Stratasys Targets 3D Printing Automation with Riven Purchase and New Post-Processing Tech10/26/2022
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Stratasys Targets 3D Printing Automation with Riven Purchase and New Post-Processing Tech https://ift.tt/8UiFO5A Two features crucial to the next phase of additive manufacturing’s (AM) evolution are automation and quality control. Tackling both of these trends from a software and hardware standpoint, Stratasys (NASDAQ: SSYS) has acquired Riven, a developer of cloud-based software for 3D printing quality assurance (QA) and error correction. Additionally, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) announced the development of an automated system for post-processing parts made with its stereolithography (SLA) and digital light processing (DLP) machines. 3D Printing QA and CompensationRiven has a unique solution that makes it possible to inspect and correct 3D printed parts through the use of a 3D scanner and artificial intelligence software. Users can quickly scan printed items, which are then matched against the original CAD files, showing any deviations. Using Riven’s Warp Adaptive Modeling (WAM), the CAD models are then adjusted to compensate for the distortions that occurred during printing. Though Riven’s tools have been previously available as a third-party app, Riven’s solutions will now be fully integrated into Stratasys’s GrabCAD Print software. While other software developers, such as ANSYS and Altair, offer simulation tools that perform similar compensation procedures for printed parts, they are not typically paired with 3D scanning in a similar manner. With powerful computing power, they can estimate distortions that may occur. Riven, however, performs its distortion compensation based on actual, 3D printed parts. On top of that, Riven has developed a solution similar to what software giants offer called Predictive WAM (PWAM). “It’s been clear to us for some time how much quality is in Stratasys’ DNA, so we knew joining them would be a great fit,” said Riven founder James Page, who will now be a software vice president at Stratasys. “Our combined mission is to ensure that users’ 3D printed reality matches the CAD file each time. By enabling even higher accuracy, we can open new markets and applications.” Stratasys Introduces Closed-Loop ControlNow, Stratasys will be integrating Riven’s software into a closed-loop 3D printing process. What that will look like is unclear, but, ideally, it would be possible to scan parts during a print job and compensate live. This is a product that would be sought after across the industry, regardless of 3D printer, and, in fact, it is something that several other businesses are developing. Velo3D, Markforged, Inkbit, and Sciaky are among the 3D printer OEMs that offer closed-loop quality control for their machines. Sigma Additive Solutions has only just now announced a scan head for laser powder bed fusion metal 3D printers that is said to perform in-process QA. One would think that 3D Systems is developing its own solution via Oqton’s Geomagic Control X and Amphyon software.
While Stratasys doesn’t offer as extensive a software suite as Oqton or Materialise, the company has steadily been building up its software solution. The ability to prepare native CAD files directly for printing has been a key benefit of GrabCAD Print. With built-in QA and compensation, the company will have a definitive leg-up on the competition. Automated Post-ProcessingIn addition to its purchase of Riven, Stratasys announced the development of the P3 Automated Production Cell, which automatically moves parts between multiple 3D printers and post-processing equipment for cleaning, drying, and curing. The system will be displayed at Formnext, November 15-18 in Frankfurt, Germany, where fleets of Origin One DLP 3D printers will be seen conveying parts to post-processing equipment. Such tools are being seen as increasingly necessary for the industrialization of AM, as the labor to clean and move parts is intensive. By reducing cost associated with labor, the price-per-part of 3D printed goods is brought down further. For this reason, we’re seeing new post-processing OEMs alongside robotics firms come to the fore. In turn, SmarTech Analysis estimates that the post-processing segment will be worth $1.8 billion by 2031. Other products that Stratasys plans to unveil include “a new vehicle category” for urban mobility, made as a working prototype by Stratasys customer nFrontier using both 3D printing and traditional manufacturing. The OEM will additionally showcase new materials for its five different AM technologies by its partners, such as Arkema/Kimya, Victrex plc, and Covestro. Altogether, the company’s presence at Formnext should be an impressive one, but it won’t be alone. We’re weeks away from the event and announcements are already pouring in, suggesting that either everyone is jumping the gun or that this is just the beginning of what will be an immense trade show. The post Stratasys Targets 3D Printing Automation with Riven Purchase and New Post-Processing Tech appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/QlN2Iox October 26, 2022 at 07:18AM
