TCT NA 5.4 by TCT Magazine

AUTOMOTIVE

Innovation from the race track and mass production

MAG NORTH AMERICAN EDITION

TCT AWARDS

Find out who scooped the prizes at this year's gala

VOLUME 5 ISSUE 4

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STRAIGHTFORWARD SCALABILITY SCALE TO NEW APPLICATIONS WITH INNOVATIVE MATERIALS

DESIGN-TO-MANUFACTURINg INNOVATION

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VOLUME 5 ISSUE 4

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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 ASSISTANT EDITOR - TCT MAGAZINE GERMAN EDITION

Sandra Tschackert e: sandra.tschackert@rapidnews.com t: 011 + 44 1244 680 222 REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS

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“DON’T YOU ‘LADY’ ME, SON, I’M AN AVENGER”

FROM THE EDITOR

LAURA GRIFFITHS DEPUTY GROUP EDITOR

Laura Gilmour, Melanie Lang, Katherine Prescott, and Wai Yee Yeong. Four names you need to know, and the four finalists for the first-ever Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award announced at this year’s TCT Awards ceremony.

The award was founded in collaboration with the TCT Group and Women in 3D Printing, an organization which promotes achievements and opportunities for women in the sector. TCT has been working with the organization since 2017, along with partner company Cyant, on a number of female-led panel sessions and with another taking place at this year’s TCT Show, the award felt like a fitting celebration of those efforts. You might be thinking (and many have asked) “why do we need a Women in 3D Printing award?” Well, here’s why … Those who have been in this industry for 30 years took the news as an opportunity to offer up countless names of women they had worked with back in the early days. “True pioneers of 3D printing”, they said. The problem is, when it comes to industry recognition or thought leadership, those pioneers are not the ones you’ll usually hear about. Case in point, there were many names on the long list for this very award that I was unfamiliar with, yet after reading their profiles and achievements, I couldn’t understand how they had escaped my radar. Having representation and putting role models at the forefront does matter. I was reminded of this back in March when, after years of the Marvel Universe failing to produce a standalone female superhero movie, I couldn’t help but tear up watching Captain Marvel prove to the cynics that a female superhero can indeed make a billion-dollar movie and left feeling invincible. There were so many young girls in that cinema who would have left feeling the same. We may not have super powers but I hope that this award can be a similar source of inspiration. I hope that the names of those four nominees, who are already making waves in their respective fields, will be on those same lists reeled off by colleagues, not just in the case of awards like this but in wider conversations, when seeking out speakers, thought-leadership pieces, and so on. There is always more to be done, and we are working on it, like many in the industry, to close the gap in our output (and we’re open to learning how we can do better; laura.griffiths@rapidnews.com). Until that happens, however, the more awards, panels, initiatives, whatever it takes to keep things moving in the right direction, the better.

VOL 5 ISSUE 4 / www.tctmagazine.com / 03

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TCT VOLUME 5 ISSUE 4

COVER STORY

06. STRAIGHTFORWARD SCALABILITY

Cover star 3D Systems scales up its Figure 4 technology.

AUTOMOTIVE

08. DRIVING THE DRIVE

Assistant Editor Sam Davies reports on the application of HP’s metal technology in automotive from the opening of its Center of Excellence in Barcelona.

14 CASTING 14. SAND 3D PRINTING: THE DOS AND DON’TS

Dave Rittmeyer at Hoosier Pattern provides his handy words of wisdom to anyone planning to use a 3D sand printer.

17. POISE MEANS PRIZES

Sam talks to Brafe Engineering about how 3D printing is fast becoming a key revenue driver for the UK-based foundry machine shop.

10. WINNING THE MANUFACTURING RACE

Deputy Group Editor Laura Griffiths sits down with NASCAR racing driver and Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing CEO Brad Keselowski.

13. NEWS

A round-up of the biggest stories from this issue’s key focus.

ENTERTAINMENT 18. ADDITIVE GOES TO THE BALL

Laura takes a closer look at the headline-grabbing collaboration between GE Additive, Protolabs and Zac Posen from this year’s MET Gala.

22. 3D PRINTING’S BREAKOUT SEASON

Sam gets the lowdown from Carbon and Riddell on the use of 3D technologies in its latest headwear product iteration, the Precision Diamond Helmet.

Research & Academia

26. 3D PRINTING FILM FOOTAGE

A study on turning digital film into a physical object using voxel printing.

27. WHAT IS COMPUTED AXIAL LITHOGRAPHY?

A look at a new volumetric 3D printing process developed by researchers at University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

30. WHAT BECAME OF VULCAN LABS?

Sam speaks to EOS North America's David Leigh & Cary Baur about Vulcan Labs, the Integra P 400, and what's next on Vulcan's to-do list.

32. THE NEXT LEVEL

Todd Grimm is pleasantly surprised by the progress of some companies in AM.

22 18

STRAIGHTFORWARD SCALABILITY WORDS: 3D SYSTEMS

3D SYSTEMS FIGURE 4 ENABLES NEW APPLICATIONS WITH INNOVATIVE MATERIALS

As a new product design inches closer to the production line, the issue of scalable production becomes a key focus for the engineering teams involved. As a production line begins to reach capacity, the primary concern of management revolves around scaling that capacity with minimal capital expenditure and maximal use of existing labor resources. Additionally, new innovative materials are required to enable new production workflows and applications to exist. As additive manufacturing (AM) has industrialized, it has gained new roles on the shop floor well beyond its cornerstone task of prototyping. It meets a number of manufacturers’ needs by enabling immediate production on a wide variety of parts, is perfect for lights-out production and enables new product production to scale rapidly without the time and cost of tooling. However, these benefits do not excuse AM from its need to meet manufacturers’ standards for repeatability, reliability, accuracy, material properties, surface finish, and scalability of production capacity. The development of the Figure 4 3D printing platform by 3D Systems answered five of these six critical needs, and with the recent availability of the new Figure 4 Modular system, all six needs are fully addressed. Starting with just one or two modules linked to a single controller, Figure 4 Modular makes it possible to rapidly scale capacity with the addition of subsequent printer modules up to 24 units. Now it is possible to both immediately scale the production of new parts as well as scale capacity. Each additional printer module of the Figure 4 system brings the ability to produce a greater variety of parts simultaneously, using different materials engineered for the Figure 4 Modular system, including those with ABSlike, polypropylene-like, and elastomer-like properties. These highly robust materials are suitable for a diverse range of applications, including prototyping, production parts, and master patterns for urethane and investment casting, among others.

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BELOW: FIGURE 4 MATERIALS ENABLE A DIVERSE AND EXPANDING RANGE OF APPLICATIONS

The speed, accuracy, and material versatility of Figure 4 Modular are also enabling same-day jigs and fixtures to facilitate fast and accurate production, as well as opening new opportunities for texturing in both direct and indirect production workflows.

SHRINKING TIME-TO-PART WITH HIGH QUALITY AND EASE-OF-USE

The Figure 4 Modular 3D printer prints parts at speeds of up to 100 millimeters per hour. Given its rate of print speed, it is estimated that Figure 4 Modular is able to produce 10,000 plastic parts per month, making it an option for immediate production and immediate scaling when the demand for parts increases temporarily. Midwest Prototyping, an AM service bureau in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, is using a Figure 4 Modular system and experienced an immediate positive impact. According to Steve Grundahl, President and founder of the company, the speed and quality of the system are of tremendous value to the business: “We are very impressed with the resolution and the level of detail that we can get with the Figure 4 Modular. The speed is much faster than we're used to with traditional (additive) technology. Being able to print very quickly and then have a relatively short post-cure operation [makes it possible to] print and ship, or print and deliver, in the same day.” Global sporting goods manufacturer Decathlon has also found the speed of Figure 4 Modular impressive and capability-enhancing. “By incorporating the Figure 4 Modular into our design and development cycle, we have the potential for much higher productivity with a wider variety of material choices,” says Julien Guillen, AM leader, Decathlon.

cover story In a comparison between its existing desktop SLA solution and Figure 4 Modular, Decathlon was able to arrive at the same quantity of tensile test parts 19 times faster. What took the previous system 29 hours to produce takes only 90 minutes on the Figure 4 Modular systems. “With features like automated material feed and job management, we are able to improve productivity and reduce costs associated with labor,” Guillen adds.

INJECTION MOLDED QUALITY IN ADDITIVE

3D Systems’ Figure 4 platforms are delivered with 3D Sprint, an all-in-one AM software. The combination of these two tools enables manufacturers to achieve a Cpk > 2 at tolerances of +/- 100 um/mm. This meets the repeatability standard of injection molding, even on fine feature details. “The quality of the final parts we are able to produce using the Figure 4 Modular is excellent,” said Chris Nicoll, Prototype Lab Manager, D&K Engineering. “Many of our engineers have commented, ‘This looks as good as a molded part’ due to the excellent model conformity, surface finish, and physical properties. We can instantaneously create prototype parts, and small quantities of production parts, with injection-molded quality. Figure 4 Modular is replacing other traditional technologies we currently use, decreasing our development cycle, shortening timeto-market, and dramatically increasing our productivity to better serve our customers.”

