Wednesday, April 13, 2022

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

April 13, 2022  No comments

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

FATHOM’s Vision for Consolidating 3D Printing Services: A Talk with CEO Ryan Martin

Posted: 13 Apr 2022 06:30 AM PDT

The additive manufacturing (AM) industry is in the midst of an enormous upheaval in too many ways to count. Just one of those ways, however, is the consolidation that is occurring. Another is the increase in publicly listed companies. Yet one more is the industrialization of 3D printing. One firm that symbolizes all of these trends is FATHOM (NYSE: FATH).

The service provider, whose largest shareholder is CORE Industrial Partners, recently released its first quarterly report after its IPO, with promising numbers for the high-growth firm. To learn more about its transformation from a series of fragmented 3D printing services to a single business under the umbrella of CORE, we spoke to Ryan Martin, FATHOM CEO.

The original FATHOM business started 35 years ago as Midwest Composite Technologies (MCT) was founded in 1984 In Hartland, Wisconsin. MCT was one of the earliest adopters of additive technology. In 2019, CORE acquired ICOMold and Fathom, Oakland and moved future acquisitions under the Fathom brand.. Moreover, it wasn't until the acquisition that it grew to become one of the largest digital manufacturing bureaus in North America.

Fathom's manufacturing facility filled with 3D printing platforms.

Fathom Manufacturing Facility at Hartland, Wis. Headquarters. Image courtesy of Fathom.

Martin himself comes from a major industrial and finance background, working almost 14 years at GE. The majority of this time was spent at GE Capital, where he served as a senior vice president and became managing director of Industrial Finance. Martin then became managing director and general manager of GE Additive.

"[At GE], I had an opportunity to travel the country and really what I saw was a very fragmented industry: a lot of very strong regional players, but these regional players would have expertise in only a single manufacturing process. Even in 3D printing, you’d have a lot of service bureaus that were just focused on metal or just focused on plastic. And then they’d go to somebody else for CNC or sheet metal or injection molding. It was a lot of these smaller, regional entrepreneur family-run businesses that were really serving these large enterprise customers," Martin said.

This fragmentation meant that enterprise customers lacked a single source for their third-party manufacturing services. For that reason, Martin left GE and partnered with the team at CORE, who had a similar vision for a consolidated service bureau. Such an entity could enable the industry 4.0 transition currently taking place in manufacturing.

Ryan Martin at Fathom's manufacturing facility.

Fathom Manufacturing CEO Ryan Martin at the company’s headquarters in Hartland. Image courtesy of Fathom Manufacturing.

"Our goal has never been to be everything to everybody. It has always been to provide that unique, differentiated manufacturing technology and process to the largest, most innovative enterprise customers in the world."

To achieve this vision, we've seen a number of firms rolled up by CORE, some of which are being consolidated into the FATHOM business. FATHOM has integrated metal 3D printing, injection molding, and precision sheet metal service bureaus.

A page from Fathom’s website reaching out for acquisitions.

AS CORE becomes a powerhouse across the emerging digital manufacturing space, FATHOM serves as a growing force to be reckoned with, as well. By purchasing smaller regional firms, it extends its own reach, while also bringing more commercial and digital strategies to their businesses. Our goal is to buy great businesses and then help take them to the next level through our commercial, digital, operational, financial, and people processes.  We get these businesses ready to compete in an industry 4.0 world as part of Fathom, according to Martin.

"Typically, the smaller, regional acquisitions that we have acquired aren't making the investments into the digital side of things," Martin said. "We built our highly scalable Smart Quote(Registered Trademark) tool to help create that digital experience for all our customers. We also have an injection molding business, which is a world-leader in providing 30-second plastic injection molding quotes. And, so, we can pull that all the gather and then with our ERP system be able to really look at the businesses as a whole and make better decisions faster."

At the moment, there is a minor revolution taking place in the world of manufacturing execution systems (MES). Just a handful of startups are developing MES software to integrate 3D printing and other digital fabrication tools into larger production environments. This has led to almost half of these businesses being acquired. Martin explained that the company uses a "hybridized" approach that combines FATHOM's own software with packages from other firms. The challenge seems to be in the fact that most MES platforms are directed to additive manufacturing.

"To get an MES system that works good for additive but doesn’t work good for other manufacturing processes isn’t going to be effective for what we’re offering our customers. We have 25 different manufacturing processes that we offer around four core tenants: additive manufacturing (both plastic and metal), CNC machining, injection molding, and precision sheet metal fabrication," Martin said. "Our key is to be technology-agnostic and then offer our customers the best solution for what they’re looking to achieve. In many cases, that’s going to be 3D printing. In other cases, it may be CNC, machining or maybe injection molding, or maybe a combination of all those, but that’s what we see as our value to our customers. As it relates to MES systems, we need to create a system that can work across multiple different manufacturing processes. We use some out-of-the box software and then we use some of our own internally developed. So, it’s really a hybridized internal software."

Fortunately, what we've heard from MES developers is that they are ready to begin moving beyond additive. Perhaps in a couple of years' time, this could mean another acquisition for CORE to create a manufacturing-wide MES product.

Fathom’s quoting engine. Image courtesy of Fathom.

So far, what FATHOM has built up so far has been more than enough to tackle the right applications for some massive customers. This includes stop-gap measures to overcome supply chain challenges brought about by COVID-19. Martin relayed the story of a large agricultural manufacturer that was unable to access a $1 injection molded mounting mechanism for a tractor that was being built.

