News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Last April – in the midst of the first leg COVID-19 outbreak in the US, General Motors was tasked with building 30,000 COVID-19 ventilators for the national stockpile for a total of $489.4 million, the first contract under the Defense Production Act invoked by the US President Donal Trump.
The BMW Group has now officially opened and further consolidated its new BMW Additive Manufacturing Campus. The new center brings together the production of prototype and series parts under one roof, along with research into new 3D printing technologies, and associate training for the global rollout of toolless production. The campus, which came at an investment of €15 million, will allow the BMW Group to develop its position as a technology leader in the utilization of additive manufacturing in the automotive industry.
The city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands presents a compelling example for the blending of traditional and modern architecture, design and technologies. Because much of the city was destroyed in WWII, Rotterdam had to rebuild, and it has taken an impressively forward-thinking approach throughout the decades. This innovative spirit is exemplified in the city’s latest project: the construction of a 3D printed composite footbridge.
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.
ICON, known for 3D printing homes and communities in Mexico and central Texas, has been prototyping various structures with DIU (the Defense Innovation Unit) and USMC utilizing the technology that combines 3D robotics, software and advanced material. In January 2019, Marines were trained on the software, robotics and material delivery sub-systems at ICON’s lab with the goal of a future field demonstration to build structures important for expeditionary construction.
Construction 3D printing is booming, with hundreds of new applications emerging all over the world. The variety of solutions sometimes makes it challenging to understand exactly how materials need to behave to enable large structures to be 3D printed. In a recent video published on his channel, Jarett Gross, a Youtuber specializing specifically in this area, explains in a very clear and highly documented manner the rheology of construction 3D printing involved. If you have a direct interest in construction AM, as many of our readers do, or if you are just curious, it’s definitely worth watching.
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.