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Southern Virginia to Open $25.5M Manufacturing Center with 3D Printing https://ift.tt/2WLsMIn Ground was just broken for a new facility in Southern Virginia. The Center for Manufacturing Advancement (CMA) will be a 51,250-square-foot site meant to allow manufacturing companies to grow and bring business to the region. Funded by the state of Virginia and the Danville Regional Foundation, the $25.5 million project will be located on the campus of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) and will feature 3D printing, among other manufacturing technologies. With the press release announcing the groundbreaking of the project, numerous representatives spoke about the need to develop Southern Virginia economically, while encouraging the development of new manufacturing technologies. The CMA represents the state’s desire to improve the manufacturing ecosystem of Southern Virginia using facilities that will make it possible for new businesses to begin operating while they establish more extensive factories of their own.
With that in mind, the site will include an ISO-certified inspection lab that makes it possible to perform quality control, thus reducing the four-to-six-month startup phase for new companies as they certify their products. It will also include process improvement labs for new and established businesses to improve their production more quickly so that they can better compete globally. A lab dedicated to industry 4.0 integration and training will make it possible to apply industry 4.0 philosophies to companies, as well. The site will host a platform that enables collaboration between various companies and engineering students in order to develop, incorporate and display new technologies. A concierge service will also supply general support for companies new to the U.S. during their initial setup phase.
Among the stakeholders in the project is the Phillips Corporation. Not to be confused with the Dutch multinational, Royal Philips, the Maryland-based Phillips Corporation is a supplier of manufacturing technology. It boasts a growing additive division that includes the sale of EOS metal 3D printers. This summer, the Federal Division of the Phillips Corporation, which distributes and provides service for machines and other ancillary equipment to the United States Federal Government and the DoD, entered into a Public Private Partnership Agreement with the U.S. Army and began working with Australia’s SPEE3D technology with the U.S. Navy. Now, Phillips has announced that it will be housing some operations at the new CMA site.
As a part of the state government, the IALR is meant to be an organization dedicated to driving economic transformation in the region via research, education, manufacturing and other operations. To do so, it works with Virginia Tech, Danville Community College and Averett University. The CMA will be located on the IALR campus adjacent to the new Kyocera SGS Tech Hub facility, a site established by KYOCERA SGS Precision Tools (KSPT) to focus on custom cutting tools and new technologies. As a division of the large Japanese conglomerate, Kyocera Corporation, which has a market cap of $22.4 billion, it should have hefty backing from its parent company to explore new methods of making custom cutting tools. 3D printing aficionados should understand the implications, as 3D printing is increasingly used to manufacture new cutting tools and particularly excels at custom parts. For this reason and more, SmarTech Analysis projects in its “Market Opportunities for Additive Manufacturing in the General Industry and Tooling Sector-2020-2029” report that the general industry and tooling market for additive manufacturing could reach $5.48 Billion by 2029. Obviously, any synergy between Kyocera and the CMA will just be a small part of the larger operations of the new site. Altogether, it seems as though the CMA is almost a state and regional version of the advanced manufacturing hubs initiated under the Obama administration. When the facility opens in 2022, we’ll have a better idea of what will occur there and its potential impact on the region.
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 27, 2020 at 07:06AM
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3D Printing News Briefs, December 26, 2020: BCN3D & Distrinova, Desktop Metal, Dassault Systèmes, CALLUM & XJet https://ift.tt/2WOa8jo We’ve got a little business news to share with you in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, and then moving on to a webinar and some Christmas cheer. BCN3D has a new distribution partner to help boost its growth in the Benelux 3D printer market, and Desktop Metal has appointed two executives to its board of directors. Stratasys has posted an on-demand webinar for your viewing pleasure. Finally, CALLUM used XJet’s AM technology to make a 3D printed bauble for Christmas! BCN3D Partners with Distrinova for Benelux Distribution BCN3D Technologies has announced a distribution partnership with Belgium-based Distrinova, part of the Unitum Group BV, to help expand its growth in the additive manufacturing market of the Benelux region (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg). Distrinova offers fast deliveries, high-quality products, and great service, and has a strong relationship with the region’s manufacturers and end users. As part of this new agreement, Distrinova will become the exclusive distributor of BCN3D’s AM solutions in Benelux…especially fortuitous, as BCN3D recently introduced the next generation 3D printers in both its Epsilon Series and Sigma Series.
Desktop Metal Appoints New Members to Board of Directors This week, Desktop Metal announced the latest two members appointed to its Board of Directors. Effective December 18th, 2020, veteran CFO Scott Dussault, who has been EVP, COO, and CFO at cloud storage provider Nasuni Corporation since January 2015, will serve on the company’s Board of Directors, and was also appointed to the Board’s Audit Committee as its Chairman. On December 9th, 2020, Desktop Metal also elected Stephen Nigro, the President of 3D Printing at HP, Inc. from 2015-2019, to the Board of Directors, effective at the closing of its business combination with Trine Acquisition Corp. Dussault, who also serves as an advisory board member at BigCommerce and MotiveMetrics, has over 20 years of financial and operational leadership experience with both public and private technologies companies, and led Demandware through its initial public offering, which resulted in a market capitalization of over $3 billion. Nigro, who is also on the Board of Directors at Kornit Digital Ltd., has nearly 40 years worth of experience in starting new businesses and running large, international at-scale ones. Prior to his role as HP’s President of 3D Printing, he led the global $21 billion business as Senior Vice President of HP’s Imaging & Printing.
