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Supply Chain Honeywell and Boeing on AM Forward & MTC on the MoD

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MAG NORTH AMERICAN EDITION VOLUME 9 ISSUE 6

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TCT VOLUME 9 ISSUE 6

Cover story

6 8

06. GOING FOR GOLD Nikon SLM Solutions on the future of one of the AM industry’s biggest mergers.

Supply Chain

08. CHAIN REACTION

Honeywell and Boeing give us an update on the progress being made with the AM Forward initiative.

11. PRINTING TWINS

Sam Davies speaks to CNH Industrial about developing a digital warehouse for 3D printed spare parts.

12. THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME

The MTC explains why the UK’s Ministry of Defence is turning to 3D printing to improve its supply chain for critical parts.

Consumer Products

16. FEEL THE HIT

Sam reports on the use of 3D printing technology to develop an optimized tennis racket dampener.

Skills & Education

24. SKILLS CITY

19. IN THE FOLD

Laura speaks to two organizations with different approaches to the AM skills gap challenge.

21. HIGH PERFORMANCE

Exec Q&A

Laura Griffiths speaks to one of the manufacturers working with HONOR to 3D print smartphone components. Formlabs discusses the use of its Form 3L printer to prototype bicycle wheels.

Formnext 23. ROUND-UP

26. SPEAKING VOLUMES

Oli Johnson provides his pick of AM machines launches at the Frankfurt event.

We speak to Formnext Start-Up Award winner Vitro3D about its Volumetric Additive Manufacturing technology.

28. CHAMPIONSHIP QUALITY

Hexagon & Hendrick Motorsports discuss how their partnership will enact a cultural change in how the NASCAR outfit quality controls parts.

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FROM THE EDITOR

FROM THE EDITOR LAURA GRIFFITHS

AM’s new killer app? Have you really been to an additive manufacturing (AM) conference if you haven’t seen at least one slide featuring a GE LEAP fuel nozzle? Since its introduction in 2013, this aerospace application has been the poster child for 3D printing in industry. As one of the first printed parts to be approved by the FDA, it is the pinnacle of AM adoption in critical environments yet simultaneously serves as a reminder of just how long it can take for AM breakthroughs of this caliber to come through. Another guaranteed dab on your AM conference bingo card will be the 'killer application', and as an industry, we are always looking for the next. If the recent TCT Asia 2023 Conference was anything to go by, we may have found it in Apple's alleged use of metal 3D printing for its latest Apple Watch series. Per our team on the ground in Shanghai, images of metal smart watch casings featured in several presentations, and on exhibitor stands. The exploration of metal 3D printing for mass consumer electronic devices is growing. As HBD explains on page 19, the technology was chosen by smartphone manufacturer HONOR for the production of its new foldable phone due to its precision and lightweighting capabilities. The Apple Watch story also came up during the recent AM Summit hosted by our RAPID + TCT partners SME. In a room full of AM players - vendors, end-users and supporting organizations - the idea of Apple potentially validating the technology for the mainstream was a welcome one in a conversation that focused on raising additive awareness in order to deepen its adoption.

The second part of the summit was about skills, but the two themes are interlinked: You can't have successful AM adoption without the right AM skills, but skills are only worthwhile if the technology adoption is there to demand them. In our Skills & Education feature on page 24, we get two different perspectives from UK and US organizations about the work they're doing to close the gap from both sides of the coin. Elsewhere, we revisit the subject of supply chain with a look at how far the US Government's AM Forward initiative has progressed since its launch in 2022, while Sam Davies speaks to an agriculture equipment manufacturer that's putting AM for supply chain into practice (p. 11). The MTC also shares how the UK’s Ministry of Defence is turning to AM to improve its supply of critical spare parts (p. 12). As this issue goes to print, we’ll be fresh (well, that’s debatable) from our annual trip to Formnext, loaded with an abundance of insights to disseminate, and too many Ritter Sport chocolate bars in our suitcases. You can catch up with all of our coverage online at tctmagazine.com but Oliver Johnson has you covered on page 23 with a short round-up of some of biggest launches. It’s our last issue of 2023, so I’d like to thank our team, clients, industry partners, Editorial Advisory Board, and especially you, our readers, for being with us this year. We’re always open to your thoughts and feedback so, if there’s something you'd like to see more of in 2024, my inbox is open: laura.griffiths@rapidnews.com.

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GOING FOR GOLD Nikon SLM Solutions on the future of one of the AM industry’s biggest mergers.

etal additive manufacturing is at a crossroads, with the spotlight on innovative powerhouses that challenge norms and elevate standards. In this intense landscape, one merger stands out as a definitive game-changer, ringing in a new golden era: Nikon's acquisition of SLM Solutions. SLM Solutions, a recognized leader in the additive manufacturing race, has consistently exemplified innovation and excellence. Their laudable introduction of the NXG XII 600 and the NXG XII 600 E — designed to make metal AM serial production a reality — showcases this commitment. The brand's emblematic green served as a statement of futuristic ambition in the 3D printing realm. Yet, in a sector where disruption is the norm, embracing transformative changes is vital. Their emblematic green branding stood as a beacon of futuristic boldness in the 3D printing world. But change is the only constant, especially in industries teetering on the brink of technological revolutions. In the rapidly transforming world of additive manufacturing, competition isn't just fierce — it's relentless. Industry giants and newcomers alike constantly push

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“The race is not just about being the best but about redeﬁning the best.” technological boundaries, striving for that elusive blend of speed, precision, and affordability. With rising demands for higher uptime, bigger build chambers, and faster systems that don’t forsake quality to cater to the growing demand for serial production, the race is not just about being the best but about redefining the best.

SHOWN:

Nikon SLM Solutions' NXG 600E

COVER STORY

In this context, the merger of Nikon and SLM Solutions isn't merely strategic; it's transformative. As the industry landscape evolves, the combined strengths of these two giants position them uniquely, not just as participants but as leaders poised to set new benchmarks. The acquisition by Nikon, a globally revered name with a storied history of technological prowess, signals a transformative period not just in branding but in strategic visions, technological capabilities, and market outreach. And what color better represents this metamorphosis than gold – or more aptly, Nikon's signature yellow. For Nikon SLM Solutions, this transition goes beyond the aesthetic. It's a reflection of a golden future, a future characterized by enhanced capabilities, technological breakthroughs, and a greater thrust on research and development. With Nikon's robust backing, SLM Solutions is

poised to tap into a vast reservoir of technological assets. The collaboration leverages Nikon's legacy in precision optics, digital imaging, and technological depth. Coupled with SLM Solutions' mastery in AM, the synergy promises ground-breaking innovations. This combined wealth of resources paves the way for a company that was already pushing the limits in its previous incarnation, to go beyond the limits of what its capable of. As Sam O’Leary, CEO of Nikon SLM Solutions, comments, “We aren’t here just to redefine our industry, we are here to redefine manufacturing as a whole.” Another exciting development on the horizon is the introduction of two new large-scale metal AM systems in the coming years. These are two brandnew systems that promise to push the boundaries of what's achievable in additive manufacturing. These machines, designed with precision and efficiency in mind, are set to challenge industry norms and set new golden standards. However, as pivotal as it is, technology forms just one aspect of this journey.

Its cherished client base is at the heart of Nikon SLM Solutions’ vision. Over the years, SLM Solutions has sold machines and built relationships, fostered trust, and collaborated on dreams. This rich legacy of partnerships, combined with Nikon's global outreach, places the merged entity in a unique position to understand, anticipate, and cater to diverse market needs. As we stand at this juncture, it's essential to understand that the phrase "Going for Gold" is not just about market leadership. It's about setting standards of excellence, about being the touchstone against which others are measured. It's about resilience, persistence, and an undying commitment to innovation. Nikon SLM Solutions embodies this spirit. The merger isn't just a union of two corporate entities but a fusion of visions, aspirations, and dreams. It's a statement to the world and, more importantly, to themselves. In the fast-evolving realm of additive manufacturing, where change is rapid and relentless, staying ahead requires more than just technological advancements. It demands vision, agility, and the audacity to reimagine the future. Nikon SLM Solutions is all geared up for this exhilarating journey. Here's to a future where every layer added, every innovation introduced, and every challenge overcome shines with the golden hue of excellence in the industry of additive manufacturing.