"They called us up at, on noon on a Tuesday and said, 'We know that, on Wednesday at 4:00 AM, in the morning, we’re going to have a line down situation because we literally can’t source a one-dollar injection molded part.' We’ve been a long-time partner with them. We help them a lot with different development projects. And, they said, 'Could we redesign this part for 3D printing?' We looked at it. We worked with their engineers, and, in about 60 minutes, we’d re-designed this part. Over the next 10 hours, we printed 500 of these parts. They actually flew one of their corporate planes up to Wisconsin, had a courier meet our second shift supervisor. We quickly printed 500 of those parts. During that day, they flew those down at 4:00 AM. Those went onto the manufacturing line and kept their manufacturing line up and running."

Over the next several weeks, FATHOM 3D printed about 2,500 more of these parts to keep the business up and running. This led to further collaboration, in which the service bureau began identifying parts that would be suitable for 3D printing. And, as AM technology progresses, so will FATHOM's capabilities. The company will be the first user of Evolve Additive's unique technology, capable of 3D printing batches of thousands of plastic parts at once.

Just as the 3D printing industry is only at the beginning of its upward trajectory, so too is FATHOM. In just over a decade, it went from a husband-and-wife 3D printing service to a consolidated digital manufacturing corporation. With the backing of CORE, we can expect it to continue to grow quickly.

As it does, will it continue to operate as an independent business? There are plenty of corporate giants now operating in the service bureau space. Both Siemens and BASF offer 3D printing services. Given Martin's own background with GE, one wonders if he will meet up with the legendary U.S. conglomerate once again in the future, perhaps resulting in the sale of FATHOM to GE. For now, however, the future is wide open for the company.

The post FATHOM’s Vision for Consolidating 3D Printing Services: A Talk with CEO Ryan Martin appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Airbnb Alums Join House 3D Printing Startup Mighty Buildings

Posted: 13 Apr 2022 06:30 AM PDT

Mighty Buildings, an Oakland-based additive construction (AC) firm, recently announced three key hires that fill crucial leadership positions at the company. This comes at a time when Mighty Buildings is in a transitional moment from startup to "scaleup": according to the venture capital group NEXEA, "A scaleup company is essentially a high-growth business. …The scaleup phase is usually the most rapid and substantial stage of expansion, as well as the most challenging."

AC startups have entered a new growth period as of late, while the technology, on the whole, seems to be once again attracting more interest around the globe. To put itself in the most advantageous possible position to continue its upward momentum in the current business environment, Mighty Buildings has added decades of experience to its team, bringing on three executives with some of the tech world's most successful growth companies on their résumés.

For Chief Operating Officer (COO), Mighty Buildings has hired Russ Atassi, who most recently headed up research and development at Airbnb. Also working at Oculus, Apple, and Google, among other giant multinationals, throughout his 20 year career, Atassi — in addition to R&D — has a background in global supply chain management and hardware manufacturing operations.

Mighty Buildings has hired Rene Griemens as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Griemens previously served in the same capacity at Volocopter, a German company known as "the world's first sustainable air mobility business". Raising over $340 million for a firm specializing in electric air taxis is quite a feat, and this, along with Griemens' 30 years of overall experience, should be a huge asset to Mighty Buildings' efforts to attract investors over the next few years.

Finally, Mighty Buildings has hired another alum of Airbnb, Mark Aldrich, as its general counsel. Specifically, Aldrich led the legal team supporting Airbnb's new product R&D, so he comes from the same exact division as Atassi. Adding two executives who already have a working relationship with each other should allow the company to really hit the ground running with its new leadership team.

In a press release, Slava Solonytsin, Mighty Buildings' CEO, said, "I'm thrilled to have Russ, Rene and Mark join Mighty Buildings…as we expand our strategy to support our next stage of growth. The enormous experience and expertise they bring will accelerate the roll-out of our platform to enable developers to rapidly scale housing deployments… The opportunity and demand are massive, and today we have the team in place to not only tap into that demand, but to do so with minimal carbon footprint and enviable speed of execution."

Having been one of the AC companies making the most headlines throughout the past couple years of the sector's expansion, Mighty Buildings should be an interesting outfit to observe, as a metric of the industry's general near-term status and growth. One final possibility to consider is that, given the background of two of the company's new executives, Airbnb may be trying to figure out how to use AC to its benefit.

Images courtesy of Mighty Buildings

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Siam Cement to Distribute COBOD Construction 3D Printers in Southeast Asia

Posted: 13 Apr 2022 06:00 AM PDT

Additive construction firm COBOD International is on a mission to construct buildings all around the world using automation, robotic construction, and 3D printing. So far, the Danish company is doing pretty well with this goal, as it provided the 3D printers for many of the major 3D printed buildings that were announced in the last two years, included ones by 14 Trees (the daughter company of Holcim), Printed Farms, and PERI, which actually acquired a significant stake in COBOD back in 2018. Now, the company has signed a distribution agreement with Siam Cement Group (SCG), which is both the oldest and the largest cement manufacturer in Southeast Asia and Thailand. SCG will distribute COBOD’s construction 3D printers in the region, and promote the technology there as well.