Dassault Posts On-Demand 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS Webinar While our webinar and virtual event roundups are on a brief holiday hiatus, we wanted to make sure you knew about the latest recorded SOLIDWORKS webinar, “Introducing 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS – Your next Generation Design Solution.” It’s available on-demand, and only 22 minutes long, so you can watch it whenever you have a little bit of time to spare. The SOLIDWORKS design tool is part of the 3DEXPERIENCE WORKS portfolio by Dassault Systèmes, and is now connected to the whole 3DEXPERIENCE platform. The webinar will show you how easy it is to design and collaborate about new products by using the cloud-based tools offered by 3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS.
Check out the recorded webinar on-demand here. CALLUM’s XJet 3D Printed Christmas Bauble Design and engineering business CALLUM, launched in 2019 to create bespoke and limited-edition products, wanted to bring a little holiday cheer to the world, and collaborated with Israeli 3D printing firm XJet to 3D print a decoration for the Christmas tree out of zirconia ceramic. It’s the first time that XJet has used its zirconia 3D printing to make a Christmas decoration; usually it’s reserved for medical device, end-use, and automotive parts. But, it makes sense, since the 3D printed bauble was a tiny replica of the Aston Martin CALLUM Vanquish 25 by R-Reforged. XJet’s two-material technology, which offers true design freedom, uses several inkjet print heads to jet millions of ultrafine drops out of thousands of nozzles to create ultrathin layers of both build and support materials.
Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 26, 2020 at 07:32AM
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Analytical Melt Pool Model Developed for LPBF Metal 3D Printing https://ift.tt/3hgdMvK The physics that occur within metal laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) systems are complex, comprised of numerous variables. Many of those variables have an effect on the melt pool, where the machine’s laser hits the bed of metal powder and forms a puddle of molten hot material. As important as that area may be, metal 3D printer manufacturers are still struggling to fully understand and control it. A new mathematical model that calculates the optimal melt pool dimensions developed by a researcher at KULeuven may change this. As it stands, determining the proper printing parameters for an LPBF machine is a difficult process. These “recipes”, as they are often called, are closely guarded secrets for many users. However, the ability to 3D print metal parts repeatably and reliably depends on getting these parameters right. At the heart of the LPBF process is the melt pool, the size and shape of which ultimately impacts the end product. Obtaining the right melt pool, among other variables like part orientation and support structure placement, can typically be achieved in one of two ways. The traditional method has been a laborious and costly trial-and-error procedure in which different settings are chosen until the desired outcome is achieved. The more recent process relies on the use of advanced simulation software to predict the physics of a variety of settings. The drawbacks of the former are obvious, but even the use of computer simulations relies on technical know-how, often powerful computers and the time required to run the scenarios. Viktor Coen, a researcher at the Additive Manufacturing Research Group at KU Leuven’s Department of Mechanical Engineering Manufacturing Processes and Systems has developed what may be an elegant solution. Saying that “a melt pool in LPBF is basically a volume of molten metal powder,” Coen suggests that “at the boundary of the melt pool the material temperature equals its melting temperature.” Therefore, Coen believes that the boundary of the melt pool can be established by only using two specific parameters: the power and scanning speed of the laser. According to Coen, the melt pool in LPBF is made up of a volume of molten metal powder, in which, at the edges of the melt pool, the temperature is the melting temperature of the metal material. By using equations from heat theory, Coen suggested that the boundary of the melt pool could be determined and, following that, so could the depth and width of the melt pool. He was able to conceive his theory based on literature and experience from various AM researchers, telling 3DPrint.com, “For example, to achieve a 3D object of maximum density, the overlap between adjacent scan tracks is ideally about 20%. If the melt pool width for a certain combination of laser power and scan speed is 100µm, the operator can set the hatch spacing (the distance between scan tracks) at 80µm. In the same way, you can make a logical decision for the overlap between consecutive layers, the scan strategy, etc. In this example, the objective is to reach maximum density, but other possibilities are to achieve a smooth surface finish, scaffold building, etc. The implementation of such objectives in the analytical model is what I am working on right now.” To test his model, Coen performed an experiment in which he printed single lines of Ti6Al4V with a range of laser power and scan speeds on a solid substrate. “I cut the tracks perpendicularly and, from the cross sections of the tracks, I measured the depth and width of each melt pool,” Coen said. “I compared those with the depths and widths of melt pools predicted with the model. For this first test with Ti6Al4V, they corresponded with an average error of about 30%.” As Coen began working at the Additive Manufacturing Research Group at KU Leuven, he was able to expand upon his model. His original model was particularly suited for “conduction mode melting”, in which energy deposition is mainly distributed via heat conduction within the powder bed, Coen told us. However, he then applied it to “keyhole mode melting,” which sees energy from the laser beam penetrate deeper into the powder bed with a keyhole shaped melt pool. “I tested this ‘newer version’ of the melt pool model more extensively with Stainless Steel 316L, Inconel 718 and some other materials and reached an average error of about 15%. This is still not that accurate, but the goal of the model is mainly to make a prediction of the melt pool and suggest an optimal process parameter range,” Coen told us. “Therefore, the accuracy of the prediction is definitely good enough. Combined with the speed of the model computations, this makes it an excellent alternative for extensive CFD and FE simulations or trial-and-error based process parameter optimization.” The ingenuity of the model lies in the fact that, in combination with material properties, it needs only two well-known parameters to calculate this melt pool volume: the power and the scanning speed of the laser. Experiments have validated the accuracy of the new methodology. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 26, 2020 at 07:24AM
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One-off Toyota GR Supra Sport Top Features 3D Printed Roof https://ift.tt/37KjeUu Paying any homage to the past, Toyota has created a one-off replica of the 1990s Supra for the online-only SEMA Show, SEMA360. The Toyota GR Supra Sport Top built-off of last year’s GR Supra Heritage Edition by deploying 3D printing to create a removable roof.
