USPS fourth-quarter service performance improvements include highest performance level in marketing mail service in 5 years https://ift.tt/3bxIa3X Aug. 26, 2021 USPS Fourth-Quarter Service Performance Improvements Include Highest Performance Level in Marketing Mail Service in 5 Years
WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Postal Service reported updated fiscal fourth-quarter service delivery performance that showed continued improvements versus the third quarter ended June 30 across all First-Class, Marketing and Periodical mail categories. Quarter-to-date service performance data for July 1 through August 20 included:
Additionally, for the week of August 14-20, the Postal Service achieved its highest level of service performance recorded for the Marketing Mail category in five years, matching a previous high (93.9%) recorded in August 2016. Since pandemic lows, the Postal Service’s demand for and delivery of Marketing Mail has experienced a recovery. In the third quarter, revenue for Marketing Mail rose approximately by $1.0 billion, or 42.2 percent, on volume growth of approximately 4.3 billion pieces, or 38.6 percent, versus a year ago. Marketing Mail, which has historically been a resilient marketing channel, has reestablished its value with many U.S. businesses as the economy has continued to recover from last year’s pandemic-triggered downturn and customers have realized benefits from investments in data and technology. “Service performance is steadily improving – particularly for Marketing Mail, a leading indicator of our performance – and a growing number of our customers are experiencing the benefits,” said CEO and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. “Still, we continue to work tirelessly to improve and upgrade our network, invest in and hire more people, and increase the reliability of our service to the American public, as we stay focused on achieving financial sustainability and service excellence.” Also contributing to recent service delivery improvements have been a strategic shift to more ground deliveries and less reliance on the limited cargo capacities of third-party air carriers. Delivering for America, the Postal Service’s 10-year plan for financial sustainability and service excellence, seeks to meet or exceed its goal of 95 percent on-time service performance for all mail and shipping product delivery standards as all elements of the plan are implemented. Service performance is defined by the Postal Service from the acceptance of a mail piece into our system through delivery, measured against published service standards. The Postal Service also is preparing for the higher delivery demands of the 2021 holiday peak season through increased hiring, the addition of millions of square feet of sortation facilities, and the installation of new processing equipment to accommodate higher volumes and increased customer demand for package deliveries. Since April, the Postal Service has installed 48 of 112 new package sorting machines, reflecting $40 billion of planned infrastructure investments over the Delivering for America plan’s ten years. This past week, machine installations occurred in Birmingham (AL) and Tucson (AZ). Other recent installations occurred in Anchorage (AK), Cincinnati (OH), Denver (CO), Eagan (MN), Huntsville (AL), Houston (TX), Memphis (TN), Mid-Carolina (NC), Philadelphia (PA), Seattle (WA), Shreveport (LA), Spokane (WA), St. Louis (MO), Teterboro (NJ), Toledo (OH), Traverse City (MI). 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 August 26, 2021 at 10:57AM
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Bioprinted Waygu Beef Developed by Osaka Researchers https://ift.tt/3kvY0yZ The bioprinted meat sector is experiencing a surprising boom. While we haven’t seen any widespread deployment of any 3D printed meat or meat substitute, there are a number of pilot products and projects currently underway. There’s even a meat printing startup traded publicly in Israel. And, as this segment begins to flourish and take shape, that means there will be a wider variety of meat types being created—even one of the most luxurious varieties on the market: Wagyu beef. At Osaka University in Japan, researchers have bioprinted a synthetic version of the expensive beef product, which can cost $200 per pound on average. Part of what makes Waygu so unique is its high intramuscular fat content (commonly referred to as marbling or sashi). Not only is the breed is fed for 600 days, which is twice the time of other types of cows, but the animals are also kept in a relaxed environment. In turn, the steak is rich, juicy and has a unique taste and texture. According to the team, the alt-meat mimics the complex texture of Wagyu beef. To pull it off, the researchers used stem cells from Wagyu cows to 3D print a steak with muscle, fat, and blood vessels that resemble the meat’s marbling. These included two varieties of multipotent cells, bovine satellite cells (bSCs) and bovine adipose-derived stem cells (bADSCs).
