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Sika and PERI Invest in Robotic Construction Startup Mesh AG https://ift.tt/PlAy1sz Sika, the Swiss chemical giant, announced a joint investment with PERI Group, one of the world’s largest formwork and scaffolding makers. The two multinationals are investing in a Swiss robotic arm startup, called Mesh AG, inventor of the world’s first robot-assisted technology capable of creating reinforced concrete structures without using conventional formwork. Mesh started out as a research project, spanning the course of 10 years, at ETH Zurich, one of the world’s most respected research institutions. PERI Group is a partner of, and investor in, COBOD, the largest additive construction (AC) firm in the world, while Sika introduced its first concrete printer about a year ago. Thus, while MESH Technology (as the company has branded its proprietary robotics system) is not itself an AC application, it nonetheless has clear potential to be combined with AC applications, and in turn, helps expand the horizon for what can be done with automated digital construction. In fact, the first major use of MESH Technology was on the DFAB House, a three-story building in New York City, built by a team from ETH Zurich. The DFAB House, which broke ground in 2017 and was completed in 2019, set a precedent as the first successful construction project to combine use of multiple digital construction technologies. In other words, while it can certainly be used without concrete printers, it was designed to be used synergistically with them. In addition to the cages that MESH Technology produces serving as reinforcements for concrete walls, the cages can also be used as formwork, themselves. Moreover, the unique shapes the robotic arm is able to fabricate could give architects a much wider range of design options. The potential for AC to take off depends not just on the state of the technology on its own, but equally, on how the technology can be integrated with the rest of the construction industry. The more that the industry digitizes in general, then, the easier it will be for concrete printing to become the focal point for the future of construction. Among other reasons, this would be enhanced especially by the addition of something like MESH Technology because it allows builders using AC to remain flexible in relation to conventional construction supply chains. Along these lines, it is quite notable that the world’s largest formwork manufacturer sees such an upside to investing in an alternative to conventional formwork methods. The post Sika and PERI Invest in Robotic Construction Startup Mesh AG appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/jda3tAW July 26, 2022 at 10:05AM
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Raytheon Subsidiary to Perform $14M 3D Printing Center Expansion in Iowa https://ift.tt/xTsk6N7 When Raytheon Company and United Technologies merged in 2020, it became the $64-billion Raytheon Technologies, one of the world’s largest aerospace, intelligence services providers, and military manufacturers by revenue and market capitalization. Benefitting from the combined heft of the two heavyweight defense contractors was United’s 2018 acquisition, Rockwell Collins. The subsidiary, now dubbed Collins Aerospace, has all the more cash with which to grow its 3D printing operations. This includes a $14 million expansion to its additive manufacturing (AM) center in West Des Moines, Iowa. Adding More Metal 3D Printers for AerospaceCollins is adding 9,000 square feet to its 41,000-square-foot site, giving it enough space to add new metal 3D printers to its fleet. The first will be an NXG XII from SLM Solutions, which has eight times the build volume of Collins’ existing three metal 3D printers. The new 12-laser machine, pioneered in part by Divergent Technologies for its 3D printed car manufacturing, is expected to be fully operational in late 2023. “With this expansion, we will significantly increase our additive manufacturing capacity and enhance our ability to produce more parts faster for our airframe and engine customers,” said Renee Begley, West Des Moines site lead for Collins Aerospace. The West Des Moines facility is used by the defense giant to design and produce fuel nozzles for commercial and military aircraft. The new suite of printers will allow Collins to not only improve on its existing production capabilities but allow the company to broaden its metals portfolio. 3D Printed Aerospace PartsWhen it comes to manufacturing with metal 3D printers, the machines have to be qualified for specific materials and parts. For this reason, the machines have parameters set for a given component or series of components made from a particular metal. Now, Collins will have more machines to set up for each material set and part in its AM operations. What these components will be is not known, besides the fact that they will likely be related to fuel nozzles. Parent company Raytheon is collaborating with 3D Systems and the Air Force Research Laboratory on 3D printing for heat management and has researched heat exchangers and heat sinks since at least 2015. It has explored 3D printing for the optimization of cooling and heating, as well as reducing part count for missiles. It’s possible, then, that there could be some cross-pollination in those areas. The new expansion is just one piece of a larger, increasingly aggressive AM strategy. In addition to working with 3D printing bureaus like Nikon’s Morf3D and Sintavia, Collins opened a new additive manufacturing center at its campus in Monroe, N.C. in June 2022. Also in its global network of additive production centers are sites in Minnesota and Singapore. These are complemented by an additive research center in Connecticut. The post Raytheon Subsidiary to Perform $14M 3D Printing Center Expansion in Iowa appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/jda3tAW July 26, 2022 at 10:05AM
