Message Monsters Will Deliver Smiles, Not Scares

TOPEKA, KS — The U.S. Postal Service has introduced four cute and crazy critters to make your mail a little more cheerful. The Message Monsters Forever stamps, complete with their own accessories in the selvage, will make a fun addition to any piece of First-Class Mail. A dedication ceremony for the stamps was held today at Redbud Park, in the NOTO Arts & Entertainment District, in Topeka, KS.

The Message Monsters Forever stamps can be purchased at Post Office locations nationwide or online at www.usps.com/messagemonsters.

The stamp designs start with the playful illustrations of Elise Gravel, the author and illustrator of popular children’s books, who drew each monster and accessory in her joyful, silly style. The four colorful characters populating the pane include a roundish, rosy rascal with a sunny tummy; a silly, striped imp waving a four-armed howdy; a squiggly, squid-like yellow critter with enough eyes to go around; and a reddish rapscallion in short shorts. Whimsical, wacky and inviting your inventiveness, these creatures are sure to charm everyone along their mail delivery journey.

“This new collection of Message Monsters stamps is one of the most creative, fun and unique designs we’ve ever produced. It’s our hope they will be a new favorite classic among stamp collectors and kids of all ages,” said Jeffery A. Adams, the Postal Service’s vice president, corporate communications, who served as the dedicating official. “This is a great week to introduce the Message Monsters stamps because it is also ‘Thinking of You Week.’ I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate than to include these playful characters on letters or cards to send to the important people in our lives.”

The pane is arranged in horizontal rows of five stamps. The 20 Message Monsters stamps feature four different designs. The same order repeats throughout the pane, so the last stamp on each row repeats the row’s first monster. Flanking each row are adhesive accessories that can be used to customize your correspondence. “Message Monsters” appears at the top of the pane in blue and red freehand lettering. “FOREVER/USA,” also lettered freehand, appears under each monster. Art director Antonio Alcalá designed the pane.

The Message Monsters pane of 20 stamps are issued as Forever stamps. News of the Message Monsters stamps are being shared with the hashtag #MessageMonstersStamps.

The Message Monster stamp dedication event falls during “Thinking of You Week,” which runs Sept. 20-26. It started in the United Kingdom in 2014 and was brought to the United States in 2018 by the Greeting Card Association.

Postal Products
Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through the Postal Store at usps.com/shopstamps, by calling 844-737-7826, by mail through USA Philatelic, or at Post Office locations nationwide.

Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1‑ounce price.

A video of the ceremony will be available on facebook.com/usps. Information for ordering first-day-of-issue postmarks and covers is at usps.com/shop.

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

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GE Additive and GE Aerospace subsidiary Avio Aero have signed a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) with BEAMIT Group, partly owned by Sandvik, which will see BEAMIT work with Avio Aero on technology development, specifically post-processing, of 3D printed parts for the GE9X and Catalyst engines. The news represents a greater stake for the quickly growing BEAMIT Group and potentially significant developments in how metal 3D printed parts are finished.

BEAMIT is a long-time customer of GE Additive, having its own fleet of Concept Laser and Arcam electron beam melting (EBM) machines. This includes, Mlab, M2, and X Line laser powder bed fusion systems, along with two Q10plus EBM systems through its subsidiaries, Pres-X and Zare.

GE Additive Concept Laser M Line Factory.
(Image credit: Wilm Visuals for GE Additive, GEADPR052)

Now, GE Additive and BEAMIT are extending their relationship further as they embark on multiple projects, which include materials, as well as “special post-processing machinery and technologies.” GE Additive would become BEAMIT’s equipment supplier, seeing the partial-Sandvik subsidiary take on more GE machines as it grows over time.

Specifically, the partners would work together on post-processing needed to meet the requirements of GE9X and Catalyst engine parts. This would include, MRI and tomographic inspection, hot isostatic pressing (HIP), and machining equipment. BEAMIT would aim to cut lead times for the processing of these parts, including machining and testing. Additionally, with Avio Aero, the firm would develop methods associated with “super-cleaning and super-finishing surfaces.”

“Industrializing metal additive manufacturing (AM) in aerospace continues at pace and we need trusted partners in our ecosystem who can grow with us. I am thrilled that we are strengthening our relationship with BEAMIT and its shareholder Sandvik. BEAMIT’s sound strategic vision and the wider team’s advanced additive expertise is world-class,” said Riccardo Procacci, CEO of Avio Aero and GE Additive.

Moreover, BEAMIT would aid in the development of GE Additive’s Concept Laser M Line Factory system. This series is meant to be for customers who use metal additive manufacturing for production-level volumes, with a stitching ability for large parts. BEAMIT would work with GE Additive to adapt and qualify the M Line for 3D printing aerospace components, which would include BEAMIT obtaining the needed aerospace qualifications for establishing a dedicated R&D division.

Andrea Scanavini, general manager BEAMIT (back right) visits GE Additive Lichtenfels with Avio Aero’s Dario Mantegazza (front right) and Dario Mula (front left) – September 2021.
(Image credit: Wilm Visuals for GE Additive, GEADPR052)

“It is an honor for me to enter into this LOI with GE for projects of this magnitude. Being where we are today, as one of the largest, most integrated and advanced additive manufacturing groups in the world, we are in a position to offer leading capabilities across the entire AM value chain, also through our shareholder Sandvik’s leading material expertise and extensive metal powder capabilities. This definitely confirms the hard work that started seven years ago as a vision, and has been pursued with great commitment and strength,” said Mauro Antolotti, President, BEAMIT Group.

