Support structures are a necessary evil of 3D printing. They can be frustrating and time-consuming, but they are required to keep many parts from collapsing or becoming distorted. In a paper entitled “Support Structures for Additive Manufacturing: A Review,” a group of researchers take a close look at supports and their various forms and functions, and evaluate some of the research that has been conducted on them already.

The purposes of support structures, according to the researchers, can be divided into three types:

• Supports that act as a heat diffuser and rigidity enhancer, preventing shape distortion and residual stresses due to excess heat accumulation, particularly in metal 3D printing
• Supports that are necessary in processes like FDM so that material isn’t being deposited in midair
• Supports that act as a tether to keep parts from shifting and/or collapsing

Support structures, while necessary, also have plenty of disadvantages, including creating excess material that often cannot be reused, as well as creating lots of extra work to remove. They also result in longer print time and additional work and expertise required to generate them properly. The paper discusses how to circumvent some of these obstacles, including optimizing the orientation of the part and the structure of the supports, as well as using sacrificial or soluble supports or support baths.

In the study, the researchers take a look at other publications that have been dedicated to 3D printing support structures, and find that the majority of them are focused on FDM 3D printing, rather than metal 3D printing processes.

“The reason for this is most probably because of the unavoidable and higher requirement of support in FDM, and the popularity of the printing technique,” the researchers state. “FDM needs material beneath the printed layer as it is extrusion-based, while for powder processes, the powder could take the role of support. In addition, the unused powder which acts as the support can be reused, to an extent, in the future. However, the supports fabricated in extrusion-based processes are generally unable to be reused, unless the supports are re-manufactured into filaments. For powder bed processes, the support material is generally for ameliorating against thermal stresses during manufacture and to anchor the printed part within the build volume.”

Many of the studies reported focus on the optimization of part orientation in order to minimize support usage, but others are dedicated to eliminating support usage altogether. One research team tried to use an inclined deposition method for FDM, but the method is a bit complex and involves control over the direction of the nozzle. Another proposal involved using water or ice as supports for SLA builds.

“Though this strategy seems to eliminate using the part material as support, it instead requires the repeated heating and cooling of water to induce the necessary phase change, which may be less energy efficient,” the researchers point out.

The design of support structures should be based on several principles. The support should be able to prevent the part from collapsing or warping, especially the outer contour area; for metal processes, stress and strain need to be considered and thermal simulation modeling can be considered for design. The connection between the supports and the final part should be the minimal strength needed, in order for removal to be as easy as possible, and the contact area between the support and final part should be as small as possible to minimize damage. Material consumption and build time should also be considered.

Support structures are unavoidable in many 3D printing processes, the researchers conclude, but more effort should be made to minimize the negative effects of supports. In the research that they evaluated, there were a few gaps that they pointed out, including the lack of a comprehensive method for reducing support material while keeping the mechanical strength and surface finish quality.

“In addition, some innovative and creative methods which can largely minimize or even achieve zero-support for AM are urgently necessary,” the researchers conclude. “Support structure modeling needs to be adopted in the future, especially for metal processes. Further, a standardized model and uniform criteria need to be made in the future for fairly comparing different support methods and choosing the most economical strategy. Lastly, topology optimization is necessary to be integrated into support structures for further reducing materials used, making AM a more sustainable technology.”

Authors of the paper include Jingchao Jiang, Xun Xu, and Jonathan Stringer.

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We’ve got some 3D printing event news to share with you in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, along with some business news and a story about a cool 3D printed container. At the TCT Show this week, Additive Industries announced a partnership with Laser Lines, and DEVELOP3D Magazine will soon celebrate product design and metal 3D printing at a live event. CRP Technology has created an updated 3D printed fairing for the Energica Ego Corsa superbike, and employees at the GE Additive Customer Experience Center in Munich made a 3D printed beer krug just in time for Oktoberest.

Additive Industries Partnering with Laser Lines

L-R: Mark Beard, General Manager UK, Additive Industries; Mark Tyrtania, Sales Director, Laser Lines; Daan Kersten, CEO, Additive Industries; and Phil Craxford, Sales Manager, Laser Lines

At the opening of the TCT Show, which took place in Birmingham earlier this week, Additive Industries announced a new partnership with Laser Lines Ltd. in order to speed up its 3D printing presence in the UK and Ireland. Laser Lines is a UK supplier of 3D printers, 3D scanning equipment, lasers, and related accessories, and will work together with Additive Industries to help grow the maturing market in the UK and Ireland for industrial 3D printers. Laser Lines will support Additive Industries in its work to further develop the industrial market for various applications in the aerospace, automotive, machine building, and medical sectors.