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Cadillac’s 3D Printed CELESTIQ: Is $300,000 Too Expensive for a Custom Car? https://ift.tt/TnWKzrb German car firms have been working on 3D printing for decades. Many have extensive labs and have been doing research and product development at scale for many years now. Their proximity to early leading service bureaus and 3D printing original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), as well as the enviable capabilities of Germany’s Fraunhofer institutes, built on this lead until it seemed insurmountable. Additionally, many of these firms leveraged the true manufacturing experience with 3D printing through the extensive use of 3D printed parts in F1 and custom high-end car customization. In the U.S. and Asia, there were crickets. Recently, a rather dark horse contender—albeit one of the two largest auto manufacturers globally—threw its hat in the ring for technology leadership in 3D printing. The candidate was GM. Choke on my coffee kind of moment, that was. GM recently told the world that it used 60,000 flexible ¨spoiler closeout seal” parts using HP MJF for the 2022 Tahoe model. The company had them produced via GKN´s Forecast 3D unit, using BASF Forward AM Ultrasint TPU 1. GM also relied on AMT’s vapor smoothing technology to finish the parts. It’s refreshing that a car company came out and showed the world about a case in which 3D printing was used for bridge manufacturing with vehicles. It has been happening for a few decades now, but no one discusses it. Kudos to GM for its transparency/marketing campaign. It is also notable that the part is a flexible one, something that additive manufacturing has traditionally not been good at. The company also announced that it will be putting over 100 3D printed parts, both metal and polymer, in its new Cadillac CELESTIQ model. GM has put up $81 million to manufacture the car at its Global Technical Center in its Additive Industrialization Center. I like that GM is jockeying for 3D printing supremacy, since this will only make the Germans work even harder. I also want to contrast its approach with the road taken by Mercedes, BMW, and Volkswagen. These firms have focused on deep technical and process knowledge, via in-house capability enhancement. They’ve been working on materials, automation, post-processing, qualifying methodologies and more for years. Meanwhile, GM, late to the party, starting only in 2020 or so, orders 60,000 parts from a service. I’m sure that the German firms have deeper AM knowledge, but if GM can lean on services to get the right parts and press release out the door to steal a march on them, then this should be a valuable approach. 3D Printing Car Parts without Powder Bed FusionSimilarly SOLIZE is using HP systems to make parts for Nissan’s NISMO cars. This could mean that we could see other car makers without much AM knowledge quickly come out with components via services. I’m surprised that Chinese firms have been so quiet as well, given the heavy push that the nation has for 3D printing. One could easily imagine Eplus 3D, BLT or Farsoon showcasing 3D printed car items soon. At the same, time emerging technologies, like metal binder jet and bound metal extrusion, could enable more car components still. Germany’s heavy investment in powder bed fusion also slowed German adoption of 3D printing and made the technology needlessly expensive. Powder bed has a lot of margins on materials and machines, as well as a very high cost basis. It also is very complex, meaning that companies will take a few years to deploy it. Due to the fact that it is a sophisticated technology that looks like it may work in a factory, firms pour years into industrializing it. This has lead to a long time in the woods for a lot of automotive applications in Germany. Now, with binder jet, lower part costs could be achievable, especially with superior automation. Software work would be needed to qualify new components and the technology is best for libraries of qualified items, rather than many unique ones, but there is potential there. Bound metal 3D printing with simple material extrusion systems could also offer low-cost components for some geometries, as well. Markforged and BASF will be sure to push such technologies further. Simultaneously, some higher performance polymers, especially polyamides, could further the penetration of 3D printing into automotive parts. This could be very cost effective, if the industry work on reliable material extrusion machines. The considerable amounts of money invested in powder bed fusion metals and polymers should lead to some new components being printed at scale, as well. Where Will Car Parts Be 3D Printed?Service platforms aspiring to perform manufacturing, such as MakerVerse, could further deploy parts without as much needed capital as services like Morf3D, Azoth3D, and Sintavia. However, where is the future of 3D printing in car parts? It seems to be the right time to go from prototypes to end use components. Indeed, we would expect many more firms to 3D print car parts in the future. Will they print them via services? Or will they ask their existing Tier 1, 2, and 3 partners to print these items? Auto OEMs have very little 3D printing knowledge and experience. They also have little room financially to perform deep, fanciful investments