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NOAA Uses Formlabs 3D Printers to Create New Resilient Corals Species https://ift.tt/3wKhIVO Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) are using Formlabs 3D printers to create a resilient new species of corals that can better withstand the ocean’s changing conditions. As part of its ongoing coral research, the NOAA team relies on innovative methods to survey coral in the wild, reproduce certain conditions under controlled lab settings, and cultivate new species of coral. 3D Printing Tough Marine PartsMarine biologist Nate Formel and his colleagues at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) rely on four stereolithography (SLA) printers, Formlabs’ Form 2 and Form 3, as well as the brand’s Fuse 1 selective laser sintering (SLS) machine. With these tools they print heavy-duty sampler housings, jigs for experimental sensors and equipment, and customized components for their in-house aquaria structures built to study coral fitness and methods to enhance coral resilience in the face of rising water temperatures and extreme conditions of the changing climate. To achieve repeatable, customized parts for coral reef research and monitoring, the NOAA researchers chose 3D printing over traditional manufacturing methods to speed up the process and reduce costs. The key to their work is developing waterproof parts that tolerate harsh ocean conditions. This, however, can be expensive. For example, subsurface automated samplers (SAS) used to continuously check ocean water conditions to ensure that water temperature, acidity, light, and flow rate are the same in the lab can cost more than $1,000 to manufacture. Instead, 3D printing cuts the price down significantly to $220, allowing NOAA to maintain the desired complexity of their research for a fraction of the cost. In addition, lab equipment like automatic feeders and stir-plates are also 3D printed to hold up to water splashes and corrosive salt air. Furthermore, with more affordable methods and less effort, NOAA can replicate their testing more within their labs. By making their 3D printed designs open source, researchers worldwide can use the same technology. Since more labs are replicating this research, NOAA gathers more robust data to develop new coral species more effectively.
Restoring Ocean HabitatsJust like reforestation is essential to help preserve wildlife, coral restoration is a precious habitat for fish and other marine species, and helps protect coastal infrastructure, especially since the planet has lost half of its coral reefs since 1950. If climate change continues at its current rate and without significant intervention, tropical reef ecosystems could face global extinction by the end of the century. To fight the effects of climate change, researchers worldwide are employing novel and innovative techniques that can help re-establish the coral reef ecosystems. One such example is the work being done by marine biologist Daniel Wangpraseurt from the University of California San Diego (UCSD)’s Department of NanoEngineering. By turning to bioprinting, Wangpraseurt developed bionic 3D printed corals. Also, in California, design technologist Alex Schofield uses 3D printing to help save the marine ecosystem by restoring coral reefs that have been negatively impacted by overfishing, pollution, and climate change. Today, many scientists are exploring ways to use 3D printing to create spaces for new coral to thrive. As colonial organisms, corals are typically made up of thousands or hundreds of thousands of individual polyps, each with a complex consortium of microorganisms that contribute to their health and nutrition. In addition, reef-building corals secrete calcium carbonate, a hard rock-like material that comprises structures commonly known as reef frameworks or habitats. This habitat and the reef ecosystem it supports are precious, hosting the single highest concentration of biodiversity in the marine realm. Not only are they elemental for underwater life, but corals are also extremely valuable to the U.S. economy by helping support fisheries and tourism and protecting shorelines from wave energy and storms.
