TCT North America Issue 6.1 by TCT Magazine

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY Facts, figures, and thoughts on the current AM climate

MAG NORTH AMERICAN EDITION VOLUME 6 ISSUE 1

AMUG 2020 PREVIEW Highlights from this year's event

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MISSION CRITICAL THE TEAM BEHIND RAPID APPLICATION GROUP ON ITS CAMPAIGN FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING EXCELLENCE

DESIGN-TO-MANUFACTURINg INNOVATION

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EDITORIAL

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

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FROM THE EDITOR

Such is the brevity of the additive manufacturing industry; we don’t often have to address the brevity of human life. But in December, we were saddened to learn of the passing of Dr Carl Deckard – the lead inventor of Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and co-founder of two companies acquired by 3D Systems and Evonik respectively - at the age of 58. Friends and colleagues described him as a pioneer, a visionary and a genius, while another industry stalwart told TCT how he ‘couldn’t tell his story without Carl.’ As is convention at times of loss, Carl’s story has been recounted numerous times since, though as he’d have conceded himself, his visioneering, pioneering journey wasn’t down to him alone. Deckard worked on the invention of SLS inside the University of Texas (UT) in the mid-late 1980s where he would receive his master’s, file his first patent, and commercialize SLS technology through a business that would become DTM Corp. Of course, he did this with the support of fellow academics, investors and several champions in industry. While his story can’t be told without acknowledging their efforts, nor can it neglect a couple of moments of serendipity, where rules were relaxed, and genius allowed to prosper. Indeed, if it wasn’t for an assistant professor at UT named Dr Joe Beaman, Carl would have left UT with an ‘okay but not terrific’ grade at undergraduate level. “Let this guy in, he’s got potential,” Beaman remembers having to convince the graduate advisor. Without that intervention? No master’s, no patent, no SLS process. Three years later, another moment of fortune. Back then, it wasn’t permissible for UT faculty members or students to own a company operating at the university, since it was considered using public property for private gain. Deckard and Beaman went ambitiously to the highest authority in the UT System and got lucky when the chancellor turned out to be an engineering professor. Impressed with their invention, he allowed them to become the first student and faculty member to own equity in a private company built on campus. Had he not, SLS mightn’t have been commercialized when it was, if at all. Highlighting these instances is not intended to do a disservice to Deckard’s achievements, for which he is rightly lauded, but to note that even the most inventive need breaks along the way and people to hand those breaks to them. It’s a reminder, in an industry where, despite the wealth of innovation, successful projects are outnumbered starkly by failed ones, that people and ideas still need adequate support. In the instance of Carl Deckard, twice he could have been stopped in his tracks, twice the doors could have slid shut rather than open. But the gesture of an optimistic professor and the consent of an enthusiastic university chancellor allowed potential to be realized, a novel idea to flourish, and now on a daily basis, problems to be solved with SLS technology. Life is short. Back potential.

SAM DAVIES ASSISTANT EDITOR

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TCT VOLUME 6 ISSUE 1

COVER STORY

06. MISSION CRITICAL

Rapid Application Group on the growth and social impact of the U.S.’s only Service Disabled Veteran Owned AM contract manufacturer.

Industry Report

25 Creative 25. WORTH ITS WEIGHT

Sam reports on a new powder atomization machine designed for precious metals.

09. STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

Head of Content Daniel O’Connor speaks to some industry figureheads and examines AM facts & figures.

Software & Simulation

Executive Q&A 26. CARBON’S NEXT CHAPTER Carbon’s new CEO Ellen J. Kullman talks about the future of the Silicon Valley AM company.

THROUGH THE DOORS

29. ELECTRON BEAM’S TIME TO SHINE

13. A PLATFORM FOR INNOVATION

Deputy Group Editor Laura Griffiths talks to nTopology about building a software platform that unlocks AM potential.

Dan visits Wayland Additive’s UK HQ to discover a new metal AM technology.

AMUG 2020

30. AMUG CONFERENCE PREVIEW

We look ahead to this year’s conference with a selection of not-tobe-missed highlights.

32 Expert Advisory Column 32. A FLY IN THE OINTMENT

Graham Tromans with a cautionary tale on how not to cure an SLA part.

17. JOURNEY TO GENERATIVE ENGINEERING ELISE tells Assistant Editor Sam Davies how it’s bringing a completely new way of thinking to design for AM.

21. “WE CARE ABOUT EFFICIENCY, QUITE A BIT.”

Dyndrite CEO Harshil Goel talks to TCT about going from CAD to 3D print in minutes.

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MISSION CRITICAL THE TEAM BEHIND RAPID APPLICATION GROUP ON ITS CAMPAIGN FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING EXCELLENCE

SHOWN:

FDM MACHINES BEING PUT THROUGH THEIR PACES IN THE NEW FACILITY

ith the recent opening of a new 15,000 square-foot additive manufacturing facility, the founders of Rapid Application Group (RAG), CEO Terry Hill and COO Jason Dickman, took a few minutes out to discuss rapid growth, a social mission and being the only Service Disabled Veteran Owned AM contract manufacturer in the United States. Rapid Application Group has grown very quickly since being founded in 2017. How did that happen? Terry: From humble beginnings three years ago, RAG has grown more than 3,000%. We are leading the State with the most advanced additive manufacturing facility in Oklahoma and our growth is a testament to our business model, especially for aerospace and defense customers. As additive manufacturing becomes a viable supply chain option for all industries, we are proud to help deliver ‘mission-critical additive manufacturing solutions’ for customers. Jason: 3D printing delivers the opportunity to fabricate and produce so many different parts on-demand, from prototypes, production parts, jigs and fixtures and tooling, and RAG is the tip of the spear for customers across the United States. We have focused on stringent quality standards, comprehensive traceability systems, and a commitment to customer service. We are the go-to leader in the aerospace and defense additive manufacturing market and our new facility is a mark of our commitment and growth trajectory.

Can you share some of your history in additive manufacturing? Terry: After several tours in the U.S. Army, and 750 combat missions as a UH60 Black Hawk Medical Evacuation pilot, I was introduced to additive manufacturing as a research pilot and engineer at the Army’s Aeromedical Research Laboratory. It opened my eyes to the possibilities of additive and allowed me to invent the ‘Hill Helmet Mount’. Once I left the army, RAG was founded in 2017. In combat there were multiple times that we could have used AM to support non flight-critical parts to increase the combat power of the United States and we are bringing that experience and knowledge to aerospace and defense contractors now.