As work progresses, BEAMIT would aim to develop “a completely digitalized and sustainable production line” for manufacturing “engine ready” parts for assembly where GE components would be made. Along with the LOI, BEAMIT has opened a new facility dedicated to coatings to improve additive parts for aerospace.

Altogether, the project lays the groundwork for BEAMIT’s “One Stop Shop” approach. The company already has five NADCAP accreditation and is working on three more, as well as the necessary ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and EASA part 21 pathways.

“Our strategic and industrial partnership with our shareholder Sandvik gives us a competitive advantage when it comes to leading materials expertise, materials development capabilities and supply of the widest range of alloys. Now, making the ‘One Stop Shop’ concept a reality, together with the digital integration of the entire value chain is a differentiating element, which can play an essential role in making additive manufacturing even more sustainable – without a waiver to the technical advantages offered by technology. In Avio Aero and GE Additive, we have found companies who share a similar strategic vision and a strong focus on the research of new materials for additive manufacturing as well as new technologies,” said Andrea Scanavini, Group General Manager, BEAMIT Group. “Ultimately, the digitalized factory is a key element of our mid-term strategy to enable a win-win relationship with GE. A dedicated factory where all the manufacturing phases are installed and directly interconnected allows us to reach the maximum grade of efficiency, high productivity and total quality required by GE.”

This certainly bodes well for BEAMIT, which is quickly becoming a premium service provider for industrial 3D printing. Driven by Sandvik’s investment, the company has been able to make multiple acquisitions and it is now a force to reckon with in the industry.

For GE, this allows an established customer aid in the development of its products, perhaps offloading some of the onus onto a more agile partner. As attention moves from advancing the fabrication side of the AM workflow over to the post-processing side, we may see the M Line concept more fully realize what Concept Laser dreamt up prior to its acquisition by GE: the AM Factory of Tomorrow.

Similar to a number of visions by other metal 3D printing firms, this idea was meant to have multiple automated modules work together to prep, print, and process metal parts en masse, in some cases with robots carrying build trays to and from the various modules. In order to achieve this dream, post-processing will need to become much more automated.

We’ve seen AZO aid Michelin/Fives joint venture AddUp in automating powder handling. Perhaps we will now see BEAMIT and Avio Aero automate some of GE’s post-processing. However, given talk about GE’s financial situation, one wonders if it may lead to something more. Would it be unreasonable to think that the roughly 160-year-old Sandvik, worth some $10 billion in revenues, would consider taking GE Additive off of GE’s hands?

With 3D printing we have the ability to redesign existing parts. We can do this to get them to work in a 3D printed form, or to optimize for cost. We can change parts so that they are lighter or have less volume, which may bring significant benefits. We can perform part consolidation or design a functional surface that outperforms a smooth, boring one. But, if we look much more at assemblies than at parts alone, we can do much more remarkable things. And, if we take a longer view still, we can look holistically at entire products and value propositions and may be able to design for disruption.

One possible disruptive design methodology may be to design for maintenance. As far as I know, this is already being done, albeit very sparingly. The examples I know are mostly very specific and very proprietary. Usually what happens is that a problem occurs, which leads to a solution where design-for-maintenance is taken into account and optimized. In some industries, such as oil and gas, access for maintenance staff is considered, such as on complex installations and platforms.

In many cases, people do consider the maintenance costs when purchasing new installations or machine tools, but often it may actually not be considered as much as it should be. In many cases, it is not considered at all and could lead to significant cost savings. Often, however, the seller doesn’t care about the maintenance burden of his ultimate customer, especially if the value chain of other players is in between them. Sometimes, a purchasing budget is just that and maintenance costs don’t figure into it and are not thought of.

When we do see design for maintenance occurring, it is usually an initiative focused on general usability, human factors, human centered design, user-centered design, or maybe a re-design related to the ergonomics for a specific part or process. It may be that a specific complaint led to a rethink, which may entail some design for maintenance as a byproduct. It could also be that a premium player in one segment enables fewer maintenance intervals because of higher quality parts and then offsets this costs against their higher product price. Often, however, this is just not considered enough or at all.

Installation costs are also not taken into account when products are made. Often, the installer is a wholly separate company than the one making the physical product. So, any difficulties with installation will be felt by a different party and not considered by the reseller, importer, or manufacturer.

Think of a house that is being built whereby the client, Sue, would like a lower maintenance cost. But her wishes are many and aesthetics and her use of the space drive her architect to make plans that will necessitate a window that is bought by a contractor from a hardware store and may, in fact, be installed by another contractor. Purchase price is definitely a consideration, as are the requirements dictated by the architect and main contractor, but who will consider both maintenance costs and installation? If Mary has to install it and it will take her more hours to do so with window A, then window B will be an option for her. But, what of the maintenance costs over the long term? This is not something Mary cares about, nor really many of the other contractors. This is only important to Sue, whose money is being spent through a web of agency dilemmas. Meanwhile, if windows are sold to window installers, we would expect them to become easier and quicker to install in the long-run. If they are, in effect, sold to architects because individual unique facades have to make their dreams come true, then we would not expect any maintenance and installation efficiencies.