NOAA’s Advanced Manufacturing and Design LabUnderstanding the responses of corals and reef biota to global change is essential to the work at NOAA’s AOML, and leading the way is Coral Program’s principal investigator Ian Enochs. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, the marine biologist is spearheading NOAA’s Advanced Manufacturing and Design Lab, which has plenty of tools for researchers, including the suite of Formlabs printers. Through 3D printing, researchers at AOML can quickly prototype and test new applications to assist with their research goals. In fact, operating Formlabs printers has helped standardize and improve their experiments’ accuracy and comparability and facilitated the development of new technologies. To identify characteristics of coral that will thrive in new, more extreme marine environments, Formel, Enochs, and their colleagues look for coral that is currently thriving under conditions expected in a more acidified ocean, like those near volcanic vents. For the task, the team created a SAS to collect water samples on coral reefs to help understand the intensity and variability of the conditions in which these corals live. They even made the design of these samplers open source so other groups worldwide could use this tool and used 3D printing to keep down sampler costs and allow the construction and deployment of many samplers without large funding budgets. In addition, the automation allows for synchronized sampling to give researchers an idea of precisely what’s happening in the water at different times or locations. ![]()
This is just one of the many projects at NOAA’s AOML Advanced Manufacturing and Design Lab. Formel and Enochs also use 3D printing for environmental DNA samplers for DNA sampling in the water column, a submersible incubation chamber for respiration and calcification analysis, and more. The post NOAA Uses Formlabs 3D Printers to Create New Resilient Corals Species 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/GupXUMz August 31, 2022 at 10:36AM
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3D Printing News Unpeeled, With Nasa, Velo3D, Hermeus, Incremental3D https://ift.tt/UqkltzL We’re discussing Velo3D 3D printers being used for Hermeus´ hypersonic aircraft, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center turning to Additive Monitoring Systems for in situ monitoring of copper, Incremental3D and Zaha Hadid Architects win award for 3D printed concrete, a beautiful marriage of traditional stone craft and Additive Manufacturing, bridge and Additive Manufacturing and Sebastian Kluck of the University of Freiburg shows us a new way to cast metal parts. Today’s Episode:
Previous Episodes: The post 3D Printing News Unpeeled, With Nasa, Velo3D, Hermeus, Incremental3D 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/GupXUMz August 31, 2022 at 10:36AM
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US Air Force Opens Metal 3D Printing Lab with GE https://ift.tt/4IHx2Aa The Pacer Edge program underway by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and General Electric (GE) is making steady progress, most recently demonstrated by the opening of a second Reverse Engineering and Critical Tooling (REACT-II) laboratory. The REACT-II lab established by US Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s (AFLCMC) Propulsion Directorate and Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex (OC-ALC) will boast two GE Concept Laser metal 3D printers to drive forward the Pacer Edge program. Pacer Edge and 3D Printing Aircraft PartsPacer Edge is a pathfinder program meant to apply additive manufacturing (AM) technology to the operation and maintenance of aircraft, typically in finding ways to produce parts that would otherwise be cast and have a long lead time. This resulted in the 3D printing of a sump cover for the F110 engine used to powder F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, making it the first jet engine part fabricated with metal 3D printing to be qualified by any Department of Defense body. Digital twinning, maintenance-based predictive analysis, and lifecycle management of the sump cover were also explored. ![]() By demonstrating that such a component could be made, the program moved onto items with increased complexity and scale. This included obsolete parts such as a bellcrank, gearbox seat, anti-icing valve body, and a cross shaft arm. In addition to maintaining aircraft with obsolete parts, the Pacer Edge program is able to cut production time by 80 percent. 3D Printing Jet Engine PartsNow, the work has led to the creation of a second REACT lab at Tinker Air Force Base, with two metal 3D printers from the Pacer Edge program. In particular, the USAF hopes to support engine components. ![]()
At this point, the Pacer Edge program is more or less established and successful, meaning that, when the USAF needs a replacement part, it shouldn’t be too difficult to implement the workflows established thus far. The next step would be continue scaling up facilities, something that GE Aerospace certainly knows a good deal about, given its own massive AM operations for production parts. Meanwhile, other areas of the U.S. military are adopting the technology in a similar manner but based around their own specific needs. This includes the U.S. Navy, which has had a somewhat more delayed foray into 3D printing, but is now exploring the technology in earnest. The post US Air Force Opens Metal 3D Printing Lab with GE 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/GupXUMz August 31, 2022 at 10:36AM