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Maude Complex Shop https://ift.tt/q3m8KO6 Maude Forbid is the owner and operater behind Maude Complex Print Shop, producing out of Taos, New Mexico, USA. Maude Forbid is a relief printmaker, focusing on block printed fabric. Their shop is filled with fabric and paper goods that are hand printed, affordable, and bring a splash of creativity into everyday life. “I especially enjoy making gifts because art, like a good meal, is best when shared with others,” says the printmaker. Maude Forbid finds an infinite source of inspiration in the natural world and through the challenge of pattern creation. They comment; “I love creating wearable art and hand printed accessories to celebrate the beauty and importance of self expression in daily life”. Their patterns are further inspired by the human experience of our world; their work is silly, cute, bizarre, beautiful, and highly therapeutic. They tell us; “I truly enjoy the whole ‘made by me just for you’ process, and often print on home sewn and small business made items”. The tools and materials Maude uses are often made by family owned companies and businesses that contribute to and support the printmaking community. This time of year is layering season in the high desert, and Maude Forbid is busy posting new designs and putting up some cosy and warm scarves. www.maudecomplex.com Printing via People of Print https://ift.tt/xK4PhzQ October 26, 2022 at 05:36AM AM Drilldown: New Report Suggests Advanced Plastics Recycling Could Cut Emissions Drastically10/25/2022
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AM Drilldown: New Report Suggests Advanced Plastics Recycling Could Cut Emissions Drastically https://ift.tt/hIaTKYD One of the most widely-touted advantages of additive manufacturing (AM) is the technology’s long-term potential to reduce carbon emissions. Yet, despite all the life-cycle assessments (LCAs) and other research into possible uses of AM as a tool for decreasing global industry’s overall carbon footprint, there remains at least one major unknown variable — which, eventually, could make all prior estimates of AM’s inherent sustainability seem far too conservative: the impact of advanced recycling methods. That is borne out by a just-released report from the Earth Engineering Center (EEC) at the City College of New York (CCNY), “Quantitative Comparison of LCAs on the Current State of Advanced Recycling Technologies”, written by Dr. Marco J. Castaldi, chemical engineering professor and director of the EEC, and EEC research associate Lauren Creadore. Commissioned by the American Chemistry Council, the report analyzes 13 different LCAs concerning methods for advanced plastic recycling, none of which were released earlier than 2020. In fact, one of its most noteworthy details involves the sheer increase, over the last five years, of the amount of studies done on plastic recycling. According to the report, “Nearly two times more studies examining plastics in a circular economy were released in 2019 compared to 2010-2017.” As the report illustrates, one way to help build circular economies revolving around plastic waste would be to boost infrastructure for advanced recycling: “All 13 LCAs reviewed consistently showed that advanced recycling yielded favorable circularity results.” The report’s authors define “advanced recycling” as processes that “break down the plastic polymers to their chemical constituents to enable downstream processes to re-manufacture new plastic products or plastic-derived chemicals.” They divide all the various methods covered by the LCAs analyzed into two groups: thermal conversion and chemical depolymerization. According to the authors’ comparison of the various LCAs, thermal conversion methods, such as pyrolysis, are generally used for mixed plastics, while chemical depolymerization, including hydrolysis, are generally used for PET and colored polyesters. Although the authors emphasize that no “single value” is sufficient “to represent the environmental impacts of advanced recycling technologies,” they nonetheless also reached conclusions with some impressive numbers attached to them. For one thing, using advanced recycling technologies can “reduce the need for fossil energy resources by up to 97%.” For another, adoption of advanced recycling technologies could lead to over 100 percent carbon reduction: as the authors explain, “such a reduction can be achieved due to credits earned from avoided products and/or energy.” In other words, the emissions reductions achieved from not creating new plastic products has to be taken into account. AM is directly relevant to the implications of this study