into 3D printing. Will car companies, then, 3D print parts themselves? For some of these components, it would make sense. OEMs could offer high-value, custom items, from which they capture all of the margins. Or they could have capacity to quickly perform bridge manufacturing, or create new models in-house. It remains to be seen who will 3D print car parts and where. Which Car Parts Will Be 3D Printed?Which components will be made for the auto industry with 3D printing is also going to be a bit of a conundrum. We’ve seen custom SLA, titanium, FDM, visible, hidden, and weight-saving parts, as well as parts with integrated functionality. Everyone is playing with different materials, technologies, and applications. Aside from jigs and fixtures, mold tooling is an obvious area. Mass-customized polymer parts also seem obvious. In some cases, we could see integrated low-part-count, weight-saving elements made, as well. Directed energy deposition (DED) and wire arc AM-style processes for chassis and larger components would be very exciting, but seem very far off. The big opportunity is in the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) business for the millions of car components worldwide. It’s also in the design of essential performance-enhancing items on new car platforms. Additionally, we should realize that there is a still a huge gulf between the cost of car parts made by other manufacturing methods and what the 3D printing industry is charging for its parts. This will need to be resolved for us to progress. CELESTIQThe one thing that I like most about the CELESTIQ is the fact that GM is going to hand-build the limited edition car itself, inside of its Global Technical Center. We often see 3D printing projects get stuck because people running production don’t want to spend time introducing a new technology to the manufacturing operations. Constructing this car by hand, will allow GM to learn about 3D printing parts and installing them on cars in defined and walled-off manner. In this case, AM doesn’t have to ride roughshod over the company’s many fiefdoms. Additive will only be performed for components on this specific series of cars. What I think is potentially very significant is what could happen should GM be very effective with this. Car companies make little money on volume cars, but do well on expensive options and fully-loaded expensive vehicle lines. OEMs also have sidelines in building customized autos, such as Bentley Mulliner, Porsche Individual, and Mercedes Guard. These are low-volume, but highly profitable. Ideally, a manufacturer might like to make customization commonplace via high-volume, profitable, unique parts sold to millions of people. To do this, you need a great deal of confidence and institutional change. This situation is ideal, but also extremely difficult to implement. Meanwhile, the ultimate custom car is the one-off concept car. This is a frightfully expensive vehicle, which costs millions, but showcases design futures. Concept cars are technical toys for all the world to see. Other auto brands sell low-volume super sports cars that cost $1 million or more. So, what if GM now starts to make low-volume, hand-built cars in-house all of the time? The company reportedly wants to charge $300,000 for the CELESTIQ. If the company uses 3D printing and complementary technologies, this could actually be very profitable. Rather than lose money on a concept car, GM could make working vehicle accessible every year in a limited number. These could be highly profitable for the firm, while wooing journalists and car aficionados alike. The cars could create a halo effect for the brand in a manageable and profitable manner. I’m not sure yet if this is the company’s intention. The CELESTIQ could be a one-off testbed to familiarize itself with 3D printing. But, imagine the marketing excitement you could create by making completely crazy, drivable cars sporting your brand before onlookers on the street. Imagine if customers paid up-front for your design exploration, generating brand excitement in the process. Imagine what you could do financially if you sold 300 cars for $1.5 million a piece to car collectors each year? Such an approach would leverage 3D printing well. AM is the key technology that could allow a company produce a lot of the components for such a car, in addition to a large amount of molds and tooling. Imagine, if the CELESTIQ was not just a one-off but a future method for creating buzz, excitement, and finding out what the world wanted. The CELESTIQ is the limit. The post Cadillac’s 3D Printed CELESTIQ: Is $300,000 Too Expensive for a Custom Car? appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/wCbFsRu July 26, 2022 at 08:09AM
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CEMEX on Construction 3D Printing Investment: COBOD Was a Good Bet https://ift.tt/SZhNQ9R CEMEX (NYSE: CX) is the latest in a long list of construction behemoths entering the additive construction (AC) space. Alongside GE Renewable and PERI Group, the Mexican cement giant has invested in COBOD. This gives the Danish concrete 3D printer manufacturer a significant boost in a sector that is becoming increasingly crowded with experts and pretenders alike. We spoke to Ibon Iribar, Investment & Open Innovation Advisor at CEMEX Ventures, about his view of the AC segment and the company’s recent investment in COBOD. Iribar has been analyzing AC for nearly six years, screening early-stage startups to partner with or invest in. This process began with a broad study of the construction supply chain, identifying challenges and then the technologies that could address them.
