News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
As an industry, additive manufacturing (AM) is seeking to disrupt industrial production practices that have been dominated by injection molding for over a century. Today, we are closer than ever to that reality: sophisticated 3D printing technologies are proving to be a viable means for fulfilling new manufacturing philosophies centered on quick turnarounds and smaller-volume production.
Canada has a new 3D design engineering and additive manufacturing powerhouse. Javelin Technologies and Cimetrix Solutions have merged to boost service to their 6,000 customers who drive innovation in every sector of the Canadian economy.
Dr. Karsten Heuser, VP of AM at Siemens, has accurately stated that “AM companies are the digital natives of the manufacturing industry”. This accurate description reflects the fact that – as we have written before – the AM process is the heart of the automated production workflow. While this full process integration is still far from complete, it is ongoing and it passes through PLM, MES, and cloud software, all leading toward 3D printing IoT integration. EOS joining of Siemen’s MindShare IoT based operating system is yet another clear indication of this ongoing transition.
nTopology Element is the first piece of CAD software to offer full importing and exporting of 3MF’s Beam Lattice extension, which was developed and ratified with nTopology’s direct involvement.
With today’s equipment, process development and process control are part of using metal additiv ...
Though RAPID+TCT 2018 may have wrapped up last week, the news from the additive manufacturing event is still rolling in. One of the exciting announcements from the event comes from New York-based metal 3D printing company Vader Systems, which presented three new AM offerings based on its patented Magnet-o-Jet technology. The three new systems include the Vader Polaris liquid metal 3D printing system, the Magnet-o-Jet Subsystem for hybrid manufacturing equipment integration and the Ares Microsphere Production System.
Every major system manufacturer and adopter is working on innovations that could make current DED and metal PBF technologies able to deliver larger parts at lower costs. Australia based Titomic already has that capability and is instead working on getting the word out on its Titomic kinetic fusion technology, which can already 9-meter titanium parts, at supersonic speeds and drastically lower material costs.
Software, tech and industrial giant Siemens has been making very significant investments – and closing very important partnerships – in the world of Additive Manufacturing, a family of technologies that the company views as absolutely strategic for the future. While these moves have directly involved all major AM technologies, after visiting the Siemens Additive Manufacturing Experience Center in the Nuremberg HQ, it seems clear that the company believes its software’s capabilities can bring the most benefits to deposition technologies: both extrusion (FDM) for composites and directed energy deposition (DED) for metals.
Several major 3D printer manufacturers chose the Hannover fair – the largest yearly manufacturing show in the world – to display their newest systems. Many of these represent true paradigm shifts in their specific segment and it is interesting to consider that they all implement different technologies (or at least different technological grades): 3SP photopolymerization, MJF powder bed fusion, FFF extrusion, industrial SLS powder bed fusion, SLA photopolymerization and Benchtop SLS powder bed fusion.
Siemens invited a number of global influencers and journalists to its AM Influencer Tour at Hannover Messe. The company is making giant moves in AM focusing on all relevant aspects of the end-to-end digital manufacturing process.