SHOWN:

Part measuring 1.5m printed with Nikon SLM Solutions technology

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Laura Griffiths and Sam Davies get an update on AM Forward.

n April 2022, the Biden Administration announced AM Forward, a program designed to support smaller US-based suppliers in adopting additive manufacturing (AM). Led by ASTRO America, a non-profit that supports multiple initiatives addressing AM challenges, it shone a fresh light on AM, with President Biden suggesting ‘not enough American companies are using 3D printing,’ and advocating for its supply chain potential. Seven companies – GE Aerospace, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Siemens Energy, Boeing and Northrup Grumman – initially signed up, each stating varying ambitions and commitments. But how much has AM Forward moved, well, forward? We spoke to Brian Baughman (BB), Chief Engineer of Additive Manufacturing at Honeywell Aerospace, and Melissa Orme (MO), Vice President of Boeing Additive Manufacturing, to find out. TCT: Why did Boeing/Honeywell want to get involved in AM Forward? BB: From supply chain to product innovation, AM offers significant promise and opportunities for Honeywell’s businesses. However, its acceptance and use, especially in the aerospace industry, has been slow. The AM Forward initiative is focused on finding ways to overcome the challenges and barriers that hold back AM from mass adoption. Honeywell has been working to overcome these same challenges, so it made sense to be involved and put our support behind it.

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MO: Boeing was pleased to become involved in the Biden Administration’s initiative that seeks to develop and scale the domestic additive manufacturing ecosystem. This is very important to our additive manufacturing goals and America’s manufacturing competitiveness in the global context. TCT: AM Forward intends to support the reshoring of manufacturing in the US and uptake in AM. In your view, what has slowed that adoption? BB: I’ll quote Jesse Boyer of Pratt and Whitney when he says, “It’s the 3 Cs: cost, confidence, and consistency.” And this is spot on. We need AM to be less expensive, so it can compete better with traditional manufacturing. We need everyone from the users of products that AM makes to the certifying agencies that approve them to be confident in AM’s ability to deliver parts that meet requirements and safety standards. And we need consistency from the suppliers that make AM parts to the machines that are used to do the printing. If we can address all three of these, then that opens up AM to move into the mainstream. MO: There are several reasons why the adoption of AM is slow in civil aviation, but the primary reason is lack of data. This is why the AM Forward program is important and why we are partnering to create accessible databases so engineers can design for AM. Traditional manufacturing has decades and decades of data that enable engineering design and analysis, and

provide reduced risk in manufacturing new components. AM, like any new technology, needs to create those databases that lead to an understanding of the physics of the process, so that engineers have the tools and comfort to design for AM. However, a prerequisite for data generation is the requirement that the process is stable; data cannot be generated if the process is unstable. Machine OEMs are endeavoring to create machines that provide repeatable and reliable material properties that satisfy the high requirements of the aerospace industry. Finally, scale is a limiting factor for AM, and that points to the AM Forward initiative once again. In order to adopt AM for full-scale production, there must be a committed ecosystem for AM to provide the AM parts. AM service bureaus require high capital commitments and a highly-skilled and trained workforce. Small businesses often have difficulties securing investment, and to subsequently invest in costly qualification activities that are necessary to become qualified suppliers to large companies like Boeing. That said, Boeing is experiencing rapid growth in metal AM in the space sector where scale is smaller, products such as satellites are largely customized, and they are unmanned, so the regulatory environment, while still rigorous, is less so than for civil aviation. TCT: Is Honeywell/Boeing already using AM as a tool for supply chain resilience? BB: Yes, but it’s not as widespread as we would like. There’s a lot of opportunity in front of us.

SUPPLY CHAIN

MO: Boeing has embarked on an internal initiative aimed to make our supply chain more resilient with the use of AM. This is not simple for certain classes of parts where a major change in the manufacturing process requires significant regulatory oversight and participation. Nonetheless we see the value of creating a path for alternate manufacturing processes such as AM. TCT: One of the challenges often raised by SMEs is the diﬃculty having a voice in supply chain conversations. How does AM Forward address that? BB: I can think of a few ways. One example is the workshop that was just held at Wichita State. There were multiple SMEs in attendance along with the major OEM’s like Honeywell, Raytheon, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, GE, and Boeing. This gave everyone a forum to discuss their concerns and perspectives, and, most importantly, get insight into the expectations of the large OEMs for the AM supply chain. For me, it was extremely valuable to have that opportunity to listen to SMEs and understand their challenges when it comes to AM. Another path is through the

programs that ASTRO America are running and supporting. The common approach to supplier qualification and sourcing strategy project will draw a lot of input from SMEs and their capabilities to support the requirements of the OEMs. The Regional Engines will engage the AM supply base to help mature and support them. I think there’s going to be many opportunities for SMEs to get their voices heard with the AM Forward initiatives. TCT: Honeywell is said to be targeting US-based SME suppliers to compete on RFQ packages for products, machinery, tooling, and/or manufacturing process development utilizing AM. Can you give us a sense of how that works? And given much of AM’s value comes from design freedom, speed to market, reduced tooling, for example, how do you measure value when making those decisions? BB: When Honeywell has AM parts that need to be sourced, we work through our qualified AM

supply base which includes multiple US-based SMEs. We also partner with USbased SME’s on government programs like those funded through America Makes. As for the second part of your question, there’s no one answer for that. In most cases, the business looks at each AM part individually and its role to that specific program. For some programs, the lead time may be more important than the cost. For others, it may be some performance requirement that only the AM design can achieve, and that triumphs most of the cost concerns. It’s not always a direct cost comparison that influences whether to go AM or not. Still, cost is one of the most important factors so anything we can do to make AM more cost competitive is beneficial. TCT: When Boeing’s participation was initially announced, it was said that the company would target an increase of qualiﬁed small and medium-sized supplier capacity by 30%. Can you share to what extent the company oﬀers technical guidance to its prospective suppliers?

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SUPPLY CHAIN MO: Regarding technical guidance, Boeing works very closely with prospective suppliers. We want to make sure that they are heading on the right path before investing too much time and resources. We have found that the SMEs are generally receptive to this guidance. We do not blindly provide a specification and wait for the data package in return. We provide guidance to improve their processes to ensure they are repeatable and stable, and make sure that they have a quality management system in place. We ask for preliminary data, and if it is nonconforming, we make sure they don’t invest further in data generation. We then provide guidance to help establish a process that will provide conforming data. Our aim is to help suppliers create a strong, repeatable and stable process with conforming data at the lowest cost.

TCT: Can you share goals that have been set for AM Forward? BB: For Honeywell, we are focused on supporting ASTRO America with their common AM qualification program. Having a common framework to qualify AM parts and AM suppliers is going to clear up a lot of confusion in the industry, and also help ease the path for more AM parts in production. As for AM Forward as a whole, I think the goals remain unchanged. As I pointed out, there’s a lot of work going on to address many of the challenges holding back additive. I get that people wants results fast, but it takes time to make meaningful change. Additive is always going to be moving forward – it’s just us that need to catch up to it.

“In order to adopt AM for full-scale production, there must be a committed ecosystem.”