DIVERSE AND EXPANDING SELECTION OF MATERIALS

What makes 3D Systems’ Figure 4 technology so compelling is the diverse and expanding range of robust and high-quality materials that are already announced and available. The portfolio of materials for Figure 4 includes ABS-like materials, polypropylene-like, and elastomeric. The company recently introduced Figure 4 FLEX-BLK 10, a polypropylenelike material, which has flexible and durable properties, making it an ideal choice in a range of scenarios, from prototypes to concept models to master patterns and end-use parts. 3D Systems has also introduced Figure 4 TOUGH-BLK 20 - an ABS-like black material which boasts high UV stability and accuracy, making it suitable for production applications - as well as Figure 4 MED-AMB 10 - a transparent amber biocompatible material. Towards the end of the year, the company plans to introduce Figure 4 HI-TEMP-AMB 250, a material with high-thermal resistance able to cater to applications like motor enclosures and tooling.

THE FIGURE 4 MODULAR PORTFOLIO OF MATERIALS INCLUDES: FIGURE 4 TOUGH-GRY 10: ABS-like dark gray material. Print speeds up to 100 mm/hr. For strong, rigid parts. FIGURE 4 TOUGH-GRY 15: ABS-like gray material. High strength & stability for short-run production of rigid parts at low cost. FIGURE 4 TOUGH-BLK 20: ABS-like black material. High UV stability & accuracy for production applications. FIGURE 4 ELAST-BLK 10: Elastomeric black material. Excellent compressive characteristics for design & validation of rubber-like industrial & consumer goods parts. FIGURE 4 FLEX-BLK 10: Polypropylene-like black material. Flexible, durable. Ideal for functional assemblies, prototypes, master patterns for RTV/silicone molding, short-run production, and concept models. FIGURE 4 MED-AMB 10: Transparent amber biocompatible material. For consumer hightemperature applications and general medical applications requiring translucency, sterilization, and/or thermal resistance. Anticipated availability: Q3 2019. FIGURE 4 HI-TEMP-AMB 250: High thermal-resistant material (HDT > 250C) for design verification testing, motor enclosures, and low-pressure molding/tooling with transparency for flow visualization. Anticipated availability: Q4 2019. SHOWN: FIGURE 4 MODULAR ENABLES MIDWEST PROTOTYPING TO DELIVER SAME DAY PARTS TO CUSTOMERS

VOL 5 ISSUE 4 / www.tctmagazine.com / 07

DRIVING THE DRIVE WORDS: SAM DAVIES

xiting the lab, disposable shoes binned, white lab coats hung up, it’s a left turn past the rows of office cubicles, up the stairs beyond the meeting rooms that flank the corridors, and into a gallery. There are hundreds of teeth molds in a compact nest. There are dozens of eyewear products in similar formation. There are prosthetics and orthotics. There is a wall plastered with HP on HP components. There are several industrial parts, like roller bearings and air ducts. And there is an automotive display, made up nearly entirely of concept applications, molds and prototypes, with just a solitary short run production application, that of a window guide rail for BMW’s i8 Roadster. Two cabinets of small parts by the entrance represent all that there so far is of HP’s Metal Jet Fusion technology. The opening of HP’s 150,000 square-foot Center of Excellence in Barcelona, the tenth building inside its Sant Cugat campus, was celebrated by HP as ‘probably the biggest AM R&D facility in the world.’ GKN’s Guedo

Degen later described it as ‘the biggest statement towards additive I have ever seen.’ It has been designed to provide a platform for collaboration, between users, partners and HP itself, to identify and develop applications which will later be showed off in this room. Heading back out of the gallery, there’s a sense of significant progress in many vertical markets but work still to do in others. Actions need to follow words. Back downstairs in the communal garden sits Philipp Jung, who is set to wave a goodbye to the media contingent and a hello to 150 customers descending on Barcelona that afternoon. He’s had a busy week, moderating a customer session on the first day, then co-hosting a presentation about Siemens’ software integration into HP platforms on the second. In between, he demonstrated the capabilities of the facility – and Siemens’ automated nesting software tools – when turning around a number of air duct parts overnight to physically present to delegates during the talk. His role at HP is heading up customer success, overseeing the (hopefully) cyclical nature of the adoption and implementation

“I’M 100% SURE WE DON’T KNOW THE LIMIT OF THESE TECHNOLOGIES.”

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6 BOTTOM:

GEAR SHIFT KNOB APPLICATION IN DEVELOPMENT ON HP’S METAL JET FUSION TECHNOLOGY | CREDIT: VOLKSWAGEN AG

of additive manufacturing (AM). It’s his job to help customers apply AM properly, helping to find parts which work and aligning users with the right partners. But with HP moving between prototyping and mass production, tooling and mass customization, and in a range of different markets, how does he gauge success? “It’s the printing of parts. That’s probably the most tangible way to measure adoption. How can I measure that more customers are using Multi Jet Fusion, and therefore adopting additive manufacturing? The best way to articulate that is the number of parts,” Philipp told TCT. “I’m not in the business of selling printers,” Christoph Schell, then President, 3D Printing and now COO at HP Inc, had earlier reinforced. “I’m in the business of selling printed parts.”

DRIVE MY PARTS

Two companies working with HP to get parts into the automotive market are GKN and Volkswagen. The former is helping with the development of Metal Jet Fusion and processable metal powders on the machine, and the latter helping to identify and pioneer metal applications. GKN sells 300,000 tonnes of metal powders a year, manufactures 13 million metal parts a day, and has deployed HP’s metal technology in three locations. VW, meanwhile, has committed to the partnership with a view to applying it within its mass production Volkswagen brand, rather than one of its luxury brands like Bugatti or Lamborghini.

AUTOMOTIVE

6 BELOW:

WINDOW GUIDE RAIL PRODUCED WITH HP’S MULTI JET FUSION TECHNOLOGY AND INSTALLED ON BMW’S I8 ROADSTER | CREDIT: HP

It’s a ‘triangular cooperation’ geared towards the series production of end-use parts. VW has a roadmap in place in accordance with the progression of the technology. The immediate focus is on small mass customization and ‘cosmetic parts’, like customized key fobs and personalized mounted name plates. Through 2019, the partners are looking to move to the functional production of gear shift knobs and mirror mounts. And by 2021, they are targeting safety certified parts in the chassis and engine – Electric vehicles were offered up as a target area, part consolidation being considered key because of the large size of the batteries. “What we expect is we will have car parts in the market and we will want to step up from, on the one hand, parts at golf ball size to tennis ball size to football size, and then on the other hand, start with easy and cosmetic parts, and then static, dynamic, and, at the end, crash-relevant parts,” explained Sven Crull, Head of Design for New Manufacturing Technology, Volkswagen. “Together with HP and GKN, we have made a great step forward in comparison with where we stood nine months ago. It’s the same roadmap, but the difference now is I know our vision is the right one.” The process of bringing Metal Jet Fusion to market with applications at the forefront began at HP’s offices in Corvallis, where head of the Metals division Tim Weber is based.

5 ABOVE:

EXTERIOR OF HP’S 3D PRINTING & DIGITAL MANUFACTURING CENTER OF EXCELLENCE IN BARCELONA | CREDIT: HP

HP’s collaboration with GKN and VW has brought about regular meetings in Corvallis, including a series where the idea of printing gear shift knobs arose. An initial print was presented to Sven with a wall thickness of 1.5mm. ‘Pretty good,’ Sven thought, ‘but could you do it with a wall thickness of 1mm?’ When they did, ‘how about 0.7mm?’ and then ‘now 0.5mm.’ “That’s the good thing about working with Sven. He definitely pushes the limit of what we can do with the technology,” underlined Tim. “That’s the mindset,” Sven said. “I’m 100% sure we don’t know the limit of these technologies and we have to push ourselves to the limit. We have a great time frame to push it and bring it on a serial basis so that it’s not just one part, but we can make this part several thousand times with the same quality.”

‘A LONG WAY TO GO, BUT MORE TO COME’

Sven’s drive translates into the size of parts too. Working with GKN, the two companies are at opposite poles with regards to the size of parts they want to push through the metal system. Volkswagen want mass

serialization of structural parts at ‘football size’, while GKN take the position that it’s easier to sinter small parts than large ones. The third point of this triangle, meanwhile, is concerned primarily about the volume of those parts. The opening of Building Ten in Barcelona came just weeks after SmileDirect announced it has installed 49 Multi Jet Fusion systems and intends to additively manufacture 20 million unique mouth molds in the next 12 months, about double the amount of parts printed with the technology ever at the time of writing. Breaking down the impact HP’s technology could have on SmileDirect’s business model, Christoph stressed, “That’s what I’m after.” Will he get it in the automotive world? Will he get it with metal? Well, that, in part, is why this facility is here, to not just talk the talk, but drive the drive. “I think it’s realistic that we will get there,” Philipp figured. “The technology works, and this is most important,” Guedo supplemented. “Scepticism is being overcome,” Philipp, again. “A lot of the time customers think of additive manufacturing as a little cottage industry, but once they see the commitment, the R&D that’s behind it, it makes a difference. Volkswagen and GKN came out to Corvallis first. Once they saw that they were like ‘okay, I get it now, I see what’s happening.’ You would think that if you explain it the rational mind should understand it, but you have to experience it. You have to see the commitment. The fact we have folks coming here very regularly, you see what’s happening, you see it coming to life, you see what’s possible.” “We know materials, we know sintering, we know the process. The printer is capable of printing parts at a certain density which really excites us,” Guedo finished. “If I just reflect on the last six months, there’s a long way to go, but now we are moving forward month by month and that gives me confidence that this partnership is the right partnership. There is far more to come.”

