TCT EU 27.6 by TCT Magazine

DESIGN-TO-MANUFACTURING INNOVATION

MAG EUROPE EDITION VOLUME 27 ISSUE 6

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INDUSTRIAL AM: THE FUTURE IS NOW ADDITIVE INDUSTRIES RUN US THROUGH THE COMPANY’S HISTORY AND VISION FOR THE FUTURE DEntal

How 3D printing became the dental industry’s secret weapon

moulding & Tooling

3D printing’s hidden application

formnext

A look at this year’s exhibitors and conference line-up

Hirtenberger. Ingenuity. Engineered

HIRTISATIONÂŽ

FULLY AUTOMATED POST-PROCESSING OF 3D-PRINTED METAL PARTS

No mechanical processing steps involved

Removal of powder cake

Reaching deeply into cavities and geometric undercuts

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Combination of electrochemical pulse methods, hydro-

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edge sharpness

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MEET US @ FORMNEXT 2019 BOOTH 11.0 - E11

VOLUME 27 ISSUE 6 ISSN 1751-0333

EDITORIAL

MANAGEMENT

Daniel O’Connor e: daniel.oconnor@rapidnews.com t: + 44 1244 952 398

Duncan Wood

HEAD OF CONTENT

DEPUTY GROUP EDITOR

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from the editor

FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE

DANIEL O'CONNOR HEAD OF CONTENT

Having just chalked off my sixth TCT Show, I’m writing this en-route to my first, in fact the first, TCT Shenzhen. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be spending a sixth November in Frankfurt for Euromold/Formnext and sandwiched in between is both my Honeymoon in New York and a trip to the RAPID + TCT 2020 strategy day in Chicago. Needless to say, I’m not too popular at home.

Amongst this glut of trade show travel, it’s difficult to not only write a magazine, but also to take stock and assess all that you’ve seen in the world of additive manufacturing. Fortunately, I have an exceptional team of writers here at TCT. Laura, Sam and Sandra help to keep my finger on the pulse; their interviews from and for TCT Show and Formnext in this issue are easy to digest and insightful. On that note, I’d like to share something of a frustration with you, dear reader. Not the usual frustration with the mainstream media coverage of additive or even a frustration with my terrible football side. No, this is a frustration with the world of publishing and in particular print publishing. We’re just closing off our 27th volume of this magazine, we’ve been around the block, and in the age of bot-led news aggregation, running a full-time editorial team on a fully audited print publication that is supported solely by advertising is bold. But if there’s one thing I need to stress it’s that anything with mine, Laura’s, Sam’s or Sandra’s name on is not sold content. We have full rein of the editorial content and a good delineation between church and state. In this particular issue, there are two pieces of sold content; the first is the cover story - it’s a legacy practice common in trade publications - and the second is halfway through and has “Advertorial” written on the top. Now, we as the editorial team do take a look at that content to ensure that there’s nothing inflammatory or plain wrong in the text, and we occasionally offer guidance to the advertisers but ultimately, it’s their decision, just like the advertisement pages. As we close this year out, what I’d like from you is to pass me some honest, constructive feedback on our editorial content. Perhaps you’d like to see more though the doors style content, more technical content, more case studies? I’d love to know what you think, send feedback to daniel.oconnor@rapidnews.com

27.6 / www.tctmagazine.com / 05

VOLUME 27 ISSUE 6

COVER STORY

8. INDUSTRIAL AM: THE FUTURE IS NOW

Additive Industries runs us through the company’s history and vision for the future.

DENTAL

13. ALIGNER START-UPS SHOW THEIR TEETH

Assistant Editor Sam Davies speaks to Smilelove and SmileDirectClub about scaling up aligner manufacture with a secret weapon: 3D printing.

17. CERAMIC 3D PRINTING

Isabel Potestio, Business Developer at Lithoz GmbH, discusses the benefits of ceramics over metals in digital dentistry.

Moulding & Tooling

25. FORTIFYING INJECTION MOULD TOOLS

A look at Fortify’s fibre-reinforced digital tooling.

27. EGGSHELL MOULDING: 3D PRINTING’S HIDDEN APPLICATION

How 3D Systems Figure 4 technology is ramping up this sacrificial moulding technique.

31. ONE SHOT STORY

Sam speaks to AddiFabb about how its Freeform Injection Moulding technology is aiming to fill the gap between prototyping and production.

35. WHAT IS WASHOUT TOOLING? Deputy Group Editor Laura Griffiths speaks to ExOne about its watersoluble tooling for composites.