A good deal of the Supra’s notability comes from the Fast and Furious franchise, as the fourth-generation Supra became the modded star of drag races during a time when imports were at their most popular for racing aficionados. 2019’s version of the vehicle added a few elements to the existing fifth-generation GR Supra that echoed the fourth gen, such as rounded taillights and the basket-handle spoiler. This year’s edition added a new feature: a removable roof. The video below explains how the design team came about 3D printing a new roof through a bit of a coincidence. When removing the roof for various modification reasons, it became apparent that it couldn’t simply be added back onto the vehicle. In turn, the team turned to 3D printing two separate roof panels that can be stored in the trunk when not in use. To make a fully open cabin, Toyota engineers had to account for the lack of structural integrity that resulted from removing the roof. For that reason, the team had to shore up large portions of the chassis from below the car, from the engine bay to the tub. The outer body structures of the roof were also strengthened so that they could operate with or without the 3D printed panels. The roof pieces were 3D printed by Toyota Motor North America Research and Development in Ann Arbor, Mich. for the Toyota’s Motorsport Technical Center in Plano, Texas working on the car. The material used was Accura Xtreme plastic from 3D Systems, though we are still trying to determine what system was used to print the parts. In this case, it seems as though 3D printing was used in a crunch for a concept car headed to a trade show, but the technology has more than proven itself for limited part runs for a number of low-volume vehicles, whether they be concept cars, racers, or luxury vehicles. As a technology, 3D printing is just not quite reaching the throughput necessary for mass production vehicles. However, it really feels as though we’re almost there and, in 2021, we may very well hear the first announcement of components 3D printed for mass produced economy vehicles. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 25, 2020 at 07:09AM
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Automate Sales and Marketing Processes with Microsoft Dynamics Integration https://ift.tt/37H8ZjN Aligning sales and marketing to work seamlessly together is still the holy grail for many B2B businesses. And it comes with its own sets of challenges. Research shows that 43% of people working in sales and marketing lack accurate, shared data on accounts and prospects, while 37% see sales and marketing processes as broken or flawed. These are quite considerable percentages. Businesses often don’t segment their audiences (or don’t do it accurately enough), which means marketers can’t create and provide content that’s tailored to their prospects’ needs. On the other hand, salespeople don’t get the right, qualified leads they can close. And a vicious cycle is created. Many organizations don’t have the data or tactics in place to answer questions like:
Top it off with the manual handling of data in excel spreadsheets that takes time and effort and is prone to errors. Add it all up and this directly affects the company’s bottom line. In this article, we’re looking at practical solutions on how technology can help bring sales and marketing processes together – and automate them using the leading integration between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and GetResponse MAX marketing automation platform. So that both teams share a harmonious and collaborative workspace. Table Of Contents Use the lead scoring to identify Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)With GetResponse MAX, you can automate complex scenarios to nurture your audience with relevant, personalized communications. All your prospects’ actions and interactions with your brand can become a source of meaningful insights, but only if you can track and interpret the data at scale. That’s where marketing automation and lead scoring come in, allowing you to automate the interpretation of your customers’ actions (or lack of actions) at scale and automatically. The lead score is a measure of how likely an individual prospect is to convert to a customer. It’s based on their characteristics indicated by the information they provide your business with when they sign up using a form, and their behavior such as interactions with your website and emails. Lead scoring opens the door to better collaboration between your sales and marketing teams, allowing them to work in lockstep toward common goals with all the information, insights, and data they could need. Here’s how you can use it in your GetResponse MAX account:
Marketing automation makes the whole process quick, simple, and straightforward because the score is assigned automatically within the marketing automation workflows you create in GetResponse MAX, all based on customer actions and behaviors. Here’s what a workflow assigning scoring points might look like: Use the engagement score to identify the most active and inactive prospectsThe engagement score is a GetResponse tool that identifies and scores your contacts’ activity based on their interactions with your emails. We process the data in real-time to provide you with a prediction of your contacts’ interest in your emails. Based on that, we put contacts on a certain engagement level, choosing from a 5-step scale:
Here’s how you can use that in your marketing campaigns:
Pass Sales Qualified Leads to your sales team automaticallyWhen you have your lead scoring and engagement workflows in place, you can automate the process of passing SQLs to your sales team with the GetResponse MAX Dynamics CRM integration. Follow the simple steps:
Here’s what that looks like in the Microsoft Dynamics panel: Create dynamic marketing lists in Dynamics CRMIn B2B organizations, every lead is valuable, especially if you’re selling high-value products and services with high CPAs. A single sale can make a massive impact on the ROI. To avoid losing promising leads, use the Dynamics CRM to automate your lead evaluation process. With the integration, you can find specified groups and segment them in a snap, based on all the available information in real-time, transferred to the Dynamics CRM from your GetResponse MAX account. How does that work? Your contacts are added dynamically to the segments and updated in real-time in your CRM. So if you create a segment on Monday, and launch a sales campaign on Wednesday, people in that time frame will be added automatically, and the list will be updated. Create automated workflows for remarketing campaignsA typical scenario in B2B companies might look like this:
What happens when a contact is abandoned? The marketing budget spent on acquisition, like expensive LinkedIn ads, exhibitions, and other marketing costs, will have worked for brand awareness but did not bring in any revenue for the effort, money, and time spent. To avoid that, we recommend establishing an automated process, sending all the contacts who didn’t buy back to the marketing team for further nurturing. This will optimize your ROI and reduce customer acquisition costs. Here’s how you can do it in Dynamics CRM:
Marketing automation will take care of the rest of the remarketing campaign. You can set those processes up once, and they’ll work for you for as long as you need them to. And you’ll have time to concentrate on the creative part of sales and marketing and optimizing your campaigns. Summing upMarketing automation and leading integration of the marketing and sales stack can be powerful in aligning sales and marketing processes, making sure no promising leads fall through the cracks. The whole point is not to reinvent the wheel, using up time and resources, but to follow established processes proven to help grow and scale businesses. And they’re available through the Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration you can try out with your GetResponse MAX account. Click the button below to find out more: Printing via GetResponse Blog https://ift.tt/2Xap2TD December 24, 2020 at 10:52AM
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How to Create Landing Pages for a Facebook Ad Campaign https://ift.tt/37KmYFn When it comes to marketing and advertising, nothing seems to work better these days than social media. People love social channels, and the latest numbers give solid proof to the concept. There are over 2 billion monthly active users on Facebook and most of them spend more hours a day on the platform than on any other website whatsoever. As of consequence, it’s only obvious to use Facebook as solid marketing and advertising platform. Facebook is the most popular social media platform with over 79% of the Americans using it. More than half of the US residents check with their Facebook accounts several times a day. Are these numbers, combined with the fact that almost half of the users follow at least one brand page giving proof that you should use the platform? Sure they are. And, since Facebook offers an advertising channel as well, one that is easy to use and target the right audience, you can also focus on this if you have a budget for such expenditures. A Facebook ad is nothing without a Facebook landing page. You need to attract people to click on your message, but at the same time, you’ll need to keep them interested once they do it. How? Well, with this article, I will try to show you how to create that landing page for a successful Facebook ad campaign. But first, let’s start with the basics. What is a Facebook landing page?Facebook Landing Page is a page to which users are taken to after clicking on a Facebook ad. The landing page supports your current campaign and should have a clear call to action (CTA) leading to conversion – buying a product or signing up for a newsletter. It’s a very important part of Facebook ads campaigns. Facebook landing pages can be used as a standalone page or a custom tab within a Facebook Business Page. Today, we’re going to focus on creating Facebook Landing Pages for the tabs that are created within a Facebook page to drive in the traffic generated by an advertising campaign. Here’s an example from Disney’s Facebook Shop landing page:: Editor’s note: Speaking of running ads on Facebook, did you know that you can now run your ad campaigns directly from GetResponse? Check out the new GetResponse Facebook Ads tool, which lets you easily grow your email list, retarget your website visitors, and much more – all without leaving your favorite dashboard. Why you should make a Facebook landing pageWell, we know or at least we should already know that every ad campaign should have a personalized landing page that meets the user intent. Why create such a page on Facebook and not on a standalone website? Well, there are a lot of people using Facebook as their main gateway to the world and who don’t wish to leave the platform whatsoever. They might not like to be guided to an external website but they’d most certainly read a page that seems in many ways familiar to them. I am talking about a page hosted on Facebook itself, the platform they’ve seen the ad on. On the other hand, this one may not be your only campaign. Maybe there are many other campaigns to follow. Leading your audience on a free and easy to set up platform such as Facebook, will allow you to save precious time and money by not having to pay for domain names, hosting and of course, website development. In other words, it’s easier to set up a landing page on Facebook. Easier than doing it on your own platform, of course. Pro tip: But if you’ve already got a website that’s using WordPress, there’s an easy way to add landing pages to it. How to make an effective Facebook landing pageThere are, of course, many ways in which you can make a Facebook landing page. And, there are many landing page types that can prove to be effective for an advertising campaign. Your success may depend, however, on several factors such as the visuals of choice and of course, the professionality of the design and your target audience. Also, there are a couple of steps that might help you deal with these factors. Let’s try and list them: 1. Choose the landing page that better suits your campaign.In other words, make sure your landing page properly suits the aim of the advertisement. Ask yourself: What do you want to get from the visitors? What would you want them to do upon landing on that page? Do you want them to sign up for a newsletter? Then it should be your main focus and the main objective to build the page around. Do you want them to contact you and ask for a price offer? Then this should be your main focus. Whatever your goal is, it needs to be clearly stated on the landing page and at the same time, convincing for the visitor. The advertisement may have convinced them to click and follow up on your offer but the landing page will convince them to take the next step. Here’s an example of a great Facebook landing page that invites the audience to subscribe to Gary Vaynerchuk’s calendar of future events: It’s a great example of building a personal brand. Also, it gives you enough incentive to start doing it yourself. Why is it a good example and why did I choose it? Well, regardless of the popularity Gary has nowadays, it wasn’t always like this. He built his personal brand piece by piece, and got to the point that most of today’s Internet users know him. The example, however, is a great one to follow, regardless of the person it advertises. It shows a landing page with precisely thought-out elements. The elements I’m referring to are:
2. Create/Design your visualsThis step actually starts with the main advertising banner and expands to the creation of the landing page as well. All the specific visual elements of a campaign should be found in all parts of the marketing strategy. And, the most important elements, in this case, are the banners and the promotional pages. Here’s an example from Fox news: As you can see, the visuals are the same on the landing page and the Facebook ad. The logo is present in both, the ad and the landing page ad, and so are the brand colors. 1. The Facebook Ad. It’ll be the first thing the audience sees, coming into contact with your campaign. You can design your banners right from the Facebook ad manager or, you can include some third-party visuals. Regardless of this choice, here are some of your best options:
2. The visual elements of the landing page. As you probably imagine, there are a bunch of visual elements you can include on your landing page. They depend on the type of your campaign but keep in mind they should be in line with the banner. Some of the most important elements that should be found on all landing pages are:
In general, your landing pages should be created with your ideal customers in mind. You can get inspired by the latest landing page design trends, but make sure that your design choice isn’t just based on your own preferences but on what’s most likely going to have a positive effect on your customers’ behavior. 3. Choose the right tools to build your landing pageThere are, of course, several ways in which you can design your landing page. There’s one harder, direct way, and there’s one where you get the option to use tools that could make it all easier. Let’s start with the hard way: 1. Create the tab via Facebook developerAs you may already know, Facebook landing pages can be created as tabs within you already existing page. Tabs are available under the profile picture and they act similarly to a website navigation menu. Step 1: The first thing you need to do is to create the content to be displayed on your landing page. In many ways, the tab is similar to an iFrame, which loads inside the Facebook page. Create a web page outside of Facebook. Later, you’ll tell Facebook to display the contents of this page within the newly created tab. TIP: If you already have a domain name and a hosting platform, you’re almost ready to start designing your page. But, make sure that you have a secure URL as Facebook requires it to let you create your custom tab. A secure URL will usually start with https:// instead of HTTP://. If you’re still using a regular connection, consider acquiring an SSL certificate first. (Learn how to track your Facebook campaign and landing pages.) Step 2: Log in to Facebook developer page to get started. Use your own Facebook credentials for this step. Click the green button to add a “new app” There are some options to choose from. But, to complete the setup, you’ll need a basic understanding of web development, CSS, and Facebook API. Or, you can hire a developer who knows this environment and who’ll be able to help you create the right landing page for your ad campaign. 2. Use GetResponse’s professional tool to create your landing pageThe easy way, and when I say “easy” I don’t mean unprofessional, is to use a dedicated tool to build your landing page. GetResponse provides you with such a tool and lets you create responsive landing pages with ease and professionalism. It features all the elements and side tools you need and a complete list of free templates to get you started. You can also register for their essential landing page course, which will teach you how to design high-converting landing pages. The above image depicts some of the templates available via the GetResponse landing page creator. Here’s a demonstrative video that shows the app at work: Other key elements to considerBuilding an effective landing page is a task that takes more than a professional tool or the right coding skills. You’ll also need to take care of issues your success may depend on, such as: 1. Responsive designWe all know how important the mobile community is. At least half of your potential audience will follow through your Facebook ad on mobile devices. This means that you need to take care of this aspect and make sure you’re able to deliver a mobile responsive landing page. While third-party tools and apps will take care of this issue for you, if you choose to build the page by yourself, it’s a thing you need to consider. 2. An enticing offerUsually, a banner ad carries a deal. An offer that should entice the audience and convince them to follow up on your link. The landing page should meet this expectation and give your audience exactly what they were searching for when clicking on the banner ad. Here’s an example from Jeep with a beautifully constructed landing page and a clear offer: 3. A sub-headlineWhen it comes to content marketing in general and advertising in particular, clearly stated headlines are one of the best ways to score a deal and convince your audience that you can deliver as promised. Headlines break the text in specific pieces and make your offer more noticeable on a first look. 4. A powerful call to actionNothing speaks louder in advertising than a CTA. But only if you know how to choose your CTA copy and how to make it visible, readable and understandable in as few words as possible and on the right part of your page. Here’s an example from Nutella that has many different calls to action, but all of them are clear and visible: 5. TrustworthinessAccording to this report, the online environment is considered to be the least trustworthy among consumers. What does this mean? Well, it means that you should make sure every tiny piece of information on the banner and the landing page is valid and true. Don’t lie, don’t make promises you can’t keep, make sure your offers are legit and trustworthy. Don’t make them seem too good to be true. 6. Other detailsApart from the above advice, consider this