News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation is releasing two models of the new AZ600 digital wire-laser metal 3D printer on March 1st. The new systems work by melting welding wire, instead of powder, with a laser beam to create high-quality 3D structures. These products build on the initial introduction by Mitsubishi Electric of a unique, proprietary dot forming AM technology back in 2018.
Pratt & Whitney, a Raytheon Technologies business, has acquired an end-to-end solution from Velo3D, a leading metal additive manufacturing technology company for mission-critical parts, to evaluate the Sapphire XC printer for manufacturing production jet engine components. This is the first Sapphire printer to be located at Pratt & Whitney, although the company previously utilized Velo3D’s contract manufacturer network to produce printed and finished parts.
The importance of data in metal additive manufacturing cannot be overstated. It is data—derived from materials, hardware, process and more—that enables additive manufacturing companies and users to improve the technology and its output, to streamline workflows and achieve greater efficiency. But data can be notoriously difficult to navigate and visualize, which makes it challenging to transform it into actionable insights. AddUp, a global metal additive manufacturing company that was formed out of Fives and Michelin, aims to make 3D printing data more accessible for its metal AM systems through its new AddUp Dashboards software, released in February 2022.
Leading 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys revealed it has shipped its 35,000th industrial FDM 3D printer to date. The significance of this figure depends on what we mean by “industrial”. For Stratasys, this term probably means that the count does not include Makerbot branded machines, which leaves room for the F123 line systems, which we usually consider “professional-grade”.
Nexa3D is now shipping its market-ready XiP 3D desktop printers to customers in the US and Canada. Since introducing its first Lubricant Sublayer Photo-curing (LSPc) system for the desktop at Formnext in November 2021 – the product’s waitlist has extended to hundreds of product designers and creators looking to increase the throughput and efficiency of their desktop 3D printing.
Titomic Limited (ASX: TTT), a cold spray additive manufacturing technology company with primary application in aerospace and defense, has received purchase orders from Australian-based companies for four separate D523 low-pressure cold spray systems, totaling $314,900 in sales.
Earlier this year, BCN3D Technologies announced that its strive for innovation had led its 3D printing experts to never-before-seen 3D printing technology, using high viscosity resins. Developed over the last three years, the patented Viscous Lithography Manufacturing (VLM) provoked mass interest worldwide, with more than 500 companies registering to become early adopters of the development of this ecosystem. BCN3D, in a response to the demand, has partnered with Arkema, and Henkel, to obtain material properties and applications otherwise unreachable with other resin-based technologies, and has committed to delivering 20 VLM printers to 20 of the companies currently enlisted in its Technology Adoption Program, during Spring 2023.
With the new GMP300 metal 3D printer, GROB, a German company specializing in automated production systems, looks to offer its customers a production system for the manufacturing of near-net-shape components via AM range for the first time. The new LMP (Liquid Metal Printing) system, which was first unveiled at a GROB in-house exhibition, announcing the entry of GROB-WERKE into the Additive Manufacturing sector, has now also been presented at the ongoing Additive Manufacturing Forum in Berlin.
Roboze has presented the new PRO series, in addition to professional solutions that use its proprietary software, Prometheus, and new materials to increase companies’ digital transition opportunities. The machines offer quick and cost-effective access to the production of parts with well-defined technical and industrial requirements, as they can support the validation of finished AM parts with super polymers and technical materials (PEEK, TPU, ABS, etc), and, with the same solution, accelerate the research and development of new applications, and the digitization of the warehouse of tools and spare parts. Productivity, quality, versatility, and rapid ROI acceleration represent the common factors of the new series.
During a virtual event titled “The Xometry Marketplace: Powering Tomorrow’s Supply Chain”, Xometry launched a suite of new digital products, including – The Industrial Buying Engine on Thomasnet.com, and Workcenter (an all-in-one “manufacturing execution system”). The company has also opened the new Workcenter to third-party developers.