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German Minister of Construction Cuts Ribbon on Nation’s First 3D Printed Home https://ift.tt/3zEtusq After unveiling the building in October 2020, the PERI Group announced that official opening of the first 3D printed home in Germany. Cutting the ribbon on the 160 m2, two-story structure was Minister for Construction, Home, Municipal Affairs and Equality of the State of North Rhine Westphalia. At the event, Scharrenbach noted:
This is really a minor event in the additive history of a company that has being gaining significant traction with 3D printing globally. PERI acquired a stake in COBOD, a Danish construction 3D printer manufacturer, in 2018. It has used the firms BOD2 3D printers to produce structures in Europe and the U.S., including most recently a home with Habitat for Humanity in Arizona. It is also in the process of constructing a three-story apartment building in Germany. This, along with COBOD’s other partners, has led to profitable growth for the Danish company, which is worth highlighting given the niche nature of the additive construction segment. With support from PERI, COBOD has grown its footprint to Saudi Arabia. PERI is an important supplier of form work equipment for the manual casting of concrete. By backing additive construction, PERI is aiming to automate and digitize what is an otherwise slow-moving industry in the midst of an upheaval. Thomas Imbacher, director of Innovation & Marketing of the PERI Group, explained why the home in Germany is particularly significant:
Though 3D printing in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) space is quite small, often seems futuristic, and may seem to have limited utility, it is an important enough technology that not only is COBOD doing well financially, but large firms in the space, such as Saint-Gobain, LafargeHolcim, and Sika, are investing in it to some extent. Even GE has partnered with COBOD to 3D print platforms for wind turbines. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com July 28, 2021 at 08:06AM
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Shapeways to Turn Around 3D Printed Surgical Models in Just 24 Hours https://ift.tt/3f5nRvB New York-based 3D printing service bureau Shapeways announced it would be the exclusive 3D printing manufacturer for healthcare technology provider Armor Bionics. As part of the deal, Shapeways will provide the manufacturing expertise and global distribution that the startup requires to grow its business. In fact, Shapeways facilities will 3D print complex, patient-specific medical models for pre-surgical planning and deliver them to surgeons within 24 hours to meet stringent medical timetables. Focused on designing tools to optimize surgical planning, Armor Bionics specializes in 3D visualization and materialization of sliced-based imaging acquisition data by developing tailor-made solutions for the medical field. Through its online platform, the brand allows doctors, hospitals, and patients to upload medical imaging, like MRI or CT scans, to obtain highly accurate 3D printable models. Fully adapted to each patient, these medical devices better represent a person’s current anatomical condition, assisting them during the diagnostic and surgical planning stage while reducing risks, costs, and surgery time. For example, patients going into surgery can convert complicated and confusing 2D medical images into 3D models that perfectly replicate their anatomy. While doctors can choose to design, plan and practice their next surgery on a customized 3D printed model. For hospitals, Armor Bionics offers an even more comprehensive solution, the chance to launch a 3D anatomic modeling laboratory through their online service, allowing surgeons within the institution to have immediate access to 3D models without any long-term investments or special and technical skills required. Headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay, co-founders Pablo Pereira, and Bruno Demuro aim to expand their operations in the U.S. and Europe by partnering with Shapeways. Demuro claimed that one of the company’s biggest growth barriers within the surgical field was a lack of reliable facilities for 3D printing models. So instead, the new collaboration will leverage Shapeways ISO 9001-compliant manufacturing sites in Long Island City, New York, and Eindhoven, in the Netherlands, to enhance Armor Bionics workflow. Overall, Armor Bionics will deliver highly accurate 3D models to customers really fast, no matter where they are located. As part of their partnership, Armor Bionics CEO Demuro worked with his team to review the first 3D model they got from Shapeways. He described it as “absolutely perfect.” In fact, the startup’s engineers measured the size of every bone to make sure it was as accurate as the design file they originally sent. In comparison, Shapeways’ model was “flawless.” Customized medical models are an ideal preoperative planning tool proven to reduce surgery time in the operating room (OR), shorten recovery times for patients, and aid surgeons in anticipating potential complications. As research studies continue to show, the 3D printed surgical model market is growing rapidly, expected to reach $3.7 billion by 2027. This unique development is poised to become the standard of care for surgical interventions in the next decade. Innovative medical models offer a complete roadmap for treatment and surgery, educating patients, empowering surgeons, and preventing complications in the OR. Furthermore, according to Armor Bionics, the relevance of 3D printed medical models becomes even more apparent when surgeons are preparing for delicate procedures such as spinal surgeries. Viewing a physical 3D model of a spine, heart, or another internal organ allows doctors to plan, adjust, and practice the surgery beforehand, which leads to shorter surgeries. For example, surgeons can make smaller incisions after planning on physical models, leading to reduced bleeding and quicker recovery times. At the Hospital Universitario Austral in Argentina, Dr. Christian Kreutzer, Chief of Congenital Heart Surgery and former fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital, worked with Armor Bionics and Shapeways to replicate an eight-month-old patient’s heart. Kreutzer said the online platform easily converted scans into physical 3D models to scale and that while analyzing the medical model, he could adapt the planned surgery to reduce the recovery time by half and save the baby’s life. The new partnership comes on the heels of some big news for Shapeways. Just last April, the company announced it entered into a definitive agreement with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Galileo Acquisition to take the company public. After successfully delivering over 21 million parts to one million customers in over 160 countries and disrupting a multi-billion dollar global manufacturing market by digitizing end-to-end manufacturing processes, the move implies an initial enterprise value of approximately $410 million. In addition, Shapeways expects to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker “SHPW” through a transaction that will ensure $195 million of net proceeds to scale materials, markets and technologies, and expand its capabilities to accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing in key markets, including medical. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com July 28, 2021 at 07:48AM
