News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Western Sydney is gearing up to become a central hub for additive manufacturing in Australia thanks in large part to a new partnership between the New South Wales (NSW) Government and GE Additive. The parties recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the aim of developing industrial scale 3D printing solutions at the Western Sydney Aerotropolis.
As readers of this website know well, we focus on providing key market insights on additive manufacturing industry operators, working and collaborating with many of the top global companies in this effort. However we can also appreciate DIY 3D printing projects, especially when they are truly impressive, such as the recent Lamborghini replica and any life-size 3D printing project. This latest one brought to our attention by 3D printing celeb Anouk Wipprecht is pretty damn awesome, especially in light of this writer’s past experience as a gaming industry journalist: a functional, life-size, fully 3D printed Portal turret, created by Dutch engineer Yvo de Hass and posted on his YTEC initiative website.
Industrial computed tomography (CT) analysis software developer Volume Graphics is participating in a joint project with the Kunststoff-Institut in Germany and a number of industrial players. The project will focus on rapid tooling and specifically on improving the use of additive manufacturing for the rapid prototyping of plastic mold inserts. Volume Graphics’ role in the collaborative project will leverage its knowledge of quality assurance and process optimization.
An interdisciplinary team at Penn State University was recently awarded a $50,000 grant from the College of Engineering’s Engineering for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ENGINE) program, along with additional $25,000 from the College of Arts and Architecture, to pursue a concrete 3D printing project.
GoPrint3D, a UK-based supplier of 3D printing technologies, is the newest addition to HP’s UK channel partner program and will begin supplying HP’s Jet Fusion 3D printing systems to its network of customers.
Recently, many new 3D software startup companies entered the market offering various solutions mainly for industrial users. It goes from decision-support solutions for better utilization of 3D printing, generative design/topology optimization, to workflow management and parts IP protection. Each of them seems to be focused on specific challenges heavy users face, challenges that will only increase in the foreseeable future as 3D printing moves from prototyping to manufacturing.
Recently acquired by Premium AEROTEC, APWORKS is one of the firms carrying out some of the first and most advanced research on materials and applications for AM, especially in the aerospace segment. Located at the Airbus headquarters close to Munich, the company was Additive Industries’ first customer and has extensively tested the MetalFAB1 Beta system since its installation in March 2016. Now the time has come to scale up.
In Santiago of Chile, Copper3D Inc., the company that develops antimicrobial materials for 3D printing, has partnered with Toylisto, an online platform to turn 2D drawings into 3D printable designs called “Art Toys”. Combining these two technologies, Copper3D and ToyListo developed these antimicrobial 3D printed toys, in a beautiful project that seeks to ease the emotional well-being and recovery of children suffering from complex illnesses and immunosuppression. These children are often placed in clinical isolation and thus have no access to conventional toys, which by their characteristics (porous polymers and complex geometries), harbor a high bacterial burden that can be very dangerous for their health.
For quantum technologies to fulfill their promise, the systems that support them need to shrink. Laurence Coles from Added Scientific, an AM consultancy service which spun off from the University of Nottingham, wrote an article for Physics World (full article here) on how advances in additive manufacturing are bringing miniaturization within reach and heralding a wider revolution in vacuum system design, which could represent a breakthrough for quantum computers.
Mats Beckman, a student at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, contacted 3dpbm to let us know about his graduation project: the world’s first flexible, compostable menswear outfit created using a 3D printer as well as a 3D pen and heat pressure. The collection was awarded with KADK’s UN Sustainable Development Award.