News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
GE Additive is today inaugurating a new 40,000-square-meter campus in Lichtenfels, Germany, which will become the new official home for GE Additive Concept Laser. The new Bavarian facility, called GE Additive Lichtenfels, will help the additive manufacturing specialist to meet growing customer demands and transition into additive serial production.
Your morning cup of OJ could become a lot more eco-friendly in the future thanks to a novel (or navel!) circular juice bar developed by Italian design studio Carlo Ratti Associati. The system, which was created for Italy-based global energy company Eni, juices oranges and then turns the unused orange rind into 3D printed bioplastic cups. The machine, charmingly called Feel the Peel, is a prototype system that hopes to make one small part of our daily life more circular.
In the dynamic world of fashion, technology’s footprint is increasing every day and very few designers in the world know how to combine the two – leveraging 3D printing – better than Anouk Wipprecht. The Dutch designer worked with Cirque du Soleil to create Elixir and Fragrance, a new set of tech-enhanced designs, which were presented during New York’s Fashion Week. The designs utilize Experience Management solutions from SAP (Qualtrics) to capture participant’s inputs and deliver custom-made beverages — cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks — and fragrances to the individual.
Since its founding in 2005, fashion label threeASFOUR has remained at the forefront of avant garde fashion. For the past few years, the collective’s boundary-pushing designs have often overlapped with cutting-edge 3D printing practices, making for some of the fashion-tech world’s most awe-inspiring garments. Once again, at this year’s New York Fashion Week, threeASFOUR has not disappointed 3D printing enthusiasts.
Stratasys today announced it will be increasing its stake in Xaar 3D Ltd., a company founded last year by the 3D printing giant in collaboration with Xaar PLC, a supplier of industrial inkjet printheads. Stratasys now holds a 15% stake in the company and plans to increase it to 45%, with Xaar PLC owning the remaining 55% through its fully owned subsidiary Xaar 3D Holdings.
One of the moments that will likely stand out when we look back at the history of construction 3D printing is the construction of Europe’s first 3D printed building in 2017 by 3D Printhuset (now COBOD). As a call back to this original structure, which still stands in Copenhagen, and to show how far its come with its construction 3D printing technology since 2017, COBOD recently reprinted The BOD building.
Veering from its recent cycling-related announcements, 3D printing company Carbon is launching a new premium digitally printable denture workflow and material system in partnership with Dentsply Sirona, a leading manufacturer of professional dental products. The new workflow and material system significantly improve the process of 3D printing dental prostheses as well as the quality of the dentures.
Just nine days in, September is gearing up to be an exciting month for cycling and 3D printing enthusiasts. With Eurobike 2019 taking place last week, bike designers and their manufacturing partners were excited to showcase the latest in 3D printed cycling equipment. We saw 3D printed bike seats by Carbon for Specialized and fizik, as well as a new 3D printed carbon fiber bike frame by AREVO for Pilot. Now, Dutch metal 3D printing company MX3D is getting in on the action with the unveiling of its first 3D printed aluminum bike, Arc Bike II.
Industrifonden, a venture capital investor based in Stockholm, led an investment round for 15 million SEK (Swedish Krona), about $1.5 million, to finance metal 3D printing company Freemelt. The money intended to fuel the next phase of the company’s growth, driving the metal 3D printing revolution forward with the development of the Freemelt One system. Freemelt is a Swedish company that is developing the first open-source EBM 3D printer, following the original patents on EBM expiring in 2016.
Volvo Trucks North America announced this week that it has adopted 3D printing for the production of tools and fixtures. The 3D printed components are being used at its New River Valley (NRV) facility in Dublin, Virginia, where all trucks for the North American market are manufactured. Since implementing additive manufacturing for tooling, the automotive company says it has already experienced faster production rates and continuous quality improvements.