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Farsoon, Ricoh & FABULOUS Demonstrate 3D Printed PA 11 for Water and Food Industry https://ift.tt/3iW5JW3 Powder company FABULOUS has released a number of industry-specific materials for powder bed fusion. The newest include two PA 11 products, Bluecare and Active, for the food and water industry respectively. These powders have been dialed in on Farsoon systems and are being used by RICOH’s 3D printing service, as well as other customers. The Bluecare material is actually blue, which helps get parts noticed should they fall into a food production line. It also has the relevant EU Food Contact Approvals. A Mr. Panchot, of IDPRINT 3D, is a user of Bluecare, 3D printing modular food conveyors with the material. About the product, he said, “BLUECARE is the ideal material for additive manufacturing of parts for food conveyors, avoiding the manufacture of a mold that is too expensive for the number of parts to be made.” Some readers may not realize that there is a lot of customization going on in 3D printed parts for the food industry. A lot of lines are custom, have customized features, or need to be improved and modified. 3D printing is the perfect improvisational technology to do this with. This is a widely underrepresented and overlooked application that is really quite large. Another application that is growing is in the water industry. RICOH is using FABULOUS’s Active material which has a “Accréditation de Conformité Sanitaire (ACS),” a drinkable water standard analogous to the US NSF-ANSI 61 certification. The company is using it to 3D print water pump strainers, another super overlooked application area that is fast expanding. In addition to these powders, Fabulous can make you a master batch or a custom material. Master batches are often colored lots of material that are custom to a particular part or client. The company also has PA12, a cheaper PA12 GB, a PA11, a PA11 black, a higher performance PA11, a TPU, PP and PA6 MF. We’re seeing a huge trend in industry-specific applications, machines and materials come to the market these last few years. Companies are increasingly trying to accelerate 3D printing adoption by developing and launching specific products that meet specific use cases. This is easier for customers and allows industry players to command more margins. On the back of that, there is another interesting development wrapped up in this announcement. In the regular polymer processing world, compounders are important players. They take large amounts of polymer from big firms and then incorporate additives to make them more suited for particular uses. So, a clear plastic is transformed through additives into one perfect for your sandwich containers. In the material extrusion world, there are already a lot of compounders active either directly through offering filament or through working with filament companies. Compounders customize the versatile beast we know as plastic so that the end product is perfect for that one application or customer. In powder bed fusion, we have traditionally not had much compounding activity. Dresslers can grind and make powder for you or you could have gone to ALM to make custom batches. Maybe if you asked nicely, Lehman and Voss could do it for you. There are some other firms, too, but generally making powder bed fusion powder is hard. FABULOUS is essentially a compounder for the powder bed fusion market. And this is an excellent development because it means that powders can better conform to part needs in individual cases. Rather than making a one size fits all powder here custom materials can be made for your part or your application. One of the best independent compounders and PA suppliers to me has always been Exceltec. This firm was led for 15 years by Olivier Coulet, who went on to head materials at Prodways before founding FABULOUS seven years ago. So, even though you’ve never heard of it, FABULOUS has a ton of experience. This is very advantageous for us all. I hope that FABULOUS grows and more companies join it to take us from standard powders to the best powders for each and every part. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com July 28, 2021 at 07:06AM
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How the Tractus3D printers shook up the channel letter industry https://ift.tt/2UPoWAY Shaking up a industry is not something you do easily. Especially in an industry where you are already top notch and want to keep the highest standards, and even elevate them to the next level for your clients. Still our client, Styles Werbetechnik, started the journey to investigate and find an new a futureproof system that would allow them to manufacture profile/channel letters in various thicknesses, shapes and materials, and, if possible, to do so using as single production method. That’s when they contacted Tractus3D and their local reseller. Resulting in a big shake up of another industry and some big advantages. Channel letters everywhereChannel letters are everywhere, come in all kinds of sizes, shapes and materials. They are usually made of aluminum or plastics, can be painted or unpainted, and come with or without lighting. In other words, they come in a wide variety of designs, shapes and materials. Just have a look around in any mall, shopping street or company logo, you will see channel letters everywhere. For Styles Werbetechnik it is one of their focus points, and they are the market leader in Germany. To keep ahead of the competition and make sure they would enhance their business, they started searching for a new, futureproof production method for their channel letters.