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MMX 2022: Ask America Makes Anything about 3D Printing https://ift.tt/sEwWHoS America Makes is the United States’ leading public-private partnership for additive manufacturing (AM) technology and education, working to not only accelerate adoption of the technology in the country, but also to increase our manufacturing competitiveness through training, standards publication, projects, and more. The organization, which was the first of the Manufacturing USA Advanced Manufacturing Institutes, opened its doors in Youngstown, Ohio in 2012, and 3DPrint.com was on hand to celebrate its fifth birthday in 2017. So, of course, I made the nearly four-hour drive from my home in Dayton to help celebrate its 10th anniversary at MMX 2022, the Members Meeting and Exchange event for the more than 230 members of America Makes. In my previous article in this MMX series, I discussed the U.S. Air Force and its take on AM, as relayed in a presentation by Colonel Charles D. Ormsby, the acting director of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Materials and Manufacturing Directorate. The day continued with a panel that welcomed the directors of America Makes to the stage in an opportunity for the audience to “Ask the Institute Anything!” Ask America Makes AnythingModerated by John Wilczynski, the Executive Director of America Makes, the America Makes panelists were Brandon Ribic, PhD, Technology Director; Additive Manufacturing Ecosystem Director Gibson, who moderated an earlier panel; and Josh Cramer, Director of Education and Workforce Development (EWD). After Wilczynski started with a couple of questions for the individual panelists, he opened the floor up to the rest of the audience, and the first one was for Cramer. The person wanted to know what gaps he sees in EWD, and what he’s not getting from membership to help make a difference. He explained that the institute’s Roadmap looks “more like a matrix, with verticals and horizontals cutting across the page,” and that the team looks for weaknesses, such as live instructor training or accessible outreach with rigor, and tries to address them. Another gap is having availability to on-ramps, as he described the institute’s work as a superhighway, and how to move from awareness to inspiration and beyond.
A man from a materials company asked Ribic how America Makes is able to verify the inputs they receive, and his answer was simple.
He explained that the institute speaks to people from academia, NASA and the FDA, at workshops and events like RAPID, and then advisory board members cross-references the information in order to update the Roadmap. Supply Chain Disruptions and Regulatory ComplianceAnother audience member asked Gibson and Ribic what impediments there are to the supply chain ecosystem, and Gibson said, as she’s heard from several members recently, qualification and transferring it to the supply chain is one of the biggest challenges “we need to get our arms around.” Ribic agreed, continuing on to say that we need to be asking ourselves what should be measured and then making that knowledge available to the community.
He explained that manufacturing requires operational excellence beyond just good practices, though that there’s still a need for skills that foster these practices. Balancing rigor and practicality is necessary to achieve this operational excellence in a way that generates revenue and profit, and knowing what needs to be measured—then doing so in a systematic manner—will build confidence to accepts AM products. Ribic was also asked how members in other organizations, like aerospace, energy, and medtech, balance managing information and using it effectively to analyze data with regulatory compliance. This is always a big question, and an important topic to keep discussing, as our industry deals with lots of very high-tech sectors which have important standards that must be followed. Ribic said there’s been a lot of great work on this, and that many people know we’re able to measure the important data from AM processes, as well as downstream operations. He then explained that ultimately, “we start big and start to funnel down and figure out how to achieve a model that can tell us something about our products and associated applications,” and that a good fit between the two is necessary in order to “make it appropriate for the operating environment.” A small business owner told the group that first-time AM users, and everyone else at MMX, was swimming together in “a pool of trust” relating to AM, and wanted to know how to establish more trust outside this pool in order to work better together and confidently seek support from government and other partners. Gibson agreed, stating that America Makes has spent ten years building that trust, these relationships, and confidence in the team.
She addressed the audience, saying there’s probably many things the small business owners care about, like de-risking and financial issues, that have never been discussed or prioritized, because large businesses don’t have to deal with, but they want to support the small businesses.