In the case of custom-building facades, 3D printing is used in a sparing way to make some facade pieces or moulds for pieces work. Companies such as Lithium Designers, from whom the pictures in this article originate, wish to change this wholesale. There has been a lot of interest in building facades using 3D printing, but little technology has been made commercially available.

Could we save costs over conventional facades through 3D printing? Probably not, but if we could design facades that saved hundreds of labor hours installing them, then we may be able to make a business case. If we looked at how quickly an expensive worker perched on an expensive cradle platform could install panels, we could optimize where the bolts and nuts were located, for example. Or we could have fewer bolts or optimize the design to locate the bolts close to where the cradle elevator would be. Or we could cut the facade up in CAD in such a way that it would fit on fewer trucks. Or we could cut the facade up in such a way as more bolts could be done on the ground and fewer in the air, saving time. Or we could divide up the shipment so that it would include the exact facade portion that could be installed in one shift.

With man hours for construction workers around $20 for them but costing consumers or developers around $60 an hour, including insurance and the like, this can really add up quickly. So, in the facade example, 3D printing could be far too expensive, but being flexible enough to reduce installation costs, we can be competitive and even disruptive in the space.

It may seem like a small tweak, or hack even, but imagine that a cold, money-minded developer is looking at a 3D printed facade for coolness sake. They won’t be swayed for long if the costs are astronomical. We will have higher machine hours and material costs on our side, but what if design-for-installation took the fanciful and made it doable? This would arm us with the tools to really disrupt many industries.

In the highly competitive biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, hardware manufacturers are under a lot of pressure to provide the best, most efficient, and fastest platforms for researchers. Bioprinting, in particular, is a unique niche within the 3D printing ecosystem, where an increasing number of startups are competing to position their systems in major drug companies, specialized biotechnology firms, academic institutions, government agencies, and private and public research centers. However, as in nearly every industry, this competition will lead to lawsuits.

The latest complaint filed by pioneering firm Organovo said several of the bioprinters made by biotech company Cellink infringe on patents for their technology. According to a grievance filed on July 27, 2021, in a federal court in Waco, Texas, the San Diego-based manufacturer is seeking cash compensation for the patents Cellink has allegedly infringed upon, as well as a court order blocking Cellink from using three of Organovo’s patents relating to the devices, systems, and methods of tissue fabrication (US9149952B2), improvements to bioprinting technology that facilitate automation of tissue and organ fabrication processes (US9315043B2), and a way for printing a 3D structure (US9855369B2). Additionally, the Swedish-based business is accused of infringing on a fourth patent owned by the University of Missouri and exclusively licensed to Organovo, entitled “Self-assembling cell aggregates and methods of making engineered tissue by organ printing” (US9752116B2).

As reflected in Organovo’s complaint, Cellink’s Bio X is accused of infringing three patents, and the Bio X6 is accused of infringing one. Cellink, however, claims the accusations are invalid. In fact, the company had filed two petitions on June 3, 2021, for Inter Partes Review (IPR), challenging the validity of two of Organovo’s patents that relate to its current bioprinting technology before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Cellink’s Bio X and Bio X6 bioprinters. Image courtesy of Cellink.

A spokesperson for Cellink told 3DPrint.com that if those IPR proceedings were granted, they could lead to the cancellation of the challenged claims in Organovo’s patents. Organovo expects the USPTO to decide by December 2021 whether to institute Cellink’s IPRs. If it does, it will then conduct an administrative trial to determine the patentability of the patent claims challenged in the IPRs and issue a final determination within a year. However, if the USPTO declines to institute an IPR to a contested claim, then the decision is final and non-appealable.

Ultimately, if Cellink is successful in the IPR proceedings, Organovo may lose the IPR patents, limiting the company’s ability to stop others from using or commercializing products and technologies similar or identical to theirs.

“While Cellink respects valid intellectual property, we believe that Organovo’s patent claims at issue are invalid, not infringed, or both. Cellink remains steadfastly committed to evolving the future of medicine. As the world’s leading bio convergence company, we look forward to continuing to set the trends in the bio convergence space and collaborating with our industry peers to work toward solving the major health challenges we face as a society,” claimed Cellink’s source.

Also, as of June 7, 2021, Cellink filed for a declaratory judgment regarding non-infringement in the U.S. District Court in Delaware. The complaint was presented jointly with two recently acquired companies, MatTek Corporation, an in vitro technology firm founded by MIT professors in 1985, and Visikol, a spin-off startup out of Rutgers University specializing in advanced drug discovery solutions, including 3D cell culture assays.

The filing explains that the dispute over intellectual property dates as far back as 2019 when the two biotech companies reportedly had a dispute over the patents. At the time, Organovo sent a letter to Cellink stating that the company had used three of its patents to market its bioprinting technology. Several discussions followed until the two parties ceased any contact in March 2021, and just a month later, Cellink initiated legal proceedings.

3DPrint.com reached out to Organovo, and the company had this to say about the lawsuit: “Organovo is built upon a respect for intellectual property rights, and early on we licensed IP from top universities and then built our own patented innovations in house. Professional IP lawyers, as third parties, have been publicly recognizing that IP portfolio as broad and foundational since as far back as 2015, before Cellink announced its first printer.  Intellectual property laws exist to protect and promote innovation and they cover just this type of circumstance.  In a highly irregular move, Cellink started this fight by filing against Organovo, leading Organovo to conclude that Cellink must doubt its own freedom to operate. Organovo quite simply will not be bullied by a company with little track record of innovation that now wants to sue its way to clear sailing.  We are happy to teach Cellink to respect the intellectual property rights deriving from our own patents and those we license from the innovative professors who launched the field of bioprinting.”