Researching the futureImplementing a new system into an existing production procedure is not something you do in a heartbeat. It takes a thorough research period to find the perfect production method that is not only futureproof, but also scalable, and will help the end clients. The 3D printing process emerged as a future proof and modern solution. Unfortunately there was only little information available on the market about devices, materials and actual possibilities for this specific case. Styles decided to tackle the project together with local reseller Gröner and of course Tractus3D. This meant that there where short communication lines, fast and high quality support, and making big steps in a short amount of time. This made sure that not only the desk research but also the practical test where done proper, and that it would be the right choice for the future. From test phase to productionThe first test where done on a Tractus3D T1250, a ‘small’ DESK series 3D printer. With a printing surface of 35cm in diameter, and up to 60cm in height, this would be the perfect size for some smaller channel letters. The results where even so good, that after the first “small” tests, in just a few hours, the channel letters where already so accurate, they could be installed already. The highest possible standards regarding the surface finish and the materials itself where pursued and achieved. This would help in marketing the “arrival of 3D printing” for signage and profile letters, and strengthen the trust in the new product. 3D printing is the futureAfter the test phase it was time to get the large volume 3D printer, the T3000 with a print bed of 1 meter in diameter would bring the size that was needed. During the stress tests for the channel letters, the endless possibilities of the Tractus3D printers where even more apparent then ever. Difficult shapes, perfect serifs, sharp angels and other design element can easily be created. In comparison with the old conventional production method, whish reached the limits faster. For example the depth of a channel letter would normally start at 60mm, but now they can even go down to 30mm in depth, and get illuminated without having to resort to expensive molded opal glass.
Cost reductionThe endless possibilities are not the only reason to implement a new production process. As every healthy business, the costs are always something to keep an eye on. A Tractus3D printer can run day and night unattended, which mean the less cost of labor, but also more production time. Also the filaments have a cheaper base price and there is almost zero waste. And of course with the new possibilities in sizes and shapes, there is an bigger advantages of the competition. Depending on shape and form, the custom channel letters and parts can be offered in a faster timeframe and up to 30% cheaper. Want to see how you can shake up your industry with 3D printing? Get over to Tractus3D.com and get in contact with us. Article based on Tractus3D case: https://tractus3d.com/used-by/cases/styles-werbetechnik/ 3D Printers: T1250: https://tractus3d.com/products/t1250/ T3000: https://tractus3d.com/products/t3000/ Other links Large volume: https://tractus3d.com/series/large-volume-series/ Tractus3D: https://tractus3d.com Contact: Mollo Jongbloed Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com July 28, 2021 at 06:36AM
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CSM Graduate Showcase Identity https://ift.tt/3iUjGE6 We’re big fans of the vibrant, psychedelic-leaning visual identity for this year’s Central Saint Martins Graduate Showcase, which is currently online showcasing work from across the London art school. Taking the theme ‘bloom’, the identity uses machine learning to create emerging translations of the word to create a visual and thematic focus on ideas around growth and joy. As with every year at CSM, the identity was created by students from BA Graphic Communication Design course. The 2021 designers are Tom Bugg, Jann Choy, Betty Lu, Jessie Zhang and Max Zimmerer, who are now known collectively as Applied Logic. The team met while studying on the Creative Computing Diploma at UAL’s Creative Computing Institute, which is an elective year taken up between second and third year. It was decided that the identity would be created through processes based on Generative Adversarial Networks, or GANs, “a process of machine learning in which two models are set against each other and through that relationship become more precise or powerful,” as CSM explains it. “We were looking at GANs, and we could see it searching, getting data and deciding what it wants more of,” Jann Choy told the college. “It exactly represents what we were going through as students.” A key concern for the design team was to represent the plurality of the CSM community within a single design, and so it opted to take a multi-lingual approach. As such, the designs were based on translations of the word “bloom”, with staff and students contributing a total of 35 translations that were fed into the GAN. “This year, everyone was in different countries and time zones and we wanted to acknowledge that,” says Choy. “Having different languages really cemented the idea that it’s not just you but our whole community that’s growing together from different parts of the world.” As the design process continued, the images became more nuanced and complex so