VOL 5 ISSUE 4 / www.tctmagazine.com / 09

WINNING THE MANUFACTURING RACE

eeting with suited and booted manufacturing leaders is standard practice for any big industry event. But for one particular meeting at this year's RAPID + TCT, there was something a little different – namely the hoards hovering around one booth hoping to catch a few moments with this approachable CEO, perhaps even an autograph or selfie. That’s because Brad Keselowski, founder of Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing (KAM), isn’t just the creator of a fast-growing hybrid manufacturing firm but also a successful fulltime NASCAR racing driver and, lucky for me, an additive manufacturing (AM) end-user too. As Keselowski puts it: “I honestly don't see how you can do this if you're not an end user.” Keselowski is fanatical about manufacturing and technology. This was clear during a keynote talk at this year’s Additive Manufacturing User Group

SHOWN: BRAD KESELOWSKI INSIDE THE KAM FACILITY IN NORTH CAROLINA

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WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS

“WHAT MIGHT BE THE BEST PART TODAY MIGHT NOT BE THE BEST PART TOMORROW. YOU HAVE TO ACT VERY QUICKLY.”

Conference where the CEO spoke openly about his love of AM’s fast-paced nature and the ability to have a “factory in your pocket”. That excitement manifests throughout our conversation, predominantly as Keselowski spins the perfectly engineered wheels of a miniature but incredibly detailed car model he encouraged his engineers to build, just for fun. That passion, however, is very much grounded in reality. Operating out of Statesville, North Carolina since 2018, KAM currently runs a 70,000 square foot facility housing metal AM, precision CNC machining, scanning, inspection technologies, post-processing and a full-service metallurgical lab. Some of that inherent enduser confidentiality comes through when asked about what systems the facility houses, with the CEO preferring to talk about ambitions to become “fully vertical”. That said, the company is open about its partnerships with major OEMs including Mazak, tooling company BIG KAISER, and GE Additive. “Part of being vertical to us is being hybrid, the two go hand-in-hand,” Keselowski told TCT. “Even in the small amount of time I've been in this industry, there has been a shift where it was additive against the world to ‘okay, maybe we're more United Nations’. I think that's very healthy. I think it was very unhealthy to have

AUTOMOTIVE

a rhetoric that there was going to be a 3D printer in everyone's house. I think it's very unhealthy to come out and say a 3D printer is going to replace castings or a 3D printer is replacing CNC subtracting. That rhetoric, thankfully, has died down. I'm very interested in hybrid because I see the strengths of multiple technology disciplines and when they're applied together we can create the most unique, the most advantageous products on the marketplace.” Days before my meeting with Keselowski, the company announced additional investments in its hardware line-up with the installation of two metal AM systems running aluminium and Inconel, CMM and tensile strength testing equipment, and a CNC precision saw for additive part removal and subtractive manufacturing. KAM has also commenced construction on a new engineering center set for completion later this year. Racing and manufacturing run in the family. Keselowski’s earliest memory of additive comes from his father’s race shop where he spent his teen years looking after the less glamourous tasks of mopping and sweeping floors. One day an engineer brought in a clear plastic prototype for an intake manifold, a part that would typically be cast in metal with a weight of around 20 pounds. This version was 3D printed and couldn’t have weighed more than a tenth of the original. Holding this new super lightweight part in his hand, Keselowski says he recalls pestering his father to stick the manifold onto the vehicle and race it, but the seasoned engineer quickly stepped in to point out that the part was merely a mock-up and if it were to race, would simply melt. Keselowski says he didn’t see another additive part until years later when he started racing with Team Penske, a well-known adopter of Stratasys Fortus polymer technology. Here, the team used 3D printing in wind tunnel testing to produce prototypes with fluid passageways and pressure taps. The data from the wind tunnel tests would then be applied to create algorithms which are used to simulate and validate models of the car.

But all of this was being done in plastics and Keselowski confesses he’s not a huge fan of plastic FDM, particularly when used as an alternative to carbon fiber. “Hung up on manufacturing” and inspired by a conversation on metal additive with an old friend who was leading his own successful carbon fiber business, Keselowski began exploring the technology. Light bulbs went off. “Motorsports cycles are very fast. What might be the best part today might not be the best part tomorrow or might be illegal tomorrow,” Keselowski remarked. “So, you have to act very quickly. The challenge for us is that really leaves us one option, which is CNC subtractive. CNC subtractive is great, don't get me wrong, we love it. It has its limitations. If we go to castings, castings are too slow. So, what I saw in additive was the ability to cut steps out of the process, specifically the ability to make effectively casting parts, in metal. I thought that was very exciting.” For motorsport, the manufacturing race is as crucial as the actual race itself. Keselowski speaks of one case where the team had created a fully engineered, fully simulated moving rear suspension for a car set to race one Sunday in Texas. When the car arrived at the track on the Saturday, a surprise weather front moved in which altered the grip level of the track and overall performance of the car. The part was a no go. Quickly, they relayed this back to the team in North Carolina who redesigned the part for the new inputs and loads, manufactured it, performed quality control testing and put the part on an airplane back to Texas. In just 22 hours, the team was able to get

the new component onto the vehicle and ready to race by 10am the next day. That story, and there are many like them according to Keselowski, is a prime example of what he calls the “feedback loop” which sees a constant synchronicity between engineering, manufacturing, quality control and Keselowski himself as an end-user. “The faster they go through the loop, the faster I go,” Keselowski said. “In motorsports, we are completely built to do that as fast as possible because it's so important to our success. What I found being involved in that is that the business landscape, or what I would call the real world outside of motorsports, moves nowhere near that speed. It's competitive, but not competitive in the same way. So, I had a very entrepreneurial hat on when I was talking to my friend at that time, I said what if somebody offered the same culture of speed and quality to the outside, you know, business world.” Speed alone isn’t the pinnacle of this success story and Keselowski says uniqueness and quality are key properties he seeks when pursuing new technologies. But as KAM moves forward with its ambitions for the future, he says print speeds are still a challenge. “This room hates hearing it but the reality is we still need to build parts faster,” Keselowski commented. “That's not to be the negative headline of the day but we need to get the print speeds faster without losing quality.” Speaking as someone whose entire career, whether on or off the track, has revolved around being the fastest, Keselowski adds: “I always feel like if you can show me unique capabilities and you can show me quality, I can find the speed.”

SHOWN: SHOWN:

KAM RACE CAR ON THE SHOW FLOOR AT RAPID + TCT

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AUTOMOTIVE Figure 3

NEWS: AUTOMOTIVE DYEMANSION LAUNCHES NEW AUTOMOTIVE COLORS DyeMansion has already cemented its place as one of the leaders in postprocessing polymer parts, and at this year’s RAPID + TCT launched a host of new colors aimed at two of its top sectors: automotive and lifestyle. The automotive industry has strict requirements for interior parts, taking into account factors like UV, extreme temperatures, scratch/rub resistance as well as color consistency. The likes of Daimler have already trusted DyeMansion for the reproduction of spare parts and the post-processing outfit has built upon

that experience for the first colour in the AutomotiveX range. Dr Alena Folger, R&D Chemist at DyeMansion, commented: “Even finest textures, such as leather patterns, can be processed with our new Automotive BlackX by the usual DeepDye Coloring (DDC) process in the DM60 while retaining all details. Like any other of our colors, Automotive BlackX can be used with our contact-free color cartridges. As black is the most important color for automotive interiors, it was chosen to represent the new color range of Automotive ColorsX.”

VOLKSWAGEN RETROFITS VW BUS USING GENERATIVE DESIGN

JABIL AND RENAULT F1 TEAM TO COLLABORATE ON 3D PRINTED RACECAR PARTS

Jabil has announced an agreement with the Renault F1 Team to 3D print parts for use in the 2019 Formula One World Championship series. The cooperation is intended to speed up the development and delivery of 3D printed racecar parts for the Renault R.S.19 by leveraging Jabil’s Additive Manufacturing Network. John Dulchinos, VP of digital manufacturing at Jabil, said: “Our ability to consolidate a global supply chain and scale qualified processes as needed will enable the production of chassis and on-car components in record time.” The Renault F1 Team is an early adopter of 3D printing technology and continually seeks to produce lightweight parts without compromising part strength or integrity. Antoine Magnan, Head of Partnerships at Renault Sport Racing, added: “Every single aspect of what we do is geared towards excellence. We look forward to taking advantage of Jabil’s growing ecosystem of certified materials, processes and machines to boost parts availability and overall productivity.”