The Winning BetCEMEX is a Mexican multinational building materials company with $13 billion in revenue and over 41,000 employees. When its venture capital arm began studying the market about six years ago, Iribar screened just eight to 10 startups. Now, that number has increased to almost 50 companies. More importantly, where once these firms were 3D printing demonstration walls or individual homes, they are now constructing complete buildings with appliances, doors, electrical and plumbing—in some cases for entire small neighborhoods.
As a result of its analysis, CEMEX Ventures came to some interesting conclusions. First, Iribar and his team categorized companies depending on the technology they used, generally whether they relied on gantry systems or robotic arms. Then, they determined the advantages and disadvantages of each, as well as if the startups were producing objects for aesthetic or structural applications, end products or prototypes. Ultimately, gantry machines seemed as though they could be most easily industrialized. Given the extent to which CEMEX studied the segment, it’s significant that the first construction 3D printing company it decided to back was COBOD. Iribar noted that this firm was in part selected because COBOD was focused on being an original equipment manufacturer, rather than performing the actual construction. Additionally, it was one of the few companies 3D printing with concrete, rather than mortar-based products. However, COBOD lacked the material science expertise to push its concrete further, offering an opportunity for CEMEX to assist. D.FabThe majority of AC is performed with ready-to-mix dry mix mortars, which are five to 10 times the price of standard, ready-mix concrete. Together, CEMEX and COBOD sought a better system that could cut construction costs significantly. The work between the two companies began with the development of a new 3D printing additive called D.Fab. This admixture consists of specialty chemicals incorporated at the batching plant that makes the concrete more fluid and pumpable. Another admixture that speeds up the curing process is added in the dosing unit at the printhead, along with the concrete to gain shape. Altogether, D.Fab really only represents just one percent of the total building material. However, when combined with local sand, gravel, and cement, this admixture drops the cost of AC materials by 90 percent. D.Fab was first used to 3D print a 53 m2 (570 sf) house in Luanda, the capital city of Angola, by AC firm Power2Build. Using the material, the home cost less than €1,000 in concrete materials. This was followed by a 190 m2 (2,100 SF) home in Muscat, the capital of Oman, which relied on 99 percent locally sourced materials, aside from the D.Fab additives from Europe. The cost of the materials were cut to under €1,600. The same building with typical dry-mix mortar would have cost over €20,000, according to COBOD. D.Fab is just the first in material development between the two companies. They will continue to improve D.Fab, while also offering more sustainable mixes. CEMEX will aid the startup in delivering materials with locally available materials, as well as recycled materials, like waste concrete, wood, and glass. Housing ShortageD.Fab could be a game changer for the AC sector, not only because it enables the use of concrete for 3D printing but because it lowers the cost so dramatically. This, in turn, could allow construction 3D printing to develop into a fully-fledged industry and realize many of its purported goals, such as affordable housing. Though the technology is being marketed as a “solution” to the housing crisis, Iribar explained that it may not yet make sense economically to be “the” solution. That may change in the future, as the sector develops. Instead, it is the speed with which a gantry can be deployed that makes the big difference at the moment. This means that it could be used to rapidly 3D print emergency housing in response to a natural disaster or a military structure for an evolving battle.
For it to really address the housing shortage, Iribar suggests that the entire ecosystem needs to grow and increase the economics of AC in general. Beyond House 3D PrintingFor the time being, CEMEX is targeting the 3D printing of buildings due to the fact that it is more well-developed application. However, as COBOD has demonstrated through its work with GE Renewable Energy, there are use cases beyond 3D printed homes, apartment complexes, and offices. GE has seen that 3D printing foundations could potentially make it possible to support much larger wind turbines, thus generating more electricity. Other applications might include 3D printed stairs, tailored to specific landscapes, or facades. The 3D printing of earthen materials, like mud and clay, has proven to be difficult, as local soil differs from place to place. Therefore, an obstacle to widespread use of WASP’s clay printing technology is the variation in feedstock even when it’s all sourced from the same spot. If CEMEX is able to develop an additive to make concrete pumpable when mixed with local sand and aggregates, perhaps it could create an admixture that makes soil and clay more printable, as well. This extends further to the far-out visions of NASA to 3D print habitats on the moon. Maybe all it takes to 3D print moon dust is the right formulation of D.Fab. So, as it establishes itself in the AC sector by 3D printing buildings with COBOD, CEMEX will expand into other use cases. It won’t be the only one, of course, but Iribar sees competition in the space as a good thing.
As the growth of this ecosystem occurs, Iribar believes that AC will become increasingly integral to the global construction industry. It won’t replace traditional methods, of course, but, as with 3D printing in general, it will become a vital tool in the toolbox.
