Techstars to host live AMA event to answer questions about their 2019 investment focus on additive manufacturing and sustainable tech.

On February 27, 2019, Techstars and Stanley Black & Decker will host a live AMA (Ask me Anything) to provide a platform for startups and industry experts to ask questions about their upcoming accelerator.

Applications are currently open for the 2019 STANLEY+Techstars Accelerator. Scheduled to start in July 2019, the accepted companies receive up to $120,000.00 in funding, access to over $1M in additional resources, access to world-class mentors including executives, founders, investors and technical experts, and life-long membership in the Techstars network.

While Techstars posts their FAQs right on their website, they understand that founders will often want to ask questions directly to program leadership.  “The AMA provides an opportunity for people from around the world to ask questions directly to me, and to leadership from Stanley Black and Decker including Marty Guay, Vice President of Business Development and Peter Bates, Vice President of Packaging” – said Claudia Reuter, Managing Director of the STANLEY+Techstars Accelerator.

The stats on Techstars companies are pretty well-known. With over 1600 investments, and exits including Amazon’s recent$1B acquisition of Pillpack and the IPO of SendGrid and its subsequent $3B acquisition by Twilio, accepted companies will find themselves in good company. Looking more closely at the ten companies who recently completed the 2018 STANLEY + Techstars Program provides another view of the potential for accepted companies. Of the 10 companies, most are in the process of finalizing additional capital and expanding their businesses, and 4 of them have already received follow on investment directly from the STANLEY Ventures team. 

Industry giants like Stanley Black & Decker have recognized that startups with solutions in additive manufacturing or sustainable tech have the potential to transform the industry and the world.  The AMA is a chance for those looking to make an impact to learn more.

Credit: Techstars. / Techstars Logo for the STANLEY+ Techstars Accelerator

The Digital Twin is a concept that is being established by the Enterprise CAD software crowd as well as people working in industrial automation. Heard among many a chin-chin with white wine and a smile; the digital twin could refer to just how well this term pairs with a higher “share of stomach” of manufacturer spending. Or it could very well relate to just how well this concept goes down with the Industrie 4.0 crowd along with with a reinheitsgebot beer and dreams of renewed German precision manufacturing hegemony.

The digital twin as a concept refers to the idea that in a digital manufacturing world mass customization coupled with software will mean that each and every single product in a company’s inventory will have a (perhaps) unique file encompassing all of the settings and necessary production information for that one part. A million unique hearing aids will all have accessible trackable digital twins that specify when and how they were created.

One can easily see how as a storage company this would make one salivate. For a manufacturer, as agile Chinese companies nip as one’s Achilles heels a renewed push into integration and complication with a side order of software could be just what staves off the competition and keeps everyone A6’s and A8’s for a while. Integration, software integration and plugging one’s product into the aorta of a firm sound very compelling. Once your process or machine is wrapped around the main artery along with ERP and PLM, they’re never going to rip any of that out. We have cured the patient forever; he need only keep taking our insulin. Forever revenue, annual maintenance fees, and a more high tech product, what’s not to like? What’s more, rather than make a device and sell it once we can write code and sell it lots of times. Perhaps this is a path for our stodgy firm to get a better multiple as well.

For manufacturers afraid of a future that they don’t understand, a vague, fluffy wave of a safety net sounds compelling as well. Track all of the products? Track all parts? Analyze all of the parts. Compliance on everything all of the time. Would you say no? After CRM, PLM, and ERP the digital twin could be the next multi-billion dollar dream of total control through software. For governments, the digital twin represents all of their dreams in one, and it seems like a future surefire innovation subsidy darling. Mittel GmbH, a family firm founded in 1810, the largest manufacturer of specialized hand tools for ski lifts in WestElbe Ostfalen, has implemented the digital twin to produce custom tools more efficiently using digital manufacturing in Germany. Perhaps in this century, European subsidies will produce mountains of code instead of butter.