The team 3D printed 72 individual fibers of in a “tendon gel” bath of bSCs and bADSCs that would allow for the development of muscle, fat, and vasculature. The individual fibers were then assembled into a structure similar to that of a commercial steak. The tendon gel bath is described more fully below:
The fibers—made up of 42 muscles, 28 fat tissues and two blood vessels—connected together via the tendon gel, resulted in a steak-like meat of 5 mm in diameter and 10 mm in length. Sliced perpendicularly, the meat had a marbling structure resembling Waygu beef.
I’ve never had Waygu beef, but the result doesn’t exactly look appetizing, so I’ll have to take the researchers’ word for it. Regardless, bioprinted meat could potentially play a role in shifting consumers away from naturally derived meat. Though Waygu cows are said to be treated humanely, the large-scale meat industry is generally regarded as a cruel one. Moreover, beef generates 60kg of greenhouse gases per kg of meat produced. Before relying wholly on the underdeveloped meat bioprinting sector to reduce these emissions, however, it may be worth performing an lifecycle analysis or estimate of the energy footprint we can expect from bioprinted meat at scale. It’s possible that lab-grown meat and industrial 3D printers use significant energy that, at the moment, would be powered by fossil fuels. Alternatives like switching to vegetarianism or veganism or relying on locally produced meat from smaller, organic farms could have a larger impact than inventing an entirely new industrial segment for growing meat in vats. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com August 26, 2021 at 08:36AM
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Micro Metal 3D Printing from Holo Gets Series B Round, New Materials https://ift.tt/3gCmghI Holo, which uses photopolymer slurry and stereolithography (Slurry SLA, as I am dubbing it) to make precise metal components, has announced the completion of a series B round of funding. In the series B, Holo most likely raised more than $1, but the exact number has not been disclosed. Investors included: Lam Capital, Atreides Management and Prelude Ventures, along with previous backers Tao Capital Advisors and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
We previously profiled Holo’s wish to make millions of copper parts for industry, initially in house. Now, the firm, which is an Autodesk spinout, has opened up its PureForm 3D printing service for stainless steel, in addition to copper. With the new funds, the company wants to expand its facilities and move into more materials and applications. The firm is eying jewelry, dental, medical devices as well as electronic components. They also want to double the size of the company and offer even more materials.
Together with Lithoz, Admatec, MetShape, and Incus, Holo is adding a new quiver to 3D printing’s bow. Combining the precision of SLA and digital light processing (DLP) with sintering can lead to new business cases and new parts that are possible with 3D printing. With a focus on volume, Holo really has quite the value proposition. We must not forget that companies such as 3D Micro Print have been doing this kind of thing for a decade or more using other 3D printing technology. With similar sizes and volumes, what Holo is doing is not really new, exactly. But, given the investment by other industries in LCD, DLP, and other light sources, Slurry SLA processes can piggyback on these technological developments to increase their capabilities. SLA machines typically work well and Admatec, Lithoz similar firms have shown that production is viable with the technology. What is unique about Holo’s offering is that it is producing a high-volume solution that is more scaled to manufacturing and more production-line based than current solutions in Slurry SLA. Potentially, the firm could sell this line to services and end users, as well. This could really open up this technology for much larger volumes. Typically, so far, there have been a number of known, but not well publicized micro-scale 3D printing components selling in production runs of thousands and tens of thousands. This has been ongoing for many years now. With new attention and significant investment, Slurry SLA could very well be the technology that makes the micro-scale much more accessible.