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Furniture-Maker Launches First 3D Printed Lighting Collection from Sustainable Materials https://ift.tt/ZLaXNQM Model No., started in Oakland, CA, in 2018, is a furniture manufacturer that uses PLA pellets drived from agricultural waste to 3D print made-to-order home furnishings. Model No.’s latest product line, a lighting collection, represents an entry into a new market sector for the company. Sustainable ManufacturingIncluding three different types of chandeliers and two types of floor lamps, the collection — like all the furniture Model No. makes — is printed from PLA pellets provided by NatureWorks LLC. Headquartered in Minnesota, NatureWorks is a subsidiary of agricultural products conglomerate Cargill (the US’s largest privately-held company by revenue), and PTT Public Company Limited, a Thai state-owned oil and gas company. The bioplastics that NatureWorks produces are made from a combination of food waste, corn and sugar cane detritus, beetroot, and wood dust. Additionally, Model No. sources all of the wood used in its products from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a nonprofit organization that evaluates timber goods, providing certification to companies it considers to be responsible managers of forestry resources. Thus, by utilizing a multi-pronged approach of bioplastics, sustainable timber, and on-demand production, Model No. has created a structure that can continuously be built upon as the company scales up, to gradually make further improvements to its carbon footprint reductions. Moreover, it’s not just the production process that sees benefits from the approach made by Model No. Although it still flies well under the radar, public perception has nonetheless become increasingly attuned in recent years to the fact that American furniture products are loaded with carcinogens, mainly used to make cushions more flame retardant. That leads to outgassing, or off-gassing: the slow evaporation of gases trapped in a material into the surrounding environment. Obviously, this becomes a problem when those gases are harmful to humans, and released indoors. In an interview with Barron’s from this past March, Philip Baum, Model No.’s CEO, addressed how the company approaches the problem of off-gassing in its manufacturing process. He asserted that Model No. had this specifically in mind, when it set out to create a couch that was composed of the highest percentage possible of the most natural materials available. With the proliferation of cheap LEDs in recent years, it’s crucial that this same approach be taken to the lighting sector. The use of bioplastics also helps maximize the likelihood that at the end of their life cycles, lighting products can be recycled, rather than thrown away. In the same interview mentioned above, Baum also said that one of the company’s major long-term strategic objectives is to open micro-factories, like the one at Model No. headquarters in Oakland, across the country. This would add the dimension of minimizing the distance of production from the point of sale, to the company’s multifaceted carbon emissions approach. Petrochemicals vs. PLAAs with the rest of Model No.’s product lines, the lighting pieces are not cheap, running from a range of $330-480 per configuration for chandeliers. The floor lamps are even more expensive: the Eos series, available in five different styles, is $430, while the 3-Point Floor Lamp costs $800. Still, consumers whose purchases are driven by considerations of sustainability tend to be able to afford higher prices, and willing to spend more. Further, prices for such goods will likely eventually decrease at least somewhat, the more that the consumer market for sustainable manufacturing grows. In contrast, it seems likely that consumer goods made from petrochemicals will only continue to increase in price, as the rising rate of fossil fuel costs shows little signs that it will slow down, long-term. Finally, the paradoxical nature of trying to consume ethically in a hydrocarbon-fueled, market-based economy is highlighted by companies such as NatureWorks, the supplier of Model No.’s PLA pellets. Aside from the question of whether PLA has truly meaningful advantages over petrochemical-based plastics in terms of carbon emissions, NatureWorks’ parent companies are an oil and gas firm (PTT), and Cargill. Former Congressman Henry Waxman once called the latter “the worst company in the world,” owing to its broad swath of environmental and human rights violations. Thus, there is also the obvious question about whether NatureWorks is just a greenwashing campaign by its parent company. And, in turn, that brings up the problem of how much that actually matters if carbon emissions are reduced long-term, anyway. Over time, it would, of course, be preferable if every link in the supply chain were beyond reproach. For the foreseeable future, however, it seems like we are going to still largely be relying on polluters to drive greater adoption of sustainable practices. Images courtesy of Model No. The post Furniture-Maker Launches First 3D Printed Lighting Collection from Sustainable Materials appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/wCbFsRu July 26, 2022 at 08:09AM
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Inkful Print Co. https://ift.tt/LM6m2aK Working under the name Inkful Print Co, Louise McCabe’s print work focuses on place and the way we relate to our environment. She tells us; “I always want my work to be bold, playful and full of character as that is the kind of art I’m drawn to myself. Patterns, textures and typography all play their part in my work. I love work that sparks joy and that influences me when I’m creating my own work or taking on commissions.” Louise is currently working on commissions including wedding stationery that relates to the wedding venues, and maps that play with perspective and scale. With a background in illustration, she is always looking for the story behind the print; “I want people to connect with narrative, wonder and imagine what’s going on beyond the image”. Louise has also worked in education and teaching. On one side of her family, her grandfather was a commercial artist and his father a cartographer, and on the other side there were several teachers. Louise has followed both routes; art and education. She studied Illustration at university where she loved working with collage, mixed media, typography, and printmaking, but it was during her teaching career that lino printing became a passion. She began selling prints under the name Inkful Print Co when she was on her first maternity leave, and it has taken off from there. Most