for that exact same reason. While AM is not necessarily a requirement for the establishment of circular economies, it carries the potential to be a great asset towards their construction, and it would seem backwards in the sector, nowadays, for an OEM not to include the potential for circular economies on its list of selling points. Thus, due to that fact alone, the future opportunities for combining AM with advanced recycling seem virtually limitless. Regarding shorter-term potential, the recycling report should be especially exciting for any AM application involving pellet-extrusion, which is probably the market segment most immediately ready to be combined with advanced recycling methods. Finally, given all of that, the significance of industrial “clusters” comes into clearer focus. Here, specifically, the need to coordinate the advanced recycling and advanced manufacturing supply chains seems obvious, and the National Strategy on Advanced Manufacturing and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law already appear to be setting that reality in motion. Most of all, however, as has always been the case, much of the will to recycle is going to have to come from consumer demand. The AM sector, then, has yet another point favoring its compatibility with advanced recycling circular economies: the fact that the potential base of recycled plastic consumers it represents is largely comprised of small-to-medium manufacturers who are already concerned with controlling production costs. Compared to the conventional manufacturing sector, that is a much easier group to unify in the direction of a recycling-based supply chain. The post AM Drilldown: New Report Suggests Advanced Plastics Recycling Could Cut Emissions Drastically appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/s9BXlnz October 25, 2022 at 10:48AM 3D Printing News Unpeeled: KraussMaffei Enters 3D Printing Market Mosquito Repellent 3D Printed10/25/2022
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3D Printing News Unpeeled: KraussMaffei Enters 3D Printing Market, Mosquito Repellent 3D Printed https://ift.tt/UFDWXdz A team at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg has published a paper in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics where they showcase a 3D printed mosquito repellent ring. This could be a future path to all manner of custom devices that release mosquito repellent in a controlled way throughout the day. Polymer processing giant KraussMaffei has entered the 3D printing market with two industrial systems, a large scale granulate material extrusion machine capable of making 2m x 2.5 m x 2m parts and a SLA machine with a 250 x 250 x 400mm build volume. This will shake up our market considerably. Flam3D, the collaborative 3D printing company association from Belgium and the Netherlands is making a 3D Printed stand with a 130 parts in it for Formnext showcasing 15 different 3D printing technologies. The post 3D Printing News Unpeeled: KraussMaffei Enters 3D Printing Market, Mosquito Repellent 3D Printed appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/s9BXlnz October 25, 2022 at 09:10AM
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U.K.’s Royal Air Force Buys Wayland Electron Beam Metal 3D Printer https://ift.tt/lsm5jEi Now that the U.K. has gotten its own electron beam powder bed fusion (E-PBF) system manufacturer, it was time that the Royal Air Force (RAF) get its hands on it. Wayland Additive’s Calibur3 metal 3D printer has been purchased by the No 71 Inspection and Repair (IR) Squadron, part of the A4 Force, and installed at the Hilda B. Hewlett Centre for Innovation at RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire, U.K. 3D Printing with the RAFThe new facility features 3D printing and scanning equipment that will allow the IR group to 3D print aircraft spares on-demand. Other machines at the site include a Nikon HTX 540 CT scanner, Renishaw’s RenAM 500 metal printer, and a Stratasys Fortus 450 polymer printer. Altogether, the squadron aims to be able to replicate traditionally made components to use as spares, which will naturally have to undergo extensive testing before they can be implemented.
The Calibur3 Electron Beam Metal 3D PrinterThe Calibur3 is about as leading edge as it gets, when it comes to E-PBF, as there are very few manufacturers in this space, aside from GE, JEOL, Xi’an Sailong Metals and FreeMelt—and only JEOL and Wayland promise to overcome the drawbacks of GE’s Arcam machines. In the case of the Calibur3, Wayland’s NeuBeam process is able to neutralize charge accumulation, thus eliminating the need for expensive gases, and heat only the area that’s being sintered, opening up the size and range of materials that can be printed. While the RAF’s purchase of the system may be, in part, a means of supporting local businesses, it is also a validation that the technology meets the standards of Britain’s military body.