as well: try to keep up with what your audience may need or want based on your offer. Make sure your contact details are available, readable and easy to spot, if you need them to follow up on your offer with an email or a phone call. Also, keep distractions at a minimum and don’t overuse your visuals. Finally, you can offer social proof on your trustworthiness or your overall success rate/fan base. As you can see, an effective landing page follows a clear structure. ConclusionAdvertising is an important part of a marketing strategy and Facebook is one of the best channels to run such a campaign. However, apart from the banner itself, the most important thing you can think of is the landing page. This is the page that your audience will get to see after clicking on your ad. But there’s no need to worry, now you know several ways in which you can design and publish your landing page on Facebook. Are you aware of other means to create and publish landing pages? If so, please share your wisdom with us and our audience here, in the comments section available below. Printing via GetResponse Blog https://ift.tt/2Xap2TD December 24, 2020 at 10:52AM
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3D Printing Market Outlook 2021: Pro Desktop Material Extrusion (FDM, FFF) https://ift.tt/38thyhg In this 2021 Market Outlook, Trends, and Competitive Landscape for the Desktop Material Extrusion Market, we’re continuing a helicopter view of the desktop material extrusion or Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM, FFF) market. The goal is to give you some idea of the mechanics and dynamics behind the market, an understanding of the material extrusion competitive landscape, and an overview of what’s happening in the value chain. We’ll have a general outlook of this segment for the next calendar year, 2021. We’ll look at the market, systems, and sales for each segment and make recommendations as well as predictions. General OverviewThe desktop material extrusion market can be segmented into low-cost 3D printers, mid-market desktop 3D printers, and pro 3D printers. We’ve already taken a look at low-cost and mid-market machines. In this article, we’ll round the topic off with pro systems. Pro Desktop PrintersPro systems are feature-rich printers that have tight integration with software and materials settings. Excellent user experiences and support are required in this segment. They need to work well straight out of the box and have features and performance while being reliable above all. MarketPlayers are sometimes regional but often limited to global companies selling thousands and tens of thousands of units. As an admired firm, pacesetter and the largest player, Ultimaker dominates this segment, while other companies such as BCN3D try to catch up. Many players claim to be Pro, but don’t have support, quality, or a real value proposition. Printers can range in price from $2,000 to $6,000 with prices per unit showing a steep rise, almost doubling over the past four years. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 24, 2020 at 07:02AM
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Metal 3D Printing Roughness Reduced by 80% Using Dual Laser Technique https://ift.tt/3nKYQIq Lars Vanmunster, a student at KU Leuven, has developed a process for refining the surface finish of metal parts 3D printed using laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). The technique relies on the application of a second, pulsed laser to reduce roughness by 80 percent. The project was so inspired that it resulted in award granted to Vanmunster’s work. Due to the spattering of powder particles during the print process, small bumps form on parts that result in a rough finish. In turn, the part must be removed from the printer and finished using such techniques as grinding and polishing. While in some cases, such as orthopedic implants, a rough surface may be beneficial, this is not the case for the majority of parts that must be further processed upon printing to meet final specifications. This post-processing is time intensive and costly and, in some cases, can be the factor that makes or breaks the decision to use 3D printing for a given component. A variety of methods have been developed to address surface finish of metal parts during the build process. These include mechanical machining, laser ablation and etching, electrochemical machining and more. Among the issues that arise from these methods is the formation of metal chips that can interfere with the build process. In his research, Vanmunster and colleagues came across an idea that had typically been an issue for previous LPBF research. When experimenting with pulsed lasers to 3D print parts and faced the unfortunate side effect of shock waves interfering with the build. In other areas, however, such as laser shock peening and foil forming, shock waves from lasers can actually have practical applications. Vanmunster, then a master student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Processes and Systems at KU Leuven, joint efforts with colleagues and considered using shockwaves from a pulsed laser as a means of improving surface quality. By taking a 3D Systems ProX DMP 320A with a 500W laser and, using a second, nanosecond Ytterbium fiber laser, they developed a dual laser method for performing surface finishing during the print process automatically. While the first energy source is used to print the part, the second pulsed laser removes residual powder by sending tiny shockwaves to the area. This causes the un-sintered powder to blow away before the primary laser remelts the outer surfaces. This process can reduce surface roughness up to 80 percent, thus cutting postprocessing labor and overall part cost. For his thesis, Vanmunster won the “IE NET master thesis awards” of the Flemish engineers’ association.
Incorporating the technology into an existing metal 3D printer required collaboration with the manufacturer itself, but could be something that could ultimately make it into the market, according to Vanmunster.
In addition to being able to perform a smoothing processing during the build itself, the use of shockwaves has other benefits over post-processing techniques. For instance, machining may not always be suited for smoothing out more geometrically complex, 3D printed parts. Laser-based surface treatments that occur after the print is complete require a number of time- and labor-intensive steps: removing the part from the machine, clamping it, performing the laser smoothing, and unclamping it.
