There is now an occupant of the world’s first 3D printed home. Built-in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, the home has been made to conform with Dutch regulations for buildings. The house is a part of Project Milestone, five 3D printed homes made by a consortium comprising of the Eindhoven University of Technology, construction company Van Wijnen, concrete giant Saint-Gobain Weber Beamix, real estate investor Vesteda, the city of Eindhoven and engineering firm Witteveen+Bos.

Eerste bewoonde 3D-betongeprinte woning van Project Milestone in Bosrijk, Eindhoven van oa Theo Salet TU/e

The partners worked together using a Triple Helix methodology that sees the government fund research that is commercialized by universities and then companies. In this case, the city wanted the project and the technical university developed the technology, while Saint-Gobain Weber Beamix developed the concrete and aided in commercializing the technology. Witteveen+Bos dealt with the technical development of the home, Van Wijnen is the builder, while Vesteda owns the house and rents it out.

The one story home is 94 square meters and has two bedrooms. It is made of 24 3D printed concrete elements that are made in a factory, not printed on location. The forms were trucked into the location and placed on existing foundations. Subsequently, the roof windows and other elements were added using traditional methods.

It’s situated in the Bosrijk neighborhood and is meant to look like a boulder. The boulder shape was chosen so that the home would both showcase the design freedom of 3D printed concrete and fit well into its surroundings. A significant step was the use of leaning walls and round forms that could change how homes look in the future. The consortium wants to encourage personalized design, in effect letting homeowners and tenants mass customize their homes before they are built. The companies also state that this form of building is faster than traditional building methods and uses less concrete.

“With a 3D printed home we’re setting the tone for the future. The rapid realization of affordable homes with control over the shape of your own home. Innovation and discovery with an eye for design, is in Eindhoven’s DNA. We don’t do this by ourselves here, but together. I am proud that this promising innovation has a place in our city and, more importantly, gives people an affordable home,” Eindhoven city council member Yasin Torunoglu states.

”With this small building, the first major step has now been taken in the development of construction into a high-quality manufacturing industry. Digitization from design to implementation leads to sustainable and affordable homes, tailor-made to the wishes of the resident. I am proud that the knowledge we have developed at TU/e has led to this innovation,” Theo Salet, Professor of Concrete Structures, Eindhoven University of Technology said.

I’m a 3D printed house sceptic on the whole. A lot of 3D printing house startups have engaged in over-claim or told outright lies. I am also still doubtful that we can really save a lot of money or truly change things with current stage technology and thinking. Previously, I wrote an article on Stoffwechsel and 3D Printing in Architecture where I go deeper into this subject.

Roman statues were polychromatic but “some conservators removed pigment and paint spots from Roman and Greek statues. So convinced were they that these were meant to be white that they took scalpels to historical evidence so that the statue would conform to their idea of them. We still do this. In 3D printing houses, we are trying to recreate past shapes with new technology. A drawing and idea become the jumping off point to developing a technology. Brick houses, ideas and patterns are being made with 3D printing. The old paradigm is still in the driving seat esthetically, as is the old way of doing things. There are a lot of renderings and overclaim in the 3D printing houses business, and not a lot of actual buildings,” I noted.

On the one hand, this three-year-old quote still rings true. We’re using old methods and thinking to design with a new tool. A self-supporting cone-like shape, for example, 3D printed in a spiral is very much a type of form that would lend itself better to 3D printing than many of the futuristic-looking, backward-thinking 3D printed houses. They display Jetsons aesthetics, but the minds of architects are clearly rooted in the methods of the past.

But, we are making progress. In this case, a cross-section of many of the stakeholders in constructing new buildings are embarking on a project to demonstrate the building of homes, not soulless concrete carcasses that are meant to last the duration of the news cycle. By working with many stakeholders and building a residential home that is up to code this is real progress.

At the same time, this project does inform us that this is an affordable home and that is will help with housing shortages. As Michael has pointed out in this excellent article, we should also be skeptical about those claims, however.

3D laser printing has been a point of focus recently, with many people arguing that it has more precision than other manufacturing techniques. Let’s look at the core differences between 3D printing and laser cutting to shed more light on this matter. Additionally, we’ll also get into the difference between diode lasers and Co2 lasers and which option holds more water.