The RAF’s use of 3D printing does not seem to be as extensive, or at least as obvious, as other military bodies, in the U.K. and beyond. In the U.K.’s armed forces, the primary user of the technology appears to be the Royal Navy, while private entities like BAE Systems are utilizing AM significantly. More recently, however, the British government kicked off Project TAMPA, which should broaden the use of 3D printing across the Ministry of Defence. Additionally, TAMPA’s pursuit of 3D printing parts with NATO stock numbers means that the entire country’s military will be able to access the part catalog alongside other NATO allies. The post U.K.’s Royal Air Force Buys Wayland Electron Beam Metal 3D Printer appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/s9BXlnz October 25, 2022 at 09:10AM
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Inventia Life Science Opens its First U.S. Bioprinting Office in Delaware https://ift.tt/2DGiWlz Bioprinting machine manufacturer Inventia Life Science has opened its first U.S. office and facility at Delaware NGO The Innovation Space. The Sydney, Australia-based startup will benefit from the rich life sciences ecosystem in the Mid-Atlantic region and Delaware’s strong reputation for attracting engineers, chemists, and other talented scientists that will contribute to the brand’s digital bioprinting technology for fast, scalable, and reproducible printing of realistic 3D human tissues for drug and therapy research applications. Inventia Grows Bioprinting BusinessLocated at the century-old Experimental Station in Wilmington – one of the country’s first industrial research laboratories – Inventia’s new space will allow closer support to its customers in North America and tap into a large talent pool. Ahead of the new office opening, the company had already started growing its local workforce by hiring former GE Healthcare manager Dwayne Dexter as U.S. director of sales and operations last year, along with a solid base team composed of newly appointed Roger Malerba as associate manager of business development and operations, Whitney Symons as customer success manager, and Diane Filo as sales consultant. Growing its global team from roughly 40 employees to 150 by the end of 2024 is among Inventia’s top priorities and is possible thanks to a $25 million funding round raised in early 2022 that allowed the company to expand to the U.S., where the biomedical research and drug discovery markets are estimated to be worth more than $40 billion by 2030. Driven by strong international demand from leading research institutes and top global pharmaceutical companies, Inventia sees excellent potential in the U.S. for its 3D cell culture platform, the Rastrum. Dexter indicated that the startup was initially attracted to Delaware due to its rich life sciences environment, which hosts many of the world’s largest life science companies, including Astra Zeneca, Siemens Healthineers (which recently announced that it is expanding in the state), Incyte, Agilent, Corteva and FMC. A Bioprinting Biome in DelewareThat’s not all; a 2021 report released by Delaware Prosperity Partnership and the Delaware BioScience Association found that Delaware’s growing life sciences industry generates an annual economic impact of more than $2 billion for the state. At the time of the study’s publication, Delaware Bio President Michael Fleming said that the state’s bioscience sector has never been stronger thanks to growth across every facet of the sector, including private businesses, training programs, increased R&D investment, and expanding manufacturing capacity. Home for science entrepreneurs, The Innovation Space is quickly becoming the First State’s latest hub. Formed from a public-private partnership between the State of Delaware, DuPont, and the University of Delaware in 2017, the space started with 100,000 square feet of multi-use lab space at DuPont’s Experimental Station campus in Wilmington, and in early 2022 added a 50,000 square feet expansion of Class A laboratory and offices. In addition to lab space, the Innovation Space offers funding, growth partners, and business support for the companies based there, including its First Fund investment program, four-month Science Inc. accelerator, and Spark Factory mentoring program. Some startups that have labs at The Innovation Space are Versogen, Carbon Reform, and Prelude Therapeutics, which raised $60 million in VC funding in 2019.
Inventia’s Bioprinting TechnologySince launching in 2013, Inventia has grown its team to support a broad list of customers, mostly locally based in Sydney. Its flagship hot pink Rastrum system results from years of research and is built around digital bioprinting technology for fast, scalable, and reproducible printing of 3D cell constructs. For example, it can greatly benefit the pharmaceutical industry by allowing new drugs to be tested in a 3D cellular environment and eliminated, if necessary, long before they reach the clinical trial stages. By reducing the risk of drugs failing once they enter human clinical trials, pharmaceutical companies can save hundreds of millions of dollars on the cost of bringing a successful drug to market (one of the industry’s biggest challenges). Similarly, researchers can now work at scale with cell models that mimic the human body almost exactly and produce research results that are more accurate and predictive than before. Thanks to a combination of