Volkswagen celebrated the 20-year anniversary of one of its largest vehicle research facilities by unveiling a vintage VW Bus retrofitted with generatively designed parts. Autodesk collaborated with VW’s Innovation and Engineering Center California (IECC) to reconceptualise several components on its electric-infused 1962 Type 2 11-window Microbus showcase vehicle. The IECC team applied generative design to the wheels, completely rethinking the structure to reduce the weight of the car and lessen rolling resistance on the tires. The new wheels are 18 percent lighter than a standard set and the overall development time was cut from 1.5 years down to months. Generative design was also used to reimagine the steering wheel, support structure for the rear bench seating and external side mirror mounts. Andrew Morandi, senior product designer at Volkswagen Group commented: “It’s possible this could be part of a complete, fundamental change in automotive factories and how cars are manufactured.”

AURORA LABS AND GRÄNGES SIGN MOU FOCUSED ON ALUMINUM 3D PRINTING FOR AUTOMOTIVE

Australian metal 3D printing company Aurora Labs has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Swedish industrial firm Gränges AB. The agreement details potential transactions including the purchase of Aurora’s RMP1 Rapid Manufacturing Printer and supply of Gränges’ proprietary aluminum powder. The two aim to better understand the opportunities for aluminum additive manufacturing with a key focus on automotive, an area Aurora expects to see “enormous growth” in. According to Aurora, the proposed transactions could potentially be worth up to 7.75m USD in revenue. Aurora’s Managing Director, David Budge, commented: “This is a remarkable relationship for Aurora and we are very pleased to partner with Gränges, a forward thinking and innovative company with products extensively placed across the automotive sector.” The MoU, executed through Aurora’s fully owned subsidiary A3D Operations Pty Ltd., is planned to operate for a term of up to five years. Both parties are set to commence negotiations before entering a formal agreement.

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SAND 3D PRINTING: THE DOS AND THE DON’TS WORDS: SAM DAVIES

oosier Pattern Inc. was founded in 1997, has grown to house a workforce of around 50 people and nearly 30 production machines, and prides itself on delivering cores and molds on time and at the desired quality of its customers.

In 2013, the company became the first pattern making shop in the Americas to own and operate a 3D sand printer in-house. A year later, one of its customers purchased its own printing platform and leant on Hoosier to operate it out of its Decatur, IN facility. And since July 2018, Hoosier has been running a third sand printer – all ExOne S Max machines – and an FDM system for prototyping and low volume run patterns. The company is a champion of additive manufacturing (AM) technology, putting its fleet of machines into action day in day out, week in week out, successfully shipping sand printed cores and molds from Indiana, throughout the state, country and continent, and as far as Brazil, the UK, India and China.

DO: ‘A CLEAN MACHINE IS A HAPPY MACHINE’

Hoosier has created a cleaning schedule to make sure the insides of the mixing chambers, the bottom and inside of the recoater and the outside of the printhead are all scrubbed on a daily basis. A full wash out is a weekly occurrence, where pieces of the recoater are pulled out and soaked in a chemical solution. The windows and exterior of the machine are also wiped down regularly. “Keep everything clean. That way no sand or binder gets built up anywhere where it shouldn’t. If it does, it could potentially cause a failure on a job box we’re running.”

Having sampled an AMUG Conference 2019 presentation delivered by Dave Rittmeyer, a selfconfessed journeyman pattern maker who currently occupies the role of Customer Care and Additive Manufacturing Manager at Hoosier Pattern, TCT sought to glean insights from a company with more than half a decade’s experience of running a 3D sand printer.

DON’T: DESIGN TOO MANY BLIND AREAS When designing cores and molds, Rittmeyer recommends not implementing too many areas that you will struggle to see when the print is finished. “Too many of those increase your risk of a bad casting, so design it so it can be seen and cleaned. Try to avoid very thin sharp edges. You’re better off with obtuse angles if possible, rather than an acute angle.”

DO: DESIGN SO YOU CAN HANDLE

With the ability to print the size of the build volume – in the case of an ExOne S Max, that’s 1800 x 1000 x 700 mm – there’s potential for the printing of large cores and molds. But they’re typically not the easiest, or safest, things to handle. Rittmeyer suggests incorporating rods into the design – all the way through the print if possible – and perhaps even inserting steel plates to evenly disperse the weight.

Through both discussions, Rittmeyer put the emphasis on regular maintenance of machinery, gave pointers on how to approach design, and bemoaned the all too frequent carelessness of freight companies. Amidst it all, he advises what to do and what not to do should you operate a 3D sand printer.

SHOWN: 3D PRINTED SAND CASTING PRODUCED BY HOOSIER PATTERN WITH EXONE SMAX PLATFORM

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CASTING

DON’T: EXPECT YOUR COURIER TO GIVE DUE CARE TO YOUR SHIPMENT

DO: TEST EVERYTHING

DO: CONTROL THE ENVIRONMENT

Hoosier has installed technology to enable the air conditioning and furnaces to work together with a mister system to ensure the room in which the printers are kept is neither too dry nor too humid. “If it becomes too humid in the room, the sand may not flow out of the recoater properly, which means it won’t have anywhere for the binder to spray onto and bond together, so it’ll have trenching or just stop laying sand altogether. And vice versa, if it becomes too dry, the sand may start to free flow out of the recoater.”

Hoosier tests every print in every job box. Each print is weighed. Each is measured to get the length, width and height. A scratch test is carried out. A permeability puck will be produced to gauge printability in the first instance. Loss on ignition tests will be run.

Packaging properly is paramount in order to not undo all the work it has taken to design, print, and extract your molds or cores. Rittmeyer and his team have learnt the hard way that freight companies are not always too gentle when handling the wooden crates that Hoosier Pattern’s sand prints are shipped in. Deliveries have all too often turned up on doorsteps as nothing more than mounds of sand because of insufficient packaging, poor handling, bumpy roads or combinations of the three.

DO: GIVE EVERY JOB BOX A SERIAL NUMBER DON’T: BE IN A HUGE RUSH WHEN YOU’RE EXTRACTING YOUR MOLD Take your time and be careful. Remove as much unbonded sand as you can to make it lighter and easier to handle. And if you’re vacuuming holes out it can create a vortex in a wind tunnel and could erode itself very quickly.

“Everything is packed with foam around it. Foam is pretty much the only thing that will touch, whether it’s a sand core or a mold. If it’s a very fragile core, or if we’re worried about shipment, what we’ll do is we’ll actually print a box as we’re printing the core around the outside of it and we’ll ship it right inside that box, and again it’s packaged with foam. We’ll do that for very fragile impeller cores that have a very thin discharge or for water jacket cores for car motors, for example.”

Applying serial numbers to each print run will help you keep order of them for quality control. “Every item in that box will have that number on it so if there is a quality issue, I can locate and isolate them for quality control. If somebody ordered 500 cores over multiple printers, this way I know which cores were printed when. That’s something that absolutely needs to be done.”

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CASTING

POISE MEANS PRIZES WORDS: SAM DAVIES

he glacial pace at which an industry moves is often rooted in the human nature to resist change. At the top, change is risky. At the bottom, change is a chore. A few years ago, UK-based foundry machine shop Brafe Engineering decided to change by integrating 3D printing into its business model. Spending a six-figure sum on material every year, the company uses Voxeljet UK like a service provider to produce cores, patterns and molds in sand materials and PMMA to cater for its sand and investment casting customers, respectively. Through the years, the company has kept its sensible hat on. Brafe has so far decided against bringing the technology in-house for fear of technical obsolescence, instead benefitting from any new developments at the source. It didn’t flood its learning workforce with a gamut of 3D printed molds, either, instead gradually integrating the technology over time. Assurances were given straight away about how it would supplement the workforce and not replace them, and how it would enhance the company’s offering and provide an additional revenue stream. The company balanced concerns from the top to the bottom, and now? “The rate of technical development of 3D in the business has gone up tenfold in the last 12 months,” Adam Dalby, Brafe Engineering’s Business Development Manager, told TCT. “Now, people are saying this [mold] needs to be 3D printed, we can print that core rather than making it [through traditional means]. The benefits to the customer? We’re getting mold

packs designed a lot quicker.” Brafe is high mix, low volume, with its output primarily in pump and valve castings for customers in the oil and gas, pharmaceutical, and nuclear markets. When it throws 3D printing technology at these orders, it’s looking to see advancements in at least two of time, quality and price. One product to tick all

“AROUND 10-15% OF OUR REVENUE IS BEING DRIVEN WITH INTEGRATED 3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGY.” three boxes was a trim component for a control valve, which was traditionally cut from foam, pre-coated with a spray wax and then dipped into a slurry for investment casting. “That had varying degrees of success and surface finish quality,” Dalby explained, “whereas printing it can be dipped straight from Voxeljet. We managed to take some cost out, improve the speed, simplify our supply chain, and reduce the lead time. Our customers have commented on how much improved the surface finish is, and we actually [replaced it with 3D printing] without them knowing,

so them spotting it shows it’s worthwhile.” Not only is it worthwhile but, increasingly, it is expected among Brafe’s customer base that foundry machine shops are thinking differently about how to approach their order. Many of them have 3D printers in-house themselves and there are some who are even providing sand printed molds to be cast. But Dalby warns education throughout the value and supply chain is necessary. Nobody wants to be suggesting 3D printing as an option if it’s not the right solution. The poise that served the company so well in its adoption of additive remains, and to little surprise, the change is paying off. 3D printing’s importance within Brafe Engineering is growing at an impressive rate. “We’ve probably got somewhere around 10-15% of our revenue now being driven with integrated 3D printing technology whether that be a full part set-up or just a core, and I can only see that going one way,” Dalby assessed. “Two years ago, we were single digit percentage, probably 1 or 2%, and we’ve captured new customers where 3D is just what we’re offering them. We don’t want to continue to hold pattern equipment if we don’t have to, and it simplifies the whole of the manufacturing process if we can use 3D printing. Obviously, we’re not against tooling. We’ve got a skilled pattern shop here with three exceptional pattern makers that produce patterns to probably the highest standard I’ve ever seen. But, at the same time, it’s all a balance.”

