3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing

---

• Tips for Surviving Your First 3D Printing Trade Show
• Bioprinted Meat and Fungi Could Result in New Hybrid Meat Products for MeaTech
• Bioprinted Wood Approaches Reality Thanks to MIT Team
• 3D Printing Financials: Q1 2022 Is Stratasys’ Strongest Quarter in Six Years
• Robotic Arm 3D Printing Makes Castings More Efficient and Opens New Large-Format Possibilities

Tips for Surviving Your First 3D Printing Trade Show Posted: 01 Jun 2022 06:30 AM PDT With the most severe COVID restrictions seemingly paused, at least for the moment, it seems as though trade show season is back n full swing. And, if the crowd at RAPID + TCT May 17-19 in Detroit was any indicator of the overall 3D printing conference scene, industry events this year should be packed, which makes planning ahead all the more important. This is especially true if you've never been to one before. Although it seemed like everyone else at RAPID + TCT was a seasoned conference veteran, there still have to be plenty of first-timers like me out there. If you're one of them, here are some tips that might help you survive. Proximity Try to find an event close to you: While I had the luxury of going to Detroit as part of my normal writing assignments, it might not make sense to travel so far (I flew in from LA), unless you’re hosting a booth there. Fortunately, especially during the busy season, there are 3D printing trade shows all over the country. Since you can probably knock out all the things you want to see in one busy day, there's no reason to plan an overnight trip around attending, if you can avoid it. That said, there are a few caveats: conferences may be key to networking and, given that RAPID + TCT is the biggest additive trade show in North America, you’ll be able to connect with people that may not make it to a local event.  Get Comfortable Eat a good breakfast, wear comfortable shoes, and get there early if you can: I stumbled across one of these tips simply from being a generally anxiety-ridden person. In this case, it worked out in my favor. Getting to the convention center early let me beat the worst of the initial opening rush, and walking around the trade show floor while it was less crowded allowed me to familiarize myself with the layout. I usually don't have such a strong sense of direction, but at RAPID + TCT, I was constantly leaving 3DPrint.com editor-in-chief Michael Molitch-Hou speechless with my preternatural ability to navigate from booth to booth. As for comfortable shoes, even though the event will be indoors, plan to do a lot of walking. Finally, breakfast is important because — in addition to saving time throughout your visit — you probably don't want to rely on your daily nutrition coming from anywhere near a convention center. Everyone was very interested in this 3D printed PolyJet head. I was a little bit scared of it Plan Ahead Plan what you're most interested in seeing in advance: If you can't get there early, you can still maximize your time at the trade show by figuring out ahead of time which booths you're most interested in seeing. No matter what show you're attending, there will almost certainly be a list of the exhibits available online before you get there. In this case, it can also help if you have access to someone more knowledgeable about 3D printing than you are. When I was overwhelmed by how many companies were offering me the opportunity to set up appointments for a booth tour, given the limited amount of time, Mike helped me figure out which ones I wanted to prioritize. Since I wanted to make sure I saw at least one software exhibit, for instance, he suggested I take up Altair on their generous offer to set aside time to show me their software platform. Be Social Don't be afraid to talk to people: If you're like me, interacting with new faces wasn't in your wheelhouse before the end of days, and the arrival of the apocalypse hasn't really improved matters. Nevertheless, the inherent design of a trade show can bring the social butterfly out of even the most misanthropic individual. Moreover, there's nothing a 3D printing specialist wants more than for someone to ask them what they're working on, so it's a good opportunity to brush up on the art of conversation. You might even luck out, and get to talk to someone as friendly and informative as Ravi Kunju, the senior VP of strategy and business development for Altair's simulation driven design division. This was probably one of the most popular objects at the entire show: a concept motorcycle designed for Airbus with Altair AM software. Be Prepared Have your questions prepared: In general, if there's one thing I wished I'd done more of before I'd gotten to RAPID + TCT, it's to have figured out more specifically what questions I wanted to ask at the event. This is because, given how insanely busy everyone working at each booth is, there's really no time for breaks in the conversation: so, once one happens, you start to notice how eager the person you're talking to is to wrap things up, which at least in my experience neutralizes your capacity to think on the spot. My saving grace with talking to VP Kunju was that I'd spent a significant amount of time in the couple of months prior to the event reading and writing and—thus presumably to some extent—thinking about 3D printing software. In that case, I was sufficiently prepared to discuss the topic at hand. Clearly, a true engineer at heart, Kunju provided some of the points most worth thinking about from the entire show, among