Perhaps you can feel a slight skepticism on my part towards the digital twin. Just a smidgen maybe. Having worked in software, I’ve never seen it as a refuge for altruists. Historically much of software’s labor-saving potential has seemed to be absorbed by the vendor rather than have been created for the benefit of the client. I do however believe in digital manufacturing, and that 3D printing is quickly becoming a viable mass manufacturing technology for millions of highly detailed end-use parts. For that to happen, something like the digital twin has to exist. I had high hopes for something a bit more elegant, robust and open: a stuff DNA or sDNA where all of a files ingredients, parameters of the design, rights, and attributions are included in all 3D printing files themselves in an open format. I still think that this is a much better idea, but the digital twin with its fluffy enterprise software husk and the meaty, dense interior is a veritable beef wellington of profits compared to the ceviche thin earning potential of adding sDNA to all of the things in a universally accessible and free format.

They will PowerPoint this into our heads, and it will become what we need to want. Assuming then that the digital twin will, therefore, become commonplace I’ve been giving the concept some thought. I believe I’ve come up a much improved (and far more profitable!) addition to the idea. Enter: the Digital Triplet.

During production, each individual part will need one record of its precise making, and this will exist for the life of the product, available for tracking, querying, and analysis. We should keep this virtual sibling for reference, warranty, process optimization, and simulation. But, what could make it even more valuable? If a third sibling were added: a digital version of the product which entails everything that has happened to it throughout its lifetime. By implementing a “separation of concerns” between the recipe of what we thought we made and how the actual thing has been treated and has performed. Through doing this, we can compare what we thought we wanted to make and what we actually obtained. The third sibling would also be editable and expandable by notes from installers, customers, maintenance personnel and can be updated with new information on new replacement parts, telemetry, and IoT as well as other sensor data. Through this way we can after a year compare all of the versions of a product made on a single day with their deployed versions and actually find out how our products are doing in the wild.

By having a digital triplet we can truly have the product, its digital copy and a file of its actual use in the wild as three separate things which can all be analyzed and tracked. Interoperability of environments, systems, software, parts, and people can all be compared and continually updated. A manufacturer can not only see how well its parts have performed but also how well those serviced by Hans did. Manufacturers can track how well products do in certain countries and begin to develop more intelligent hypotheses on product life, maintenance cycles, and real-world performance. Complex systems suffer from concurrent interaction and feedback loops from various real-world forces as well as layers of interacting systems. By logging and tracking all of these in the log triplet, the effects of different firmwares, software updates and versions on part performance and interaction can be gaged.

As more firms adopt iterative versions of product development and more agile engineering methods we will have many more interactions of many different parts upon each other. With 3D printing, especially files, slicing and toolpath generation will have effects on part strength and longevity. With only the digital twin one could tell that a part was made on a particular day with a specific machine. But, you wouldn’t be able to understand what has happened to the part. The digital twin is just the product and its birth but what is its biography? What has happened to it over time? Perhaps if we learn that all of the parts that fail five years later were installed on days which were humid and rainy, then we can begin to understand the effect that life in the real world has had on that particular thing. With the complexities of additive thrown in it is through this process that we can finally begin to understand not just how unique things are made but how they live their lives as products in the real world.

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Images Creative Commons Attribution: Joel Cooper, Thomas and Phil Dolby.

The global trend of ‘digitization’, ‘convergence’ and ‘democratization’ has had a profound impact on every industry and sector from the most innovative to those regarded as the most conservative. One of these trends is additive manufacturing, called 3D printing.

3D printing creates unprecedented added value for industries such as manufacturing, medical, dental, aerospace, automobile, molding and tooling, architecture, jewelry and fashion. This ranges from the mass production of prototypes, complex aerospace parts to small batch production of discontinued automotive parts, personalized prosthetic limbs, and orthodontics. It is always best to have an opportunity to explore the latest additive manufacturing trends and technology in one place at a time.