3D Printing vs. Laser Cutting

Digital manufacturing is a world of awe that enables you to develop 2D and 3D projects right on your computer. From artistic models down to architectural designs, you can pretty much make anything at a lower cost than you would without this technology. 3D printing and laser cutting now stand as the top choices in digital manufacturing.

3D printing works by adding materials using a layering method. You start by making a 3D file using specified software and dictating the material you will use. You can 3D print metals, resins, and plastics based on the technologies you like the most. From homes to jaws to even accessories, manufacturers have perfected the art of printing a variety of items. The versatility and ease of use of the technology have further boosted the interest in its use.

This method makes it easier to build on models using additive techniques. Once you have the starting model, you can develop a complex finished product at an affordable cost. Plus, it takes less time than working from scratch. In the medical industry, 3D printing has become popular owing to its ability to create biocompatible materials such as prostheses. Where addition takes precedence over subtraction, 3D printing wins.

Laser cutting, on the other hand, comes in two forms. You can laser cut, or laser engrave items. For cutting, you need a high-powered laser beam to cut through the material to achieve your desired shape. And for engraving, all you need is to engrave the chosen form into the given material. You start with a 2D design and end up with a life-like model using cardboard, MDF, acrylic, plywood, etc. For custom items, laser cutting is the preferred option of the two.

Laser cutting is excellent when working on large items that would otherwise consume a lot of time using 3D printing. By carefully selecting the dimensions, you can develop a precisely-built model that will cost much less than it would using 3D printing. In most cases, laser cutting takes precedence where cost is a significant factor. Plus, it can work with a variety of materials.

Combining Laser Cutting and 3D Printing

Given that both options can help you create unique designs and each technology boast of something that the other doesn’t have, how about combining the two? You can use 3D printing to additively work on a project and use laser cutting to make precise cuts on the item for a perfect finish. You’ll save on money and time and increase your precision.

Which laser works best?

When it comes down to CO2 and diode lasers, making a choice can be a bit challenging. Let’s briefly consider these options.

CO2 lasers have a lot of power such that most of them boast of a 40–80-watt output on the minimum and can reach 400 watts on maximum. Such power is ideal for fast laser cutting, and where industrial works are underway, this would be a great choice. The downside to these lasers is their huge size which calls for higher space considerations. But in an industrial setting, this would not be a problem.

Diode lasers are the more portable option. However, they are much less powerful and cannot handle more than 10 watts of optical power. On the upside, they are durable and don’t need a complicated power system.

Whatever your choice of laser, you can get a vast range of laser components at Eksma Optics to help you get started. Ultimately, your choice will thus depend on how much power you need for your 3D printing and laser cutting techniques.

Ivory, a hard, white material consisting mainly of dentine, makes up the tusks of several large animals, such as walruses, narwhals, and elephants. For a long time, the material was highly sought after for use in making artwork, but thankfully the ivory trade was banned internationally in 1989 to protect decreasing elephant populations. However, a lot of this intricate artwork, as well as ivory artifacts, is obviously still out there, and alternate materials, such as bones, plastic, and shells, are used to restore them, with middling results. But a partnership between the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) and Cubicure GmbH, the university’s spinoff company, has resulted in a 3D printable, elephant-friendly substitute for ivory that can be used to restore these pieces with high precision.

Through a cooperation with the Archdiocese of Vienna‘s Department for the Care of Art and Monuments and Vienna-based Addison Restoration KG, Cubicure and TU Wien have created Digory, a novel material made of calcium phosphate particles, silicon oxide powder, and synthetic resin. First processed in a hot, liquid state, Digory is hardened into the desired shape using UV rays, and once it’s off the printer, it can be polished and color-matched to a specific artifact or piece of art.

The state casket of Frederick the Fair (17th century)

“The research project began with a valuable 17th-century state casket in the parish church of Mauerbach. It is decorated with small ivory ornaments, some of which have been lost over time. The question was whether they could be replaced with 3D printing technology,” explained Professor Jürgen Stampfl from TU Wien’s Institute of Materials Science and Technology.

The research team published a paper on their work using stereolithography-based 3D printing to create the ivory-like material.

“To restore sometimes very complex and delicate artefacts, it is economically reasonable to develop a substitute that can be built by additive manufacturing to reduce carving time and material waste. Such a substitute material should especially mimic the aesthetic characteristics of ivory by means of the colour, translucency and surface gloss. All merchantable 3D printable substitute materials have evidential limitations in exactly those important characteristics. The newly developed substitute material called “Digory” is processible with an additive manufacturing technique that derived from stereolithography,” they explained in the abstract.