Organovo’s 3D bioprinting technology. Image courtesy of Organovo.

Cellink and Organovo are two of the most renowned bioprinting companies in the industry. Recently rebranded as BICO, Cellink has been an active player since its inception in 2016 in Gothenburg, Sweden. BICO currency oversees 11 subsidiaries, including Cellink, and has a growing pipeline of upcoming acquisitions and bioconvergence technologies, not to mention dozens of partnerships with universities, public and private institutions, and researchers worldwide.

As for Organovo, the startup launched in 2007, is a pioneer and was one of the big driving forces behind bioprinting technology. Developer of the first 3D bioprinted liver tissue, Organovo had the potential to revolutionize medical research, but in 2017 Organovo Founder and CEO Keith Murphy left the company, and it was all downhill from there. In August 2019, company officials halted all research and development led programs and laid off 69% of its overall workforce to extend its cash runway as it explored available “strategic alternatives to generate value from its technology platform and intellectual property.” However, by September 2020, Murphy was back as the company’s newly appointed Executive Chairman of the Board, with a renewed team ready to develop regenerative medicine therapies to treat a range of severe liver diseases, which was part of Organovo’s original vision.

Inevitable or not, at some point or another, many businesses will face a legal dispute. In the world of 3D printing, several brands have undergone litigation, including Stratasys and MakerBot, Formlabs, Markforged, and many more. As for patent infringement cases, statistics reveal that between 95% and 97% of lawsuits are settled out of court. For now, Organovo and Cellink are each sure about their respective claims, and both companies are set on expanding their brand technologies, so we’ll have to follow this case as it unravels in the next two months.

The large-scale 3D printing space is heating up in both polymers and concrete. Medium-format systems are also finding more applications. In uses such as formwork, molds, large-scale tooling and even end-use parts, we’re seeing more and more applications for large 3D printed items. Companies such as Thermwood, Cincinnati, Juggerbot, CEAD and more are jumping into the space. Large parts also use up an awful lot of feedstock, so its no surprise that the materials companies are diving into the segment, as well. Early interest from Mitsubishi, DSM (now Covestro), and SABIC has helped to mature the market.

A perhaps surprising entrant in this space is ColorFabb. The Dutch firm is a leader in desktop 3D printing filament and now hopes to extend its reach into larger industrial parts. It’s doing this by launching its foaming materials for the fused granulate fabrication (FGF) market—so, not filament but granulate based material extrusion. And it’s doing so with large-format 3D printer manufacturer, Colossus Printers.

FGF should be much cheaper than filament per kilo and that really has a lot of impact when it comes to large parts. Furthermore ColorFabb’s foaming materials, such as lightweight PLA (LW-PLA), mean that you can print lighter components or print much faster than with non-foaming materials. The companies suggest that combining the materials of ColorFabb with the machines of Colossus, they’re able to double printing speed and can make one-cm layers with 8mm nozzles.

We interviewed Philippe-Daniel Merillet the founder of Collusus and ColorFabb’s CEO Ruud Rouleaux to find out more about the partnership. We spoke Ralph van den Borst, two years ago when he joined colorFabb. What has changed over the years?

“We have seen LW-PLA become one of our bestselling materials. It was quickly adopted by the Remote-Controlled Airplane community we have started to offer this in 6 different colors as well. It is also being used in cosplay and fir other light weight items. Parts are feather light, yet retain good strength and are easy to cut, trim and sand. If part weight matters to you, then this is your filament of choice,” Ruud Rouleaux said. “We also further specialized our competences to make custom made materials for our customers upon their requests. One of our latest materials we have released is PLA Semi Matte Black. A less brittle and stunning PLA filament. Only for those who are looking to make their prints look super cool. The non-gloss semi-matte black filament is all style and no compromise.”

Meanwhile, Colossus is attempting to tackle the large-format space with more add-on features. Philippe-Daniel Merillet explained:

“We focus our energy on bringing full circle solutions with the best quality integrations and add ons. This means best extrusion technology, optimized print system integrations, continuously upgrading our software, and bringing more and specialized materials to the FGF market as this provides additional opportunities. We aim to push the boundaries and bring new and innovative advantages to the technology to extend the market adaptation. Doing this with some of the best partners in the business allows us to accelerate the impact, for our clients and the entire industry.”

Colossus chose to focus only on FGF machines with the goal of transforming waste plastic into new objects quickly and in a cost-effective manner. Colossus systems, therefore, are designed to be an industrial and transportable method for doing so.

“While filament printing has its set benefits and market segment and will always have its place in the market, I believe industrial applications will move towards pellet printing. For large-scale printing granulates is the only real financially viable consumable, as it is widely known that pellets are cheaper feedstock. Besides this its easier to recycle and easier to handle for volume printing. Our integrated dryers contain up to 60 Liter of a material with an extended capacity with automatic refilling if needed, this means industrial processes and speeds and/or capacity is never a limitation,” Merillet said.

Merillet further suggested that FGF systems are more complicated with more process parameters to adapt for a given material. This includes multiple heating zones, pressure, and melt pump settings. However, Colossus attempts to address these concerns by providing material profiles.