Accessing 3D Printing Funds via the NSFThen, National Science Foundation (NSF) Program Director Kevin Chou took the stage to discuss “Emerging Innovations in Additive Manufacturing Research,” and the foundation’s AM portfolio. He explained that the NSF funds basic research. Chou explained that manufacturing is a bridge, and that many people come to the NSF requesting funding for advanced manufacturing projects from a program that works to accelerate the advances in manufacturing technologies, with an emphasis on research that alters and transforms manufacturing capabilities, methods, and practices. The NSF offers multiple funding opportunities and core programs in its budget, with $25 million allocated for its primary program GOALI, which is a proposal looking to stimulate collaboration between academic research institutions and industry. The foundation also offers workshops and conferences, and will issue what it calls Dear Colleague letters, which ask the community to submit proposals. Solicitations are when a public project call is made, and one of the largest is a cross-agency program called Future Manufacturing, which is focused on biomanufacturing and other technologies. Another type of funding is Designing Materials to Revolutionize & Engineer our Future (DMREF), which is for materials scientists. The NSF also targets work in the early career stages with opportunities like ERI and MCA (Mid-Career Advancement.” Chou explained that the NSF focuses on advanced manufacturing, not just additive, though many of the projects and research that have been funded include additive technologies, such as bioprinting, metal 3D printing, and topology optimization. He showed us charts of NSF portfolio projects targeting different AM methods, with material extrusion taking up the largest piece of pie, followed by powder bed fusion and vat photopolymerization. In terms of materials, metal is a high-value application, so it’s the largest piece of its graph, though the foundation is hoping to work with more ceramic projects. Chou said that some of the basic research the NSF is interested in includes processing speed, microstructures, tensile properties, and using X-rays to see the details of the melt pool. The NSF also works with complicated, concentrated alloys, tunable composites, and has one project that’s attempting to insert an enzyme into plastic. NSF-Funded 3D Printing InnovationChou then shared some of the recent AM funding and project awards, including a five-year project from Tennessee Tech focused on gaining fundamental knowledge about residual stress development and pore creation mechanisms in WAAM for molybdenum alloy structures by considering ductile-to-brittle transition temperature. Other NSF-funded projects he shared focus on a custom bioprinter for regenerative tissue engineering; understanding bond formation, mechanical properties, and microstructural development in cold spray additive manufacturing; and using synchrotron imaging and process modeling to look into the impact that particles have on the molten metal pool in L-DED technology. In my next and final article in this series, I will describe how the event wrapped up, including the role of public-private partnerships in AM innovation and who America Makes selected to be its ambassadors. The post MMX 2022: Ask America Makes Anything about 3D Printing 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/GupXUMz August 31, 2022 at 10:36AM USPS Celebrates Centennial of Cartoonist Charles M. Schulz's Birth With New Forever Stamps8/31/2022
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USPS Celebrates Centennial of Cartoonist Charles M. Schulz's Birth With New Forever Stamps https://ift.tt/pnBjWf4 The U.S. Postal Service will celebrate the centennial of the birth of cartoonist Charles M. Schulz with 10 new fun-filled stamps. Printing via USPS News https://ift.tt/zg5eFPt August 31, 2022 at 10:19AM
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Law Enforcement in Australia, Spain, U.S. and Canada Continue Targeting 3D Printed Guns https://ift.tt/dHP9CIk Earlier this year, a report by the Dutch police revealed signs that 3D printed guns were on the rise; then, the first International Conference on 3D Printed Firearms took place in the Hague, and sufficient 3D gun-related arrests drew media attention worldwide. Although 3D printed weapons haven’t played a massive role in actual criminal violence, every month, law enforcement agencies increasingly seize 3D-printed firearms during investigations. New police records indicate that this trend is going to continue. In August, two Canadian men were charged with 3D printing and trafficking firearms, while Spanish police arrested a man who assembled an AR9 submachine gun with 3D printed parts. In Texas, a soldier was indicted for 3D printing and selling parts that can turn commercially available firearms into automatic weapons. Finally, the Western Australian police announced the creation of the first database to combat the threat of 3D printed weapons. Canada Won’t Back Down on 3D Printed Gun ArrestsOn August 16, 2022, two men in their twenties were arrested after Calgary police disrupted a 3D printed firearms manufacturing and trafficking operation and are now facing 66 charges, including firearms manufacturing and possession. Detectives from the Firearms Investigative Unit seized three Ender 3D printers; five complete 3D printed Glock-style handguns with magazines, five 3D printed Glock-style lower receivers, additional firearm parts, including trigger parts, slides, and barrels, 3D printing filament, and other firearm assembly tools at two Calgary residences. ![]() During a press conference, Staff Sergeant Ben Lawson of the Firearms Investigative Unit pointed out that in the last two years, they have detected an increase in 3D printed, homemade, and smuggled firearms. Created in February 2020, the specialized unit has been tracking all firearms and has identified a trend in 3D printed gun manufacturing. When they first started following the trend, they only seized two guns in one year, but in 2022, that number has gone up to more than 15.
