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3D printing in the military has been ongoing long before such technology became available—or even known—in the mainstream. And the Navy is certainly no stranger to additive manufacturing or forward-thinking methods of production whether on land or out to sea; in fact, some soldiers may be surprised to learn that 3D printing becomes part of their military training.

3D printing can quickly prove to be indispensable, however, allowing countless items to be repaired without waiting long periods of time. This is true also for other divisions of the U.S. Military that may be able to create spare parts in extremely remote/rural areas—or they may even create objects that were not previously possible!

While 3D printing may have been occurring on ships for years already, constructing these vessels by such means is a much bigger step. Recently though, Huntington Ingalls Industries (Newport News Shipbuilding division) made history as they used parts created through AM in both the design and production of nuclear-powered warships. Like so many other industrial companies and organizations, they have delved into the use of metal in 3D printing as it offers the potential for incredible strength and durability in parts.

This first metal 3D printed part has been delivered to the designated aircraft carrier, presented in a formal ceremony to Rear Adm. Lorin Selby. Acting as the Naval Sea Systems Command’s chief engineer and deputy commander for ship design, integration, and naval engineering, Selby accepted the 3D printed piping assembly part, to be installed on the Harry S. Truman. It will be assessed for quality and functionality over the next year.

Don Hamadyk, Newport News Shipbuilding’s director of research and development, presented the first 3D printed metal part to Rear Adm. Lorin Selby, Naval Sea Systems Command’s chief engineer and deputy commander for ship design, integration, and naval engineering during a brief ceremony on USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). Photo by Matt Hildreth/HII.

“We are pleased to have worked so closely with our Navy partners to get to the point where the first 3D metal part will be installed on an aircraft carrier,” said Charles Southall, Newport News’ vice president of engineering and design. “The advancement of additive manufacturing will help revolutionize naval engineering and shipbuilding.”

NAVSEA has recently given the green light, approving 3D printing technical standards—but that has not been a quick and easy process by any means. Gaining approval has involved intense collaborations, along with partnering with other industrial organizations. An engineered test program was completed, and results regarding 3D printing of Navy parts have been published.

The prototype piping assembly will be installed on the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). Photo by John Whalen/HII.

Interested in finding out more about 3D printing and the Navy? Check out some of our other news stories regarding the Harry S. Truman. This ship (along with a miniature 3D printing lab installed on the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge) has been the site of an experimental Fab Lab that allowed the first 3D printed parts to be created at sea, with sailors innovating depending on need, especially in the area of tools—to include a 3D printed radio clasp that cost only six cents to manufacture.

These types of endeavors, many of which have been taken on by the military, are indicative of the universal benefits offered by 3D printing: affordability, speed in production, and the ability to manufacture in low volume without having to bring in a middleman.

What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.

[Source:

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The USS Truman, out at sea. Photo: U.S. Navy

Lawrence Gasman, SmarTech Markets Publishing

Our second annual Additive Manufacturing Strategies summit, held in Boston and co-hosted by SmarTech Markets Publishing, is in full swing after Tuesday’s two featured workshops. This year’s AMS event, “The Future of 3D Printing in Medicine and Dentistry,” now includes a track each for medical and dental 3D printing, along with a startup competition, an exhibition floor with 12 booths, and even more speakers.

Yesterday morning, Lawrence Gasman, the President of SmarTech Markets Publishing, officially opened the summit, and had some exciting news to share – while last year’s AMS had participants from roughly 11 countries, this year 24 countries, along with 27 US states, are represented. Gasman mentioned that the hope is for the AMS summit to be rooted in the entire healthcare industry, before introducing Dr. Ali Tinazli, the Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences Strategy for HP and the day’s keynote speaker.

Dr. Tinazli has been leading HP’s corporate-wide, global strategy for Healthcare and Life Sciences since 2015, and though he referred to himself as a “3D print novice,” spoke today about “3D Printing Going Mainstream for Health 4.0,” with the main theme centered around the democratization of medicine and the implications. He is currently working on a healthcare testing ecosystem made up of mobile diagnostics and small microfluidic parts, and, as a self-proclaimed fan of technology convergence, noted with admiration that an event such as AMS would not have been possible even a few years ago.