“We believe in providing printers as a solution for users’ applications rather than selling a machine. It should be our experience that helps the client print with ease and obtain results faster,” Merillet said. “Rather than searching through pages of technical data sheets to identify the right temperatures for six heating zones and identify the correct pressure settings for each material, we supply pre-installed material profiles for all requested material types. We strive to make our systems as close to filament as possible so that anyone with 100 hours experience on a desktop printer can use the system with a day or two of training.”

Lightweight materials, such as foams, could have tremendous advantages, according to the partners. These include increased print speed and reduced weight. The use of these materials in pellet printing means bringing these benefits to already fast, large printers.

“When I first saw LW PLA as a filament print, i knew this material would be revolutionary for the FGF market. The principle is almost designed for FGF technology,” Merillet explained. “Printing twice as fast, twice as light, both are factors that scales with print volume exponentially. The larger you print, the larger the impact. Applying the principle to large-scale print systems only using pellets means you can easily alternate very low and very high layer heights on nozzles ranging from 1mm to 8mm, reaching a wide variety of results on a single machine. Additionally, making FGF 3D printing both environmentally but also financially sustainable is what drives me. By using the foaming technique correctly and having this material stable for large-scale extrusion, parts can be produced rapidly, creating a financial advantage towards industrial adaptation.”

When asked about the future of 3D printing, Ruud concluded:

“3D Printing enables creative minds to develop truly innovative product / material combinations. In many business segments we’re witnessing continuous disruptive breakthroughs. In the next years we’ll see the rise large scale 3D printing that will enable more new sustainable business practices based on 3D printing and natural materials.”

At the start of SME’s 30th year of RAPID + TCT, widely known as North America’s largest, most important additive manufacturing event, AM consultant and writer Todd Grimm got things started on the Main Stage by informing the attendees about several industry highlights that had just been revealed that morning, including BMF’s new microArch S230 printer, new materials from Kennametal, 6K Additive, and Stratasys, the new FS237M printer from Farsoon, new software from Covestro, new partnerships for Dyndrite, and more.

Todd Grimm

SME’s CEO and Executive Director Bob Willig came onstage next and thanked the gathered attendees of the AM industry—he had cervical spinal fusion surgery this summer, and found out afterwards that his disc spacer had been 3D printed; just in case we needed yet another example of the technology’s numerous applications!

Then he introduced the first RAPID keynote speaker, Melissa Orme, PhD, the vice president of Boeing Additive Manufacturing. She started things off by saying something that I’m pretty sure most of us agreed with:

“It’s so nice to not be speaking into a computer for once.”

Amen to that.

Melissa Orme, PhD, Boeing Additive Manufacturing

She explained that in her presentation, “How AM is Disrupting the Aerospace Industry: Opportunities and Challenges on the Road Ahead,” she would be discussing scale, product differentiation, sustainability, Industry 4.0, industrialization, people, and training. Orme said that Boeing, which has 20 AM sites around the world, focuses on aircraft parts in both metal and polymer, as well as using the technology for teaching aids, tooling, and research mock-ups.

“We see ourselves as an accelerator of product development at Boeing,” she said, noting that the company has more than 70,000 3D printed parts currently flying the friendly skies.

After putting up a timeline of Boeing’s use of metal AM, she also noted a major milestone that wasn’t one of her company’s--GE Additive’s 3D printed LEAP fuel nozzle, an “awesome contribution in 2015” that resulted in 25% weight reduction and consolidated 20 parts into just one.

“Even more recently, GE gained FAA approval for 228 metal turbine blade parts 3D printed on Arcam EBM systems,” Orme said, noting that these parts resulted in a 10% increase in engine fuel efficiency and a 30% reduction in weight.

Weight reduction is critically important when it comes to aerospace applications, and not just because it’s basically a metal tube that’s carrying people up in the air and needs to remain there; lightweighting can also make aircraft and automobiles more energy efficient as well.

“So what’s next?” Orme asked the room.

She showed us the different ways that additive manufacturing can add value to an organization: programming, products, and parts.

“I like to look at product value, and that is really what I want to talk about today. When we use additive manufacturing to design in those small conformal spaces to create components, and segments of products that can’t be made traditionally…that’s what we’re really working on at Boeing.”

In terms of product differentiation, additive manufacturing is about more than just making a slightly better part and sticking it into an airplane. Part replacement alone isn’t enough to make a good business case for AM—companies need to focus on using the technology to shape future programs, significantly improve the functionality and performance of a part, and set up a strategy that allows for adaptation to a fast-moving environment of product development.

To that last point, she pulled up a slide showing some of the major metal 3D printing development milestones, including the first DMLS printer in 1994, powder bed enhancements, and more.

“We have to keep our minds open for what’s next, and we have to be able to face technology leaps with agility,” Orme told the attendees.

Moving on to how organizations can scale technology, she explained that it’s not just about purchasing 50 3D printers and sticking them on the factory floor. Instead, a framework for equivalency needs to be created.

“What I mean is creating a database, so we can leverage all that data we’ve already created,” she explained. “That doesn’t really exist, and we really need to create that so we can continuously adopt new technologies.”

Even more important when adopting new technologies, companies need to make sure that the source material is consistent, the material being created with the machines is consistent, and that post-processing is automated, rather than applied with “brute force.” Consistency is key when it comes to achieving a reliable, repeatable performance.