speed and precision, Rastrum can build cell models in a matter of hours that can’t otherwise be created. More importantly, Inventia Co-founder and CEO Julio Ribeiro told 3DPrint.com in a 2020 interview that the device “is gentle and uses fewer cells than other 3D cell model approaches, which is beneficial when handling precious patient-derived cells or sensitive neural cells.” Although Inventia’s had the upper hand as the premier bioprinting startup in Australia, the U.S. market could turn out to be much more competitive. This is because most of Australia’s advances in bioprinting technologies have come from researchers in academia, institutes, and university hospitals, such as the University of New South Wales, the University of Melbourne, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Queensland University of Technology, and primarily Australia’s University of Wollongong, led by world-renowned bioprinting expert Gordon Wallace. Instead, the U.S. is a leading force in bioprinting, hosting 40% of the total companies in the industry. Until now, the pink printer has won one of Australia’s major design awards, the prestigious 2019 Good Design Award of the Year. In addition, it has been used in a wide range of research areas by Inventia customers and collaborators, particularly in immuno-oncology cancer research on solid tumors looking at the interaction of the immune cells with cancer cells, as well as for drug screening to study the interaction between drugs and cells, making this distinguishable pink machine a new contender in the U.S. market. The post Inventia Life Science Opens its First U.S. Bioprinting Office in Delaware appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/s9BXlnz October 25, 2022 at 09:10AM
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ISS Looks for Experiments for Tissue Engineering and Bioprinting in Orbit https://ift.tt/k6XgdSB Responsible for the U.S. portion of the International Space Station (ISS), the ISS National Laboratory sends payloads to space, both from commercial firms and academic institutions. Now, the ISS National Laboratory wants to undertake a series of experiments that will be of benefit to both future space explorers and everyone who stays behind. The lab is looking to bioprint tissues in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for the purpose of pursuing new discoveries as well as making viable in-space fabrication. Bioprinting and regenerative medicine are areas of interest for space researchers, in particular because it is believed that tissue engineering and stem cell research can benefit from the effects of microgravity. An example mentioned by the ISS National Laboratory is a project by Emory University to grow heart cells. Redwire Space‘s Biofabrication facility (BFF) will be available for these projects but experiments could also be held using other equipment on board. If you would like to participate then a Concept Summary is due by November 29th, so get cracking on that. Stations in SpaceThe ISS was and continues to be a frightfully expensive project, with a $150 billion cost to initially build with running costs of around $4 billion a year. LEO space stations bring a lot of efficiencies for space travel and exploitation, however. Serving like oases in space, they could be used to repair, launch, and upgrade satellites. They could also serve as locations to distribute and convey cargo and people to other points in space. Primarily, space stations can be used to stage further space exploration missions. They could also project power and serve as crucial forts in any future space-based confrontations. However, we have over 4,500 satellites in orbit but just two space stations at the moment. The ISS and the Chinese Tiangong station are some of the most complex endeavors that we humans are engaged in. If commercial or more extensive government space stations are to become a reality, something will have to change. The most obvious possibility is to eliminate the human element. A space station without people will be much smaller, more compact, and efficient. It wouldn’t need all of the oxygen, water, food and waste management, storage and disposal that we need now to keep the astronauts alive. It also wouldn’t need a lot of empty space for astronauts to wave to school kids. Clearly, this may be the best option: a no-people-involved space station. Humans have never been a very rational species, though, and the people part of space flight is what keeps the headlines coming, so a robotic space station probably not happen. Barring this, significant investor money will have to go to the development of these stations and they will have to commercially exploit them. Commercial space stations are potentially very lucrative, like boom towns adjacent to railway stations in the old West. Nanoracks´ Starlab station is an attempt at doing just that. However, the investment will be obscene and the patience and fortitude will have to be formidable. The National Lab is looking now to change the economics of space stations. How many 3D printed hearts will keep the ISS flying? Besides the fact that the new project is a very cool one, it could also be very useful. Microgravity changes many things, stem cells grow faster in space, alongside higher quality optical fiber that Redwire also creates. The ISS affords humanity an opportunity to carry out long-term experiments in a unique location. That special place could be