TCT North America 9.5

automotive & rail AM in EVs & rail pantographs

Materials Printing with space scrap and bioabsorable elastomers

MAG NORTH AMERICAN EDITION VOLUME 9 ISSUE 5

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EOS on FDR polymer innovation for assisted driving

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TCT VOLUME 9 ISSUE 5 10

Cover story

6 9

06. THE NEXT BIG THING WILL BE REALLY SMALL

EOS explains how its Fine Detail Resolution technology is creating big opportunities for EVs.

Automotive & rail

09. ON THE RAILS

How Wabtec used SLM Solutions metal 3D printing technology to transform a pantograph manifold.

10. SUSTAINABILITY AND AM

Additive Manufacturing experts from the Manufacturing Technology Centre in the UK discuss the sustainability credentials of AM.

13

Materials 13. SCIENCE FACT

Oli goes diving for space scrap and speaks to the companies working to print with it.

15. ONE SHAPE, ALL SIZES

Sam reports on a trip to 6K Additive’s Pittsburgh facility to learn more about its UniMelt technology.

19. AHEAD OF THE GAME

How Carbon’s bioabsorbable 3D printed elastomers are paving the way for future healthcare applications.

Research & academia

21

21. HOW 3D PRINTED RESOURCES HELP ADVANCE KINESTHETIC LEARNING

Emerging Technologies Librarian Jessica Lumry explains how the University of Oklahoma Libraries has used 3D printed bones to support kinesthetic learning.

25. A DOLLAR AND A DREAM

Sam speaks to Virginia Tech about the use of AM in a $1.5 million tire retreading project.

6

13

26

Diversity

26. PUSHING FORWARD

Laura speaks to Designability about why accessibility should be imperative for new product design.

28. RISING STAR

Oli Johnson speaks to the winner of the inaugural TCT Sanjay Mortimer Foundation Rising Star Award Zac Smith, as well as Executive Director of the SMF Teula Bradshaw.

The right solution for every metal AM application VISIT US AT FORMNEXT: NOVEMBER 07–10, 2023

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FROM THE EDITOR

FROM THE EDITOR SAM DAVIES

This summer, what sustained our web traffic has chipped away at our sanity.

If The Saga was a seven-act play, then all we’re missing is a resolution. It has had everything else, including some last-minute drama.

The first draft of this editor’s letter revelled in the fact that, for a few weeks at least, all had calmed down.

After several attempts by long-time competitor 3D Systems and largest shareholder Nano Dimension to acquire Stratasys had fallen flat, it looked as though Stratasys would proceed in merging with Desktop Metal as was originally planned. And though that initial draft had caveated that perhaps those words were written too soon, we didn’t even make it to press before fate was tempted.

In September, 3D Systems lodged another bid to merge with Stratasys, causing Stratasys to immediately terminate discussions with its fellow additive manufacturing (AM) leader.

Then, 3D Systems audaciously sent signed merger documents to Stratasys, while urging Stratasys shareholders to vote against the Desktop Metal merger proposal at its EGM on September 28th. Nano Dimension, never one to miss an opportunity to have its say, swiftly made clear it would be voting against the Desktop Metal merger.

They weren't alone. More than 78% of shareholders did the same, causing the merger to collapse.

This turbulent tale has been the talk of the town for some months now.

Akin to Game of Thrones, each of the protagonists has a desire to be the

dominant player, and everybody watching on has a preference, but praise for the writers of this drawn-out spectacle is not forthcoming. As we detailed in the first of our new Additive Insight Deep Dives monthly newsletters (which landed in your inbox on Aug 25), whichever thread of this yarn you pull, there’s an ulterior motive. While each player is striving to come out on top, they also need to resist mounting external pressure.

Stratasys moved for Desktop Metal after Nano moved for Stratasys; Desktop Metal's market cap is 80% lower than when it listed in 2020; while Align Technology’s acquisition of Cubicure proved the fragility of 3D Systems’ share value as it dropped to circa 5 USD per share.

This activity comes in the wider context of a volatile post-Covid economy, and the more specific context of the AM market not keeping pace with the expectations of investors. It has sparked a desperate pursuit to become the de facto leader in AM through inorganic growth. While most would agree consolidation might be necessary, there is still so much work to be done before these technologies pay off those who've invested time and money.

The Saga seems to have distracted some from that fact.

Now, the period of relative calm has been punctured. But it did allow us to focus our efforts elsewhere as we pieced together this latest issue.

The rest of the magazine, you’ll be glad to hear, is an M&A-free zone.

VOL 9 ISSUE 5 / www.tctmagazine.com / 05

T

he availability of electric vehicles (EV) to the public has been a big change in recent years, but arguably the biggest change in the automotive industry has been the arrival of assisted driving systems, such as lane assist.

Many new players are now entering serial production with vehicles that include these assisted driving systems, and an increasing number of in-car functions are dependent on the radar systems a vehicle uses to visualize its surroundings. A 2023 report from McKinsey stated that by 2035, autonomous driving could create 300-400 billion USD in revenue.

LIDAR and visible light cameras were the original sensors of choice for automotive applications, but over time have proven to be cumbersome, expensive, and weather conditions such as fog can limit their effectiveness.

To overcome these challenges, engineers have turned to radar technology. For automotive applications, a number of different radar sensors are needed, depending on the function they will perform in a vehicle.

THE WAVEGUIDE SOLUTION The newest radar sensors contain a component called a waveguide which is designed to direct the electromagnetic wave and minimize energy losses. In the earliest days of radar these were large 3D structures, but in the 1950s started to be produced as 2D circuit boards, which made them much smaller and costeffective for the applications of the time.

The problem with these circuit boards for modern applications is that as frequencies rise above 10Ghz, the propagation losses

06 / www.tctmagazine.com / VOL 9 ISSUE 5

EOS on FDR polymer innovation for assisted driving SHOWN:

WAVEGUIDE WITH COMPLEX ROUTING METALISED IN GOLD

“FDR is enabling innovations in a wide range of industries.”

SHOWN:

M. SC. MARK SIPPEL, CEO, GOLDEN DEVICES GMBH

Culture

increase dramatically. Moreover, it is very inefficient to use a 2D design for an electromagnetic wave you need to direct in 3D space. A new approach had to be found.

FINE DETAIL RESOLUTION TO THE RESCUE Today, 3D printing, in the form of Fine Detail Resolution (FDR), is allowing engineers to create sub-centimetre waveguides that support very high frequencies, with a geometry designed to precisely guide electromagnetic waves. FDR's use in automotive is new but the technology is already being used to create components such as electrical connectors, sensor housings and liquid connectors.

FDR is a powder bed fusion process but enables a level of precision, surface quality and durability, that would be impossible with SLS and challenging with SLA 3D printing.

Intricate components the size of fingertips can be produced that retain excellent mechanical and thermal properties.

A NEW GOLDEN AGE OF 3D PRINTING Golden Devices is a company at the cutting edge of FDR technology – completely reimagining waveguide design and manufacturing. The start-up was formed in 2022 by three colleagues at Frederich-AlexanderUniversität in Germany, after developing a new way to produce passive high-frequency components.

Golden Devices’ waveguides are being assessed for use across the

automotive sector due to their exceptional properties. They fit in the smallest spaces, and have 100x lower propagation losses than the classical 2D circuit board approach.