Graphical abstract

The team has previously worked with ceramics for dental technology, so they had some experience with similar materials, but an ivory substitute was a tall order.

“We had to fulfil a whole range of requirements at the same time. The material should not only look like ivory, the strength and stiffness must also be right, and the material should be machinable,” explained Thaddäa Rath, who worked on the project for her dissertation.

“You also have to bear in mind that ivory is translucent. Only if you use the right amount of calcium phosphate will the material have the same translucent properties as ivory.”

The team spent lots of time experimenting before finally coming up with the right mixture to create the Digory material.  They embedded tiny calcium phosphate particles, with an average 7 µm diameter, and very fine silicone oxide powder in a special resin, which is then processed at high temperatures in Cubicure’s hot lithography 3D printers.

“Layer by layer, a photosensitive slurry that consists mainly of a dimethacrylic resin filled with calcium phosphate particles is polymerized with a UV laser,” they explained in their paper. “The solids loading, which was adjusted to fit the translucency of ivory, was around 30 vol.%. At this content, the density of about 1.79 g cm⁻³ and the hardness of 35.7 HV0.2 are equivalent to the values for ivory found in the literature. Small quantities of yellow and red colour pigments were used to modify the basic colour. With further post-processing using traditional handcraft techniques, such as staining and polishing of the surface, an optical imitation of natural ivory was achieved.”

Closeup of casket ornaments

Once the item has been printed, it’s then polished and dyed to match the color of the artifact that is being restored, such as the ivory ornamentation on that 17th-century casket. The researchers reported good results using black tea for the touch-up work, and noted that you can also add the dark lines often seen running through ivory to the piece afterwards.

This is big news for the restoration field, as the team says that Digory is easier to work with than other substitutes, and replicates the stiffness, strength, and translucence of real ivory. Additionally, no elephants had to lose their tusks to restore an artifact, and 3D printing makes it possible to automatically, and quickly, reproduce the fine details of these pieces.

L-R: Ivory, new Digory material

Cubicure’s Konstanze Seidler said, “With our specially developed 3D printing systems, we process different material formulations for completely different areas of application, but this project was also something new for us. In any case, it is further proof of how diverse the possible applications of stereolithography are.”

The researchers hope once the novel Digory material is further developed, it will become more accepted as “an aesthetically and mechanically high-quality” substitute for ivory, and can be used as a restoration material, as well as putting illegal poachers out of business.

(Source: New Atlas / Images: TU Wien)

Within the last couple of years, specialty chemicals company Evonik revealed that it was organizing a range of ready-to-use AM materials, from its Additive Manufacturing Innovation Growth Field, under the relatively new INFINAM brand, which includes the recently launched INFINAM® PEEK 9359 F. Now, the company is entering the photopolymer space with INFINAM TI 3100 L and INFINAM ST 6100 L for industrial 3D printing applications.

“With the new product line, we are entering the market-relevant photopolymer technology stream, strengthening our long-term market position as materials experts for all major polymer-based 3D printing technologies. With the new ready-to-use formulations, we are also continuing our materials campaign and driving industrial-scale 3D printing as manufacturing technology along the entire value chain,” Dr. Dominic Sttörkle, head of the Additive Manufacturing Innovation Growth Field at Evonik, stated in a press release.

These two new materials are the beginning of Evonik’s new polymer resin product line, which can be used in common vat polymerization technologies, like digital light processing (DLP) and stereolithography (SLA or SL). By making a move into photopolymers, the company is definitely gaining a stronger long-term position in the AM market.

An Evonik scientist in the Asia Research Hub in Singapore works with a 3D printer.

INFINAM TI 3100 L is a high-performance photopolymer, and Evonik says the properties this material possesses can ensure impact-resistant DLP and SLA 3D printed industrial components with high toughness. Featuring good processability and high mechanical resistance, parts 3D printed with this material measured 30 J/m³ impact resistance and high elongation—120%—at the break. This means that INFINAM TI 3100 L is able to hold up well under permanent mechanical effects or strong impacts, like impact or pressing, and can be used to make parts in the automotive, consumer goods, and industrial sectors.

