There’s much talk about the importance of getting children interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects and possibly eventual careers. There’s even more of an emphasis, among many organizations, on making sure that girls are being engaged in STEM. A gender gap exists in STEM fields, and there are multiple reasons for it, but one is that for years, girls have received the message that these subjects are for boys. That’s changing, but it’s a slow process and one that relies on the hard work of educators and technology organizations to show young girls that they can be successful in STEM, too.

A great way to start reaching large numbers of girls at a young age is through the Girl Scouts. The process of earning badges is a way to teach girls life skills while having fun and getting recognized for their accomplishments, and recently a troop of Brownies not only earned badges in engineering, they designed and 3D printed their badges themselves – a perfect way to gain hands-on experience in technology. The Brownies visited Renishaw at its Miskin facility in South Wales, and worked with Renishaw engineers in three sessions that saw them designing and 3D printing their own badges.

In the first session, the girls designed their badges by hand to include their own names and the Brownie logo. The following week, they toured the Renishaw facility and transferred their designs from paper to digital format through CAD, and saw the first of them 3D printed. Finally, Sarah Lewis, Fabrication Development Center Tutor at Renishaw’s Miskin site, visited the troop to deliver the badges.

“Working with the Brownie Group is just one of the many ways Renishaw engages with young people,” Chris Pockett, Head of Communications at Renishaw, told 3DPrint.com. “In South Wales, we use our dedicated education facility to engage with primary and secondary school pupils. We are also involved with a number of local and national education outreach projects to encourage young people to engage in STEM activities including work with; Greenpower, SS Great Britain Trust, Bristol Music Trust and our popular engineering work experience weeks.

The UK has the lowest percentage of female engineers in Europe. Offering activities to young people that portray engineering as a career that girls can aspire to is an important step in increasing this percentage.”

According to Simon Biggs, Education Liaison Officer at Renishaw, the company is now being approached by several other groups that are interested in doing something similar through educational sessions. Designing and 3D printing one’s own badge is a simple yet appealing way to begin to teach girls about engineering, to begin to plant thoughts in their heads that “maybe I can do this after all.”

“The Brownies were extremely grateful for the opportunity to experience something new and exciting,” said Steph Horsley, 1st Llanharan Brownie Leader. “It is a fantastic resource and to be able to try things that we cannot do in our own units is essential to developing the girls and hopefully inspiring them for the future. We thoroughly enjoyed it.”

You can find out more about Renishaw’s educational outreach here.

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Wilfried (Fried) Vancraen, CEO, Materialise

Belgium-based Materialise has always treated 3D printing as very serious business, indeed. That steadfast and serious take on the technology has built the company into a mainstay pillar, a fact they underscore through a deep focus on providing a backbone to support growth in this business environment. During this week’s TCT Show in Birmingham, UK, I enjoyed the opportunity to catch up again with Materialise, sitting down for a chat with company CEO Fried Vancraen to discuss the latest happenings at the busy company.

With characteristic understatement, Vancraen told me that it’s been “very busy times” for Materialise lately; that’s putting it lightly for both man and company, as he’s had a full travel schedule lately following last week’s opening of a new Materialise facility in Poland and an expansion of the Leuven headquarters location slated for its grand opening next week. Between the two ribbon cuttings, Vancraen took the opportunity to head to the UK for TCT Show, where he was inducted into the inaugural TCT Hall of Fame a few hours after our chat.

“We will have eight HP printers, with two set to arrive, as we are moving activities to the new building,” Vancraen said of the Belgian operations, where a variety of technologies are in use.

The new Polish facility is “a factory devoted to plastic powder manufacturing, intended to become more automated. There will be post-processing and smoothing, such as for eyewear. Production is ramping up; we need to deliver short lead times.”

Materialise has been focusing on expanding activity in Poland for some time, and the recent official opening of the new facility has it positioned as a “new, cutting edge facility for additive manufacturing” that Vancraen noted is unique in the industry for its focus on plastics. Polish operations additionally have a group of software developers associated, hard at work toward next-generation developments. Advances, Vancraen explained, are set to integrate more control of not just points on 3D printers but to make sure of all the right settings and finishes; this all, he said, is much more complicated in a production environment than it is in prototyping.