used to test items for their use in space, such as the Additive Manufacturing Facility 3D printer on board, which could make spare parts for future missions, or the metal printer that will find its way to ISS next year. Additionally, there could also be research with very beneficial effects for those here on earth. For example, the ISS has been used to test solar panels while the environment is perfect for studying semiconductors more precisely. If these stations could be used to grow better hearts, then perhaps they could be financially solvent and we could have platforms in space that pay for themselves while advancing space exploration. The post ISS Looks for Experiments for Tissue Engineering and Bioprinting in Orbit appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/s9BXlnz October 25, 2022 at 07:46AM
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Morf3D Quadruples Client Count in One Year, CEO Ivan Madera Tells 3DPrint.com https://ift.tt/L4ixjCu It’s been seven years since entrepreneur and executive Ivan Madera launched Morf3D. Since then, the company has proven its focus on supplying metal-based additive engineering services exclusively to the aviation, space, and defense industries. Luckily for Madera, Morf3D rose during a decade of commercial space successes, which saw unexpected underdogs help create the New Space wave that opened up the launch market for hundreds of rocket startups and innovative space tech businesses worldwide. Seeing how indisputably powerful the space market was becoming, Morf3D had to respond with new investments, machines, and a team of engineers that could help spacecraft manufacturers launch faster and cheaper than ever before. Madera on the New Space Race
Even though the majority of the companies Madera works with are top-tier aerospace, defense companies, and government, there is still a mix of clients, including many space companies at different maturation stages. Despite his 20 years of experience in management consulting, manufacturing, and supply chain strategies, Madera says it’s challenging to work with so many firms following different paths, even within the same segment of an industry. Still, it also demonstrates that the demand for advanced and additive manufacturing (AM), in particular, is getting more attention and becoming an “actual budgeted line item” for some of his customers. Morf3D chose to focus on real working parts for highly regulated markets, such as aerospace and defense, which forced its quality and processes to advance beyond a service bureau or job shop model. This narrow early focus strengthened the company’s position within the 3D printing industry. In addition, it led to the investment by Japanese multinational Nikon, which is building a robust manufacturing solutions base. While progressing the business into growth, Madera discovered that to face the challenges of the New Space industry and remain competitive, his company had to revolutionize how space components are engineered. It’s one thing to talk about handfuls of components that legacy systems could handle well in the old space regime. But now we are contemplating a New Space race, which means companies are trying to make hundreds, if not thousands, of parts, which Madera believes will demand an AM transition to scale effectively.
Morf3D Scales Up
Morf3D has created many complex 3D printed customized parts for space, such as thermal management systems for spacecraft in the hundreds, products that have landed on the Moon, and others that orbited Earth. Part of its strategy from the get-go was to create an entirely new value chain to reinvent aerospace manufacturing, which has certainly paid off. Aside from serving some of the world’s largest aerospace original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in aerospace, Morf3D works with many space businesses, such as small to mid-engine manufacturers looking to scale into the hundreds. While up until now, it has focused solely on U.S.-based companies, Madera suggests that the majority of investment from Nikon has given Morf3D not only a “financial consideration and investment” but also a new “global strategy and technology.” Furthermore, Madera explained that the new headquarters in Long Beach, California –the Applied Digital Manufacturing Center (ADMC)– has become the epicenter for Nikon’s Digital Solutions division, which will assemble a series of different technologies, R&D activities, and product maturation. At the center –– where most of the employees have already moved in, and machines are almost entirely installed –– Morf3D leverages 3D printing technologies, particularly metal printers from industrial AM manufacturers EOS and SLM Solutions. After looking thoroughly at Morf3D, it is clear why Nikon chose the company as part of its expansion into materials processing technologies. The Morf3D team has continually invested in more equipment, expanding its AM footprint, adding precision machining technology, and a workforce that has increased by 50% in a year to include more engineers and quality assurance staff. Even more so, the team at Morf3D is AS9100:D and ISO 9001:2008 certified, and ITAR registered, offering a full range of services that goes from conceptualization to parameter optimization, metal 3D printing, finishing, certification, and even data analysis (which Madera believes has become extremely valuable as part of the back-end processes that helps with automation).