Above, the company showcases copper micro inductor arrays, as well as jewelry pieces, that could very well be very interesting markets for Holo. The steel dental abutment is a potentially huge market, as well, with the right pricing and approvals. Holo could enable manufacturing in many areas with one and the same basic technology set up and many different materials. This could make for an exciting business case from the viewpoint of an investor in a potentially expanding market for myriad new applications and parts. I still think that Holo’s initial focus on copper was very exciting. This is a difficult and costly technology to do in many other processes, such as powder bed fusion. But, with an expanding materials portfolio, the company could yet find not one but many winning applications in high-volume metal printing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com August 26, 2021 at 08:06AM
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AM Investment Strategies Profile: The ExOne Company https://ift.tt/3Dnftlx Among the firms that will be participating in the SmarTech – Stifel AM Investment Strategies 2021 summit on September 9, 2021 is ExOne (Nasdaq: XONE), whose CEO John Hartner will be involved in our second panel of the day. Recent news of ExOne’s proposed acquisition by Desktop Metal (NYSE: DM) has been one of the most exciting stories of the year. With a goal of developing a metal 3D printer, ExOne began as the ProMetal division of machining and automation supplier Extrude Hone in 1995. Shortly after, the company was granted an exclusive license to commercialize the binder jetting technology invented by MIT. By 1998, it released its first metal 3D printer, the ProMetal RTS-300, with Motorola as its first customer. The technology works by depositing drops of binder onto a bed of powder, resulting in a green object that must go through a debinding and sintering process to create a final metal part. As it continued releasing new systems, it branched into the sand-casting market with the S10 sand 3D printer. By applying binder jetting to sand, it became possible to 3D print cores and molds for the casting of metal parts. The endeavor was pursued in tandem with the German company Generis GmbH, whose co-founder Rainer Hoeschsmann, became General Manager of ExOne GmbH in Augsburg, Germany. In 2005, Extrude Hone founder and CEO Larry Rhoades put all of his efforts into his metal AM operations, selling all but the 3D printing assets of his business to Kennametal. While Kennametal continued supplying tooling and metals, Rhoades established The ExOne Company, LLC. Interestingly, Kennametal has ventured into AM, officially establishing a Kennametal Additive Manufacturing division in 2019, where it sells metal powders, as well as engineering, and production services. Meanwhile, ExOne was shaken by the death of Rhoades in 2007, leaving the company to be purchased by a company wholly owned by S. Kent Rockwell. Rockwell has served intermittently as CEO, between 2013 and 2016, as well as for a short period before its current CEO, John Hartner, took the reins in May 2019. In 2013, the firm went public, launching an initial public offering on the Nasdaq. By 2019, it had launched over 12 3D printers and, as Hartner became CEO, was in the process of taking advantage of the renewed attention on metal binder jetting driven by HP and Desktop Metal. This led to the launch of the high-throughput X1 160PRO 3D printer, which was followed by a deal with Rapidia to sell an office-friendly bound metal extrusion 3D printer in 2021. By the time of its acquisition news, revenues for the company had reached $18.8 million in Q2 of 2021, a 69 percent increase over the same period in 2020 and 44 percent over Q1. Moreover, machine sales had jumped 114 percent from Q2 2020. Desktop Metal, which has transformed into a multi-process, multi-division startup seemingly overnight, agreed to purchase ExOne for $575 million in stock and cash. The deal has been unanimously approved by ExOne’s board and is expected to close in Q4 of this year. It will supplement acquiring companies very young line of bound metal extrusion and binder jetting machines with ExOne’s legacy of equipment and expertise. This will be integrated alongside, Desktop Metal’s medical 3D printing, polymers, and wood. Meanwhile, ExOne will be reinvigorated, as it takes a new direction tackling specific materials for specific customers with specific applications, such as aluminum and copper. To learn more about the company’s transformation and acquisition, as well as what it will mean for the 3D printing market, register for free to the SmarTech – Stifel AM Investment Strategies 2021 summit. On September 9, 2021, ExOne CEO John Hartner will participate in the half-day online event focused on 3D printing market activity. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com August 26, 2021 at 07:36AM