Inside 3D Printing, the world’s most prestigious 3D printing event, returns to Seoul, Korea on June 26-28^th, 2019 and showcases the newest products, technologies, and materials in 3D printing, 3D scanning, CAD/CAM/CAE, metrology and inspection technologies.

Inside 3D printing started in New York in 2013, and travels around 8 major cities including Sydney, Dusseldorf, Mumbai, Seoul and Sao Paulo. It is the sixth time this year in Seoul, and it is held jointly with 3DR Holdings and KINTEX (Korea International Exhibition Center) in Korea.

In particular, 3DPRINT.COM, and SmarTech Markets Publishing, a global market research organization were confirmed to join Inside 3D Printing in Seoul as co-producers. This collaboration among key industry players will enhance the quality and branding of the event.

In 2018, over 10,000 attendees from 27 countries as well as 85 exhibitors and sponsors participated Inside 3D Printing in Seoul. The conference is part of a three-day event that includes an international conference in 4 tracks and a dedicated trade show in addition to various networking opportunities.

Over 100 exhibitors including HP, EOS, German RepRap, XYZ Printing as well as Korean major players as Hanil Protech, Carima, Trotec Korea, Prototech and Hephzibah will join this year’s event. Not only top brand’s 3D printers and scanners but a variety of AM applications including affordable desktop metal 3d printer, hybrid 3D machinery with CNC engraving, large-sized industrial 3d printer and CAD/CAM/CAE software will be showcased onsite this year.

“The participation of 3DPRINT.COM and SmarTech Markets Publishing as co-producers will further upgrade Inside 3D Printing and provide the best marketing platform for our exhibitors, sponsors and 10,000+ buyers from around the world.” said Alan Meckler, Managing Partner, 3DR Holdings.

If interested in sponsorship opportunities or conference registration for the forthcoming Seoul event, please contact Inside 3D Printing Secretariat (Inside3dprinting@kintex.com) or visit our website for more details.

The 3D printing community in Argentina has recently pushed forth into new horizons with the acquisition of the first Stratasys J750 in Latin America.The state-of-the-art model arrived in December of last year at one of the top engineering universities in Argentina and will aid researchers in medicine and industry related endeavours. The machine is part of an ongoing effort at the country’s top engineering university, the Technological Institute of Buenos Aires (ITBA), to incorporate 3D printing to its programme. Students, faculty and staff now have access to eight 3D printers in a facility that is open every day.

The new Stratasys J750 working full time at ITBA’s Digital Manufacturing Laboratory

Officially inaugurated in 2009, the University’s Digital Manufacturing Laboratory promises to place ITBA in a privileged position in the use of this technology throughout Latin America. The Stratasys J750 PolyJet 3D printer is designed to carry out surgical simulations, medical preparations, surgical guides and development of final products for industrial use. Both faculty and students have access to the lab’s additive manufacturing equipment housed at the university’s main building in the City of Buenos Aires which also includes two Fortus 250mc, a Fortus 450mc, an Objet Alaris30, a CNC machine and two desktop printers.

“3D printing in Argentina is having a huge impact on medicine and industry, and it’s also where most universities are developing their additive manufacturing processes,” said ITBA professor and the 3D Lab’s head of operations Jorge Leporati.

Professor Jorge Leporati at work at the Lab

According to Leporati, in the future they hope to build bone parts, prostheses that will be inserted inside the body, and surgical simulations.

“We recently created the missing part of a human skull and also aided an oncology specialist at Garrahan Children’s Hospital in Buenos Aires who needed to perform a complex operation of a kidney tumor,” explained the professor. “We printed the child’s organ to scale, simulating the hardness of the nerves and tissues helping the surgeon better prepare for the actual operation and thus making it less risky,” he continued.

