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- French Railway Leader 3D Prints Spare Parts with Metal Filament and BASF’s Replique
- Ceramic Electronics 3D Printing Receives $2.7M from Department of Energy
- Building DED Metal 3D Printer Domestically Cuts Costs 2-3 Times for Indian Team
- Can 3D Printing Make You Antifragile? Surviving Current Economic Shocks
- Fast and Affordable Metal 3D Printing Service Company: IN3DTEC
- Online 3D Printing Service Sculpteo Announces New CEO
| French Railway Leader 3D Prints Spare Parts with Metal Filament and BASF’s Replique Posted: 28 Jun 2022 09:33 AM PDT Train rolling stock manufacturer Alstom (Euronext Paris: ALO) is partnering with BASF´s Replique to 3D print spare parts. Replique is on the move, having previously partnered with Miele and establishing a materials coalition. Now, Alstom is digitizing a portion of its supply chain to be able to decentralize spare parts. And, while additive manufacturing (AM) is increasingly being used in the rail industry for spare parts, this project may be the first such case in which metal filament extrusion was the technology of choice.
The company is beginning with a relatively simple doorstopper that was qualified for production in just six weeks. In this time period, the team tested, assembled, and then got approval for series production. Notably, the doorstopper was made using BASF Ultrafuse 316L filament, combining material extrusion 3D printing and sintering to keep costs on the part very low.
BASF’s Metal Material Extrusion BetI love what BASF is doing here. The firm is using its immense size to talk face-to-face with really large companies that it already supplies. In this case, Alstom is nearly one hundred years old and brings in revenues of about €8.785 billion, with some 75,000 employees around the world. BAS then provides its clients with a platform, Replique, that provides access to multiple production technologies and materials across multiple vendors. A software company or original equipment manufacturer could pursue a similar strategy, but BASF has situated itself as the broker for those relationships and the platform. If the company is good at digitizing supply chains and is not greedy in the short term, then it can build up a very enviable position at the center of digital spare parts production. This is a much more high-level, much more important position for the firm to be in than just supplying material. At the same time, BASF can still use its platform to promote its own materials. If a company like Alstom would independently look for production technologies for maintenance, repair, and overhaul, then it would probably return with a solution driven by powder bed fusion (PBF). This is the most mature additive technology for metal parts and could print many of the parts that such a business would want to make. PBF also has a plurality of vendors in materials and machines, making it look like a more mature, safer, and more resilient bet. The Alstom team may have partnered with an up-and-coming binder jet company, as well. However, is extremely unlikely that it would have chosen a material extrusion filament process that uses low-cost systems to produce green parts that are then sintered. This not a very widespread technology, nor is it very well understood. Currently, it is also very difficult to make components properly with the first print using this technology because sintering changes part properties, which differs depending on geometry and wall thickness. So, for BASF to be the one that is doing this is completely brilliant. At the same time, BASF is big but super slow, so to have Replique as a faster minnow of a startup to quickly respond to customers is also very smart. I believe that the digital inventory business will be a very profitable and sticky industry. We may have a winner in that space before it has even properly started yet. The post French Railway Leader 3D Prints Spare Parts with Metal Filament and BASF’s Replique appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. |
| Ceramic Electronics 3D Printing Receives $2.7M from Department of Energy Posted: 28 Jun 2022 06:30 AM PDT Earlier this year, the US Department of Energy (DOE) said it would grant $175 million to 68 R&D projects to create disruptive technologies that can strengthen the nation's advanced energy initiatives, including electric vehicles, offshore wind, storage, and nuclear recycling. Among the awardees is Materic subsidiary Synteris, which received $2.7 million to accelerate the development of 3D-printable ceramic packaging for power electronic modules. This funding is part of the DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) OPEN 2021 grant program. Synteris will work on its proposal with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The duo will attempt to improve the thermal management, power density, performance, and lifetime of ceramic packaging for power electronic modules.
Considered a growing market valued at $26.6 billion in 2021, power electronics deals with high voltage and current processing to deliver power for a wide range of needs, like DC/DC converters used in cell phones or AC/DC converters for computers and televisions, while large-scale power electronics are used to control hundreds of megawatts of power flow across the country. A great example of this is how researchers at the NREL are building advanced power electronics systems that control the flow of electricity to propel large and advanced electric machines, including those used in planes, trains, and heavy-duty transportation. However, with systems becoming smaller and more lightweight (like in automotive), the need to handle higher power levels and operating temperatures are greater, and many see the material used in the power module package as a bottleneck. With support from the ARPA-E programs and NREL researchers, Synteris wants to create technology that will substantially improve the design, manufacturability, and function of power modules used in electric vehicles, aircraft, as well as related applications including for the military. Existing power modules contain flat ceramic substrates that serve as both the electrically insulating component and thermal conductor that transfer the large heat outputs of these devices. But Synteris proposes an additive manufacturing process that would replace the traditional insulating metalized substrate, substrate attaches, and baseplate/heat exchanger with an additively-manufactured ceramic packaging that acts as both an electrical insulator and heat exchanger for better thermal management.
Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Synteris specializes in materials for high-temperature ceramics 3D printing. The funds for this project will support the team's small-scale research and development activities to use AM to print 3D ceramic packaging for power electronic modules that act as both an electrical insulator and heat exchanger for a dielectric fluid. Specifically, the project team will develop materials processing for 3D printing of the power electronic module, build and test the module, and develop and test a heat exchange system for the power electronic module. If successful, the project will test and validate a unique manufacturing system for better performance, lifetime, and form factor of power modules in electric vehicles. According to Ken Malone, CEO of Synteris' parent company Materic, many factors led to this vital grant, including critical seed funding in 2021 from the State of Maryland's Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) 's Maryland Innovation Initiative and Materic's efforts to build a portfolio of 3D printing technologies to fuel Synteris's growth.
Since its founding in 2009, ARPA-E has provided $2.93 billion in R&D funding, and ARPA-E projects have attracted more than $7.6 billion in private-sector follow-on funding to commercialize clean energy technologies and create sustainable clean energy jobs. Previous ARPA-E awardees have also gone on to achieve breakthroughs in commercializing various energy solutions, including developing transformative solar, geothermal, batteries, biofuels, and advanced surface coating technologies. Examples of earlier awardees include Soraa, a world leader in more efficient lighting technology, and Sunfolding, a company facilitating cost and performance breakthroughs for stakeholders across the solar energy industry. In 2022, aside from Synteris, several selected projects proposed additive manufacturing initiatives. For example, Stanford University received $1.9 million to additively manufacture amorphous metal-oxide soft magnetic composites (SMC) with net shapes, reduced cost, and reduced material waste. In addition, companies like clean energy tech manufacturer Precision Combustion will use the $1.5 million DOE award to additively manufacture electrochemical-chip-based scalable solid oxide fuel cells that permit a power-dense, lightweight design ideal for transportation applications. At the same time, chemistry company Dimensional Energy got over $3 million to print ceramic components for innovative chemical reactors that can run on low-carbon electricity sources. The selected projects – spanning 22 states and coordinated at universities, national laboratories, and private companies – will advance clean energy technology innovation and manufacturing in the US to deliver critical energy solutions from renewables to fusion energy to tackle the climate crisis. US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm pointed out that DOE's investments can help the country achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, create clean energy and good-paying jobs while strengthening its energy independence. The post Ceramic Electronics 3D Printing Receives $2.7M from Department of Energy appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. |
| Building DED Metal 3D Printer Domestically Cuts Costs 2-3 Times for Indian Team Posted: 28 Jun 2022 06:00 AM PDT The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur recently announced that the university has developed a new directed energy deposition (DED) metal printing system. Aside from the machine's laser, as well as a robotic arm manufactured by Germany-based robotics company KUKA, every component of the machine was made in India.  This is perhaps the most notable example to date of the National Strategy on Additive Manufacturing (NSAM), a program announced by India's government earlier this year. One of the stated goals of the program is to create "50 Indian [AM] technologies", including materials, printers, post-processing, and software. Overall, the NSAM is the latest component in Prime Minister Modi's Atmanirbhar Bharat ("Self-Reliant India") policy, which his administration has pursued since it began in 2014.