SUPPLY CHAIN

hree and a half years after the onset of Covid-19, people working in supply chain don’t consider what the next major supply chain disruption will be, only when it will be. It is not a source for speculation, but preparation. In the agriculture industry, the supply chain crisis triggered by Covid seems to have settled down, with procurement and production operations running as well and reliably as you might have expected before the pandemic – despite the constant chance of supplier bankruptcy, workforce strike or canal blockage. And while things tick as intended, it has provided ample opportunity for companies like CNH Industrial to lay the groundwork |for the next time a supply chain disruption, big or small, hits. “If [our] supply [chain] is not able to supply the right quantity at the right time, ‘Can you build them?’ is the question that we are asking ourselves,” Peter Ommeslag, Director Supply Chain Manufacturing Systems and Tools for CNH Industrial, said. CNH Industrial is the world’s second largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery, has 40+ production facilities worldwide, employing 40,000+ people and has a spare

Sam Davies speaks to the agriculture equipment manufacturer developing a digital warehouse full of back-up 3D printed parts.

“The idea around the AM twin is that you’re trying to make sure everything is ready.” part portfolio in the millions. Its supply chain, then, is big and complex. Since the start of the year, CNH has been working with Materialise’s Mindware additive manufacturing (AM) consulting team, assessing how it can grow its AM application to safeguard its supply chain. The company first adopted AM in 2008 for prototyping, and in recent years has begun applying the technology to tooling and spare parts. Functional parts – designed with the technology in mind from the start – are on the agenda, as is the development of ‘AM twins’. Because, another question CNH has been asking itself is, if its supply chain breaks down somewhere, ‘Is there any back-up solution?’ And ‘Could additive manufacturing be an alternative to the conventional market?’ The answer was yes. Materialise was thus looped into the process of identifying applications that can be manufactured with AM, with the view of designing back-up solutions in case of any supply chain issues. “The whole idea around the AM twin is that you’re trying to anticipate [and] make sure everything is ready,” Ommeslag explained. “So, at the moment that there is a disruption, or a supplier says, ‘I can’t deliver,’

we don’t lose any more time with starting to look at those parts, try to redesign to make them fit for additive manufacturing. You have everything that you need to be able [to] pull the trigger on an order being sent out to a supplier to have those parts printed through additive manufacturing.” Ommeslag anticipates that up to 40% of parts manufactured or provided by CNH could be a fit for AM, with between 80-85 AM twins already designed, pending quality checks. CNH is already using AM to produce 250 different spare parts – most of them being polymer components, and most of them being non-critical units like covers, hoods, and pipes – but with its AM twins project is now aiming to reinforce its supply chain. For CNH, a breakdown in its supply chain typically means a disruption in its manufacturing workflows, regardless of whether AM can be used to save the day and a dissatisfied customer. “Either you have a cost increase because the unit cannot go through the normal production flow,” Ommeslag continued, “or you’re going to have a penalty, which is difficult to express in financial terms, of having a reduction in customer satisfaction.” Hence, the AM twin project has been developed. This concept will rely on a virtual warehouse stacked with certified part designs that can be uploaded to 3D printers when needed, meaning CNH won’t have to store more spare parts than it needs, and also that normal service can be resumed once the supply chain issue has been resolved. Additive manufacturing, then, is set to work as backup capacity for CNH, but not before the company has completed its discovery phase of application identification with Materialise and built up some more internal know-how. “There are still a number of unknowns that we will have to get the answer on during this journey. We are a little bit too early to make bold statements around what the impact is going to be,” Ommeslag said. “[But] it’s interesting enough to go ahead.”

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THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME MTC AM Technology Manager Ruaridh Mitchinson details why the UK’s Ministry of Defence is turning to 3D printing to improve its supply chain for critical spare parts.

efense supply chain management involves coordinating activities related to acquiring, producing, storing, and distributing defence-related goods and services. This includes processes such as procurement, inventory management, transportation, and logistics. The goal is to ensure that defense teams have the necessary resources at the right time and place to fulfil their mission. In the world of defense, efficient and effective supply chain management, including logistics and distribution, is crucial for maintaining a credible defense force. Major General Simon Hutchings echoed this sentiment in the UK's Defence Supply Chain Strategy, emphasizing the role of the Defence Supply Chain (DSC) in safeguarding the nation. WHY IS SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IMPORTANT? The effectiveness of supply chain management directly impacts the operational readiness of key assets, such as armored vehicles, tanks, aircraft, and naval vessels.

SHOWN:

Fin parts from Advanced Innovative Engineering rotary engine, manufactured using laser powder bed fusion

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These assets consist of thousands of components, and a single unexpected component failure can render an asset inoperative. Replacing such components presents a logistical challenge, as it relies on a supply chain capable of swiftly providing them anywhere in the world. Additionally, it assumes the availability of spare parts and operational suppliers capable of producing components that may not have been produced for decades. To illustrate the scale of the challenge, in 2023, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) Defence Inventory Management Report detailed that the MoD is holding over 740 million individual items with a net book value of 11.8 billion GBP. THE ROLE OF ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING IN DEFENSE Additive manufacturing (AM) is now playing an increasingly significant role in improving the resilience and effectiveness of defense supply chains, this is playing out in three primary scenarios:

Direct part replacement in the ﬁeld: AM enables on-site production of critical parts, reducing lead times and ensuring equipment remains operational. This has often been associated with providing a short term "limp-home" option to get defense forces out of harm’s way, where at a later date a traditionally sourced spare part could be provided, or the AM component remains. An example of this is the US Department of Defense providing seven Spee3D WarpSPEE3D machines to Ukraine to allow rapid manufacturing of critical repair parts for armored platforms and aging military equipment systems. Part replacement of long lead time or obsolete components: AM can address challenges of obsolete parts by circumventing traditional supply chains or strategic operating locations. At the recent the DSEI Exhibition in London, Gp Capt Leonie Boyd – Royal Air Force made the point, “…Defense inventory is compromized, often due to part obsolescence, long lead times or closure of production lines, leading to poor equipment availability, AM can provide an alternative means, alongside conventional

SUPPLY CHAIN manufacturing not replacing, for the defense industry to produce parts much more rapidly or cost effectively (i.e. if production lines are too costly to reopen) to maintain operational output.” One example (in a non-defense setting) is that of Germany railway company Deutsche Bahn who have produced 100,000 spare parts using AM since 2015. These parts are used to keep older rail fleets operational, allowing Deutsche Bahn to overcome supply chain challenges such as obsolete parts or very small quantities. Deutsche Bahn is now expanding its digital warehouse, which stores around 1,000 virtual models, with an aim to increase this to 10,000 by 2030. Deutsche Bahn have noted that this not only saves space and reduces storage costs but also shortens delivery times and supply chains, building supply chain resilience. Designing parts speciﬁcally for AM: Designing parts specifically for AM enables innovative designs that leverage the technology's unique benefits. Successful use cases demonstrate how companies realise benefits such as consolidating assembles to reducing part counts and enhance product performance. This in turn simplifies the supply chain associated with the assembled component.

“Those not involved in AM often perceive it as riskly and costly.”

A notable example is Advanced Innovative Engineering (AIE), a provider of lightweight power solutions for unmanned aircraft systems and high-performance vehicles, which fully embraced design for AM to develop groundbreaking rotary engines. Collaborating with MTC’s AM engineers, they effectively reduced the engine's weight from 6kg to 4kg, significantly diminished the component count, and consequently lowered manufacturing costs, all while maintaining the engine's operational capability. TACKLING COMMERCIAL CHALLENGES Although the benefits of AM may be apparent to those immersed in the technology, those not involved often perceive it as risky and costly. Technical hurdles like enhancing process stability, ensuring material quality, and achieving part suitability through qualification and certification are ongoing concerns. However, the industry is making progress, with an increasing number of AM parts being used. Yet, softer commercial aspects also hinder AM adoption. When using AM for part replacement or acquiring obsolete components, it's crucial to shift from a per-part cost approach to a broader more holistic cost model. Procurement and senior management teams may not be fully aware of AM's broader advantages, leading them to base decisions solely on part price, disadvantaging AM. Moreover, a sense of risk aversion can hinder adoption, as proven technologies are favored over AM without comprehending its long-term return on investment.

