News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Global materials company Tethon Corporation (dba Tethon 3D), of Omaha Nebraska USA, has named Trent Allen to Chief Executive Officer, effective November 1, 2020. Allen has been with the company for over four years and was instrumental in doubling company revenues in 2020. He was most recently President of Tethon 3D and has a decade of experience in business development, enterprise sales and strategy.
DIMECC Ltd., the leading innovation platform in the Finnish manufacturing industry, has launched an industrial ecosystem that will increase the role of 3D printing and bring together Finnish players in the field. The FAME ecosystem (Finnish Additive Manufacturing Ecosystem) will create an open 3D printing experimental center in Vaasa at the Smart Technology Hub, modular 3D printing training in Lappeenranta from the engineering level to the doctoral level, and raise Finland to the world’s leading countries in 3D printing utilization, sales and know-how. FAME involves more than 20 companies as founding members. FAME is open for companies of all types and sizes to join.
In the wake of this week’s multiple announcements, HP and Additive Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) formed a new alliance to help drive the expansion of industrial 3D printed parts across industries such as automotive, industrial, medical and sporting goods at scale. The companies are working together to enable the highest quality post-processing solutions for applications developed for HP Multi Jet Fusion technology.
Dyndrite, providers of the core accelerated geometry engine used to create next-generation digital manufacturing hardware and software, added three new vendors to the Dyndrite Developer Council. The new members, AddUp, EnvisionTEC, and Link3D, are as varied as can be.
Materialise decided it will fully acquire the RS Print and the RSscan dynamic foot measurement technology and the Phits personalized insole product line. The company will also strengthen its strategic partnership with Superfeet to accelerate the distribution of the RSscan intelligent foot measurement solutions and the personalized Phits insoles in North America.
Kanfit, a specialized metal 3D printing service based in Israel, now offers additive manufacturing of aluminum parts through its sister company Kanfit3D. The new SLM 280 system enables the production of medium to high volume aluminum parts and prototypes using selective laser melting. The new system is in addition to Kanfit3D’s EOS M290 manufacturing machine based on Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) for titanium alloy Ti64G5.
In order to increase its manufacturing capacity, Firefly is transitioning large composites parts manufacturing to an automated fiber placement Ingersoll AFP Mongoose Hybrid systems from Ingersoll Machine Tools, beginning next year. Once fully operational, Firefly’s AFP capabilities will enable it to produce its all-composite Alpha rocket airframe in as little as fourteen days.
Aircraft manufacturer Boeing added the Stratasys Antero 800NA thermoplastic to its additive manufacturing capabilities for printing flight parts. The announcement comes a day after the aircraft manufacturer, whose stock has been suffering due to COVID and the 737MAX grounding, announced 11 000 further job cuts by 2021. These cuts add to the 16 000 employee layoffs announced in April. The aerospace giant’s COVID and regulatory production cuts have deeply impacted its outlook to date, but the company continues to invest in AM capacity. Stratasys is another mark of Boeing’s increasing commitment to the AM space.
Superstrata, a Silicon Valley-based bicycle brand, known for its 3D printed carbon fiber bicycles and e-bicycles, is launching the Superstrata store with custom products and an advanced online configurator on the company’s official portal. In 3dpbm Research’s recently released market report, the composites AM market is expected to evolve into an over $10 billion dollar yearly business opportunity by the end of this decade. Such end-use composite 3D printed products represent a key driver for the rapidly growing, young composites AM segment.