“We need to hire the right people with the right skillsets and train them, and we need to create a digital infrastructure so we can collect all that data and connect it to the digital thread,” Orme continued.

“Everything we need to do has to be focused on repeatability and reliability. That is the mantra for additive manufacturing in the aerospace sector.”

So in order to get there, we obviously have some hurdles to get over, and the first has to do with industrialized printers.

“If I’m opening up two of the same machine, they need to have the same ducting, the same wiring, the same bill of materials, and so on. Otherwise they’re two different machines,” Orme said. “This needs to be improved.”

In a field where regulations and certifications are of the utmost importance, I’d say that’s almost an understatement.

Another hurdle is better access and data to management—how do you manage the data, what do you do with it? Orme noted that the protocols between OEMs can vary, and that it would be great if there was just one standard data format for all OEMs. Yet another hurdle to overcome is design allowables.

“Without design allowables for aerospace, there’s a lot of testing going on, and that testing costs money, so we’ve just eroded that business case,” she said. “So we have design allowables, which is a really large data set. If we have this statistical data of this machine and our powder suites, we can certify by analysis, and there’s much less testing and much better business cases.”

Risk reduction is another very important hurdle to cross, especially in aerospace, as the engineers are trained to design with reduced risk.

“It’s our job to create the data for them, to do the homework and show them we understand the process and how to mitigate any risk and make them comfortable. That’s the only way they’ll feel comfortable designing for additive in an additive-only solution, and not keep a backup plan. They’re not going to make an additive-only solution until we’ve done our homework that says, every single time you print you’ll have the same part,” she stated.

Orme said that the digital thread is something that Boeing is really working on, as it allows them to collect all the data, put it all together, and create analytics.

She pulled up a slide with a few examples of Boeing’s 3D printed parts, including powder bed fusion parts for satellites, and listed a few of the positive results, including increased reliability, major cost savings, and performance enhancement.

“But we really need to do more than just create parts—we really are looking for that program value,” Orme said. “That comes back to engineering culture, which for me is one of the most important things. We need to have done that homework and have that deep understanding to mitigate risk, so that additive manufacturing can be a viable manufacturing option.”

Wrapping up, Orme quoted American writer William Faulkner, who once said, “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.”

“To really embrace additive, you have to let go of your backup manufacturing plan,” she concluded. “But we need to do our homework in order to get there.”

I ended up referring back to Orme’s keynote presentation many times in my meetings with various companies during RAPID, especially in terms of “doing the homework” and making sure that everything is repeatable and reliable, and how machines need to be the same inside and out, in order to ensure risk reduction.

The next morning, industry expert Terry Wohlers, Dr. h.c., FSME, presented his keynote presentation, though I unfortunately missed the first ten minutes of it. President and Principal Consultant of Wohlers Associates, Inc., as well as a principal author of the popular Wohlers Report, Wohlers speaks at many AM events, reporting on the state of our industry during previous RAPID events as well as this year’s event.

When I walked into his presentation, “An Industry 30+ Years in the Making,” Wohlers was telling the attendees that 3D printing has grown 27% on average every year for the last ten years, “so it’s a strong industry.” During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he noted that our industry “had some winners,” such as outdoor gear for hiking and biking, big tech, like Amazon, and desktop 3D printers for making PPE. But, we also had some “losers,” like small businesses, the fossil fuel industry, airlines, and hotels.

“When we learned how to meet without traveling last year, some people got quite good at it,” he said, bringing up a slide showing an example of a virtual event series Wohlers Associates participated in last year. “I’ve never had so many Zoom meetings in my life.”

I’m pretty sure everyone in the room felt the same way.

“If we divide the industry into products and services, services really powered the additive manufacturing industry last year, along with system sales,” Wohlers said.

He said that in 2020, there were 228 manufacturers worldwide selling industrial 3D printers, and luckily, some of the smaller players reported enough sales during the pandemic for the industry to avoid a decline. Wohlers Associates asked 124 service providers and bureaus, from 27 countries, which AM processes they found to be most profitable, and the top contender was literally the “Other” category, followed by HP and EOS. This is a definite indicator that those smaller AM companies are seeing a more sales, which Wohlers said is “significant.”

In materials news, he explained that polymer powders such as nylon caught up to regular polymers last year, and that across the 52 companies around the world that provide metal powders, aluminum is now the most popular, which is a change. This wasn’t the first time during RAPID that I heard aluminum being discussed, and it definitely wasn’t the last. Wohlers also said that composite materials are on the increase, and that there’s a real opportunity at the moment for composite-based systems. Later, during the Q&A, someone asked him to clarify what he meant by this.

“It seems to me the opportunity is much bigger than what’s been delivered today,” he answered. “It’s not easy to make totally isotropic parts, which you don’t always have to do, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could? I think composite systems will definitely grow.”

Moving on to scaling, Wohlers said that in terms of maturing the industry, reduction and automation of post-processing are important, in addition to end-to-end solutions. Manufacturing execution systems (MES), like Link3D and Oqton, are necessary support platforms to make these solutions work.

Even though last year was unprecedented on so many levels thanks to COVID-19, investments increased from $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion in 2020. Wohlers listed several examples, including Protolabs purchasing Hubs for $320 million and Nikon acquiring Morf3D for about $91 million.

