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Functional Texture Libraries Could Make All 3D Printed Parts Better https://ift.tt/3mYRdOI In the molded, mass-manufactured, and CNC’d world, everything was smooth. Meanwhile, our 3D printed world had a surface roughness problem that was proving difficult to solve. Finishing took longer than printing, and, in many cases, added high cost. Everything changed with Arcam. With Arcam (now GE) electron beam melting (EBM), we saw that the right kind of roughness could be a boon, as well. Rough, not-so-dense EBM, always the bridesmaid, never the bride, took off in orthopedics. It took off because of porosity and because it could create the right roughness to promote bone adhesion in orthopedic implants. A bug had become a feature. And it was cheaper than conventional manufacturing! EBM has since seen continued success in orthopedic implants. More and more 510 (K) approvals for EBM and laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) in orthopedics mean that this will be a significant source of business for our industry for decades to come. But, if we look across other industries, we don’t really see that success with textures replicated. Furthermore, we don’t see very significant investment in textures pursuant to the opportunity. Orthopedics is a high growth market that has not matured because countries such as Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia have unmet demand and have not been able to afford these kinds of procedures previously. People are getting heavier, with more diabetes and arthritis. Simultaneously people are living longer and have more expectations of a higher activity life for longer, as well. Your grandma wants to go to France, and she’ll now get a hip implant which will be replaced in a few years for a new one. The sum of this is that orthopedics is a tremendous opportunity. It’s not some race-to-the-bottom game either. Implants need to be perfect; failed implants require another procedure and can expose medical device firms to millions in lawsuits. So, this is a long-term, expanding business opportunity that we, as an industry, can meet while getting paid. That’s beautiful. There are more industries and use cases such as this one out there. We have to inspire people with good examples of parts and applications to get them to come to us. Sales and marketing people have to tell an accurate and compelling story to get people interested, as well. We need a lot more training and 3D printing people also. But, I think that there is another rather unexplored method that we can use to find new applications and grow our industry: Functional Textures on Demand. Imagine that we got together on one global project to create, test, and validate different textures for 3D printing. We would try to make many different kinds of high performing surfaces and study their effects. Can we make a surface that increases gas flow? Or a surface that decreases it? Can we make a surface that reduces surface tension in a tank or cools a liquid? Can we design a porosity to absorb liquid in a particular way or to have stronger capillary action? Can we create textures that lock two faces of different parts together in one plane, but where they can easily be removed from each other by pulling them in a different direction? In other words, could it be valuable to have Velcro for titanium? Can we create textures that make objects more abrasive or harder wearing? I think so. What about textures that can increase the service life of a cog? Or a texture that can make a valve work better? Or a texture specific to one single manifold design to optimally route liquid in that manifold? I’m not sure but that could be interesting. What about textures on the inside of combustion chambers that can optimize combustion, making it more complete, for example? Or a texture inside a tank that would lead to a slightly faster processing time for a polymer plant’s chemical reaction? That would be very worthwhile. What I like most about this is that we can discover completely unanticipated effects of advantageous textures in this way. Once we have them, they could be applied to make all of our parts a bit better. Indeed many available textures would make our entire technology a bit better. The idea of Texture on Demand is that we develop functional texture libraries that are open source. We then share them and ask researchers and universities to contribute to them and work with firms to test these textures and their effects. Once this has critical mass, companies will scramble to protect further-optimized, proprietary textures to gain advantage. This will create more research into textures still. Perhaps specific texture forges will emerge that commercialize optimized textures for applications. Perhaps CAD will make it easier to create functional textures and we could simulate them better with FEA and the like. These textures should be easy to apply to CAD files. There should be standards so they can be exchanged widely and applied by different CAD programs to files. They should also be able to be used easily in these CAD programs. We should be able to stitch different textures together to create new ones or to apply them to different zones of a part. Textures can be modified, and then this result should be shared as well. These