Dr Ravi KR — who is an associate professor at IIJ Jodphur's department of metallurgical and materials engineering — also said that the overall cost of the machine could be reduced by two to three times by sourcing all the materials from within India. Although there are already other metal 3D printers manufactured in India, this is the first one designed with the objective of relying almost entirely on domestic supply chains.  The idea is an especially interesting one concerning metal AM, specifically, since the creation of wholly domestic supply chains could eventually be leveraged into optimizing the number of printer parts that can themselves be printed. Obviously any remotely successful attempt at achieving such an objective would take years. However, any nation that accomplishes it will have created a truly self-reliant supply chain. Additionally, India would be the logical place to do that. As I've noted in my coverage of the nation's AM sector going back to last October, the country seems poised to be the central hub in a plan to create an alternative to China's Belt and Road Initiative. This seems to be increasingly likely, given the G7's announcement yesterday that the group is planning a $600 billion alternative to Belt and Road. Images courtesy of IIT Jodhpur The post Building DED Metal 3D Printer Domestically Cuts Costs 2-3 Times for Indian Team appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. |
| Can 3D Printing Make You Antifragile? Surviving Current Economic Shocks Posted: 28 Jun 2022 05:00 AM PDT In this, series we’ve looked at what being antifragile means and whether or not 3D printing can make a business antifragile. However, can 3D printing be antifragile as a good or an industry? Antifragility is a concept suggests that a system can through a crisis or chaos and become stronger at the end of it. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, in short. Many industries are seen as cyclical, with their performance dependent on where we are in the business cycle. The classic example of this is the airline business, in which a lot of customers will delay long flights and vacations when the economy is perceived to be “bad.” That in turn leads airline stock performance and the total number of flights to be correlated with sentiment about the economy and the economy itself. Meanwhile, other stocks and businesses, such as debt collection, may actually do better in a downturn. On the level of goods and consumer choices, industries and goods are categorized as elastic and inelastic. Elastic products show radical shifts in demand when factors such as price change. Demand for inelastic goods is (partially) resistant to changes in prices and other factors. Classic examples of inelastic goods are utilities or items like salt. The paragon example of elastic goods are luxury items, like handbags, in which purchases can easily be delayed or money can easily be diverted to other more necessary purchases. Now, we’re living in strange times where a class of people are essentially diversified enough that their spending remains insulated from the roller coaster ride that is the business cycle. However, generally, we can say that there are cyclical stocks and industries and inelastic and elastic goods. Fickle Consumers, Fashion Risk and SubstitutesAt the same time, we can also see that business performance generally has higher ups and downs than in the past. The world is more competitive. Trends spread faster and consumers are more fickle. So ,we can see that there is a lot of fashion risk, in which companies are either much more popular than anticipated and are unable to cater to demand or they are left with significant unsold inventory. A pound of beef now competes with a pound of tofu and an ounce of imitation beef, as well as with a burger delivered to your door, a high-end burger bar around the corner, and your Netflix subscription. There are many more substitutes and activities to which to divert our attention and spending. We can be immediately satiated in so many ways. Impulsively, in the next five minutes, I can buy a pizza, travel insurance, an umbrella, a $400-pair of Hogan trainers, a $0.20 rubber duck, art, or a $23,000 compact portable bike by Hermes.
Asset Heavy or Guerrilla CommerceSpending options are confusingly unlimited and goods and activities are set to satiate us evermore briefly. Inditex can design a new item and get it into one of its 2,000 Zara stores in less than 10 days. That company tracks demand closely and relies on that information and short supply lines to deliver new variants or resupply to popular products quickly. The company designs everything itself, performs much of its own logistics and logistics software, and reduces fashion risk by being timely and on trend. Meanwhile $10-billion retailer Shein has no stores. The company designs nothing and simply buys wholesale. Essentially, each of these firms has circumvented fashion risk. Inditex has done this in an “asset-heavy” manner, developing technology and practices to match demand and output, while creating better SKUs that meet consumer needs. Shein, on the other hand, brings in millions of eyeballs to view pictures, then buys the items once the consumer buys them. You could never build what Inditex is, but you could be the next Shein, or maybe just the Shein of lawn chairs, should you wish. Port strikes in one area of the world, such as Long Beach or Guangzhou, can throw a monkey wrench in the works of global commerce, while one ship stuck in a canal disrupts everything altogether. Currently, air travel in the U.K. is a mess because they were unable to anticipate air travel recovering so quickly. Global shipping has been stretched and seen huge price increases, as numerous goods were not ordered. Then, many more consumer electronics were ordered and later spending shifted to other industries, resulting in fewer goods being sold. Shocks seem to be more common and are also spreading more quickly and widely through a fragile interconnected world. We are more interdependent but also more divided than ever. Is there anything else going on? Well, perhaps we’re entering a phase of irreversible ecological collapse and resource scarcity that will bring starvation and wars to the poorest parts of the world. And one more thing: the Pax Americana that has been the world order since the Second World War is being challenged by China. This will result in supply chain disruptions, as both nations will want to become more independent, especially in high-tech war fighting. Financial assets will also be interfered with more and more via nationalist meddling, politics, embargoes and more, resulting in evermore volatility—especially in stocks, but also in storage and transport.