Evonik’s second new photopolymer resin formulation is INFINAM ST 6100 L, which the company says has high green body strength and great “weatherability.” With flexural stress of 145 MPa, HDT of 120 °C, and tensile strength of 89 MPa, this material could definitely be called high-strength. INFINAM ST 6100 L is durable and tough, and all of these properties combined make it an excellent choice for applications that require high mechanical strength and high temperature resistance.

INFINAM® TI 3100 L – the first high-performance material of Evonik’s photopolymer product family.

According to the SmarTech Analysis report “Polymer Additive Manufacturing Markets and Applications: 2020-2029,” some of the major accomplishments and progress reported in polymer AM markets have “been registered in material science and development/optimization of new materials for current technologies,” which definitely describes what Evonik’s been doing.

“With INFINAM® TI 3100 L and INFINAM® ST 6100 L we have brought the group’s first photopolymer materials for additive manufacturing to market maturity. In doing so, we draw on the enormous chemical expertise of our researchers in component development and formulation,” explained Dr. Rainer Hahn, Head of Evonik’s photopolymer market segment in the Additive Manufacturing Innovation Growth Field. “On this basis, we can offer the market a unique product with excellent properties and help our customers to conquer new application areas.”

Evonik’s new range of high-performance, ready-to-use photopolymers can be processed on a variety of common, commercially available SLA and DLP 3D printers. The company will present its newest materials to the industry for the first time at TCT Asia, which will take place live and in-person from May 26-28 at Shanghai’s National Exhibition and Convention Centre (NECC), hall 7.1.

(Source/Images: Evonik)

On the heels of its likely acquisition by Materialise, Link3D is continuing its development of technology for manufacturing execution systems (MES). The latest news from the company is the launch of an IoT platform that makes it possible to directly interact with 3D printers to automate quality management and gain information from sensors.

The company’s AMWatch software ties into its larger MES platform to issue real-time updates about a 3D printing system, including environmental conditions, in order to inform production management. Machine users can remotely track their builds, with the information allowing them to detect production irregularities and tendencies that can hinder the final product.

This naturally allows the operator to gain comprehension of the issues behind flaws in their parts, attempt to address them, and then improve future builds. Users can additionally perform predictive analytics based on information gathered from a variety of technologies, as well as conduct statistical process control derived from past builds. This can then be used to improve product output in subsequent builds, which not only saves time and costs, but can be particularly beneficial for businesses working under specific qualified or certified frameworks.

“At Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, 3D printer connectivity is a foundational tool enabling the real-time management of production requirements locally and across the enterprise,” Christopher Wiegman, Digital Transformation Engineering Manager at Sikorsky, . “The ability to have real-time insight into and management of current production print queues is critical to meeting our customer objectives. The local and centralized enterprise dashboards with Lockheed Martin’s Intelligent Factory Framework and Link3D’s machine connectivity allows utilizations management of Lockheed Martin’s extensive additive investment.”

“AMWatch can improve visibility to the additive production environment and provide more robust analytics for real-time decision making – ultimately leading to improved manufacturing yield rates, quality systems and machine utilization,” added Link3D co-founder and CTO Vishal Singh. “Link3D’s new product will enable organizations to establish the foundation of a data-driven additive manufacturing ecosystem.”

Such insight into builds is essential into bringing industrial 3D printing technologies up to the quality level required in true production environments. In order for an additive manufacturing technology to achieve the proper throughput at the proper cost, it must produce quality end parts consistently and predictably.

Therefore, the ability to generate statistical process control based on previous builds and conduct predictive analytics using aggregate data makes a lot of sense. What looks to be one missing piece of this equation is true simulation of a potential build based on all of this information and then applying a variety of methods for addressing any potential errors. This is a technique that VELO3D uses in its Flow software and which ANSYS uses in its 3D printing simulation software.

Another missing piece would be the ability to communicate with the printer to address potential issues automatically, using the information picked up by AMWatch and adjusting printer parameters to ensure all processing variables are tightly controlled. This is another feature that VELO3D uses and that quality control companies are actively working on. Perhaps that’s what customers have in store for AMWatch, as well.

Mass customization software firm Twikit has a number of products that mass customize anything from jewelry to orthotics, car parts and sports gear. Now, its broadened the application area of its mass customization engine by making available Laddy, a tool to mass customize lattice structures. Lattices are a great way to lightweight a product or change the modulus or other properties of a part. But, lattices are difficult to design and it is difficult to predict their performance.