Not only that, but the company has been able to make the FDR approach cost competitive with previous technologies, while reducing the design to serial production cycle from months to days.

Mark Sippel, CEO at Golden Devices, said, “By working in 3D, our models are not constrained by the physical limitations of 2D production techniques. We have complete design freedom within the boundaries of OEM requirements.

Our team can move quickly through an iterative design process where we can print, test, redesign and print again. This lowers the design costs and timeline to production, and with no retooling delays, we can quickly reconfigure antennas to meet Tier 1 and OEM needs.”

With a process almost identical to traditional additive manufacturing, Golden Devices can reliably produce individual prototypes or batches of serial products in the 16.5L build volume of its EOS FORMIGA P 110 FDR 3D printer. This FDR system has a unique laser with a focus diameter twice as small as SLS technology, just 220μm, which has been achieved in part by switching to carbon monoxide as its gas, rather than CO2. A wall thickness up to 220μm is possible with an accuracy of +/40μm. Post-processing is also cut dramatically; thanks to the small layer thickness there is no visible stairstepping effect, with parts requiring only cool-down and depowder steps to reach an ultra-smooth surface finish.

Sippel added, “Once printed, the polymer waveguide receives a sacrificial galvanic coating and a final metallic coating of just 2μm in nickel, copper, or gold, to make it conductive. It’s then straight to final testing and delivery. As a business, FDR is helping us to innovate and outperform existing technology, whilst remaining cost competitive.”

Part of Golden Devices’ success with FDR is the EOS PA11 material. This polymer is bio-based, whilst being chemically and mechanically heatresistant, with high durability. End products are just as strong, flexible

and durable as molded parts, but can be far more complex and include functional elements such as hinges or snap-fit connections.

These intricate parts can be produced as a single molded piece with no split blocks. PA11 is also very sustainable, produced entirely from renewable castor beans – unused powder in the build space or removed in postprocessing can be reused, adding to the sustainability.

SMALL IS GETTING BIG FDR is enabling innovations in a wide range of industries from telecommunications to medical devices, and what Golden Devices is achieving with its designs in the automotive sector, gives a clear indication of what is possible.

For those already working in AM, your skills are transferable with FDR, and it will open up new opportunities to reimagine components in a way that is sustainable and cost effective for specialist applications and serial production. It’s time to release the shackles that have held back your product innovation. The next big thing will be really small.

eGuide: Design for Additive Manufacturing with FDR Download the eGuide to familiarize yourself with the fundamental design considerations of FDR and gain valuable 3D printing insights for leveraging it new fields of applications.

It provides insights for both the well-versed, seasoned engineer, and those just beginning their polymer 3D printing journey, on how to: • Leverage all essential design principles • Export data without compromizing part quality • Perfectly orientate parts to minimize time, cost, and waste • Bypass technology-inherent phenomena and common errors www.eos.info/fdr-eguide

VOL 9 ISSUE 5 / www.tctmagazine.com / 07

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automotive & rail

ON THE RAILS WORDS: SAM DAVIES

How Wabtec used SLM Solutions metal 3D printing technology to transform a pantograph manifold.

was replaced. Trains have been known to be out of action for weeks should problems arise in the procurement of the replacement component. Though the entire system will have to be replaced if there is an issue with the manifold, Wabtec expects these instances to be less likely now the product has been optimized.

SHOWN: 3D PRINTED PANTOGRAPH

O

verhead, a current of electrical energy is on the move. Several tens of tonnes of metal glide through the city, with passengers paying scant attention to the infrastructure getting them from A to B. Even those curious enough to look beyond the timetable as their train pulls into the station might regard the cables, wiring and pantograph that are transferring electricity from the overhead line into the train, but the manifold that facilitates this transmission, for example, wouldn’t incite much feeling in the average commuter.

But for those working to design, develop and manufacture that component, there’s an appreciation that this mode of transport can’t happen without it.

SHOWN: CONVENTIONALLY MANUFACTURED PANTOGRAPH

Wabtec is among the premier providers of pantographs for rail systems, having installed around 3,000 of its CX Pantograph systems on high-speed trains around the world. Boasting ‘reliability’ and ‘optimal performance’, the pantograph is considered to be the ‘lightest in its market segment’ and encompass a ‘minimal component design’.

Previously, the pantograph manifold has been manufactured out of up to 17 machined blocks with ‘a lot of assembly actions and pieces such as taps, pneumatic connectors’, bringing with it a risk of leakage as well as substantial weight. But with Selective Laser Melting (SLM) 3D printing technology, several improvements were able to be made to the component.

Among the highlights are a part consolidation from 17 pieces down to one, a 75% weight reduction and a ‘drastic’ reduction to its lifecycle cost thanks to the limited risk of leakage. Wabtec also says its additively manufactured manifold is helping pantographs to perform quicker movements compared to the pantograph standard.

The part consolidation of the manifold is bringing benefits in the immediate term through helping to lightweight the component, and as a 17-piece component, the manifold was much more likely to have parts break and fail, meaning the train could not be used until the component

Wabtec has also reported a positive environmental impact, citing France’s 70% decarbonized electricity source and its in-house additive manufacture of the manifold as key factors – previously, the conventionally manufactured manifold had been manufactured in another region.

This has all added up to another additive manufacturing success story for Wabtec, who has previously publicly discussed its usage of additive manufacturing for pneumatic brake panels. The pantograph manifolds are said to have undergone a ‘rigorous testing process’ which involved static tests, overpressure tests, salt spray tests and sealing tests, as well as endurance assessments.

Wabtec are exploring how to further optimize the manifold to be more compact, while there is a wider focus on ensuring its customers are supported when it comes to part obsolescence. Through supplier bankruptcy, broken tooling, and the discontinuing of the manufacture of some parts, obsolescence is a growing issue that Wabtec believes can be solved with 3D printing technologies.

As such, the company says it is leveraging additive manufacturing to ‘develop the future generation of railway components’ while also placing a focus on the development of new materials.

VOL 9 ISSUE 5 / www.tctmagazine.com / 09

DRIVING THE ELECTRIC REV LUTION WORDS: Chris Dalton & Ollie Hartfield

MTC experts on how advances in metal AM materials and design are enabling the next generation of high-performance motors.

E

lectric Motors: you can already find them powering millions of everyday devices, but the rush to achieve net zero targets are pushing organizations and their supply chains to make dramatic changes. With legislative deadlines looming, including EU and UK requirements for all new cars and vans to be emission-free on the road from 2035, the pressure to introduce competitive products to market will only intensify.

This is also becoming increasingly relevant beyond automotive, as electrification influences how we design machines powering our factories, supplying our cities, and even flying above our heads.

But why are electric motor manufacturers crying out for solutions? There are plenty of reasons, but the push to meet targets for increased motor power, lower part sizes and weights, simplified supply chains and reduced assembly times are just some of the issues causing major headaches.

Converting capabilities and skillsets to fully embrace the electric revolution presents a serious challenge, and with industry already fighting over percentage point improvements in motor design, exploration of new manufacturing opportunities will be key. Additive manufacturing (AM) offers a disruptive technology capable of rising to existing challenges, and has the potential to achieve greater optimization, customization, and the potential to accelerate time to market.

AM: A NEW OPPORTUNITY? So, can AM really be used to solve the head scratching dilemmas faced by motor manufacturers? A team from the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Coventry, UK, home of the National Centre

010 / www.tctmagazine.com / VOL 9 ISSUE 5

for Additive Manufacturing (NCAM), have been looking into three key areas where laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB) can make the difference.