Dr. Ali Tinazli of HP

After giving a brief history of HP, which celebrates its 80th anniversary this year, and how it is “using technology to make a better future for everyone,” Dr. Tinazli explained why 3D printing excites him; the reasons include the fact that 3D printing is connecting HP’s core technology, can be used to customize products, and is also “the catalyst for the fourth industrial revolution” by enabling faster innovation. He noted that democratization is helping to make technologies, such as 3D printing, available to everyone.

Dr. Tinazli discussed blended reality, where the physical world tells us how to shape certain things and we then use this information to automate and digitize it. A good example of this is using CT scans to build medical devices and implants, which are then 3D printed and used on patients.

He noted that some specific megatrends (slow-changing, transformative, global trends), such as decentralized healthcare and an aging population, are indicating a transformation in life sciences, which, when paired with 3D printing, could create some major opportunities for disruption in healthcare.

3D printing is reinventing industries and “making the leap to factory production,” and Dr. Tinazli noted some of the economic justifications for adopting the technology, such as:

• making objects at a faster speed, with less waste and low risk
• ability to fabricate unique geometries on a massive scale
• mass customization
• scalable

While he noted that some of his favorite 3D printing topics are art and fashion (like me!), Dr. Tinazli said that healthcare is the oldest industry benefiting from the technology – current applications include skull patches, hearing aids, custom orthotics, prosthetics, insoles, and surgical planning.

He noted four classes of mainstream healthcare applications – orthodontics, dental prosthetics, hearing aids, and orthopedics – that see a combined 400,000 custom medical devices 3D printed per day…an impressive number, indeed.

Dr. Tinazli moved on to discuss some of the many innovative companies using 3D printing for medical applications, starting with the startup Smile Direct Club, which either delivers an impression kit directly to a customer’s home or has one of its remote SmileShops scan the teeth in order to fabricate custom dental aligners. Dr. Tinazli noted that dental is in an “interesting growth phase,” and also mentioned nivellipso, a Swiss company that uses HP’s MJF technology to 3D print dental molds.

One of Dr. Tinazli’s favorite examples is the custom earbud manufacturing solution that Formlabs debuted at CES 2018. He noted that the earbuds are made with the same technology and workflow as custom 3D printed hearing aids are, which is an excellent example of 3D printing solutions in the clinical world being applied to consumer products.

“The more I learn about new technologies, the more I think it’s about the user experience,” he stated.

[Image: UNYQ]

This was the perfect segue to the

, which is far more pleasant for teenage patients to wear for 24 hours than the traditional braces, which are typically heavy and far too hot.

Dr. Tinazli said, “User experience, even in medicine, neglected over the past decades, is getting better.”

Another example he brought up was HP’s FitStation platform, which is using 3D printing to deliver individualized, custom-fitting footwear and orthotics.

“Clinical applications can have an impact on the consumer,” Dr. Tinazli said.

The talk then moved on to point-of-care (POC) 3D printing, and how the use of 3D printed anatomical models before surgery can decrease the length of the operation, which in turn saves on cost and improves the patient’s experience and surgical outcome. This is where full-color 3D printing, which Dr. Tinazli called “a strong domain of HP,” can be very helpful.

He also touched on additional 3D printing applications that HP technology is being used to make, such as more comfortable cranial helmets for infants, prosthetics and sockets for braces, and eyewear.

Using the Jet Fusion 4210 3D printer, Dr. Tinazli said that it will only cost $700-800 for an entire build of 322 sunglass parts, which makes it possible to sell them “at a profit.”

In addition, the MJF 300/500 3D printer series is able to make sunglasses that have custom designs, like Minecraft-themed, and can even include QR codes to help lower the risk of counterfeiting.