An illustrative example where wider cost savings are being highlighted is within Project Tampa, funded by the UK MoD, which is focusing on accelerating AM to address logistical challenge, and in particular the inventory management of critical spares. In the build up to the project, the MoD cited examples derived from vehicles undergoing maintenance where the original supply cost of a Hose Clamp for a Titan and a Flange for a Challenger 2 tank were significantly cheaper than the AM cost. However, when the vehicle daily downtime costs and the lead time for the conventionally manufactured parts (above 190 days) were factored in, the AM components offered savings in the total cost to the MoD - from 72k-89k GBP in the worst case scenario to 227k-254k GBP in the best case scenario. Although the initial supply cost of certain parts seemed lower conventionally, considering vehicle downtime and lead times, AM offered significant savings, showcasing its cost-effectiveness and enhanced operational availability. AM also allows for sidestepping minimum quantity orders for spare components, common in conventional manufacturing, reducing order and storage costs. Embracing additive manufacturing and promoting broader cost models when evaluating its adoption, along with ongoing efforts to reduce part costs, are a key enabler to unlocking the benefits of AM. This extends beyond the defense sector, impacting industries like oil & gas and aerospace for their repair, maintenance, and overhaul operations. By doing so, it is possible to enhance operational efficiency, bolster supply chain resilience, and realize substantial cost savings, ultimately ensuring the continued readiness and effectiveness of critical assets and systems.

SHOWN:

The MTC is working closely with Spee3D and defense organizations to evaluate the XSPEE3D deployable metal AM system. Pictured at The MTC in Coventry

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established in 1985. This global initiative brought together 35 nations to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale, carbon-free energy source. Today, we are on the cusp of witnessing the fruits of this remarkable initiative. The realisation of ITER's goals heavily relies on the expertise and guidance provided by advanced technologies, such as 3D scanning, with Geomagic Design X at the forefront. In this article, we delve into the significance of nuclear fusion and how 3D scanning has played a vital role in this project's development. Understanding nuclear fusion and its timeliness At the core of stars, including the Sun, nuclear fusion reactions occur billions of times per second. These reactions generate an

immense amount of energy, capable of powering the Earth many times over. Harnessing nuclear fusion here on Earth offers several advantages. Firstly, it provides a nearly limitless supply of energy without carbon emissions and with minimal nuclear waste. In contrast, traditional power plants rely on fossil fuels, nuclear fission, or renewable sources like wind and water. Nuclear fission produces radioactive waste that poses long-term storage challenges, sometimes spanning hundreds of years. In contrast, nuclear fusion produces less radioactive waste that decays more rapidly and eliminates the need for fossil fuels. However, achieving fusion on Earth presents significant obstacles. Scientists must recreate the extreme conditions found in the center of the Sun, including

the extraordinary forces, pressures, and temperatures required to fuse atoms together. ITER's approach to fusion and the role of 3D scanning ITER's approach to achieving fusion involves creating and controlling plasma, a state where gas is heated to incredibly high temperatures, causing electrons to separate from nuclei. This plasma will be confined and controlled within a device called a tokamak, which employs powerful magnetic fields in the shape of a torus or doughnut. The completed tokamak is expected to produce 500 MW of fusion power. Equipment and Nuclear SA (ENSA), a Spain-based company, has played a crucial role in designing the components that make up the tokamak vacuum vessel. Constructing this monumental

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE device, which weighs 23,000 tons and measures 28 meters in diameter, necessitates precise engineering and cutting-edge technology. To ensure the perfect alignment of the vacuum vessel's nine sectors, ENSA employed 3D scanning and made-to-measure designs. The company used 3D scanning techniques, including photogrammetry and laser scanning, to capture detailed scans of the lateral edges of each sector. AsorCAD, an engineering specialist, also based in Spain, collaborated with ENSA and utilised Geomagic Design X from Oqton to convert the scanned data into editable 3D models. Leveraging these geometries, ENSA's engineering department developed custom splice plates and biscuits to connect and secure the different sections of the sectors. Once fabricated, the sectors will be welded together, marking a significant milestone in the construction of the tokamak. Joseph Maria Sanchez, Technical Manager at AsorCAD, highlighted the benefits of Geomagic Design X for this project. He said: “Geomagic Design X is the most capable reverse engineering software for handling large point clouds, and the entire reverse engineering process is parameterised, allowing future corrections to be made more quickly. Considering the large size and high resolution of the point clouds we work with, the files we deal with are very large. “In this particular project, 3D printing has assisted us in designing and manufacturing several tools necessary for conducting measurements with our Creaform 3D scanners. We have created

tools to place dynamic references, necessary to guarantee design precision. “We have also designed grips for using our 3D scanners with extensions, which helped minimise crane movements, as well as tools to expand the working capacity of our mobile tripod tracker, reducing the need for aerial platform movements.” The transformative power of 3D technologies in the energy sector The energy sector is embracing the power of 3D technologies, including 3D printing, 3D scanning, and 3D simulations. These cuttingedge tools offer numerous benefits, such as enhanced speed, efficiency, and accuracy, driving significant advancements in energy projects worldwide. One key advantage is the cost-saving potential achieved through increased accuracy. Tools like Geomagic Design X leverage 3D scanning technology to identify potential flaws or misalignments in parts. By comparing the scanned data with the initial design, engineers can quickly identify areas requiring adjustment. Without 3D scanning, extensive time and resources would be wasted on multiple iterations and molding attempts. The reliance on 3D scanning and printing has significantly accelerated the completion of ambitious projects like ITER. Without these technologies, endeavours such as nuclear fusion would be exceedingly lengthy and costly. Today, we have the capability to employ 3D technologies in almost every aspect of engineering, enabling the realisation of projects that were once unimaginable.

As technology continues to advance, data handling capabilities become increasingly important. Stateof-the-art 3D software excels in acquiring and reverse engineering real-world data. Its intuitive functionality allows engineers to rely on accurate scanned data with ease, making modifications and optimisations for specific purposes, particularly within the fusion sector. Antonio Sanchez, CEO of AsorCAD, concludes that “3D printing and 3D scanning have provided us with increased productivity by creating custom-made tools tailored to our needs, simplifying fieldwork,” contributing to the overall success of endeavours like ITER. Future challenges for 3D scanning and printing While 3D scanning and printing have already revolutionized many industries, there are still challenges to overcome. One key hurdle lies in making the technology more accessible and user-

friendly. The complexity of using these tools often requires extensive training, limiting the number of skilled practitioners. Future developments, potentially powered by AI, could simplify the process and enable more individuals to leverage these technologies effectively. Materials also pose an ongoing challenge. Extensive research and development efforts are devoted to finding the ideal materials that strike a balance between cost, constraints, and performance. The continuous evolution of 3D printers and scanners, advanced 3D scanning software, and the emergence of hybrid materials, such as plastic-metal composites, are game-changers that offer greater cost-effectiveness and expanded capabilities. As we look to the future, these technologies will only become more refined, empowering engineers and researchers to tackle grand challenges with unprecedented efficiency and creativity - no matter how complex.

3D scanning delivers perfectly fitting joints for the plasma chamber

FEEL THE HIT Sam Davies speaks to the company behind a latticed tennis racket dampener, developed with 3D printing technology.

t’s September 2013 and a felt-covered rubber ball is being zipped back and forth across a tennis court by what is now considered to be the two most successful men to ever play the sport. Inside the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Rafael Nadal crashes a 100+mph serve down to Novak Djokovic’s lefthand side, only for the Serb to return with a double backhand. Fifty-two more shots are knocked back and forth, with only the occasional sliced dropshot breaking the succession of grunts and thuds as the pair compete in one of the sport’s most famous rallies. Those grunts stem from two fierce competitors harnessing every bit of their strength to overcome the other, but the thud emanates from a tiny piece of silicone rubber clipped onto the lower central strings of the rackets. Djokovic, Nadal, and an estimated 75% of the 90 million tennis players worldwide rely on these bits of silicone rubber to reduce the shock upon impact and tune the sound into a thud rather than an irritating ping. In Italy, a company leveraging additive manufacturing technology to enhance consumer and sporting goods has seen the tennis racket dampener as an opportunity. For where there is a part that absorbs shock, there is often a role for additive to play. Additive Appliances thus developed a patent-pending lattice structure, which is said to work in much

SHOWN:

Additive Appliances' 3D printed tennis racket dampener

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the same way as a tuned mass damper does in large buildings. Designed to mimic the vibration of the structure it is embedded in while ‘accommodating the movement to dampen the vibration,’ the dampener is said to intercept vibrations that can cause inflammatory issues, while also allowing players to ‘feel the hit’ as they strike a ball. “What we do is we have a set of lattice structure that we can simulate pretty seamlessly,” said Tommaso Beccuti, CEO of Additive Appliances. “We simulate the behavior of this lattice structure, and we target the natural frequency of each racket system.”