textures should be tested for their effects as widely as possible to find unanticipated effects. The results of these tests should be added to a database or entry on Thingiverse or similar outlet so that others can perform more tests and find textures with the effects that they need. We should then coherently, gradually find more functional textures that can be applied to many parts so that their performances are improved. One single texture that increases abrasion resistance could be applied to many tens of thousands of parts requiring that quality. This makes it valuable from a commercial and research point of view to develop these textures. Textures would help us all by making our parts fit the world just a little better. At the same time, they could unlock completely new breakthroughs in materials science and engineering. And this technology could then be applied to our entire installed base of machines. Textures could in fact make all machines and all materials more valuable, what say you? Image credit: Les Chatfield, JPC24M, Marco Verch, Matt Reinbold, Scouse Smurf, Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com September 28, 2020 at 07:31AM
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Las Vegas Raiders Unveil World’s “Tallest” 3D Printed Structure at New Stadium https://ift.tt/2S33FyD A lot of sports fans from the US have really been missing football during the pandemic, my husband included, and they all breathed a sigh of relief as the National Football League (NFL) began once again to broadcast Monday night games, and everyone could get back to worrying about their fantasy leagues. Now, I’m not much of a football fan myself, but even I think this news is pretty interesting: on September 21, 2020, the Las Vegas Raiders took on the New Orleans Saints, beating the Saints by ten points in their new Allegiant Stadium, which features what some are calling the world’s tallest 3D printed structure: the 93-foot Al Davis Memorial Torch. Before we get to the 3D printing portion of our story, here’s a little background. The Raiders started as a team based out of Oakland, California, and then moved to Los Angeles in 1982. The team went back to Oakland in 1995, and finally moved to their current home of Las Vegas, Nevada in January of 2020. So, this is the first season the team has played in its new residence. Al Davis, who passed away in 2011, was the team’s long-time franchise owner, and, clinching him a coveted spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was the only person ever to have been an NFL player before moving on to serve as personnel assistant, assistant coach, head coach, general manager, league commissioner, and the principal owner and CEO of an NFL team. In 2019, the Overland Park, Kansas branch of design firm Dimensional Innovations purchased the state’s largest 3D printer, a Large Scale Additive Manufacturing (LSAM) system from Thermwood Corporation. The printer, with a build capacity of 10 x 20 x 5 feet and and a five-axis router, was to be used for a secret project, which we now know was the giant torch commemorating Davis for the new Raiders stadium. The project was, according to Startland News, “three years in the making,” and Dimensional Innovations was the first company to use the LSAM to build a finished architectural structure. The torch was built out of 225 blocks, which were 3D printed out of a carbon fiber-reinforced polycarbonate composite material, and the structure’s reflective surface features nearly 1,150 robotically-painted panels made from more than 35,000 pounds of raw aluminum. All told, the torch weighs in at over 100,000 pounds, so it was a pretty big job to take on.
An 18-member team from Dimensional Innovations worked with these partners for a year, spending roughly 50,000 hours developing, printing, and installing the nine-story-tall torch, once all of the components had been shipped to Las Vegas. In addition to the previously mentioned collaborators, Dimensional Innovations also worked with Kansas City-structural engineer Bob D. Campbell & Co., the Astound Group, Purdue University, the Las Vegas Raiders themselves, and Mark Davis—the son of Al Davis.
So, why a torch? Maybe you football fans know this, but I did not: after Davis had passed away, the team began lighting his Memorial Torch before each game, as his vision was that the “fire that burns the brightest in the Raiders organization is the will to win.” This is now inscribed on the side and base of the 3D printed structure as a major focal point of the torch.
So now, back to the beginning…ahead of the recent Raiders vs. Saints game, which was sadly missing fans in the stands due to COVID-19 concerns, the NFL broadcast the unveiling of the 3D printed Al Davis Memorial Torch for the world to see.
Incredible as the massive 3D printed torch is, we’ve heard that “largest or tallest 3D printed such-and-such” headline before…quite recently, in fact. But rarely do people who build for a living lack the drive to keep making their projects bigger and better. So, is the Al Davis Memorial Torch currently the tallest 3D printed structure? The Dimensional Innovations team says it has in fact contacted the Guinness World Records, and the torch’s record is still pending as of this moment; the title should be finalized once the final documentation is received.