19. NEWS

A round-up of the biggest news stories from this issue’s focus: dental.

IP & Finance

21. TCT SHENZHEN

39. INDUSTRY SHIPMENTS REPORT

Head of Content Daniel O’Connor reports back from the show floor at the inaugural TCT Shenzhen.

Context’s VP of Global Analysis and Research Chris Connery presents the latest findings on the 3D printing market.

41. GREY MATTERS

Jason Teng at Potter Clarkson discusses the grey areas around IP rights, infringement and enforceability in 3D printing.

TCT Show 43. NEWS, REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS

The team reports back from TCT Show with interviews from EOS, MakerBot, Anisoprint and more.

65. THE AM UK NATIONAL STRATEGY TWO YEARS ON

An extract from a panel session with some of the key players involved in the original AM UK steering groups.

TCT Awards

72. AND THE WINNERS ARE …

Find out who took home a coveted TCT Award at this year’s ceremony.

79. ADDITIVE COMMITMENT

Dan takes a tour of GE Additive’s new 40,000 square-metre facility in Lichtenfels, Germany.

FORMNEXT

83. TCT CONFERENCE @ FORMNEXT PREVIEW TCT Conference Producer Magda Brzegowy presents her session highlights at the upcoming Frankfurt conference.

87. 3D PRINTING AT SCHUBERT

TCT Germany Assistant Editor Sandra Tschackert explores how the packaging machine manufacturer is leveraging 3D printing.

89. WHAT’S NEW AT FORMNEXT 2019?

A guide to the latest AM technologies and updates you can expect to see on the show floor.

102. WHAT IS INDUSTRIAL-GRADE?

Todd Grimm asks how do we define what makes an industrial AM technology.

INDUSTRIAL AM THE FUTURE IS N ADDITIVE INDUSTRIES RUN US THROUGH THE COMPANY’S HISTORY AND VISION FOR THE FUTURE

n 2012, when Daan Kersten and Jonas Wintermans decided to branch out into the AM market with their own 3D metal printing company, the business partners made a promise to one another. The duo saw an undeniable opportunity to industrialise additive manufacturing and they both agreed, rather than sitting back with a wait-and-see style, they were going to be hands-on and take an active approach by tackling obstacles head-on. Their new enterprise: Additive Industries At its inception, Additive Industries was designed to be different to other AM companies. Instead of heading straight to the drawing board to immediately design its own 3D metal printer, Kersten, Wintermans and Mark Vaes - the first to join as Additive Industries’ CTO - opted for an entirely different approach. They were going to take their business on a world tour to speak directly to potential customers in an effort to find out what users thought of existing machines and what exactly the market wanted.

PRODUCTIVITY IS KEY

The results from their face-to-face interactions with customers around the globe yielded an unexpected result, as there was a great deal of consensus among users looking to push the technology forward: productivity was key. Up to this point, additive technologies were mostly utilised in the prototyping realm, where price is not a huge factor. However, to enter the

4 RIGHT:

SERIES PRODUCTION HELICOPTER PARTS

08 / www.tctmagazine.com / 27.6

stage of industrialisation and series production, cost reduction is essential and the best way to achieve this is through higher volume production, increasing yield by improving reproducibility and by reducing the number of operator hours it takes to run the complex printers. Committed to ushering in the future of digital-based AM fabrication, the Eindhoven-based technology company took the customer feedback with them to the drawing board during the design process of the MetalFAB1 – its first commercially available industrial 3D metal printer. Aimed at delivering the most productive machine of its kind, the company went against the grain of the competition and opted for some very distinct design choices. The MetalFAB1 has many unique features. For example, the machine has auto-calibration capabilities, which are essential to reproducibility and a key differentiator between building one-off prototypes and series of identical parts. Additionally, its build size is the largest symmetrical volume commercially available. Additive Industries was the first to apply four lasers simultaneously to build parts in this large volume. Additionally, only the MetalFAB1 has an in-house developed dynamic laser assignment software to guide its system of four lasers to work in tandem, with each individual laser capable of covering the full field of the build plate. A stark contrast to the few competing multi-laser systems where each laser is assigned a specific zone with minimal overlap. When these lasers are used to build large products, each laser works in its independent area and then the product is stitched together after the fact.

