News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Local Motors has teamed up with industry-leading professionals, Florida-based Elite Transportation Services (ETS), a subsidiary of Elite Parking Services, and Texas-based Xcelerate, securing both third-party operational support and vehicle financing for their autonomous shuttle, Olli.
Luxexcel has teamed up Augmented Reality leader Vuzix Corp to provide 3D printed prescription lenses for the Vuzix Blade AR headset. Luxexcel 3D printed prescription inserts will be introduced with the Vuzix Blade model, at CES Las Vegas, 2018. The Luxexcel VisionPlatform enables 3D printing of ophthalmic lenses for specialty applications including Augmented Reality applications. Recently, Luxexcel raised funds to accelerate its activities in ophthalmic smart eyewear.
The Dutch construction 3D printing tradition – which began as a large-scale experiment with the 3D Printed Canal House in 2013 – is living on through Aectual. The Amsterdam-based technology company launched a sustainably produced 3D printed floor with terrazzo infill at the latest Dutch Design Week. Aectuals’ smart manufacturing technology makes it possible to custom 3D print any design on large surfaces, where each square meter is unique. It’s not going to make a 3D printed airport floor.
Construction 3D printing is literally taking off and one company – more than many others involved – is taking digital, additive building practices from concept to reality. Winsun’s President and CEO, Ma Yihe, has always maintained that one of the biggest challenges that need to be overcome is lack of industry awareness since the benefits of using 3D printing technologies for construction have been widely established. The company has now set out to start a 3D printed public toilets revolution nationwide as well as a 3D printed bus stop revolution starting in Fengjing Ancient Town, Jinshan, a popular cultural town in China.
After 15 years in the 3D printing business, our team at EnvisionTEC has seen a lot of trends come and go, and we’re excited about what we see on the horizon.
Part of the Horizon 2020 framework, the €4.8 million EU’s HINDCON (Hybrid INDustrial CONstruction) project aims to adapt additive manufacturing technologies to the construction sector. One of the primary goals of the project is the development of an “all-in-one” system advancing towards industrialization and overcoming the limitations of actual approach for introducing Additive and Subtractive Manufacturing in construction activities. The project, which started in 2016, has a duration of 36 months and will see the participation of France’s construction 3D printing experts XtreeE, among others.
Although it started almost as a game, today 3D printing filament manufacturing for low-cost 3D printers is an industry. So much so that even giants such as SABIC, Verbatim (Mitsubishi) and others have begun to target it, while other large companies such as Covestro (Bayer) and Eastman Chemical partnered directly with companies operating in the low-cost 3D printing arena. Not to mention that NatureWorks, the largest producer of PLA in the world, has recently begun focusing specifically on 3D printing.
Construction 3D printing using cement materials has been at the center of a few experiments in recent years. Commercial applications have been centered mainly in China, Russia and wealthy Middle East nations such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In Europe most activities are University-based, with advanced projects at Iaac in Barcelona and ETH in Zurich. One commercial project is now close to being completed in Denmark, and another one is now getting underway in the Netherlands: the 3D printed hotel building by De Vergaderfabriek.
Professional ceramics 3D Printing is starting to take hold as stereolithography, extrusion and binder jetting processes are being optimized and adapted for working with ceramics materials. The latest announcement in this sense comes from Kwambio: the NYC-based startup developed its very own high precision 3D printer, the Ceramo OneTM, specifically for 3D printing of ceramic objects. They are going to present it at CES in Las Vegas in early January.
During the past year, we’ve seen several successful test cases leading to a significant increase in the adoption of 3D printing for production of aircraft and aerospace parts. Today’s MINI Yours Customised announcement from British-German automaker MINI, coupled with other underlying trends in mobility that have emerged in recent months, indicate that 2018 will likely be the year in which the automotive industry will begin mass adoption of 3D printing for production. Additive manufacturing mass production technologies are ready both in terms of speeds and surface quality. Digital material properties – both for metal and polymer/composites – are now up to par for end-use parts, costs are rapidly dropping and industry awareness is high. The benefits of automotive 3D printing have been largely established and the race is on.