(Images courtesy of Dimensional Innovations) Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com September 28, 2020 at 07:01AM
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Press Relief https://ift.tt/2GkJUja Press Relief, aka Masy Chighizola, is a linocut artist born and based in Louisiana. When she was eight years old, she wrote in her school journal that she wanted to become an artist, and hasn’t let go of that dream since. The pursuit to find her true path in art wasn’t a straight one, but Masy found her passion for printmaking when introduced to relief printmaking at college in 2012. She used the money made at her senior show to buy an etching press, and thus her fate was sealed. After college she received an MFA in 2017 with an assistant-ship in Teaching. Masy explains; “Though I enjoyed teaching, I always had a business mindset since I come from a family of entrepreneurs“. Today, she works as a full time studio artist and part time printer at a letterpress shop. Her designs are inspired by a gumbo of things: “Being from Louisiana, you will see some of my culture’s flare, but you will also see my love for pattern making and the decorative arts“. Masy sees her work as divided into two subjects; the first continues the concept of her MFA thesis, finding inspiration in the things that we as individuals collect and how they become a representation of us. This work focuses on people and their collections. The second subject portrays a more playful side and explores wearable art, finding ways to turn her carved blocks into one of a kind wearables and garments. www.pressreliefprints.com Check out more work by Verified POP Members at www.members.peopleofprint.com. Printing via People of Print https://ift.tt/2DhgcW7 September 28, 2020 at 04:00AM
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3D Printing Webinar and Virtual Event Roundup, September 27, 2020 https://ift.tt/3kUoHMm A range of topics will be covered in this week’s roundup of webinars and virtual events, starting with controlled nesting and increased productivity. Moving on, attendees can learn how to maximize CAD software, and then how to scale 3D printing for production purposes. Read on for the details! Optimizing Controlled Nesting for Build Prep Challenges Materialise experts Katie Esper and Steven Ostrowski, together with AM Engineer Victor Lopez from the Parker Hannifin Corporation, will discuss how using optimized nesting from the Magics Sinter Module can help solve common build prep stage issues with MJF and SLS 3D printing in a free webinar, “How to Overcome Build Prep Challenges with Controlled Nesting,” on Tuesday, September 29th at 10 am ET. The three speakers will discuss how using the Magics Sinter Module to control the nesting process can allow you to triumph over these challenges, as well as lower costs and streamline the print process.
Register for this free webinar here. Even if you can’t attend the live presentation, if you register, you’ll be able to get a copy of the recording at a later date. Increase AM Productivity with Nexa3D Also on September 29th, at 1:30 pm ET, Nexa3D will be hosting a Speed-to-Value webinar, “How to Increase Additive Manufacturing Productivity by 20X (2,000%),” and I think the topic is fairly self-explanatory. The company’s CEO, Chairman, and Co-Founder, Avi Reichental, and Head of Customer Success, Brent Zollinger, will discuss how attendees can use software tools and validated workflows to reduce cycle time, produce the greatest number of parts on a single printer, and choose functional materials, like Nexa3D’s new xCE-White functional photoplastic polymer, that can speed up production of cost-effective, end-use parts.
You can register for the 30-minute webinar here. CAD Software for Dental Applications with Formlabs The last September 29th webinar, at 2 PM ET, will be held by Orthodontic Products, and focus on how to clean and prepare multiple types of 3D printable dental models, such as splints and clear retainers, by using some free online CAD software tools. “Learn How to Use This Free Software to Make Models From Your 3D Intraoral Scans” is sponsored by Formlabs, and Sam Wainwright, Formlabs’ dental product manager, will lead the discussion, teaching attendees how easy it can be to adopt in-house 3D printing, as well as some important CAD basics, such as how to zoom, rotate, pan, and orient around a 3D dental model, cleaning an intraoral scan to fill holes and refine perimeters, how to handle more complex cases, and how to send models to an in-office 3D Printer through WiFi.