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ADDITIVE GOES TO THE BALL WORDS: Laura Griffiths

hether it’s Levis’ ‘engineered’ jeans of 1999 or smart wearables, manufacturing technology and fashion have always found ways of coming together.

Though not quite as ubiquitous as a smart watch, it’s now not uncommon to find elements of 3D printing woven into the fashion world, from the famous Dita Gown that started it all to Chanel’s 3D printed suits and optimized mascara brushes. At the annual Met Gala, where the dress code and exclusive guest list invites the most extravagant outfits to the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the technology enabled some of the most talked about looks at this year's event. The theme was 'Camp: Notes On Fashion' and U.S. designer Zac Posen leveraged 3D printing to create a number of garments and accessories inspired by the concept of freezing natural objects in motion. The pieces were developed over a six-month period in collaboration with GE Additive and Protolabs, expanding on Posen’s vision of incorporating cutting-edge technology with sophisticated style to produce pieces that were “unachievable using fabric,” according to Posen himself. The designer commented: “For me, science, engineering and art all work together. That’s why standing at the forefront of 3D printing is so important.” The collaboration began right after last year’s Gala where Posen met with GE’s Chief Marketing Officer, Linda Boff who introduced the designer to the GE AddWorks team. Having previously experimented with fibre optic technology in another Gala design and following a visit to GE’s Customer Experience Center in Pittsburgh, the two began exploring how additive manufacturing (AM) could be applied to the fashion industry. What followed was a rapid iteration process combining traditional mood boards, sketches and draped mannequins, with new digital models (not forgetting the less cuttingedge wire-frame mock ups constructed from pipe cleaners) and many hours racked up on FaceTime. “From the beginning the AddWorks team had to provide some education on additive manufacturing and its capabilities today,” Stephanie DePalma, AddWorks Lead Engineer at GE Additive, told TCT. “One of the most rewarding parts of this collaboration was working with a fashion designer who clearly has a passion for technology and helping him live out his dream of intersecting technology with fashion, while in turn our team was able to live out beauty in a completely different way.” The main pieces - four gowns, a headdress and a number of structural elements - were worn by A-lister guests Jourdan Dunn, Nina Dobrev, Katie Holmes, Julia Garner and Deepika Padukone, and took over 1,500 hours to manufacture using a range of AM processes.

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ENTERTAINMENT The show stopper piece was a custom rose gown featuring 21 unique 20-inch plastic petals printed with stereolithography (SLA) to deliver a high surface resolution. You may think the bodywork looks similar to that of a new sports car, and you wouldn’t be far off. Each piece was finished with primer and a layer of color shifting “Twilight Fire” automotive paint from DuPont to give it a glossy sheen. The petals, each weighing 1 lb. and valued at 3,000 USD, were attached to a titanium cage printed on a GE Additive Arcam EBM machine to support the weight and movement of the gown while adding minimal weight. The garment took over 1,100 hours to complete. Though the piece, the most ambitious of the collection, wasn’t without its challenges. Due to printing and finishing schedules, the first fitting took place just one week before the Gala, leaving the team with very little time to make changes to the design. This was put to the test when Posen suggested the gown, which was originally intended to be a floor-length piece, would work better with a knee-length cut. Having pre-built some modularity into the design for adjustments, the team was able to completely deconstruct the gown and rearrange the petal placement in a much shorter configuration, almost like a 3D jigsaw puzzle. Commenting on turning the design around in such a short time frame, DePalma added: “We did have to use a Dremel to cut parts of the under-structure away that would have been visible the day before the Met Gala but ultimately Zac and his team were very pleased with the short design configuration.”4

5 ABOVE:

MODEL OF PALM LEAF COLLAR

3 LEFT:

CLEAR BUSTIER PRINTED WITH SLA TO GIVE A WATER-LIKE APPEARANCE

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SHOWN: Another highlight was a clear 3D printed bustier worn by actress Dobrev, printed in four pieces and finished by wet sanding and sprayed to give an almost water-like glass appearance. The static nature of the garment meant there was very little margin for error in terms of fit so the team used photogrammetry to make a 3D model of Dobrev to ensure the bustier would be a perfect fit. “When creating the vision of this piece with Zac, he draped fabric on a mannequin in the way he wanted the dress the flow,” Sarah Watson, Design Engineer at GE Additive explained. “We used photogrammetry and blue light scanning to capture some of the complex folds in the fabric and free hand to replicate as much movement in the gown as possible. Zac quickly learned that we were able offer more design complexity than he could traditionally make with folds in a fabric, which allowed him to add even more detail to capture his ideas of movement against the body.” Actresses Holmes and Garner each wore exaggerated accessories including a palm leaf collar attached to a custom gown produced with SLA and finished in pearlescent purple paint, and a vine headpiece with berry embellishments, printed in nylon in a single piece using HP Multi Jet Fusion and finished with brass plating. Unlike the bustier, the team didn’t have a lot of measurement information to go off to create the collar so opted to print a number of variants and test how they would lay on different body types. The leaves themselves, each long, flowing structures growing from the collar, also posed a significant challenge. “We used a handheld laser scanner to create a 3D replica, which we then were able to move and manipulate in 3D space to create the flowing movement of the leaves,” Watson added. “To do this though, there was significant time spent cleaning up the 3D model and lightweighting to make a manageable file to use.” The technology was also used to produce 408 intricate embroidery pieces for a metallic pink gown worn by Bollywood star Padukone. The embroidery was printed in plastic, vacuum

SHOWN:

BUSTIER TOOK OVER 200 HOURS TO PRINT AT PROTOLABS’ FACILITY IN GERMANY

EMBROIDERY IS ATTACHED TO METALLIC-LOOK BALL GOWN

metalized, and painted. Posen also created a number of printed accessories including brooches and cufflinks, some of which were on display at this year's RAPID + TCT event. The majority of the garments were manufactured at Protolabs’ AM facilities in the U.S. and Germany, while the titanium cage for the rose gown was printed at the GE Additive Technology Center in Cincinnati. In addition to the 3D printing techniques on-hand, Posen’s team was particularly interested in the range of post-processing options available via Protolabs including colorchanging paint and metal plating which gave each piece its luxurious finished quality. Plastic parts can look like metal while even the most acute additive eye would likely not be able to distinguish which technology was used where. Speaking about the project, Daniel Cohn, General Manager of Protolabs, commented in a press release: “Designers are no longer limited by traditional manufacturing processes, where a project would be curtailed by questions like ‘can a part be cut to this shape’ or ‘can it suspend itself under its own weight’. What we have here is a very pure design process, from concept to physical part.” The project is the perfect example of what happens when engineering knowledge and creativity come together. Posen joins a growing list of leaders in wearables and fashion who continue to play with emerging technologies, whether it’s Adidas using Carbon’s technology to print midsoles, or Dolce & Gabanna sending handbagcarrying drones down the runway at Milan Fashion Week. While technology may be the enabler in each of these examples, the project is further proof that collaboration is the way forward in leveraging the most successful outcomes from both fields.

SHOWN:

ROSE GOWN FEATURES 21 UNIQUE 3D PRINTED PETALS

DePalma added: “While Zac isn’t the first to use 3D printing in fashion, he waited for the right partner to come along that could help him incorporate the technology into his gowns in an elegant and authentic way with a different and more luxurious feel than previous additive fashions.”

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3D PRINTING’S BREAKOUT SEASON WORDS: SAM DAVIES

“YOU'VE GOT A WHOLE DESIGN TEAM AND ENGINEERING TEAM THAT HAS BEEN WAITING TO BE ABLE TO DESIGN AND MANUFACTURE A 3D PRINTED HELMET FOR QUITE SOME TIME.”

