News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
BMW’s Individual Manufaktur customization facility in Garching, Germany is known for producing some pretty amazing and unique vehicles, but its latest car is, to be blunt, out of this world. The vehicle, dubbed the BMW Individual M850i Night Sky, integrates some truly stellar features, including actual extra-terrestrial fragments and innovative 3D printed components.
France-based 3D printing company Prodways Group announced the acquisition of Surdifuse-L’Embout Français, a leader in hearing aid technology and specifically in the production of 3D printed custom ear tips for hearing aids.
UK-based metal AM company Renishaw revealed today it has been working in partnership with the University Dental Hospital of Wales (UDH) to 3D print custom maxillofacial implants and surgical guides. In the context of the hospital, Renishaw’s additive manufacturing technologies and services are helping UDH to overcome certain challenges surrounding surgical implants.
RUAG Australia, a subsidiary of technology company RUAG, is teaming up with Australian research groups to explore the utilization of the laser metal deposition (LMD) process for aircraft repairs. The project, carried out in partnership with members of the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (IMCRC) and RMIT University, will specifically look at using LMD to produce spare parts for aircraft using steel and titanium.
For some time now, MIT’s Mediated Matter Lab has been working on developing an additive manufacturing platform capable of printing 3D structures made from glass. Despite having become something of a ubiquitous material in the 19th century thanks to new manufacturing innovations in the Industrial Revolution, glass has remained a tricky material in terms of fabricating complex geometries or custom shapes. In its research, the Mediated Matter Lab has set out to find a solution to these challenges.
After years of R&D, German industrial binder jetting 3D printer manufacturer voxeljet has perfected 3D printing for complex formworks and now sees the construction industry as a key growth area for its binder jetting technology in the future. The large format binder jetting process from voxeljet has been proven to be particularly helpful for complex 3D printed formworks, breaking away from traditional systems and their stringent geometrical limitation
Founded just over five years ago by three MIT graduates, today Formlabs is one of the 3D printing unicorns, the “proof” that 3D printing can democratize the future of manufacturing. In 2012 Maxim Lobovsky, the company’s CEO, drew on his experience at the MIT Media Lab with his cofounders David Cranor and Natan Linder to create the first high-quality, high-resolution 3D printer available for less than $5,000. In doing so they almost single-handedly created the “prosumer” range of 3D printing. And it all started from the Formlabs HQ in Somerville, MA.
Nano Dimension, a leading provider of electronics 3D printers (and the only provider of material jetting-based electronic 3D printers), signed two more resellers within the EMEA region to market Nano Dimension’s DragonFly Pro additive manufacturing platform for printed electronics. The new companies will serve the Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg (Benelux) region and Israel. Belgium-based SEIDO Systems and Israel-based SU-PAD thus join Nano Dimension’s thriving partner ecosystem across the globe, with distribution partnerships recently signed in North America and Asia (APAC) as well. In addition, Nano Dimension announced that SEIDO Systems will purchase a DragonFly Pro system, which will be used for demonstrations and for training.
Automotive giant Volkswagen – like other German automotive brands – is rapidly becoming a large adopter of 3D printing – and especially metal 3D printing – technologies not just for prototypes and tools but also for direct production of final car parts and components. The Group – which includes other high profile AM adopter brands such as Porsche, Bugatti and Lamborghini – is now consolidating many of its AM activities within the new 3D printing center in the Autostadt, at the Wolfsburg factory site. What exactly is being 3D printed there? While we did not yet have the opportunity to visit the center in person, Volkswagen recently provided a fairly accurate report from inside the facility. This is what goes on at the new Volkswagen 3D printing center and turning Wolfsburg into the beating heart of automotive metal additive manufacturing.
The days of weekly pill boxes and carefully planning dosages could soon be over thanks to a number of innovations brought about with 3D printing. The latest on this front comes from MIT, Draper and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which have collectively developed a 3D printed ingestible capsule capable of personalized drug delivery and much more.