“I HAVE HONESTLY WAITED FOR MY ENTIRE CAREER TO BE PART OF SUCH AN AMAZING TEAM WITH THIS WORLD-CLASS FACILITY.” JASON DICKMAN

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cover story

Jason: I started off more than 30 years ago as an aerospace engineer at GE, and later moved to Hasbro Toys and other companies where I implemented SLS, SLA and FDM systems for part production. I co-founded American Precision Prototyping, an additive service bureau, in 2002. I have been in additive manufacturing since its inception and I cannot imagine product development without it. We also leverage 3D scanning and metrology to fully assure quality parts. I am also an AMUG Dino award recipient. What do customers come to you for? Jason: Our customers come for our application-based approach that can be used to produce parts, both via additive and traditional manufacturing methods. We are fanatics about customer service and quality, and those customers are secure in the knowledge that we will give them the best advice and service, every time. We also have many certifications and compliance with standards including ISO 9001, AS9100D, ITAR and HUBZone. What examples of work do you do for customers? Jason: One challenge that both jet engine OEMs and Aircraft MROs have in common is the assembly of fan and compressor cases. The assemblies require all the parts to be installed and aligned in a specific order and are then contained by final case halves. A typical jet engine will have multiple stages of production, so fixtures with varying outer diameters, slot angles and sizes are required for each stage. It is extremely expensive and time-consuming to CNC machine these one-off components. Terry: So, it makes perfect sense to use AM to print these tools. Leveraging the massive build envelope of the Fortus 900MC, RAG

prints multiple fixtures at the same time. Varying part geometry and size of parts are irrelevant using this process. Accuracy on these parts was critical so we developed processes to measure and control shrinkage, and maintain the required surface finish. The parts print in about a quarter of the time and we were able to cut the production costs in half. Jonsey the dog is a popular character at AMUG and RAPID + TCT events. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the story there? Terry: Jonsey is my trained and certified PTSD service dog and VP of Customer Service. He gives me the ability to focus on growing one of the fastest companies in Oklahoma and the strength to continue this incredible journey. He is with me 24/7 and so when I am at a trade show, Jonsey is there too, and with his executive position he even gets his own name badge. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s next for the RAG team? Jason: I have honestly waited for my entire career to be part of such an amazing team with this world-class facility. When we moved to the new facility we added four large production 3D printers and in 2020 we will be adding additional polymer and metal systems. We have advanced metrology systems to ensure quality, and we will be adding additional reverse engineering systems. We have an aggressive growth plan and are excited to see what 2020 brings.

BE A PART OF #RAGFRIDAY WITH US. RAG Friday foundation is a registered non-profit organization that focuses on giving back to military veterans through improving quality of life, giving them employable skills, and raising awareness about veteran suicide. With the words Remember All Gone, every team member wears RAG Friday t-shirts every Friday, to ensure that we Remember those deployed, All those who come back but are still fighting a battle within themselves like Terry, and all those who are Gone, but never forgotten. Support RAG Friday through a donation and you will be supporting critical manufacturing skills training for veterans and delivery of services for production of prosthetics for wounded veterans. Rapid Application Group has donated over 1% of gross revenue to the RAG Friday Foundation. Donations can be made at ragfriday.org

Cover photo of Jason, Terry and Jonsey by Kate Friedl Story by Annalena Dickman and Rachael Dalton-Taggart

SHOWN: ADVANCED METROLOGY SYSTEM TO ENSURE DIMENSIONAL ACCURACY

SHOWN: (L-R) CEO TERRY HILL, JONSEY THE DOG, AND COO JASON L. DICKMAN

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INDUSTRY REPORT

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

WORDS: DANIEL O'CONNOR

“THE REALITY IS AM IS STILL A VERY SMALL INDUSTRY; WE USE THE NUMBERS WITHOUT PUTTING THEM INTO ANY SORT OF CONTEXT.” DR PHIL REEVES

nalyzing the health of the additive manufacturing (AM) industry is a tricky task; ask the OEMs, and they'll no doubt tell you all is well, even if there has been some serious restructuring. Ask a user, and they'll likely only see it from their positive perspective of a broader range of materials and machinery. Ask some industry analysts; they'll give you doom and gloom or a booming bonanza, dependent on their leanings. The truth of the matter is that the state of the industry is almost impossible to judge. And what else do you expect from an industry in which the machines vary in price from hundreds to millions of dollars? "It's always weird to talk about the 3D printing market because there's hardly one market," says Chris Connery VP Global Research & Analysis at Context. "That's why we break it down at this super high level of personal, professional, design and industrial machinery shipments. Take, for example, the industrial category [machinery over 100,000 USD typically metal]; overall, we talked about the metal 3D printing industry having a good quarter (Q3 2019), but only because of this new material extrusion metal technology like Desktop Metal and Markforged. When you break it down, you had a bit of a difficult Q3 for the powder bed fusion players. GE and EOS, for example, both saw a decline year over year in Q3." Those figures are odd given that powder bed fusion technologies are maturing to the point BMW is using the technology for automotive series production, and the metal

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extrusion technologies are just hitting the market with relatively few use cases. Chris was keen to point out Context sees no correlation between the growth of one and the decline of the other. Perhaps there are not enough buyers to go around? "The reality is that AM is still a very small industry," says Dr. Phil Reeves, Managing Director at Reeves Insight. "We use the numbers without putting them into any context; I always listen out for other industry figures to put the AM industry into context. Yesterday on the news, they were talking about wild birds, and the market for wild bird seed in the UK is 360 million GBP a year or about 400 million USD. So that's over half of the global revenue of Stratasys in 2018 (663.2 million USD for full-year 2018)." When HP talks about carving out a bigger slice of the 12 trillion dollar manufacturing industry for 3D printing, it is worth noting that, according to the 2018 Wohler's Report, the 3D printing market was worth 7.34 billion USD. That's 0.06% of that 12 trillion dollars; it's a relative drop in the ocean, but that drop is growing at a faster rate than that of manufacturing. The investment in additive manufacturing over the last ten years has been nothing short of phenomenal. According to Crunchbase's statistics, 93% of investment in 3D printing companies has come since 2010. The total level of funding in some 2,800 companies has been 4.1 billion USD. A quarter of that has flowed into two companies alone, Carbon and Desktop Metal, both of whom have been shipping machines for less than five years.

A PICTURE OF HEALTH?

Despite the boom times in venture capital funding, there is an air of pessimism you get from spending so much time reading about the AM industry. Along with the slow Q3s for EOS and GE Additive, 2019 saw Renishaw shutter the doors to its dedicated additive manufacturing site in Staffordshire, UK. Although the company remains dedicated to AM technology, with the board discussing "next-generation machines" in its most recent earnings conference call, the Stone plant closure and the resulting round of redundancies was a cause for concern. In 2019 alone, we saw Mcor collapse, Lulzbot fold only to be rescued, plus Carbon, Stratasys, EOS, and HP all change leadership teams. These are rocky times for the AM industry and what with geopolitical difficulties like tariff wars and Brexit plus the outbreak of the coronavirus practically shutting down China - AM's fastest-growing market for what appears to be some months - the start of 2020 doesn't look much brighter. Reeves believes it's inevitable that in the not too distant future we'll see some consolidation in 3D printing companies:

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INDUSTRY REPORT

"The biggest barrier to adoption is economics," says Phil Reeves. "There's a lot of talk about the ecosystem now; Formnext was a great example of this, you've got machine manufacturers, materials companies, material handling equipment companies, post-processing, you've got software for the design side, you've got software for the CAM side, you've got shop floor management software tools, DRM [digital rights management] software companies... you've got a huge ecosystem. The reality is, the industrial adoption is predicated on the weakest part of it. And the weakest part is still the economics of the process." Phil's opinion is reflected in a recent TCT in association with Altair survey in which Cost Justification ranked as the number one answer to the question, 'What challenges does your company face today regarding adopting additive in production?'