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Startup Accelerator, Singapore: 3D Printed Magnets, Noodles, and Implants https://ift.tt/3jjP3t3 One of the countries that is doing a bang-up job of stimulating the 3D printing sector is Singapore. Through Nanyang Technological University’s National Additive Manufacturing – Innovation Cluster (NAMIC) coordinating research, helping startups and hosting events, Singapore has cost effectively made itself a very attractive destination for 3D printing businesses. Whats more, they’re placing themselves to be the ideal place to host Asian headquarters for 3D printing companies from afar. I’ve decided to look a bit deeper at the startups and scale-ups in Singapore to see what’s happening there. Osteopore InternationalSingapore-based Osteopore International (OSX.AX) is already a listed company on the Australia Stock Exchange. The company makes porous bioabsorbable implants that aid bone growth. The company claims that its interconnected pore structures improve the “vascular ingrowth interface to…adjacent bone”. This helps to mend fractures, such as in craniotomies, where the natural healing process is aided and, after a year-and-a-half to two years, the polymer 3D print disappears. The polymer itself is a TCP-PCL blend, which unites bone-like tricalcium phosphite with the bioabsorable, highly changeable material polycaprolactone. The firm’s Osteomesh strips have gone through 501(K) FDA premarket submission and are made under good manufacturing practices. The strips can be pressed into fractures to help them heal, has properties similar to cancellous bone, and promote healing through capillary action, sucking cells into fractures. The team has been working on its products since 1996 and have implanted them since 2004. Osteopore will need time and cash to spread its innovation worldwide. Adoption by surgeons could also take time. Having said this, it could be revolutionary and be an evergreen tool in surgeons’ arsenals, once it is adopted. Bralco Advanced MaterialsBralco Advanced Materials has been using GE Additive’s machines to make magnetic, metal 3D printed components. The Singapore firm wants to use both binder jet and powder bed fusion to create hard and soft magnet components for use in stators and other electric motor components. Targeting markets such as aviation and electric vehicles seems to set the company up for growth potential, if it can reliably and repeatably make magnetic components. Surprisingly little startup activity is focused on magnets. And the work that is being done is usually by U.S.-based defense contractors working on missile components and the like. So, Bralco has managed to claim a huge niche for itself. Ideally the firm will be able to produce lighter motor components with optimized geometries that are less labor intensive and perhaps lower cost to make than with competing technologies. The company is now working on making soft magnetic components in low-carbon steel and iron, as well as permanent hard magnets in alnico. Alnico is an aluminum, nickel and cobalt material that is popular for hard magnets. Bralco has a huge and burgeoning area to play in and should they be able to keep costs down and make many parts. The firm has a bright future ahead of itself. Kosmode HealthKosmode Health is looking at developing a scaffold 3D printing technology, as well as novel low-cost bioinks, specifically for the cultured meat industry. The company has found a way to extract nutrients from plants. Now, they are developing a new plant protein composite bioink for scaffolds. They can then use this to make scaffolds for bioprinting with tunable properties so that degradation and strength for example can be controlled. The company has showcased its Wow noodles, a noodle that does not contain starch or cholesterol and is said to have no glycemic response. This, in and of itself as a product, could be very worthwhile. The founders have serious research credentials and deep experience. There certainly seems to be a lot of potential here in a lot of areas. Kosmode could have serious impacts on the food landscape, as well as on bioprinting. But, with so many moving parts and possibilities, can the firm focus and deploy capital where it is most effective?
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com August 26, 2021 at 07:06AM
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Virgin Orbit to Go Public via SPAC with $3.2B Valuation https://ift.tt/3DidZcr Richard Branson announced plans to take Virgin Galactic spinoff company Virgin Orbit public through a merger deal with blank check firm NextGen Acquisition Corp. II (NASDAQ: NGCA). Announced on August 23, 2021, the deal values Virgin Orbit at roughly $3.2 billion and includes $483 million in capital to scale rocket manufacturing and fund growth in its space solutions business and ongoing product development initiatives, including 3D printing rocket parts. Once the transaction is complete, the combined company’s common stock will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “VORB.” According to Virgin Orbit, the board of directors unanimously approved the proposal, which is expected to close in the last quarter of 2021. The special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal with NextGen could strengthen the production of space technology that, in the words of Richard Branson, “will positively change the world.” The British mogul, who recently became a commercial astronaut during Virgin Galactic’s first sub-orbital flight, said the Virgin Orbit team had proven its ability to “create new ideas, new approaches, and new capabilities.” Moreover, Branson’s team and the company’s transition into successful commercial launch operations is expected to intensify by 2022 since plans to ramp up launch activity and operate from several airports in the United States and Great Britain are in order. Since its founding in 2017, Virgin Orbit has developed the world’s first air-launched, liquid-fueled launch system. The LauncherOne can take off beneath the wing of a Boeing 747 carrier plane, also known as Cosmic Girl, from anywhere worldwide. Virgin Orbit’s highly differentiated air-launch technology has rapidly moved into successful commercial operations with three