“The backbone is expanding, I can say,” Vancraen said.

The expansions have all seen plenty of hands-on attention from the busy CEO, who has been travelling extensively to personally see to sustainable and viable growth. The big challenge, he said, is to get big printers situated and stable in their new environments; moving large machines into new facilities isn’t easy on operator or machine to ensure appropriate stability for extensive industrial use.

“At the moment, our approach is to build software for our use and in manufacturing We have to scale up our manufacturing. We aim to do this with the potential to develop matching software for others to help in their manufacturing facilities,” Vancraen told me.

“There are entire sectors now moving to 3D printing, and this will require multiple factories. We believe we can help with our software solutions.”

While the new buildings are mainly focused on plastics technologies, there is also a large amount of activity regarding metals, he told me, and much of this activity was showcased at TCT Show. Materialise had a well-trafficked booth showing off capabilities and offering advice to visitors. Of the busy show, Vancraen noted that “interest is picking up again” in 3D printing, and the crowded show floor was good evidence of this.

Materialise’s booth was regularly crowded with visitors at TCT Show 2017

“The numbers in the Wohlers Report indicate that 2015 and 2016 were slow years compared to what was seen previously; now there are many more real installations of real factories, like we’ve been doing, that will drive real growth,” he said with reference to the 2017 Report.

“This hasn’t been seen on a wider scale, and in coming years that’s where I hope we will see a change — there’s a growing amount of meaningful applications.”

Eyewear shown at TCT Show

Among these meaningful applications for 3D printing that he touched on are customized eyewear — such as Materialise is making possible with Yuniku — and personalized footwear, critical parts in airplanes and other aerospace uses, and other high-profile applications that are “getting more and more attention now.”

Medical uses, of course, are gaining great traction and attention. Materialise, for example, received its first FDA clearance for 3D printed maxillofacial implants earlier this month, a move “in front of a ramp up that will happen gradually” in medical regulatory approvals. Europe and Australia are currently using more such implants, and the team at Materialise are hoping to see similar success in the US as more clearances come through. The biggest market for Materialise at present is Australia, where refunding systems have been more quickly set up, enabling faster adoption from a business perspective.

“Applications in medical are in development, but when it takes simple things like insoles time to ramp up, we see that it is much more complicated in complex environments like hospitals,” Vancraen said.

“We strongly believe that evolutions we see at companies like Siemens and HP will continue to serve as examples. Our backbone is present in Siemens and in HP to receive the data. With these and more companies, we see that more environments are in a condition they can easily work with additive manufacturing.”

Keeping an eye to business conditions and rising rates of interest and adoption, Vancraen and his growing team at Materialise are dedicated to raising the profile of the latest technologies and ensuring their realistic adoption across a variety of applications around the world.

“A lot of things are going on,” Vancraen told me mildly. “We keep busy.”

[TCT Show photos: Sarah Goehrke]

It isn’t easy running a business. It’s even more of a challenge to run two businesses, but that’s what Christina Perla does. Perla is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Makelab, a 3D printing service bureau based in Brooklyn, New York. She’s also the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Tangent Design, a product design and development firm also located in Brooklyn. Perla has a degree in industrial design, and her work has led her to become an expert in 3D printing. Through Makelab in particular, she helps bring the technology to clients every day, offering professional 3D prints for a variety of applications using both FDM and SLA technology. Her work allows her to have an up-close view of the 3D printing industry and its trends, and she was willing to share her thoughts on the industry – as well as what it takes to run two businesses at once – for the latest installment in our Spotlight on Women series.

Please tell us about your background, history and current work.

“I attended Pratt Institute for Industrial Design. While in undergrad, I accepted an internship at Converse for Accessories Design which turned into a job upon graduating from Pratt. I then made the jump to the startup world by working at a small wearable technology startup. While I was working at the startup, I began to freelance and eventually left my full-time job to freelance full time.

