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Nanoscribe’s 3D Printer Established on the US market 3D Printer Hardware

by Technologies

In June, the 3D printer manufacturer Nanoscribe held its first user meeting in the US at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In collaboration with the institution’s Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS), which makes a Nanoscribe laser lithography system available both to internal and external users in its multi-user facility, the market and technology leader invited its clients to a two-day seminar. Besides being treated to a glimpse of the latest software and hardware developments, attendees were shown a vast array of areas of application for the Photonic Professional GT 3D printer, ranging from maskless lithography to additive manufacturing. The technological possibilities range from the manufacture of extremely high-resolution mesoscale objects to applications in photonics and plasmonics, requiring structure sizes of just a few hundred nanometers. The CEO of Nanoscribe, Martin Hermatschweiler, reports, “The presentations by our clients on their various applications were the absolute highlight for me. It is incredibly fascinating and enlightening to discover firsthand what different disciplinary fields are making use of our devices, which operate based on the principle of two-photon polymerization. The full scope of applications ranged from printing nanostructures at the CNS, to producing plasmonic displays at the University of Florida, to engineering new types of materials whose creation would have previously been impossible, as the scientists at Caltech presented.” As a standard for microfabrication, the high-precision Nanoscribe systems are furthermore utilized at universities, research institutes, and in R&D departments for many other tasks in the areas of medical technology, micro-optics and microfluidics as well as for micro-rapid prototyping. Already half of the top 10 universities across the globe are Nanoscribe clients. This makes the company the global player on the market for 3D printers of nano- and microstructures. Within a just a few years, Nanoscribe has managed to turn from a spin-off of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Germany) to a medium-sized company. A broad array of honors and awards, such as the 2014 Prism Award or 2015 WTN Award as well as Nanoscribe’s finalist position for the Deutscher Gründerpreis 2015 (2015 German Founders’ Award), underscore the extraordinary performance and significance of this expanding high-tech company.

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AM Europe Show, the Biggest Announcements in Photos 3D Printer Hardware

by Technologies

Even though the first edition was a difficult – but necessary – transition from the consumer-focused 3DPrintshow to a more professional level trade show, the first AM Europe show can be considered a success. Not many visitors, numerically speaking, but a much more qualified professional target which makes for better business. For many companies – Ultimaker and Zortrax in particular – the show was an opportunity to make some big announcement (quite literally in the case of Zortrax’s M300). These two companies, more than others, represent the possibilities that the consumer 3D printing hype created. They were born as consumer projects and they were able to evolve into real and structured multinational companies. Jos Burger, Ultimaker’s CEO, is perhaps one of the best representations of this trend as he brought a global multinational mentality to a young startup. He explained that “there is no doubt that people are moving away from the hyped up consumer 3D printing idea. No one is talking about it any more. Now it is all about the industry and the incredible possibilities that 3D printing can offer to professionals at all levels.” The truth is that desktop 3D printing is far from dead: instead of bringing a 3D printer in every house, it made it possible for every one who wanted to to invent a new profession, opening up the previously unaccessible manufacturing and prototyping market to more people than ever before. This is resulting and will continue to result in more innovation than ever. Here are some photogalleries from the best new things we saw at the show.

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3DPrinterOS Moves Cloud Service to Microsoft Azure, Set to Expand Virtual Factory Across the Globe 3D Printing Processes