It took 10 years for the Lab to get to where it is now, but with 3D printing becoming more popular and prevalent in industry and medical procedures, having access to this technology is important. The use of the lab and its facilities are currently being integrated into the Engineering and Industrial Design programmes. The laboratory will support joint research, materials development, testing of 3D printing technologies and new processes. Two applications that will be worth highlighting in the Lab’s future are impressions of pre-surgical models and 3D bioprinting. The development of realistic simulators for surgery, will allow the doctors to know exactly what they will encounter during a procedure, increasing safety and reducing costs, as well as facilitating the development of manual medical skills for students of medicine or professionals who are starting out in their careers, and it will also rule out the use of corpses and real tissue.

Some of the Stratasys J750’s most popular uses at the 3D Lab

The University is focused on fostering new product development and innovation with business and industry while providing sophisticated parts for customer companies that are interested in the learning opportunities that this technology brings. Working closely with some of the most interesting R&D departments in industry -such as steel tube manufacturer giant Techint– to develop the design of the prototypes that they want.

“We don’t just do the prototypes, we also work closely with the company educating and accompanying them in digitalised manufacturing so they can fully participate in the process. In Argentina a lot of the industrial firms still don’t comprehend the extent of 3D printing and it’s importance in saving time and money,” suggested Leporati.

The Lab has a wealth of new opportunities.

“For everyday users, this lab offers an added degree of quality for their projects, outside companies have the opportunity to develop prototypes in our Laboratory making the processes quicker and more efficient. Additionally, we also have plans to expand the lab’s capabilities by installing metal printers, for aluminum and titanium, as well as incorporating voxel based techniques,” explained the professor.

Testing out the new printer at the Lab

3D printing in Argentina is getting a bigger thrust from the academic community. While quite a few companies are starting to develop this type of equipment for industrial and commercial use, the machines are mostly aimed at making prototypes and not at manufacturing high-end products. In the future, they will play a more important role in production processes and in the manufacturing of small parts.

Still, Argentina is one step behind compared to the rest of the world and the Latin American region, especially when measured against Brazil or Chile. The expansion of this type of technology is hindered by regulations, a lack of investment in technology and an economic recession. Additionally, we cannot forget that the certifications, costs, requirements and training in 3D printing make implementations slower in Argentina. Local universities and other academic institutions are becoming quite prolific in 3D printing (especially in the health sector) but this success still cannot be replicated within the entrepreneurial community. This creates lag in 3D printing adoption. Furthermore, a lot of different rules exist at the local, state and federal level. In Argentina, rules and rates are subject to frequent adjustments and legislative changes, especially during periods of economic stress, making the production and development of these printers quite a risky endeavor. All of this makes “made in Argentina” printers very rare indeed. It seems for now that importing the world’s best is the best way forward for 3D printing in Argentina. 

3D printing continues to take hold in the Philippines, and government officials from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) are embracing technology with the unveiling of the first Manufacturing Centre (AMCen) in the Philippines, where they plan to develop not only in hardware, but also related processes, and 3D printing materials.

Philippine officials are following the Industry 4.0 model, working to develop 3D printing and additive manufacturing processes within their country to include:

• Aerospace and defense
• Biomedical / hardware
• Printed electronics
• Agricultural machinery
• Automotive

AMCen will feature two separate research facilities:

1. The Multiple Materials Platform for Additive Manufacturing (MATDEV) – a laboratory-scale facility for design and materials development
2. The Research on Advanced Prototyping for Product Innovation and Development using Additive Manufacturing Technologies (RAPPID-ADMATEC) – responsible for creating innovation designs and rapid prototypes and focusing on 3D printing with metal powders. Scientists will also develop methods for fabricating, repairing and maintaining older or obsolete parts.

Researchers will be testing further AM processes with a variety of materials too like ceramics, polymers, nanomaterials, and combinations thereof. They plan to harness advantages of 3D printing like overall affordability, speed in production, and less waste of materials.

{Photo credit: OMLC)

“Additive manufacturing has limitless potentials–from aircrafts and automobile to medical and fashion applications–it is possible to create products for the same or lower cost without compromising quality. We are hopeful that with the establishment of AMCen we can see more researches geared towards this cutting-edge technology,” said Dr. Enrico C. Paringit, Executive Director for the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD).