Finally, Dr. Tinazli mentioned HP’s “latest baby: Metal Jet Fusion,” which was introduced in late 2018 and allows companies to “dive instantly into mass production.” Additionally, it can also be used for medical applications, such as 3D printing surgical devices and tools.

[Image: HP]

Then came the question and answer portion of the keynote. Someone asked what industries will be most immediately impacted by HP’s Metal Jet Fusion; Dr. Tinazli replied that HP is going after professional users in high value mass markets, like automotive and medical.

Another attendee asked about specific patient populations being looked at by HP.

“From 3D printing, we look at it as more of a B2B business, and it’s up to the companies we work with,” Dr. Tinazli answered. “We do not have any immediate exposure to patients.”

He expounded on this answer further during the next question, when a facial surgeon in the audience asked about the entire workflow of 3D printing in healthcare, in terms of training technicians and physicians to use the equipment to fabricate customized models, and if HP was doing anything to address the full spectrum of care, rather than just providing the 3D printer itself.

“We have all these internal debates about how deep we’re going into the service,” Dr. Tinazli answered, stating that the company could very easily find itself in the service business and competing with healthcare customers.

“That’s why we look at it as B2B. Otherwise we would be getting too close to our customers…definitely more lucrative, but presently we don’t do that.”

We’ll have more to share with you from AMS 2019, so stay tuned!

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

[Images: Sarah Saunders unless otherwise noted]

Bioprinter company Allevi was launched in 2014. The firm now has a family of bioprinters ranging from the simple Allevi one to the 6 temperature controlled print head Allevi 6. This printer also has photocuring on board, a reported sub-micron precision and auto calibration. Allevi also sells bioinks but lets you put any material in the printer that you wish. The company has materials such as gelatin methacrylate, alginate, PEGDA, collagen, pluronics and silk available. What we didn’t sufficiently appreciate is that the firm also has what it calls ink kits. These are kits such as a FRESH kit which will let you begin with the FRESH hydrogel printing method and also a conductive tissue kit so you can explore this. By offering these types of kits the Allevi team is adding value to their installed base and extending their use of the printer.

This kind of a play was almost completely absent in the desktop 3D printing space and a lot of firms let a lot of money on the table there. In desktop FDM people left spare parts and aftermarket upgrades to companies such as E3D online which have made a pretty penny (and lots of ugly ones too) from upgrading the nozzle and other components. By offering kits directly Allevi is binding customers to them, getting more revenue and building a stronger relationship with them. Furthermore, they’re also inhibiting other people from entering their market via the aftermarket or losing money to teams of researchers hacking their own nozzles and things.

Allevi’s newest kit is a coaxial extrusion kit.

VIDEO

The company explained the need for coaxial extrusion through citing papers that used coaxial:

“Co-axial nozzles date back quite some time ago in tissue engineering. Scientists, such as Dr. Ibrahim Ozbolat, recognized their potential to create perfusable microchannels within hydrogels. Then others such as Dr. Ali Khademhosseini and Dr. Yu Shrike Zhang began to use co-axial nozzles to cast endothelial microchannels. Dr. Jason Burdick even used similar channels to sprout angiogenesis. Now others have realized its potential to print tissue strands as Dr. Swieszkowski and Dr. Barbetta highlight. This ability has driven the co-axial nozzle’s use in all sorts of tissue types from cartilage, skeletal muscle, liver, hearts, and even tumors.”

When we reached out to them co-founder and CEO Ricky Solorzano explained to us that,

“This is important because one of the biggest challenges in bioprinting is being able to get soft materials that cells like into meaningful patterns. One of our jobs at Allevi is to empower scientist with all these different avenues. Co-axial nozzles in the past few years has become quite a popular avenue for being able to achieve this.

At first they were used to create microchannels for vascularization, which is a top priority for tissue engineering. With the ability to do the reverse of this, instead printing micochannels one can print, hydrogel fibers. This hydrogel fiber printing has allowed scientist to print all types of tissues, cartilage, heart, muscle, liver, and even tumors.”