4 SHOWN:

RIDDELL’S PRECISION DIAMOND HELMET

022 / www.tctmagazine.com / VOL 5 ISSUE 4

ENTERTAINMENT

leats meet the crisp green turf, helmet travels from under the arm to over the head, backsides reconvene with the freshly painted seats or forgotten sofas, and the whistle blows. At once, it marks an end and a beginning. For players, coaches, fans alike, the slowest part of the year comes to an end, and the most turbulent commences. The post-season break and the preseason warm-up lasted only a few months, but to them it felt like years. Of course, that cast of people aren’t the only ones who make the spectacle what it is. In any elite-level sport, there’s the broadcasters and pundits dissecting the action and creating the narratives, the governing bodies implementing the rules, and the equipment manufacturers doing their utmost to protect the players. Recently, this trio have found themselves in the midst of one of American Football’s biggest subplots: the debate around concussion. The rate of this impact injury to the head tends to fluctuate season by season (it dropped by 29% in the 2018/19 campaign, for instance), but since the average NFL playing career lasts six years, there’s more than enough exposure to the possibility. A 2017 study found that chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated blows to the head, was found in 177 out of 202 deceased former football players, and within that, 110 of 111 former NFL players. It is a serious issue that the media has been right to spotlight, and the NFL and equipment manufacturers have been right to respond to. The game’s tackling policy is in a seemingly never-ending evolution, and you’d only have to see a chronological slideshow of images to gauge how much the performance of football helmets has transformed since they became mandatory in 1943. Riddell has been at the vanguard of the advancement in football helmets since the beginning, from basic leather shells to polycarbonate modernizations with full face visors to where we are with the

company’s latest product iteration: The Precision Diamond in partnership with Carbon. “The foundation for how we approach things is using the latest research and science that’s available into head injuries to design products that reduce the risk and reduce overall head impact exposure to players,” Thad Ide, Riddell’s Senior Vice President of Research and Development, told TCT. “The head impact database that we’ve been collecting with our instrumented helmets for the last 15 years is very valuable in illuminating the different types of head impact profiles that different players in different playing positions, different ages, different skill levels [can experience], and that will affect how helmets are designed and developed in the future. Our precision fit helmet is a first step along those lines.” It started in Chicago, where Riddell, with 70% of the football helmet market share, is headquartered. Three years ago, the company introduced a limited roll out of its precision fit helmet, in which Riddell conducted 3D scans of the players’ heads in order to design and produce helmets that fit perfectly to their head shape – nobody else can wear it comfortably. The helmets are fitted with sensors, recording every impact they take, passing information to the medical staff on the sideline in realtime, and storing much more for download to allow coaches to review periodically and advise players on how best to avoid high-risk, in-game situations. Harnessing this kind of feedback has enabled Riddell to gain territory in its pursuit of greater protection for the wearers of its helmets, but it was concurrent developments on the West Coast that paved the way for the next few strides forward. Carbon approached Riddell off the back of its work with Adidas, additively manufacturing the midsoles of the Futurecraft 4D trainers, believing it could attribute its know-how 4

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ENTERTAINMENT with thousands of cloud-based iterations developed, in just six months, and by November 2018, at least one player at each of the 32 NFL teams was wearing a customized Precision Diamond helmet with printed liners. The partners commercially launched the product at Superbowl LIII three months later and have been taking orders through the summer. Going forward, the helmet is to be made available to college footballers, and the customized material that Carbon has developed for this project will be rolled out too.

SHOWN: LATTICE PRECISION DIAMOND LINER PAD PRINTED WITH CARBON’S DIGITAL LIGHT SYNTHESIS TECHNOLOGY

around achieving the desired responses in certain areas of a latticed component to Riddell’s helmet liners. “The two programs are a little different because for Adidas you’re looking for energy return, and in this case, you’re looking for energy damping,” explained Erika Berg, Carbon’s Head of Application Development. “For that, we use different materials, from the same family, the EPU, but slightly differently tuned for different results.” Sample parts in this customized elastomer were put through compression tests, tensile tests, and impact tests by Riddell and, with some tweaks in the lattice structure, were judged to outperform its current foam. It’s the structuring of the lattices that really sets the liners apart from the originals. There are seven liner pads in total – down from 20 by the way – and within each, the lattice is fine-tuned to provide tough areas to provide a stiff response and soft areas to dissipate rotational forces, acceleration and velocity. Together, the seven pads comprise around 140,000 struts. The subtleties of their design dictate the performance. “They can vary in thickness, in length, and then the shape, and the cell size of that shape,” Berg said. “Those are some of the parameters that we

Riddell’s latest headwear product iteration comes amidst intense use to fine tune the response that you get. We can also change the direction of the lattice, so that could help with things like printability, but also response. If we know that there is one location that is receiving a direct response we want to make sure to attenuate that impact in a compression stance, but other areas we know have significant relationships with rotational forces and so we may change the direction of the lattice to make sure that we get more of a sheer result from that. We’re [also] trying to consider different areas that may improve rotational forces by improving the softness or changing the cell type in the way that the sheer stresses affect everything.” The seven pads are produced on Carbon’s L1 Digital Light Synthesis platform, all in a single build. They are then passed through a quality control process, testing locations throughout each pad to ensure the response and performance is right. Then, they’re placed, attached with Velcro, into the shell. Riddell and Carbon can go from scan to delivery of the helmet in less than a day. At the beginning of this project, they went from files to field,

3 LEFT:

ALL SEVEN LINER PADS INTEGRATED INTO THE PRECISION DIAMOND HELMET

SHOWN: CARBON L1

discussion around the side-effects of one of the world’s most lucrative sports. The driving factor was to ‘provide a superior product, the best protection to players’, per Berg, while Riddell has been ‘laser focused on head protection for years, decades even,’ and has sought to take advantage of the pace of technological innovation to address growing concerns for player safety. As the players cross the white line and enter the fray, with thousands in the immediate vicinity and millions watching at home, the Precision Diamond helmet is among the 2019/20 season’s emerging stars. It’s waited patiently these last few months, had its fit tested and performance scrutinized, and is now set to have its impact. For some, it felt like years. “You’ve got a whole design team and engineering team that has been waiting to be able to design and manufacture a 3D printed helmet for quite some time, for more than a decade,” finished Vittori Bologna, Research & Development Manager at Riddell. “Now, the technology has caught up to where our visions were.”

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ENTERTAINMENT

3D PRINTING F LM FOOTAGE I

n a world where “complexity is free”, form is usually the main characteristic of an additively manufactured part. Those in the industry have almost become numb to organic-looking generatively designed structures, so much so that the idea of seeing the perfunctory square shape that adorns this page, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it is not 3D printed at all. Yet, this project is only possible because of 3D printing technology and its mostly untapped promise of voxel printing. HP’s launch of Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) in 2014 promised “voxel-level” control and Stratasys’ GrabCAD Voxel Print software solution launched in 2017 was to give us molecular-level control and design of material properties. However, save for some experiments by Harvard, MIT and projects in metal by Lin Kayser’s Hyperganic software, we’re yet to see any useable, in-production use cases for voxel printing using polymer technologies like MJF and PolyJet. At a recent conference, John Barnes suggested that the global sum-total of engineers who genuinely understand design-for-additive methods was in the region of 1,000. A smart wager would be that the number of those that understand

WORDS: DANIEL O’CONNOR

voxel-level printing is less than 10% of that. That’s not to say that the research is not happening, and Joseph Coddington of the Victoria University of Wellington has dedicated a portion of his studies to understanding the benefits of voxel-based printing for bringing a digital film into the physical world. Instead of using a CAD software, which is notoriously tricky to not only implement voxel-level control in the design but the exported file (the 3MF file format is trying to change this but yet to have taken off), Joseph used film footage, photoshop, and a Stratasys J750. The result is a preservation of 32 seconds of film footage in 659 layers. “Usually, when designing a 3D print, the focus is on forms and materials,” explains Joseph. “Most prints use STL files, which

exclusively focus on the surface quality, and don’t consider the internal build of the print. For this project, the mindset was taken from a director or cinematographer point of view, looking at camera and film language to design the print.” Joseph took a 32-second video of himself having a portrait photo taken, slowly zooming in to show the range of movement. A secondary character comes into and out of the scene while zooming, which can be visualized on the physical print (like old film) before being projected. The scene ends with Joseph’s entire face in the camera in an attempt to create contrast from the start of the scene, which contained more of the plain background. The scene was then converted to black and white before adding a third color (magenta) to represent movement. Using Photoshop, the scene exported every 30th frame out of the 32 seconds of footage into a PNG file. The resulting PNG files are then stacked like slices of a 3D print with the pixels converting to plotting points for the J750 to place color in the appropriate place. The resulting print is a small rectangular physical representation of digital film footage, which Joseph is looking to commercialize by way of keepsakes. However, he believes his research could have a broader impact: “Voxel printing will offer a tremendous range of opportunity for multiple disciplines. The ability to code and now print what is inside a material is so significant I believe it is just a matter of time before the world switches on to the potential applications.”