While the Philippines is already innovating in many industries with 3D printing, they plan to strengthen and expand efforts further at the facility, along with reaching out to academia within the country and enhancing research and development too.

Dr Rigoberto Advincula, Balik Scientist and Case Western Reserve University Professor, is slated to lead the new 3D printing center, along with researchers coming together from both the Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI) and the Metals Industry Research and Development Centre (MIRDC). Research and development efforts will strive to improve in quality and performance of the products created through 3D printing and additive manufacturing, along with enhancing strategies in manufacturing for the Philippines.

Innovators from the Philippines have been in the news previously for some epic 3D printing ventures, from bioprinting to create

for transplant patients to the construction of the world’s

, with additional plans for a large volume of homes to be fabricated by similar methods. Other large additive manufacturing facilities have been opening in the US and all over the globe during the past few years as industry giants and smaller companies alike discover the benefits of 3D printing in nearly every field.

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

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The TCT Asia show began today in Shanghai, and desktop 3D printing leader Ultimaker is one of the attendees. The Dutch company made some important announcements at the event today, including the launch of its future-ready Ultimaker Cloud platform, which was designed to support the professional 3D printing workflow and will help speed up the adoption of 3D printing.

As the world transitions to local digital manufacturing, we need a platform solution that will not only make the user workflow more simple but also hasten this transition, while ensuring compatibility with multiple materials and software applications. Due to Ultimaker’s open strategy, important industry partners, like material manufacturers and CAD providers, can integrate with its new cloud-based platform, which will offer more value to users and make the 3D printing experience seamless and reliable.

“Ultimaker Cloud forms the foundation for future value propositions provided by Ultimaker and key industry partners. This is a crucial next step in our journey to speed up the world’s transition to local digital manufacturing,” said Jos Burger, Ultimaker CEO. “I have no doubt that our enabling platform, formed with our global network of software and material partners, makes Ultimaker the preferred solution in the desktop space.”

The first cloud services the platform offers include remote 3D printing, which will provide monitoring and allow print jobs to sent from anywhere to network-enabled Ultimaker 3D printers. Ultimaker Cloud also provides unlimited access to the Marketplace, where registered users can browse materials thanks to exclusive access to print profiles, as well as give feedback to the community and plugin contributors through a rating option. In addition, optimized settings for ideal print results are automatically populated in Ultimaker’s Cura software through the Marketplace. Finally, Ultimaker Cloud offers a way to backup user settings for easier remote access.

Ultimaker Cloud will be available for download on March 19th, which is also when Ultimaker Cura 4.0, with its updated user interface, will be launched.

This new cloud-based platform isn’t the only news Ultimaker announced at TCT Asia. The company’s Material Alliance Program, which was established last year, has three new members: Polymaker, eSUN, and Essentium.

“The growing importance of 3D printing gives us – as a leader in desktop 3D printing – an important role in ensuring a perfect collaboration between hardware, software and materials. By offering material profiles directly to millions of end users via the Ultimaker Marketplace, we unlock new 3D printing applications for different industries,” said Burger. “Essentium, eSUN, and Polymaker and are well-respected material companies, offering unique material properties that are relevant for engineers working in a wide range of industries. I am proud to recognize their commitment to the Ultimaker Material Alliance during TCT ASIA.”

This means that there will now be more choices for applications and materials in FFF 3D printing, as print profiles for these three companies will now be available for download in the Ultimaker Marketplace. Users can just choose a material profile and quickly begin a print.

“FFF 3D printing remains the most practical and accessible of all 3D printing technologies. The three materials we offer via the Ultimaker Marketplace, including PolyMide PA6-CF, PolyMide CoPA and PolyCast, are among the most unique and advanced materials in our portfolio,” stated Polymaker president Dr. Xiaofan Luo. “I believe they will open up countless new applications for a greater number of engineers.”

