News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Barcelona-based 3D printer manufacturer BCN3D Technologies has signed a distribution agreement with Bulgaria-based PrintMe 3D. The partnership, which will see PrintMe 3D distribute SIGMA and SIGMAX 3D printers, filaments and more, aims to expand BCN3D’s reach to the Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Balkan markets.
Youtube channel 3D Maker Things, which specializes in very large format and life-size print jobs, just completed a life-size replica of Drogon, the largest of the three dragons from the Game of Thrones series. With an almost three and a half meter wingspan, the print replicates Drogon in his teenage years (you know, when he ran around burning up sheep and the occasional kid) but it is nonetheless an impressive feat. You can see the project taking shape in this video.
Additive manufacturing history was made with the first flight of the Boeing 777X aircraft. That’s because each of the two GE9X engines powering the aircraft is built using over 300 3D printed parts (of which about 80% are the titanium alumide engine blades). These parts were produced by GE teams at Avio Aero in Cameri, Italy and GE’s Additive Technology Center (ATC) in West Chester, Ohio.
GE Healthcare Life Sciences has opened a new additive manufacturing center in Umeå, Sweden, which will be used for the serial production of components for biomanufacturing equipment.
In addition to the shivers that went down my spine when I first watched the trailer for Bombshell ...
3D printing company HP Inc. has announced a collaboration with insole brand Superfeet and sportswear company New Balance. Together, the companies will produce and market customized 3D printed insoles based on customer’s biometric data.
GE and partners at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Xerox-owned PARC have been granted over $1.3 million through ARPA-E’s DIFFERENTIATE program. The funding will enable the partners to pursue a research project aimed at reducing design and validation timelines for additive manufacturing by as much as 65%. If successful, the project could influence the adoption of industrial 3D printing technologies for energy systems, as it would effectively make AM faster than many traditional manufacturing processes.
For those in the additive manufacturing industry, it is a well known fact that AM requires different design principles than subtractive manufacturing techniques. Today, many resources in the industry (as well as at a research level) are dedicated to advancing Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM), which leverages the design freedom of AM to create parts with new functions and innovative geometries.
Based on Nanoscribe’s micro and nano 3D printing technology, scientists developed a 3D microscaffold cochlear implant for steroid elution. For the first time, scientists combined a highly precise, porous 3D printed steroid reservoir with a 2D MEMS-based electrode array to fabricate a novel cochlear implant. This implant is designed to reduce the damage of residual hearing against electrode insertion trauma.
In 2018, the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore, 3D printing company HP Inc. and the National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF) joined forces to advance AM by announcing a new dedicated facility. Today, the partners are celebrating the official opening of the HP-NTU Digital Manufacturing Corporate Lab by showcasing digital manufacturing technologies that they say will improve the efficiency, cost and sustainability of manufacturing and supply chain operations.