TO TCT 3SIXTY

“THE BIGGEST BARRIER TO ADOPTION IS ECONOMICS.” "There are far too many 'me too' companies, particularly in metals. If you look at the number of powder bed laser metal companies, it's tough to differentiate one from another in terms of the product offer, which can't be good for the industry because there's only a finite market. You're diluting the market between multiple players, which means that none of them gets stronger, and potentially you're repressing the market and investment because nobody knows which way to turn." Adoption is still the most significant factor holding back the industry; a recent Ultimaker survey of over 2,500 engineers and professionals revealed that the adoption rate of those aware of the technologies was a little over 50%. At the recent TCT Japan 2020 event, Tim Shinbara, VP & CTO at The Association For Manufacturing Technology suggested the four most significant challenges were; lack of verification and validation tools; inconsistent processes; surface finish quality; and high materials cost. Dr. Phil Reeves leans more towards the final point:

Although it's difficult for those in our position to do much about the economics of the processes themselves, we can help with the runner up, Business Case Identification, which, in turn, may help with cost justification. Spotting this trend for slowing machine sales and a lack of adoption, TCT has taken it upon itself, as an independent organization, to help drive adoption. TCT 3Sixty (29th September - 1st October, Birmingham, UK) is the new brand for what was TCT Show. To help exhibitors sell more machines, the content for the new event will focus on three areas on an AM roadmap: • Evaluation: From 20-point plans before raising that purchase order to cautionary tales of adoption gone wrong, the evaluation track will feature speakers aimed at helping visitors understand why, how, and when they should be purchasing equipment. • Adoption: Once the decision to buy has been made, the adoption track focusses on some of the low-hanging fruit use-cases that offer quick ROI. • Optimization: For users who may already have a machine or use a service bureau for some of the more mundane tasks and are looking to enhance their machine(s)' output, be it through partconsolidation or a step into series production. TCT is on the lookout for speakers to present use-cases in the three above areas. If you feel like you have something that can help to accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing, get in touch with daniel.oconnor@rapidnews.com.

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SOFTWARE & SIMULATION

SOFTWARE & SIMULATION FEATURE sponsored by

WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS

dditive manufacturing (AM) technology is outpacing our current software toolset. At least that is the take from one New York-based software developer nTopology, with 30.7 million USD in funding to do something about it. “People have been working in AM for many years and they've had these dreams of things that they’ve wanted to create. It's not easy to do that with the tools that they have today,” Blake Perez, Application Engineer at nTopology tells TCT during a meeting at last year’s TCT Show. It’s a good introduction as to why the company’s computational modeling platform exists today, described by Perez as “a modeling tool and engineering knowledge-capture tool for highperformance geometry.” The comments were made back in September when the company made its debut at the Birmingham event and scooped up a TCT Award for its nTop Platform. Co-founded by Grey Schroy and CEO Bradley Rothenberg, nTopology first arrived on the AM scene in 2015 with its Element lattice design software. With a powerful modeling kernel on their hands, the team started looking at ways in which the software could be expanded to open up more applications. After working with a number of pilot customers, nTop Platform was born. Formally launched last May, nTop Platform offers a number of toolkits for lightweighting, topology optimization, additive manufacturing, design analysis, and architected materials for users in the aerospace and defense, automotive, medical and industrial design sectors; the company already counts the likes of Lockheed Martin amongst early users. Two months on from that TCT Award win, nTopology announced the next iteration, nTop Platform 2.0, with updated toolkits and the opportunity for users to create their own workflows.

MAKE THE WORK FLOW

nTop Platform has been designed to handle complex geometries in a repeatable way. Users can design engineering workflows which can be deployed to a whole product family or organization to speed up the design-to-manufacturing process. Geometries can be modeled directly in the software or design data can be imported from most major CAD tools, optimized, latticed, sliced and supported within a single platform, holding the user’s hand

SHOWN: TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION OF AN AEROSPACE BRACKET

through pre-installed data sets or allowing users to build on top of those and input their own IP. “That’s why we call it a Platform,” says Perez. “Typically, the workflow is, you have this very talented engineer who takes analysis results data, looks at it, has some intuition about how that gets applied to the geometry and it's back and forth, that person has to be in the middle,” Perez says of the current workflow. “Now you can set up these loops where that happens automatically.” The typical design-to-manufacturing workflow is a long one with many components to contend with. Designers and engineers are required to switch between multiple pieces of software in order to get a design to the point of manufacture and for every design iteration, those many steps have to be carried out all over again. That’s where repeatable workflows come in. “The more you enable your team to iterate, make design changes, learn from failures, the better your outcome is, we all know that,” Perez says. “We kind of tied all these processes together, bringing in the simulation data, bringing in your existing geometry, the optimization, and putting that all together in a single tool. So now you can say, okay I've learned from my part,

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SOFTWARE & SIMULATION

“INNOVATION IN EACH AREA IS GOING TO DRIVE INNOVATION IN THE OTHERS.” I need to make this design change and go back and make it. Your part rebuilds and then you can just print right way, you don't have to worry about costing your company man hours in making that design change.” There are a growing number of programs on the market offering tools like topology optimization and we’re seeing more examples of generative design everywhere from aerospace brackets to car steering wheels. nTopology’s take is, topology optimization is just another tool in the box and nTop allows users to quickly create geometry directly from that without having to manually remap engineering data. That said, it’s still very much a collaborative process between engineer and software. “If you Google generative design, you'll get hundreds of answers," says Perez. “What we do is we provide a toolkit for generative design. We give you all of the basic tools that you need to sort of string together whatever workflow you would like to have. It's not a black box, everything is very open, you know

exactly what's happening with the software. You as a user can put this together and you can generate your multiple outcomes, you can choose based on the constraints that you have, the machine that you have.”