MAKING PRODUCTION A REALITY “AM is too slow and expensive” – a phrase all too commonly heard, but one which PBF-LB machine manufacturers are making a thing of the past. Sizes of AM build platforms are skyrocketing as equipment manufacturers introduce multi-laser systems to market. This opens the door to production of larger motors, in greater quantities, at faster build rates. Meanwhile, developments in build simulation and post-processing can aid the shift towards rate capable manufacturing of production ready motor components. All these factors are bringing costs significantly down.

When used as a rapid prototyping technique, AM can enable iteration of new motor designs and configurations, reducing time to market whilst avoiding tooling costs or lengthy supply chain factors. For example, manufacturing of prototype motor windings can take place without the investment and lead time needed for tooling or new machines.

Indirect AM methods, where molds are 3D printed ready for casting, could also play a role in accelerating the uptake of nextgeneration electric motors. Whilst the design freedoms are not quite as open, the indirect AM process gives access to a wider world of materials and opportunity for using legacy methods of qualification in a higher rate production environment.

With all these factors, the business case to onboard AM can suddenly seem more feasible to apprehensive organizations.

“AM has the potential to provide the step change required to meet net zero objectives.”

MATERIALS FOR THE FUTURE Traditionally, processes such as PBF-LB have been limited to a small selection of materials, with users often ‘settling’ for inferior properties. However, the past few years have seen an explosion in new material development enabled by the growing maturity of PBF-LB processes.

Electric motor manufacturers suddenly have an entire database of materials to choose from and, using AM, can optimize for each of the components within their motors. Due to the rapid solidification rates and small grain sizes of as-built AM parts, mechanical performance can match or even exceed cast equivalents.

For a structural motor component, such as a motor casing, a manufacturer might select one of a growing number of new high strength aluminum alloys unique to AM, with remarkable strength-to-weight ratios enabling optimal power densities in the most stressed regions in the motor. However, for the motor’s integral winding components, a more conductive alternative is required. Pure copper,

automotive & rail

For those more conscious about weight and the earth’s depleting resources, alternatives to pure copper are also available in PBF-LB, with high conductivity aluminum alloys available for manufacturing highly power dense windings, or cooling structures to allow optimized heat flow and higher-temperature motor operation.

DESIGNING THE IMPOSSIBLE Design is key to unlocking the full potential of additive manufacturing.

Previously implausible features can now be implemented with ease, including sub-millimetre wall thicknesses and lattice structures, both instrumental in reducing overall motor weight and increasing power density. Meanwhile, software providers are also developing advanced design tools that enable a greater degree of product optimization and an automated design workflow. These benefits are vastly compressing development time and enabling engineers to focus on significant functional improvements.

Examples where electric motors are yielding the benefits of these advanced AM design tools are now widespread, in particular focusing on the development of lightweight structures. Highly consolidated assemblies, including complex cooling networks which distribute heat in an optimized sequence have been demonstrated for electric machines, power electronics, and other mechanical components.

Electrically conductive materials such as copper and aluminum are fundamentally disrupting the status quo in motor winding design. Conductors can now exhibit evolving cross sections which can be shaped to minimize electromagnetic losses, reduce end winding height, and prevent the need for large heat exchangers. The

performance benefits can even reduce the energy demand on power systems to achieve significant system-level mass reductions.

in winding geometry is realized, interesting manufacturing and assembly conundrums are raised, with automated, reliable insulation and joining of these complex geometries a key area of focus in the AM community.

Regardless of the approach, it is clear that the design freedoms of AM offer a product capability which is yet to be fully realised.

As each of these challenges are overcome, and whether using AM directly to manufacture electric motors or indirectly though tooling or rapid prototyping, AM certainly has the potential to provide the step change in development required to meet net zero objectives.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Of course, AM cannot promise to be a miracle cure, with obstacles that still need to be overcome before the technology can be adopted widely for electric motor manufacture. For example, despite advancements in machine sizes, PBF-LB and similar AM processes are still suited to lower manufacturing volumes, and struggle to compete with the achievable rates of casting and forging. Meanwhile, AM’s relative immaturity in some sectors increases the complexity of part qualification, with the question: “How do I prove my AM part is fit for purpose?” proving hard to answer regardless of the industry.

So far, the majority of AM for electric motors has focused on so-called ‘non-active’ components, such as the housing, which do not form part of the electromagnetic circuit. Although we are seeing exciting developments in AM of copper, with progress in soft magnetics and high silicon content electrical steels following behind, ‘active’ motor elements will need further advancements before we see wide-spread deployment into production electric machines. One of the most exciting areas of development within the AM of motors can be seen in the advancements in copper and aluminum windings. However, as each new possibility

SHOWN: MTC’S FUTURE ELECTRIC MOTOR SYSTEM (FEMS), WITH ALUMINUM AEROMET A20X CASING MANUFACTURED BY PBF-LB

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VOL 9 ISSUE 5 / www.tctmagazine.com / 011

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

Use Case: Automated depowdering in the medical technology sector

It's not just in the aerospace sector and other sectors that manufacture particularly complex parts using additive processes that demand for automated depowdering is increasing. More and more companies in the medical technology sector require automated solutions – the need for full transparency, certification and occupational health and safety are the essential motivating forces.

The use case of PETER BREHM, a Solukon customer, shows how automated depowdering can increase efficiency in the medical technology sector. PETER BREHM GmbH, a company with operations around the globe, specializes in hip and knee endoprosthetics and spinal surgery.

Using the laser melting process, PETER BREHM manufactures acetabular cup replacements that are automatically depowdered in an SFMAT350 made by Solukon.

Build plate dimensions 300 x 200 mm Printer TruPrint 3000 Material TiAl6V4 Application Acetabular cup replacement Structure / surface Chaotically arranged lattice structure Duration of automatic depowdering 30 min.

Depowdering system SFM-AT350 with a highfrequency knocker, DFT and OPC UA Mode used Automatic mode THE DEPOWDERING PROCESS FOR MEDICAL PARTS AT PETER BREHM

After the printing process, a vacuum cleaner removes the powder cake and clamping hooks are used to secure the build job in the SFM-AT350. Since titanium alloy is a reactive material, the SFM-AT350 is first inerted. Due to the optimized volume, the chamber of the SFM-AT350 is filled with protective gas within minutes and the depowdering process can start. Programmable 2-axis rotation and systematic vibration in accordance with SPR® technology

ensure that the powder behaves like a liquid and flows out of the lattice structures.

Very fine pores in the lattice structures pose a special challenge when depowdering this application, since residual powder remains in them. The high-frequency knocker built into the SFM-AT350 is used for such structures: it uses a range of frequencies to knock off or detach the residual powder.

After around 30 minutes, the entire build job is depowdered.

FULL TRANSPARENCY WITH AUTOMATED DEPOWDERING

The unique Digital-Factory-Tool (DFT) tracks key data, allowing PETER BREHM to have full transparency throughout the depowdering process. For example, the DFT provides information on the frequency range of the high-frequency knocker and monitors the residual oxygen. The system immediately stops if it hits an upper or lower limit value.

At the end of the process, all the data recorded in the DFT is available in a report.

WHY IS SOLUKON THE RIGHT PARTNER FOR DEPOWDERING?