L-R: From Jos Burger, CEO Ultimaker; Dr. Blake Teipel, CEO Essentium; Dr. Yihu Yang, CEO eSUN; Dr. Xiaofan Luo, President Polymaker; Benjamin Tan, VP APAC Ultimaker

Each new member of the alliance brings something important to the table. For instance, recycling is a topic that’s widely discussed around the world, and it seems like helpful initiatives are popping up all over.

“We are specialized in the industrialization of biodegradable polymers. We are delighted to join the Ultimaker Materials Alliance Program with material print profiles of PETG, ePA-CF, and HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene), since it allows us to speed up the development of eco-friendly 3D printed products by using renewable resources,” said eSUN’s CEO Dr. Yihu Yang.

So engineers in the electronics industry can benefit from FFF 3D printing, the materials used must be ESD safe. Now, print profiles in the Ultimaker Marketplace are available with just these properties.

“At Essentium we are committed to creating industrial solutions for the world’s top manufacturers and bridging the gap between 3D printing and machining. We have partnered with BASF, the world’s largest chemical producer, to create the Ultrafuse-Z line, which is a series of ESD safe filaments that are powered by Essentium,” explained Dr. Blake Teipel, CEO of Essentium. “We offer material print profiles for Ultrafuse-Z PCTG in the Ultimaker Marketplace, an industrial grade filament that is specifically formulated to be ESD safe.”

Discuss this news and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

[Source/Images: Ultimaker]

Earlier this week, 3Doodler attended the 2019 Toy Fair New York, and brought along the latest additions to its EDU, Start and Create product lines to the event in Manhattan. Last year at the Toy Fair, the company debuted its new STEM Series of products designed around its Start 3D printing pen, and this year 3Doodler is not only debuting its newest lines, but also a special surprise – its first Mobile App, which is now available for download in both the App Store and on Google Play.

“Over the last few years, we’ve emphasized the ability to make a phone case using a 3Doodler pen. But with the app, the 3Doodler’s capability to work with your device makes it easier than ever to create. It’s also more environmentally friendly than printing out a stencil,” said 3Doodler Co-Founder Maxwell Bogue.

The new 3Doodler App, which will be launched in Q1 of this year, will initially have over ten tutorials and projects available, with more added each week. It also includes stencils, so you can actually use your device – be it a smartphone, iPad, or tablet – as a canvas for 3Doodling. Thanks to a seamless UX experience, the app is perfect for helping kids and adults alike make their own 3D projects in a mobile-friendly format.

3Doodler is also focusing even more on education this year, and its EDU Learning Packs, only available through its website at first, are now being distributed, at prices ranging from $349-$1,199, across several major e-commerce and retail sites, such as Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. The kits were designed with feedback from teachers, and come with either 6 or 12 pens, lesson plans, a year’s supply of filament, and exclusive teaching materials. They are available for both the Start and the Create+ pens.

“Our goal is to become as ubiquitous as a Crayola or LEGO in terms of being synonymous with creativity and development from an early age. Our mission is to inspire and enable everyone to create, and firmly believe that education is the proper vehicle for this mission,” said 3Doodler’s CEO Daniel Cowen. “We’ve already seen countless examples of how 3Doodler can positively impact a classroom, and have now started to structure our company to meet that demand.”

Since 3Doodler was founded six years ago, its products have been used in over 8,000 classrooms, by more than 400,00 students, all around the world. In that time, crowdfunded educational platform DonorsChoose.org has also sent 3Doodler kits to over 1,000 middle- and low-income US classrooms. But now that the 3D printing pens are available through more well-known sites, this access can increase even further, providing such benefits to schoolchildren as:

• Help teachers diversify teaching methods
• Improve student concentration levels
• Stimulate different learning methods for both kinesthetic and visual learners
• Increase opportunities for special needs students
• Level the playing field between male and female students

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Researchers from Keimyung University have published a recent article exploring how new processes may change the realm of pharmaceuticals in ‘Complex formulations, simple techniques: Can 3D printing technology be the Midas touch in pharmaceutical industry?’ The authors are well aware of the typical benefits of 3D printing such as affordability, speed in production, and the potential for cutting out labor and on-site factory expenses; however, the benefits in pharmaceuticals extend far beyond the basics due to the ability to make medications that are personalized, with patient-specific dosages that could be made in a variety of different forms—and released into the body at varying levels of intensity.