“With the recently announced expansion to the UK with a dedicated Process & Application Development Centre, we already acknowledge that the UK & Ireland is an important market that provides great opportunities for industrial companies to enter into industrial metal additive manufacturing,” said Daan Kersten, the CEO of Additive Industries. “With Laser Lines Ltd we add an experienced partner to our fast growing worldwide network that will work with us to identify and manage these opportunities that will contribute to our execution of our accelerated growth.”

DEVELOP3D Magazine Holding Live Event

Each year, DEVELOP3D, a monthly print and digital design journal, holds a live US event all about product design. This year’s DEVELOP3D Live event will be held this coming Tuesday, October 2nd, from 8 am – 6:30 pm at Boston University.

“We have some really fascinating folks coming to celebrate product design in the 21st Century,” Martyn Day from X3D Media, which runs DEVELOP3D, told 3DPrint.com. “We are especially pleased to have Ti Chang from Crave, Tatjana Dzambazova from new metals 3D printing company Velo3D and Olympian, Jon Owen from Team USA Luge.

“Our day is split with MainStage presentations from designers and the industry, together with a track dedicated to Additive Manufacturing, with all the latest in metals 3D printing.”

Tickets are just $50, and include full access to the conference and all 30 exhibitors, plus refreshments, lunch, and drinks at a social mixer. There will be 20 speakers presenting in two separate streams, and topics include CAD, topology optimization, 3D printing, virtual reality, and product development.

3D Printed Fairing for Ego Corsa

Together, Italy-based CRP Group and its subsidiary Energica have been using 3D printing and Windform materials to develop components for electric motorcycles and superbikes for a few years now. In April, the Ego Corsa electric motorcycle completed its third demo lap, and at the last series of road tests before the first edition of the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup, the 2019 2019 Ego Corsa prototype hit the track with a new 3D printed fairing, manufacturing by CRP Technology with its laser sintering technology and Windform XT 2.0 Carbon-fiber reinforced composite material. The 3D printed fairing update has improved the Ego Corsa’s aerodynamics.

“We have had the fairing available in short time. Thanks to the professional 3D printing and CRP Technology’s Windform composite materials, it is possible to modify motorcycle components – even large ones – from one race to the next ones, in order to test different solutions directly on the track,” said the Energica technical staff.

“This fairing is not only more aerodynamic, but it also has a smaller frontal and lateral section. These improvements led to achieve increase in terms of performance and they led to achieve greater manageability in fast corners.

“The Windform XT 2.0 has once again proved to be a high performance composite material. We are very happy how the 3D printed new fairing behaved during the tests.”

VIDEO

GE Additive 3D Prints Metal Beer Stein

Even though the month of October doesn’t start for another few days, Oktoberfest itself officially kicked off last Saturday in Germany. In order to celebrate the occasion, the AddWorks team at the GE Additive Customer Experience Center in Munich, which opened last winter, decided to take another look at the traditional glass beer krug; what we’d call a pitcher or stein in the US.

The unfortunate thing about glass is that it breaks. Obviously, if you’ve enjoyed too much beer at an event like Oktoberfest, the likelihood of breaking your glass drink container goes way up. So AddWorks decided to create a new prototype beer krug, but instead of using glass, they 3D printed it using a combination of stainless steel and titanium…and the result is pretty impressive.

Take a look at the video below, which stars the head of the Munich CEC (Matthew Beaumont), to see the whole process:

VIDEO

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This year’s TCT Show, held in Birmingham as usual, ended earlier this week, and yielded many announcements about new 3D printing materials, software, and of course, 3D printers and their associated hardware. Additionally, the annual TCT Awards was held for the second time during a gala dinner at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole on Wednesday. British actor and presenter Robert Llewellyn hosted the nearly 300 guests at the awards, which celebrates, according to TCT Group owner Rapid News Publications Ltd, “the people, technology and collaborations behind the best in design-to-manufacturing innovation.”