Next, Vanmunster hopes to apply his technique to more complex, real-world objects so that he can demonstrate its utility for industrial products. To do so, he joined the university’s AM team as a PhD researcher under the guidance of Prof. Van Hooreweder who is leading the AM team. “We are about to kick-off a new project with many industrial partners in which we will further explore to possibilities of our novel dual laser system,” Vanmunster said. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 23, 2020 at 08:32AM
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3DPOD Episode 45: Sarah Goehrke, Additive Integrity, and Women in 3D Printing https://ift.tt/2WI1z9v Today, we’ve got the whirlwind that is Sarah Goehrke on the 3DPOD. Max and I had a great time talking to the former 3DPrint.com Editor-in-Chief about her editorial business, Additive Integrity, along with her work in 3D printing journalism, predictions for the next year, and a brief look back into the last year. Most of the time, however, we spoke about Women in 3D Printing and the enormous flight that this organization has taken. We discuss their upcoming conference and other events. We also talk about how to get more girls and women involved in our industry. We discuss diversity and inclusion, which are two subjects that Goehrke is passionate about. We really do hope that you like this episode and do keep your ideas, suggestions, and feedback coming. Podcast (podcast-audio): Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 23, 2020 at 08:02AM
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Top 10 Bioprinting Stories of 2020: Paving the Way to Future Organ Transplants https://ift.tt/38v0tn9 New research and developments in biotechnology in 2020 are helping to shape biomedical engineering. Although there are many challenges that still need to be addressed, key advances are proving the technology’s potential as a future source for in situ bioprinting and eventually tissue and organ transplantation. This has been a very tumultuous year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but not even the most extreme lockdown measures have been able to stop the scientific investigation into this area from moving forward. We have seen researchers leverage new 3D bioprinting systems, processes, and bioinks, creating organ models, and even bioprinted tissue for COVID-19 research. 3DPrint.com has outlined ten of the most successful achievements in bioprinting that gave 2020 a silver lining. FRESH-Bioprinted Lifelike Heart ModelResearchers at the Feinberg lab, at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, bioprinted a cardiac model that mimics the realistic feel, elasticity, and mechanical properties of cardiac tissue, and is also durable enough to handle, suture, and perfuse, making it an ideal tool for surgical simulation and training. Using their Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) bioprinting technique, lead investigator Adam Feinberg and his colleagues successfully demonstrated that large-scale bioprinting cardiac tissue constructs made from soft hydrogels can be FRESH-printed with potential surgical training applications. Complex Vascular Networks with Lasers and SugarUsing powdered sugar and selective laser sintering, researchers from Rice University built large structures from complex, branching, and intricate sugar networks that dissolve to create pathways for blood in lab-grown tissue. The team’s findings have come close to mimic the in vivo conditions needed to generate blood vessels, overcoming the complications of 3D printing vascularization, one of the biggest challenges in tissue engineering. Generating new 3D printing processes and biomaterials for vascularization is among the top priorities for the researchers at Jordan Miller’s Bioengineering Lab at Rice, which already has a rich history of using sugar to construct vascular network templates. The work brings the bioprinting community one step closer to creating organs and tissues for transplantation. Bioprinting Tissue for COVID-19 ResearchAnthony Atala from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) in North Carolina, developed a new multi-organ-on-a-chip to test the toxicity of drugs. Along with fellow researchers, Atala published a paper in February 2020, claiming the “3D body on a chip” could lead to faster and more economic drug development as well as reduce the risk of drug withdrawal after reaching the market. But that’s not all, the 3D organoid system was able to demonstrate drug toxicity, and we also learned in July that it is being used for COVID-19 research. As reported by The New York Times, Atala’s team is bioprinting living tissues on a microchip and sending them to a biosafety lab at George Mason University in Virginia, where they are tested for drugs to fight the novel COVID-19 virus. In an interview with the American College of Surgeons, Atala indicated that he was using the body-on-a-chip structures to look at both infectivity of COVID-19 and antidotes, as well as the toxicity levels of the antidotes. More importantly, the expert said that the cell-derived 3D organoid technology can be much more helpful than cell lines in a culture plate or animal models. The team is testing two different antidotes, one for the lung and another one for the gut, looking at how different agents affect these organs. Microrobot Prints Healthy Cells inside the BodyResearchers from Beijing’s Tsinghua University in China developed a micro bioprinting platform that enters the body via an endoscope to carry out tissue repair inside the body. To test the new method, the researchers successfully repaired gastric wounds by bioprinting two-layer tissue scaffolds in a stomach model. They used gelatin–alginate hydrogels with human gastric epithelial cells and human gastric smooth muscle cells as bioinks to mimic the anatomical structure of a stomach, and a 10-day cell culture showed that the printed cells remained at high viability and a steady proliferation, which indicated the good biological function of cells in printed tissue scaffolds. The work represents an innovative advance in the fields of bioprinting and clinical sciences. Since gastric wall injury is a common problem in the digestive tract that affects 12% of the world population, according to the authors of the study published in Biofabrication, the novel in situ in vivo bioprinting platform is a potentially useful way to treat the problem. New Bioink