https://youtu.be/XMAb5RCThD4 3D Printed Submachine Gun in SpainSpanish police officers arrested a man for allegedly assembling an AR9 submachine gun with 3D printed parts. The practically finished firearm, along with other 3D printed gun parts, fully assembled weapons, and police seized three printers as part of Operation Saguaro. According to the police, during the raids, they found many 3D printed components, such as a frame and a slider built using the thermoplastic polyester PETG (or polyethylene terephthalate glycol). The detainee also had significant amounts of PETG filament and firearm CAD models that were intended for printing new parts to manufacture weapons. ![]() U.S. Soldier Sells 3D Printed Weapons PartsA Fort Bliss soldier was indicted in Texas federal court for allegedly selling 3D printed automatic weapon converters. 25-year-old Grant Lee Mosley was manufacturing 3D printed auto sears, which would convert semi-automatic AR-15 rifles into fully automatic guns. In addition, Mosley advertised and sold handgun machine gun conversion devices (commonly referred to as switches) and auto sears across the U.S on social media, in violation of specific laws. Agents from the FBI El Paso field office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in El Paso, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID), and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) worked collaboratively on the case, which began in May when federal law enforcement came across a channel on an unspecified online messaging platform advertising the 3D printed AR-15 auto sears and Glock auto switches. A month later, an undercover officer bought red plastic auto sear and a metal Glock switch from the seller, which were used to identify Mosley.
Data-driven Gun ControlWith the help of Murdoch University forensic scientist James Speers, the Western Australia police have set up a database that can identify particular components of a weapon, including 3D printed firearm parts. As reported by The West Australian, this “world-first database” could help law enforcement agencies investigate and arrest individuals with 3D printed firearms. Associate Professor Speers is renowned in the forensic field, having extensive experience as a senior forensic scientist-practitioner in the investigation and management of serious crimes and terrorist offenses. Speers participated in missions to identify missing people from the Kosovo war and was consulted during the Omagh bombing trial in Northern Ireland. The expert explained that the main concern is that “criminal organizations are going to manufacture weapons, and therefore, the police agencies and forensic agencies are not set up to make comparisons with evidentiary value to take them to court.” Instead, an avenue for identifying and comparing 3D printed firearms can help officers trace them back to a supplier of those weapons. “So the police can then direct their investigation to find who supplied those,” he suggested. According to data collected by 3DPrint.com, Australian police have been tracking illegal 3D printing of weapons since 2015. Back then, Queensland police officers seized a haul of 3D printed weapons and gun parts in what they considered the first arrest and seizure of its kind in that state. Since then, law enforcement found 3D printed guns in at least 20 criminal cases, most of them between 2020 and 2022. The post Law Enforcement in Australia, Spain, U.S. and Canada Continue Targeting 3D Printed Guns 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/GupXUMz August 31, 2022 at 07:57AM
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Hypersonics Startup Hermeus Acquires Two Metal 3D Printers from Velo3D https://ift.tt/JRlPFgA Velo3D, the Silicon Valley-based maker of metal additive manufacturing (AM) platforms, announced that the company has sold both a Sapphire and a Sapphire XC to Hermeus, a hypersonic aircraft startup based in Atlanta, Georgia. The original Sapphire, and the large-format, high-volume XC, will be used to make parts for Hermeus’ Chimera engine and Quarterhorse aircraft. Founded in 2018 to develop both commercial and defense hypersonic aircraft, Hermeus received $100 million in its Series B financing earlier this year. The company has been supported by a range of government agencies including the Air Force and NASA, and has connections to established aerospace/defense giants such as Raytheon. ‘Hypersonic’ is used to refer to all speeds above Mach 5, which is about five times the speed of sound. ![]() ![]() Velo3D’s Sapphire was also recently used for preliminary hypersonics experiments by the Slabaugh Group research team at Purdue University’s Zucrow Laboratories. With the initial phase of study proving successful thanks in part to Velo3D, the Slabaugh Group plans to begin the full experiment this fall. As with the aerospace sector in general, the