The company’s direction is ideal for a space industry that has boomed in the last years, with the cost of a launch significantly declining and 3D printing having a lot to do with the decrease in manufacturing costs and production times. With the influx of companies, everybody wants to do more with AM, and Madera believes his company is up to the task. With so many clients on his roster, it’s easy to imagine how Morf3D will help transform the space economy and create a more sustained human presence beyond Earth. The post Morf3D Quadruples Client Count in One Year, CEO Ivan Madera Tells 3DPrint.com appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/s9BXlnz October 25, 2022 at 07:46AM
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Rag and Tone Studio https://ift.tt/pdlwDxu Rag and Tone is an illustration, design ,and print studio based in North London. Run by Samuel Rogers, also known as Samuel Esquire, Rag and Tone produces Risograph printed and sustainable greetings cards, stationery and art prints, using soy and rice based inks on 100% recycled papers. Studying Graphic Communication at University, and specialising in illustration, Samuel developed a keen interest in print, spending the majority of his time exploring the screen printing facilities. After graduating, various DIY screen-printing set-ups were devised in living rooms and bedrooms, washing out screens in showers and bathtubs before moving into commercial print. As an illustrator, Samuel has worked on various editorial and private commissions for clients such as Red Bull, Little White Lies magazine, PlayStation, Warner Music, and Shortlist Magazine. He was also a founding member of Puck Collective, a worldwide illustration collective that exhibited at Somerset House for Pick Me Up, The Church of London, Jaguar Shoes collective, and The Book Club, as well as hosting various life drawing classes and printing workshops. Having worked in print for over 10 years, involving most modern processes such as Digital, Offset Lithography, Digital Offset and Inkjet, it was a Risograph machine that really excited Samuel, with it’s vibrant yet restricted spot colour pallets, as well as the speed and efficiency of the process. After years of juggling the collective, illustration commissions and print work, it was decided to fuse all these passions into Rag and Tone Studio, combining hand illustration, Riso printing, and graphic design into one endeavour. ‘Rag’ in Rag and Tone refers to the cotton rags of used cloths that, in the 19th Century, were the primary material source to manufacture many papers; the original recycled paper. ‘Tone’ refers to the Riso process that requires a tonal image to turn into a stencil for each individual colour layer, similar to screen-printing. At the heart of these illustrated cards is a love of the hand drawn image using traditional techniques, like pen and ink, which are later scanned and digitally coloured, creating the colour overlays and layer splits that lend themselves so well to the Riso printing process. Inspired by Popular culture, the comic books of Samuel’s youth (and present!), and the intricacy of Victorian era illustrations and etchings, Rag and Tone aims to fuse modern day culture with classic designs, exploring the combination of fine line work and bold use of colour. Printing via People of Print https://ift.tt/6AlHKJP October 25, 2022 at 05:41AM
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US Navy Fulfills First NATO Stock Number Orders for 3D Printed Parts https://ift.tt/zalWRwf As active as has been the US military’s support for the additive manufacturing (AM) sector, in general, the US Navy might be the branch whose progress has accelerated most quickly in 2022. The latest evidence of that was the announcement by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center’s (MARMC) Innovation Lab that it had printed 313 deck drain coamings to fulfill an order. Notably, these were the first orders for printed parts with national stock numbers (NSNs), an acronym that stands for “NATO stock number” in the 63 or so countries outside the US that also buy NSN parts. Additionally, they were the first such orders to be fulfilled by any US military branch: specifically, the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Organic Industrial Base (OIB), of which the MARMC Innovation Lab is a part. The Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Carderock, located in Maryland along the Potomac River, originally developed the deck drain coamings along with composite inserts, to decrease the amount of maintenance related to corrosion on naval vessels, and to stop water from splashing all over the decks of swaying ships. Aside from the three NSNs covered by the deck drain coamings, NAVSEA currently has 143 more NSNs to be fulfilled by 3D printed parts. This is an especially important point given that the precedent for printing parts to fill NSN orders has now been set. It will likely not only speed up the process of NAVSEA’s fulfillment of the rest of its existing orders for printed parts, but should increase the number of such orders, as well as the number of such orders for other divisions of the US Navy, and the rest of the US military. Moreover, beyond the US, the more than 60 nations who use the NSN system — all the nations in NATO, plus the NATO-sponsored nations, which includes countries like Japan and Australia — can, and presumably will, follow the US Navy’s lead. As I’ve mentioned in multiple posts recently, advanced manufacturing ecosystems seem to be centralizing around NATO, and the longstanding existence of the NSN system is likely one of the main explanations for that development. All the nations involved are already used to ordering from, and supplying, a shared catalog of a wide range of end-products. Incorporating advanced manufacturing in general, and AM in particular, into that process is as inevitable as the growth of the industries, themselves. The aspect of this dynamic that makes it so significant is the unmatched level of purchasing power represented by the nations involved, at a time when those same nations have a variety of strategic reasons to cooperate with each other in critical areas of manufacturing. At the same time, of course, there is no guarantee that they will succeed at cooperating. The post US Navy Fulfills First NATO Stock Number Orders for 3D Printed Parts appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://ift.tt/R9z1Ug3 October 24, 2022 at 09:04AM |
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