“Desktop Metal is on a buying spree, purchasing five companies, including EnvisionTEC and ExOne, and with five more in the queue,” he said.

3D Systems announced earlier this summer that it was selling its On Demand Manufacturing business for $82 million, and that deal was actually finalized this week. Wohlers noted that the company had purchased a total of 50 other companies from 2009-2015, 17 of which were service providers.

With acquisitions and investments come IPOs, and Wohlers asked if anyone wanted to take a guess as to how many companies announced they were going public in the last year.

There were 12 AM industry companies listed on his slide, including those that had gone the SPAC route, like VELO3D, Markforged, and Shapeways, and several others, such as Massivit3D and Xometry, that went public without a SPAC merger.

Wohlers then made a few observations about what are arguably three of the largest sectors using AM applications today—automotive, aerospace, and medical. First, he noted that BMW is one of many car companies embracing and adopting additive manufacturing, and had printed a total of 300,000 series production parts by 2020. Up until January of this year, customers could get custom 3D printed trim and instrument panel parts for the Mini Cooper, and BMW’s i8 Roadster includes metal 3D printed parts.

“We need to drive down prices and drive up speeds,” he said, making what I hope was an intentional pun. “This is very important in a production environment.”

In terms of aerospace 3D printing, the technology was used to consolidate more than 300 parts for the GE9X engine, which is FAA-certified and the most fuel-efficient engine in its class. Last month, GE Aviation announced a major milestone—its 100,000th 3D printed fuel nozzle was shipped from its Auburn plant. Finally, Wohlers noted that as of February 2021, the FDA had cleared a total of 225 3D printed medical devices.

Wohlers also discussed some other big industries using 3D printing, namely the construction sector, sporting goods, and consumer products.

“Concrete material extrusion systems have a role,” he said, “but building walls for homes is not one of them, though there may be some exceptions.”

3DPrint.com tends to agree that 3D printed homes won’t be the salvation the housing market needs. But there are other, more viable use cases for concrete 3D printing, such as culverts, bridges, and even a short-term shelter.

With consumer products, Wohlers mentioned Fitz Frames, which uses 3D printing to customize its eyeglasses, and jewelry; he showed off the ring he was wearing that had the Wohlers Associates logo printed on it. As far as sporting goods, Riddell, which is one of the largest producers of football helmets, uses 3D printing and scanning to make its helmets, and another major AM application is bike saddles.

“I took up bike riding last year, since I couldn’t go to restaurants,” he said, showing a picture of his mountain bike with a 3D printed saddle. “I’m looking forward to getting 3D printed grips as well.”

After all this time discussing the latest news and benefits of 3D printing, Wohlers moved onto the challenges and obstacles in the industry, which includes pricing for materials and machines, supply chain development, processing speed, and understanding DfAM.

“If you’re using the technology for design validation, prototyping, and testing, you’re going to not necessarily use a lot of DfAM except for some special features,” he said. “But if you’re going to manufacture with 3D printing, you really, in most cases, need to look at the design – how can we consolidate parts, lose weight, reduce support material? So DfAM is absolutely vital, and it’s a work in progress. It is still considered a new way of thinking in the context of series production.”

Other challenges include getting the best MES approach and adopting standards, which are very important.

“You kind of take it for granted that you can plug in a lightbulb or screw in something. But there are standards behind almost everything,” Wohlers said, before noting that currently, ASTM and ISO have developed more than 40 standards for the AM industry.

The last challenge he brought up was talent, asking if we’ll have enough people to work the printers, market them, and run 3D printing events once we “ramp up.” He reminded us of what Orme had said in her keynote the day prior about the importance of reliability and repeatability.

Looking ahead to the future, Wohlers said the industry is set to grow to almost $116 billion by 2030.

“It’s an industry 30+ years in the making. In so many ways, we’ve come so far,” he said, wrapping things up. “The applications, that’s where it’s at, and going out and seeing what some of the companies are doing. Some of these software tools, they’re just really good too. But is there room for growth? Of course, we have a long way to go. But on the other hand, we’ve hardly scratched the surface.”

His final example was the tried and true STL file format, which has “stood the test of time” and is still the most popular.

“But other methods are available, and I urge you to look at them,” he concluded in what I can only assume is a metaphor for the manufacturing industry as a whole.

After Grimm got things started for us again on the final day of RAPID, Mark Wehde with Mayo Clinic came onstage to present the final keynote, “How Technology is Changing Healthcare.” Wehde is the chair of the Mayo Clinic Division of Engineering, assistant professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, and a fellow in the Mayo Clinic Academy of Educational Excellence.

Explaining his background in 3D printing, Wehde told us that with the help of a STEM grant, he’s purchased multiple 3D printers from STEM centers. He spent 16 years on what he called his passion, which was developing custom medical devices, before moving into management.

“We’re well into Healthcare 4.0 and the digital platform revolution,” he said. “It’s moving to a virtual distributed care model that leverages new technologies, like AI, genomics, robotics, and 3D printing.”

Wehde said that Mayo Clinic, which was founded in the late 1800s, is the first, largest, and “arguably best integrated not-for-profit medical group practice in the world.” Just fifty or so years after Mayo’s instrument shop was using beef bone grafts to repair broken human bones, the clinic began computerizing, and hasn’t stopped adopting new and innovative technologies since.

