News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Type A Machines, a US manufacturer of low-cost 3D printers has closed down. It is not yet clear if this is the first of many to come, as the industry consolidates or just a single event due to the company’s own inability to compete. The company came from the US maker community – similarly to the more successful Aleph Objects – and faced some challenges in scaling up and catering to a professional user target.
GE engineers recently built and tested 30 different prototypes of a complex, football-size jet engine component. Thanks to cutting-edge 3D-printing technology, they were able to reach the perfect design in just 12 weeks. This is remarkable considering it would take several years to iterate on that many designs using traditional casting methods.
Australian low-cost metal 3D printer manufacturer Aurora Labs Limited signed a $100K research agreement with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (“CSIRO”), Australia’s national science organization and one of the largest and most diverse scientific research organizations in the world. Aurora is currently standing as the proxy for its Additive Manufacturing Solution Centre (“Solution Centre”), which will provide comprehensive additive manufacturing integrative consulting services, distribution of its 3D printers, and possible prints and powders.
EOS, the world’s leading technology provider in the field of industrial 3D printing of metals and polymers, has expanded its production capacity and relocated its system manufacturing facilities to Maisach-Gerlinden, just west of Munich, and closer to its headquarters in Krailling. With the new facility measuring 9,000 square meters, EOS is boosting its production capacity in 2018 and is now capable of manufacturing up to approximately 1,000 systems per year.
PostProcess Technologies, the Buffalo, NY-based company automating post-printing for the industrial 3D printing market, signed two regional channel partners in the US to expand its presence and support growing demand for its revolutionary technology solutions.
Shapediver designer Ezquiel Lopez gave an interesting demonstration of a real-life customization application possible with paramteric design software such as Grasshopper. He created an online Rim Configurator that lets you rapidly define your own, personal rim design and even download it as a 3D printable file. How you would go from there to a metallic, functional rim is entirely up to you. The bottom line is that you have the file and you can manufacture it if you want to.
Chicago based startup Dimension Inx is leveraging its founders’ unique experience to launch a set of materials for 3D printing – or bioprinting – just about anything. These materials, that range from metals and graphene to bone-like mixtures – go by the name of 3D Paints. The underlying concept is that mixing them together transforms the 3D printer – or bioprinter – into a 3D canvas.
Belgium based Aerosint invented a unique selective powder dispensing technology which enable multi-powder SLS 3D printing for more cost effective and multi-material parts. If it reaches commercialization it could result in extreme cost efficiency for higher-end, more expensive polymers, among other benefits.
The Shot 2018 show is ongoing in Las Vegas. While several media fire up the debate on the right to own firearms, loudly making headlines, a much quieter segment of gun manufacturing is also making a lot of noise: 3D printed silencers (or suppressors). According to a reportage appeared on The Firearm Blog (TFB), as many as three companies presented 3D printed silencers. They seem to be quite the star of the gun show.
I had the pleasure of meeting and introducing Mr. Conor as a panel speaker during the recent AM Strategies conference in Washington DC. By day he works as a software engineer at General Electric. By night, he builds 3D printed custom prosthetic hands for his Handsmith project. With a small facility of four desktop 3D printers, Lyman has just fit his first patient and moved into production.