launches in just thirteen months, delivering satellites for customers like the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and NASA. It also has what the company is describing as “a 100% success rate on revenue-generating missions.” In fact, the company has already engaged approximately $300 million in active contracts, as well as a robust pipeline of commercial and government customers around the world. During a call with investors, Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said the company made “a conscious decision” not to replicate the same ground launch approach that many competitors are using today. The two-stage rocket system is “as simple as it gets,” went on Hart, considering that each stage has a single-engine. To give some perspective on the magnitude of this advantage, Virgin Orbit’s closest competitor, Rocket Lab, has nine engines. Propulsion is the biggest cost driver and the biggest drag on reliability for launch systems. Furthermore, Hart explained that: “The more engines you have, the more expensive the system is, and in general, the greater the part count, the lower the reliability.” On that note, the CEO went on to describe how Virgin Orbit has been leveraging advanced additive manufacturing through a partnership with machine tool developer DMG Mori to reduce engine manufacturing cycle times by tenfold compared to traditional manufacturing. The 3D printing technologies used by Virgin Orbit engineers are built into a state-of-the-art rocket manufacturing and testing facility with automated equipment. This allows the company to, for example, build tanks in days instead of months, which is usually how long it takes with conventional rocket production. Through a total investment of more than $1 billion, the company secured a fully operational 150 thousand square foot factory which is currently developing five rockets. The advanced manufacturing facility has ensured that over 90% of the rocket manufacturing is done in-house, leading to a 60% cost reduction for its first three rockets. Hart expects to continue driving down costs. For the Virgin Orbit SPAC deal, NextGen raised $383 million in cash and a $100 million fully committed private investment in public equity (PIPE) led by strategic investors including Boeing and AE Industrial Partners, existing Virgin Orbit investors, and NextGen. A blank check company targeting the industrial, technology, and healthcare sectors, NextGen is led by Co-Founders George Mattson, a board member of Virgin Galactic, Delta Air Lines, and Air France-KLM and Greg Summe, Managing Partner at Glen Capital. The company originally filed in March 2021 to raise $400 million in its IPO and previously announced a business combination with a leading manufacturer of fully electric medium to heavy commercial trucks, Xos. Virgin Orbit follows the path of sister company and space tourism pioneer Virgin Galactic, which used a SPAC merger deal in 2019 to go public and became a trendsetter for this type of risky private venture. Up until 2019, there was an average of 21 SPAC deals per year, but since Virgin Galactic’s highly publicized move, blank check mergers skyrocketed, driving 248 transactions in 2020 and 389 in 2021. Even Virgin Orbit competitors Rocket Lab and Astra Space announced their own blank check merger deals. Recently, however, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed changing some accounting rules for stock warrants that could make it more difficult for companies to go public through SPAC mergers. But just when it seemed SPAC operations were losing momentum, news of Virgin Orbit’s deal continues to fuel this alternative strategy to an IPO. In fact, Branson’s high-profile transaction will give the small satellite launch company the infusion of cash and hopes needed to expand its business. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com August 26, 2021 at 06:36AM
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Irrelevant Press https://ift.tt/3yiNsrQ Irrelevant Press is a zine collective and online store made up a group of friends who met in Oakland California: Mollie Underwood, Holly Meadow-Smith, Lizz Carlton, and Sarah Burke. The four of them have been working together since 2014 to create and publish zines, which typically explore the internet and contemporary culture. They also print and produce zines for other artists whose works have focused on everything from illustration to education. IP is a passion project and side-gig for all involved; none of them are academically or professionally trained in the arts, so affordability and access is central to all of their projects. “As a collective, our biggest motivation for making is building community around the specific content we print. We love making things with first time zinesters and collaborating with new artists. To us, zine culture is all about accessibility, so we try to provide a platform that removes any barriers to entry and priorities queer and trans folks and people of colour. In order to afford free printing resources for community organisers and activists, we’ll also take on projects for larger organisations.” Mollie is IP’s printing expert and is based in Oakland where she runs their West Coast studio. When she’s not folding zines, Mollie works at cultural institutions and presses in the East Bay. Lizz works alongside Mollie in Oakland and is responsible for their annual Mercury Retrograde calendar, which has become popular with IP followers. She has also recently completed her degree in Conservation and Resource studies, and is currently supporting the design of