“We are very proud that Siam Cement has chosen to become a partner with us,” said Henrik Lund-Nielsen, the Founder and General Manager of COBOD International. “The fact that Siam Cement has now invested in a 3D printer from us and even want to exclusively distribute our printers is a sign of great conviction in the future potential of 3DCP technology – a positive trend we have seen among cement and concrete manufacturers across all continents over the last 6-9 months.”

SCG is a top business conglomerate in the ASEAN region, and has three core businesses—Chemicals, Cement-Building Materials, and Packaging. With nearly 54,000 employees and a revenue of $12 billion in 2020, it’s one of the largest public companies in the world by Forbes standards. In the past, SCG has fabricated prototypes, and supposedly buildings, using other 3D printers, but feels that it’s ready to take a bigger step in regional construction. That’s why it’s turned to COBOD, which has the expertise and equipment to help SCG get to the next level in the construction market.

“3D construction printers have been widely used in many parts of the world with excellent results. The technology helps reduce waste and increase construction times with foolproof simulation with minimal numbers of laborers,” explained Abhijit Datta, Managing Director, SCG International. “This is the starting point of this collaboration with COBOD International A/S. Together, we will improve Thailand's construction market with the future expectation of extending cooperation in the ASEAN. With our regional expertise and domestic solid business alliance relationship, we are ready to assist our partner in achieving long-term success.”

Now that the agreement has been signed, SCG will be learning all it can about construction 3D printing with COBOD’s systems. Then, the plan is to create a dedicated sales channel for 3D concrete printing, or 3DCP. If we heed what PERI AG’s Global Head of Business Development & Sales for 3D Construction Printing Jan Graumann told 3DPrint.com, this is definitely in line with predictions for the 3D construction printing sector.

“Next year and the years thereafter we expect the number of 3D construction printing companies as well as the number of realized 3D-printing projects to continue to increase. The technology as proven its high potential to increase productivity in the construction industry and thereby address the global housing shortage,” Graumann told us. “Additionally, we are convinced that 3D construction printing will more and more become a standard building method over the next years.”

The home 3D printed in Oman using COBOD technology and D.fab. Image courtesy of COBOD International.

COBOD has an open source strategy, and sets up partnerships around the globe with academic institutions, customers, and other cement makers, such as Holcim, 14 Trees, and Cemex. Sometimes the hype surrounding the 3D construction printing segment can be overwhelming, but COBOD seems pretty committed to backing up what it promises. This winter, the company demonstrated its BOD2 printer live at the World of Concrete convention in Las Vegas in order to showcase the market readiness of its technology, and recently released a 3D visualized configurator for creating construction 3D printers.

“Considering only the past 6 months we have seen orders in this segment from Europe, Latin America – and now Asia. Engagement is coming from both global giants but also regional or local players,” said Simon Klint Bergh, Head of Asia Pacific at COBOD. “Overall, among the manufacturers of concrete and cement there is an acceptance and true belief that 3DCP is going to play a vital role for the industry in the years to come. We are thrilled now to be able to count Siam Cement as one of our partners.”

Of course, the company may need to be flexible in the future, as continuing research in the sector indicates that concrete is pretty outdated.

The post Siam Cement to Distribute COBOD Construction 3D Printers in Southeast Asia appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

3D Printing Luxury Goods On-Site? Selfridges Has the Robots for That

Posted: 13 Apr 2022 05:30 AM PDT

One of London's premier department stores on Oxford Street, Selfridges, has created the ultimate shopping experience. Thanks to 3D printing robots, the iconic store offers consumers the opportunity to order personalized designer items produced on-site. Sustainable, creative, and bespoke. These three words can describe what the brand calls an "experimental concept store" that relies on recovered marine plastics as input material and 3D printing technology.

At Selfridges The Corner Shop, a pop-up store where customers can explore innovative products and new collection launches, the brand decided to create SUPERMARKET. This new four-week concept shop challenges consumers to think about how the goods they purchase are produced and how they impact the environment. The result demonstrates how an ABB robot 3D prints a variety of personalized homeware designer objects made from intercepted marine plastic debris collected by Parley for the Oceans' Global Cleanup network.

Selfridges Supermarket at The Corner Store showcases a robot that 3D prints luxury goods on site

Selfridges Supermarket at The Corner Store showcases a robot that 3D prints luxury goods on-site. Image courtesy of Selfridges.

Throughout April 2022, shoppers can experience the 3D printing process live at the Corner Shop or see the high-end 3D printed products at Selfridges SUPERMARKET online and through social media channels until May 1, 2022.

Developed in partnership with the environmental organization and global network, Parley for the Oceans, and innovative design brand, Nagami, the demonstration will use ABB's patented RobotStudio simulation software and a 2.6 meter tall IRB 6700 robot to create a variety of printed furniture, homeware, exclusive Clean Waves sunglasses and other objects made from Parley Ocean Plastic. The robot will work with Nagami's unique plastic extruder to print the objects, which can be selected by customers on a screen and made to order on the premises.

One step closer to a robotic revolution

ABB's Robotics Division President Marc Segura explained that by re-using plastic from the world's oceans to print designer objects, the collaborative display highlights the vital contribution of robots in creating the sustainable manufacturing processes central to a circular economy.

"While expanded choice is great for consumers, it also comes at a cost to the environment, with products and packaging often being discarded with little thought about where they end up or whether they get recycled," says Segura.

The ABB robot 3D prints luxury goods at Selfridges Supermarket at The Corner Shop. Image courtesy of Selfridges.