appeal of metal AM for hypersonic applications is not only the ability to create parts with unique, complex geometries, but equally, the ability to do so quickly. Additionally, with hypersonics, the increased capacity that AM facilitates for using specialty metals for stronger parts, which are more resistant to corrosion, takes on an added significance. Presumably, reduced lead times for stronger parts will be indispensable towards Hermeus meeting the 2023 deadline for the first flight of the Quarterhorse, an autonomous aircraft. Moreover, Hermeus plans on the Quarterhorse’s being designated the world’s fastest aircraft upon its test flight sometime next year. Considering the difficulties in meeting production deadlines that even conventional aerospace manufacturers have been facing, Hermeus’ strategy to produce as many parts as possible in-house seems like a smart play. Given all that, the hypersonics sector is just as significant to the aerospace sector at-large for testing new supply chain management techniques, as it is for testing new technology. Regardless of the ultimate practicality of hypersonic flight, it seems to be a useful sandbox for all sorts of next-generation production systems, as well as a stimulus for investment in new hardware and materials. The post Hypersonics Startup Hermeus Acquires Two Metal 3D Printers from Velo3D 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/GupXUMz August 31, 2022 at 07:57AM
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Desktop Metal Introduces Two Upgrades for Shop System Binder Jet 3D Printing Platform https://ift.tt/W9sJv6p In 2019, Desktop Metal (NYSE: DM) introduced its turnkey metal binder jetting Shop System for the first time at Formnext. Developed to bring metal AM to machine and job shops, the Shop System has been the best-selling metal binder jet printer in the world for two years, with global users logging more than 20,000 print hours total. Now, the 3D printing unicorn, which went public in 2020, has responded to customer demand by expanding the Shop System platform with two upgrade packages—Shop System+ and Shop System Pro—that will offer users more functionality, flexibility, and control over machine parameters and operating costs.
The Shop System is an end-to-end, closed material solution for complex, end-use metal 3D printed parts, featuring what Desktop Metal says is the binder jet market’s “highest resolution and most advanced single pass print engine.” It’s qualified to print cobalt chrome and 7-4PH and 316L stainless steels, with 304L stainless steel and nickel alloys IN615 and IN718 on the way, and offers great surface finish and detail, optimized powders, Live Sinter simulation and scanning software, and print speeds that are said to be up to ten times faster than those of legacy PBF systems. In addition to the Shop System metal binder jetting printer, with its over 70,000 nozzles jetting 1.2pL droplets at almost 10 kHZ, the platform also includes a powder station with built-in powder recycling, easy access portholes, and a vacuum port; integrated powder handling accessories and workflow; a shop-safe, high-temperature furnace for accessible yet industrial-strength sintering; Desktop Metal’s powders and binders; and build preparation and sintering simulation software. The Shop System was built specifically to integrate with existing machine shops, so that businesses can get binder jet operations set up more quickly and easily. ![]() In terms of the new additions to the platform, the Shop System+ package gives high-throughput users discounted access to Desktop Metal’s own powders and binders, which helps decrease the running costs of AM operations, as well as improving part costs for a faster ROI. As for the Shop System Pro, it’s an open powder system that includes all the benefits of the Shop System+ in addition to more process flexibility. This flexibility comes from new features, like custom 3D printing and spreading parameters, process controls, custom sintering profiles for the Desktop Metal Furnace, and bi-directional printing for the Shop System printer. This package would be good for high-production users who have powder metallurgy expertise and are looking to optimize running costs, in addition to enabling specific cost structures or applications through the use of third-party or proprietary powders. ![]() This news comes just a couple of months after Desktop Metal announced that it would be laying off 12% of its employees and consolidate operations in what Fulop called a “strategic integration and cost optimization initiative,” even though the Massachusetts startup acquired a string of companies in 2021. In its most recent metals market data report, SmarTech Analysis EVP Research Scott Dunham said Q1 2022 was “historic” for the AM industry, “with sequential growth continuing in earnest even beyond the rebound of 2021.”