restorative residential ecosystems around the Bay Area. Holly runs the Brooklyn studio out of their basement and is the resident Excel whiz. Their day job is in the tech industry, but their passion lies in what is created after hours on their small press. Sarah is also based in Brooklyn, and is responsible for editing many IP projects. On top of her editing career, she also takes on freelance in podcast producing and consulting for a magazine. The collective also importantly note that they all own “very cute cats”. IP’s practice and process has hugely evolved over the years, and today they conduct a lot more printing, publishing, and distribution for others. Most of the time, folks approach IP with a finalised idea, already laid out and just about ready for print. Mollie or Holly then work with the artists on paper and binding decisions, and guide on the best way to get the projects out into the world. More collaborative projects often involve artists coming in with ideas which IP then create design / layout / content work for or vice versa. Mollie has worked with artists from Singapore and Germany on print projects after building relationships over email, which speaks to the strong and real community around print and zines. During the last year of quarantine IP been invited to join panels and teach classes on zine making which they have found to be “really rewarding and fun”. As a result, the collective are looking to build in these sorts of opportunities for education and involvement across a broader audience moving forward. They conclude; “The motivation for maintaining Irrelevant Press has always been to support our community and provide resources where resources are needed. That will continue to be our mission over the years and we hope that people continue supporting small independent publishing.” @irrelevantpress
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3D Printing News Briefs, August 25, 2021: Software Beta, Self-Replicating Printer, & More https://ift.tt/3BeBa5k We’re starting with materials in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, as XJet as announced the commercial availability of alumina ceramic. Moving on, Raise3D has announced the ideaMaker 4.2.0 beta, and an incoming MIT student won an IEEE Scholarship for his self-replicating 3D printer. Stratasys 3D printed several components for Champion Motorsport’s modified Porsche racecar. Finally, a creative maker used PLA to 3D print an adapter that turns an Xbox controller into a joystick. XJet Offering Alumina Ceramic Material Israel-based XJet Ltd. is expanding its AM materials portfolio with the announcement that its alumina (aluminum oxide) ceramic is now commercially available. The company chose to develop this particular material because it’s often been used as a technical ceramic, and because there’s a lot of market demand for parts 3D printed with its NanoParticle Jetting (NPJ) technology. The material offers great electrical insulation, high hardness, and is resistant to high temperatures, as well as featuring high mechanical strength, high thermal conductivity, and high wear resistance. A global customer in the US has been testing the alumina ceramic successfully over the last few months, and you can see it for yourself at several upcoming ceramics and AM shows, including Ceramics Expo in Cleveland, RAPID + TCT in Chicago, and formnext in Frankfurt.
Raise3D Announces ideaMaker 4.2.0 Beta Raise3D, which provides AM solutions for SMEs and LSEs, has announced the beta for its ideaMaker 4.2.0, which further connects and integrates the software with the ideaMaker Library, as well as adding Boolean operations, for an upgraded user experience. The online Library platform—live since last May—allows users to download various textures and optimized slicing profiles, and offers handy user tools, like the profile generator, which makes it quick and easy to generate a profile. With this upgrade, it only takes one click to select their preferred slicing profile, as opposed to downloading it from the Library first and then uploading it to ideaMaker. Other new features include a search tool bar, found under the Advanced Setting window, that can quickly find parameters that contain searched keywords, and the aforementioned Boolean operations, which is available directly in ideaMaker. This feature makes it possible for users to create unions, intersections, or subtractions of 3D models, enabling for more experimentation without needing to get into a different 3D modeling software. You can learn about more improvements and features available in ideaMaker 4.2.0 in the release notes, and download it here. Self-Replicating 3D Printer Wins 2nd at Regeneron ISEF 2021 The Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), established by the IEEE Foundation and administered by IEEE Educational Activities, was held virtually this year, and scholarship awards were presented to students for their outstanding projects. Brian Minnick, an incoming freshman at MIT who plans to study material science and engineering, won 2nd place and $600 for his self-replicating 3D printer, which he says creates “plentiful” opportunities, with the main application being the eventual creation of a self-replicating spaceship. Minnick believes that the high cost of building spaceships prevents long-term space travel, and wanted to change up the notion that self-replicating machines are only in science fiction and can’t print electronic parts or motors. To get around this, he developed a 3D printable sintered solder paste material that was conductive enough to work.