Twikit’s new solution deals with both of these issues by letting you easily mass customize lattice shapes. This could mean that more people will be able to use lattices across many applications. At the same time, it adds to Twikit’s arsenal a broader category of tools that could take the company deeper into the engineer’s toolbox.

The tool is cloud-based and uses AI to make the near-immediate generation of lattices accessible to many companies. End users can also mass customize their lattices in real time and see the results on the screen before them. Whats more, the tool allows brands to sell products with lattice parts generated by custom input, including pressure maps or a 3D scan of a body part. This would enable lattice-based fashion items for example.

The firm also says that Laddy can fill the volume of a part with a lattice structure automatically based on input from the user. This could be based on physical forces and the external shape of an object. It can additionally be linked to the company’s TwikFit product, so that biometric data can be tied to the lattice generation.

The company notes, “Laddy’s AI core learns how to transform the custom input into the ideal lattice for each application (e.g., shoewear, helmets, saddles). The solution decides where specific unit cells should be located, their dimensions, and their strut thickness to automatically generate a lattice with the required mechanical properties.” 

This automates a structural approach to designing shoes with gradient soles or for having products that can be different at every voxel. Whereas the shape of a sole could already be easily designed or obtained from 3D scan data, now we can get information that can lead to individual designs or properties at each location on the shoe sole.

So, maybe if you walk on your toes, you’d have different lattices there or a different “spring” there. Or, if you had the tendency to sprain your ankle, the sides of the shoe soles can be made tougher or harder or with less give to protect you. Laddy can bring about functional customization that does more than just give you the geometry that you require.

With this tool, you can get the performance you need from a material or part at one specific location for one specific user. Laddy can also make a lot of materials “gradient-like” in the way that they could perform with a variety flexibility, hardness or softness across the part. Imagine a mattress that had different latex lattices depending on where your weight was. Or imagine something like a car seat that not only conforms to your body but gives you the support you seek at each point. Such a car seat could be softer on your upper back but tougher on your lower back to support you and more squishy toward the sides while it is firmer in the walls to keep you in place.

Imagine also a tennis racket whose internal structure could be adapted to compensate for your slice or encourage more topspin. Or think of a material extrusion orthotic that can use the same process and same material in one production step while changing the softness and “spring” where the user needs it. After talking to orthotist and prosthetist Brent Wright, I’m also super excited about the idea of using Laddy to customize braces and sockets, whereby air pockets or lattices themselves can make the socket more comfortable. I’m a huge Twikit fan and this is just a great product that expands the makable for everyone.

A group of MIT scientists reported that they could transform spider’s silk threads into musical instruments. The long-standing experiment involves an innovative method that uses data sonification to convert 3D scans of the complex geometries of spider webs into music. Ultimately, the experts hope to communicate with spiders using artificial intelligence (AI) – much like a speech synthesis interface – learning the “words” generated by the spiders and using them as signals to speak with them. The work also shows great potential for translation applications, ranging from smarter 3D printers to self-repairing biomaterials, cross-species communication, and otherworldly musical compositions.

Led by McAfee Professor of Engineering Markus Buehler, a team of researchers at MIT’s Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics (LAMM) are studying the tangled 3D cobwebs of various spider species, focusing on the development of a new paradigm to enable the design, synthesis, and manufacturing of materials and structures from the molecular scale. Through a combination of microscale 3D printing, computational modeling, and experimental synthesis, the team is uncovering the “webmasters’ secrets,” as they like to call it.

According to Buehler, spider webs are intricate material systems that feature hierarchical structures that range from the chemistry of proteins to the complex architecture of filaments in the web. “Nature has its own orchestra of sounds available,” he said while presenting the research at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society, held online April 5 through 30, 2021.

So, how does the team go from spider webs to computer models to sound? Since most spiders build complex, 3D webs, Buehler developed a method with contemporary artist Tomás Saraceno and other collaborators to scan them using lasers that capture 2D cross-sections. Then, computer algorithms reconstruct the web’s 3D network from thousands of images taken from different angles. MIT graduate student Isabelle Su created a technology to automatically process the images and transform them into a 3D model. The researchers then created a harp-like instrument and played spider web music in several live performances worldwide, including in Paris.