that the final system evolved to be two layered GANs, “emerging but also influencing each other. It was initially black and white but once colour was introduced it was emotionally transformed,” the designers explain. “Growth isn’t always linear; you go back and forth, you discover and rediscover,” says Max Zimmerer. “Even when we were introducing colour to the neural network, we spent a lot of time figuring out a colour palette, but once we fed it into the network, we relinquished control a bit. We didn’t know exactly what was going to happen and how it would interpret this information.” The images were created by a mixture of deliberate “training” of the GAN, and the randomness and chance inherent to such a system. The result is a beautifully woozy system of bold colours, stark black and white forms that take on an eerily spooky appearance, and barely perceptible character forms, which can be used for a huge range of applications and creates a beguiling system built on far more than what meets the eye. Printing via People of Print https://ift.tt/2DhgcW7 July 28, 2021 at 04:34AM U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors to Meet Aug. 6 https://ift.tt/3bxIa3X July 27, 2021 U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors to Meet Aug. 6WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors will meet Aug. 6, 2021, in open session at Postal Service headquarters, 475 L’Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington, DC. The public is welcome to observe the meeting beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET in the Benjamin Franklin Room on the 11th floor. The Board is expected to discuss the following items:
A public comment period will begin immediately following the adjournment of the open session on Aug. 6. During the public comment period, which shall not exceed 60 minutes, members of the public may comment on any item or subject listed on the agenda for the open session above. Registration of speakers at the public comment period is required. Speakers may register online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BOG-08-06-2021. Onsite registration will be available until thirty minutes before the meeting starts. No more than three minutes shall be allotted to each speaker. The time allotted to each speaker will be determined after registration closes. Participation in the public comment period is governed by 39 C.F.R. 232.1(n). Open session meetings of the Board of Governors are available on live audio webcasts 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 generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. ### Printing via USPS News https://ift.tt/2hH9aDC July 27, 2021 at 03:06PM
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Literary Arts Stamp Series Honors Cross-Genre Author https://ift.tt/3bxIa3X July 27, 2021 Literary Arts Stamp Series Honors Cross-Genre AuthorU.S. Postal Service Issues Ursula K. Le Guin Forever stamps PORTLAND, OR — The forward-thinking and genre-crossing writings of acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin, whose novels and short stories increased appreciation of science fiction and fantasy, are being celebrated with a new Forever stamp — the 33rd in the Postal Service’s Literary Arts series. The stamp was unveiled in a ceremony today at the Portland Art Museum. As an author, Le Guin was interested in more than just science fiction and her prescient writings are now viewed as more than just fantasy. “Ursula once said she wanted to see science fiction step over the old walls of convention and hit right into the next wall — and start to break it down, too,” said Joseph Corbett, U.S. Postal Service chief financial officer and executive vice president, who served as the stamp ceremony’s dedicating official. “She felt the ideas represented in her fiction could help people become more aware of other ways to do things, other ways to be and to help people wake up.” Joining Corbett for the ceremony were India Downes-Le Guin, granddaughter of Ursula K. Le Guin; Linda Long, University of Oregon Libraries; Amy Wang, columnist, The Oregonian; and Martha Ullman West, arts writer. The stamp features a portrait of Le Guin based on a 2006 photograph with a background that references the wintry world and characters she created in “The Left Hand of Darkness.” Designed by Donato Gionacola, with Antonio Alcalá as art director, Le Guin’s name appears along the bottom of the stamp. The words “USA” and “THREE OUNCE” are printed vertically down the left side. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 3-ounce price. News of the Ursula K. Le Guin stamp is being shared with the hashtag #UrsulaKLeGuinStamp. Background Born in Berkeley, CA, in 1929, Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was deeply interested in Native American cultures from a young age. It was a fascination that would inform her later work. After graduating from Radcliffe College in 1951 and earning a master’s degree from Columbia University in 1952, she began exploring the potential of science fiction and fantasy in the early 1960s, publishing her first novel,“Rocannon’s World,” in 1966. The novel intertwined elements of fantasy and science fiction — and inspired two sequels — while establishing a setting for many later novels and stories. Le Guin’s writings were markedly ahead of the times. In 1969, she published “The Left Hand of Darkness,” a