You can learn more about Minnick’s project here. Stratasys & Champion Motorsport 3D Printing Racecar Components Champion Motorsport won first place in the recent Time Attack 1 Division of the 99th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with its modified 911 Porsche GT2 RS Clubsport car, which features several 3D printed aerodynamic components created by its partner Stratasys—one of these components was the successful first application for its new toolless, carbon fiber-wrapped sandwich core technology. Based on an earlier project between the two, the 3D printed core doesn’t dissolve in water, and instead acts as a structural core for a finished prototype or part. Stratasys used high-temperature Ultem 1010 from petrochemical company SABIC to print a rigid honeycomb core wrapped in carbon fiber.
All told, Stratasys printed 16 aerodynamic parts for the Champion Motorsport project, some out of carbon fiber-filled Nylon 12, some out of Nylon 6, and some were the Ultem 1010 carbon fiber-wrapped cores. The parts consisted of a large rear diffuser part and front splitter, both of which were prototypes built for testing, along with smaller production parts like vehicle side skirts, winglets on the front bumper, and many of the strakes on the exterior to help control airflow around the vehicle. 3D Printed Flight Simulator Adapter for Xbox Controller Finally, maker Akaki Kuumeri hacked an Xbox controller, using a complex 3D printed adapter to turn it into a joystick for the Microsoft Flight Simulator game. You can’t really find an affordable wireless flight stick for the Xbox, but the typical controller isn’t great for flying, which is why Kuumeri just decided to make their own flight stick. The adapter is completely 3D printed out of PLA—no metal gears or screws needed—which allows for flexibility so it can be bent multiple times without snapping or deforming. Thin sheets of PLA were used to create functional hinges, and plastic linkages relay the flight stick’s circular movements to a joystick on an Xbox Series X controller; the thumb buttons on top of the flight stick send down presses to the action buttons so you can control the aircraft’s flaps, throttle, and trim. Kuumeri uploaded a simplified, free version of the adapter to Thingiverse, which helps other makers ensure that their 3D printer is sufficient enough for printing the real deal, as Kuumeri is also selling the 3D models and files for the adapter on Etsy.
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com August 25, 2021 at 09:06AM
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Direct Air Capture Tech to Be Enabled by 3D Printing with GE Research DOE Award https://ift.tt/2Wm5X1g The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is betting on still very nascent carbon capture technology to attempt to address runaway global warming and it’s turning to GE to do so. Along with chemists and engineers from UC Berkeley and the University of South Alabama, GE Research has been selected for a two-year project to develop a method for direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide (CO2). The DOE has awarded the team $1.5 million, with a $500,000 cost share from GE and its partners. The project involves the use of a 3D printed heat exchanger made with materials for absorbing CO2 from the air. The process is similar to a separate GE project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for extracting water from the air. The specifics of how that technology works hasn’t been detailed, other than that it will rely on a carbon absorbing material. GE will be 3D printing heat exchangers meant for optimizing temperature management within the carbon extraction system to maximize the process. The UC Berkeley group, led by Professor of Chemistry Omar Yaghi, is focused on the sorbent materials themselves, having researched this area since the mid-90s. “Since the first crystallization and proof of porosity of metal-organic frameworks in 1995 and 1998, respectively, we have been continually developing their chemistry and design on the atomic/molecular scale,” Yaghi said. The University of South Alabama team, under the guidance of Prof. Grant Glover, will be dedicated to determining the materials for the overall system. help inform the selection of the right materials for the system. Glover said, “Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) provide an exciting opportunity to design materials to separate gases. With the opportunity to pair these insights with the GE team that has expertise in manufacturing and product development, the possibilities of what we can bring to CO2 capture are quite exciting.” David Moore is the Principal Investigator and Technology Manager for Material Physics and Chemistry at GE Research. Moore explained that, by combining UC Berkeley’s knowledge of sorbent materials and University of South Alabama’s sorption modeling and testing with GE’s own expertise in materials, thermal management and 3D printing, the team will work to develop a unique system for DAC. “Through this project, we’re aiming to demonstrate the feasibility of a system that could become a future large-scale, economical solution for widespread decarbonization of the energy sector,” Moore said. The GE Research project is just one of four new endeavors dedicated to DAC that received a total of $6 million from the DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM). Georgia Institute of Technology will also be using 3D printing to create a modular DAC system with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which