Targeting the natural frequency of each racket system with tailored dampener products was something that tennis racket manufacturer Head1 outlined as important during a study undertaken in 2009. Doing that with injection molding, however, was always going to prove difficult. But with 3D printing, Additive Appliances is confident it can tweak the design of its dampeners to suit each brand and model of racket, and do so in an economically viable way, to supplement its already available ‘universal product’. Across both the universal and brandspecific tennis racket dampeners, Additive Appliances is deploying its lattice IP to ‘scatter the vibration’ through the myriad

consumer products

“We're ﬁnally pushing the boundaries of manufacturing.”

beams and nodes that the lattice is made up of. By channelling the forces through these paths, the energy is dissipated. According to the literature that Beccuti has studied, there is a belief that lattices proffer superior dampening properties to the conventionally shaped products. This has chimed with Additive Appliances, who has endeavored to dive deep into the design space to generate solutions for a range of consumer and sporting goods, among them the tennis racket dampener.

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SHOWN:

The dampener is used at the base of the racket so as not to impede the player as they strike the ball

such as Altair’s Sulis platform, with the equations being validated using advanced simulation techniques like Optimad Engineering’s proprietary software, before extensive in-house testing is performed with vibrometers and sound spectrum analyzers. Postprint, chemical smoothing can help to enhance the aesthetics of the part but has no impact on the mechanical properties and so it can be quicker and cheaper to forego this step.

for licensing will always be listened to, but Becutti’s preference would be – in a perfect world – that there is no exclusivity. He concedes that the 3D printed tennis racket dampener is slightly more expensive than a conventionally made one, but there is confidence that a superior performance will ensure value for money. Buoyed by a couple of other recent high volume consumer applications, Becutti is thinking big.

Additive Appliances’ tennis racket dampener is additively manufactured using HP’s Multi Jet Fusion technology, with the build volume of the 5200 platform said to be capable of processing thousands of parts at once. The parts, printed in BASF’s Ultrasint TPU material, measure between around 15 to 20 millimeters, and weigh less than 1 gram – up to 70% lighter than the minimal mass requirement of a traditional dampener.

So far, the 3D printed dampener has come through in-house tests at Additive Appliances with flying colors, with third-party testing now underway. Ranked professional players, such as Federico Gaio – who typically prefer not to use a dampener – are said to have also provided positive feedback. And, Beccuti told TCT, Additive Appliances is in the process of spinning out the product into its own company, with a number of investors helping to set up a business called Athleticae to give a further push to the tennis racket dampener, before other applications are explored.

“The real target is millions of pieces,” Becutti said. “Let me be ambitious here. I think the technology is ready for that. We [as an industry] have other use cases. The mascara brush from Chanel, I think, is the most famous one and it’s again a small component. Now we have the very positive example of Apple producing the Apple Watch [with] binder jetting. [The technology is] maturing and it’s an exciting moment. We’re finally pushing the boundaries of manufacturing and getting at least a little bit closer to traditional manufacturing.”

For the design of the components, Additive Appliances has leant on a set of internally developed equations that are transformed into CAD designs through implicit modeling software,

It is expected sales of the tennis racket dampener will continue via an e-commerce platform, while a reseller network is to be developed. Requests

1 ‘Dynamics of a String-bed Dampener on Tennis Rackets’ by Mohr et all.

“We focus mainly on lattice structures. All our other applications that we have done are related to the so-called metamaterial – you act not on the microscale of objects, you don’t take the problem from a specialty chemistry standpoint, but you rather work on the mesoscale, so talking about microns, millimeters, and you change the shape of the object so that he can actually achieve certain properties. That can be thermal properties, mechanical properties, like in this case, but also electromagnetic properties. It’s very interesting. To me, it is one of the most exciting areas of 3D printing, alongside bioprinting. In terms of simple approaches to mechanics, I think metamaterial has a huge potential.”

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consumer products

Laura Griffiths speaks to HBD about AM in the 3C industry.

hough the parts may be tiny, the buzz around additive manufacturing (AM) in consumer electronic devices is huge. Apple may have stolen the headlines this summer with speculation around its use of metal AM in its latest Apple Watch series, but smartphone manufacturer Honor has also been busy working with several metal AM providers for its HONOR Magic V2 foldable phone. One of them is HBD. The company worked on the 'Luban Titanium Alloy Hinge,' a crucial component which played a significant role in achieving its 9.90mm thickness breakthrough. Leveraging titanium alloy, HBD says it was able to successfully reduce the overall thickness and weight of the folding screen. Here, Celine Xie, HBD Overseas Business Development Manager, explains why HBD's metal technology is a perfect fit for lightweight, integrated, and finely structured metal parts for the 3C (Computer, Communication and Consumer electronics) industry, and how this project could influence future adoption of AM in consumer devices. TCT: How did HBD get involved in the Honor foldable phone project? CX: HBD has found that 3D printing has significant advantages in the consumer electronics sector. Downstream product manufacturing costs are effectively reduced and efficiency is improved. 3D printing eliminates the need for molds and machining, directly transforms design drafts into solids, efficiently creates product models that can be tested and evaluated, simplifies the production process, reduces the time and assembly costs of the traditional manufacturing process, and promotes subsequent development and innovation. All these advantages pave the way for HBD to participate in the innovation of cell phone production.

TCT: Why was 3D printing chosen for this particular component? CX: The metal structural parts of electronic products are generally based on stainless steel and aluminum alloy. Stainless steel has a good glossy feeling, but the weight is not advantageous. Aluminum alloy has the advantage of lightweight, but the general hardness. The strength of the alloy is higher than stainless steel, the weight is only half of the same volume of stainless steel - it can do both hardness and weight. Due to the alloy of the traditional processing difficulty, low yield, resulting in higher production costs, it has not been widely used by the 3C industry. In this case, 3D printing emerged as the ideal choice for the Luban Titanium Alloy Hinge due to its capacity to streamline the production process. By eliminating the need for molds and machining, we achieved a delicate balance between lightweight design and enhanced hardness. The innovative use of 3D printing not only simplified production, reducing time and assembly costs but also allowed us to create intricate titanium alloy structures, reduce cell phone weight, elevating the user experience. TCT: Why do you think this project is so signiﬁcant? CX: Metal 3D printing can be very effective in solving the problem of molding alloy materials. Prior to this, metal 3D printing of alloy parts has been widely used in aerospace, medical and other fields, and now, in the 3C industry, is undoubtedly a

major breakthrough. The HONOR Magic V2, leveraging 3D printing technology, achieved a groundbreaking reduction in thickness and weight, surpassing previous models in the market. This achievement speaks volumes about the potential of 3D printing in the high-end market for folding screen cell phones. It not only meets consumers' demands for lighter devices but also opens the door to personalized, customized products tailored to individual preferences. TCT: What does this project tell us about future adoption of metal AM in consumer electronics? CX: This project serves as a testament to the transformative power of 3D printing in consumer electronics design. It liberates products from the constraints of traditional manufacturing, allowing for richer use of materials, more flexible use of process technology, and customization according to individual preferences. As consumer demand for personalized electronic products increases, and companies demand more cost-effective, productive products, 3D printing technology offers the freedom to customize products to enhance the user experience. We believe this trend heralds a promising future where metal 3D printing will continue to revolutionize mass-produced consumer electronics, offering innovative solutions and endless design possibilities.