There were 14 competitive award categories, and the TCT Awards recognized the partners in many collaborative projects, in addition to the designers, technology providers, and engineers. Three more 3D printing industry leaders were also inducted into the TCT Hall of Fame in honor of “their contribution to the industry and to the growth in technology adoption.”

“Once again it was a privilege to share an evening with so many truly exceptional people,” said Duncan Wood, Chief Executive of Rapid News. “All of the winners are to be congratulated for their successes, and of course in particular the Hall of Fame inductees need a special mention, their innovation, entrepreneurship and commitment has played a huge part in the development and success of the industry.

“I must also thank our sponsors 3ecruit, as well as our supporting partner, Innovate UK for their endorsement of the event and of course our judges. The TCT Awards night is fast becoming THE night of the year for the industry and we are looking forward to the 2019 edition already!”

The first of the new TCT Hall of Fame inductees is Dr. Carl Deckard, who invented and developed Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D printing technology while based at the University of Texas. Together with his former professor Joe Beaman, Dr. Deckard co-founded DTM Corporation, which was later purchased by 3D Systems, to commercialize SLS 3D printing.

The second 2018 inductee into the TCT Hall of Fame is application specialist and process pioneer Greg Morris. In 1994 he founded Morris Technologies, a specialist AM services provider, which was purchased by GE Aviation in 2012, along with sister company Rapid Quality Manufacturing. His work in developing metal 3D printing applications and processes has increased their adoption in the aerospace and medical sectors, and he distributes his knowledge through his involvement in the speaking circuit.

Professor Emanuel ‘Ely’ Sachs, who invented binder jet printing at MIT in 1989, is this year’s final TCT Hall of Fame Inductee. Professor Sachs, who is on the leadership team of Desktop Metal and still teaches at MIT, actually coined the phrase ‘3D printing’ at that time, and binder jetting technology is a building block for much of the market’s current technology.

As for the rest of the TCT Awards, Project MELT, with its tech lead listed as BEEVERYCREATIVE, won this year’s Aerospace Application Award, while the winner of the Automotive Application Award was the BMW i8 roadster SLM bracket by tech lead SLM Solutions.

Vitamix nozzle at RAPID 2018 [Image: Sarah Saunders for 3DPrint.com]

The

won the Consumer Product Application Award, while the winner of the Creative Application Award was the

by Cooksongold for Boltenstern. SPEE3D won the Hardware Award – Non Polymers for

, and the Hardware Award – Polymers went to

.

Axial3D won the Healthcare Application Award for the use of its pre-op planning model aids in a world-first surgery at Belfast City Hospital, and Trinckle 3D won the Industrial Product Application Award for its mass customization of copper inductors. The Materials Award – Non Polymer went to SABIC for its EXL AMHI240F 3D printing filament, and NanoSteel took the Materials Award – Polymers for its BLDRmetal L-40 steel 3D printing material.

3D Systems was the winner of the Metrology Award for its Aircraft Damage Assessment for Easyjet, and Steros GPA Innovate S.L. won the Post-Processing Award for its DLyte: Metal DryLyte Electropolishing. Materialise won the Software Award for its e-Stage Metal, and this year’s Rising Star Award was given to HiETA Technologies Ltd.

To learn more about the winning projects and companies, and see the Highly Commended projects, visit the TCT Awards website.

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3D printing has the potential to become a driving force in automobiles of the future. Allowing for exponentially more economical design and production, as well as invaluable rapid prototyping, this technology has been in use for many of the bigger names in car production for decades; in fact, companies like BMW have employed 3D printers for over 25 years and continue to invest further.

Racing enthusiasts have caught on quickly to the benefits of 3D printing also. With their own hardware on site—or in working with other parties to create and fabricate parts—those involved in building cars in a more DIY fashion can design parts, evaluate them as prototypes, and then continue to go back to the drawing board as often as needed without breaking the bank.

Building a racecar is not an uncommon endeavor for university students engaged in engineering studies, but with the addition of 3D design and 3D printing, their education and skillset for the future is expanded significantly. In a new twist, faculty at the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Poland not only created several 3D printed parts for a bolide (also known as a fast-racing vehicle) but they became immersed in studying the dynamics of 3D printing and testing its true fortitude for their needs.