Robots are already being used in increasing numbers in inventory and delivery management and in-store services. The Harvard Business Review suggests that companies using retail robots have an excellent opportunity to increase efficiency and accuracy in inventory management. However, ABB says the new demonstration at Selfridges highlights the broader potential of robotic automation in helping retailers attract customers into their stores.

At Selfridges, robots are not only used behind the counter but are proving to be an attractive centerpiece on the shop floor, enabling personalized production of goods at the point of consumption, adding what Segura claims is a "whole new dimension to the retail experience."

Rethink plastics

At its core, the 3D printing robotic display found a way to repurpose plastics that would otherwise end up in the oceans.

Parley founder and CEO Cyrill Gutsch says that working with ABB and Nagami, "we can now print on demand anywhere in the world to turn a problem into a solution." And what a problem it is. For example, Parley estimates that eight million metric tons of plastic trash end up in our oceans every year, resulting in plastic marine debris that goes into aquatic life and seabirds.

"Parley Ocean Plastic was invented to catalyze change in response to marine plastic pollution and the destruction of our oceans (…) Beyond the huge potential for reducing waste by printing directly inside retail locations like Selfridges, we want to use this technology to empower local communities across the globe – giving them the tools to turn local plastic pollution into business opportunities and useful objects. For the oceans, climate and life," spotlighted Gutsch.

Retail strategy

Focused on showcasing the role of robotics at the point of consumption, Selfridges offers customers the chance to shop the future now. By exploring future shopping habits through the lens of consumption and ownership, The Corner Shop is a place where products and art are made on-demand or from future-facing materials and innovations.

Revolving around the idea of an ever-changing shopping experience, Selfridges The Corner Shop, which opened its doors in 2017, pays homage to the traditional "British corner shop," a small retail locale that carries a limited selection of items. Its latest SUPERMARKET development is one of the most innovative for us. Selfridges even suggests that as it continues to experiment with creative ways of reinventing retail, they invite shoppers to "play with possible futures and explore new ways of being that are kinder on the planet."

ABB robot 3D prints luxury goods at Selfridges in London.

ABB Robotics showcases the future of retail at Selfridges in London. Image courtesy of ABB.

Selfridges site reads: "Enter SUPERMARKET: an experimental concept store in The Corner Shop at Selfridges London with 3D-printing robots creating everything from juicy plant-based steaks to lightweight handbags and recycled plastic furniture on demand."

At the store, customers will be able to explore a creative playground, where printing on-demand, cutting-edge materials, and sustainable innovation come together, bringing future-facing fashion, art, and food to everyone.

By experimenting with new ideas and models, SUPERMARKET will examine future shopping habits as the brand looks to reinvent retail through its sustainability strategy, Project Earth. The site will host a curation of innovation-leading brands and inspiring collaborations with both established names and startups paving the way.

Selfridges Supermarket at The Corner Store showcases a 3D printing robot.

The ABB robot 3D prints luxury goods at Selfridges Supermarket at The Corner Shop. Image courtesy of Selfridges.

Now that the Corner Shop has been transformed into an exhibition space, visitors can watch 3D printing in action and much more. But the display will be followed by a series of exclusive innovations, like a first-of-its-kind fragrance that uses repurposed atmospheric carbon and Redefine Meat's range of plant-based meat powered by 3D-printing technology, which will be available at Selfridges restaurants and printed on-site.

Hinting at future possibilities with 3D printing, the store is really pushing the limit of what is possible to create with the technology at the point of consumption. But, even more so, SUPERMARKET fulfills the requirements of sustainable manufacturing and is one of the most creative ideas of 2022 so far.

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3DPOD Episode 101: 3D Printing Conductive Inks with Brett Walker, CEO of Electoninks

Posted: 13 Apr 2022 05:00 AM PDT

CEO of Electroninks Brett Walker shares a roller coaster of an entrepreneur story on the 3DPOD. His company made it big early on. However, disappointment set in early. Yet, the company managed to build itself a new foundation. We talk to Brett about 3D printed inks, conductive ink, and the elusive 3D printing of circuits. We also discuss Electoninks´ Kickstarter and their development as a firm. Great episode especially if you´d like to delve into 3D printed electronics and circuits.

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3D Printing Media Network – The Pulse of the AM Industry

April 13, 2022  No comments

3D Printing Media Network – The Pulse of the AM Industry

Siemens CATCH center opens to accelerate AM industrialization

Posted: 13 Apr 2022 10:00 AM PDT

It’s a good thing many giant international groups like Siemens have been opening hubs to accelerate the industrialization of AM, because the rate of industrial adoption is still too slow …

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Lockheed Martin Space adopts Velo3D AM solution

Posted: 13 Apr 2022 06:31 AM PDT

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) revealed that its Lockheed Martin's Space division is now using Velo3D's end-to-end additive manufacturing solution for its Additive Design & Manufacturing Center, which pilots new additive …

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Politecnico di Milano 3D scans Holy Sepulchre for restoration project

Posted: 13 Apr 2022 04:54 AM PDT

The Politecnico di Milano, one of the leading technological universities in the World, is taking part in the Restoration of the Floor of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by …

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Cemented carbide 3D printing introduced by Sandvik

