News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Luxexcel – the company that pioneered material jetting technology for ophthalmic lens production – is preparing to meet the demand for prescription smart lenses for the next phase of growth in the smart glasses market. This just as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a high profile partnership with Ray-Ban owner Luxottica on the production of smartglasses starting in 2021.
Almost a year ago, we got wind of an immense 3D printing undertaking in Nevada: the new Allegiant Stadium, soon to be the home of the Las Vegas Raiders (formerly Oakland Raiders) NFL team, was installing a giant 3D printed structure to commemorate the late Al Davis, a long-time owner of the Raiders team. The planned structure, an 85-foot-tall memorial torch, was even slated to become the world’s largest 3D printed structure.
Orbital Composites and ORNL (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) have signed a cooperative research and development agreement to develop out-of-plane, robotic polymer and composite additive manufacturing (AM) technology. The agreement builds upon Orbital Composites’ novel ORB platform for robotic neat polymer and continuous-fiber additive manufacturing platform and ORNL’s expertise in materials science and scaling-up AM systems.
Purchasing discontinued and limited-edition parts from the original manufacturer can be expensive. M ...
We hope Creality won’t take it personally that we used their Ender 3 in the title of this article as the reference standard for the new generation low-cost desktop 3D printers. The LABISTS ET4 wants to position itself as a new leader in this segment.
HP senior exec Edward Ponomarev showed off a pair of HP-3D printed, HP-branded running shoes prototypes that he just used on a 5 Km run. The shoes are the latest example of 3D printing applied to custom midsole and insole production: they are the first functional running shoes with 3D printed parts from MJF. The shoe weight under 200grams, featuring lightweight uppers (similar to adidas’ Futurecraft), ensuring excellent energy return and cushioning.
Industry Supplies introduced the new Smart3D Macro platform, offering broad material capabilities, a large build volume and a print speed that makes it a real manufacturing engine.
British digital metal solutions company Alloyed and German materials manufacturer TANIOBIS have entered into a partnership through which they will identify, develop, manufacture and use high quality titanium and refractory alloy metal powders for additive and other advanced manufacturing applications. The companies will be presenting their new collaboration at the upcoming (and all virtual) Formnext Connect event.
Additive manufacturing is further penetrating the world of e-commerce, with Materialise announcing a partnership with Ditto, an eyewear personalization software developer. The move promises made-to-order glasses for Ditto’s customers.
At 3dpbm we’ve been reporting on newly proposed solutions for 3D printing custom casts. As an application, it makes total sense. However, neither the printing technology nor the data capturing, nor the 3D model editing, nor the possible adopters have been ready to actually implement it. Now Spanish-British firm Xkelet may have a real solution that integrates a mobile App, AI, and an ultra-fast 3D printer developed in collaboration with Photocentric, to make this – and numerous other medical applications – viable to be 3D printed, even in real-time and – when needed – on-location.