A FRESH APPROACH

Those advancements in software products positioned towards additive manufacturing mean some older ways of doing things are gradually being phased out. STL, for example, a file format that has been subject to a committee of industry leaders wanting to see it gone in favour of a modern format, may want to watch its back. “One of our main efforts right now is to really get rid of the STL file entirely,” Perez says. “If you think about it, STL adds no value to your digital tool chain. It's a translation mechanism. So, we're slicing parts directly, we're providing slice outputs from our software directly to machines, we're working with machine vendors and I see that attitude changing as well, where people are being a little more open about the types of files that they accept from their customers, from their users. So, slice export has been incredibly successful in getting these geometries out of the screen and into the machines and that has relied heavily on our relationship with the machine OEMs.” nTopology has been actively working with OEMs like Renishaw and EOS to further explore the potential of this technology and how it meets the needs of various processes. “We know that there are hundreds of AM technologies out there, we're not going to build for just one, we're going to build for all of them,” Perez says. Most recently, the company joined EOS’ Digital Foam program as a partner to support 3D printing for applications like protective headwear and performance footwear. There’s also an ongoing discussion around the relationship between AM hardware and software, the idea that one is always going

to outpace the other. Perez doesn’t think that’s such a bad thing. “I don't think we ever want them to be on the same playing field, because innovation in each area is going to drive innovation in the others,” Perez explains. “Right now, we're essentially seeing our hardware advance leaps and bounds beyond our digital capabilities, our software capabilities. Software is catching up and then somewhere in the middle is the material space where I think we also have incredibly advanced materials. Now we have to figure out how do we process them? How do we represent them in the software? […] There's so much good hardware out there. We're just waiting for the tools.” The last year has been one of huge growth for the company. It recently opened an office in Regensburg, Germany to cater for its growing European customer base and raised an additional 20 million USD in funding. nTopology says it is now focusing its efforts on user experience, ensuring nTop fits into existing workflows and building out the platform to allow people to customize it to their needs, giving them the ability to create optimized workflows, package them and then share across an organization or the wider user community. It is also turning its attention to other forms of advanced manufacturing like composite layup and hybrid technologies where it believes, like additive, there is a sizeable gap in the design tools readily available. “One of our next big expansion efforts is, what does that community platform really look like?” says Perez. “Are there communities based around it? How can I download new functionality that maybe nTopology didn’t create but someone else did? That's where you really gain a lot of collective knowledge and you'll see just leaps and bounds of where the software goes.”

 LEFT:

ROCKET NOZZLE WITH LATTICE STRUCTURE DESIGNED IN NTOP PLATFORM

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SOFTWARE & SIMULATION WORDS: Sam Davies

iling suitcases, laptops and sample parts into the back of a van. Progressing from microscopically small plankton organisms to bionic lightweight construction. ELISE GmbH, embarking on an eighthour road trip in November 2019 from Bremerhaven to Frankfurt, having previously spent ten years inside The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, is in the mood to talk about its journey. The company’s origins are in the research of single-cell plankton organisms called diatoms which need to float to get maximum intake via photosynthesis and require a permeable structure to take in nutrients. Over the years, Daniel Seigel, Sebastian Möller and Dr Moritz Maier, the eventual co-founders of ELISE, would study plankton organisms, seeking to harness the lightweight construction principles of these microscopic entities and apply them in the fields of automotive, aerospace and more. ELISE (Evolutionary Light Structure Engineering) started as a design service, with the co-founders deciding to pursue

SOFTWARE & SIMULATION FEATURE sponsored by

commercialization in 2018 after positive feedback from clients. A six-month beta phase then attracted some of Germany’s most renowned manufacturers, each of which extended their usage of the software while more early access customers came on board too. Weeks before Formnext 2019, where the start-up was showcasing applications from Premium Aerotec, Volkswagen and Brose, ELISE had joined the likes of Carbon, Desktop Metal and Xometry in being backed by BMW i Ventures. A sum of 3 million EUR was raised in the seed funding round led by the automotive giant’s venture capital arm after the Group’s Motorsport division had

successfully deployed the ELISE platform during the beta program.

MAKING HEADWAY

The software that has caused such a stir as to result in BMW’s backing at this early stage combines generative design capabilities with process automation to create a single platform that houses tools for topology optimization, stress analysis, fatigue analysis and more. ELISE calls it ‘Generative Engineering’. “Let’s try to imagine a world where all the necessary steps and people needed for such a huge production are in one place and if you change something in the design you would instantly know the costs

“IT’S A COMPLETELY NEW WAY OF THINKING.”

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 LEFT:

ELISE’S GENERATIVE ENGINEERING PLATFORM

of the production, the weight, the simulation resolves, the displacement, the energy absorption; it’s all in one place and instantly available. This is the vision we have in mind,” Maier tells TCT. It’s a vision, so far at least, enjoyed by the likes of Volkswagen Osnabrück GmbH and Premium Aerotec, whose applications of the technology were presented at Formnext. The VW component on show is an A-pillar inlay manufactured with Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology. It boasts a reduction in weight of 74% and a reduction in the number of parts by 67%. Premium Aerotec’s application, meanwhile, is an auxiliary stabilizng point which is installed between two frames in the lower shell at the rear side of an Airbus A320 passenger aircraft. Again combining ELISE with 3D printing, there is an 80% reduction in time and a 40% reduction in weight. Both of these components have been designed from what ELISE calls their ‘technical DNA’. This incorporates input cells like manufacturing constraints, material properties, load case data and cost data; generative cells made up of bionic design algorithms and design templates; and evaluative cells, which take into account multiphysics simulations, support generation and printing analysis. This technical DNA then goes through modeling and design phases, then meshing and AM

preparation, before finite element analysis and cost evaluations take the user to a view of the fully designed component. According to Maier, the implementation of Generative Engineering is leading some companies to reconsider how they approach the designs of parts. “It's a completely new way of thinking,” he says. “This was the feedback that we got: ‘If we are using Elise, what we do is throw away our construction department, now we are all like process designers’. The teams come together and sit on the table: there's the purchasing department, stress department, the development department and they are discussing their workflow, their product development process, and what it should look like.” While bigger companies might have different departments for each step of the product development process, in plenty of firms one person will be responsible for the entire workflow, suffering the multiple file imports and exports that go with it. ELISE’s software isn’t just designed to assist additive manufacturing users, but taking these processes as an example, the company believes this back and forth can impede the design freedom that 3D printing technology promises.

“We've done engineering services for eight years now – for seven years in additive manufacturing – and what we experienced is that it is a field where this design freedom comes along with complex design steps. We have tried out nearly every software on the market, starting from CAD tools, simulation tools, pre-processing tools, and it was a mess of software conversion and import and export steps. This process takes forever,” Maier bemoans. “If there’s a project timeframe of two or three months, then you can do little iterations and then the time is up. You cannot come up with new designs, you cannot create new ideas, you cannot explore design spaces. You get stuck in your old design and, therefore, a huge potential gets dropped when it comes to additive manufacturing.”