In ‘Studies on optimization of 3D-printed elements applied in Silesian Greenpower vehicle,’ authors A. Baier, P. Zur, A. Kolodziej, P. Konopka and M. Komander explain their process for creating 3D printed parts for their Silesian Greenpower electric racing vehicle, as well as the reasoning behind the project overall. The Silesian Greenpower Bullet SGR’s main parts (the frame and body) were created using Siemens NX software, while all cars competing at Greenpower were required to use identical electric motors with two 12-volt batteries for power.

The model of the fairing for back wheels of SG electric vehicle.

Model of the mirror case.

In testing 3D printing processes in the creation of both the fairing and mirror casing for their car, the team used a 3DGence 3D printer with a .5 mm nozzle. Test parts were created in PLA (1.75mm), chosen due to its more environmentally friendly nature, and its ability to decompose within 18 to 24 months. The team made 56 samples, allowing them to examine temperatures, cooling rates, and layer heights.

The model of the frame of Silesian Greenpower electric vehicle.

 “It can be seen, that Young’s modulus varies between of 721 – 1274MPa with the percentage relative deviation in the range of 1.52 – 28.91 % – 2 out of 8 results are more than 25 %, therefore, these results obtained for Young’s modulus are not accurate,” state the researchers in their paper. “However, each of the results is in the range of the reference value for PLA. Maximum forces applied vary between 1.14 – 2.39 kN.”

“Percentage relative deviation for tensile strength is between 1.61 – 14.22 %, so results are accurate. Values of tensile strength are in the range of 29 – 57 MPa. Percentage relative deviation is the same as of maximum force for the corresponding series since tensile strength value is derived from force value. Most of the results of tensile strength are on the higher end of reference value range – 6 out of 8 results are above 45 MPa with the upper limit of 60 MPa. On the contrary, results of the elongation value are on the very low end of reference range with the value between 3.90 – 5.57 %.”

The model of the body of Silesian Greenpower bolide.

On conclusion, the team realized that while lower 3D printing temperatures do not have as much of an impact on quality, layer height is much improved.

“Smaller layer height provides better connection of the outline with the filling, and of the filling itself,” stated the researchers.

Higher temperatures, however, led to improved tensile strength—a requirement for creating car parts.

“At higher printing temperature and lower layer height, the higher cooling rate influences fragility of the material – lowers tensile strength significantly,” concluded the team. “The material is cooled down too rapidly whereby individual strokes did not connect enough with each other. Low printing temperature and high layer height cause a decrease in tensile strength by almost half, also the outline of the specimen is not well connected with the filling.”

What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.

[Source / Images:

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Dave Ramahi, Urs Berger- Optomec, Harald Moder- Merconics, Lars Sommerhäuser & Pierangelo Gröning, Empa- at the Coating Competency Center at Empa in Switzerland [Image: Optomec]

New Mexico-based company

 has been around since 1997, and has gotten a lot accomplished in those 21 years. The company is known for two major 3D printing technologies. Aerosol Jet 3D printing enables the printing of electronics, using aerodynamic focusing to precisely and accurately deposit electronic inks onto substrates. The ink is placed into an atomizer, which creates a dense mist of material laden droplets; that mist is then delivered to the deposition head where it is focused by a sheath gas, which surrounds the aerosol as an annular ring. When the sheath gas and aerosol pass through the nozzle, they accelerate and the aerosol becomes focused into a tight stream, which is then aimed at the substrate.

Optomec’s other technology, LENS, is a metal 3D printing method, using a high-powered laser to fuse metal powder into dense 3D structures. The process takes place in a hermetically sealed chamber which is purged with argon so that the oxygen and moisture levels stay below 10 parts per million, keeping the part clean and preventing oxidation. The powder is delivered to the deposition head by a proprietary powder feed system which can precisely regulate mass flow.

Just recently, Optomec introduced a new technology – a hybrid system that combines LENS technology with CNC milling. The company is consistently developing new innovations, and is always expanding – Optomec has now announced that it is opening Optomec GmbH, a  new Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Operations Center located in Dübendorf, Switzerland. Optomec GmbH will be located at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology. Empa is an institution of the ETH domain and is affiliated with the ETH Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology).

Empa has been responsible for some big 3D printing innovations itself, especially in the materials department. It’s also the location of the DFAB House, a project involving multiple digital construction technologies including 3D printing.