SHOWN:

HONOR Magic V2 features 3D printed components

“Groundbreaking reduction in thickness and weight.”

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consumer products

HIGH PERFORMANCE Oli Johnson speaks to Formlabs about applications of its technology for bicycle manufacturing.

s cycling is increasingly embraced for commuting to work, exploring nature, working out or racing, it is important for bike manufacturers to keep up with trends and technological developments. Two such companies, Hunt Bike Wheels and Privateer Bikes, are using 3D printing technology and new materials for the prototyping stage of creating bike parts. Both companies are owned by The Rider Firm, a UK-based e-retailer that secured seven figure funding from Santander in 2022.

Hunt Bike Wheels has been using the Formlabs Form 3L printer with the Grey Pro Resin to prototype wheel designs. The company 3D prints the rims and then builds them with standard components such as spokes and hubs. Tyres are then put on the rims and inflated to 3.5 bars pressure to test in a wind tunnel. The testing results are then analysed, with the company iterating different designs and concepts with 3D printing until the perfect wheel profile is found, which will later be manufactured with traditional carbon fiber methods. Privateer Bikes 3D prints entire bike frames, which enables it to test designs for fit, assembly, and clearances. The company also uses Formlabs' desktop stereolithography machines to create functional prototypes of frame protectors, which prevent the chain from potentially damaging other parts. Speaking about how creating prototypes with 3D printing is key to improving bike performance, Balázs Kisgergely, Content Marketing Lead at Formlabs told TCT: “By 3D printing prototypes in-house, Hunt Bike Wheels and Privateer Bikes can save both

“Bringing high quality bikes to customers faster and cheaper.” money and time, enabling them to focus on designing the best wheel profiles that can improve a bike's drag, crosswind handling, and speed. 3D printing is also key to making their products faster by eliminating wait times for outsourced prototypes. Hunt Bike Wheels can iterate small changes easily in-house to bring their products to market sooner, and the lowered production time and cost enable them to sell their high performance parts at an accessible price, bringing high quality bikes to customers faster and cheaper.” Formlabs says the Form 3L's larger 33.5 x 20 x 30 cm build volume made it possible for Hunt Bike Wheels and Privateer Bikes to print large-format components. The company says that Hunt Bike Wheels’ engineers can 3D print prototypes inhouse in five or six sections, saving 90% of the price of outsourcing the same designs. Hunt Bike Wheels uses Formlabs Grey Pro Resin as it enables prototypes to be

complex and geometrically accurate while being strong enough to be fitted with racing tires, inflated, and tested in a wind tunnel, according to Formlabs. The prototypes made with Grey Pro Resin can be filled with up to three and a half bars of pressure and take around 65% of the tension of a carbon fiber wheelset. Privateer Bikes also uses Grey Pro resin to prototype its frames due to its durability, and ability to withstand rough handling. “Before Formlabs, Hunt Bike Wheels outsourced all prototypes, with each outsourced wheel costing 2,500 USD," Kisgergely said of the cost and time savings afforded by printing. “The Form 3L cut costs down by 90%, to bring prototypes to around 250 USD each. In addition to the lowered costs, Hunt Bike Wheels can run Form 3L printers through the night to have new prototypes ready daily, rather than waiting two to three months for outsourced designs. Before 3D printing, Privateer Bikes was not able to prototype their frame protectors as the tooling for this part is expensive and must be custom made. Without prototyping first, Privateer Bikes would send the design to be manufactured, costing 3,000 to 4,000 USD and taking three to four months. Being able to 3D print prototypes has saved Privateer Bikes six months of time and around 4,000 to 5,000 USD per prototype.” Kisgergely also spoke about the potential for Formlabs 3D printing technology and materials to be used for end use parts in bicycle manufacturing. “With Formlabs’ ever-expanding library of 45 unique materials, new ways to use 3D printing for end-use parts are emerging,” Kisgergely said. “For example, Silicone 40A Resin, the first accessible pure silicone 3D printing material, and TPU 95A Powder for SLS printing, could be used to print handlebar grips, seat covers, or other elastic bike parts made to be stretched, flexed, and compressed. 3D printing these parts in house would eliminate traditional labour-intensive moulding and casting processes.”

SHOWN:

3D printed prototypes from Hunt Bike Wheels

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FORMNEXT ROUND-UP Oli Johnson selects highlights from our Formnext coverage at tctmagazine.com. ADDiTEC ADDiTEC showcased its Liquid Metal Jetting (LMJ) technology for the first time, following its acquisition of Elem Additive from Xerox. The technology uses a drop-on-demand liquid metal printing process, and features in the company’s new Hybrid 3 system, which launched at Formnext, and includes LMJ technology, laser wire DED, and CNC machining. “Combining these two has two advantages,” R&D Program Manager at ADDiTEC Sriram Manoharan told TCT in Frankfurt. “The first advantage is a geometric advantage where you can come with the laser wire DED with high deposition rates and do the infills, and then you can come back with the liquid metal jetting and do your perimeters which have high resolution. Then you have a CNC operation to do surface finishing. “The second advantage is that you can do multi-material structures within a single component. So you can [create] lightweighting structures with the LMJ, because it is capable of doing aluminum structures, and it’ll come and do Inconel 625 with the laser wire DED for high deposition strength of different materials in different sections of the parts.”

PHOTOCENTRIC The Photocentric Liquid Crystal Titan 3D printer made its debut at Formnext, after being teased at the 2022 event. The system, which is believed to be the world’s largest LCD 3D printer, has a build volume of 695 x 385 x 1200 mm and a pixel pitch of 91 microns. The 8K LCD screen provides control of over 33 million pixels, which the company says allows users to convert ‘huge’ amounts of liquid into solid parts in a short amount of time. Photocentric expects the biggest markets for the printer to be in prop-making for theme parks and TV, but also industrial sectors such as aerospace and automotive. Hanifeh Zarezadeh, Product Manager at Photocentric, spoke to TCT about the affordability of the system: “Our mission in life with Photocentric is to make 3D printing affordable for everyone. So, the Titan cost RRP is just below 100,000 EUR, and the full solution in which you have the wash unit and also the cure unit is about 180,000 EUR."

ROBOZE

LITHOZ

Roboze launched its new Hypermelt technology for the ARGO 1000 3D printer. The machine made its debut 12 months prior, but after hearing how users were facing challenges around the production of larger 500mm components using FFF 3D printing, the company decided to develop a solution. Francesco Pantaleone, Executive Vice President of Business Development at Roboze, told TCT: “We’ve built this machine with our customers in mind. Our customers ask us for larger parts, still with the same quality and repeatability of the process that we build around high-performance quality. We’ve integrated a lot of technology, built over the years, to fulfil that desire from our customers. “We went from an FFF system to an FGF (Fused Granulate Fabrication) system to lower the cost of the material. That is extremely impactful when it comes to cost per part, and speed, which is the largest value that we get to deliver, as an additive manufacturing industry for our customers. So we decrease that by a factor of five, and that is really giving us great feedback from the first beta users on the type of applications that they can deploy in regulated industries and extreme environments with our technology.”

The Lithoz booth hosted the first public outing of its CeraFab Multi 2M30, alongside a series of multi-material parts. The system can produce functional parts with different material combinations such as ceramic with metal, ceramic with polymer, or even different ceramics. In a single print run, opposing material properties can be combined, including those within one single printed layer, to allow for different properties such as conductivity and insulation. Lithoz Head of Marketing and PR Norbert Gall told TCT: “You can, for example, print two different ceramics in one part, you can print the same ceramic material but with different porosities in one part, or you can just vary the color of one of the materials that you are using, or you can even use materials like metals or polymers and mix it with the ceramic material. “The interesting thing [about] this machine is you can print two different materials layer by layer, for example, or even within the same single layer, and you are completely free to change your material from one material to the other. This is a completely flexible process, and it makes the future of 3D printing so interesting because with that process, you can actually create parts, functional parts, which unify multiple processes and steps of the fabrication process in one part.”