Meanwhile, my partner Manny, also an industrial designer, was doing custom prototyping and model making. We had this crazy idea that maybe we could start a business together, and after a few months of talking about it, we did. We started Tangent Design. Our focus with Tangent is taking on industrial design projects and provide a full spectrum of services. During the process, we utilized 3D printing pretty heavily through a company called 3DUniPrint. We 3D printed with them so much we became close with the owner, Rico. About a year later, Rico’s situation changed resulting in him and his family moving to China. To salvage 3DUniPrint’s operations, Rico asked Manny and I to take over his company and that’s when Tangent Design acquired 3DUniPrint. A few months later, we changed the name to Makelab. So in a timespan of 2.5 years, we started a company and acquired another. It’s been a whirlwind of a time, but a good one to say the least.”

When and how did you first become interested and involved in 3D printing?

“I’ve known about 3D printing for a pretty long time now. It was available during my time at Pratt Institute, but I never really utilized it. I didn’t fully understand it and was actually quite terrified of it so I was hesitant to touch a machine. 3D printing seemed so intimidating at the time – it’s funny looking back now. It wasn’t until my partner, Manny, purchased a first generation PrintrBot that I started to open up to the idea of it. Around the time we started Tangent, we realized we would be needing rapid prototyping and bought an XYZ Da Vinci. A few months later, we upgraded to a MakerGear (after the Da Vinci stopped working). After messing around with 3D printing, I realized it wasn’t as terrifying as I thought and actually pretty simple to pick up.”

What inspired you to begin Makelab?

“With Tangent Design firm in place, it was an organic business move that made sense for us to improve workflow efficiency and also cut costs by bringing 3D printing in-house. While still 2 separate companies, it is tremendously easier to prototype having all the software resources and a well-rounded team to execute our designs.”

What are some of the challenges of owning two businesses?

“The startup world is infamous for it’s ‘hustle and grind’. Multiply that by two and it can be nuts. I’ve definitely had to step up my time management and organize my life a bit more. I use a variety of tools to keep up with my own life and maintain these businesses. Staying on top of tight operations for one company is difficult enough before adding in the complexities of switching gears from one company to another. Both Tangent and Makelab have extremely different systems, processes, sequences, and challenges. It’s something I’m still conquering now. I spend an hour or two a day just recording the day’s happenings so I don’t have to try to keep everything in my head. Then begin every morning with a review. I’ve embraced Evernote which has become my personal assistant.”

What has been your experience of diversity in the 3D printing industry?

“I have definitely seen tremendous diversity in the tech and design industry. However, I’ve seen very few women heading the tech industry, although that seems to be changing every day. At Makelab we engage with many different partners and customers and I would definitely say that 75% is men. It’s quite interesting. I feel 100% comfortable being a minority in tech & design, but I [not often] have these moments where I realize all of my emails, calls, messages have been to men and that realization can feel a bit odd and off-balanced at times. But I try not to let this observation deter me because that will just halt momentum rather than enhance productivity.”

In your work, what are some of the biggest misconceptions you’ve seen about 3D printing?

“Oh man, the misconceptions are endless. 3D Printing is seen as a technology that is super simple, easy, quick, and fast. But it really depends on what you’re comparing it to. For example, compared to manual woodworking or other production methods, 3D printing is incredibly fast, accurate, and easy. But sometimes people are surprised that a print can take up to 34 hours. There is also a slight misconception about what materials are available with 3D printing. Yes there is the classic ABS & PLA, the hot glue gun style of printing that is what is most recognized. But at Makelab we’ve actually started to offer more engineering materials that are stronger and higher quality. It’s called our Pro+ line, currently in beta.”

What trends do you see happening in 3D printing in the near future?

“There are a couple that are top of mind!