ARRIVING AT A SOLUTION

ELISE’s Generative Engineering platform is still in development, with early access available on request and most of the seed funding set to be used to further enhance the product. The company is not looking to add ‘super fancy’ features but instead make sure the platform is robust and easy to use. Indeed, the group hasn’t come this far to underwhelm visitors to its trade show stands nor disappoint the likes of Brose, BMW or MAN, all of whom had testimonials plastered on ELISE’s walls at Formnext. The company is determined to provide these companies, and more once its Generative Engineering software is fully commercialized, with a platform that is simple, effective and doesn’t require them to carry out work in another software, unless they wish to. How the company differentiates itself from the generative design solutions on the market is by giving users access to the entire product development workflow, rather than just the design phase. One thing they have in common, however, is that the value of the technology is not so much in the destination, but instead in the journey. “The most critical point of this product is not the result in the end, it’s the way to the part,” Maier says. “If you design an aluminum part, you optimize the thicknesses and overhanging areas for the specific manufacturing technique, and somebody raises the question, ‘would it be cheaper in titanium?’ I have to redo the whole project to find that out. [But with ELISE,] you simply can change the parameter of the material and the rest of the process is 100% identical; all the cross-section optimization, all the fatigue analysis is already there and recalculated automatically with the new material properties and you instantly know [the price]. “The final part you could do with a classical CAD system by hand, but the design possibilities behind it, this is the interesting part.”

 LEFT:

VOLKSWAGEN A-PILLAR INLAY

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DYNDRITE: “WE CARE ABOUT EFFICIENCY, QUITE A BIT.” WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS

he above is the key theme that Harshil Goel, founder and CEO of additive manufacturing software developer Dyndrite, says he wants me to take away from our conversation at last year’s Formnext. It’s a concise introduction from a company built on the enormously complex language of kernels, GPUs and CPUs, but a few simple clicks into a demo, I quickly discover that making complex tools efficient and approachable is what Dyndrite is all about. 'Quick' is a prime word here. Within the first five minutes of our meeting, Goel has successfully imported a model into the Dyndrite platform, generated supports, made some changes, run the next iteration, copied and pasted the new design, added some crucial labels, performed slicing - basically

the many steps that designers and engineers have to go through day in, day out to take their design from file to finished part. The recent Forbes 30 Under 30 inductee makes it look so simple that I walk away believing even I, three engineering degrees less qualified, could take the mouse and churn out some successful parts. “That's the point,” Goel tells me. “Honestly, if someone has difficulty learning how to use this, we did not do our jobs right. This is supposed to be like English and this is supposed to be really, really accessible. You should be able to go from CAD to print within five minutes of installing the software.” Dyndrite (pronounced “den-drite”), is a Seattle-based outfit which emerged

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after more than three years in stealth to a captivated crowd at the Additive Manufacturing Users Group last year. Backed by Google’s Gradient Ventures and former Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, the company aims to provide an alternative to the software tools which Goel and his team of mathematicians, scientists and software experts saw were holding the additive manufacturing industry back. “We're at a unique point in time where the hardware has actually outpaced the software,” Goel tells TCT. “It's not even just on the design side. It's just how do you go from CAD to print?” Dyndrite is not a design tool. It’s not a simulation tool either. So, what exactly does it do? Behind the bold statements about ushering in a new era of manufacturing, its interests lie in geometry and the crux is to help people gain control of their CAD to 3D print process. At the core is the Dyndrite Accelerated Geometry Kernel (AGK) and Dyndrite ACE (Accelerated Computational Engine), the world's first fully GPU-native geometry engine. Put simply, the kernel is the central maths behind a program’s operating system and you can do a tonne of stuff with it. Powered by NVIDIA Quadro, ACE has been built from the ground up

 SHOWN:

DYNDRITE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TOOLKIT WITH PYTHON INTERFACE

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SOFTWARE & SIMULATION

for modern computer architecture, modern manufacturing and modern design needs, according to Goel. “We specifically decided to build an additive manufacturing application because we saw a bunch of people in quite a bit of pain running around with their heads on fire and said you know, I think we can build you something to help.” That "something" is Dyndrite's Additive Manufacturing Toolkit (AMT) and accelerated production preparation build processor for 3D printing, both unveiled at Formnext. The platform allows users to import native CAD data, any geometry type and huge data sets (goodbye STLs), and export to any 3D printing process. It also comes with integrated Python API for scripting automated workflows and applications which can be used on laptops, desktops, local servers or the cloud. “Of course, making complex geometries is difficult but I actually think that's a red herring. I don't think many people really care about lattices at all. They look interesting but you can't QA them, you can't clean them, you can't service them and you can't figure out how to fix them,” Goel explains. “On the other hand, being able to iterate is significantly more important. If it takes you 15 minutes to load a file and you do that four times a day and you have 10 people in your company and your burn rate is $100 to $200 an hour, you've now burned $10-20,000 a week just opening files.” Processes that have traditionally taken engineers multiple pieces of software and hours or days to complete can now be done in a matter of minutes. Goel shared how some customers who were used to taking up to 70 hours to slice a design were now able to do so in under two. Furthermore, the ability to handle complex geometries natively without constant importing and exporting means part quality is controlled. “The idea is to make every single person Superman or Superwoman," Goel adds heartily. "Again, the whole point is efficiency. Everything that we do is basically ROI guaranteed. If we are not saving you money or time in some way then we're probably not interested.” Another big part of Dyndrite’s growth plan is its Developer Council which has already on-boarded an impressive roster of AM leaders. The council is

“THE IDEA IS TO MAKE EVERY SINGLE PERSON SUPERMAN OR SUPERWOMAN.” part of the Dyndrite Developer Program which provides OEMs, software vendors and service providers with the necessary tools to develop for the platform. 3D Systems, ExOne, SLM Solutions, ANSYS and Altair announced their participation at Formnext, bringing this industry working group to a total of 15 members. The company says it wants to be friends with everyone in the room. “There's no reason why we couldn't licence ourselves to everyone here,” Goel says, alluding to bigger ambitions of having a Dyndrite sticker on every machine (I spotted several Dyndrite logos already dotted around various booths on the show floor) but he asserts that while there is a lot of scope for this technology, Dyndrite is staying focused, honing in on five market segments: aerospace, automotive, energy, medical and service bureau. It is clearly doing something right. Two major metal additive manufacturing players,

27 28 29

SHOWN: DYNDRITE IS DESIGNED FOR SERIAL PRODUCTION WORKFLOWS

Renishaw and EOS, recently teamed up with Dyndrite to adopt the AMT into their respective workflows. For Renishaw, that means integrating AMT into its QuantAM build processor to accelerate slicing, latticing and lightweighting while also speeding up the overall CAD-to-print process. For EOS, it will support the build processor for its direct metal laser sintering portfolio to increase performance, portability and repeatability. After just under a year in beta mode, Goel says the company is getting close to having a product that’s ready for a full release. It also recently launched its limitedtime Magic Amnesty Program that will close in April. Until then, it's continuing to push the platform, bring in more developers, and excited to see what those first users do with the technology. “As you can probably tell, we're pretty paranoid about making something perfect," Goel concludes. "We think that we're going to be flipping the switch sometime [this] year.”