The “Spider’s Canvas”. In 2019, spider webs were making music in Paris at MIT visiting artist Tomás Saraceno’s Palais de Tokyo art exhibit, ON AIR. Image courtesy of MIT/Tomás Saraceno.

Accurate composite 3D models of the webs show thousands of individual strings, which reminded the scientists of a harp or string instrument. Each of the little strings can vibrate, and in fact, the spiders use the vibrations during the operation of the web for catching prey or collecting sensory information. Su created a virtual reality environment that allowed people to visually and audibly “enter” the web and “wander” around its structure.

Focused on trying to get people to hear and see the web simultaneously and understanding the spider’s habitat, Su used physics-based simulation to calculate how the individual string fragments would vibrate and made them audible, even capable of being plucked like a guitar string to alert the spiders to movement within the cobweb. The sounds generated are unconventional, almost eerie but beautiful, like falling into a supernatural dimension, especially as the web gets denser and the sounds become more complex.

“We have been tempted to experience the world as the spider does,” described Buehler. Different species of spiders produce different web designs, and thereby different sounds. The team chose spiders that make big 3D webs. Each string has its own equation associated with it, and the sound is created by moving around the web and exciting a couple of strings at a time, with each region of the web revealing a particular sound.

The researchers stated they like to experiment with the most disorganized and random regions. Buehler, who has long been interested in music, is keen on using the web to extract new rhythms and melodies of non-human origin from natural materials. He considered webs as a new source for musical inspiration that is very different from the usual human experience. Besides, by encountering a web through hearing and vision, the researchers hope to gain new insights into 3D architecture and web construction.

Spider web in Buehler’s lab. Image courtesy of Zhao Qin/MIT.

The experiment is a way of creating interesting sounds based on real objects. “The spider harp is not tuned to sound beautiful, it’s tuned to the spider to be an effective catcher, collect information on the environment,” described Buehler. Geometrically complex, the webs are a universal way for the spiders to unlock information. Spiders live in an environment of vibrating strings. They don’t see very well, so they sense their world through vibrations, which have different frequencies. Such vibrations occur, for example, when the spider stretches a silk strand during construction or when the wind or a trapped fly moves the web. Spiders will tap the web and use the vibrations to localize and communicate with other spiders.

To gain insights into how spiders build webs, the researchers scanned a web during the construction process, transforming each stage into music with different sounds. “The sounds our harp-like instrument makes change during the process, reflecting the way the spider builds the web,” said the expert. “So, we can explore the temporal sequence of how the web is being constructed in audible form. This step-by-step knowledge of how a spider builds a web could help in devising spider-mimicking 3D printers that build complex microelectronics. Buehler considers spiders as really interesting “autonomous 3D printers,” that can essentially construct webs just like a 3D printer does but without any support material or scaffolding.

A few years ago, the team turned to microscale 3D printing to create spiderweb mimics composed of elastomeric filaments to investigate the mechanical response of elastomeric webs under multiple loading conditions. More recently, one of the students at LAMM used web segments to simulate a footbridge model and hopes to build a prototype once the pandemic subsides.

Additionally, they highlighted the relevance of the silk material used by spiders as stronger and less brittle than steel and among the toughest known. Their work at MIT has already unraveled some of the deepest secrets that could lead to the creation of synthetic materials that duplicate or even exceed the extraordinary properties of natural silk. Trying to understand the complex structures created in 3D space is one of the objectives of the research. Changing the paradigm of how to think about materials is also important. Buehler suggested that spiders teach scientists a lot about the chemistry and sustainability of materials and how to make materials with superior functions: “We can imagine creating a synthetic system that mimics the spider and future materials that would have a repair mechanism incorporated.”

Eventually, the scientists hope to communicate with spiders in their own language. They recorded web vibrations produced when spiders performed different activities, such as building a web, communicating with other spiders, or sending courtship signals. Although the frequencies sounded similar to the human ear, a machine learning algorithm correctly classified the sounds into different activities. Now they are trying to generate synthetic signals to speak the language of the spider basically. They wonder if exposing them to certain patterns of rhythms or vibrations will affect what they do and begin to communicate with them.

The experts say, forget about 2D spider webs. Tomás Saraceno and Markus Buehler show the intricate geometry of spider webs with new scanning instruments, 3D models, and 3D printers, digitizing 3D webs.

Rawlplug, the company known for developing the world’s first wall plug is using SLS 3D printing technology from Sinterit to speed up the process of designing and developing new products.