The researchers address varying types of 3D printing technology being used currently in pharmaceuticals, and their focus for the study at hand:

“Various technologies such as fused deposition modeling (FDM), selective laser sintering (SLS), stereolithography (SLA) and inkjet or binder jet printing (IJP), have been studied for the development of different formulations and have been described in this review,” state the researchers. “However, most of the studies have been carried out using FDM and inkjet printing, which are considered the simplest and most feasible methods for the formulation of dosage forms using 3D technology. Hence, in this review, special attention has been paid on the principles and studies done using FDM and ink-based printing technology as well as the challenges faced by 3D printing in the pharmaceutical sector.”

FDM 3D printing has been known for challenges in loading drugs into different types of filament, along with releasing of medications, but the scientists are still optimistic:

“These studies show that even with FDM there is a possibility of expanding the scope of 3D printing together with a wide range of excipients and APIs.”

Some of the promise behind FDM 3D printing in pharmaceuticals may be due to the amount of accuracy and versatility available, along with the ability for users to employ multiple nozzles. The researchers state that this is a major break-through with the possibility of making variations such as coated tablets that would require dual nozzle capability. Previously, variety in shapes and forms of tablets has caused erratic performance in drug delivery, along with the issue of APIs as one of the major stumbling blocks due to chemical incompatibility.

General process of 3D printing with reference to nozzle-based printing: Design of the object using computer aided design software (CAD) and file saved in STL. (A) format Slicing and printer setting using slicing software; (B) file saved in format supported by the printer (e.g. G-code); (C) printing of designed object using suitable 3D printing technology (e.g nozzle-based technology); (D) finished printed object.

“One of the solutions to this problem is a bilayer tablet with different formulation blends to modify the release and to separate the APIs,” state the scientists.

It is also hoped that 3D printing may be able to precipitate greater usage of capsules in patient-specific medications, due to the possibility of offering a single-step process. A process has also been created for making liquid medications via FDM 3D printing with a syringe nozzle. Another method in FDM 3D printing was tested using ibuprofen for ‘sustained release,’ along with other tablets made of predesigned scaffold structures. Fast-dissolving film (FDF) medications show promise too.

“Formulations by FDM provides good mechanical strength and high resolution, but the used thermoplastic material should be suitable for extrusion and infill percentage of drug should be optimized to obtain the desired release profile. FDM has been most commonly discussed as the best technology for medicine printing and it can also formulate very complex geometrical dosage forms, which was not feasible with conventional manufacturing process. FDM technology surely opens a new revelation in personalized medicine,” concluded the research team.

Examples of applications of 3D printing in pharmaceutical sector. (A) Images of PVA filament (left) and fluorescein-loaded filament (right) under UV light (Reproduced with permission from [11]. Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V.); (B) Design and printed tablets of different geometrical shapes using FDM technology (Reproduced with permission from [43]. Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V.); (C) Multicompartment capsular device printed using FDM technology (Reproduced with permission from [48]. Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V.); (D) Dual-nozzle FDM (Reproduced with permission from [50]. Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V.); (E) Channeled tablets (front and side view with channel sizes) (Reproduced with permission from [57]. Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V.).

3D printing and its impacts on the medical field have been felt far and wide in the most positive and progressive ways possible—even allowing for new

,

, and

to be created that may not have been possible before, along with incredible potential spilling over into the drug and pharmaceutical industries. As we see repeated research into 3D printed medications and become more convinced of the relative ease in which they could be produced, the reality of this technology transforming pharmaceuticals seems imminent; however, obvious challenges must be overcome to make such processes truly feasible, along with considerably more development.

Advantages of 3D printing in pharmaceutical sector

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

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