You can register for the free, 30-minute webinar here. OPEN MIND Technologies on Maximizing CAM Software for DED Speaking of software, OPEN MIND Technologies, a German CAD/CAM solutions developer, will be holding a webinar on Wednesday, September 30th, at 11 am ET, focused on how to maximize its hyperMILL CAM software in order to achieve efficient Directed Energy Deposition (DED) 3D printing. Attendees will learn how to choose the best CAM software for DED when 3D printing in 2D, 3D, and 5-axis applications, as well as ways to automate and control computer-aided DED technology using hyperMILL. David Bourdages, OPEN MIND’s hyperMILL Product Manager, will go over several examples of DED applications, such as adding features onto existing parts and building new parts on a base substrate, and will also provide some CAM software selection tips.
You can register for the webinar here. Scaling AM for Production with Women in 3D Printing Our last event for the week is the latest virtual panel in the ongoing monthly series by Women in 3D Printing (Wi3DP). Previous topics have covered how to lead in the AM industry during uncertain times, design and innovation, aerospace, and sustainability, and this month’s will begin at 11 am ET on Wednesday, September 30th, and the topic will be “Scaling Additive Manufacturing for Production.” Sponsored again by Link3D, panelists will be Ellen Lee, Ford’s Additive Manufacturing Technical Leader; Kristel Van den Bergh, Director of Innovation for Materialise; and Laura Gilmour, Global Medical Business Development Manager at EOS. They will discuss some of the emerging technologies that enable full-scale AM production, what challenges need to be overcome in order to achieve serial production, and more.
You can register for Wi3DP’s latest virtual panel here. Do you have news to share about future webinars or virtual events? Let us know! Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com September 27, 2020 at 07:21AM 3D Printing News Briefs, September 26, 2020: Nanoscribe, Azul 3D, Arburg https://ift.tt/3i1VYTX In today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, we’re talking about a new material, a little business, and an industry event. Nanoscribe has introduced a new photoresin with special properties for microoptical elements, and Azul 3D is welcoming two new members to its Board of Directors. Finally, Arburg Technology Days has been postponed until 2021. Nanoscribe’s New IP-n162 Photoresin for 3D Printing In order to meet the demand for advanced optical designs, Nanoscribe has launched a new 3D printing material that has special properties for high refractive index microoptics. The novel IP-n162 photoresin was designed specifically for Two-Photon Polymerization (2PP) additive manufacturing, and has a high refractive index of 1.62 at a 589 nm wavelength, combined with a high dispersion that corresponds to a low Abbe number (approximate measure of the material’s dispersion) of 25. It also features a low absorption in the infrared region, and can help Nanoscribe expand opportunities to make highly accurate miniature optical systems and elements, like prisms, microlenses, and complex freeform optics, using its 3D microfabrication. Other applications for Nanoscribe’s new IP-n162 photoresin include compound refractive optical systems, photonic packaging, infrared microoptics, and quantum technology.
Azul 3D Welcomes Two Investors to Board of Directors Illinois startup Azul 3D, which commercialized its ultra-quick, large-format, proprietary High Area Rapid Printing (HARP) technology this summer, announced that 3D printing veteran John Hartner, the CEO of metal AM leader ExOne, and investor Louis A. Simpson, the former Chief Investment Officer for GEICO, have been added to its board of directors. The two clearly have major support for the company’s mission: in August, both Hartner and Simpson were also listed as investors in the company’s $12.5M seed funding round, which also included investors Joe Allison, the former CEO of Stratasys Direct Manufacturing; former 3D Systems chairperson Wally Loewenbaum; and Hugh Evans, former senior vice president of corporate development for 3D Systems.
Arburg Technology Days Postponed Until 2021 Since 1999, German family-owned company Arburg, one of the top manufacturers of plastic processing machines, has hosted more than 93,000 invited guests from around 50 countries at its annual Technology Days event, which it calls a “unique and firmly established event in the international world of plastics.” But in 2020, this will sadly not be the case: Arburg Technologys Days is just the latest industry event casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to avoid exposing its employees and thousands of event attendees to the coronavirus, Arburg has made the decision to cancel the four-day event for 2020, and come back strong in the summer, when the COVID crisis will (hopefully) be under control, and cold and flu season is over.
