News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
In the world of prototyping, Italy-based 3ntr has proven its worth, demonstrating time and time again that its 3D printing solutions offer the speed, precision and reliability needed to prototype viable products. The company’s 3D printers have even proven capable in one of the most demanding fields around—healthcare—through a recent partnership with global design studio Frog.
When you wonder who will adopt 3D printing and for what, there are two companies that almost always come to mind: Lego and Ferrari. Both companies are very likely candidates for AM adoption for very different reasons. The Danish brickmaker because it is such an intensive user of plastics and because the company has already gone digital in some ways, with videogames and CG movies. The Italian automaker because it is such as high-performance part manufacturer, pushing the limits of technology in many ways. So it is just perfect to see both companies acknowledge 3D printing in one of their collaborations: the Ferrari Lego Speed Champions Development Center (and Wind Gallery) set.
Today, at the same exact time of the Moon landing (20.17 UTC) that, exactly 50 years ago, gave humans the first glimpse into a what the future of space colonization could be, a collaboration between NYC based companies Zellerfeld and Querencia Studio is taking its own first, small step into the market by launching a very limited edition of their Earth Suit Shoe, a fully 3D printed shoe.
The investment bank of Berlin awarded 3YOURMIND with €1.3 million in Pro FIT funding, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Initially funded through EOS’s AMVentures program, 3YOURMIND software has been optimizing the industrial 3D printing/additive manufacturing value chain for leading manufacturers in the US and Europe.
3D printer manufacturer Markforged is continuing its rapid expansion journey with the opening of a new office in Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The facility, based at the Cambridge Innovation Center, will span 2,000 square feet and will function as the company’s new central hub for further developing Blacksmith, Markforged’s artificial intelligence software for adaptive manufacturing.
With the climate crisis becoming increasingly more serious, many people are seeking more eco-friendly alternatives to everyday things, like fashion, eating and transport. In the latter category, Polish designer Piotr Krzyczkowski took matters into his own hands by designing a green, urban transport solution in the form of a 3D printed electric motorbike. The vehicle, called Falectra, has become the first Polish electric motorbike brand and will soon become available for road-use.
Emaar Properties, a Dubai-based real estate developer, is reportedly planning to construct a 3D printed home in the UAE city. The project will mark Emaar’s first foray into 3D printed housing and its first step towards becoming a “leading adopter of advanced construction technologies.”
Betatype a UK company that specializes in optimizing designs for additive manufacturing presented a new application case where it highlights how a part can be AM-optimized beyond part performance (which is what the DfAM concept generally refers to) but also for the AM process itself. In this project, Betatype works with nTopology, a rapidly growing NYC-based developer of CAE and topology optimization software, to develop and produce a functionally optimized rocket nozzle part which is also process-optimized.
Lithoz, the Austrian leader in 3D printed ceramics, is not a company known for its aggressive marketing and communication efforts. Its high-level LCM ceramics photopolymerization AM technology is making huge steps forward, however, we don’t often hear about it. That’s, well, because the company does not tell many people about its progress. Even after Lithoz launched the disruptive, production-ready Cerafab S65, we only learned about its progress in the market when a small Australian company – 3rdAxis – purchased one.
Food waste is a growing issue, with estimates suggesting that nearly one-third of all food produced is scrapped. In the UK, for instance, which has a population of about 66 million, eight million tonnes of food are wasted a year. Like most environmental problems, a significant part of the food waste is caused at an industrial level, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things that consumers can do on an individual basis to help reduce, reuse and recycle.