“Recognized for its leading-edge research in materials science and interdisciplinary technology, Empa is an ideal setting for Optomec to establish its EMEA Operations Center,” said Mike Kardos, VP World Wide Sales at Optomec. “Our office and demo center will be staffed with engineers and service technicians as well as the latest equipment to better support our partners and grow our customer base in the region. Also, our partnership with Empa enables Optomec to leverage their extensive network of European partnerships and collaborate on research activities that are well aligned with Optomec’s technology roadmap.”

Empa employs about 1,000 people and is dedicated to research and development in the field of sustainable materials science and technology.

“The new EMEA office demonstrates Optomec’s commitment to growing our presence and serving our clients in this region,” said Urs Berger, Optomec Director of Sales for EMEA. “I’m pleased to play an integral role in this expansion and look forward to the exciting development opportunities this presents for our clients and our industry.”

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[Image: Nikon]

X-ray computed tomography, also known as CT or CAT scan, has been used for years in the medical field. More recently, manufacturers have begun using it to measure a part’s geometrical dimensions, including both internal and external features. It is frequently used in additive manufacturing to non-destructively measure complex parts. In a thesis entitled “

,” a

student named Herminso Villarraga Gómez conducts several experiments that evaluate the performance of cone-beam CT measurements and their uncertainty estimates, comparing them to reference measurements mostly obtained from tactile coordinate measurement machines (CMMs).

Gómez points out that the field of CT metrology still faces challenges in trying to estimate measurement uncertainties, “mainly due to the plethora of influencing factors contributing to the CT measurement process.” His thesis attempts to further understand the role of variables affecting the precision and accuracy of CT dimensional measurements. The main CT variables he investigates are temperature in the X–ray CT enclosure, number of projections for a CT scan, workpiece tilt orientation, sample image magnification, material thickness influences, software post–filtration, threshold determination, and measurement strategies.

[Image: Laser Design Inc.]

In some experiments, Gómez contrasted the results against simulations performed in Matlab software and another simulation tool called Dreamcaster.

“For dimensions of geometric features ranging from 0.5 mm to 65 mm, a comparison between dimensional CT and CMM measurements, performed at optimized conditions, typically resulted in differences of approximately 5 µm or less for data associated with dimensional lengths(length, width, height, and diameters) and around 5 to 50 µm for data associated with measurements of form, while expanded uncertainties computed for the CT measurements ranged from 1 to over 50 µm,” he states.

He also assessed methods for estimating measurement uncertainty of CT scanning. He presents a thorough study of metrics used for proficiency testing, including tests of statistical consistency (null-hypothesis testing) performed with Monte Carlo simulation, and applies them to results from two recent CT interlaboratory comparisons.

“In particular, it is shown that the use of the En-metric in the current state of CT interlaboratory comparisons could be difficult to interpret when used to evaluate performance and/or statistical consistency of CT measurement sets,” he continues.

[Image: Nikon]

Gómez’s study is important when applied to additive manufacturing because, particularly in fields such as aerospace, precision of parts is of the utmost importance. A flawless method of measurements must be established, and CT scanning has great potential, and is indeed already in widespread use. But it’s not perfect, as Gómez points out, and his thesis attempts to assess and better understand its limitations.

One of the benefits of additive manufacturing is that it can create parts with complex geometries, both internal and external, and those can be difficult to measure, especially non-destructively. QA for 3D printing is still problematic for many parts. CT scanning is a largely reliable method for measuring the complicated internal channels and features that additive manufacturing is known for, and Gómez’s work is a big step toward making it even more reliable.

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The LEHVOSS Group, which operates under the management of parent company Lehmann&Voss&Co., is comprised of several chemical companies that develop, make, and market special materials for a variety of industrial clients. The company was an early adopter of HP’s Multi Jet Fusion technology, and partnered with Covestro last year to develop PA-CF Low Warp material. Now, the LEHVOSS Group has revealed what new tailor-made 3D printing plastics it plans to showcase at the upcoming formnext and Fakuma 3D printing events.

This year, the company is celebrating 35 years of its high-performance, thermoplastic LUVOCOM 3F compounds; it launched the LUVOCOM 3F 3D printing material line within the last decade. These granulate compounds are meant for extrusion-based 3D printing, and are, according to a company release, “tailor-made to individual customer requirements.”