Arburg Technology Days, with its over 50 exhibits, expert presentations, network opportunities, and site tours, will now be held from June 9-12, 2021 at the company’s massive Lossburg headquarters. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com September 26, 2020 at 07:04AM USPS issues new performance report for week of Sept. 12 https://ift.tt/2Gd6sCp Sept. 24, 2020 The U.S. Postal Service Issues New Performance Report for the Week of September 12th Consistent with Performance Metrics Following a Federal HolidayPostmaster General issues directive to deploy the necessary resources to address anticipated increases in mail volume WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Postal Service provided new service performance data today to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for the week of Sept. 12 through Sept. 18, 2020. During the seven-day period, there was a slight dip in service, which is consistent with performance the week following the Labor Day and Memorial Day holidays. Key performance indicators for the week of Sept. 12th include:
Historically, service performance has decreased between 1.3 and 2.9 percent in the week following the Labor Day holiday. The reported service decline in First-Class Mail was consistent with the service impact following the 2020 Memorial Day holiday. The recent post-Labor Day dip was attributable to volume buildup in the system from the holiday weekend which was quickly addressed but not before it had some impact on service performance data. The Postal Service was able to overcome and address disruptions in service as the result of fires in the west as well as hurricanes and tropical storms in the south. “Our Postal Service operations team responded quickly and worked over the weekend to address buildup within the system which has now been cleared,” said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. “I have directed our operations team to move quickly and deploy the necessary resources to address an anticipated increase in mail volume this coming weekend. I am proud of the work our 640,000 Postal Service employees do every day to deliver for the American public.” To process an anticipated high mail and package volume the weekend of Sept. 26-27, the Postal Service has made operational adjustments including: increased staffing for locations and operations with expected high volumes, early Saturday start times for all local operations, and expanded process monitoring to ensure any performance issues are frequently communicated and elevated as necessary. Service performance is defined by the Postal Service from acceptance of a mailpiece into our system through delivery, measured against published service standards. ### Printing via USPS News https://ift.tt/2hH9aDC September 25, 2020 at 03:01PM 3D Printing Functionally Graded Materials Gets an F https://ift.tt/3090sll An exciting and potentially revolutionary slow-burn development in 3D printing is that of gradient materials (also called Functionally Graded Materials, or FGMs). With FGMs, we can mix materials in such a way as to obtain different densities, hardnesses, and material compositions at the level of any voxel. Electron beam melting, various directed energy deposition processes, and PolyJet are just some of the technologies potentially capable of gradient materials. The idea of controlling properties at every voxel is hugely inspiring to me. We cannot begin to imagine how gradient parts could change how things can be made. We could put crumple zones in objects, design for wear so that particular parts could be replaced at set intervals, make items conductive or magnetic in certain areas or imbue differing degrees of magnetism across a part. Stratasys has a shaver that they use to illustrate the concept. The grippy parts are printed soft, other areas are more like cushions, the handle itself is rigid and hard, but there is flexibility in the neck. All of these different qualities on the same part with the same printer. Imagine an armored tank where you print a soft wall and an air gap while you multiplex or mix different materials on top like the layers of a cake. You could generate new configurations of reactive armor or sandwich materials. Some bulletproof vests suck against knives because they are made to dissipate bullet impact and not stop the sharp cut of a blade. If you took Dyneema or other Kevlar and made it printable to allow for gradient structures, you could remedy this in the same production step. A lot of the 3D printing research going into the NFL helmet challenge is based on trying to create structures that can stop fast, sharp impacts and larger, blunt ones. With gradient structures we can achieve similar feats, not just for safety gear but for many other things. Picture absorbing layers or flexible materials for industry. Or imagine of your dashboard, which could be hard, rigid and smooth but be designed to flex upon impact. Or think of sound insulation or vibration reduction and already many applications can pop up. FGMs are exciting and there is a great deal of research going on. People are making functionally graded glasses on powder bed systems that mix as they print. Others are trying to mimic natural functionalities by making gradient composites and they are not alone. Some papers seem revolutionary in their own right, with this ETH team looking at gradient materials with sub-micrometer