The market research firm also reported that the normal cycle of “new developmental AM platform growth,” with hardware revenue boosted by new technologies or new series of products, wasn’t happening, but that “hardware sales and utilization of AM hardware to build value” had increased. By narrowing its focus and investing in an already successful platform like the Shop System, Desktop Metal could be working to insulate itself against possible slowing growth. At IMTS 2022 in Chicago next month, which is the largest and longest-running industry trade show in the Western Hemisphere, Desktop Metal will have models of its Shop System at its booth 433103 on level 3 of the West Building, as well as at the SolidCAM booth 134502 on level 3 of the East Building. The company also feature polymer, metal, and sand 3D printing technologies in booth 432212. IMTS will take place at McCormick Place from September 12-17. The post Desktop Metal Introduces Two Upgrades for Shop System Binder Jet 3D Printing Platform 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/GupXUMz August 31, 2022 at 07:57AM
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Dungarees + Squeegees | Screenprint T-Shirts https://ift.tt/gIoBnEC Dungarees + Squeegees (D+S) create limited edition screen-printed T-shirts using water-based inks and organic T-shirts. Many of the designs are illustrated by the studio’s co-founder, Joey, who has an evident love of plants. She finds her inspiration through her vast collection of indoor plants; her favourites being the monsteras due to the sheer variety and sizes of the leaves.
www.dandsstudio.com Printing via People of Print https://ift.tt/TlrbQK4 August 31, 2022 at 06:42AM
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Buying an Email List? Here Are 5 Reasons Why It’s a Bad Idea https://ift.tt/wlsCgiz Believe it or not, people still ask me the following question: where can I buy a good quality email list? The short answer is very simple: please don’t! You shouldn’t ever purchase an email list. But explaining why takes time. That’s why I’ve collected a few facts to prove that there is no such thing as a good quality mailing list available for purchase. Prepare yourself for a longer read, and allow me to explain why growing your own email list is the only way toward successful email marketing. Table Of Contents Five reasons why buying an email list is a bad idea1. Email address vs. subscriberIf you want to drive conversion, you need a lot more than a database of email addresses. You need an engaged audience. You need subscribers – people who are genuinely interested in your brand, its products, and its services. People who want to find out what’s inside the emails that land in their inbox. Subscribers are your prospects and customers. They are at the heart of your business. Your revenue depends on the ability to solve customers’ problems, so the more you know them, the more likely it is that you’ll be able to satisfy their needs and wants. How can you run an effective marketing campaign without knowing anything about your target audience? How can you optimize your marketing efforts if you don’t know the recipient? You can’t, and that’s exactly what happens when you use a purchased database of email addresses. If you put customers first, make list building a crucial element of your email marketing strategy. You will be able to attract and build rapport with the right people – your target audience. You can even make the subscription rate one of your crucial KPIs, telling you if people are actually interested in your products or services. ![]() So the first question you should ask yourself is: do I need email addresses or subscribers? Buying a list of email addresses sounds easy, but even if it’s segmented by category or industry, you cannot be sure if the data is accurate. Building a list of subscribers takes time and effort, but it’s the only way to go. Just take a look at this comparison:
2. Permission: single opt-in vs. double opt-inOne of the fundamental characteristics of a high-quality email list is permission. If you want to build long-term relationships with subscribers and successfully turn them into customers, you need to make sure that they want to receive your emails in the first place. If not, it will be unlikely that they open or click the links in your messages. Imagine a huge database of email addresses of people who haven’t heard of your company and didn’t give consent to receive your marketing messages. What happens when they see your email in their inbox? If you’re lucky, they will delete your message without opening it, it might get much worse if they decide to mark it as spam. So how to make sure that the people on your list want to receive your emails? Simply by allowing them to sign up themselves. Permission is the ultimate guardian of quality. There are many ways of collecting email addresses. The most popular is via an online web form but you can also ask customers to join your mailing list in a brick-and-mortar shop, at an event, through API, etc. There are two ways to subscribe: single opt-in and double opt-in. Single opt-in requires filling out a sign-up form. Double opt-in requires filling out a sign-up form and clicking a confirmation link in a follow-up email. You need to decide for yourself which sign-up method to use. If you’re unsure which way to go, read this in-depth article. However, if you want to build a high-quality email list, I strongly recommend using double opt-in:
![]() 3. Targeting and personalizationA good email marketing strategy goes beyond a single campaign. It’s designed to build knowledge about subscribers so that each following campaign fits them better and brings better results. Your goal is to build trust and slowly collect meaningful data so that you start recognizing patterns in subscriber behavior and optimize your campaigns. An email address alone is not enough to run relevant email marketing campaigns. You need to know much about your subscribers to communicate their needs and preferences. Discovering meaningful information along the subscription process is called progressive profiling. You can learn how to collect valuable data from your subscribers and align email marketing communication with their needs from this ebook. Depending on the industry, you’ll need different information to start with. Ecommerce businesses often ask for an email address and gender in their web forms. This way, they can target male and female subscribers with a completely different offer from the very beginning. ![]() ![]() 4. Reputation and deliverabilityAnother problem with a purchased list is that you don’t know how the addresses were collected. They might have been harvested or even made up of random letters and numbers. Such lists might be full of incorrect email addresses and spam traps that will damage your reputation and deliverability. You might even face a heavy fine or criminal penalties – including imprisonment. Check the legislation, e.g., under the CAN-SPAM Act, each separate email in violation of the law is subject to penalties of up to $16,000. The Canada Anti-Spam Law (CASL) is even more severe: If you think that you can use a purchased email list because your ESP (Email Service Provider) will deliver your messages to subscribers anyway, you’re wrong. It’s true that ESPs do a lot to maintain high deliverability and help you with your overall email marketing efforts (e.g., by keeping up with the technical requirements, automatically removing hard bounces, or handling unsubscribes). But keeping the list clean, that is, removing incorrect email addresses or inactive subscribers, is your responsibility. Such addresses hurt your email marketing statistics (e.g., high bounce rate, low open and click-through rate) and might even lead to terminating your account. At GetResponse, we use Hydra, our in-house anti-abuse system that verifies imported email lists and helps to assess the risk related to our customers’ accounts. Its role is to help the good guys and eliminate the bad guys, so you’d better decide which side you’re on. To learn more about Hydra, read this article. If you want to learn more about deliverability, I recommend this post on achieving the best deliverability possible. If you need a longer read, check our Email Deliverability from A to Z ebook or this article on why emails go to spam. You’ll learn more about reputation and what you can do to leave a good impression on both your subscribers and ISPs. 5. Quantity vs. qualityAs a marketer, I know that sometimes we can be tempted into believing that the more, the better. If you catch yourself thinking that way, remember that it’s true only if the quality is maintained. Just as your subscribers don’t want to be flooded with poor-quality leads, you don’t want to create and send campaigns to a long list of random email addresses. It costs time and money and brings more harm than good. Let’s compare a purchased and organically grown email list:
Do this instead: build your own listA high-quality email list is one of your company’s biggest assets. It allows you to connect with your target audience and gradually turn prospects into customers – and that’s exactly what the marketing department is supposed to do. So, if you ask me how to buy an email list, the answer is simple: please don’t! You can’t, there is no such thing as a good quality list available for purchase. You will waste money on a database of uncertain email addresses that will harm your email marketing efforts. But if you ask me how to build an email list, I suggest that you read the following blog post – How to build an email list from scratch If, however, you’re looking for inspiration, check out our case studies section. There, you can read and hear stories from customers who’ve successfully grown their businesses using permission-based email marketing and organically built email lists. Here’s one example coming from Sharvette Mitchell, Marketing Agency owner from Richmond, VA. Good luck with growing your email list! Feel free to ask any questions or leave a comment below. This article was last reviewed and updated in August 2022. Printing via GetResponse Blog https://ift.tt/9fmyHWB August 30, 2022 at 09:27PM |
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