Posted: 13 Apr 2022 04:14 AM PDT

Sandvik continues to expand their additive offering by introducing 3D printed cemented carbide – with superior wear-resistant properties. This is enabled by a unique powder, crafted through a patented process …

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Solaris is upcycling ocean plastic waste into 3D printing filament

Posted: 13 Apr 2022 03:43 AM PDT

The Sweden-based Solaris Community is on a mission to renovate the product development system. From upcycling different sources of waste and producing premium recycled materials to developing and manufacturing sustainable …

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Schunk and AIM3D to cooperate on copper 3D printing via CEM extrusion

Posted: 13 Apr 2022 01:00 AM PDT

The materials specialist company, Schunk – through its partnership with AIM3D – looks to grow as a service provider for metal 3D printing with a particular focus on copper. As …

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Formlabs introduces new BioMed Black Resin and BioMed White Resin

Posted: 13 Apr 2022 12:07 AM PDT

Formlabs introduced the new BioMed Black Resin and BioMed White Resin, two highly opaque medical-grade materials targeted for use in biocompatible applications. After years of research and feedback from customers, …

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Project DIAMOnD to 3D print tourniquets for Ukraine

Posted: 12 Apr 2022 02:41 AM PDT

A 3D printing network in Michigan is rushing to aid Ukrainians during wartime by printing parts for tourniquets. The humanitarian effort is being led locally by Automation Alley's Project DIAMOnD, …

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Prototal UK joins Roboze Distributed Manufacturing Network

Posted: 12 Apr 2022 01:52 AM PDT

Polymer 3D printing service provider Prototal UK and extrusion 3D printer manufacturer Roboze have joined forces to accelerate the uptake of high-performance polymers in additive manufacturing whilst also looking to …

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fi’zi:k launches Argo Adaptive, an all-new, Carbon DLS 3D printed saddle

Posted: 11 Apr 2022 03:02 PM PDT

Bicycle accessories manufacturer fi'zi:k has introduced Argo Adaptive, an all-new 3D printed saddle that will be presented exclusively at the Sea Otter Classic between 07-10 April 2022. Utilizing Carbon DLS …

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

April 13, 2022  No comments

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

Ford Uses 3D Printing to Restore Michigan Central Station

Posted: 12 Apr 2022 06:30 AM PDT

Whereas concrete 3D printing is making all of the headlines, there are more uses for 3D printing in construction that are underexposed. One that has vexed me for a few years is the uses of 3D printing in restoration. I’ve heard of a number of projects where 3D printing has been used to restore buildings, details, windowsills and much more. Usually, such projects avoid the limelight.

Now, Ford is showcasing an additive restoration project that will hopefully inspire others. The team is working on renovating Michigan Central Station for the “Michigan Central mobility innovation district.” The 100-year-old former train depot is in the painstaking process of being rehabilitated to serve as a hub for entrepreneurs, startups, and Ford's mobility team to create urban transportation solutions.

Previously, the company has used additive to make a steam injector for its Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and other parts to restore the Fairlane Estate. For the Michigan Central project, the team had to restore some highly detailed window elements and tiles. Remaining tiles and other existing elements were 3D scanned before the CAD files were cleaned up and repaired. In some cases, the team used different scans of different examples of the same tile to reconstruct a whole piece. These were then 3D printed at Ford's Advanced Manufacturing Center in Redford Township.

"Ford could have decided to just modernize Michigan Central Station, but they're taking great efforts to make sure this thing really reflects the way this building looked and felt inside and outside," said Ford´s additive manufacturing technical leader for manufacturing, Harold Sears.

In total, the team 3D printed hundreds of components including 550 parts for flower rosettes. The 3D scanning took months, while the 3D printing took three weeks.

"This is not just a research and advanced engineering project – this is a collaborative project. We made these parts in-house. Ford made these parts. Part of our drive as a company is to bring new technologies into production applications when they're ready, and to always be innovating to find a better, more sustainable, safer way to bring things to fruition,” said Ford research and advanced engineering’s Bob Bedard.

You may now think that this is just a small, cute project for the automotive giant. However, this is an application with huge potential across many countries. Many buildings have original architectural details that restorers, construction firms, governments, and developers want to maintain.

Often, these are made from wrought iron or plastered by hand. Sometimes, this is done with such skill that we’d be hard pressed to replicate. Other times, it has been done in such a time-consuming way that it would be cost prohibitive to replicate. Sometimes, we simply cannot understand the artisanship involved and cannot copy these pieces. In turn, 3D printing and 3D scanning may be the only way to cost-effectively replicate these details. And this is being done in a limited way the world over, but they’re not necessarily talking about it. This is a market and a need that is quite simply unmet by industry.

Look at this project and how immense it is and then think that a few hundred 3D prints could replicate these unique details. A lot of them could be made on rather quotidian SLA and FDM 3D printers and then painted, resulting in a very low cost per part. The scanning here is the real stickler.

In this case, months of continuous scanning would have probably doomed this project from the start. But, in many cases, 3D printing plus scanning is a low-cost, cost effective and very fast solution to building restoration. With architectural details specifically, the business case is very good because parts are relatively small. Even 3D printing even much bigger elements could cheap with stunning results. This includes gargoyles, architectural sculpture, bas reliefs, façade elements, monumental wood parts, statues. (non-load bearing) arches, hand rails, railings, grilles, plaster work and more.