resolution. Fabrisonic, Formalloy, MELD, GE, DMG Mori, Sciaky, Aerosint and Optomec are just some of the machine vendors on whose equipment these gradient materials are made. You can even print with gradient materials using digital light processing. So, what is holding the development of gradient materials back? Once, when talking to John Barnes, he lamented that it was already so hard to get static parts right and that gradient parts would be very difficult to qualify and control. Indeed quality control would be hard on such a part. How could you monitor or verify the Shore hardness of something with multiple hardnesses? What would the test even be? How can you verify that a thing like that can work for 10 years? What would the simulation look like? How do you safety test such a thing? What is the fatigue strength of something if it has differing fatigue properties? Or how do we find out that this part may actually have a lower continuous service temperature than the material it is made of? How might you monitor that the right property is being made? Then, we have another problem, how do we design these parts? How can you do it in CAD? 3MF could support a design for a gradient part, but how would we design that part exactly? We have enough trouble teaching everyone to think in design for additive manufacturing (DfAM), but how to think in gradients? When can we even determine that this would make sense? A gradient 3D-printed shoe sounds like a spectacular idea, but, perhaps it would be much more expensive than a conventional one. At the same time, a Croc is already a shoe made of one material and would be much less expensive than our printed variant. While there is real excitement with regards to FGMs, we do find ourselves at an impasse. If we don’t understand something’s implications, don’t know how to design for it, and can’t conceive of its uses, we can be enthusiastic, but nothing more really. It would be like watching the nuclear or steam age approach realizing that you’re either going to dream too little or too much. On the one hand, you won’t get faster than “faster trains, I guess,” but on the other, you’ll think of nuclear-powered hairdryers and washing machines. So, if we want to enable an enabling technology, what do we do? We have to create an example that is abundantly clear, concise, and showcases the merits of this technology well. The GE bracket is my favorite example of this. It showcases our Geiger-like topology optimized design language. It illustrated that our technology could have broad applications and clearly showed that it can save weight, which is clearly important. To pitch FGMs, we need such an example. So, a generally demonstrable, recognizable, useful item that is improved specifically by being a gradient part. Any ideas on what this should be? Because what seems to be holding back this generation of materials is lack of understanding and sufficient inspiration, not technology. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com September 25, 2020 at 09:01AM
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A Closer Look at Paternity and Maternity Leave by Country https://ift.tt/33Y1cLt by Oskar Markiewicz last updated on A Closer Look at Paternity and Maternity Leave by CountryHaving a child is a life-changing experience, and one that comes with a new job title: parent. Parenting is a lifetime job, and it starts from the moment a baby is born. The early days of a child’s life are crucial because it is when parents and infants first bond and begin their lives together. Being able to take time away from a career to be present for the first months of a child’s life is important to parents around the world. Many governments recognize that and provide their citizens with federal maternity leave and/or paternity leave protections. These protections allow parents to take time off from their jobs around the child’s arrival, while still receiving pay in some cases. Maternity and paternity leave also ensure employees’ position will be waiting for them once the leave term ends. While maternity leave and paternity leave are common practices in many countries around the world, the length of leave and payment protections vary greatly from one nation to the next. Cultural attitudes towards work and child rearing as well as shifting societal opinions relating to work-life balance are at the heart of the policy decisions and revisions pertaining to parental leave laws. As a result, the current maternity and paternity leave around the world are incredibly diverse. Maternity leave policies around the worldIn terms of countries leading the way when it comes to generous maternity leave policies, our analysis found Bulgaria and Norway to be the most generous when it comes to time off. Norway has a flexible option that allows new mothers to take up to 59 weeks of maternity leave paid at an 80% pay rate, while Bulgaria offers 410 days of leave paid out at a rate of 90% of regular pay. We also found three countries that all guarantee a full year of maternity leave at full pay for their citizens – Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the shortest maternity leave policy belongs to Tunisia, where mothers are only allowed a month off at ⅔ their regular pay. Of course, one could argue that is still better than the policies in Papua New Guinea and the U.S., two countries that allow for three months of maternity leave that is fully unpaid, making