which was, "I think there's nothing dumber that you can do than to 3D print something just to 3D print something." He then very straightforwardly explained why he thought Altair's Inspire Print3D software was the smart way to do things. He showed me very generally what it means to the engineering process that the software automates the design process, while optimizing it for 3D printing. Thanks to Mr. Kunju, I do generally understand why simulation software like Altair's allows engineers to shorten the time it takes to create a new design from as long as 2-3 months to as quickly as a day. I had already entered the premises on the first day believing that advances in software are the hinge on which the industry rests, so maybe I just had my biases confirmed, but my visit at the Altair booth solidified that belief. Yearn to Wander With all that said, the only other recommendation I have would be to spend at least some time walking aimlessly around the trade show floor. It'll give you a good feel for the pulse of the industry. Also, it'll be a bit of a desert of pure commerce and marketing in there, so make sure you stake out ample water supplies. All the machines and lights make the room very hot. The post Tips for Surviving Your First 3D Printing Trade Show appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Bioprinted Meat and Fungi Could Result in New Hybrid Meat Products for MeaTech Posted: 01 Jun 2022 06:00 AM PDT MeaTech (NASDAQ: MITC)'s Belgian subsidiary, Peace of Meat, a leader in cultured avian biomass, signed a deal with Scottish mycoprotein startup Enough to speed up market entry of hybrid alternative meat products that mimic farm-raised meat. This innovative initiative will combine Peace of Meat's unique expertise in cultured avian development with Enough's cutting-edge mycoprotein ingredient to create game-changing hybrid meat products. This new category combines plant-based ingredients and cultured meat for a meatier taste than fully plant-based choices and is a sustainable alternative to conventional meat. According to the strategic joint development agreement signed by the companies, the hybrid product will incorporate Peace of Meat's cultured chicken fat biomass and Enough's proprietary Abunda mycoprotein, a fermented food ingredient rich in protein, and fiber, essential amino acids, zinc, and iron. While the cultured fat will naturally provide the signature flavors, aromas, and textures of traditional meat, Abunda will add nutritional value while giving the hybrid product an "outstanding" meaty texture. Enough CEO Jim Laird suggests that the future of sustainable protein will include a mix of plant–fermentation and cell-based products. If the combination of the two processes is successful, it could be a real game-changer for the meat production industry, which is currently struggling amid a shortage of skilled workers––particularly butchers––and halted exports after a magnitude of supply chain issues during the Covid-19 pandemic. Formerly known as 3F BIO, Enough is aiming to cultivate over a million metric tons of mycoprotein by 2032. This value is the equivalent of replacing five million cows and over one billion chickens or reducing more than six million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions (the equivalent of planting more than 30 million trees). Since being founded in 2015, the food-tech startup has raised more than $70 million to accelerate the development of its high-quality food-grade protein Abunda, which is made by fermenting fungi using renewable feedstocks to make what it markets as the "most sustainable source of food protein." Enough’s Abunda mycoprotein helped make these plant-based chicken nuggets. Image courtesy of Enough. However, as much as plant-based meats alone can benefit healthcare concerns, like cholesterol levels, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes rates, and reduce animal suffering on factory farms, cattle-based beef remains a top choice for consumers. According to the findings of a January 2021 report commissioned by the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board, beef is preferred three times more than its plant-based counterparts, primarily due to its taste, appearance, price, and naturalness. Vegan meats have been around for decades, mainly burgers. However, the next generation of these products is still developing, and since roughly nine out of ten people still include traditional meats in their diets, trying to convince them to switch might take a bit more than plant protein. Instead, hybrid meats could have a better chance of becoming a replacement for traditional beef, and MeaTech and Enough's hybrid foods are slated to offer a meatier taste and mouthfeel, which is closer to conventional meat. In fact, this new joint venture is what Peace of Meat CEO Dirk von Heinrichshorst calls a "milestone toward advancing our vision to use cultured fat biomass as an ingredient for developing delicious and innovative hybrid food products that better mimic farm-raised meat." A B2B supplier of cultured fat, Peace of Meat is sure that its tasty and texturing ingredient improves alternative proteins, like plant-based meats. MeaTech acquired the startup in 2021 to complement its proprietary 3D bioprinting technology for creating cell-based steak. 