5A BOVE:

GRAPHIC SHOWING HOW DIFFERENT FRAMES CAN BE STACKED TO BE PRINTED INTO THE CUBE-LIKE DESIGN

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Research and Academia

WHAT IS COMPUTED AXIAL LITHOGRAPHY? WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS

team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have developed a 3D printing process that can produce solid 3D objects in a matter of minutes. The new Computed Axial Lithography process – or CAL, as it’s fittingly known, originating from a California university – is a light-based process which takes a volumetric approach to printing, meaning instead of building objects layer-by-layer or dot-by-dot, building happens all at once. The technology works by shining changing patterns of light (likened to a mini movie) created via a computer algorithm, through a rotating vial of highly viscous liquid which solidifies to form an object. The results are said to enable parts that are smoother, more flexible and more complex than those produced with conventional 3D printing techniques. There are a number of approaches to volumetric printing, including holographic and orthogonal using a trio of light patterns, but the team opted for a tomographic approach which adds the key element of rotation. This technique eliminates the inherent step lines present with traditional layer-based printing processes and allows parts to be built suspended in resin, without the need for supports. “Computed Axial Lithography represents the first reported use of tomographic principles to fabricate 3D objects in a single process step,” Hayden Taylor, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley told TCT. “Relative rotation between a container of light-sensitive material and a projected pattern of light is what enables complex objects to be defined without the need of discrete layers. The fact

SHOWN: RODIN’S “THE THINKER” 3D PRINTED USING CAL. (IMAGE CREDIT: STEPHEN MCNALLY - UC BERKELEY)

SHOWN: CAL’S “SIMPLE” APPARATUS (IMAGE CREDIT: HOSSEIN HEIDARI - UC BERKELEY)

that there is minimal relative motion between the object being printed and the surrounding light-sensitive material during printing allows support-free printing into a wide range of materials.” The apparatus itself is surprisingly simple. In short, the printer uses an offthe-shelf video projector, plugged into a laptop, to cast a series of computed images onto a cylinder of 3D printable resin powered by a motor. Further explaining the intricacies of the technology at the time of launch, Taylor said: “Obviously there are a lot of subtleties to it — how you formulate the resin, and, above all, how you compute the images that are going to be projected, but the barrier to creating a very simple version of this tool is not that high.” The material is composed of liquid polymers mixed with photosensitive molecules and dissolved oxygen. Light activates the photosensitive compound which depletes the oxygen to form “cross-links” that transform the resin into a solid. One of the challenges here was formulating a material that remains a liquid when exposed to some light but solidifies when exposed to a certain threshold. Furthermore, Taylor describes CAL as essentially a “zerowaste” process allowing any uncured resin to be regenerated by heating in an oxygen atmosphere. Researchers have also experimented with printing

opaque objects using shortpass dyes which transmit light at the curing wavelength. So far, CAL has been used to print small objects up to four inches in diameter, including a tiny model of Rodin’s “The Thinker”. The largest part produced to date is a customized jawbone. The process can also be used for “overprinting”, allowing users to print onto an existing part which the team have demonstrated by printing a polymer handle onto a metal screwdriver shaft. A number of application areas have been proposed, including customized optical components, prosthetics and even running shoes. The ability to print soft, fragile structures could also potentially be applied to printing tissue scaffolds. The research was formally published in Science journal at the beginning of this year and the team are now exploring how to expand its capabilities, first looking at extending the technology to produce larger components with finer features and internal channels. However, the researchers are setting their ambitions even further, with Hayden suggesting that the dream is to eventually apply this technique to metallic materials.

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TCT AWARDS

And the winners are...

ord Motor Company, Riddell and Historic Royal Palaces were just some of the names amongst the design-tomanufacturing innovators, applications and technologies celebrated at the thirdannual TCT Awards. During a gala dinner at The National Conference Centre in Birmingham, hosted by tech journalist, broadcaster and presenter Georgie Barrat, the ceremony showcased the very best in aerospace, healthcare, industry and beyond, and welcomed a new member into the prestigious TCT Hall of Fame.

HERE ARE THE 2019 WINNERS … TCT Aerospace Application Award Winner Veripart Digital Supply Chain Tech Lead: Moog Inc End User: Air New Zealand Partners: Microsoft; ST Engineering Highly Commended Rocket Engine Combustion Chamber Tech Lead: Frazer-Nash Manufacturing End User: Skyrora Partners: Renishaw TCT Automotive Application Award Winner Automated Design of Jigs & Fixtures Tech Lead: trinckle End User: Ford Motor Company Partners: Ultimaker B.V. Highly Commended PSPM Ball-Joint Exhaust System Tech Lead: Poly-Shape End User: Pipo Moteurs TCT Consumer Product Application Award Winner Precision Diamond Helmet Liner Tech Lead: Carbon End User: Riddell Highly Commended Home Appliance Spare Parts Tech Lead: Spare Parts 3D End User: Whirlpool EMEA TCT Creative Application Award Winner Replica Dragon Conservation Project Tech Lead: 3D Systems End User: Historic Royal Palaces Partners: Paul Jewby Master Carver Highly Commended Church Retable Tech Lead: FIT AG

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End User: Pfarrei St Laurentius Altmuhldorf Partners: Kunstlerduo Empfangshalle Munchen; Studio Tessin

TCT Materials Award – Polymers Winner Formlabs Draft Resin Tech Lead: Formlabs

TCT Healthcare Application Award Winner Neuroinfuse Drug Delivery System Tech Lead: Renishaw plc End User: North Bristol NHS Trust Partners: The Harley Street Clinic; Herantis Pharma plc

Highly Commended Filamentive ONE PET Tech Lead: Filamentive Ltd

Highly Commended Biomimetic Regenerative Scaffold Tech Lead: Osteopore International Pte Ltd End User: Queensland University of Technology Partners: Julius-Maximilians University Wurzburg; Princess Alexandra Hospital, Australia TCT Industrial Product Application Award Winner Industrial Robot Dough Cutting Knife Tech Lead: K3D B.V End User: Kaak Group Partners: Additive Industries ; Civon Project Highly Commended Generatively Designed AM Workholding Tech Lead: Matsuura Machinery Ltd Partners: Autodesk; HP TCT Hardware Award – Non-polymer systems Winner CFC Technology Tech Lead: Anisoprint S.a.r.l Highly Commended Sapphire System Tech Lead: Velo3D TCT Hardware Award – Polymer systems Winner Micro AM Tech Lead: Nanofabrica Highly Commended Low Force Stereolithography Tech Lead: Formlabs TCT Materials Award – Non-polymers Winner XJet S100 Soluble Support Tech Lead: Xjet Highly Commended Vibenite 480, Cemented Carbide Tech Lead: VBN Components AB

TCT Post-Processing Award Winner Intelligent de-powdering Tech Lead: Siemens AG Partners: Solukon Maschinenbau GmbH Highly Commended H6000 Tech Lead: Hirtenberger Engineered Surfaces TCT Software Award Winner nTop Platform Tech Lead: nTopology Highly Commended Dyndrite Additive Toolkit Tech Lead: Dyndrite Corporation TCT Inspex Hardware Award Winner FARO OPTOR LAB Tech Lead: Faro Highly Commended Ophir BeamWatch AM Tech Lead: MKS Instruments TCT Inspex Application Award Winner Non-destructive Imaging in Forensics Tech Lead: University of Warwick End User: West Midlands Police Partners: Crown Prosecution Service; University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire Highly Commended Heritage Forensics Tech Lead: University of Warwick End User: Oxford University Museum of Natural History TCT Rising Star Award Winner VELO3D Highly Commended Spectroplast AG TCT Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award Professor Wai Yee Yeong TCT Hall of Fame Professor Gideon Levy

TCT AWARDS

PROFESSOR GIDEON LEVY

any of the previous inductees to theÂ TCT Hall of FameÂ have been the inventors of 3D printers. The likes of Chuck Hull, Carl Deckard, Ely Sachs, and Scott Crump were singular in their vision of creating a technology to fulfill a specific need. Our Inductee for 2019 is responsible for broadening the applications of those technologies to the point where we now have a dedicated awards ceremony. Prof. Gideon Levy's work both academically and industrially has unlocked additive technologies across the broad spectrum of manufacturing. After studying mechanical engineering, Gideon became a fellow at the worldleading organization in production engineering

research, CIRP. It was at CIRP in 1990 when Gideon first heard the MIT presentation on 3D Printing. In 1996, Gideon moved from executive positions in industry to to become a Professor of Mechatronics at the University of Applied Sciences, St Gallen, Switzerland. HE set up the RPD (Rapid Product Development) Institute using SLA and SLS systems. It was SLS technology that he helped to completely revolutionize. The materials supplied with the early SLS machines were not suitable for functional

2019 INDUCTEE

prototyping due to processability and mechanical properties. Prof. Levy's group was challenged to create a more repeatable and durable material for SLS. In March 1997, PA12 material (commercialized as DuraForm PA) for SLS was created and has gone on to be one of 3D printing's most ubiquitous materials. "Intensive research and process understanding enabled us to achieve similar geometrical and mechanical properties to today's materials," Professor Levy tells TCT. "PA12 was followed by many other materials with targeted properties

or specific applications such as polystyrene for investment castings patterns." Prof. Levy went on to work with many of the technologies in use today. He was a beta tester for Objet/Stratasys inkjet printers, in metals assisting with Concept Laser's R&D. He currently holds over 30 patents, and has published over 250 scientific and technical publications. He is presently active at Technology Turn Around (TTA), consulting significant players in industry education and research on AM.