The technology from Solukon makes a decisive contribution to occupational health and

safety at PETER BREHM, since the build jobs are clean and workers do not come into contact with residual powder.

Florian Nowak, an employee in the Additive Manufacturing department, sums up why PETER BREHM relies on Solukon: “The SFMAT350 and its digital features in particular have enormously simplified depowdering. In addition, we are faster and more reliable than we are during manual processes. Convenient, simple process monitoring via the Digital-Factory-Tool was a key factor in our decision to go with a Solukon system.

The SFM-AT350 is lowmaintenance and ultra-high quality – we would definitely recommend the SFM-AT350 to other additive manufacturers You can watch a video about the use case here.

solukon.de kontakt@solukon.de

materials

SCIENCE FACT

Oli Johnson speaks to experts in the field of 3D printing with resources found in outer space.

T

his isn’t just science fiction anymore.” The words of Dr. Amit Bandyopadhyay of Washington State University as we begin our conversation over Zoom. Bandyopadhyay has been a professor at the university since 1997, and in 2008 had a paper published about ceramic 3D printing.

The paper did not get much attention from the wider AM industry at the time, but NASA got in touch and asked if the team would be interested in 3D printing with lunar regolith, which Bandyopadhyay and his team successfully achieved in 2011.

Regolith, for those that don't know, is a blanket of dust and broken rocks that sits atop a layer of bedrock on a planet.

The price of taking payloads into orbit can be astronomical, with costs of tens of thousands of dollars per kilogram.

3D printing with regolith and other materials found locally on the Moon or even on Mars could be a solution.

However, parts 100% printed in lunar regolith can be very brittle, and feature lots of air bubbles and porosities. The next step for Bandyopadhyay and his team was to 3D print with simulated martian regolith, which when combined with titanium, can create a material that exhibits better properties than titanium alone.

Bandyopadhyay told TCT: “Instead of making 100% metal parts, we can use the regolith, the locally available material, blend it with the metal and actually produce something.[…] The final part that we produced has between 5 to 10% regolith, but another aspect we looked at is making a coating. You have a metallic surface [with a very high wear and tear], but you can coat the entire surface with a hard ceramic, such as the Martian regolith, and it can be used as a radiation shield and become a high wear and tear resistant material.

“But if you want to make something that is functional, you need to drop the ceramic content or regulate content down, so that it has enough strength and does not fall apart or is brittle. We have been doing this for many years, most of our work is in metals and ceramics, and it’s exciting, spicy work. It’s something different. I still feel that there is a lot of potential. Someone needs to do something otherwise our missions

SHOWN: WHAT ICON’S LUNAR CONSTRUCTION 3D PRINTER COULD LOOK LIKE

will fail, because we need to have some kind of manufacturing in outer space.”

Possibilities opened up by 3D printing with lunar or martian-based materials include the creation of habitats that could allow humans to live on other planets. Construction 3D printing company ICON was awarded a 57.2 million USD contract from NASA in 2022 to develop a lunar 3D printing construction system, as part of a joint goal to create the first ever construction on another planetary body. The contract builds upon previous NASA and Department of Defense funding for ICON’s ‘Project Olympus’, which aims to develop space-based construction systems to support the planned exploration of the Moon and beyond, using local lunar and martian resources as building materials.

Speaking about the significance of the 57.2 million USD contract awarded to ICON, Dr. Bandyopadhyay said: “If you think of the first 3D printer on the International Space Station, it was printing just a plastic part, but that is also a game changer. These are the small steps that show the confidence and the trust that the government has not only in the technology, but also on the organizations that I think can deliver something. Nothing is 100% guaranteed, but the point is it shows that we have reached a point where we believe this is possible.”

Metal AM company Incus is also exploring 3D printing with resources found in outer space. In July, the company announced that an 18-month-long collaboration with the European Space Agency had resulted in a successful project focused on 3D printing for the lunar environment. A joint effort alongside prime contractor OHB System AG set out to

establish the possibility of a zero-waste workflow using lunar resources and scrap materials recovered from old missions or satellite debris, eventually contaminated by lunar dust, to 3D print spare parts using Incus’ Lithography-based Metal Manufacturing (LMM).

The aim of the project was to show that creating a sustainable human base on the Moon is feasible. Incus CEO Dr. Gerald Miteramskogler told TCT: “To transform lunar resources and scrap materials into 3D printable material, we’ve employed a commercially available, compact, and flexible gas atomizer unit. This unit recycles these materials, converting them into metal powders with an average particle size of 10 microns. To demonstrate this capability, we’ve utilized titanium recovered from an old aircraft structure.

Since 1959, the scientific community has estimated the presence of approximately 187,400 kilograms of materials from artificial objects on the lunar surface.

“The ESA project allowed us to demonstrate the feasibility of recycling scrap materials using LMM and highlighted the flexibility and resilience of our process in handling various raw materials. Building upon these achievements, we are now expanding our printer sizes to provide a solution for mass manufacturing using AM. We will be unveiling our Hammer Pro40 production printer at this year’s Formnext event. With this new system, I firmly believe that AM will play a significant role in addressing pressing challenges here on Earth.”

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ONE SHAPE, ALL SIZES

materials

Sam Davies goes through the doors at 6K Additive to understand how the company’s UniMelt systems yield high-quality metal powders.

F

rank Roberts walks into bay four, gesticulating at a metal cylinder engulfed in wiring and surrounded by scaffolding. He takes a few steps across the floor and mounts the steps on the right-hand side, all the while detailing the workings of 6K Additive’s UniMelt plasma technology.

The system is currently idle, hence we’re allowed to take a closer look without risk of decontaminating the produce. It is not as big as you might think, nor is the facility as dusty as you might expect. This is the way 6K does things.

“We only put in the reactor what we want to get out of the reactor.”

“The torch is this very gently moving plume,” the 6K Additive President says of the microwave plasma omitted by the company’s UniMelt technology, “with no violence to it at all. As the particles enter, they’re pretty well behaved as they move down.”

At this site, an initial sort is carried out before drums of material are XRF scanned to ensure the correct material, and amount of material, is in the container. After this step, a sample is taken for a more comprehensive evaluation, each drum is put through a screening operation, and then loaded onto pails which are transported over to the production facility. 6K is also adding a fleet of five milling machines to the prep site to enable the sizing of powders.

Those particles are moving downwards through the system, but not before they pass through the heat zone where they melt quickly and form a sphere. The length of the plume can be adjusted from 18 inches to eight feet, controlling time and temperature depending on the material being processed. It helps to yield spherical metal powders using less energy than compared to conventional techniques.

6K Additive’s UniMelt process, according to the company, yields metal powders with perfect spherical particles using much less energy. When the company’s staff reference alternative techniques, such as gas atomization or plasma atomization, they use words like ‘bash’ and ‘break’, ‘violent’ and ‘aggressive’ to describe how powders are atomized.

What you end up with, per Roberts, is ‘broad particle size distribution (PSD), which is resulting in low yield.’ There’s also the issue of powder porosity caused by the ‘aggressive gas flows.’

6K Additive, whose aim is to provide an alternative to such drawbacks, was born

off the back of Amastan Technologies acquiring AL Solutions in 2019, with 6K CEO Aaron Bent having led the former and Roberts the founder of the latter. By the following summer, its first two UniMelt systems had been commissioned to process up to 100 tonnes of nickel super alloys and titanium powders each per year.