COVER STORY

SHOWN: ADDITIVE INDUSTRIES HQ EINDHOVEN

The base MetalFAB1 is a relatively simple, single chamber printer. However, with an eye to scalability for its diverse set of customers, Additive Industries developed a system of modules (i.e. additional printing, storage, and exchange post processing modules, like a stress release heat treatment furnace) that could be added to offer enhanced production capabilities and efficiency. For instance, by adding a second printing chamber, clients can print with one material in the first chamber and then, after it’s completed, automatically shift the optics to the second chamber to print with almost no downtime, because the melting laser beams can continue to run. All process steps that don’t add value, are done in parallel, reducing the total cost. Moreover, the different print jobs can be done using a different material - a feat that, due to the risk of cross contamination, would have normally required an entire second printer or a labor-intensive and time-consuming cleaning of the single chamber before starting on the next project – which offers big savings in cost and time. Additionally, Additive Industries has worked to accelerate industrial AM through its development of machine automation aimed at drastically reducing the overhead of costly machine operator hours, roughly from 20 to 2% in one distinct business case, and cutting down on the time spent for material handling. With the addition of storage and exchange modules, customers are now able to utilise a robot to physically move and store the finished materials, keeping the production line moving, further boosting efficiency and creating the opportunity to run the system

SHOWN: ADDITIVE INDUSTRIES TEAM

CREDIT: COVER IMAGE | JOOST DUPPEN

M: NOW

MODULAR THINKING

in a 24/7 lights out manufacturing mode. By offering modular upgrades to the base system, it’s now possible for customers to scale the system to fit their development phase. From prototyping to process development to series production, the MetalFAB1 can grow in line with the maturity and volume required by the end user.

MORE THAN JUST EQUIPMENT

You don’t become the most productive metal 3D printing machine by simply designing and delivering equipment to a customer. It takes a team of support engineers, working in close proximity to the user to deliver on their specific needs. At Additive Industries, this meant that building the Process and Application Development team was just as important as developing the best 3D printer. And through its customer lifecycle support team , the 3D printer company looks to provide personalised customer service to each of its clients around the world. It’s more than just buying equipment, it’s about matching next-gen capabilities with the specific desires of the market – a crucial step in the industrialisation of AM technologies.4

27.6 / www.tctmagazine.com / 09

COVER STORY

“IT’S MORE THAN JUST BUYING EQUIPMENT, IT’S ABOUT MATCHING NEXT-GEN CAPABILITIES WITH THE SPECIFIC DESIRES OF THE MARKET” Of course, to claim to have built the most productive printer is easy to say, but the market is always looking for results. That is why Additive Industries has commissioned an independent benchmark study to compare its MetalFAB1 with other leading printers on the market. While Additive Industries’ modular design offers the potential for a whole host of solutions for enhanced productivity and efficiency, the aim of the benchmark was to give an apples-toapples comparison with market competitors. For that reason, the study was designed to focus expressly on machine availability, printing capacity and quality with which products were printed. Would you like to see the results of the benchmark study? Be sure to look for Additive Industries at Hall 11.0 booth E31 at the Formnext exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany where the scores will be presented.

SHOWN: DOUGH KNIFE

THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING

A collaborative project between Additive Industries and partner Kaak – the world-renowned baking equipment manufacturer – scooped this year’s TCT Award for Industrial Applications. The “Industrial Robot Dough Cutting Knife” is a topologically optimised, additevly manufactured part that is in use cutting 8,000 dough pieces per hour. In 2016 the Kaak Group set up the K3D team to focus on how additive manufacturing could impact Kaak’s industrial equipment. The group has printed in excess of 35,000 parts on its Additive Industries machines and is at the forefront of proving that this technology is not a future technology but one for here and now. The knife project came about when assessing a part that was a constant pain point due to its many manufacturing steps. The new part, printed on a MetalFAB1, offers a 90% weight-saving thanks to a part consolidation from 20 parts to one. Both the lead time and production price offered a 60% reduction in comparison to its traditional counterpart. The industrial dough cutting knife is used in the food industry. Therefore the material should be non-corrosive, allowed in the food industry and needs to be cleaned easily and be resistant to many different types of chemicals. Stainless steel 316L (1.4404) is the ideal material for this application and fulfils all the requirements. The project was a runaway winner in its category with judges impressed by a relatively unsung use case in the realworld application of additive manufacturing. One judge commented: “This is a classic case of somebody thinking about 3D printing this blade and then just keep going and going to leverage as many advantages offered by the technology as possible thus solving multiple problems with the same part. This is great example of using an AM for what it is truly good at.”