LUVOSINT and LUVOCOM 3F 3D printing materials for the manufacturing of volume components with outstanding properties.

“The oldest brand in the Customized Polymer Materials business unit can look back on a very successful period. With tailor-made thermoplastic high-performance compounds, the product series meets the challenging requirements of industry,” the release stated. “Focal areas here are applications in the fields of tribology, structure, high temperature and conductivity. Additional product series have become established in the meantime, and, for the past six years, they have included products for 3D printing with the brands LUVOSINT ® and LUVOCOM ® 3F. The LEHVOSS Group supplies technical compounds for industrial applications with the brand LUVOTECH ® . Rounding off the portfolio is the LUVOCOM ® P product line, with powders for electrostatic coating.”

LUVOCOM materials have excellent processing characteristics and material properties, including a high-layer bonding strength and the ability to be processed in an unheated build space, and products made with the granulates can fulfill their given functions reliably, regardless of tough requirements and standards. The company, in addition to its established materials currently being used in series applications, is also premiering its latest developments in high temperature-resistant and reinforced materials.

Sectional view of tensile test bar made of polyamide (40% carbon fibre) with 30% weight reduction.

New high-temperature LUVOCOM polyamide (PA) and polypropylene (PP) products will be on display, as will new LUVOSINT powder 3D printing products based on TPU and PP. These materials are already opening new applications in 3D printing, such as technical parts in mechanical engineering and automobile construction.

The company’s international LUVOBATCH business unit, which produces and sells customer-specific, high-quality additives and master batches, combines its functions so that everything, from development and product to pilot plant sales, is under the same roof. The LUVOBATCH PA BA 1001/1002 blowing agent system will also be on display at upcoming trade shows formnext and Fakuma.

This endothermic system makes it possible to reduce the weight of polyamide, with reinforcing materials like carbon and glass fibers, by up to 30%, while also keeping “the loss of mechanical properties at a low level.”

“Weight reduction as a means of conserving our resources is a fundamental constituent in the contemporary design and dimensioning of technical components in many industries, and particularly so in the automotive and aviation sectors,” the release stated.

“As an example, foamed components produced with this system exhibited a performance factor for bending stress in the range from 1 to 1.3. Consequently, the change in flexural strength is smaller than the reduction in weight.”

The LUVOBATCH PA BA 1001/1002 blowing agent system also makes it possible to avoid contraction cavities and sink marks, and uses a special polyamide as the carrier system to reduce, and even prevent, delamination in components that are put under high mechanical stress.

You can see the new LUVOCOM and LUVOSINT materials, and the LUVOBATCH PA BA 1001/1002 blowing agent system, at booth #3.1-E91 at formnext, November 13-16, and at booth #B1-1109 at Fakuma, October 13-17.

WMK Plastics, new technical center in Solingen with an area of 2.000 m².

In additional news from the LEHVOSS Group, its WMK Plastics GmbH subsidiary, which specializes in technical compounds and plastic granulates, is reacting to the company’s increased customer requirements and recently extended its premises in Solingen with a new 2.000 m² production hall. The new building is now home to a larger quality and development laboratory, which includes injection molding and pilot-plant extruder facilities in order to guarantee its customers sample availability and rapid development times.

The building also houses seminar rooms for the WMK Academy, which offers continuing employee training, and an extra standard, large-diameter production extruder for underwater pelletizing and strand cutting, so customers can see trial production runs. A laboratory extruder with a weighing device and detached feeding units for rapidly changing products, is also located in the new building. It has several additional side feeding units that can docked at different positions, and features a rotational speed of up to 1,200 rpm. Both the standard and laboratory extruder “provide the basis for guaranteeing the scale-up to other extruders.”

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Ligament tears are becoming more common in sports. They’re painful and debilitating, and difficult to treat. The current standard is to replace the torn ligament with tendons, but that can cause additional problems down the line.

“What can happen over time is that the tendon itself begins to kind of stretch and become a little bit relaxed in the joint,” said Christina Salas, PhD, a scientist at the University of New Mexico. “Then (the tendon) becomes deficient again.”

Dr. Salas is currently working on creating 3D printed ligaments, which she says has never been done before. It’s an area of focus she has been working on for some time, with help from students and professors at the University of New Mexico.