novel about an Earth diplomat named Genly Ai, who journeys to a wintry planet where two nations teeter on the brink of war — and where the inhabitants have no fixed gender most of the time. The book, which won the Hugo and Nebula awards in science fiction and fantasy, broke new ground and was often praised as the novel that permanently raised the literary expectations for science fiction. In addition to the novels and fiction that won her dozens of literary awards and legions of avid readers, Le Guin also published volumes of poetry, wrote realistic stories about life in a small Oregon town and started a blog at the age of 81 that became the 2017 essay collection, “No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters.”She also published a translation of the classical Chinese philosophical and religious text, Tao Te Ching, the result of 40 years of Taoist reading and reflection. Le Guin is credited with championing the literary and artistic value of science fiction and fantasy, as well as encouraging more women to write and read fiction in both genres. At the same time, she inspired many readers and writers of color by placing nonwhite characters at the center of her work and by tackling issues of racial injustice and colonialism in nuanced ways. Through lifelong interests in mythology, anthropology, feminism and Taoism, as well as through her wide-ranging translations, essays, poetry and nonfiction, Le Guin demonstrated that no writer needed to be limited by the boundaries of any genre. 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. Information on 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. ### Printing via USPS News https://ift.tt/2hH9aDC July 27, 2021 at 01:05PM Bioprinted Ear and Nose Cartilage Reconstruction Closer Than Ever to Clinical Trials in the UK7/27/2021
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Bioprinted Ear and Nose Cartilage Reconstruction Closer Than Ever to Clinical Trials in the UK https://ift.tt/3x5zFnB After more than two decades of life-changing medical research for people with disfigurement from major trauma and burns, the UK fundraising charity Scar Free Foundation announced a pioneering £2.5 million research program that aims to revolutionize ear and nose cartilage reconstruction using bioprinting and patients’ own cells. The three-year program at Swansea University in Wales could advance 3D bioprinting of cartilage for facial reconstruction while examining how facial scarring affects mental health by analyzing data from the world’s largest cohort of people living with this visible difference. Along with the Welsh government organization Health and Care Research Wales, Scar Free revealed that the new “Programme of Facial Reconstruction and Regeneration Research” at Swansea University would advance the development of 3D bioprinted facial cartilage using human cells and plant-based materials for future treatment of people in the UK and across the world who are either born without body parts or live with facial scarring as a result of burns, trauma or cancer. According to Scar Free, scarring affects over 20 million people in the UK. Moreover, the physical impact of severe scarring can require frequent operations, skin grafts, and daily physiotherapy, not to mention the psychological impact on patients and their families. Some of the most common causes of scarring arise from cancer surgeries and burn injuries. However, this is an area of medical research that has been critically underfunded. Scar Free is out to change that by supporting research that alleviates the physical and psychological burden of scarring. For example, the foundation explained that patients living with the loss of ears or noses had told researchers that existing plastic prostheses didn’t feel “part of them” and would prefer that their own tissue is used for reconstruction. By creating a custom cartilage scaffold which the patient’s own stem cells grow onto, surgeons would avoid the need to take cartilage from elsewhere in the body (which would otherwise lead to painful surgery and further scarring). Led by Iain Whitaker, Chair of Plastic Surgery at Swansea University Medical School and Surgical Specialty Lead for Health and Care Research Wales, the pioneering program builds on an initial study supported by the Royal College of Surgeons and based on the Medical Research Council-funded work of Zita Jessop, now a Senior Lecturer in Whitaker’s team. Her specific research called 3D BIO-FACE will be taken to the next stage and include scientific studies to determine the ideal combination of cells to grow new cartilage, optimize nanocellulose bioinks for 3D bioprinting patient-specific cartilage constructs, and show that they are safe, non-toxic, and well-tolerated by the immune system. Whitaker’s lab, known as the Reconstructive Surgery & Regenerative Medicine Research Group (ReconRegen), established in 2012, has developed into the largest single-center reconstructive surgery research group in the UK and has been leveraging bioprinting technologies for years. Including five-year-old groundbreaking UK-funded research shows how nanocellulose is compatible with human cells that can be 3D printed as a support structure in bioprinting – and also that living cells can also survive the printing process. Whitaker and his group’s goal has been to develop anatomically shaped tissue tailored to individual patients