of Louise’s works start from sketchbooks; “I especially love drawing around my local area in North Essex and in Suffolk where I grew up,” says the printmaker. However, not all of her work starts in this way as she also often draws directly onto the lino block, capturing the urgency and energy of the marks. “As I’m drawing I get a feeling for where the areas of contrast, pattern, texture will be,” describes Louise. Something that she is currently developing in her work is the use of collage. Louise uses misprints, or sometimes printed elements that have been printed especially for the piece of work, to create new exciting images. Recently, she created a series of collages called Home in which she used a mixture of architectural styles and surprise elements such as animals, plants, and typography. Louise comments; “I loved the way the collages created stories – viewers are drawn in to find all the details and piece together the narrative.” The process of collage is also helping the printmaker to develop her use of colour, allowing her to be bolder with her compositions, and making her more confident to inject pops of colour or create reduction prints. Louise states; “I have been increasingly working with collage during the planning stage, allowing me to experiment and play with colour, form and perspective in a composition. I love the surprise and unexpected joy you can get through moving elements around or tipping them by a few degrees – it adds energy and fun and that’s what I love.” A lot of Louise’s work is inspired by a sense of place and the way we relate to the environment around us. As a huge fan of architecture, buildings of all styles feature in her prints, and maps are also a constant inspiration. Nature and natural elements are always woven into Louise’s illustrations, as well as pattern and typography. “I am so inspired by the way a special place can make us feel and want to encapsulate that feeling in a print,” says the artist. Currently, Louise is working on a site map for a rural holiday accommodation which combines all of these elements. She used collage to create the composition, drawing, re-drawing, scaling areas up and down, cutting and sticking until she was happy. The carving process is due to begin and she can’t wait to get stuck in. “This year has been a real year for growth in my printmaking: I am taking on larger commissions as well as focusing more time to my own art and illustrations; I am teaching my first linocut workshops later in the year as well as taking a short course myself to develop my own practice; I am excited to be continuing my series of North Essex village prints as well as starting on my ever-growing list of personal projects! I’m so excited for what this next year will bring.” Printing via People of Print https://ift.tt/dYRp6th July 26, 2022 at 05:33AM
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AMS 2023 Lines up New 3D Printing Speakers and Sponsors https://ift.tt/1Burg8N Ahead of the 2023 edition of Additive Manufacturing Strategies (AMS), New York’s only 3D printing event is already beginning to add speakers and sponsors. The event, set to take place February 7-9, 2023, will feature three days of presentations and networking with three vertical topics per day. In the early days of planning the event, AMS has lined up Stifel as the presenting sponsor, with VELO3D as diamond sponsor and Additive Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) as a vertical sponsor. These firms are helping to support the foremost 3D printing event in the northeastern U.S., where over 1,000 people are expected to attend (both in-person and online) from all over the world. AMS will include panels and keynotes on nine vertical topics most critical in the fast-growing world of additive manufacturing. The show will be primarily “in person” (limited virtual participation available) to ensure maximum networking and discussion missing from larger hybrid events. For sessions ranging from “AM for Series Production of Metal Parts” to “AM in Transport”, AMS is arranging a diverse array of speakers, including the following:
The event will also feature our own team members, including Lawrence Gasman and Scott Dunham, President and Executive Vice President of Research at SmarTech Analysis respectively, as well as Joris Peels, Executive Editor of 3DPrint.com and Vice President of Consulting for SmarTech, and myself. More information about AMS 2023 will be made public as the roster is made complete. In the meantime, exclusive sponsorships are available for vertical topics as well as the overall sponsorship for the entire event. Apply to info@3drholdings.com. The post AMS 2023 Lines up New 3D Printing Speakers and Sponsors appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/wCbFsRu July 25, 2022 at 10:02AM
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AutoPrint3D Brings More Automation to 3D Printer Farms https://ift.tt/HJr8E2D AutoPrint3D is a new 3D printing automation from 3DQue for all 3D printers based on Merlin firmware, including unmodified systems and those with part removal tools and routines. With an annual subscription of $10 per printer per month, potential users can test out the software with a free seven-day trial Canadian firm 3DQue has been working on automating print farms for a number of years now. Its main product is Quinly, a subscription-based automation suite for desktop 3D printers. In its simplest version, the tool performs remote monitoring with printer video streaming, as well as remote start and stop, spaghetti detection. AutoPrint3D takes this a step further by adding automatic print bed calibration and leveling, automated part removal, and reporting. With systems outfitted with component removal tools, the software makes it possible for various part removal systems to run through the night without any operator involvement. AutoFarm3D incorporates further capabilities, including maintenance scheduling, a shared print queue, and more analytics. At $30 per month per printer, this version seems a bit steep in my own opinion. However, these tools are meant to save time for universities and manufacturers who rely on desktop 3D printers. By allowing users to initiate, schedule, and monitor batch jobs, it could could make an operation more efficient. 3DQue has also developed the VAAPR self-cleaning print bed, which prints at an angle and saves additional set up and turnaround time. Additionally, the company’s SmartTags act as a drag-and-drop queue system that is easy to manipulate and could save time. For example, if a user’s printer has a “PA 11” tag assigned to it, then print jobs to be fabricated from that material will be assigned to that printer.