them the only two countries on earth that do not offer some kind of paid maternity leave protection to their citizens. Paternity leave laws around the worldWhen it comes to paternity leave, things are very different. Over 65 countries included in our analysis do not offer paternity leave of any kind for fathers. There has been a push in many countries around the world to increase paternity leave and encourage fathers to take time off to bond when a child is born, but that number shows that on a global level paternity leave protections still lag behind their mother-focused counterparts. While many countries do not have federally protected paternity leave, there are some that have implemented very generous policies. Sweden allocated 480 total days of leave for both parents, and splitting those days close to evenly is encouraged, so Swedish fathers can look forward to 200+ days of leave in many cases. Finland, Iceland, Spain, and Pakistan also allow fathers over three full months of leave, all at a pay rate of 70% of their normal wage or higher. No matter where you live around the world, the joy, happiness, and changes that a new baby brings remain largely the same. And while parental leave policies differ from one nation to the next, at GetResponse we encourage all new parents to take full advantage of the time they are given to bond with their newest family member. Printing via GetResponse Blog https://ift.tt/2Xap2TD September 25, 2020 at 08:41AM Dual-Light Handheld 3D Scanners Introduced by Shining3D https://ift.tt/2RVjs2t Shining 3D has released two new dual-light source, handheld scanners, the EinScan H and EinScan HX, that broaden the capabilities and applications enabled by the company’s 3D color scanning solutions. By integrating a second light source, in addition to the existing EinScan LED scanning technology, it will be possible to use hybrid light sources to capture full color and detail even for hard-to-scan objects, such as hair, or black or reflective metal surfaces. Headquartered in China, with offices in Germany and the USA, Shining 3D has leveraged more than 10 years of experience in 3D scanning and digitization solutions to innovate and advance its product applications in education, medical, art and heritage, and industrial sectors.
Einscan H and HX handheld, dual light source 3D scanners With the EinScan H, an infrared invisible light sensor is combined with the LED light sensor and a built-in color camera, to enable high quality scanning of large- or medium-sized objects. This includes difficult-to-scan items, such as hair and dark objects, that can now be captured using the infrared light source. The EinScan H with hybrid light sources, allows the user to choose an appropriate light source depending on the object and the scanning environment. In combination with innovative software algorithms, user-friendly design and handling, it enables “full human body data acquisition including hair, authentic digital replication of outstanding art pieces, furniture digitization for reproduction and virtual display and many more.” The EinScan HX, on the other hand, combines a laser with Shining’s existing LED technology—which uses dual blue light sources—to widen the scope of materials that can be scanned and the variety of ambient conditions in which accurate scanning can be done. The blue LED structured light is used to capture object data in rapid scan mode, without the need for reference points, while multiple blue laser lines capture highly accurate, high quality, quick scanning of 3D objects, particularly those with reflective metal surfaces or black surfaces. Shining 3D provides end-to-end integrated ‘Scan-Design-Print’ solutions, as well as specific scan to print solutions for Dental, and metrology solutions. For digital dental solutions, the company provides desktop 3d scanners with their AutoScan series, an intraoral scanner Aoralscan, and dental 3D printers with the AccuFab series for surgical guides or wax crowns, and the EP series for orthodontic models and metal crowns. Yet the company, with over 300 patents and 100 copyrights, is probably best known for its EinScan range of 3D scanners. In June this year, had launched its Pro HD which extended fixed-scanning features to handheld scanning. In April, the company had launched its automated 3D inspection desktop system, AutoScan-Inspec, to improve efficiency in the scanning of small, complex parts, with accuracies up to 10 μm. In July, the Chinese company partnered with Japanese footwear company Magarimono, to develop a line of designer footwear using SLS 3D printing technologies with TPU material, where the design is based on that of the different types of clouds. (Images and videos courtesy of Shining3D) Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com September 25, 2020 at 08:32AM Will Medical 3D Printing Be Local or International? Oceanz Launches Service for Dutch Hospitals9/25/2020 Will Medical 3D Printing Be Local or International? Oceanz Launches Service for Dutch Hospitals https://ift.tt/3mNtsZT 3D printing service bureau Oceanz has launched a 3D print service specifically for Dutch hospitals. This service will offer medical models, specifically those used for preoperative planning. But the... View the entire article via our website. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com September 25, 2020 at 08:02AM |
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