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Laura Griffiths explores how two organizations are tackling the AM skills gap. SHOWN:

FDM printers at PrintCity

“We want the best for the industry and our students.” and it wasn't very good. We don't want companies to learn about a technology, have a bad experience, and then put them off even further.”

THE UK PERSPECTIVE The so-called ‘skills gap’ has many facets. For some, it's about building education programs that cater to the manufacturing skills of the future. For others, it means equipping industry with an understanding of AM's how and why. PrintCity, a thriving AM center based at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK, is tackling both. In addition to offering its unique MSc Digital Design and Manufacturing course, PrintCity is also using its growing fleet of AM technologies to educate SMEs, and just wrapped up a 3.2 million GBP European Regional Development Funded project to help companies in Greater Manchester, UK to adopt digital manufacturing technologies. According to Mark Chester, Product Development Specialist at PrintCity, there are multiple reasons companies are looking to explore new methods of manufacture: supply chain rigidity, magnified by the pandemic; sourcing challenges brought on by Brexit. But for PrintCity, a hub where both students and businesses can learn first-hand about AM, it’s a two-way street.

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“It's really beneficial for us to help companies adopt these technologies so that our graduates then have opportunities in the marketplace,” Chester explained. 150 companies were targeted through the project. Some would come in with preconceived ideas about AM and leave with an entirely different view, and a machine on their shopping list. Others who had already tried 3D printing, without any real support on how to leverage its benefits, went away armed with fresh ideas. As Chester shared, a tour around PrintCity’s lab - which includes primarily polymer machines from Formlabs, Prusa, HP, UltiMaker and Stratasys, amongst others, alongside an abundance of realworld applications - is usually where the lightbulb goes on. “It's our duty to make sure that people don't get the wrong technology,” Chester said. “We've had companies that have come to us and said, ‘We bought this really expensive machine and it's just gathering dust,’ or they might have jumped on the technology years ago

Jacobson Group, which owns the sporting goods brand Gola, came to PrintCity from another project focused on reducing its carbon footprint. The company wanted to use 3D printing to reduce the number of shoe samples it was manufacturing and shipping over the world every year. With guidance from PrintCity, the company decided to use Keyshot digital visualization software to create realistic vendors of its samples, which could be instantly shared globally while reducing lead times and environmental impact. Using that same 3D data, 3D printing was then identified as a perfect alternative to its traditional shoe mold making process. AM adoption and AM skills go hand in hand. While manufacturers bemoan a lack of digital skills in the talent pool, there are plenty of graduates coming out of universities with them in tow. In fact, some companies that have come through PrintCity’s program have directly hired students afterwards. “We have an advisory board for our masters course where we get companies to tell us what skills they want from students,” Chester shared. “It’s alright having an amazing course, but if it's not fixing any problems around the skill gap, then what's the point?” The work continues. PrintCity just launched its Centre for Digital Innovation program, funded through a 100 million

education TCT 3SIXTY & skills PREVIEW GBP Government Innovation Accelerator to enable SMEs in the North West, UK to access knowledge, research and facilities across artificial intelligence, cyber security, industrial digitalization, and immersive technology. “We're definitely open for business in that sort of regard,” Chester added. “We just need to keep that conversation between industry and places like [us], but also the [TCT UK] User Group, and just share what everyone's doing. […] We want the best for the industry and the best for our students – and the best for 3D printing in general.” THE US PERSPECTIVE “The reality is AM is not a big industry,” Mike Vasquez said of the challenges facing AM recruitment. “There's a handful of academic programs that kind of move people in terms of pathways into the industry but that's not right for every job.” Having spent the last decade at the helm of 3D printing consultancy 3Degrees, Vasquez, has learned a lot about the industry’s needs and challenges, and through that, is now working to create an onramp to AM careers with an initiative called AMx (Additive Manufacturing Experience). Additive manufacturing is a bubble. While those on the inner circle may afford industry heavyweights like Stratasys and EOS the same recognition as a Samsung or Sony, the general public may not. Supplementing that is a disconnect between education, public perception, and industry. A manufacturing facility or job could be presumed to look a certain way, but it isn’t until you invite someone to peer into a factory window, or

watch a laser travelling across a print bed, that reality vision becomes tangible. Vasquez had a thought: could there be a way to open doors and introduce people to interesting career opportunities in this field? “The thought was, is there an alternative pathway to develop a program that is a little bit hybrid in the sense that, we know we're not going to cover every single technical detail of 3D printing because we don't need to,” Vasquez explained. “Can we find adults that are interested in working with their hands and showing up on time, and expose them to some of the technical detail around 3D printing?” Using his network, Vasquez decided to start in the Chicago area with a free eight-week training program including guided tours around local manufacturing facilities, training curriculum from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ Tooling U program, and mentorship from industry insiders to deliver what Vasquez describes as “a winning solution that's low cost, low risk for everyone involved but potentially high reward.” They went after a cohort of engaged adults from underserved areas around Chicago and asked industry partners like Renishaw, Impossible Objects and Sciaky to open their factory doors. They got carpenters, film directors, part-time students, all ranging from early 20s to 50s, to sign up and learn about the fundamentals of machine operation, build prep, post-processing, software, and more. But AM is a broad church, and that broadness can make it difficult to pin down which skills to focus on. Like any industry, individual businesses have their own processes and ways of working, complicating

the complicated world of AM even further. Vasquez says with 3Dx, they decided to keep it simple. “[Companies] always complain they can't find the right people,” Vasquez said. “We've found [by] going back to basics, you don't have to teach everything. Broad familiarity of the process and how it works is enough because nothing is standardized. Everyone has their own SOPs, their own machines, their own way of working, their own personalities. So, I think it's just a broad awareness.” AMx has already proven a success. At this year’s RAPID + TCT, AMx graduate Jesus Lazaro spoke on the America Makes booth about how the program provided an opportunity to take a tour of Impossible Objects. He now works there. “I think there's just a lot of different opportunities,” Vasquez said. “Once you get into a facility where you start asking questions, even if you started bottom of the ladder, you can work your way up. There's a lot of different areas that people can contribute right away for these companies.” Chicago was just the start and Vasquez says 3Degrees is open to partnering with the right people and organizations to take it forward. “You could do this anywhere, and that was the intent,” Vasquez concluded.

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n October, Vitro3D was named as one of five Formnext Start-Up Award winners, with the company recognized for the potential of its Volumetric Additive Manufacturing (VAM) technology. This technology was initially developed at the University of Colorado Boulder in a bid to solve a number of challenges involved in photopolymer 3D printing. With the company raising 1.3 million USD in seed funding last year, it is targeting commercialization by 2025. Recently, TCT Group Content Manager Sam Davies sat down with Vitro3D CEO Camila Uzcategui, PhD, as part of an Additive Insight podcast Executive Interview episode to learn more. Vitro3D often talks about addressing the limitations of photopolymer 3D printing. What are those limitations and what has been the key to addressing them? CU: So, by the time that I graduated [from University of Colorado Boulder], and I joined the [Bob] McCleod Lab as a postdoc, we were starting to pivot from digital light production and stereolithography to really seeing what volumetric additive manufacturing could do in these complex parts and new application spaces. And when we started to do that, we realized that volumetric additive manufacturing could solve some of the biggest challenges when we start to think about photopolymer additive manufacturing, such as the lack of ability to go into really high viscous materials, the fact that you need support structures, in many cases, in order to print these complex parts, and also just the speed of the process. When I was early in my PhD, 3D printing scaffolds for surgeries that we

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were implanting in some animal models, I was spending 20 to 30 minutes to print one five millimeter by five millimeter by two millimeter part. And then [when] I started working on this technology when I was doing volumetric work, we could print something of a similar size in just a few seconds.

the properties of the material itself, and then project a two dimensional image for each angle into the volume of a photopolymerizable resin. And then, as those intensities overlap, where they're highest, those are the only regions that are going to go from liquid to solid and go through that photopolymerization.