After stating the noble mission of the Mayo Clinic, which you can see in the image above, Wehde started providing examples of some of the projects the Mayo Clinic has worked on that use 3D printing in some aspect, such as a deep brain stimulation program that’s moving into clinical trials by 2023. The program, which is helping to develop closed-loop feedback algorithms, uses a microfabrication diamond reactor to create electrodes, which are currently used on rats to test dopamine levels and will ultimately help with epilepsy research. The team is using a 3D printed model to try and make a more minimally invasive electrode delivery system.

“The medical industry is very interested in applications of virtual reality and augmented reality, especially for training,” he said, explaining that most surgeons perform operations in specific ways that they learned from their mentors and don’t often deviate. “Digital training will help with this.”

Because of their unique vasculature, and the fact that an aneurysm’s location can change, physicians at Mayo Clinic are custom-creating stents, and 3D printing is used here as well; not to make the stents, but to help with hands-on training.

“If surgeons can rehearse ahead of time, the outcome for the patient could be greatly improved. So we use 3D images to create the model, either a digital or a physical one,” Wehde explained. “Placing these stents in the aorta can be very complex, and the 3D printed aorta model can help. This is incredibly valuable as a training tool for new surgeons, but it’s also really useful for experienced surgeons to practice with before surgeries on patients.”

Wehde next discussed the surgery of two little girls who were conjoined twins. These cases can be “really complex,” as multiple organ systems are often encompassed.

“Our lead asked if my team could provide 3D printed models to help. The first one we made was printed in a translucent material,” he explained, showing images of how this helped make the other organs visible inside the model.

Today, those twin girls are happy and healthy, as you can see in the image below, and Wehde said they still come to visit Mayo Clinic occasionally to say hello and thanks.

“Mayo is not immune to the challenges in the healthcare system,” he said. “It’s becoming increasingly clear that the motive to provide lower cost care to patients at home is important. So what’s a home-based hospital or hospital of the future, with wearable devices? How do we make it accessible to people around the world?”

Wehde said that medical errors are the third highest cause of death in the US, which is a little frightening to hear and makes me grateful that I don’t have any surgeries scheduled in the near future (knock on wood). He explained that the future of healthcare encompasses several products and ideas, such as patient data sets, AI personalization engines, and integrating monitoring and care.

“Longitudinal patient data sets will allow us to monitor patients, and advanced analytics and AI personalization engine will help as well,” Wehde explained. “We have lots of data, but it can be hard to access. This is going to change.”

In the continuum of care model, patients may start off at a big place like Mayo Clinic, and then transfer to a smaller hospital closer to their home, or even their home itself. Healthcare’s future is also about the “real-time refinement of individualized care solutions,” which includes helping family members become caregivers.

Wehde listed some of the drivers of change in healthcare, including an aging population, acceleration of science and discovery, changing demographics, big data, analytics, and progress in IoT.

“By 2050, the world will be home to 500 million people over 80 years of age,” he said. “With that, we’re also seeing a dramatic shortage in the number of healthcare providers, which is expected to reach 85,000 by 2032. We need to rethink how we train and give care, because this is not sustainable.”

He suggested that healthcare providers looking to learn and manage new technologies should “find an engineer,” because they can explain why surgical robots, like the da Vinci Surgical System, will work and why something like the T-1000 won’t.

“In the future, robotic surgical systems will be a lot more autonomous,” Wehde said, before playing a favorite video of mine by Boston Dynamics, showcasing its dancing robots.

Wehde believes that the modern robotic surgery suite will have two surgeons at the terminal, along with a few residents in the room as well.

“There are lots of ways surgical robots will help us,” he said. “They could help measure the appropriate traction force to negate tissue tearing, for one. I’m a long-time robotic science fiction fan, and people are always asking when the robots are coming, and I think this next decade is it. Japan is investing heavily in robotic care providers. Pharmacy robots will help filling prescriptions, so pharmacists can spend more time with patients instead of counting pills. Robots can also help measure drug interactions to stop medication errors.”

He next brought up the advantages that point-of-care, or POC, 3D printed parts have over keeping parts constantly in stock.

“Putting an additive manufacturing facility at the point of care will save time and money,” he stated.

Other medical applications he sees 3D printing help with are anatomical models, as previously mentioned, prototype medical instruments, patient-specific implants, and devices for market evaluation.

Wehde touched briefly on the use of 3D printing and other advanced technologies in prosthetics, such as using a neuroprosthesis to recreate a sense of touch with a direct interface to the brain, and how Open Bionics is using technology to turn kids into superheroes with its Hero Arm at a relatively affordable cost.

Another major initiative that Mayo Clinic is working on is advanced care at home.

“We’re all getting older, but we’re healthier than previous generations, and the pandemic has shown us that we can stay in our homes,” he explained.

I can personally attest to how much time, and gas, telehealth appointments have saved me over the last year. Advanced care at home will also help those patients who live in rural areas that are far away from big hospitals.

“In designing the hospital of the future, think about the disruptive power of technology, like driverless cars. Healthcare is very much the same—the hospital of the future is everywhere,” he said as he finished up his presentation.

In the hospital of the future, you could get care at home, or in a small community hospital. As Wehde explained, expansion doesn’t have to mean more hospital beds, but  instead providing care where the patient is, wherever and whenever it’s needed, not just through face-to-face visits.

Stay tuned for more coverage from my time on the show floor at RAPID + TCT 2021!

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