First, Desktop SLS. We are really interested in the development of making nylon SLS printing more friendly. Currently, it’s required that these machines be in specific facilities due to the fine powder, but a company called Formlabs just made a huge advancement to bringing that technology to a more office/desktop-friendly environment. Printing using SLS technology not only is quick, but it also eliminates the need to remove ‘supports’. This is incredibly useful and a lot quicker than either dissolvable supports or manually removing supports.

Second, higher quality desktop machines. We are so excited to see high quality machines come to desktop format. Right now, the industrial machines are pretty high quality, but not everyone has access to those. Desktop machines are more accessible by small businesses, designers, hobbyists, and engineers. Zortrax definitely set the bar high for this, but we are excited to see other companies jump on the bandwagon for this as well.”

What are some of your plans for the future of your businesses and career?

“Our goal is to enable Makelab to be more of an education source for 3D printing – a knowledge center of sorts. We want people to know about 3D printing and it’s true capabilities as well as best print practices. We want to make 3D Printing more accessible while also making it easier for people to print by educating them on the ‘hacks’ of 3D printing. We find ourselves talking to many customers about the different materials that are printable, and we are working on a more comprehensive material guideline on our website for our Pro+ line. We figure the more people know about 3D printing, the more simple each process is.”

 What industries haven’t been utilizing 3D printing, but could benefit from it?

“We see 3D printing being more useful in construction, furniture, lighting, and DIY home improvement.

Currently there’s a trend of ‘hacking’ and ‘DIY’- whether it be hacking your MacBook Pro, fixing your iPhone, amping up your PC. It’s huge, there are even sites that facilitate this. We hope to see more libraries of parts that work with product standards being formed.

We also see 3D printing being more integrated with tools and hardware. Instead of stores selling pre-made products/hardware, you’d be able to search their library, lease the file for a one or two time use, and then print your part.

We’d also love to see furniture use the technology more. Much of furniture is actually put together using a mixture of plastic parts and metal hardware. We’d love to see students be able to more quickly prototype furniture pieces using 3D printing, rather than having to make a mold, cast the plastic and then paint/color it. 3D printing takes care of that in one step.”

Perla’s strong work ethic and obvious passion for 3D printing and design have helped her to become successful, and she’s willing to share that success and knowledge through her plans for implementing educational outreach. We look forward to following her work with Makelab in the future.

If you are interested in sharing your story, or know a woman we should get in touch with for this new series, please reach out any time. Send us an email or connect on Twitter. We’re looking forward to sharing more stories about women in 3D printing. Find all the features in this series here.
We are also featuring educators focusing on training and teaching 3D printing skills; see all these features here.

Discuss this and other 3D Printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com, or share your thoughts below.

3D printed robots come in all shapes and sizes – we’ve seen cute robots, robots that can crawl, or walk on 3D printed legs, robots that resemble eels, and humans, and even biohybrid robots based on sea slugs. This last robot was the result of a project at the Cleveland, Ohio-based Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). Now, a different team of CWRU researchers, led by Nord Distinguished Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Kiju Lee, have designed a soft, flexible robot, using 3D printing technology, that’s inspired by the origami Lee enjoyed growing up. The patent-pending, novel mechanism is known as TWISTER (TWISted TowEr Robot).

[Image: Origami Maniacs]

It’s

we’ve seen

, and I’m certain it won’t be the last, as these three combined technologies can be used for many different kinds of applications. The TWISTER robot was inspired by an origami twisted tower, which was originally designed by Mihoko Tachibana, a Japanese artist. The twisted tower uses several origami segments to form a tower structure. This specific design was later reinvented to be used in the manufacturing and robotics field.

Lee and her team – current and former undergraduate researchers Yanzhou Wang and Evan Vander Hoff, and PhD students Donghwa Jeong and Tao Liu – started out working with paper-folded structures, using multiple layers of regular polygons, like hexagons and triangles, to form the tower’s tube-like shape.

Once they had the construction down, they added three small towers to the end of one large tower, and then manipulated the smaller towers to grasp, similar to opposing fingers. The researchers discovered that when the structure was picking up and moving objects like ripe fruit and eggs, if they applied excessive force, the fingers would then absorb this “by distributing it and deforming.”