by Design

After spending a bulk of the last few years developing one of the most powerful and all-encompassing 3D printing cloud services on the entire market, 3DPrinterOS seems prepared to unleash their platform to the global 3D printing community. This week, the Silicon Valley-based company 3DPrinterOS announced that they would expanding their cloud operating platform on a global level by moving their service to Microsoft Azure, which is an open, flexible, professional-grade cloud computing platform. The recent move to Microsoft should certainly help 3DPrinterOS garner some much-deserved attention, as their cloud infrastructure is already utilized by the likes of Ford, Cisco, Duke University, CalTech, and many other businesses and educational institutions. Focused on integrating their platform into universities and enterprises around the globe, Microsoft Azure seems to be the optimal choice for the 3DPrinterOS platform. “We are extremely excited to collaborate with Microsoft Azure to serve our Enterprise Clients with its highly secure, hyper-scale global cloud,” said 3DPrinterOS CEO John Dogru. “It was a challenge to find the right company that had the cloud infrastructure, compliance, security, and reliability around the world including countries like China and Europe.” So, those who are unfamiliar with the cloud service may be asking, what exactly does the 3DPrinterOS platform do? Well, in all honesty, it’d be much easier to explain what it doesn’t do. Their virtual factory enhances the entire 3D printing process, all the way from the CAD file to the print bed. By offering a centralized workflow, anyone from IT managers to students can manage a wide-range of 3D printers and designs directly from a web-based browser or through the 3DPrinterOS smartphone app. On Azure’s secure and globally connected network, the 3DPrinterOS platform will be able to continue providing customers with an efficient way to manage up to 1000’s of networked 3D printers, users, and designs, essentially revolutionizing the fragmented world of 3D printing software, which oftentimes requires a handful of different programs and processes to complete one goal. But, with 3DPrinterOS, users are able to manage every part of the 3D printing process from where ever they happen to be, and are able to instantly change print settings, watch a live-stream of the many print jobs taking place from their smartphone, and even use the built-in slicer and instantaneously queue up a new print on the fly. “The cloud is transforming entire industries and creating new opportunities for even the most innovative new businesses,” said Senior Director of Microsoft Azure, Nicole Herskowitz. “The market leading scale and speed of Microsoft Azure helps spur global growth opportunities for companies like 3DPrinterOS who are utilizing cloud computing and IoT connected devices in a completely new model of decentralized manufacturing.” Over the last eight months, the 3DPrinterOS cloud platform has unleashed decentralized manufacturing, building over 62,000 parts in 100 different countries. With this latest move to Microsoft Azure, the future looks extremely promising for 3DPrinterOS, who are taking the limitless and relatively cloud platform and creating the powerful 3D printing management platform that the industry has been in desperate need for. As they continue to expand into universities and enterprises throughout the world, 3DPrinterOS is simplifying the time-consuming and currently fractured 3D printing process, cutting out the middle man and handling everything that happens in between the CAD file and print bed.

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3DSPRINT Connect by 3D Systems, 3D Printing Software’s Newest Hero 3D Printing Processes

by Design

Embodying the next generation of intuitive and streamlined 3D printing software, 3DSPRINT by industry leader 3D Systems is bridging the gap between 3D designers and manufacturers, one optimized print job after another. After months of extensive beta testing, we’re taking a look at all that the new 3DSPRINT Connect has to offer for 3D printing businesses and individuals alike.

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Autodesk Spark Merges into Forge Platform as “Code Meets Make” AM Software

by Design

Starting today the Autodesk Spark additive manufacturing platform is merging into the Autodesk Forge Platform. After the transition is complete this fall, all Autodesk additive manufacturing APIs, services and sample applications will be available on the Forge Platform and the Spark developer portal will eventually be closed. 3D printing APIs are already available on the Forge Developer Portal.

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Conformal Cooling, CAD/CAM Software and Direct Metal Printing Used to Overcome Injection Molding Challenges AM Software

by Design

Anyone familiar with injection molding knows that the cooling system design is critical to cycle times, which takes up 70% to 80% of the injection molding cycle. Traditional methods for cooling molds involve secondary machining operations to drill cooling channels that follow straight lines and don’t consistently keep temperatures uniform. A well-designed cooling system can shorten the molding time and improve productivity tremendously. Enter conformal cooling.

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Cosine Additive Announces Partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory 3D Printer Hardware

by Technologies

Cosine Additive LLC is partnering with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the development of a revolutionary new additive manufacturing platform. The goal of this partnership is to develop and demonstrate the enabling technologies for mid-scale additive manufacturing using Cosine’s AM1 machine. The AM1 has a build chamber of approximately 4’ x 4’ x 4’ and will open up new areas of U.S. manufacturing for rapid production of medium size tooling in support of the transportation, appliance and energy industries, significantly reducing cost and lead time. As with Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM), the initial focus is on the deposition of composite materials. Printing with carbon fiber filament is still in its infancy with its immediate value just starting to be realized by manufacturing industries.