Capacity was doubled in 2021, and when TCT visited the company’s Pittsburgh site in April, work was ongoing to add six more UniMelt systems and commence operations at its prep powder revert evaluation plant down the road.

Materials are sized at standard measurements, unless a specific request is made by a customer.

The milling process is different depending on the material being used, but nickel will typically be put through a trigger-style mill that uses ball bearing and paddles to ‘mash, flatten and fracture’ the particulate. 6K is prepared to do this at various measurements, whether it’s a standard 15-45μm or a more unconventional 63-75μm.

SHOWN: TUNGSTEN RHENIUM COMBUSTOR PRINTED WITH 6K ADDITIVE POWDER BY QUADRUS. DEMONSTRATION PIECE FOR A NAVY PHASE I SBIR FOR HYPERSONIC APPLICATIONS

“If a customer says they want 63-75μm, well, that’s just a little less sizing for us than if they want 15-45μm,” Roberts explains. “We only put in the reactor what we want to get out of the reactor, that’s what gives us a really high yield proposition. So, you can do some really interesting things. We have customers

VOL 9 ISSUE 5 / www.tctmagazine.com / 015

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materials that are now starting to ask, because they’re looking to enhance their productivity, their parameters, for some strange things like bimodal distribution, because I can maybe optimize my machine and do something a little different with it.”

The only scenario in which 6K steps back from a sizing request is if the market for off-sized powder – say, for an EBM or binder jet process – is saturated to the point that competitors have so much stock they’re selling it for ‘dirt cheap.’ 6K Additive would rather avoid a ‘race to the bottom’ and instead only look to sell off-sized powder (measurements of 45-106μm were used as an example) for higher value metals such as tungsten.

6K Additive’s business model leans on a convergence of economics, sustainability and quality of the product. It won’t leverage the capabilities of its UniMelt if it doesn’t make economic sense to do so, but it won’t hesitate when it does – even if the prospect looks challenging on the surface level.

In its procurement of scrap metal, the company is able to buy feedstock at good value, but unsurprisingly the material isn’t always in the best shape when 6K Additive welcomes it into its facilities. Roberts uses an example of a batch of nickel material that was imported into the facility which had been processed through a system 60 times. It exhibited really high oxygen content and a lot of satellite splatter, but 6K Additive was able to process it with UniMelt after a quick pre-screen to remove any of the 'big splatter'. Out the other side, there was a 60% oxygen reduction in the nickel, while tap density and flow rate were ‘significantly increased.’

SHOWN: 6K ADDITIVE'S PITTSBURGH HEADQUARTERS

they’ve been dealing with a lot with gas atomizers because they can’t control – tightening enough – the output.”

Ensuring high-quality powder is yielded from its UniMelt systems isn’t just a concern within the four operational bays – which are equipped with deflagration vents, flame sensors, and hydrogen detection systems – but also throughout the facility which houses various steps of the process. Roberts outlines that even though manufacturing material is the entire point, he never wants to see any powder around the facility. The company has already received its ISO 9000 quality assurance accreditation and is working on its AS 9100 Quality Management System standard.

With progress to build up the infrastructure and steadily increase its manufacturing capacity here in Pennsylvania moving along nicely, 6K Additive also announced its intentions to expand into Europe – around 50% of the material it currently manufactures is exported to these shores.

Last year, François Bonjour was appointed as its European Sales Director, and plans are being drawn up to establish a footprint on the European continent. There are two models being explored. The first is a co-location with super users to ‘create a factory within a factory’ to recycle used powder through on-site UniMelt systems, and the second is to replicate what the company is building in Pittsburgh and deploy a similar site in a centralised location.

“The goal is cost and sustainability,” Roberts sums up. “You need to be close to your customer and it’s convenient for us because they’re also our suppliers.

It makes sense to have something here, something there [Europe], [and] at some point, something in Asia. What we’ve been working on over the last year and a half is finalizing the blueprint, and then it’s just a matter of where we want to put it. Where’s the most strategic location?

By year end, we want full distribution and consolidation at least set up in the EU as there’s a lot of used powder and there’s not an efficient way to get it back here.

That’s the next step, we’re working on that pretty aggressively right now.”

“Because you’re consolidating some of these particles, you really tighten the PSD, which is really important,” Roberts explains. “My view is, if additive is going to grow up one day and be mainstream, tightening the PSD and getting one lot to the next all the same [will] enable people to have really robust parameters, that no matter if my powder is the same today as it is two years from now, I get out of ‘well, this lot worked really well and this lot didn’t.’ That’s what

SHOWN: 6K ADDITIVE'S UNIMELT SYSTEM

VOL 9 ISSUE 5 / www.tctmagazine.com / 017

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AHEAD OF THE GAME materials

Oli Johnson speaks to Carbon about the company’s bioabsorbable 3D printing elastomers.

I

n October 2022, Carbon announced that its developmental bioabsorbable elastomer platform had demonstrated biocompatibility in vivo (in a living organism), with all samples being classified as non-toxic and exhibiting tunable times for full absorption. The company’s bioabsorbable elastomers have the potential to be used in biomedical applications such as soft tissue repair, wound dressings and nerve conduits. Bioabsorbable polymers are often used in prosthetics due to their ability to be engineered to dissolve at the same rate as new bone growth.

Speaking about how structures printed with the materials are used for wound healing, Policastro told TCT: “Wound healing cells will start to infiltrate in, then the cells start to break the material down, and will break it down enzymatically, which is just natural to your body. Then it will also break down in the presence of water, which you obviously have a ton of in your body. As it breaks down, these cells are proliferating and expanding in number and really starting to regrow that tissue layer, whether it be internally or your skin. Essentially just giving the cells a structure to grow on.”

Carbon says, despite there being many examples of bioabsorbable materials that exist in the medical device industry today, there are few examples of 3D printed elastomeric bioabsorbables. According to Carbon, its platform of bioabsorbable resin is capable of 3D printing customized, complex, and high-resolution elastomeric lattice structures. The resins offer tunable degradation, compatibility with gamma sterilization, and biocompatibility through 180 days of in vivo degradation, making them suitable for soft tissue reconstruction and support applications.

Standing in the way of these types of bioabsorbable materials being used widely in healthcare is FDA approval.

Only polymers for specific applications are being approved, and because Carbon’s exploration in this area is a new type of chemistry, and additive manufacturing is not widely used yet in medicine, the approval process is a big hurdle.

Senior Resin Development Manager at Carbon Gina Policastro told TCT: “Functionalizing these materials is not very straightforward, but we’re learning more and more about what people are doing and in the labs in universities about how we can. The first hurdle is making sure you have enough functionalization sites to get the properties that you want at the end of 3D printing; stability is always a hurdle.

These things are meant to degrade in the presence of water, so water and heat can break these materials apart. You need to ensure that you’re working at temperatures that are okay to work at, or the length of time is okay to work at. If printing time is too long, it could have adverse effects depending on how fast or how slow your polymers are meant to degrade. You have a whole toolbox to work with when you’re developing bioabsorbables, and all the different monomers that you start with are meant to degrade at different rates, so that’s a hurdle in itself when developing a bioabsorbable for a particular application.”

“We’ve got materials that are world class, and do some fantastic things...”