Kiju Lee and her lab developed TWISTER, a soft robot inspired by origami art.

The team says that this quality of distributing and deforming the force demonstrates the potential the design has for manipulating other fragile objects, in a more advanced manner than this 3D printed grasper device, without having to use force-based sensing. It also means that it could safely interact with humans.

 Lee said, “Among the possibilities for this robot are fragile-object manipulation and direct human-robot interaction, because these robots are soft and safe.”

“TWISTER is very different from rigid body robots.”

In manufacturing processes, hard-bodied robots are usually kept separated from humans for safety issues.

“Because this robot can be made with soft materials, it could be safe to use on an assembly line right next to people,” Lee explained.

Lee and her team have successfully moved on from paper robots and converted the designs for TWISTER into 3D printable models. Then, the team was able to take the work one step further and fabricate complex, 3D printed designs, based on the original origami twisted tower, that can twist, extend, and contract. Cable-based actuation is used to control the robot, and the researchers are also looking into different approaches, like using Shape Memory Alloys to make a tower lying on its side crawl.

While the origami-inspired TWISTER definitely has applications on the assembly line in factories, Lee has also been working with physicians to find a way to miniaturize TWISTER so it can be inserted into a person’s body for minimally invasive surgical procedures.

Lee said, “Laproscopic surgery often requires some rigid pieces, and movement to control them from the outside causes stress on the tissues.”

She is also looking into applications for the TWISTER robot in outer space, like a robotic, twisting and grasping space arm.

“To put anything into space, volume and weight are critical, because of the cost of rocket transport. This robot is fully collapsible and, compared to a rigid arm, light and compact,” Lee explained.

Yesterday, Lee presented her TWISTER study at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) in Vancouver, which ends today. The theme is “Friendly People, Friendly Robots,” so I’m sure TWISTER fit in just fine.

If you want to see the TWISTER in action, take a look at the CWRU video below:

[Source:

/ Images: Russell Lee unless otherwise noted]

Discuss this and other 3D printing stories at 3DPrintBoard.com, or share your thoughts in the comments below.

LINK3D provides software for the additive manufacturing industry, and its latest product is called Digital Factory, which is now available to the public. The company saw success earlier this year with On Demand, a service that connects users with 3D printing service bureaus, and then set out to create a product – using data gathered from On Demand users – that would automate companies’ 3D printing workflows through data and artificial intelligence. That product was Digital Factory,  a cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) which allows engineering companies to virtually manage all of their 3D printing processes.

The Digital Factory platform is all about ease and collaboration. One aspect of the platform enables team members to work together in a collaborative virtual setting, optimizing workflows. It’s something like a virtual room or office, where all collaborators can work on a design together, annotating it and communicating back and forth in real time even if they’re in different countries. Once users are satisfied with a part design, a file verification analyzer will determine whether it is suitable for additive manufacturing, while auto-repair technology fixes any errors and ensures printability.

An automatic pricing and secure part ordering tool allows users to directly submit part orders to internal facilities or approved vendors, using LINK3D’s automated pricing technology, with the assurance that their information is protected by 256-bit encryption – military-grade IP security. A digital part inventory management feature offers a centrally located order history and part documentation for real-time manufacturing orders, allowing users to easily re-order or re-bid parts and reduce inventory cost. They can also take advantage of LINK3D’s optimization engine for distributed manufacturing.

LINK3D found that most companies that implement additive manufacturing run into some trouble, having problems with decentralization, disconnected silos, and manual processes that slow down or impede the full-scale adoption of the technology. Digital Factory was designed to help companies break through those issues, providing security, automation, accessibility, and traceability to each connecting point within a company’s 3D printing ecosystem.

The company released the program on the last day of the TCT Show, and 3DPrint.com had a chance to talk to LINK3D CEO Shane Fox about it. Fox was formerly a partner at Within, now part of netfabb, and he has a background in microlattice optimization. Over three years on the road with tech, he noticed a problem – there was no streamlined process for the additive manufacturing industry. That led to the creation of On Demand, in which design engineers could submit RFQs to specialized agencies.