3D bioprinter at MeaTech headquarters in Rehovot, Israel. Image courtesy of MeaTech. At a recent MeaTech tasting event in the Rehovot Science Park, the hub of Israeli food tech, guests from a Swedish delegation were served hybrid chicken nuggets that included Peace of Meat's cultured chicken fat biomass. The feedback from attendees was unanimously positive, calling the hybrid dish "delightful." Ultimately, MeaTech plans to manufacture real meat cuts from cellular agriculture by incorporating its 3D bioprinting technologies into a pilot plant and R&D facility in Belgium–scheduled to begin scaled-up production of cultured chicken fat in 2023. The cultured fat production process will be designed to deploy technologies developed by Peace of Meat since one of MeaTech's goals is to produce cultured chicken fat for use in potential industry collaborations. Enough will also have its flagship pilot plant in the south of the Netherlands, not far from Peace of Meat's facility. With the two companies being so close and signing a collaboration deal, their shared product vision and commercialization goals will eventually make this an ideal partnership for bringing innovative and sustainable new products to this extremely niche hybrid food market. The post Bioprinted Meat and Fungi Could Result in New Hybrid Meat Products for MeaTech appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Bioprinted Wood Approaches Reality Thanks to MIT Team Posted: 01 Jun 2022 05:30 AM PDT In the most recent decade of the 3D printing industry's history, the bioprinting sector has gone through a somewhat repulsive transition from human organs and tissue to animal meat. At the same time, in addition to printed flesh, there have also been many companies exploring and even commercializing printed plant-based alternative meat. Yet, aside from this, there haven't been many other examples of 3D printing with plants, even though there certainly seems like there should be demand for it. For instance, it's interesting that, although 3D printed wood derived from recycled lumber waste has gained steam, bioprinted wood — as far as I can tell — has been comparatively unexplored, with some exceptions related to cellulose.  This is what makes a recently completed study by a team at MIT so intriguing. Published in the journal Materials Today, the study concerns "…novel, 3D-printed, tunable, lab-grown plant materials generated from Zinnia elegans cell cultures". While the common zinnia is, of course, a flower and not a tree, it is the researchers' stated interest to use the data as a springboard into the study of wood-forming plants. Moreover, the study's lead author, Ashley Beckwith, a recent Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Scholar and PhD graduate at MIT, is also the CEO of a bioprinted wood startup, FORAY bioscience, which she founded in 2021. In the paper published in Materials Today, Beckwith et al. conclude, "In a woody species, one could similarly employ a nutrient-rich, structured gel culture environment to facilitate cell growth and proliferation and…to encourage morphological development and differentiation into vascular cell types. The resulting materials would exhibit wood-like attributes and could likewise be grown in a tree-free manner in defined shapes and with tunable properties." For the present project, cells were extracted from zinnia leaves, then soaked in a liquid solution for two days. Next, the cells were concentrated into a gel solution composed of various combinations of nutrients and hormones, depending on how the team wanted to "tune" the cells' properties during growth. The concentrations of plant cells and grow gel were then extruded into petri dishes by a 3D Cultures' Tissue Scribe bioprinter, after which they were, finally, left in a dark, temperature-controlled (at about 72 degrees Fahrenheit) lab for three months. At intermittent times during those three months, the researchers also added more solution to the petri dishes, as well as releasing gases from them for brief intervals as needed. Since the study utilized bioprinting, "…required nutrients and hormones are incorporated within the scaffold itself, [and so] this fully contained setup requires little intervention after deposition." Moreover, use of a bioprinter made it possible to control the shape of the gel solutions in the petri dishes, which adds to the potential usefulness of deploying the method for lab-based wood production. And, perhaps most impressively of all, the process can produce a mature plant "two orders of magnitude", or a hundred times faster, than normal growing methods. Beyond the advantages of conservation and speed, I think there's much to be said in favor of the concept of "growing" plants in the dark. In terms of alternatives to conventional industrial agriculture moves towards indoor farming, are often seen as more sustainable, but this isn't necessarily the case. Indoor farming uses enormous amounts of electricity: indoor growing if commercial cannabis, for instance, is already estimated to be responsible for 1% of U.S. electricity use. Adding additional crops to that list doesn't seem feasible unless a significant dent can be made in the carbon footprint of indoor grow systems. Bioprinting of plants, therefore, could be another interesting technique to have in the toolkit as humans start to address the need to slow the further growth of industrial farming. Images courtesy of Beckwith et al. The post Bioprinted Wood Approaches Reality Thanks to MIT Team appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