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CREATIVE INSPEX

WORDS: Sam Davies

s a leading manufacturer and supplier of precious metals, Cooksongold figureheads get pitched technologies aplenty as they sample conferences across the globe. Such is the frequency of these conversations for Managing Director Martin Bach, he plays them straight, offering an honest appraisal of what has been put before him. Take Vicenzaoro 2020 in January, for instance, where he was being told all about a fully automated CNC machine, which was being used to make rings in a number of different materials. “That’s not the right way to go,” Bach determined. “It doesn’t matter how good your machine is. It can be the most incredible machine, totally robot loaded with zero labor cost, if it’s not dedicated to a given alloy, my system’s cheaper.” His assessment of 3DLab’s ATO Noble powder atomizer device at another trade show, meanwhile, was the polar opposite. So impressed were he and his colleagues of the Polish company’s patent-pending Ultrasonic Atomization technology, they agreed to optimize the parameters and performance of the machine, before commercialization later this year. Customers will be able to either buy powders atomized on the ATO Noble or buy the machine outright and begin to produce the powders themselves in-house. The ATO Noble uses plasma arc melting to turn wire material into molten material, which is then subjected to vibrations with a specifically chosen frequency, atomizing the liquid metal before it solidifies to form a powder. 3D Labs says this resulting powder – which could be reactive alloys like aluminum or, more pertinently for Cooksongold, precious ones like gold – will boast excellent flowability, perfect sphericity and narrow particle size. The 760 x 1100 x 2000 mm machine also promises 100% material atomization and a minimizing of material loss thanks to a filtration system that recovers it for reuse.

Despite having powder atomization capability already in-house, these capabilities and features proved too good to ignore for Cooksongold. “We think this technology has the potential to offer better quality powder, more tightly controlled distribution and therefore lower costs because yield is better. And with a piece of equipment

“IT’S A FANTASTIC TECHNOLOGY, IDEALLY PLACED FOR OUR SORT OF MARKET.” which is much smaller, losses are going to be less” Bach explained. “It’s not rocket science. Precious metal is all about not losing precious metal and refining it as little as possible. Otherwise, it’s fiendishly expensive.” Hence, much of Cooksongold’s parameter development on the ATO Noble is focused on making sure the machine is easy to clean down and ensuring material doesn’t get stuck in joints and filters. The cost of precious alloys, plus the potential need to refine the material, is what inhibits the more frequent application of the materials in 3D printing, despite them being safer to process than reactive materials. But for Cooksongold, who’s invested big in 3D printing and launched the Precious M 080 laser sintering machine with EOS, printing precious metals like gold is almost unavoidable. “It looks pretty, it won’t tarnish, and everybody wants a gold piece of jewelry,” Bach explained. So, when Cooksongold send Bach and his colleagues to places like Vicenzaoro, it’s in the hope that they come across technologies that can facilitate highquality parts printed in precious metal

and do so more efficiently. In the ATO Noble, the company believes it has found just what it was looking for. “It’s a fantastic technology, ideally placed for our market,” Bach assessed. “Conventional machines for producing atomized powder are big, big things. They’re not designed for low quantity and so your losses are significant. [The ATO Noble] is much more flexible. It has the potential disadvantage of being a low volume approach, but you very rarely talk about high volumes of precious metals, so you don’t need to worry about it. “So, the fact that it’s a small, selfcontrolled, enclosed system is perfect for precious metals.”

SHOWN: 3D LAB’S ATO NOBLE

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CEO ELLEN KULLMAN TALKS CARBON’S NEXT CHAPTER IN THE FIRST OF OUR NEW SERIES OF EXECUTIVE INTERVIEWS, TCT TALKS TO CARBON’S NEW CEO AND PRESIDENT ELLEN J. KULLMAN ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE SILICON VALLEY ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING PIONEER. TCT: You’ve served on the board at Carbon for a number of years, what made you want to take on this leadership role? EK: As a Carbon board member I had a first-row seat to the incredible innovation coming out of this company. I really believe that Carbon is in a position to pave the way for a stronger manufacturing future. I always said it would take a compelling reason for me to take another operating role. And Carbon is compelling. Everything we are doing to reimagine the way products are designed, engineered, and manufactured across many different industries is inspiring. I have the relevant experience building and leading businesses so it’s really an honor to take on this responsibility to propel Carbon into our next chapter. TCT: Can you give us a sense of what that next chapter may look like? EK: Right now we’re focused on scaling our business and supply chain operations, pushing ahead on research and development, and delivering the best products and services to our customers and partners. TCT: You previously served as CEO at DuPont for seven years. With your experience in the field of materials science, can we expect to see increased focus on Carbon’s materials roadmap? EK: I’m really excited about the role digital manufacturing will play in achieving a more sustainable future for our planet. Digital manufacturing can offer cleaner, more sustainable approaches to making things. For example, last year Carbon announced RPU 130, a new rigid polyurethane material for automotive and industrial applications. 30% of RPU 130 is composed of a fully plant-based material called Susterra, developed by DuPont Tate & Lyle BioProducts. A rigid, tough, high-temperature material comparable in performance to unfilled thermoplastics, SHOWN: RPU 130 ELLEN J. KULLMAN, demonstrates CARBON CEO & PRESIDENT

that achieving more sustainable materials for digital manufacturing can also simultaneously mean achieving better performing materials. This is a major focus for Carbon, and going forward, we are firmly committed to building on this work by continuing to expand efforts to achieve more sustainable materials and practices. TCT: Coming into this industry, what applications or potential areas for AM excite you the most? EK: I’m really excited about the applications that are coming out of our performance and protection vertical. The Carbon Digital Manufacturing Platform is the perfect solution for any company looking to create superior, differentiated products, and especially previously unmakeable product designs. For example, our ability to create complex lattice structures that can be tuned to be both energy damping and absorbing with varying functional zones within a single part enables superior performance for products previously made from foam. Further, partnerships with global brands such as adidas, Riddell, Specialized, and CCM are examples showing how companies that have adopted Carbon to advance product innovation can not only design and manufacture better products, but also bring products to market in timelines not possible with traditional manufacturing methods. TCT: Much of the conversation around AM is about how we take the technology from prototyping to production, which Carbon has been exploring through partnerships with the likes of Ford and Riddell. What challenges do we face in taking AM to that next level? How is Carbon tackling those challenges? EK: Sticking with the status quo is always the easy answer. Adopting a new

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Executive Q&A

technology that fundamentally transforms the way you make things requires a company to be open to thinking about innovation coming from the outside. Manufacturing and supply chain are generally not areas where companies are open to change or risk. The main challenge the AM industry faces is helping companies see the long-term value in adopting AM and how that will pay off in terms of shortening goto-market timelines; achieving lighter, consolidated parts; making new, complex geometries for improved part performance; and the opportunity to make parts with better performing and more sustainable materials. The proof is there but we haven't quite crossed the chasm as an industry to mainstream adoption of AM at scale.