Though the team at 3DQue may sometimes explain the capabilities of its tools in an unnecessarily confusing manner, they are performing critically useful work in 3D printing. Desktop 3D printers are increasingly more competent and reliable. There are now a growing number of print farms with dozens or hundreds of low-cost systems as printing services or straight manufacturing. With Replique now relying on metal filaments and Ultimaker systems to 3D print spare parts for train companies, increased innovation is close at hand. Simple metal sintered parts greatly expand the capabilities of desktop machines. Another step will come as these systems are able to print more materials more reliably. I really believe in a model whereby desktop 3D printers linked via specialty software produce millions of parts are made for maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO), along with manufacturing, mass customization, and more. If a print fails, a new one can be made on another system. If the printer fails, rip it out and replace it. 3D printing is developing in the same way as servers did, in which redundant, less expensive machines in racks replaced the super machines of yesteryear. Now, of course, a fancier, industrial system is more reliable. They also offer greater traceability and tighter integration with software. However, not everyone is trying to make components for Airbus. For some, inexpensive parts from desktop 3D printers may be a sufficient solution. These items will have to be finished and won’t be terribly pretty, but they will improve in time. On the whole, I believe that there is a giant potential category of components out there that could reliably be 3D printed at scale with desktop machines. Millions of items that will cost significantly less than those from industrial 3D machines would be a true disruption to our industry. And, yes, desktop printers won’t produce as goods as fine as powder bed fusion parts. They won’t be as reliable as industrial systems. In some cases, they won’t be as cheap as some processes either. However, it would only have to be effective for a tiny sliver of components to achieve meaningful volume. The post AutoPrint3D Brings More Automation to 3D Printer Farms appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/wCbFsRu July 25, 2022 at 08:27AM
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ASICS Enters 3D Printed Footwear Market with $80 ACTIBREEZE 3D Sandals https://ift.tt/f8sWPe0 Japanese multinational corporation ASICS specializes in producing sportswear, and its new ACTIBREEZE 3D slides, with a 3D printed honeycomb build, will soon be released to the market. The breathable, thick-soled sandals feature that telltale lattice structure so often found in 3D printed footwear, and call to mind the Adidas Adilette and the Yeezy Slide, which are also the kind of chunky, backless, open-toe kicks that are popular this summer. With rounded edges and the ASICS mesh logo adorned on the side, the ACTIBREEZE 3D slides are only available in black monochrome, but that just means they go with everything, right? These slip-on sandals may seem perfect for lounging by the pool—but that’s actually not what the shoes were designed for at all. While the slides do adapt and mold over time to the wearer’s foot contours for the highest level of comfort, they were originally meant for athletes to wear for recovery purposes after strenuous training and competitions. The 3D printed slides have open mesh perforations to keep them lightweight, as well as a soft, cushy, elastic feel. These features obviously welcome relaxation, but ASICS designed these sandals to have a more supportive build. Just as 3D printing can be used to fabricate athletic shoes, so too can the technology be put to work for the athlete’s recovery period.
The ACTIBREEZE 3D sandals, which took ASICS three years to develop, were actually debuted at the athletes’ village at the Tokyo Olympics. The slides were engineered to help relieve muscle fatigue, and its open-grid structure means good ventilation, as well as heat dissipation…very helpful features when you need to cool off your sweaty feet.