LINK3D CEO Shane Fox at the TCT Show [Image: Sarah Goehrke]

The Digital Factory came about when the company decided to create an autonomous workflow tool. So far, it’s going very well, Fox said. It’s mostly an autonomous tool – it’s partly manual because users need to click a few buttons, but it autonomously develops and repairs parts, reducing liability for manufacturing errors. Digital Factory isn’t taking anyone’s job, he added – it’s the middleman in the automation network flow.

“It’s an automated, secure, streamlined workflow software utilizing your data, AI, advanced algorithms to enhance your additive manufacturing ecosystem,” he told us.

LINK3D has reason to be confident that additive manufacturing companies will warm to the platform, and things are going well for the company as a whole. Recently LINK3D closed a Series C funding round with $2.8 million in funding, including a contribution from a big unnamed strategic investor that has been buying several machine companies. LINK3D is a young company, but its future looks bright, as does the future of Digital Factory.

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com, or share your thoughts below. 

Overview: view from above of the NEC

This week in the UK, the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham played host for the 22nd TCT Show, an annual affair that brings together the 3D printing industry. With perhaps 10,000 visitors and more than 250 exhibitors, the 2017 edition was certainly one for the books as the three days of the event were filled with interested minds, industry experts, product launches, and an overarching sense of camaraderie in this small but growing space. As 3D printing picks up around the world, events such as TCT Show are critical for building the community around the technology and showcasing some of the latest developments and hints of what’s next to come.

We’ve been tracking many of the announcements arising from the show this week, and I was running (power-walking, to be more civilized) stand to stand through the duration for a first-hand perspective; by the end of the third day, I was exhausted head to toe, with sore feet and a heavy sensibility of information overload. While there are ways ahead of time to prepare for a 3D printing conference, jumping into the thick of things is a different beast altogether than gathering a list of must-sees, appointments, and other to-dos on a sterile spreadsheet. As always, the insights and new perspectives gained prove the worth of attending in-person, as TCT Show 2017 allowed for a deep personal look into the goings-on of the industry. I appreciated the opportunity this week to revisit and build on existing relationships as well as finally meet face-to-face contacts across the industry with whom I’ve become familiar via email, Skype, and other digital means. From current, guest, and previous contributors to the 3DPrint.com content team to CEOs, executives, representatives, academics, and community members, this week was a delightful reunion and meeting place that reminded me of the brilliance with which the 3D printing industry is awash.

The bulk of each of my days was filled with interview appointments with exhibitors, speakers, and community contributors who each have a unique outlook, while in time not formally scheduled I did my best to walk the exhibit floor to get a feel for the show itself, visit with other familiar faces and intriguing startups, and attend some of the interesting sessions on the conference agenda. The worst part of any given day of a show for me is always a single, seemingly inevitable, question: “What’s the most interesting thing you’ve heard so far?” My response will typically be the same during a show: “I don’t know yet.”

A day removed from the conclusion of TCT Show 2017, I still don’t think I could pinpoint any one announcement or conversation as “the most interesting”; while that distinction is subjective at best anyway, certainly I didn’t have the chance to talk to everyone I’d have liked to, nor hear every piece of news or see every new product, so I can’t pretend to create a fully-informed opinion on a larger “most interesting” front.

That said, I of course had my highlights, and look forward to reporting soon on a delightful crush of interviews, meetings, and presentations.

As with every event a few themes did emerge over the few days, some expected, some refreshing.

Applications:

Footwear and eyewear are taking the spotlight from more established — and still flourishing — applications such as dentistry, with big names including Carbon and Stratasys showcasing their offerings. Materials and processes are expanding as personalized offerings appeal to both consumers and OEMs in unique and custom-fit insoles, shoes, and glasses.

