways to barrel through the challenges of making the gains a reality. The quotient is basic: divide all the hoped-for value by the combination of investment, effort and perceived risk, and then multiply the result by the number of parts affected. The numerator in this equation is the motivation; how badly does the company want what AM offers? The denominator is the demotivator; how hard will it be to realize the potential. The multiplier is a representation of how broad AM’s impact will be.

040

www.tctmagazine.com

VOLUME 4 ISSUE 4

Since this is an expansion of an ROI with qualitative aspects, make sure to add all the intangible benefits to the motivator (value). Think beyond time reduction and cost improvement. Add in part performance gains, improved operational effectiveness, and anything else that you or the company would relish. You will likely need to go beyond time and money to overcome the demotivator because status quo has the upper hand in this respect. For status quo—same process, same material and similar part design—the denominator is one. You have experience and knowledge, which negates risk and avoids the need for research, investigation, training and testing. For AM, the denominator is much, much larger, at least until it has become a staple for the intended application. The effort to understand, characterize, quantify and assess AM is quite a burden. Factor in the wildcard of perceived risk, which exists any time change is made, and the demotivator can stall the best intentions for AM. The Allure Quotient sheds light on why series production with AM is mostly limited to high-value components while tools (jigs & fixtures) are becoming widely used for parts of any value. For production, the multiplier is small

due to low breakeven volumes; the denominator is huge due to the need to characterize everything about the process and the output, as well as the risk associated with product failure. So the numerator must contain substantial gains that aren’t likely with commodity components. Conversely for tools, the multiplier is very large since one jig can influence hundreds of thousands of parts; the denominator is reasonable, primarily because the risk is low. This means that the numerator for tools does not have to be nearly as large. Given plenty of time, the AM denominator will significantly decrease. Maturity will deliver education, experience, information, guidance, standards and hard data. It will no longer be the burden of individual companies to derive the insights and understanding. This will naturally expand the AM applications because it improves the Allure Quotient. But I don’t recommend waiting. Instead, find the high-value opportunities and invest time and effort to gain the understanding and insights, now. Then build on this success to chip away at the demotivators for more demanding applications. So, what’s the Allure? Determining that is the first step in a new, successful AM initiative.

Industrial Additive Technologies TRUMPF offers both key technologies for metal additive manufacturing: Laser Metal Fusion (LMF) and Laser Metal Deposition (LMD). Both processes meet the characteristics and quality required in various applications. Industrial solutions for the entire process by TRUMPF, based on the following keys to success: robust machines, intelligent digitalization and clever services. www.trumpf.com/s/additivemanufacturing

• Life expectancy of LED light is 10,000 hours • Improved light source yields better detail • Lower costs than UHP light systems • More powerful than existing DLP 3D printers

E-Poxy delivers strong, thin-walled models.

cDLM

Continuous High-Speed 3D Printing • Exceptionally fast builds • Minimal post-processing • Strong and reliable system Watch the video: envisiontec.com/cdlm

PIC100