SHOWN: METALFAB1: THE ONLY 4 LASER MODULAR 3D METAL PRINTING SYSTEM THAT CAN BE EXPANDED TO FOLLOW GROWING DEMAND

27.6 / www.tctmagazine.com / 011

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ALIGNER STARTUPS SHOW THEIR TEETH S

omeone may try to manufacture clear aligners, but we believe that would be similar to the technology that we had 10+ years ago.” Align Technology’s VP of Product Innovation Srini Kaza gave this response 12 months ago in reference to the increased possibility of competition in the clear aligner market, where his company’s Invisalign brand has dominated since the late 1990s, after the company’s early patents began to expire. It has seen companies like SmileDirectClub and Smilelove emerge to challenge Align’s stranglehold, but as of October 2018, Kaza found confidence in the hundreds of still active patents, its ‘substantial experience curve’, and the fact it is churning out 320,000 aligners per day. A lot can happen in 12 months, however, and a lot more is known about some of its new competitors, not least the aforementioned two. Smilelove was recently named the first public direct-to-consumer partner of Voodoo Clear Aligners, a branch of New York-based service provider Voodoo Manufacturing. Voodoo Clear Aligners has a growing fleet of Formlabs Form 2 machines which operate inside an automated factory to produce customised aligner moulds. Conversations between the two companies began at the turn of the year, with discussions becoming more serious at the start of summer when Voodoo received FDA clearance and proved its capacity to turnaround moulds within five days. This approach, the use of a service provider to print aligner moulds, has been harnessed

SHOWN:

ALIGNER BEING LASER MARKED INSIDE VOODOO’S NEW YORK FACILITY

by Smilelove since the company was founded in 2017. It is a method also attempted by Align in its early years, but the idea was ditched because the company reckoned it could get a better grasp of quality control by managing the manufacturing operations independently and all under one roof. Smilelove, though, recognises the infrastructure and expertise required to undertake those operations. “We have been relentless in our efforts to partner with world-class 3D printing manufacturers to make sure that we provide our customers with the highest quality clear aligners on the market,” Smilelove co-founder Spencer Grider told TCT. “We leverage those companies which are manufacturingfirst to do what they do best [and] manufacture high-quality moulds and aligners.” With 21 Form 2 machines in place at the time of Voodoo Clear Aligners’ launch in September, the company can output 20,000 aligners a month to serve 700 patients and plans to reach 80,000 to serve 2,800 patients by the end of the year. There are also plans to step up to the Form 3 model which, during trials, has produced lower failure and higher repeatability rates. The company manages between 12-16 moulds per build – this will be about the same on the Form 3 – which are washed and cured before a sheet of

SHOWN:

VOODOO CLEAR ALIGNERS’ FLEET OF FORMLABS FORM 2 MACHINES

plastic, developed by ZenduraDental, is thermoformed over each printed part. A six-axis robotic arm will trim away excess material – a task believed to have only been automated by four companies around the world – before aligners are polished, sorted and shipped. This all takes place under the supervision of Voodoo Clear Aligners. “We chose a manufacturer who was able to provide a few things: a wealth of experience in 3D printing; the ability to produce a truly better aligner at a better cost which we then pass onto our customers; and the capacity to meet our rapidly growing demand while cutting our manufacturing time almost in half,” Grider said. “Because [Voodoo] is able to meet these standards using the Formlabs Form 2/3 systems, we are happy with them. We’d love to max out Voodoo’s production capacity and scale in tandem.” Chief among the company’s ‘lofty’ goals is optimising the supply chain to deliver treatment plans within 4-5 weeks, rather than the 6-8 weeks patients currently have to wait. Along with the free post-treatment retainers and teeth whitening kits each patient receives, reducing the wait time to start treatment cycles is a key aspect of what Smilelove aims to offer the 4

27.6 / www.tctmagazine.com / 013

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DENTAL

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DEPOWDERING ALIGNER MOULDS PRINTED WITH HP’S MULTI JET FUSION TECHNOLOGY

millions of people who could benefit from affordable orthodontic care. “Smilelove is a people-first company. We spend a majority of our efforts internally on providing an unparalleled customer experience,” Grider said. SmileDirectClub, meanwhile, oversees every aspect of its supply chain and, by installing 49 HP multi Jet Fusion (MJF) platforms at its Nashville ‘SmileLab’ production base, is gearing up to go toe-to-toe with Align. “We are the only [direct to consumer] teledentistry business that is 100% vertically integrated. Unlike some competitors in the global market, [we don’t] farm out manufacturing and other back-office processes. We have control over every step which is vital to ensure a superior customer experience, quality products and services,” a spokesperson from SmileDirectClub told TCT. Founded in 2014, SmileDirect was once a partner of Align’s, but a legal dispute and a public offering later, SmileDirect is now out on its own, has served 700,000 people and is continuing to gain traction. The company has so far set up 300 ‘SmileShops’ where customers can have their mouths digitally scanned and plans to add more with expansions into Puerto Rico, Canada, Australia, and the UK having already commenced. Users of the SmileDirect service can also retrieve manual impression kits via an online platform which attracts five million unique visitors a month. Overseas customers will see their shipments prioritised to ensure their wait is no longer than 3-4 weeks, and SmileDirect is hoping to keep costs up to 60% less than competitors. Once the patient’s information is gathered, SmileDirect kicks its fleet of MJF printers into action. With its current 3D printing capacity, SmileDirect can produce 500 aligner moulds per batch with each printer running twice a day. That returns 49,000 moulds, and therefore 49,000 aligners, a day,