3D Printing Financials: Q1 2022 Is Stratasys’ Strongest Quarter in Six Years Posted: 01 Jun 2022 05:00 AM PDT The overall first quarter of 2022 for Stratasys (NASDAQ: SSYS) could be the strongest in six years. In its latest earnings report for the period ending March 31, 2022, CEO Yoav Zeif suggested this was "a great start to an exciting year" for the company, which delivered solid results that include contributions from across all platforms, driving top-line growth and improved margins. "All of our technologies grew, and I’m happy to say that all of our key businesses showed improvement compared to our pre-Covid first quarter of 2019. We are particularly excited by the early momentum from our new Origin P3, H350 SAF, and NEO systems, designed specifically for high-volume production of end-use parts," pointed out Zeif during an earnings call with investors. According to the report published May 16, 2022, Stratasys announced first-quarter revenue of $163.4 million, a 22% growth over the same period in 2021 and the highest first-quarter revenue in six years. Product revenue in the first quarter was $113.1 million, an increase of 45.2% compared to the same period last year. System sales drove most of the rise in product revenue, up 36.7% and 16.4% higher than the same period in pre-Covid 2019. System sales reflected the highest first-quarter total in five years, strengthened by the launch of the Origin One in mid-February and the first full quarter of the H350 sales. Stratasys also says it achieved "exceptional results" in both consumables and services thanks to its growing install base. Here, the higher-margin consumable business showed a revenue increase of 16.1%. Consumables revenue also exceeded the first quarter of 2019 as well as the fourth quarter of 2021, reflecting the impact of solid system sales throughout 2021. Service revenue was $50.3 million, an increase of 14.8% compared to the same period last year and slightly higher than the first quarter of 2019. The positive revenue results were partially offset by a net loss of $20.9 million, or 32 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $18.9 million or 32 cents per share for the same period last year. Furthermore, Chief Financial Officer Eitan Zamir added that Stratasys ended the quarter with $475.6 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term deposits, compared to $502.2 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, bust said they remain well-funded and well-positioned to capitalize on value-enhancing market opportunities as they arise. Stratasys’ Origin One 3D printer. Image courtesy of Stratasys. During the first quarter, Stratasys expanded its penetration further into applications for aerospace, automotive, and fashion, tailored towards industry-specific solutions. For example, working with partner Lockheed Martin, it uniquely qualified a high-performance and tailored material for aerospace end-use parts. While in automotive, Radford Motors has become the second auto OEM using all five of Stratasys' technologies for designing, prototyping, tooling, and building final parts used in vehicle production. As far as fashion goes, Stratasys officially launched the Stratasys J850 TechStyle 3D printer, a PolyJet machine specifically designed for printing textiles, clothing, accessories, and footwear, described as an industry first. Zeif said that there are many changes taking place across industries and believes that this clearly shows the path that manufacturers have chosen, making their production lines more efficient, less costly, and more sustainable with Stratasys technology. The executive also highlighted the White House's Additive Manufacturing Forward Program (AM Forward), an initiative revealed earlier in May to help more companies get involved with 3D printing. The Biden Administration will support this effort with various current and proposed Federal initiatives that will support more resilient supply chains and onshoring manufacturing to help the economy. "The program is specifically designed to help suppliers to companies like Raytheon and Lockheed invest more in additive manufacturing, GE Aviation, Honeywell, and Siemens are also some of the initial participant companies," explained Zeif to investors. "While many of our largest customers are building out sophisticated advanced manufacturing centers, it’s their suppliers who manufacture a lot of their end-use parts." The J850 TechStyle 3D printer. Image courtesy of Stratasys. As far as the general guidance for the full year 2022, management is tightening its revenue range to between $685 million and $695 million and expects net losses of at least $67 million, or $1 per share. This suggestion is based on current market conditions, including shutdowns in parts of China, currency fluctuations, and continued supply chain constraints. Zamir specifically noted that Stratasys' guidance continues to include a full-year anticipated contribution from MakerBot, as the recently announced business combination with Ultimaker (Ultimaker has acquired 54.4% of Makerbot, Stratasys owns the rest) has not yet closed. The transaction is to be margin accretive upon closing and could lead to an updated outlook for this year from Stratasys' management team. The post 3D Printing Financials: Q1 2022 Is Stratasys' Strongest Quarter in Six Years appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Robotic Arm 3D Printing Makes Castings More Efficient and Opens New Large-Format Possibilities Posted: 01 Jun 2022 04:30 AM PDT Binder jet 3D printing is widely regarded as the fastest additive manufacturing method for production-volume output. In addition to its speed, binder jetting is a flexible technology allowing for a variety of materials to be processed and scaled for mass output as well as