We think that expanding your market and expanding the functionality of your systems in such a way is a very astute move indeed. By focusing on researchers needs in achieving vascularization Allevi is helping them surmount the main barrier currently holding back bioprinting. We’d welcome more aftermarket vendors for desktop 3D printers that would improve, upgrade and bring new functionalities to the million 3D printers out there.

Solvay has just added its 10% carbon fiber filled KetaSpire PEEK and Radel polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) materials to Digimat Additive Manufacturing. Digimat is a software package made by e-Xstream engineering that lets users simulate materials and their real-world performance. Digimat lets materials scientists select and simulate materials that they can model. The Digimat Process Simulation tool lets you anticipate and simulate part warpage, distortion or built up stress in 3D printed parts. One can look at the thermomechanical performance of a material or how it performs under load. Digimat gives companies that make parts with 3D printing the confidence to assess the real world performance of those parts while simultaneously giving polymer companies the ability to “mix” good new materials.

By adding their two materials to Digimat Solvay is signaling that they intend to use these materials for manufacturing and wants to enable customers in that field. It is like a comforter blanket that will make engineers feel secure enough that the part can actually go on the car or plane. It seems that competition in high-performance polymers is heating up.

Solvay’s PPSU material is autoclavable material with temperature resistance above a 180 C that was previously already on offer in several firms. Superior steam and chemical resistance make PPSU the material of choice for a high number of high-performance applications ranging from medical to industrial pipes and things like valves. PPSU is kind of a Bob the Builder kind of material it is not like super wow or anything but it gets the job done. It has broad applicability in many industries and will help people fill niches and expand applications for 3D printing. Printability is high and it is a comparatively easy material to work with.

This in contrast to the Prima Donna of 3D Printing materials PEEK. PEEK is a very high-performance material of the PAEK family. This material has very high abrasion, chemical, and heat resistance. PEEK’s strength to weight and continuous service temperature are some of the highest in Fused Deposition Modeling. One needs a 380 C or more nozzle temperature to extrude PEEK and the material is a straight up nightmare to print. PEEK was already on the market through firms such as 3D4Makers, 3Dxtech, Roboze, and others.

Solvay has chosen not to focus on an unfilled grade pf PEEK but instead a 10% Carbon Fiber KetaSpire PEEK. This is probably in response to everyone’s higher strength and stiffness wishes. I’m not a fan of filled materials because at the end of the day recycling is going to be troublesome if not impossible. Carbon Fiber PEEK is however what now the aerospace guys are daydreaming about so its a logical choice for the firm.

The firm also offers volume discounts.

It is notable that Solvay sells its filaments directly through its own online shop. Other polymer companies have gone exclusively through channel or focus on channel as a part of their distribution strategy. Ideally, this does let Solvay obtain more margin and more contact with the market. At such an early stage of their market entry, this would be a smart choice keeping them close to a fast-moving market and the applications that will bring in volume for them. In the long run for different markets and areas resellers may very well be a better proposition. I must confess that I’d never even heard of Digimat before DSM released a filled material on Digimat at Formnext. Great stuff for Digimat to have these polymer companies do their marketing for them.

Christophe Schramm, Additive Manufacturing business manager said that,

“Our growing range of AM filaments underscores Solvay’s determination to establish itself as an industry leaderin this rapidly evolving market, Digimat®-AM allows customers to simulate the printing process and successfully predict the thermomechanical behaviour of 3D-printed designs in order to ‘print right the first time’.”

On the whole, these are the two perfect materials in the Solvay portfolio to lavish extra attention on and we can’t wait to see what other firms do in response.

Google Arts and Culture is collaborating with Stratasys and non-profit CyArk to preserve 3D scans and 3D prints of some of the world’s most cherished heritage sites. Google’s Open Heritage Project lets you virtually explore sites from all over the world through a fun and immersive experience. Myanmar’s Bagan, the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin, Chichén Itzá you can be an armchair explorer in each of them. Test it out by flying through some of the sites here. 

Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon Temple Thailand.