Because parts will be painted over, a lot of the issues with rough surfaces are non existent. And costs melt away in the face of labor hours to do the same thing some other way. This is a potentially very exciting area for 3D printing that is sadly unexplored and not discussed enough.

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New Biocompatible 3D Printing Resins Released by Formlabs

Posted: 12 Apr 2022 06:00 AM PDT

Formlabs now has BioMed White Resin and BioMed Black Resin for its SLA printers. The two new materials are biocompatible and are squarely aimed at the surgical planning and medical device market.

These resins complement existing resins such as BioMed Clear and BioMed Amber and are USP Class VI certified. This means that they have been found not to have long-lasting effects on the body in terms of toxicity, skin reactions, and short-term use in and around the body.

Formlabs BioMed White is used for printing healthcare models

Formlabs BioMed White is used for printing healthcare models. Image courtesy of Formlabs.

Commenting on the resins, Formlabs Director, Medical Market Development, Gaurav Manchanda, said:

"3D printing is a critical technology for advancing precision healthcare. Formlabs enables providers and medical facilities to improve care with patient-specific models, surgical guides, custom medical devices, and more with a variety of resins and materials that are safe for patient use. By expanding this library with the new BioMed Black and White resins, providers, medical device manufacturers, and other facilities can advance innovation and adoption of 3D printing to benefit patients.”

Resins have always been problematic. First, many 3D printing resins are skin irritants or have photoinitiators in them that irritate the skin. Some resins cause long-term contact allergies and may be much more harmful if the part is touched in its liquid state. Finally, some resins are very toxic indeed. So this is a hopeful development but also a commercially interesting one.

It used to be that any company that developed a biocompatible resin would have a high chance of being acquired by 3D Systems. Now Formlabs is heating the competition in SLA by going industry-specific and upmarket. Its Pro printers are already used by a lot of designers to do things like making jewelry castings. But, the company also has an expanding dental printer and resin portfolio. This in and of itself carters to a vast market.

We are reaching a tipping point where a great many dentists and dental labs are thinking of going digital and buying 3D printers, obtaining integrated software-material-printer solutions, or working with services. Of all the markets we serve, thinking about 3D printing is the most advanced in the everyday practitioner in dental. Dentists, dental labs, and orthodontists are all thinking about going digital. Millions of molds, temporary inserts, and metal bridges have been made to date.

Formlabs BioMed White used for printing healthcare models.

Formlabs BioMed White is used for printing healthcare models. Image courtesy of Formlabs.

The offerings for dental are expanding, with companies such as 3D3 and Sprintray developing whole portfolios of dental solutions to compete with EnvisionTEC, Asiga, and DWS. Your doctor, on the other hand, is blissfully unaware of 3D printing. We’ve seen 3D printing labs in hospitals grow from a handful to over 150 worldwide over the last few years. But, there are currently no complete offerings for them to integrate all the necessary software, materials, and printers. Apart from 3D Systems’ Kumovis, there are precious few printers designed with your doctor or hospital in mind. If we just look at things like surgical guides and models for surgical planning, the market is considerable and expanding.

But no one is really tackling it. Formlabs has always had a very top-down controlled vision of its 3D printers, materials, and peripherals. An Apple style focus on excellence and control meant that the company has a path for its users which is restrictive and well laid out. This means that Formlabs 3D printers are still the easiest to use today. But, the insane growth in materials and players that we’ve seen in the chaotic and open material extrusion market is absent in SLA. Only now do we find newer SLA printer companies emerging at scale.

Due to its closed but well-working ecosystem, Formlabs can parley its current offerings relatively easily to industry-specific solutions. It seems that as it has done in dental, it now wants to expand into more healthcare applications. It already has the $12,000 3BL, which can be great for dental and medical, specifically the Form B+ for dental. These machines could be used much more widely in hospitals and doctors’ offices than they are today. Due to safety concerns, most hospitals currently use Material Extrusion 3D printers. But, highly accurate SLA prints would be excellent for surgical planning models and medical models for students and doctors to learn from. Indeed one could make very precise and relatively cheap rare pathology-specific medical models quite easily with the existing Formlabs printers.

With these new resin materials, Formlabs is betting on this market growth. And it also wishes to perhaps open a market in medical device prototyping and possibly in implantable surgical guides in the long run. So this would be a very high-value thing for them to do.

The post New Biocompatible 3D Printing Resins Released by Formlabs appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Wind Turbine Giant Manages Supply Chain Markforged 3D Printing

Posted: 12 Apr 2022 05:30 AM PDT

New wind power installations in the U.S. decreased in 2021 as compared to 2020: nevertheless, the U.S. is still aiming for 20% of its electricity to be wind-powered by 2030. Meanwhile, China set a record for increased wind capacity in 2021. In fact, China's wind power installations grew last year by an amount greater than the number of such installations achieved by any other country in the last five years.

In the European market, the conflict in Ukraine has strongly reinforced the collective desire to transition away from fossil fuels. Of course, this has done little to curb the E.U.'s short-term demand for oil and gas. However, internationally, the long-term picture still signals an ever-growing need across the continent (and around the globe) for significantly boosting the supply of all components involved in wind-generated electricity. And the world's largest producer of wind turbines — the Danish firm Vestas — is using additive manufacturing (AM) to address the supply shortages that have plagued the wind industry since the beginning of the pandemic.