AM CONSULTANT, RESEARCH AND ADVISOR

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WHAT BECAME OF VULCAN LABS S WORDS: SAM DAVIES

pinning out of Stratasys on the first working day after the Easter break, Vulcan Labs was introduced to the industry with nothing but a name, an indication towards its origins and a plea for

partners. And then, for the next ten months, silence. It would turn out Vulcan had been in negotiations with EOS since the summer, with the acquisition completed by February 2019. As a consequence, David Leigh, the then CEO of Vulcan Labs, was reacquainted with a couple of past investments. Leigh is most renowned for founding Harvest Technologies, a service bureau later bought out by Stratasys, but a couple of side projects saw him put money into both Advanced Laser Materials (ALM) and Integra, the latter being acquired by the former in 2011, which itself became part of the EOS Group two years prior. Now COO of EOS North America, he describes the deal between Vulcan and EOS as a no-brainer because of that history, but also the geography and technical competence at play. Vulcan is 40 minutes away from EOS’ Pflugerville site, while both specialize in powder bed fusion technology. Its first deployment has been to support the development and commercialization of the Integra P 400 platform, which is said to offer advanced capabilities and serviceability. The business’ prior endeavours have been placed on the back burner, with the P 400 taking up all of Vulcan’s energy and effort. “We have hit the pause button on what we were working with at Vulcan,” Leigh tells TCT.

PAUSE

components to fix just one. One new component is a dual roller which allows for quicker recoating and the ability to smooth out carbonand glass-filled materials, as well as process softer materials that don’t flow so easily. “One of those rollers is counter-rotating, so the direction effectively moves your material in a way that’s able to fluff it up and allow it to maintain motion,” explains Cary Baur, Manager of Applications Development, Polymers at EOS North America. “Our first recoat step is focused on moving the material, the second is flattening and compressing it in a way that’s repeatable. Those two innovations, as well as the expansion of the temperature range to 300°C, enabled many more materials that haven’t been achievable in the past.” The Integra P 400 has been in a select number of customers’ hands for around six months, with users working with EOS’ Additive Minds division, which Baur manages on the polymer side, to develop customer strategies and go from concept to real-life part. Meanwhile, Vulcan Labs is in the background. “Their role has been to come in and help us drive our production, help us drive best manufacturing practices, install those processes needed to actually serial produce a machine which is something that EOS North America has not done before,” says Baur. “It’s been a great addition that has sped up the timeline tremendously of the P 400.” EOS intends to make the Integra P 400 internationally and is currently working to achieve CE certification and train an entire global service and support base. Next year looks likely, but what’s Vulcan’s job then?

The Integra P 400 boasts the ability to operate at build temperatures of 300°C, opening customers up to PEK, PPS, polycarbonate and Nylon 6 materials, while infrared thermal imaging cameras help to monitor and adjust temperatures to reduce deviation. Serviceability is enhanced thanks to the ability to assess issues remotely and the machine has been designed so the parts most likely to need maintenance are easy to access – no more pulling out 100 5 ABOVE: INTEGRA P 400

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RESUME

“We see us focusing on the P 400 throughout the fall, but once the fall is done and we’ve launched the product and feel good about it, then we’ll start working on Vulcan,” Leigh picks back up. What that work entails is ‘primary differentiators.’ EOS and Vulcan Labs possess similar outlooks on the areas for improvement on powder bed fusion processes, while differing on the angle they’re coming from. Leigh analogizes the relationship between Carroll Shelby and Ford Motor Company on the Shelby

INTERVIEW

6 BELOW:

EOS’ NORTH AMERICAN HQ IN PFLUGERVILLE, TX.

GT Mustang: “We at Vulcan have been good practitioners, we know how to drive this car pretty well, but we’ve not made it, and EOS knows how to make the car really well, but they don’t drive it.” Vulcan has previously looked at how to process metal powders at higher temperatures, explored the use of harnessing other gases than Argon to operate metal machines at higher or lower pressures, and has considered how to ensure unused powder is recycled and re-used without being exposed to oxygen. Automatically controlling the speed, power and temperature of lasers has also been on the Vulcan agenda, while work on the implementation of automation technologies, to facilitate 24/7 operation, is another key focus. This is just the broad assessment of activities Leigh is able to divulge without compromising any of the company’s IP. Vulcan is set to work somewhat as an incubation lab inside EOS, supplemented by the EOS ‘ecosystem’, which includes business units like Additive Minds, the consultative arm; AMCM, the customized machines division; AM Ventures, the investment group bringing innovative start-ups into the fold; and Life Cycle Solutions, the aftermarket support unit. Collaboration between Vulcan and these groups has already begun. Additive Minds and AMCM have recently worked with clients to reduce the build volume of their M 290 platforms because they were generally not using them to full capacity. Vulcan has been assisting the teams as EOS prepares to roll this new modification out globally. There will be much more of this. Leigh likens it to developing a new braking system for one of those Shelby GT Mustangs he referenced and upgrading the car months or years after the sale.

In the 3D printing landscape, that might be new laser technology or automated scanner calibration. Vulcan will be one of the teams deployed to do much of the groundwork in developing these new capabilities, before handing off to Life Cycle Solutions to install them. The ecosystem is in full flow. It receives 1 million USD a week for technology R&D, is integrating around ten new start-ups per year, and is pencilled in to be the lasting legacy of EOS founder Hans Langer. Vulcan is now among the componentry of this network providing enhanced support to customers.

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It is likely Vulcan will do so without external recognition. It is playing a team game now; not every detail of each bug the unit fixes, or each technical breakthrough the unit achieves, will be made public, but make no mistake, Vulcan is contributing. “We’re starting to slightly influence some of the product development at EOS,” Leigh says. “We will probably have one or two unique solutions, that may [or may not] be transparent to the customer that came from an idea from Vulcan. “A lot of the things that we were working on will probably work their way into the ecosystem without having a label to say, ‘this is made by Vulcan.’ It won’t have a badge. We’re all one group, we’re working on independent things that hopefully can be scaled within the group. “EOS is becoming more of a global company than just a Bavarian company, and we’re starting to grow up and act like that.”

more than a magazine For the latest news, reviews and industry technologies

MAG

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grimm column

THE NEXT LEVEL U

nexpectedly, I witnessed a curious development while supporting RAPID + TCT 2019’s Executive Strategy Summit. This development represents positive advancement for the AM industry and evidence of the progress that has been made. In the summit’s intimate, one-day assembly of mid- and upper-level management from SMEs (smalland medium-sized enterprises), all participants were eagerly seeking insights that would propel their additive manufacturing (AM) initiatives to the next level. Why was it unexpected? Why was I pleasantly surprised? Well, the summit was developed on the belief that small- and mid-sized manufacturers are at a loss as to how to do more than the basics with AM. The agenda and the speakers that were called upon to communicate insights were assembled to address overwhelm, confusion, understanding and frustration on advanced applications like series production. At the very start of the program, it was clear that these representatives of SMEs in manufacturing had already succeeded with AM in some interesting ways. The questions weren’t along the lines of “Where do I start?” but rather in the tone of “How do I do more?” What really encouraged me is that every attendee had already implemented the application that bridges prototyping and production: jigs and fixtures. And several had already made attempts, to varying degrees of success, at doing production work. My takeaway is that we have come much farther than I had realized. My reaction was feelings of satisfaction and delight. My realization was that these companies are seeking legitimate guidance on the execution versus philosophical insights as to the rationale. How to take control of AM execution is still something that is being understood. But there is enough of an understanding to

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

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produce early versions of best practices. Likewise, the tools that help us take control, such as MES (manufacturing executions system) specific to AM, are in the early days of commercialization. But these tools exist, and more are on their way. And thanks to the efforts of the early adopters, the body of knowledge on execution and appropriate tools is sizable and accessible. This is what the SMEs were seeking; this is what is needed to advance. From this small sample of the manufacturing population, the conclusion is that AM for advanced applications is in the latter stages of the early majority phase of the technology adoption life cycle curve. This model, as you likely know, has five phases: innovators (2.5%), early adopters (13.5%), early majority (34%), late majority (34%) and laggards (16%). Being in the early majority phase, and assuming that we are halfway through it, the great news is that one-third of all manufacturers are on the journey to advanced AM applications. One-third of the manufacturing population is something to celebrate, considering that the model shows that 50 percent will be slow or very, very slow to change (late majority plus laggards). So, congratulations on progress goes to the AM industry and those that are participating. On the other hand, this is a wake-up call for those that are still in a prototyping rut. This realization that I am sharing is a call to action; a time to make big decisions. Will your business thrive if you accept a position within the late majority or laggards? If not, now is the time to act. You don’t have to dive right in, though. Even small steps such as roadmapping or strategizing on AM will keep you in the race. Now is the time to take your AM applications to the next level. Advanced AM applications are no longer contained within the realm of the large, resourceabundant companies; they are the tools of progress for companies of all sizes.

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