Aerospace and automotive applications are truly taking off, as tolerances are being met for critical-use applications. Renishaw and 3D Systems were among those showing off electric/race car applications for their technologies, while Cranfield University’s Dr Filomeno Martina graciously previewed his presentation on the Wire + Arc Additive Manufacture (WAAM) process for me privately, including a look at a satellite component that has shown impressive results in testing as well as detailing some of the large hopes for the technique.

Medical applications are gaining ground as more certifications are reached for processes, materials, and implants helping to save and enhance the quality of patient lives. Hip implants, surgical planning guides, prosthetics, and more were visible across the show floor as 3D printing and related software serve medical needs around the world. FabRX won the show’s startup award for their work in 3D printed medications. Johnson & Johnson presented an interesting session highlighting the ways in which the global giant is bringing 3D printing into play throughout their operations to help people.

Sam Onukuri, Head, 3D Printing Center of Excellence, J&J

Not necessarily an application in and of itself, but at the heart of all developments, benchmarking has been in sight as new technologies are developed and require testing, as well as simply for testing desktop 3D printers. I appreciated the opportunity to finally meet intrepid designer Daniel Norée and chat about the creation with CreativeTools of the ubiquitous #3DBenchy benchmarking tool, examples of which were scattered throughout the showroom floor from Desktop Metal’s tiny metal Benchy to 3D Platform‘s massive plastic Benchy, and myriad sizes and materials in between. Away from the popular boat model, the University of Nottingham’s Professor Phill Dickens announced the official launch of the country’s Additive Manufacturing Strategy, where benchmarking on a larger scale is in sight from a regulatory perspective, deriving from a collaborative effort across industry, academia, and government.

Technologies:

Metal. We always have to start by noting that metal additive manufacturing is in sight these days, don’t we? Desktop Metal and Digital Metal both showcased their technologies for their first time at TCT Show 2017, and were in good company with a slew of metal technologies seen from end to end on the show floor.

Polymers aren’t being left behind by any stretch, as CONTEXT analyst Chris Connery pointed out in his talk on Facts, Figures, and Future; CONTEXT is noting powder bed fusion as a major focus, with work from HP coming into play in the increasing visibility of polymers on the market. While metal technologies account for the lion’s share of revenues (80% by Connery’s accounting), polymers are also in the limelight and expected to see significant growth.

Desktop 3D printers were of course on full display as extrusion-based technologies remain a mainstay. XYZprinting highlighted their new full-color capabilities, alongside their expansive line of popular, low-cost offerings. Monoprice was recently revealed as providing the top-selling desktop 3D printer in the world, by unit sales. A slew of additional desktop units, including the latest 3D printer from Prusa, drew attention across the show floor. Professional-targeted units, including those from Rize and Nano Dimension, provided a look at more complex capabilities in strength and electronics applications, while the latest machine from ZMorph provides what the company’s CEO called a perfect balance between its various capabilities, with 3D printing, CNC milling, and laser engraving in one desktop unit. Showing off the capabilities of its broad line of offerings, EnvisionTEC created a complex dog (#TCTDog) using a variety of means and materials.

Material recycling remains in sight; while additive manufacturing maintains a reputation for being environmentally friendly due to the need to use only as much material as a particular design requires, rather than milling away or otherwise removing material as in traditional subtractive techniques, supports and other excess material often come into play. Digital Metal highlighted the lack of need for supports in builds, saving significantly on the use of expensive metal materials. On the polymeric side, 3devo showcased their material recycler and extruder dedicated to enhancing the value proposition of materials in use.

Business:

So far as product introductions went, this was a busy event in buzz but without any major disruptions presented; these will, by and large, be saved for the upcoming formnext event in Frankfurt. The more industrial-focused show will be home to a good number of announcements, some of which are already highly anticipated and some as yet in the form of whispers and off-the-record conversations and hints. It is safe to say that formnext 2017 will be an event not to be missed. So far as actual on-site announcements at TCT Show, though, we did hear about plenty of new materials, software launches, a few first tech showings in the UK, some new 3D printers, and collaborations, among others.