As it manages operations that span the entire planet (including over fifteen manufacturing plants), Vestas has seen firsthand how the last two years of supply chain disruptions can affect a business. Fortunately, in 2021, Vestas rolled out its direct digital manufacturing (DDM) program, powered by its utilization of a variety of Markforged products: the X7 and Onyx One 3D printers, the Eiger cloud-based digital repository, and the Blacksmith software system — collectively, referred to by Markforged as The Digital Forge platform.

Blacksmith digital part inspection verifies printed accuracy of the TC marking tool.

Vestas provides an ideal example of what it looks like, and what it means, to implement a digital supply chain for the renewable energy and additive manufacturing (AM) sectors alike. As Vestas' principal engineer for AM and advanced concepts, Jeremy Haight, puts it, "Our approach is end-to-end. We provide the physical article in near real-time to a variety of places. It's the closest thing to teleportation I think you can get."

Vestas TC marking tool used to mark the root end of turbine blades to align pitch during installation.

Although Vestas has already stored over 2000 parts in the Eiger digital repository, two components that the company has highlighted as particular DDM success stories include top center (TC) marking tools, and lightning tip receptors. TC marking tools are used to make sure that turbine blades' root ends are properly aligned. Using traditional manufacturing methods, these tools were originally made from metal only, and took up to five weeks to produce. Now, since Vestas is able to print the TC marking tools on-site, using Markforged's nylon-based Onyx material, the production process only takes a few days, there's no shipping time to take into consideration, and the end-result is 85% lighter.

Composite prototype of lightning tip receptor for wind turbine blades to reduce lightning strike damage.

Conventional methods for producing lightning tip receptors, which are used to reduce the damage to wind turbines caused by lightning, take at least 12 weeks. Moreover, traditionally manufactured lightning tip receptors are made from aluminum — the material affected by supply chain issues perhaps more so than any other in the last two years. The same component produced using AM, on the other hand, is made from copper, and can be finished in just two days. And again, as with the TC marking tools, one of the greatest advantages of using AM is the ability to produce the lightning tip receptors exactly where they're needed.

To sum up, Vestas is an instructive example for any other company looking to use AM to create a digital supply chain for two main reasons. For one thing, it's the leading manufacturer in one of the industries most detrimentally affected in the short-term by pandemic-related supply chain issues. For another, it's in an industry that, equally, can help positively affect global supply chain issues in the long run, simply by aiding in humanity's (very) gradual transition away from total dependence on fossil fuels.

Images courtesy of Markforged and Vestas

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Siemens Advanta to Optimize Morf3D’s Long Beach 3D Printing Facility

Posted: 12 Apr 2022 05:00 AM PDT

Morf3D continues to push towards a digital future that is fully integrated and automated. The El Segundo-based company, best known for creating aerospace components via additive manufacturing, continues to add fresh layers to its new headquarters, the Applied Digital Manufacturing Center (ADMC) in Long Beach, California. In the last year, the company has partnered with pioneering 3D printing companies like SLM Solutions and EOS to equip the facility and help drive the industrialization of digital manufacturing in high-growth markets.

According to the latest announcement, Morf3D has partnered with Siemens Advanta, the IoT consultancy and solutions integration arm of the global technology powerhouse, to develop a scale-up plan and bottleneck analysis, as well as explore novel manufacturing and logistic concepts for the Long Beach center.

The two entities have committed to an ongoing technology development partnership as Morf3D continues to build its new Applied Digital Manufacturing Center in Long Beach. There, the two partners will validate material flow and space demand based on a digital twin in production, an enhanced computer model that acts as a digital representation and uses inputs from a real-world component.

“Siemens Advanta is proud to contribute to the forward-thinking innovation that is transforming the additive manufacturing industry,” said Rani Shea, CEO of Siemens Advanta, North America. “In working with Morf3D and its new ADMC, we look forward to helping optimize additive manufacturing capabilities for the aerospace industry.”

Creating value for AM

Morf3D's ADMC is a new 90,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility that harnesses applied research, advanced engineering and application development, serial production, and most significantly, new industry partnerships with global leaders to drive the industrialization of digital manufacturing in high-growth markets.

As part of Siemens Advanta's inaugural project, the consultancy will leverage advanced design and simulation software from Siemens Digital Industries. Furthermore, Siemens Advanta's work at the new ADMC will transition into additional ongoing software innovations and on-site personnel support.

“We are constantly thinking about how to further our industry, and this partnership with Siemens Advanta gives us a great sense of optimism for the future,” revealed Ivan Madera, CEO of Morf3D. “Morf3D is experiencing growth at a rapid rate. We wanted to make sure that our factory was flexible and that we had a team able to understand the challenges that we might face, not just today, but in the future too.”

The company claims its investment in the new California facility underscores its commitment to developing a strong industrial base that improves the quality of its products, enhances technical capabilities, and enriches customer applications worldwide. The center is projected to be one of the largest aerospace 3D printing solution integrators in the US. Even more so, at its peak, the center will be home to 150 multi-discipline engineers, research staff, and technical teams.

Morf3D facilities.

Morf3D facilities. Image courtesy of Morf3D.

Since being founded in 2015, the startup has supplied highly complex 3D printed customized parts for flight to aerospace, defense, and space companies. Many of its products have landed on the Moon, orbited Earth, and helped strengthen applications for customers. This is because Morf3D serves the world's largest aerospace original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, and Collins Aerospace.