Shocks and DemandSo. we have companies that build unassailable fortresses and others that are engaging in guerrilla capitalism and attention arbitrage. We have numerous products and services screaming for an increasingly fickle audience that has many more substitute goods and immediate access to many more options. Some things are elastic, some inelastic, while, in some areas, demand follows the business cycle and some things do well when business is bad. Shocks are reverberating across the globe as well. What to make of such a world? One trend that is very obvious is that there will be more and more dramatic mismatches between supply and demand. At a macro level—but also in the number of green sweaters meant to be sold in Denmark in June—we will see more disruption and bigger failed bets on everything ranging from commodities to high-end finished goods. Your retailer, your distributor, your shop, your website will all find it harder to match price, quantity, and product with the fast-changing pace of demand. Generally, there are two potentially successful solutions: to be the asset-heavy king of vertical integration that insulates itself from demand shocks through intelligence and structure or to simply not have any stock and focus on farming eyeballs instead. And what is the best recipe that people have come up with? Resilience. Yes, the next container delay, currency devaluation, or new trend may kill you. Hold fast. You could be more resilient against more shocks. This is a bit nihilistic, for me. Sure seatbelts are a good idea, but if we know that every car journey will have a near-crash, we should come up with something better. A fire extinguisher is a good idea, but it is a bit of a goal-tending solution. If it fails once, you may no longer be there to tell the tale. How best to respond to this increasingly combustible world filled with supply and demand interruptions and mismatch? Stay tuned. Images: Dean Hochman, Peter Burka, Jarle Refsnes. The post Can 3D Printing Make You Antifragile? Surviving Current Economic Shocks appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. |
| Fast and Affordable Metal 3D Printing Service Company: IN3DTEC Posted: 28 Jun 2022 04:30 AM PDT Shanghai-based 3D printing service manufacturer IN3DTEC often makes the headlines for its affordable and industrial-grade 3D printing service. Today, IN3DTEC is becoming one of APAC’s biggest metal 3D printing service companies.  Metal printed engine model.
Now, IN3DTEC operates several manufacturing facilities in China, offering 6+ metals and 10+ surface finishes. With ISO standard quality insurance on metal prints, IN3DTEC provides multiple solutions for many applications, such as implants and dental from medical; housing, and gears for automotive; tubes for oil & gas; impellers and lattice structures for transportation, and aerospace. The company launched a new business plan named “startups metal prints,” which aims to help more small and medium-sized enterprises accelerate the R & D process and new products introduced to the market quickly and reasonably.
IN3DTEC has become one of the most professional Chinese 3D printing companies for making functional & high-end parts. “You know, when talking about metal 3D Printing, many people think it is still far away from the business, mainly because the current metal 3D Printing service in the market is quite expensive, and it usually takes 2 weeks to get a parts metal printed. So IN3DTEC keep investing in a new process in cutting the lead time to 3-4 days,” Lukas Said.  Ti64-Medical for dental. The metal printing specifications from IN3DTEC as below, IN3DTEC metal materials: Aluminum, Stainless Steel316L, Titanium, Ti64-Medical, Maraging steel, Nickel Alloy. Surface finishes: Sandblasting, Glass bead blasting, Satin polishing, Glossy polishing, Oxidation, Plating, Powder coating, Heat treatment and more. Layer thickness:0.03mm Tolerance:+/-0.2mm (as printed), compatible with IN3DTEC’s in-house CNC machining capability, can achieve +/-0.03mm with re-machined. Print volume: 400x350x350mm Assembly: Yes Lead time:3-5 working days Shipping: DHL, Express, as fast as two days  Aluminum prints with sandblasting surface When talking about the ambitions of IN3DTEC’s future version, the company claimed that IN3DTEC stands for industrial 3D printing. IN3DTEC offers the latest additive manufacturing process, including SLM, FDM, SLS, Vapor chemical smoothing, MJF, SLA, DLP, which can provide an overall 70+ functional plastics and metals. The company also offering CNC Machining, Injection Molding, Vacuum Casting, and more advance manufacturing services. Whether you need prototypes or scaled productions, please visit IN3DTEC to get a fast response. The post Fast and Affordable Metal 3D Printing Service Company: IN3DTEC appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. |
| Online 3D Printing Service Sculpteo Announces New CEO Posted: 27 Jun 2022 11:00 PM PDT Sculpteo, BASF’s French 3D printing service, announced that the company's new CEO is industrial designer Alexandre d'Orsetti. Promoted from in-house, d'Orsetti was previously the head of Sulpteo's design studio for six years.
Recently, Sculpteo also became part of HP's Digital Manufacturing Network. The company has twelve HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) machines at its French headquarters — the largest such fleet in France. This, along with Sculpteo's far-flung reach in international markets, puts the company in a favorable position to become a hub for emerging AM supply chains.  Kupol helmet parts made by Sculpteo with Multi Jet Fusion. Regarding its role under the BASF umbrella, it is notable that Sculpteo filled the position with someone from within, and especially, someone who has worked for the company both before and after its acquisition by BASF. This suggests not only that Sculpteo's continuity will be maintained under the reins of a new leader, but more broadly, that it has successfully maintained such continuity since its acquisition. Over the next few years, as the AM sector enters a new phase in its history, we will probably see many more examples of companies passing the torch from founders and/or inaugural CEOs to the next generation of leaders in the industry. It will be interesting to see the patterns that could potentially materialize. For instance, with the present case in mind: to see which types of companies tend to elevate an existing employee, versus which types tend to recruit externally. One isn't necessarily better than the other. But paying attention to how it, along with other questions related to new corporate leadership, continues to unfold, may likely be one more variable that helps shed light on the 3D printing industry's trajectory in the intermediate future. The post Online 3D Printing Service Sculpteo Announces New CEO appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. |
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