Isabella Palumbo, Business Development Director, MedTech at Carbon spoke to TCT about the next step in getting the materials used in healthcare: “We’ve taken the material as far as we can. Now we are looking for partners who have ideas for applications that would leverage this polymer or this biodegradable material.

We are looking at a wide range of applications because there is nothing else like this on the market yet, so our aim is to find a partner to work with and finalize the resin, and to support them as they bring it through the FDA and clinical trials, and then to market.”

Speaking to TCT about why this development is a milestone, Gary Miller, Head of European Partner and Market Development at Carbon, said: “I always say Carbon is ahead of the game. We’ve got materials that are world class, and do some fantastic things, and this another example of that. We’re bringing another material to market that nobody has ever thought about. There’s a lot of great uses, but there’s a lot of catching up to do with what Gina and the rest of the team are doing."

SHOWN: CARBON’S BIOABSORBABLE ELASTOMERS

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RESEARCH TCT 3SIXTY & ACADEMIA PREVIEW

HOW 3D PRINTED RESOURCES HELP ADVANCE KINESTHETIC LEARNING WORDS: Jessica Lumry

The Research 3D Printing service at the University of Oklahoma (OU) Libraries has assisted researchers and instructors through 3D printing consultations and services since 2019.

Specific use cases include 3D Printed Human Remains facsimiles (Bones on Loan program for Anatomy survey courses) and Ostomy Teaching aids (for Oklahoma Children’s Hospital).

One of the longest running projects is Bones on Loan. For this project, OU Libraries worked with Dr. Cindy Gordon, Professor of Biology and the Director of the Human Anatomy program, who wanted her students to be able to check out bone sets from the Libraries’ circulation desk. The 3D models were either downloaded through Sketchfab (online repository of 3D models) or produced through collaboration with the OU Libraries’ 3D Scanning Lab run by Kristi Wyatt.

Access to bones or bone facsimiles outside of limited lab hours is crucial for students with parenting or job responsibilities, those who live far away, and anyone who does not always have access to the lab. Moreover, real human remains used in the cadaver lab are both costly and delicate, while 3D printed replicas are not.

The bone sets are checked out from the circulation desk to individual students in Dr. Gordon’s Introduction to Human Anatomy and Human Anatomy courses and the sets allow students to practice tactile learning through being able to handle and manipulate facsimiles of the bones that they are learning about in class at their own convenience outside of the lab hours.

In the Fall 2023 semester, these courses have more than 250 students enrolled. An additional benefit of the Bones on Loan program is that all the 3D scans produced by OU Libraries are accessible from Dr. Gordon’s courses within the University's learning management system. This also provides students with digital access to the 3D models at any time. Without

Bones on Loan, students would not have digital access to the bone 3D models or 3D printed facsimiles of their course materials that they would otherwise only have had access to during lab hours.

Another use case of 3D printed bones for kinesthetic learning involved research and subsequent community outreach about ancient bear bones.

OU Libraries worked with Kaylee Tatum, an Undergraduate Research Assistant in the OU Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research (LMAMR). Tatum’s lab was researching ancient bear bones that were found at an archaeological site in Margaret Bay, Unalaska, Alaska.

For this project, the lab wanted to give

"3D printed resources assist with kinesthetic learning across many ages and fields."

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RESEARCH TCT 3SIXTY & ACADEMIA PREVIEW back to the Museum of the Aleutians, who provided them access to the bear bones that they then 3D scanned with a DAVID Structured Light Scanner.

These bear bones facsimiles were 3D printed by OU Libraries and used in a lesson plan to guide students through an archaeological dig. The outcome for this work was to have the students figuratively travel to the past to understand the historical and cultural contexts of the dig site. This activity leads students to think critically about the artifacts present at the site and to ask themselves questions that archaeologists would ask in their research. For example, in the activity, students are given a series of steps to determine the Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) that the 3D-printed bones belong to. This is a method that archaeologists use to estimate how many animals the collection of bones belongs to, and in this case is used to determine the number of bears.

The bear bones archaeological activity has been performed with 4th graders at Marshall Elementary School in Tulsa, OK; four times with 5th-7th graders at the University of Oklahoma through the Youth Enjoy Science (YES) Oklahoma program; once with high schoolers through the YES Oklahoma program; twelve times with 3rd-10th graders at Camp Qangayuux in Unalaska, Alaska; and, once to supplement a presentation at the Unalaska, Alaska community library with adults. Thus, this shows that the activity can be adjusted to apply to all ages. Additionally, anecdotal feedback from the students indicated that the bear bones activity was their favorite class out of all the classes (other classes included: kayaking, making lip balm from native plants, pipetting, DNA extraction, etc.).

The others fell apart more gradually with use, but overall, the salt dough became brittle and started to crumble within about 1.5-2 years. The salt dough teaching aids were replaced with epoxy resin teaching aids, but a more customizable and life-like tool was needed for teaching. The current epoxy resin teaching aids work well for educating caregivers such as for handson classes with newly hired nurses; but, a redesigned teaching aid was necessary to help make the parents comfortable during ostomy pouching practice. The big goal of this teaching aid is to assist with individualizing the teaching plan, by helping to reduce anxiety of caregivers while promoting autonomy so that the caregivers can successfully care for their child at home.

This led to the creation of the 3D printed ostomy teaching aid. For this newly created teaching aid, the baby torso was a remix from Thingiverse, and the stomas were individually modeled. The 3D printed ostomy teaching aid was made from thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) to allow for a more natural experience for caregivers since the stomach and stomas have slight flexibility similar to how real skin feels. The new teaching aid offers a more realistic practicing surface due to the stomach no longer being flat.

Additionally, the stomas are magnetic to easily be moved around the torso or interchanged for a different size from the

most commonly encountered sizes by the Wound and Ostomy care nurses at the Oklahoma Children’s Hospital.

The pliability of this 3D teaching aid allows caregivers the opportunity to master the ostomy pouching technique before having to perform it on their children. Furthermore, the 3D printing manufacturing method is also an excellent enhancement from the brilliant idea of a caregiver working out of her home, utilizing her own funds and free time to promote better patient care.

This 3D printed teaching aid will be used with patients and their caregivers to measure stomas of various sizes and practice ostomy pouching techniques on this model that has been customized to their presentation and needs. Nevertheless, this teaching aid has already been well received by other clinicians and caregivers who have made comments such as: “I love how soft the abdomen is, it almost feels real!”, “These stoma sizes are perfect!”, and “I wish there was something that could be customized to my child. It would make learning this so much easier!”

In conclusion, the 3D printed resources produced by OU Libraries assist with kinesthetic learning across many ages and fields to educate users on everything from human anatomical structures to how to perform ostomy pouching techniques.

Shifting away from bones and education to medical literacy, another project made possible by OU Libraries Research 3D Printing service is the ostomy teaching aid.

Previous ostomy teaching aids were crafted from salt dough and epoxy resin. The salt dough models were very brittle and eventually every single one of these models broke. Some of these teaching aids broke with ostomy pouch application on the very first use of the ostomy teaching aid.

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A DOLLAR AND A DREAM

RESEARCH TCT 3SIXTY & ACADEMIA PREVIEW

Sam Davies speaks to Virginia Tech’s Professor Chris Williams about the use of 3D printing in a $1.5m tire retreading project.

well as the conventional material. One is a ‘direct rubber’ material and the other is a ‘new age’ formulation, with the team suggesting it has found a way to ‘reduce the viscosity of rubbery material so that it is easily printed’ while still getting all the required properties. Key to these developments is the DREAMS Lab’s multi-stage printing process, which sees material selectively deposited through a nozzle, with a curing step coming later. This is facilitated by a robotic work cell that allows material to be conformally and precisely deposited onto a tyre surface with the support of 3D scan data and rapid toolpath changes.