Notably, the startup has maintained a close relationship with one of its main clients, Boeing, producing 3D printed titanium and aluminum components for its satellites and helicopters. The commercial jetliner manufacturer even funded Morf3D on two occasions, once in April 2018 and again in August 2019, through its venture capital arm,  HorizonX Ventures, which identifies late seed through mid-growth stage startup opportunities for investment.

At the new location, Morf3D will be close to some major players in the up-and-coming space industry, like Virgin Orbit and Relativity Space. This closeness could help set the stage to dramatically enhance industry collaboration to further advance and accelerate AM production in the space industry.

In a social media post, Madera pointed out that the ADMC will "bring forth the worlds leading technology companies under one roof to create a fully integrated closed-loop production system. These developments will radically shape how we ultimately industrialize and scale AM (…) This isn't about more capacity or capability, the ADMC's mission is to solve the problem by addressing the entire value chain."

One of the company's main goals has been to create, build, and optimize its additive manufacturing facility, and so far, it has been doing just that. Eventually, the digital planning for the Long Beach factory will evolve into an ongoing technology development partnership between Morf3D and Siemens Advanta, suggest the two. Notably, they plan to help customers unlock their digital futures by offering end-to-end support for the creation of unique parts.

The post Siemens Advanta to Optimize Morf3D’s Long Beach 3D Printing Facility appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Binder Jet 3D Printing a New Nuclear Future with Silicon Carbide

Posted: 12 Apr 2022 04:30 AM PDT

Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind will, and should, continue to grow, but conventional wisdom in energy circles identifies nuclear power as one of the most reliable, portable, and green baseload energy sources to support a comprehensive modern energy grid. The negative perception of high-profile accidents such as Three Mile Island and Fukushima highlight outdated nuclear technology when advanced materials and their methods of manufacture weren't available.

Organizations like Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC) use advanced manufacturing to make safe, controlled, and reliable nuclear energy a reality. Binder jet 3D printing plays a fundamental role in USNC's innovative fuel design that allows the company to control nuclear fission and prevent accidents altogether.

The key to their approach is Fully Ceramic Micro-encapsulated (FCM) fuel, the manufacturing of which is enabled by Desktop Metal innovative X-Series binder jet systems and their ability to 3D print heat-resistant ceramic particles in unique geometries that can safely surround a standard type of nuclear fuel particle known for its safety.

Today, USNC is using the novel approach to fuel its extremely reliable and safe micro modular reactor (MMR™) energy systems. Application of Desktop Metal binder jet 3D printers facilitates a key step in manufacturing of USNC's fuel, which is vital to executing the organization's underlying innovation.

Traditionally, nuclear fuel microspheres are put into a soft graphitic matrix. However, these were not structurally strong and served as a poor barrier to radionuclide release.

USNC's answer was to replace this graphitic matrix with a refractory ceramic: silicon carbide (SiC). SiC is a technical ceramic material with extreme environmental stability that is often used in aerospace, armor, plasma shield, and high-temperature applications. The conditions within a nuclear reactor are some of the harshest in all of industry, yet SiC doesn't shrink or excessively swell like the traditional graphitic matrix and has a very high resistance to oxidation and corrosion, offering unique stability under all the demanding conditions of the nuclear reactor core.

"Through exploiting fundamental laws of nature, we've created a design for a passively safe reactor, so you don't need a concrete dome, exclusion zone, or big water reservoir because it's inherently safe," Terrani said, explaining the idea behind USNC's approach. We're leveraging a high-temperature resistant fuel with multiple inherent barriers to radiation release at the center of our reactor system. That is the essence of the Ultra Safe Nuclear approach."

The 3D printed SiC fuel forms may have complex geometries that act as shells for the nuclear fuel particles. Silicon carbide will often be infiltrated with silicon or other matrices for densification; however, this is not an option in a nuclear environment. "Radiation will affect one material one way and another differently, so material uniformity and homogeneity is key," Terrani said.

By marrying binder jetting with chemical vapor infiltration to fill the porous SiC structure with more high-purity crystalline silicon carbide, USNC is able to realize highly complex, near-net shapes without the need to sinter the SiC material, apply any pressure, or introduce secondary phases.

"There was a whole host of additive manufacturing methods out there, but a large portion of those rely on a high-temperature process during deposition," Terrani explained. "With metals they're melting the particles to connect them together, but you can't do that with the high melting point of silicon carbide. Binder jet technology is unique because it really relies on the physical characteristics of the powder, and it's essentially highly agnostic to the chemical and phase structure of the material. So, we can select highly pure, highly crystalline carbide feedstock powder, nuclear grade powder, and then form these really complex geometries, and that just wasn't previously possible."

Binder jet 3D printing directly from digital design files without the need for tooling allows the USNC team to iterate their designs quickly and create unique shapes not otherwise manufacturable. Beyond performance, the ability to create unique designs en masse with 3D printing allows USNC to add an additional layer of quality assurance to its mission of safe, responsible nuclear energy.

"We print an ID on these parts, so from the moment of birth we track the reactors' manufacturing DNA throughout production, operational lifetime, and upon their discharge," Terrani said. "Binder jetting allows us to create a new paradigm of safe, reliable, carbon-free nuclear energy for use by industry and remote communities."

Download the complete case study to learn how USNC 3D prints technical ceramics to create safe nuclear fuel cells with Desktop Metal X-Series binder jet machines:

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