What’s more, the files are available for download so that teachers in classrooms or museums worldwide can show them off. Kinesthetic learners, the curious and the idle can use them to play with and touch some of the world’s most notable sites. The parts have been crafted for the J750 3D printer which can do multi-color and multi-materials.

The company says that,

“Google Arts and Culture is the restoration of rare plaster casts initially discovered by A.P. Maudslay during the late 1800s in Guatemala. For more than 100 years, these relics were housed across storage facilities in the British Museum. By leveraging 3D laser scanners to virtually re-assemble each, designers successfully reconstructed these items in physical form with Stratasys 3D printing – later allowing representations to be easily viewed by a wider audience online.”

An impression of Stela E of  the Mayan Quirigua site in Guatemala taken by Alfred Maudslay

Alfred Maudslay went to Quirigua in 1881 and was enthralled by the Mayan civilization and the remote Quirigua site. In total, he would undertake six Mayan expeditions. Above in the image, we can see an impression of Stela E of the Quirigua site. Over ten meters tall it was erected on the 22nd of January in 771 AD. From then on it let all passers-by know that the ruler K’ak’ Tiliw Chan Yopaat ruled here.

“From the beginning, Maudslay understood that a three-dimensional record would be needed if the surviving Maya remains were to be fully analysed by future generations of archaeologists and epigraphers. To this end, he set about producing a complete set of moulds of the monoliths. Once shipped back to London, the moulds and resulting plaster casts were used to produce exact drawings of the glyphs, which were published with the photographs in his Archaeology (1889–1902), later bound to form a comprehensive record of the Maya ruins of Central America. The result was a magnificent work of documentation which, in the words of Maudslay’s biographer, is ‘valued as highly by modern scholars as it was by their predecessors a century ago’.

In the 1880s archeology, especially of a remote foreign site was far more Grand Theft Auto than it is today. At the time Mayan culture was little understood in the West and Mandalay’s exploration of the site, excavation and impressions were instrumental in our understanding Mayan language and culture. Mayan stelae can be found throughout Mayan lands sometimes standing ten meters or more these objects are thought to tell histories and reinforce Mayan rule. Celebrating kings and commemorating events these stelae gave real insight into the politics of Mayan life. The important Quirigua site also held squat zoomorphs or animal inspired shapes that show gods in the Mayan world. By taking their impressions and cataloging them in his tome; an impression of the site was transported around the world to be studied. Stratasys, Google, and CyArk are now doing a very similar much more high tech thing with 3D scanning and 3D printing. In Maudlays footprints they are finding a way to let us all study impressions of an unfathomable past.

Bryan Allen, a Design Technologist at Google, said: 

“The project was to explore physically making these artifacts in an effort to get people hooked and excited about seeing pieces in a museum or research context. That’s when we turned to 3D Printing.” “With the new wave of 3D Printed materials now available, we’re able to deliver better colors, higher finish, and more robust mechanical properties; getting much closer to realistic prototypes and final products right off the machines. When we talk to arts and culture preservationists, historians, and museum curators, they’re all absolutely amazed by the ability to fabricate these things with such high fidelity via 3D printing technology,”

Rafie Grinvald, Enterprise Product Director of Rapid Prototyping, Stratasys 

“Combining rich colors and translucency in a single print, designers and engineers can build models with heightened levels of accuracy and realism – mirroring opaque or transparent structures, and even complex materials like rubber,”

CyArk has already done some amazing work worldwide in 3D scanning many of the world’s most well-known objects. Will more 3D scans mean that one could at one point download a museum? In the past, we’ve written about 3D Printing being used to let the visually impaired feel exhibits, and how exhibits could be touched by everyone, seen how Berlin’s museums have used 3D printing and 3D scanning and seen how you can restore things through 3D scanning and printing,  We’ve also delved much deeper, looking into the ethics of 3D scanning exhibits. Could we open up a 100 3D printed British Museums worldwide? Could every classroom have access to many of the world’s most important objects? What do you think?