So, can you tell us as much as you can about Vitro3D's VAM technology? CU: The best way that I can describe our volumetric additive manufacturing technology is through the idea of a CAT scan. So, [with a CAT scan] you go into a machine, that machine has a circular structure around you and it's taking pictures from a bunch of different angles through some sort of light source. What that does is it takes pictures at these different angles, and then it uses a computational algorithm to then take those pictures and add them all up to create a three dimensional virtual image. So, that is how we get the CAT scan results and have a 3D virtual image of what's going on inside of the body. The principles of the particular VAM technology that we work on is an inverse CAT scan. So, rather than taking a picture from a bunch of different angles of a 3D volume, what we do is we take a 3D virtual object, and we deconstruct it into all the different angles that make up that part.

I understand that one of the key elements to Vitro3D’s VAM technology is the speed. So, how has Vitro3D been able to facilitate rapid printing while preserving accuracy and resolution? CU: One of the aspects that make volumetric 3D printing or volumetric additive manufacturing so magical is our ability to materialize something all at the same time. So because the process works, by getting to a certain energy dose that then that critical energy dose is what actually allowing us to go from liquid to solid and photopolymerization, we're able to materialize the entire part all at once, rather than in this layer by layer process. That makes it not only much, much faster, but it gives us new capabilities, such as printing around existing objects, as well as printing in first part and then printing around that first part in a secondary process through this volumetric additive manufacturing overmolding and over-printing capability.

We say that the magic is in the software, because we don't use just a standard slicer to slice a three dimensional virtual object into its two dimensional constituents slices, we have to go through a very robust algorithm that takes this three dimensional virtual object, deconstructs it into these different angles, and then allows us to use this algorithm to then incorporate

What is different about the light source compared to a conventional photopolymer printing technology? The main difference in our case is that rather than wanting to photopolymerize a small layer of material, which is usually how layer by layer 3D printing methods work in the photopolymer space, we're instead wanting to get as much light through the volume of our resin as we possibly can. So, what that means is that we want our light that is on the sample

EXEC Q&A

plane to be as collimated as possible, meaning that it's not changing very significantly through the volume of light. So, what that means is that we have to use very ingenious optical designs to understand where the focus is of our two-dimensional projection and ensuring that our depth of focus is as large as it can possibly be. On materials, what resins are you able to process currently? We're able to process a lot of different materials very similar to every other photopolymerization additive technology. The main limitation for us is transparency. So, because we are working in a volumetric method, we want to ensure that that light is able to get through the volume as much as possible, so we just always need to ensure that our material is transparent to the wavelengths that we're using. Otherwise, we've used a very broad host of materials going from very soft materials, like hydrogels, all the way to really stiff materials like urethane matrices with a secondary material for optical applications. So, what's really awesome about the technology is that not only can you sweep this range of viscosities, but it allows us to access new applications that you just can't access with other photopolymer additive manufacturing technologies due to the viscosity constraints.

way that synthetic organs require high resolution, high speed, high complexity and customization, we started to see that there were other industries that not only had this need but could get us to have this technology in the world much faster than if our goal was to print a synthetic organ. So, what we realized was that we had a platform technology in our hands, and wanted to find the industries that had the most pressing issues. And in one of our customer discovery conversations, something that somebody said to me, which I feel is very important for the entire 3D printing space, was that manufacturers are not going to use the new technology that we're proposing unless they absolutely need to, unless they have an existential challenge that will be solved by the new manufacturing technology. And that's really been our true north. How do we ensure that the industry in the markets that we're targeting, both early stage as well as later stage, really need this technology?

“The magic is in the software.”

Your background is in tissue engineering and as Vitro3D comes to market, it is targeting the medical market – why is your technology suitable for applications in this space? As we began to launch the company, and joined accelerator programs and conducted thorough market research, we identified a broader trend past tissue engineering that the world is meeting on demand intricate, customized parts, but manufacturers are still lagging in that space. And we really foresee this gap widening. So, in the same

Listen to the interview in full on the Additive Insight podcast: tinyurl.com/5c2785te

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metrology

CHAMPIONSHIP QUALITY WORDS: rhiannon temporal

In the final stages before the car is loaded, final body and underwing details are verified and adjusted to get the last pieces of aerodynamic performance for the race car. Finally, we have a Leica tracker that we use to verify that our fixtures and plates correct and calibrated.

Roy Crump, Quality Control Supervisor at Hendrick Motorsports, Tad Merriman, Engine Engineering Manager and Quality Control Manager at Hendrick Motorsports, implement its new systems. Among and Scott Grumbles, Commercial those systems are an optical CMM measuring machine) and a Operations Manager at Hexagon’s (coordinate robotically loaded CMM for measuring Manufacturing Intelligence Division, smaller components, which helps free up valuable manpower for more useful discuss the motivation behind tasks. The value to Hexagon is that our engineers and developers receive Hexagon's metrology partnership important feedback in terms of how with Hendrick Motorsports as the we can improve both hardware and software to the benefit of Hendrick team aims to reach its 300th Cup and other users. victory and 500th NASCAR MQ: Can you tell us about speciﬁc national series engine win. metrology applications Hexagon’s MQ: What do you consider to be the most effective change you will bring to the Hendrick Motorsports operations? RC: The biggest changes at Hendrick Motorsport will be a cultural change in how we quality control our parts, and how we use them. NASCAR has put us in such a tight box that we have to make sure all the parts we have are compliant to NASCAR rules. The technologies allow us to grade the quality of our parts so we can determine which parts can provide the biggest performance advantage on the track. Instead of just putting parts on the car, we now ask ourselves, “Is this the best part? Can we measure these parts and grade them based on the results of the measurements?” We want to quantify all parts, and the tools from Hexagon allow us to do that. SG: Hexagon and Hendrick can speak engineer-to-engineer about new tools Hexagon is developing to accelerate inspection time and improve efficiencies even as we help Hendrick

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technology will be used for? RC: Hexagon portable measuring arms are used for measuring the chassis and suspension components to input into our simulation tools. The arms and the AS1 (Absolute Scanner) scanners are used during the body hanging build process to maximize the aerodynamic performance of the car. The equipment is also used for reverse engineering parts to speed up the design process and improve the accuracy of the parts created by the design group. During the setup process, the arms are used to measure suspension features on the car to validate their location to the desired location from the simulation tool. They also check for certain suspension parameters to make sure they are compliant with NASCAR’s rules.

MQ: This is a ten-year partnership between Hexagon and Hendrick Motorsports. What does the future hold for the collaboration? RC: For Hendrick Motorsports? More wins and championships! Realistically, the future holds tools that will help elevate the QC group to in turn help the race teams find performance. For Hexagon, I hope it holds a fantastic showroom that can be used to demonstrate use cases for the tools it provides. TM: We also believe that these partnerships are two-way streets and that each participant can make the other better. We could not have the success that we have had without our partners, but we believe that we can make our partners better, as well. SG: In line with this close relationship, the Hendrick Motorsports campus will also become a site at which new concepts can be demonstrated and where we can receive valuable feedback from Hendrick as a highend user of our systems. MQ: Can you share your insights on the importance of metrology technologies in the motorsport sector? TM: As motorsports have evolved, the constraints we are required to work within have become significantly tighter, so the margins have become ever smaller. We coined the phrase “measuring for performance, not for conformance” to illustrate that we now use instruments such as the portable arms and CMMs to characterize the components of the race car not just for acceptance, but for tuning, as well. Having the ability to understand the features of our inventory and combine components in a favourable way is a distinct performance advantage and one that is only going to increase in significance over time.

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