SHOWN: L TO R: GRADUATE STUDENTS YIQUN FU & TADEK KOSMAL MONITOR THE 3D PRINTING PROCESS

W

hen Chris Williams – the L.S. Randolph Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech – started out as a professor 15 years ago, he couldn’t envisage that his lab would ever build bespoke additive manufacturing (AM) equipment. Instead, his lab would devote their efforts to studying how existing processes affect novel material properties and the new design spaces such capabilities would afford.

Fast forward to 2023, though, and Williams finds himself working alongside several students with experience in building 3D printers at home, working with microcontrollers as a hobby, and a strong drive to push the boundaries of AM. This capability is coming to the forefront as Williams’ DREAMS Lab – Design Research and Education for AM Systems – develops a new tire retreading method through a 1.5 million USD research project. Funding comes from a 1:1 cost share between Virginia Tech and the REMADE Institute, which has been established by the US Department of Energy to accelerate the country’s transition to a circular economy.

Arizona State University and industry partner Michelin will also be involved as they attempt to address the waste generated by retreading and the fuel efficiency of road vehicles.

In the US alone, 14.5 million tires are re-tread every year. Conventional tire re-treading methods use a buffing process to remove the remaining tread and sidewall rubber from the casing before new tread material is stitched to the casing and the built tire is heated up to around 155°C during a curing

SHOWN: ROBOTIC ARMS USED FOR 3D PRINTING RUBBER MATERIALS ONTO TIRES

process. This workflow sheds a significant amount of excess rubber and affects the performance of the tire, which in turn can see more energy exerted.

“There’s an opportunity with additive to selectively re-tread,” Williams tells TCT. “In the cases of uneven wear, instead of throwing away the entire tread, can we only re-tread a portion of a tire?

With traditional manufacturing, selectivity is not really something we can achieve, but with additive we can. The focus is reducing material waste, number one, and number two, is that when we retread tires, currently there’s an increase in rolling resistance, which translates to reduced fuel economy.”

The retreading process being imagined

by Williams and his team is one whereby a little buffing is required, but then only the worn-down section on the tire’s cushion rubber is printed upon, with a traditional tire tread being laid on top.

To achieve this vision, Williams and co are midway through a two-year project that is seeing significant ongoing developments across polymer science, 3D printing and industrial robotics.

Working with Tim Long, formerly of Virginia Tech and now the Director of Arizona State’s Biodesign Center for Sustainable Macromolecular Material and Manufacturing, Williams says two materials have been developed that perform as

“If we want to advance the state of the art, we can’t only treat AM as a singular standalone manufacturing solution,” Williams suggests.

“So, [we’re] taking AM literally out of its box and using it as one of many tools that our robot can use. [That’s] what has got my attention right now - with robotic AM, we can print in true 3D, no longer just in stacks of 2D layers. We can change between both additive, subtractive, and pick-andplace tools. This project is a great opportunity to demonstrate this vision for the future of AM, and its for the cause of a more sustainable future.”

If the DREAMS Lab is successful, Williams estimates it could result in annual reductions of around 90 metric kilotons of tire waste and 800 metric kilotons of C02 emissions across the retreading industry. In the next 12 months, one material from the two options will be selected, before testing with partners is carried out and a lifecycle assessment is performed to gauge the process’ economic and environmental impact.

The re-treading technique may then be taken forward by an industrial partner. That is somewhat out of the control of Williams and co, but in the technology they're developing, there is confidence that the potential goes beyond just the tires on the wheels of our cars.

“It’s not just about tire repair. One key aspect of this project is focused in automatically generating toolpaths from in-situ 3D scan data.

And that’s applicable to every other additive and repair process,” Williams says. “In addition, the way in which we’re now printing elastomers is generalisable to any other kind of elastomer system, not just this one type of rubber. Our hope as scientists is that our work is something that will provide a foundation for other people to build on and take it where they think it needs to be.”

Image credits: Reilly Henson for Virginia Tech

VOL 9 ISSUE 5 / www.tctmagazine.com / 025

PUSHING FO Laura Griffiths speaks to Dario Canini, Senior Design Engineer at Designability - a UK-based charity dedicated to co-designing products & solutions with disabled people to deliver greater independence - about where 3D printing fits in, and why accessibility should be an imperative design consideration.

TCT: Tell us about your role and how you came to Designability?

DC: I have been working at Designability since 2021 as the Engineering Innovation Manager. Towards the end of 2020, I faced a significant issue with my eyes, and it was only thanks to new technology and a dedicated doctor that I managed to resolve it. After this experience, I realized that volunteering for various organizations to help people was no longer enough for me. I wanted to dedicate 100% of my time and use all my engineering skills for this purpose. I had the opportunity to meet the Designability team at an event in Bristol. When they opened an engineering position, I applied immediately, and now, after more than two years, I am very happy and proud of my choice. If I were to describe my role, I would say that I lead the process that transforms a conceptual idea into a finished product. We are a small but highly skilled team, and we can cover all aspects from research to production.

TCT: Can you walk us through how new projects come about and where you start?

DC: At Designability, we use a ‘person-centred design’ approach for our projects which means that all of our projects start with requests or feedback that we receive from disabled individuals or organizations. First of all, we try to understand if we can support, improve an existing product, or develop something entirely new. In the initial phase, every project involves most of the departments within Designability.

We need to ensure that we consider all aspects, from clinical to production. This is a lengthy but crucial process as it establishes a strong foundation for future projects.

Personally, when I embark on a new project, I immerse myself in the problem. It's essential to step out of my comfort zone and educate myself about the different types of people who will use the final product.

For example, when I started the pushchair project for wheelchair users, I had never used a wheelchair. My first action was to borrow a wheelchair and use it daily. I went to the park with my son, visited the supermarket, took the bus - essentially, I tried to understand what life was like with a wheelchair. I aimed to empathize with the end user. While I knew this was only a simulation, it was fundamental for understanding user feedback and opening my mind to the problem.

026 / www.tctmagazine.com / VOL 9 ISSUE 5

SHOWN: DESIGNABILITY ADOPTS 'PERSON-CENTRED DESIGN'

TCT: In the wheelchair-attachable pushchair project, could you explain how and why 3D printing was used?

DC: 3D printing technology plays a fundamental role in all project phases, from concept to pre-production. In the pushchair for wheelchair users project, we used 3D printing for all initial concepts, and the quality was so high that users could immediately assess the parts and provide feedback on usability. Years ago, a similar process would have required time and resources to machine the parts, but now, with a limited budget, we can regularly interact with users and refine the concept in all aspects before machining the final part. In this specific project, we used 3D printing not only for printing concepts but also for producing parts that would typically require injection molding technology or specific tools. We incorporated these parts into the first prototype that users tested in September 2022 during the initial user trial session. Even though I had already used 3D technology for structural parts, I am continually amazed by the advancements in this technology year after year.

TCT: How extensively is 3D printing leveraged in the product development cycle?

