News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
With 3D printing of electric motor components, a new era of efficiency is now underway for electric motors. The focus is on copper windings, the main component of every electric motor. German firm Additive Drives is at the forefront of this innovation.
German automotive manufacturer Porsche is taking its use of 3D printing to new places with ...
Superstrata, a Silicon Valley-based bicycle brand linked with composite AM service provider Arevo, just unveiled its flagship product: the world’s first made-to-measure 3D-printed e-bicycle with an impact-resistant unibody carbon fiber frame.
In yet another fascinating demonstration of the capabilities of construction 3D printing to rebuild marine habitats, architects and marine scientists at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have jointly developed a novel method for coral restoration making use of specially designed, 3D printed reef tiles. The elegant looking structures can be used by corals to enhance their chance of survival in the Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park in Hong Kong waters.
There’s a new player in the construction 3D printing market: Mighty Buildings, an Oakland, California-based startup with a focus on automated home building solutions has just progressed beyond stealth mode. The company, which has raised an impressive $30 million from investors (including Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, SV Angel and CoreVC), was born through the Y Combinator seed money startup accelerator in 2018.
Since significantly expanding its 3D printing capacity – by installing 17 production-grade Stratasys systems – at the end of 2019, automotive giant GM has transformed many of its production lines, leveraging the technology for faster and most efficient tooling and more. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the technology has come particularly in handy, helping the company to transition towards the production of ventilators.
Thinking Huts, a charitable startup founded by an innovative young mind, Maggie Grout, is seeking to use 3D printing to make education more accessible in Madagascar. Specifically, the organization is developing plans for a 3D printed school in the African nation, where 60% of primary-school-aged children are not enrolled. Eventually, it plans to build more schools in developing regions where access to education is limited.
With its propensity for custom, one-off designs, it is no wonder that 3D technologies like scanning and 3D printing have been eagerly adopted by automotive restoration professionals. The technologies have literally given them the tools to bring vintage and rare cars back to their former glory, not just in look, but often also in terms of performance. Whether used to reproduce an obsolete component for a vintage model or to replicate the entire car body, 3D printing is now an intrinsic part of automotive restoration projects. Here are a few of our favorite examples from over the years that demonstrate the many ways 3D printing and 3D technologies can be used to rev up old cars.
Eagle, a British restorer of the Jaguar E-Type car, can achieve the bespoke, low-volume production it needs thanks to a partnership with Graphite Additive Manufacturing Ltd., an England-based 3D printing service. More specifically, Graphite Additive Manufacturing provides Eagle with custom 3D printed parts made using the HP Jet Fusion 4200 system.
Today, the emerging construction 3D printing sector is being pioneered by a relatively small number of companies, each of which is presenting its own technology and vision for disrupting the global construction industry. Amongst them is CyBe, a Netherlands-based company that has taken an encompassing and holistic approach to construction AM.