News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
French automaker giant PSA has been taking 3D printing seriously. The company signed a high profile partnership with Divergent, makers of a unique supercar with a metal 3D printed frame, to study AM for final part production. Now it is following BMW’s steps into mass customization with its new DS3 Dark Side edition.
BASF New Business GmbH (BNB) has acquired all the shares of Advanc3D Materials GmbH in Hamburg and Setup Performance SAS in Lyon. Following the acquisition of Dutch filament maker Innofil3D last year, this marks yet another major step forward in BASF’s strategy to occupy the 3D printing materials market, making moves in polymers, ceramics and bioink segments – including being a part of HP’s 3D printing materials developers.
Local Motors has completed the installation of the world’s largest composite 3D printer, the Thermwood LSAM, at its Knoxville, TN microfactory. The large-scale machine will be used to produce Local Motors’ autonomous Olli shuttle.
If you’re nostalgic for the days of Chia Pets, you might be very excited to learn about filament pioneer Kai Parthy’s latest 3D printing material. Called GROWLAY, the new filament can be printed into various structures and then functions as a breeding ground. Unlike the famous 1980s toy, which could sprout chia sprouts and grass, GROWLAY objects can be used to breed a wide number of things including grass, moss, fungus, mildew, lichen, mycelium, phama-cultures and mother cells.
AM leader EOS has announced it will be partnering with German startup Additive Works to advance the metal additive manufacturing process through the further development of Amphyon, Additive Works’ simulation-based pre-processing software for AM. The software solution is capable of virtually simulating the AM build process and identifying potential problem areas in a part’s design before going to printing, saving users both time and production costs.
Coinciding with this year’s Canada Day weekend, Canadian artist Douglas Coupland has unveiled his newest and arguably most ambitious project to date. Called The National Portrait, the large-scale artwork consists of hundreds of 3D printed portraits based on real Canadian people.
CIMON (Crew Interactive MObile CompanioN), the AI-based assistant for astronauts for the DLR Space Administration, developed by Airbus in cooperation with IBM, took off last Friday aboard SpaceX‘s Dragon cargo capsule and is scheduled to arrive today (June 2nd). Like many unique robots, the technology demonstrator was built using metal and plastic 3D printing processes. It is the size of a medicine ball and weighs around 5 kg. It will be tested on the ISS by Alexander Gerst during the European Space Agency’s Horizons mission scheduled to last through October 2018.
In a joint project focusing on incorporating 3D printing technologies into the production of plastic injection molds, Prodways Technologies, Openlab by Schneider Electric and the Platinium 3D platform are teaming up to accelerate the development cycle of industrial products.
DFMA is an existing concept for software used in Design for Manufacture and Assembly. As AM seeks to eliminate a lot of the “assembly” from manufacturing, the thirty-third annual International Forum on Design for Manufacture and Assembly, organized by Boothroyd Dewhurst, will also focus on how AM – and specifically Design for Additive Manufacturing – will affect the future of DFMA. DfAM is a design approach that focuses on using complex, optimized geometries to reduce the need for subassemblies and thus improving a part’s quality.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: 3D printing is an incredibly versatile manufacturing process. From 3D printed race car parts, to sports equipment, to coral (and that’s just this week), additive manufacturing has found applications in many industries and for many, many purposes. Polish 3D printer manufacturer Sinterit recently drew out attention to another novel use of Selective Laser Sintering technology (SLS): swimwear.