Thanks to additive manufacturing, developing new products can be faster and more accurate than ever before. For companies like Rawlplug, with over 100 years on the market, finding new ways to make their R&D projects faster, cheaper, and more efficient was always a goal. Thanks to Lisa PRO, SLS 3D printer from Sinterit is now possible.

First world’s wall plug

Rawlplug, funded in 1887 was not only the first company that developed and patented the wall plug, originally used to fix electrical wall fittings in the British Museum. Now, over a hundred years later the company keeps the position of the well-known manufacturer of mounts, joints, power tools, and other implements Its products were was used in the construction of major buildings across the world, such as Burj Khalifa, Wembley Stadium, or even outside our planet. NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover has parts connected with Rawlplug products.

Over the course of a century, prototyping methods changes a lot. “I can confidently say that nowadays 3D printing is one of the most important avenues for prototyping. Due to the fact that we are able to check certain solutions on a printout, we need to create much fewer prototype forms. It saves a considerable amount of time, both for us and the tooling workshop” – says Dominika Zarowna, Designer Engineer at Rawlplug.

Prototyping with SLS 3D printer

The Design Engineering team at Rawlplug is focused on designing new products and further enhancing the existing ones. Those designs are made to be later manufactured via injection molding at a large scale. The company has its own tooling workshop, which has been equipped with a Lisa PRO SLS printer for some time. A lot of companies, just like Rawlplug, are trying to become more lean and agile to compete in a demanding market. A few years ago the only solution to replace the injection molding in a prototyping process was to outsource the prototype 3D printing to external vendors. It was because of the unattainable price of the advanced, industrial-grade SLS 3D printers that works the best for such applications. Lisa PRO opened the new chapter.

Faster time-to-market

“When I first came on board as a new hire, we used to outsource the printing to third parties. This often took a considerable amount of time. What we needed was a 3D printer of our own, in order to reduce the waiting times to a minimum. At the same time, we were on the lookout for new technologies. Given the price and quality requirements, Lisa PRO was the only real choice on the market”  – adds Zarowna.

Purchasing such technologically advanced devices, even if like in Lisa PRO case, they cost one-tenth of what previously available industrial SLS printers, needs good discernment and an informed decision. 

Best quality over all

“Our main concern is quality, which is why prior to finalizing the purchase, we had put together a comprehensive model to test the different capabilities of the printer, its accuracy, as well as the printing of nested elements, which would not have been possible in other technologies. We ended up being happy with the results, in turn, we made the decision to choose Lisa PRO” – says Dominika Zarowna.

Objects designed by Rawlplug are not big. About 95 percent of them fit Lisa PRO’s build volume. Bigger parts are still outsourced but now it happens once or twice a year. Some companies are fascinated by how fast 3D printers could operate. To be frank, Lisa PRO is not the fastest 3D printer.

“Lisa PRO is not quite the quickest 3D printer, but for us, that is not a big concern, because we reduced the waiting time for prints from 2 weeks to 2 days. We have additionally worked out a system, where we start printing on a Friday afternoon and the prints are already waiting for us on Monday when we come to work”. – says Dominika Zarowna.

The widest material portfolio for R&D projects

Sinterit now offers the widest range of materials available for compact SLS 3D printers. It is crucial for R&D teams, as they usually work on different products with diverse functionality. Especially the PP powder, launched in April 2021 is a game-changer for companies like Rawlplug, which final products are most often made from PP. This diversity and the accessibility of Sinterit’s SLS 3D printing solution make it one of the most desired professional additive manufacturing products in 2021.

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors will meet in open session on May 7, 2021, at 9:00 a.m. ET. The Board is expected to discuss the following items:

1. Call to Order and Opening Remarks of the Chairman 
2. Remarks of the Postmaster General and CEO
3. Approval of Minutes
4. Committee Reports
5. Quarterly Financial Report
6. Quarterly Service Performance Report
7. Approval of Tentative Agendas for August Meetings
8. Adjournment

The public is welcome to listen to a live audio webcast of the meeting (no in-person attendance) at http://about.usps.com/who/leadership/board-governors/briefings/welcome.htm. Three hours after the conclusion of the open session meeting, a recorded audio file will be available for listening. In compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, the audio webcast will be open-captioned.

The Postal Service 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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