has already researched the use of 3D printing for carbon capture. Altogether, the DOE is funding 10 total DAC projects with $12 million so far as a part of the U.S. government’s goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Surely, 3D printing will play a role in optimizing a wide variety of designs for new energy technologies, but the fact that the DoE is investing so heavily in DAC is troubling, to say the least. The most important reason is that the planet needs to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 55 percent of 1990 levels by 2030 in order to prevent the climate from becoming so out of balance that it leads to irreversible changes to the ecosystem that could end life on earth. At the moment, DAC is an almost non-existent technology, meaning that, while it could have some potential in the distant future, should be more of a backup method for reducing atmospheric CO2. Instead, it is necessary to immediately reduce carbon emitting activities and keep fossil fuels in the ground. However, even if it were to develop at the necessary scale, there are a number of issues to consider, such as the fact that DAC could use up a quarter of the world’s energy by 2100, essentially exacerbating our existing overuse of energy rather than reducing it. Other issues include the fact that we don’t know if we could roll out such a technology at the proper scale quickly enough to address the climate emergency. Carbon Brief put it this way, in looking at a study related to DAC:
There are numerous other reasons to put DAC lower on the priority list when it comes to addressing global warming, ranging from the possibility of leaks and the fact that it incentivizes existing fossil fuel companies to maintain their existing infrastructure. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com August 25, 2021 at 08:36AM
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Metal and Ceramic 3D Printing Made Cheap and Fast with AIM3D’s Pellet Extruder https://ift.tt/3sNxcxW German based manufacturer of multi-material printers, AIM3D, developed their next generation of print heads in the first half of 2021. The new CEM-E2 extruder, like its predecessor, is able to print metal, ceramic, and plastic, now the added benefits of improved delivery accuracy along with a 200% increase in extrusion speed resulting in a print with higher surface quality and more desirable mechanical properties. The extruder is made for the company’s proprietary composite extrusion method (CEM), a printing method resembling bound metal extrusion except using metal or ceramic pellets instead of bound metal rods. AIM3D is a spin-off company from the University of Rostock with the goal of revolutionizing the metal 3D printing sector by drastically reducing the cost of additive manufacturing metal parts. Their guiding principle has been to create printers that are not dependent on its own ecosystem but rather are able to work with standardized industry materials. The result is a printer that can process a constant supply of nearly any type of granular material, whether it be stainless steel, hard metals, non-ferrous metals, ceramics, or plastics like ABS or PLA. Their proprietary extrusion process closely resembles bound metal extrusion, a subsegment of bound metal printing, which SmarTech Analysis predicts to have nearly twice the growth rate than the overall metal 3D printing market over the next ten years. Bound metal extrusion is promising in that it does not rely on loose powder, but instead powder bound by waxy polymer. Bound metal rods or pellets are much safer to use, can be handled by hand, and do not require all of the hazardous precautions that loose powder machines need. The feedstock is extruded through a nozzle, as in standard fused filament fabrication (FFF), leaving a part made of metal powder covered in waxy polymer. Then the polymer is dissolved in a wash before the component is sintered whole. Bound metal extrusion printers are significantly cheaper than other types of metal 3D printers and can be made to combine all three steps in an office friendly product. AIM3D’s CEM is the same process except that it uses reinforced injection molding pellets, allowing customers to use the entire available catalogue of cost-efficient industrial pellets and opening up to a wider range of materials and suppliers. Injection molding pellets benefit from the design freedom of additive manufacturing without the need for molds. In turn, the CEM process reduces costs associated with material and machinery. Moreover, CEM’s equipment makes it possible to having one printer to handle metal, ceramic, and plastic. The CEM-E2 extruder prints a higher quality product with improved accuracy. AIM3D states that the extrusion speed has more than quadrupled and can now manufacture rates of up to 220 cm3/h with a 0.4 mm nozzle.
AIM3D has successfully used the new extruder to print a coolant manifold for automotive and aerospace company Shaeffler Group. PPS GF 40 was used as the printing material which provides high flame retardancy and the possibility to program conductivity, thermal expansion, and friction behavior. PPS is not widely available as a filament, but the pellets show potential as a 3D printing material.
The company is currently developing larger pellet 3D printers to print larger parts at even higher build rates, which they plan to launch at Formnext 2021 in Frankfurt, Germany. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com August 25, 2021 at 08:06AM |
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