News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Siemens has announced the official launch and availability of the Siemens Additive Manufacturing Network, which will provide an advanced cloud-based solution to facilitate collaboration and process orchestration along the workflow—from engineers, to procurement and suppliers. The launch follows a successful pilot period with partners at Siemens Gas & Power, Siemens Mobility, HP, Materialise and Decathlon.
APWORKS, the Airbus-owned industrial 3D printing specialist, has revealed that it provided 3D printed exhaust finishers for the Bugatti Chiron, a hyper sports car that broke a world record when it reached 300 miles per hour (482.80 km/h) in August. APWORKS is currently showcasing the 3D printed exhaust finishers at Formnext.
Global standards organization ASTM International and German certification organization TÜV SÜD have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at developing programs to drive the adoption and overall trust of additive manufacturing. The partnership creates further global ties between global AM standards organization—a critical step in establishing industry-wide regulations.
MSC Software Corporation, a provider of CAE simulation software, has launched a new design optimization solution, MSC Apex Generative Design, at Formnext. The program provides a high degree of automation for design processes and reportedly has the potential to improve productivity by up to 80% compared to more traditional topology optimization tools.
Optomec, a global supplier of production-grade additive manufacturing equipment and software, has announced the integration of its Huffman brand AutoCLAD vision system with its LENS metal 3D printer family. AutoCLAD is a proprietary integrated vision and software system that generates custom toolpaths for additively manufactured parts.
Process simulation software provider Simufact has announced the release of Simufact Additive 2020, a software solution for optimizing metal AM processes. The company, part of Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, has also introduced a new simulation software solution to improve the quality of Direct Energy Deposition (DED) metal additive manufacturing. The software will be offered as a module within Simufact Welding 2020 software.
After acquiring a 30% stake in Italian metal AM service bureau BEAMIT, Swedish company Sandvik and its Italian partner are showcasing a combined metal powder and AM offering at Formnext. At their joint Sandvik-BEAMIT booth, the companies are displaying a range of Sandvik’s Osprey metal powders and customer use-cases, as well as introducing new nickel-based superalloys and titanium powders.
BigRep, the German large-scale 3D printing specialist, has brought a 3D printed “pod car” named LOCI to Formnext 2019. The autonomous electric car demonstrates the new BigRep Part DNA technology, which embeds NFC chips into 3D printed parts.
NASA has selected nScrypt’s 3Dn tabletop Factory in a Tool (FiT) for printing 3D print and 3D contour print silver and other conductive materials to support intelligent flight systems research at NASA’s Langley Research Center (LARC) in Hampton, Virginia. The system will be used specifically, for the creation of 3D antennas, sensors, and transmission lines on 3D surfaces at different angles. Creating 3D antennas and printing conformal antennas on non-flat surfaces are the top objectives of the NASA research project.
As Formnext opens the doors of its 2019 edition, we are excited to be reporting on all product launches, partnerships and new developments in the additive manufacturing industry. This morning, one of the first announcements of the day comes from Markforged, which is introducing a new Turbo Print feature for its X7 carbon fiber 3D printer. The new feature enables users to double the X7’s print speed without compromising on surface quality.