for 3D Printing Inside the BodyResearchers have developed a specially formulated bioink designed to biofabricate 3D tissue-engineered scaffolds inside a living patient, in a minimally invasive manner. The study, published in the journal Biofabrication in July 2020, spans from a collaboration between researchers from the Terasaki Institute, Ohio State University, and Pennsylvania State University. It focuses on an entirely new biomaterial formulation that can be 3D printed at the kinds of temperatures found within the body and crosslinked using visible light inside the body to construct 3D tissue-engineered scaffolds using robotic 3D printing with clinically relevant dimensions and consistent structures. The work could enable the delivery of the right cells and materials directly to the defect in the operating room (OR). Bioprinting on the ISS: Russian Cosmonaut 3D Prints Cartilage in SpaceOne of the most innovative and futuristic forms of bioprinting is done in microgravity. After all, if off-Earth colonization will begin anytime in the next decade, bioprinting is elemental to the survival of space explorers. Using the custom-designed magnetic 3D bioprinter Organ.Aut, developed by Russian biotech firm 3D Bioprinting Solutions and launched to orbit in 2018, cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko bioprinted cartilage on the International Space Station (ISS). The technique uses the pull of magnetic fields to enable the self-assembly of cells in microgravity, a form of levitational bioprinting that offers great potential for space regenerative medicine. Kononenko performed the experiment in the Russian segment of the ISS and on July 15, 2020, the researchers who developed this system on Earth published the results of their work. mimiX Biotherapeutics Launches First Acoustic 3D BioprinterSwiss biotech startup mimiX Biotherapeutics announced the launch of an entirely new biofabrication technology that could produce multi-cellular functional tissue constructs, quickly and affordably, through sound waves. The laboratory instrument relies on the company’s patented Sound Induced Morphogenesis (SIM) bioprocessing technology, which is already nearly a decade old and has been successfully proven to orchestrate vascular networks. In a paper published in the IOPscience journal Biofabrication, researchers developed an in vitro experimental model as a proof-of-concept to assess the feasibility of SIM for creating vascular structures. They conclude that even with a low initial density, cells are able to self-assembly into functional multiscale vascular networks and could be applied in several biomedical fields, including 3D models for drug screening and bioprinting automated tissue fabrication towards clinical translation. Bioprinting Corals Can Aid Maritime EcosystemsSince bioprinting is used beyond the realm of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, we also enjoy reporting on the multiple applications of the technology in other fields: in April 2020, a group of researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of California San Diego (UCSD) developed bionic 3D printed corals as a new tool for coral inspired biomaterials that can find use in algal biotechnology, coral reef conservation, and coral-algal symbiosis research. The coral-inspired photosynthetic biomaterial structures were fabricated using a rapid 3D bioprinting technique capable of mimicking functional and structural traits of the coral-algal symbiosis opening a new door to bioinspired materials and their applications for coral conservation. At the time, interdisciplinary marine biologist Daniel Wangpraseurt, from the UCSD explained that bioprinting technology is a pivotal point in his work to develop bionic 3D printed corals as a new tool for coral-inspired biomaterials that can be used in algal biotechnology, coral reef conservation, and in coral-algal symbiosis research, as a truly innovative and fascinating application for the technology. Bioprinting Mini Human Kidneys in LabResearchers at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), in Australia, and biotech company Organovo have bioprinted miniature human kidneys in the lab, paving the way for new treatments for kidney failure and possibly lab-grown transplants. The research showed how 3D bioprinting of stem cells can produce large enough sheets of kidney tissue needed for transplants, which was also validated in a study for the screening of drug toxicity from a class of drugs known to cause kidney damage in people. MCRI Professor Melissa Little, a world leader in modeling the human kidney, first began growing kidney organoids in 2015. But this new bioprinting method turned out to be faster, more reliable, and allowed the whole process to be scaled up. Using bioprinting, she can now create about 200 mini kidneys in 10 minutes without compromising quality, as described in a study published on November 23, 2020, in the journal Nature Materials. Organovo Back on the Scene…And speaking of Organovo, 2020 saw the return of founder Keith Murphy to the pioneering bioprinting company three years after he stepped down as CEO. In the meantime, Murphy went on to create another innovative biotech startup called Viscient Biosciences, but as of September 24, 2020, the entrepreneur returned as Executive Chairman. Ever since Murphy left, Organovo had struggled to find the resources needed to advance its highly-anticipated 3D printed developments of living human liver tissue for organ transplant. Even though it had emerged in the scene in 2007 as one of the big driving forces behind bioprinting technology, company officials halted all research and development lead programs in August 2019 and laid off 69% of its overall workforce – approximately 40 positions – to extend its cash runway as it explored available “strategic alternatives to generate value from its technology platform and intellectual property.” As a result, the company recorded a restructuring charge of close to $1.3 million, and soon thereafter, in November, it sold Samsara Sciences, its human primary liver and kidney cell isolation business, to Virginia-based LifeNet Health for $1.5 million. Organovo will now attempt to continue where its previous leaders left off, trying to achieve the regulatory approvals for its therapeutic candidates. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com December 23, 2020 at 07:32AM |
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