Conversations and presentations also revealed several new 3D printing facilities, including Materialise‘s new facility in Poland opened last week and a note about next week’s opening of its expanded facility in Belgium. The company’s CEO noted that this has been a very busy period for the growing company, including the enhanced operations and the addition of two new HP 3D printers, bringing them to eight Multi Jet Fusion machines.

The E3D team welcomed everyone to the open source dinner

A frequent conversation as well in the overarching community surrounding 3D printing is also frequently debated: should technologies be open- or closed-source? The open source community had a strong showing throughout the week, including a dedicated open source dinner held on the Wednesday night, organized by E3D, where I appreciated the opportunity to be surrounded by some of the strongest minds behind the open source ethos. While I didn’t stay long (the excitable community stayed out far past what my weak human body could take following two days of the show and the previous night’s thumping exhibitors’ evening), the face time at the dinner was invaluable as the community continues to grow.

Held during the same evening as the open source dinner, TCT hosted their first annual TCT Awards; we’ll soon be taking a look at some of the winners chosen by an independent jury of judges. Five significant figures in 3D printing were the first inductees into the Hall of Fame, celebrated for their undeniable contributions to the industry. Certainly these five notables — Adrian Bowyer, Chuck Hull, Hans Langer, Scott Crump, and Fried Vancraen — are all absolutely deserving of the recognition for their invaluable work in establishing and advancing additive manufacturing; at the same time, it will admittedly be refreshing to see future inductions adding a more diverse spread of key figures in 3D printing.

As the industry grows, so too does the diversity of participants; it was wonderful to note during the show that a growing proportion of my interviews were with women and people of color, and that representation of a broader cross-section of individuals were present. Highlighting diversity in business was the excellent #3DTalk panel, in which four women presented a panel discussion on materials, moderated by Women in 3D Printing founder Nora Touré and TCT Deputy Group Editor Laura Griffiths. The conversation highlighted heightened visibility for more industry participants, with representatives from LPW Technology, Added Scientific, Carbon, and Somos sharing their experiences, challenges, and a look at what’s to come in materials and industry.

#3DTalk Birmingham panelists (L-R): Martine van der Ent, DSM Somos; Dr. Nicola Jones, LPW Technology; Sophie Jones, Added Scientific; Dana McCallum, Carbon

A further spread in industry diversity was one more casually noticed, but a definite rising trend: youth. TCT Show 2017 may have had the youngest overall skew of attendees that I’ve seen at a major 3D printing conference, and was to the best of my knowledge the first time that in a conversation with seven other people I realized I was the oldest person in the circle by a fair margin of years. I’m only…we’ll say thirty-something…and still accustomed to being among the younger side of heavy business conversations. While I felt a brief impulse to pick up some wrinkle cream, outside the surprise was a sense of contentment: that engineers and even fellow journalists are a decade younger than me shows that there’s a definite rise in education surrounding additive manufacturing. Rising awareness of the technology at the educational level is critical for the technology to have any real hope of growing as a profession and as an industry unto itself. In discussing how-did-you-get-into-this-field, a common origin story conversation at such events, one company representative said he’d heard of 3D printing in a dedicated college course; turned out that course was held in 2017 and he’s a recent graduate now gainfully employed in AM. While most of us have wandered into this industry from a variety of backgrounds, for the first time we’re truly seeing a rise of participants coming into the workforce to start off with a career in 3D printing, particularly as courses and even dedicated degree tracks emerge at the university level (not to mention the importance of starting students younger).

Overall:

This quick (“quick”) overview is the tip of the 3D printed iceberg; as with every major conference, TCT Show this year has provided more information, even from a large step back, than could be summed up in a single recap.

TCT Show 2017 provided, outside a wealth of announcements and introductions, the ever-welcome opportunity unique to large gatherings to observe and engage in the professional and interpersonal dynamics and relationships that make up the industry. We’ll be continuing to keep an eye to the news emerging from this show, along with a forthcoming healthy dose of exclusive interviews and observations.

[All photos: Sarah Goehrke]