Other design features of the futuristic-looking 3D printed ASICS slides include a diagonal groove that goes across the thick strap of the sandal, along a perforated ASICS motif on the side; there’s also an ASICS logo that touches the back of the shoe’s heel. Additionally, the slides feature wide basenets for more stability. The “highlight” of the ACTIBREEZE 3D sandals is the diamond-shaped matrix inside the footbed. As previously mentioned, the insole of the 3D printed slides was designed to adapt to each person’s foot for personalized support and comfort, and the sole of the sandal itself has a bouncy feel with its thick, 3D printed lattice cushion. Do you know the scene in the movie Die Hard where John McClane takes the advice of a fellow airplane passenger and makes fists with his toes in the carpet? That’s what I want to do, but with these comfy-looking sandals. According to a report by SmarTech Analysis on the market potential of 3D printing in the footwear industry, the sector is expected to generate $4.2 billion in revenues by 2025, with end use parts representing $3 billion of the total sector by 2028. That’s all well and good, but as always when it comes to 3D printed clothing and shoes, I want to know what the company is doing to cut down on its wastefulness. Fashion and consumer goods are very polluted industries, from wasted material and water to unnecessary shipping and warehouse inventory. ASICS said that it uses 3D printing, 3D scanning, and design management to reduce, and even eliminate altogether, the needs of the later two issues. The corporation hopes in the future to get to a point where it can create custom shoes for customers at the point of consumption. As for material waste, Laura Bolgen, ASICS Global Footwear Sr Product Manager – Performance Running, said there is none.
I can’t quite believe these sandals are completely zero-waste, but it sounds like ASICS is on the right track, at the very least. Sometime in the next few weeks, the ACTIBREEZE 3D sandals will be released on the ASICS website, as well as select retailers, for $80. Ordinally that’s more than I’d pay for a pair of sandals, comfortable or not, but these seem sturdier and more comfortable than most, and I’ve seen other 3D printed footwear that costs a lot more and seems to offer a lot less.
The post ASICS Enters 3D Printed Footwear Market with $80 ACTIBREEZE 3D Sandals appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/wCbFsRu July 25, 2022 at 08:27AM
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CASTOR Now Analyzes 2D Files for 3D Printability https://ift.tt/D0J1I6Q Israeli firm CASTOR has updated its part identification software so that it can now analyze 2D files, in addition to 3D models. The software can now recommend 3D printing costs, viability, and technology choice for 2D PDF based parts. CASTOR’s CapabilitiesThis opens up the software to the many files worldwide that are not held in 3D formats and to firms that still rely on 2D files. Legacy maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) components can now be identified as to their suitability for 3D printing. CASTOR’s computer vision and machine learning-based algorithms divine the product manufacturing information (PMI), while continuously learning from that information.
The company claims that thousands of parts can be uploaded simultaneously, extracting such PMI data as size, volume, 3D printability and costings in the form of a report or Excel spreadsheet. Furthermore, the software can indicate how a part can be lightweighted, how an assembly can have part count reduced, and how 3D printing costs compare to traditional processes. Other factors analyzed include build volumes, tolerances, and failure potential, which relies on the company’s own finite element analysis (FEA) capability. The Business Case for CASTOROne of the most requested services in the 3D printing industry is the ability to know what parts can be 3D printed. In particular, large corporations are attempting to determine just where and how they can deploy additive manufacturing (AM). In some cases, they have have millions of parts, some going back decades, in a wide variety of formats. Somewhere in that haystack of components, there would be candidates that make an excellent business case for 3D printing. However, finding these items is expensive and time consuming, often requiring knowledge that these companies don’t have or don’t have in spades. CASTOR along with 3DYOURMIND, 3DSpark, SelectAM, and Pathfinder are active in the space. Their tools can accelerate AM adoption, provide businesses with more information about their additive opportunities, and help them to make adequate investments in 3D printing. These firms will have the problem that their total number of clients is potentially not as big as they may think. However, if they manage to really deliver on value, they could be used very widely in very many firms. So far, the large CAD companies have dipped their toes into this kind of capability, but not invested deeply. It would be one hell of a feature for Autodesk, PTC, Siemens, or Dassault, so the exit opportunities for these startups seem ever present. But it will be a long slog to get to credibility and penetrate the global client base for these firms. Right now, it looks like the opportunity is considerable but that the competition is ripe to be thinned out somewhat. By extending its analysis capability to 2D files, CASTOR can really make itself much more relevant to many firms, an important step for the startup. The post CASTOR Now Analyzes 2D Files for 3D Printability appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/wCbFsRu July 25, 2022 at 08:27AM |
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