“I’M REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THE ROLE DIGITAL MANUFACTURING WILL PLAY IN ACHIEVING A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR OUR PLANET.”

 LEFT:

PRODUCTION PART 3D PRINTED FOR FORD

TCT: You are one of the first female CEOs in the AM industry and are active in eﬀorts to fix the gender gap in leadership through the Paradigm for Parity coalition - is that something you’re also aiming to champion in AM? EK: Absolutely. Throughout my career I’ve advocated for important issues like salary equity for people of the same job level regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, or any other characteristics. I’m really proud to inherit a culture at Carbon where there is a very strong commitment to making a positive difference in the world and to creating a work environment that enables people of all genders to thrive. I believe we must embrace and celebrate the diversity of experiences, capabilities, talents, backgrounds, identities, and

interests of all our employees, because not only is it the right thing to do, but it also strengthens our ability to innovate and better serve our customers and partners. TCT: Finally, as Carbon transitions from its start-up phase, what can we expect to see from the company in 2020? EK: Our focus in 2020 is to continue scaling Carbon’s Digital Manufacturing Platform to deliver on the promise of digital manufacturing. In 2019 our partnerships with global brands like adidas, Riddell, Specialized, Ford, Lamborghini, and Dentsply Sirona demonstrated how Carbon Digital Light Synthesis technology is accelerating product innovation, and we look forward to developing these programs further. We’ll also continue to expand access of our platform to product designers and engineers around the world.

SHOWN: CARBON 3D PRINTING LAB

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Together we lead the Additive Manufacturing Revolution

www.materials-solutions.com

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through INSPEX the doors

ELECTRON BEAM'S TIME TO SHINE W WORDS: DANIEL O'CONNOR

ayland Additive is a new British company with a technology that recently secured 3 million GBP (3.9 million USD) in funding from Longwall Ventures. Fundamentally, it is a metal electron beam powder bed fusion technology, but its backstory is a classic case of the mother of the invention being necessity.

LEADING THE WAY

SHOWN: NEUBEAM IN ACTION

Wayland team invited TCT to its new HQ in Huddersfield, UK to see the machine and team in action. There are, refreshingly, no-frills to the Wayland team, it is experience and expertise with frugality and functionality at the forefront.

Ian Laidler, CTO at Wayland Additive, was tasked by bosses at Reliance Precision - a one-hundred-year-old engineering firm - to investigate metal 3D printing technology: "I have a background in electron-beam lithography from the semiconductor industry and realized that there were things in current electron-beam additive manufacturing that could be improved. I recruited my old team from the lithography world and first set upon resolving the Achilles heel of current electron beam AM - charging of the powder." The charging of the powder is the reason for what is known as a smoke event or 'smoking'; which can ruin both builds and requires machine clean down. To minimize smoking, current systems pre-sinter the surface layer with rapid scanning of the beam before the actual melting. This pre-sintering workaround means de-powdering is difficult, processing options, materials and recyclability are restricted.

SHOWN: A FAN BLADE MANUFACTURED ON WAYLAND’S TECHNOLOGY

The answer, developed by Ian and his team is what Wayland is calling Neutral Beam Technology (NeuBeam). By addressing the fundamental physics of the electron beam additive process, NeuBeam technology allows printing of fully dense parts without creating a hard sinter-cake. "Powder charging no longer exists in our machine," CEO Will Richardson revealed. “NeuBeam is a best of both worlds situation; you still have the ease-of-use you get with laser-sintering while maintaining the advantages in the productivity and metallurgy you expect from electron beam. You also have fewer supports so you don't need Wire EDM to remove your parts from a build plate, you don't need a stress-relieving furnace, you don't need a complicated powder recovery system. And because we've removed the heating step from the layer build, there's a speed advantage too."

With regards to the machine, there’s not a great deal to report on its appearance, but that is precisely the point; the team including software engineers, materials scientists, as well as Ian Laidler's aforementioned electron beam experts, are there to make the process repeatedly work, not look great from a marketing perspective. Looking forward, the team’s next task is to get the machine up-tospeed with a machine befitting of an industrial piece of equipment. "Electron beam technology has a better suite of tools for in-process monitoring because we have the electrons, we have optical, we're a true thermal process. You can monitor everything in that chamber. We can actually give you the true temperature of your whole powder bed in-process as it happens. We can tell you about the thermal history of your material during the process. We can tell you about the topography of the surface so you can look to defects as they occur. We're trying to cover all the bases, make sure that we've got information someone needs to make that process reliable, as well as making it more stable and more capable from the outset.” In 2021 the Wayland team expects to build and sell just six machines. Each machine and customer will have a dedicated team working on applications, material and repeatability. "The worst advert is a machine sitting idle," says CEO Will Richardson.

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AMUG 2020 PREVIEW MARCH 22-26, HILTON CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

hether you're receiving this in the mail or picking up at the Additive Manufacturing Users Group 2020 itself, planning your time at the event is essential. Since the whole agenda would take up an entire issue, the TCT team has spent some time unpicking not-to-be-missed highlights from the keynotes, conference and the expo.

THE KEYNOTES

AMUG Keynotes have a distinctly different flavor this year, not just from previous years but from each other. The contrast in applications from healthcare to entertainment demonstrates the breadth this technology now has.

TUESDAY | MARCH 24 0900-1000

James Hobson, a.k.a. The Hacksmith, Hacksmith Entertainment James Hobson, a.k.a the Hacksmith, will take the stage to share his experiences with exciting, intriguing projects featured on his YouTube channel, which has over 8 million subscribers. James, who has roamed the halls of past AMUG Conferences, left his engineering/product development job to make the coolest inventions. His company, Hacksmith Entertainment, turns fictional ideas from movies, video games, and graphic novels into working prototypes. Dr. Jonathan Morris, co-director of the 3D Printing/Anatomic Modeling Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic Thursday, March 26 | 0900-1000 Dr. Morris will share his AM experiences in medicine on Thursday, March 26. His special interests are the use of 3D printing for preoperative planning and custom surgical guides. Clinically, he focuses on minimally invasive thermal ablation of tumors in the neuroaxis.

OTHER CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

There are a dizzying array of talks over four days of conferences, across a variety of applications and research topics. For the full agenda head here: amug.com/conference-agenda-planner. Below we've selected a few talks we will not be missing during the event.