large-format applications. Sand binder jetting has been used in foundries for more than two decades to create tooling for metalcastings. The upper end of the foundry market has been benefiting from additive manufacturing, using traditional ExOne sand 3D printers to create molds and cores for sandcasting that slash lead times and enable complex, consolidated geometries without traditional hard tooling that has to be machined, stored, and repaired. ExOne's latest offering, the S-Max Flex robotic 3D printer is a new, designed-from-the-ground-up system resulting from ExOne's late 2021 acquisition by Desktop Metal. The introduction of the S-Max Flex reflects Desktop Metal's core strategy to aggressively drive widespread adoption of Additive Manufacturing 2.0 through accessible, area-wide 3D printing technologies, such as binder jetting, integrated with select, high-performance materials and targeted applications. Behind Desktop Metal's mission is a desire to help more manufacturers benefit from AM 2.0's improved time to market, increased design flexibility, reduced waste, and greater financial savings while de-risking supply chains. Much like ExOne's premium, market-leading S-Max models, this new system also binder jets sand molds and cores for metalcasting. A key difference with this model is its affordability, driven by a streamlined printing strategy featuring a conventional robot arm for motion control and leveraging Desktop Metal's advanced Single-Pass Jetting (SPJ) technology to print into an automated telescoping job box that grows with the build. And the S-Max Flex enters a market primed for adoption. While 3D printing technology has remained largely out of reach for most of the market, many foundries are as busy as ever with re-shoring initiatives and increased demand for quick-turn production to ease strains on the supply chain. The need for foundries to remain flexible and ready for a more digital future has never been stronger. 3D printing sand molds and cores straight from CAD files enables foundries to eliminate the months-long lead times and high costs of traditional patterns and coreboxes. The design freedom of AM also allows designers to innovate parts made with the reliable casting process – creating complex, consolidated geometries that enable lightweighting and optimized part performance not possible with traditional processes. Digital production also helps ease the labor shortages many foundries are facing. In the foundry today, manual assembly is required to glue multiple traditionally formed cores into a final shape for casting. This intricate process requires skilled labor, a resource that is increasingly hard to find. Moreover, assembly typically leads to increased scrap resulting from human error in core misalignment while core-glue off-gassing during molten metal pouring also introduces porosity, compromising final part quality. Complex core shapes create the interior geometry of a casting. This vapor recovery fuel nozzle is produced by Alpha Foundry Company in Wright City, Missouri and features value-added features because it utilizes additive manufacturing. What used to be six individual core pieces that required manual assembly is now printed as one monolithic part on the S-Max Flex. The final aluminum casting benefits from precision interior passages and small cross sections that could not be produced with conventional metalcasting methods. 3D printing a core design as a single complex, consolidated geometry eliminates the need for assembly and all the labor, scrap, and complications that come with it. This design freedom is leading to iterative and optimized cast metal parts more akin to their directly 3D printed metal counterparts and by delivering an accessible sand 3D printing solution suitable for just about every foundry, Desktop Metal and ExOne aim to bring extensive efficiency gains to the casting market with the S-Max Flex. Ambitions Outside the Foundry And the S-Max Flex is poised to bring the benefits of additive manufacturing beyond the foundry, and beyond sand. Indeed, this scalable binder jetting solution also holds the potential to support printing with a variety of materials for a range of large-scale applications. Already, S-Max systems print sand for resin infiltration to produce durable, rapid tooling for plastic thermoforming, composite layup, and sacrificial tooling applications. Similar techniques, where forms are printed in powder and then infiltrated to a strength certified for exterior use are being used for architectural restoration or design elements today. Forust, another brand in the Desktop Metal portfolio, plans to use the S-Max Flex's large form factor to upcycle byproducts from traditional wood waste streams into upscale designs like automotive interiors or guitars. Meanwhile, Carnegie Mellon University has used binder jetting technology to print reclaimed powdered concrete into urban furniture in research of more sustainable architectural design. As large-format binder jetting continues to evolve, the new S-Max Flex robotic system is lowering the barriers of entry for foundries around the world to get into digital casting while opening possibilities for new materials and innovations to create more sustainable products. Watch the video and learn more about the S-Max Flex. The post Robotic Arm 3D Printing Makes Castings More Efficient and Opens New Large-Format Possibilities appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

You are subscribed to email updates from 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States