that can survive long-term. Thanks to 3D bioprinting, this is becoming a reality. By developing 3D bioprinted facial cartilage using human cartilage-specific stem-progenitor cells and nanocellulose as a bioink for facial reconstruction, surgeons could create durable cartilage constructs that can be safely and effectively implemented in human clinical trials. If successful, the outcomes could revolutionize reconstruction in patients affected by facial deformities and eliminate donor site scarring and other complications. Whitaker highlighted that a successful translation of this research program would “transform the future of surgery,” since the scientific concepts and platform technologies of their work can be applied to tissue types such as blood vessels, nerves, bones, skin, and fat, not just cartilage. In the UK, the ability to successfully 3D print living tissue has been highlighted by the Royal College of Surgeons as one of the futures of surgery, and the UK Government selected regenerative medicine as one of the “eight great technologies” to propel the UK to the future growth, went on Whitaker. On a more personal note, Scar Free’s Lead Ambassador, Simon Weston, a veteran of the British Army who endured years of reconstructive surgery following a life-threatening injury during the 1982 Falkland War, said this research would have made a big difference to him. “There simply wasn’t the research or capability at the time to rebuild my ears – I literally had to watch them fall off. This research also avoids the need for skin grafts taken from other parts of the body – a process which itself can be very painful and leaves behind new scars,” said Weston, who went on to become a patron of several charities that support people living with disfigurements, and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his courage and charity work. Developing cutting-edge research to reconstruct defects in a way that was impossible before has the potential to change patients’ lives. Bioprinting technologies are an ideal vessel to deliver highly anticipated advances in facial reconstruction through human cells but without any invasive procedures. As a result, the advance could limit the consequences of facial scarring both physically and emotionally, giving surgeons the revolutionary ability to reconstruct people’s faces using their own cells without the need for further scarring. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com July 27, 2021 at 09:06AM
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Continuous Composites Receives $17M for Carbon Fiber 3D Printing https://ift.tt/3zxxwD0 Shortly on the heels of launching a lawsuit against competitor Markforged, Continuous Composites has closed a $17 million Series A financing round. Led by B. Riley Financial subsidiary B. Riley Venture Capital (BRVC), this is the Idaho startup’s fifth funding round, bringing it to a total of $20.7 million in financing. Previous capital has been received by materials developer Arkema and centuries-old construction materials giant Saint-Gobain. Continuous Composites says that the funding will aid in bringing its proprietary Continuous Fiber 3D Printing (CF3D) technology to market while “advancing and protecting its patent portfolio”. In other words, it sounds as though some of these funds will be used in its lawsuit against Markforged, the first to commercialize the 3D printing of continuous reinforcement fibers, but perhaps not the first to patent it? CF3D is a unique technology that feeds continuous reinforcement fibers into a 3D printing head, where it is saturated with a photopolymer matrix material. As it exits the printhead, it is cured in place. The technology has been shown mounted to industrial robotic arms capable of 3D printing materials in mid-air. In addition to 3D printing with a variety of materials, the company is able to embed electronics and other functional items into the prints as they are built. This has fueled Continuous Composites’ work with the U.S. Air Force.
It will be exciting to see how the startup’s technology is used by customers when it finally makes it market officially. It will have a growing number of savvy competitors to fight against, in addition to Markforged, including Arevo, Impossible Objects, CEAD, Fortify, Anisoprint, and 9T Labs. Given that it may have the earliest patent on continuous carbon fiber reinforcement for 3D printing, does that mean that some of these businesses will have to look over their shoulders? If it targets Markforged on the desktop, will it also target Arevo for large-format continuous carbon fiber 3D printing? Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com July 27, 2021 at 08:36AM
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What Makes EOS so Good? And Where Is It Weak? https://ift.tt/3l127VB (3DPrint.com PRO is available only to subscribers) EOS is a privately held company that leads the world in polymer laser powder bed fusion (PBF). It is also the leading player in metal PBF. In this article, we will look at what makes EOS such a strong and successful firm and where the company is weak. Subscribe to read the remaining PRO Analysis.SubscribeAlready a subscriber?You are set to receive premium content directly to your inbox twice a month. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com July 27, 2021 at 08:06AM |
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