DC: After this project, I can guarantee that 3D printing technology is not limited to just prototyping. Before any pushchair moves into production, it must pass the BS EN 1888 standard, which certifies various aspects, including stability and brakes, essentially

SHOWN: 3D PRINTED PART FOR PUSHCHAIR PROJECT

all safety aspects. Our pushchair successfully passed all tests, and the most critical parts for the brake are produced using 3D printing technology. You can easily identify these parts in the product photos, such as the handle brake case and the brake cog part.

TCT: With 3D printing, do you see an opportunity to create products better tailored or personalized to people's needs?

DC: Absolutely. Let me give you an example: many wheelchair users like to personalize their commercial wheelchairs or develop their wheelchairs according to their aesthetic preferences or desires. In the latter case, all wheelchair frames have different geometries and shapes. With 3D printing, we can print spacers to adapt our connectors to customers' wheelchair frames quickly, without the need for special tools and at a low cost. 3D printing is the ideal technology for giving people the freedom to customize or personalize their own objects.

TCT: What are your thoughts on how current product design considers accessibility?

DC: I believe that current product design is

ORWARD SHOWN: DESIGNABILITY USES AM IN ALL PROJECT PHASES

DIVERSITY The last project that I developed in Italy with my father, which involved creating a domestic blast chiller. When I was younger, I wasn't sure if I could become an engineer, and throughout my education, my parents provided massive support.

I spent months working closely with my father, sharing ideas and traveling long distances to meet the client. By the end of this project, I had transformed from an insecure engineer needing to learn and find my way to a confident engineer who had successfully developed an idea. I will treasure this time and project for the rest of my life.

The first project where I independently handled all mechanical aspects for a UK medical company.

It involved developing a reprocessing endoscope machine, and after several years, it has become the best-selling product in Europe and is ready for global distribution.

The pushchair project for wheelchair users. This project fills me with immense pride because every time I meet a user, I witness the positive impact it has on their lives. During one of our recent user trials, we received feedback such as:

beginning to consider accessibility more seriously, but we are only at the beginning of this journey. Many aspects are still not adequately addressed, and regrettably, too many people continue to face limitations in their lives due to these oversights. The accessible pushchair project serves as a clear example: there are hundreds of different pushchair models on the market, yet it is estimated that there are over 16,000 disabled parents or carers of children aged 0-3 years in the UK who are manual wheelchair users, and there is no available product worldwide to meet their needs. This represents a significant limitation for disabled people.

TCT: In Designability's recent blog about making electric vehicle charging more accessible, several design challenges were identified. How important is it for these considerations to be integrated into initial design stages?

DC: It is of utmost importance that these considerations are integrated into the initial stages of the design process. It's crucial for everyone to understand that accessibility should not be optional; it should be the foremost consideration in all projects.

Thanks to my experience at Designability, I can't imagine developing a product without considering accessibility. [We] believe this aspect is so critical that we introduced a personcentred design module at the University of Bath.

We aim to provide students with the opportunity to learn the right approach to developing projects that place people at the center of the development process.

TCT: Is there a particular project or success story that you are most proud of?

DC: Honestly, I am proud of all my projects.

I consider my projects like my children—born, grown, and becoming independent. However, there are three projects that hold a special place in my heart for different reasons.

"To leave the house, I need to find someone to help me push the pram. I can't just go to the park or shops. I become a sideline watcher to my child."

"When my babies wouldn't sleep, I wished I could walk them around the block to calm them."

"It's like the change when you get your first car. Suddenly, you are free to do what you want, whenever you want. True freedom."

This feedback alone vividly illustrates why I am so proud of this project and the Designability team.

I would also like to make a small observation about 3D printing in these three projects. The first project took place in 2007, while the most recent was in the present. In the first project, I used 3D printing only for early prototypes of some small components. However, in the last project, we used 3D printing to meet the BS standard. I can confidently say that my engineering journey has evolved alongside advancements in 3D printing technologies.

The next step for the accessible pushchair design is to find a licensing partner who will enable us to get it manufactured and available for parents and carers to purchase.

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RISING STAR DIVERSITY

Oli Johnson speaks to the winner of the inaugural TCT Sanjay Mortimer Foundation Rising Star Award Zac Smith, as well as Executive Director of the SMF Teula Bradshaw.

“The main aim of the SMF is to give confidence to both younger and older people and help them realize their talents.”

A

t the TCT Awards in 2023, TCT teamed up with the Sanjay Mortimer Foundation to launch the TCT Sanjay Mortimer Foundation Rising Star Award. The award was established to shine a spotlight on an up-and-coming neurodivergent young person who has the potential to contribute greatly towards the engineering industry.

Sixteen-year-old Zac Smith was the inaugural recipient of the award, after being nominated by his teachers at Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys. Smith was one of the youngest nominees for the award, which includes the prize of a Prusa 3D printer, as well as the opportunity to become an SMF Star, providing access to grants, training and more.

Speaking about how he first became involved with 3D printing, Smith told TCT: “I used to buy a lot of Nerf blasters, and had a lot of fun with them, but over time I heard about people online modifying them to make them more powerful, shoot faster, and a lot of people were using 3D printing for that. Then when I attended secondary school, I went to the design department and my teacher there, Mr Cunningham, he was amazing. Basically I asked him if I could print off this part because

it broke and I couldn’t find a replacement. From there I was like, ‘Oh this is cool, let’s do some more of this.’ And then he was showing me the software, how to slice, how to do CAD, and then eventually we’re taking machines apart and fixing them.”

Smith was offered a job at 14 by the YouTube channel 3D Muskateers, after watching a video and hearing that they were hiring people who could work with CAD. Smith told TCT: “This was during COVID, so I was [working with] Fusion 360 almost every day and had learned builds up to a pretty decent level, so I thought I would give it a shot. I sent an email, saying ‘Hey, I don’t even have a CV but can we go on a Google Meet or a Zoom and have a chat?’ Now I’ve done half a dozen projects for him over the years.”

The Sanjay Mortimer Foundation was founded in 2022 in honor of the late Sanjay Mortimer, a Co-Founder of E3D-Online, who passed away at the age of 32.

Mortimer lived with ADHD and transformed it into his superpower to build one of the leading companies providing 3D printing nozzles, extruders, and essentials.

In an effort to continue this spirit of innovation and championing of neurodivergent children and young adults, the SMF plans to introduce a series of awards and initiatives as part of its future outreach.

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Teula Bradshaw, Director of the Sanjay Mortimer Foundation told TCT: “We’re so grateful to TCT for helping us to continue Sanjay’s legacy and gifting this award. It was a fabulous way to kick off the SMF. We couldn’t think of a better way to share our story, to recognize Zac for who he is and all his brilliance and get our message out there. Our main aim of the SMF is to give confidence to neurodivergent individuals who find an outlet in making. We really want to help them realize their talents and give them the confidence to go out into the workplace, so they can explore their capabilities and develop themselves.”

Speaking about what businesses can do to be more inclusive of neurodivergent individuals in the workplace, Bradshaw added: “We’d like to push for organizations to acknowledge that their capacity to think differently and beyond conventional boundaries, makes them a valuable asset to any organization.

Every individual is unique, so there is no one-fit solution, but if organizations can implement small, inexpensive changes, like providing quiet spaces, allowing headphones or slightly adapting interview processes, then they can properly benefit from their ability to think creatively and with a visionary mindset, like Sanjay and Zac, really could be a competitive advantage.”

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