“This is something that hopefully can reduce some of those failures we see,” said Dustin Richter, Assistant Professor of Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Surgery. “And get people back to doing what they enjoy.”

The researchers have developed a special technique involving electrospinning, which uses electric force to create fibers.

“The near-field electrospinning technique that we have added to the bio-printer actually produces really highly aligned fibers that replicate the ligament tissue,” said Dr. Salas.

Doctors could then take a CT or MRI scan of a patient’s damaged joint and create an exact replica using 3D printing. This could allow for less-invasive surgery, and could be a more permanent solution as the synthetic 3D printed ligament would not wear out or weaken.

“We want to make sure that those patients can truly maintain their full function even longer as they grow older in life,” said Dr. Salas.

Dr. Christina Salas

The biggest challenge Dr. Salas and her colleagues are facing is figuring out how to attach the 3D printed ligaments to the bone. Dr. Salas recently received a two-year, $150,000 grant for the research.

3D printing is changing the way doctors and scientists look at the treatment of common injuries, such as torn ligaments. Recently, Queensland researchers revealed a new method of 3D printing joint cartilage, which could greatly shorten recovery time after surgery for arthritis and joint injuries – and that’s only one example of the extensive research that is taking place around the world involving the use of 3D printing for the repair of damaged bones and muscles.

Dr. Salas’ research involves artificial ligaments, but other work is taking place that involves 3D printing new tissue using the patient’s own stem cells. Many people automatically jump directly to talking about 3D printing organs when 3D bioprinting is mentioned, but major progress is being made in other areas, like the treatments of degenerative illnesses and common injuries. With 3D printing, athletes have the potential to stay in the game for much longer than they would have otherwise. There may also be less need for things like walkers and wheelchairs as people age, as diseases like arthritis are healed with new cartilage.

When 3D printed organs eventually become realized, they will potentially enable people to live longer than ever before. Until then, bioprinting has the ability to help people live with better quality of life for their natural lifespans.

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[Source:

]

Netherlands-based Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is one of the world’s leading higher learning institutions, evidenced by continual innovations in student research. We have followed as TU Delft faculty have 3D printed electronic devices, students have fabricated parts for racecars, and even performed studies regarding some pretty amazing potential for 3D printed bacteria and its uses in space; however, student research at TU Delft also seems to have a recent and strong focus on delving into the 4D, giving us a glimpse into the future as we move even beyond the third dimension and look forward to objects that can adapt and morph—depending on the needs of their users.

No strangers to the world of soft robotics, 3D printed shape-shifting assemblies, as well as the fabrication of a variety of metamaterials, researchers have now set their sights on 3D printed pieces that could change the way furniture is designed and manufactured in the future. Arwin Hidding is a student at TU Delft, centering around current work with the Robotic Building research group. After finishing his master’s degree in architecture (and just before embarking on his PhD in 3D printed architecture), Hidding began working on a design for an innovative chaise lounge that sounds as if it could spoil consumers forever in terms of features and comfort.

Transforming from a lounge chair into a bed within mere seconds, this 3D printed piece is all about giving the user what they require in the moment—whether they want to sit and relax—or lie down, activating movement as they lean against the rear of the chaise.

“In the past, furniture could only take on a different shape in cartoons. 3D robot printing, variable stiffness, and adaptive structures were unheard of at the time,” Hidding told 3DPrint.com.

“The aim of the project was to develop a 3D printable pattern that would allow control over the stiffness over the material. Variable stiffness is employed in this project as an adaptation strategy to achieve multi-functionality.”

VIDEO

Using growing expertise in the field of both 3D printing and architecture, Hidding and a team of TU Delft researchers experimented with the concept of shape-shifting furniture. Along with progressive design concepts, they relied on intricate structural analysis, robotic path simulations, and 3D robotic printing for creating the ‘adaptive structure.’ The design is meant to support an average-sized human, with the morphing mechanism activated by their weight on the back of the structure.

“This shape change is achieved by combining variation in material distribution and use of thermoplastic elastomers,” Hidding told 3DPrint.com.

Other project members from TU Delft included Henriette Bier, Patrick Teuffel, Qing Wang, and Senatore Gennaro. The 3D printed chaise lounge is slated to be on display for the public at the Dutch Design Week from 20-28 of October in Eindhoven. Find out more about this project and other Robotic Building projects here.

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