MONDAY | MARCH 23 TRACK: AEROSPACE/ TRANSPORTATION 1500-1600

Advancement of Metal Additive Manufacturing Techniques and Materials for Rocket Propulsion Applications | Paul Gradl | NASA

TRACK: MEDICAL 1630-1730

Biomedical Additive Manufacturing for the Warfighter | Vincent Ho | Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

TUESDAY | MARCH 24 TRACK: CASTING 1030-1200 Panel Session - A World Shared

Between 3D Printed Metal and Castings

TRACK: AEROSPACE/ TRANSPORTATION 1330-1430

Boeing Additive Manufacturing | Dr. Melissa Orme | The Boeing Company

WEDNESDAY | MARCH 25 TRACK: MEDICAL 1330-1430

How Ceramics AM Enables Breast Cancer Prevention | Raymond Harter | Marvel Medtech

TRACK: AM METAL TECHNOLOGIES 1630-1730

Practical Use-Cases for AM Designs in Gas Turbine Combustion Applications | Zachary Dyer | Siemens

THURSDAY | MARCH 26 TRACK: AEROSPACE/ TRANSPORTATION 1115-1200

Naval Expeditionary Support of Fielded AM Systems | Ryan Fisher, Scott Ziv and Justin Artis | U.S. Navy

TRACK: AM METAL TECHNOLOGIES 1630-1730

AM Metals Safety, Let's All Go Home in One Piece Every Night | Paul Bates | UL

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AMUG INSPEX 2020

AMUGexpo

Running from Sunday evening (March 22) through to Monday (March 23), the AMUGexpo is the place to start your journey of discovery. The AMUG team is keen to stress that this is NOT a trade show; this is a place for networking and the sharing of ideas amongst companies usually battling it out for leads. Exhibitors are actively encouraged to engage in 'technical information exchange' during the activities.

This collaborative work incorporated an extensive machine design, system and component review, and an extended testing period, which has resulted in the new M2 Series 5, configured to meet the exacting requirements of highly regulated aerospace and medical industries.

SOME EXHIBITS TO LOOK OUT FOR:

An addition that will please keynote speaker Dr. Jonathan Morris of Mayo Clinic is the J750 Digital Anatomy 3D Printer, which Stratasys launched last year aimed specifically at medical modeling applications. To begin 2020, Stratasys has also launched the J826 series, promising multimaterial and full-color at a lower cost point with a smaller footprint than previous iterations of the PolyJet technology.

GE ADDITIVE

Leveraging its substantial umbrella of engineers, GE Additive partnered with GE Aviation to develop its new Concept Laser M2 Series 5 machine.

STRATASYS

CARBON

Carbon will be joined by service provider Fast Radius at AMUG 2020 to showcase how they are using Carbon Digital Light Synthesis for the production of a new, innovative part for the automotive supplier Aptiv. Fast Radius turned to Carbon for their capabilities in performance prototyping and low-volume production to bring a trailer-tow connector cap for trucks to market in record time.

INNOVATOR SHOWCASE WEDNESDAY MARCH 25 | 0900-1000

TCT Hall of Famer Dr. Hans J. Langer was announced as the recipient of the prestigious Innovators Award for 2020. Hans will take to the stage for the annual Innovators Showcase - an informal fireside chat on his career in AM, which started when he founded EOS in 1989. AMUG bestows the Innovator Award on those that have cultivated ideas that, in turn, have advanced the additive manufacturing industry. Previous recipients include technology creators Chuck Hull, Scott Crump, and Carl Deckard - inventors of Stereolithography, Fused Deposition Modelling, and Selective Laser Sintering, respectively - Fried Vancraen, founder of Materialise, and Gideon Levy of Technology Turn Around.

"Hans' journey in additive manufacturing is an interesting tale that begins with him capitalizing on an opportunity created by the possibilities that others' had rejected. He built on that to bring the world new solutions in stereolithography, polymer laser sintering, and Direct Metal Laser Sintering and to develop an ecosystem of companies supplying end-to-end solutions to industry," commented Carl Dekker, AMUG President. "With his background and a lengthy list of achievements, he is an excellent addition to the exemplary list of recipients of the Innovators Award."

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A FLY IN THE OINTMENT WORDS: GRAHAM TROMANS

GRAHAM TROMANS IS ONE OF THE FOREMOST INDUSTRY CONSULTANTS, HIS HISTORY AND EXPERTISE HAVING INSTALLED ONE OF THE FIRST SLA MACHINES IN THE UK IS SECOND TO NONE. AS A MEMBER OF THE TCT EXPERT ADVISORY BOARD WE’VE ASKED GRAHAM TO TELL US A CAUTIONARY TALE FROM 3D PRINTING’S DAYS GONE BY.

he year is 1990, I - a Principal Engineer at Rover - am installing one of the UK's first 3D Systems SLA-500 machines in the Canley site, Coventry. I'm in the process of calibrating the machine having just returned from training in Valencia, CA, when there's a knock on the door. It's a director come to take a look at the rapid prototyping machine. "Can you build this?" He shows me a picture of an intake manifold, which I had no idea if we were capable of, naturally I said, 'yes.' He wanted the print for a missionary meeting to convince the board of the benefits of solid CAD packages. Rover was using wireframe and advanced surface finish CAD packages, which were tricky to learn and bulky, and he was to prove how a switch to solids, despite being hugely expensive, would be worth it in the long run. The print was a key point in the argument. No pressure then. I'd had the machine barely a couple of days when the CAD file landed on my desk. The first snag was supports; in 1990 3D Systems required you to have third-party software to generate supports, which was another £10,000. My boss said absolutely no chance. I sat for hours on end making these generic shapes like cubes, cones and spheres; then I had to position the model on top of these shapes, I'd then open up the scan-spacing to about five millimetres to create almost an egg box underneath the parts. Each one of those was an STL file, so imagine how many shapes you need to create on an intake manifold; you have to look for all the downfacing surfaces, you have to look for anywhere you thought the part might collapse. I put it into build on the Tuesday morning, the SLA-500 informed me that the part would be finished in the early hours of Friday morning. The meeting to decide the CAD fate of Rover was 10.30am on Friday, not only that but the venue was 30 miles away in Longbridge. No margin for error. An anxious 60-hour build saw me get into the office at four o'clock in the morning,

watching this part rise from the vat. By hook or by crook, the part was complete. I washed it, broke all the supports off, flashed it in the PCA oven and hoped for the best. With the clock ticking and the traffic between the two sites notoriously heavy, I got it out of the oven, shoved it into a box and raced to the meeting. I plonked this part on the desk, and said, "you'll need these," handing over a box of rubber gloves. The intake manifold had not cured and was still wholly tacky, touching it probably wasn't wise. With this being the biggest and most successful build in the SLA-500's short lifespan, I knew I'd need it again and had to cure the thing. Looking out the window, with the sun shining, I was taken back to my time in Valencia, CA, where during our training we'd regularly cure parts in the sunlight. I took it home, put it on my patio table and went out with the wife. Upon returning to my crown and glory, on the approach I could tell that the part was cured, but that it was also covered in little black specks. Closer inspection revealed those specks to be flies; like a roll of sticky fly tape, the engine manifold had attracted and killed thousands of the pests. With a scalpel and some tweezers, I removed as many as I could but those that made it into the internal channels remained as a warning to always cure your parts correctly. Nevertheless, the Rover directors agreed, thanks to this part, that solid CAD packages were the way forward.

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