343,000 a week and 17,836,000 a year. The company wants to hit 20 million by next summer. “We have a lot of secrets, and we have a lot of talent, but one of the things that is a key piece of our success - our secret weapon - is 3D printing,” offered SmileDirect’s VP of Manufacturing, Research and Development John Vargis when speaking at TCT Show. “We are pushing the envelope and collaborating day by day with HP helps us accelerate our innovation and growth. It’s given us a big leg up on our manufacturing capabilities.” The company has been working with HP since 2016 when it took on a beta MJF machine and ran it, perhaps prematurely, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In the three years since, HP has been training SmileDirect service engineers in the same classes HP runs for its own staff. In the meantime, SmileDirect has been feeding back its experiences and enjoying the subsequent upgrades implemented on newer platforms. HP has also assigned dedicated ‘customer success’ engineers to address repeatable errors and work on cloud data analytics to develop predictive service notices. It is expected SmileDirect will commit to taking on more Multi Jet Fusion platforms in the not-too-distant future. “Keeping that technology running at that high performance [has been]

“ONE OF THE THINGS THAT IS A KEY PIECE OF OUR SUCCESS - OUR SECRET WEAPON - IS 3D PRINTING”

one of our biggest obstacles and HP stepped up to the plate,” Vargis said. “We feel that HP [has] something that could disrupt the printing industry to provide low-cost, high-quality parts, and, at the same time, scale with us.” Despite the assuredness of Align Technology, its greater experience and the 1.6 million aligners it produces every week, competitors are coming. There is room for them all in a market of tens, maybe hundreds, of millions of people who wish to enhance their smile, but each of Align, Smilelove, SmileDirect, and many more, will want to be the go-to supplier of clear aligners, the one to supply the highest quality product, cheapest service, and finest customer experience. Who occupies that position, in large part, will be down to which company gets the best out of 3D printing.

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DENTAL

CERAMIC 3D PRINTING: A STEP BEYOND IN DENTAL PRODUCTS WORDS: M.Sc. Isabel Potestio, Business Developer at Lithoz GmbH

ue to their excellent biocompatibility, ceramic materials are recommended as the material of choice, from dental restoration and implants to bone grafting material. Unlike metals, there is no debate around ion release or corrosion and they have long-term stability both in soft and hard tissue. In addition, ceramic materials show significant advantages when it comes to fabricating restorations that appear as natural as possible in the long-term. From an aesthetic point of view, all-ceramic restorative materials have significant advantages over metals in the optical imitation of the natural tooth; no grey shadows in gingival areas and implant collars in case of gum retractions. Often referred to as ‘ceramic steel’, zirconia is commonly used in the field of prosthetic dentistry to restore lost teeth or tooth substance by means of tooth supported crowns, Fixed Dental Prostheses (FDPs) and defect-oriented restorations such as occlusal veneers. Zirconia can also be used when it comes to replacing missing teeth by means of dental implants and implant supported prosthetic parts. Nowadays, the CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing) procedure for processing zirconia is performed by subtractive techniques, meaning that the zirconia parts in the aforementioned indications are milled from a prefabricated zirconia blank in a pre-sintered condition – the so-called white body. In this state, zirconia has a low inherent strength. Due to this fact, during

subtractive machining, thin borders can break out and consecutively lead to an evident discrepancy between the design and the fabricated part. For this reason, thin borders and edges often have to be designed over-contoured in these areas to prevent the edges from breaking out during machining. However, this also results in a considerable amount of post-processing work in these zones. Since the crown margin is, along with the occlusal surface, a very important area of a crown and bridge restoration, the post-processing must be carried out very carefully and under the stereomicroscope. This post-processing is considerably time consuming and costly. Furthermore, fissures of the occlusal surfaces also require post-processing, as rotating instruments can only reproduce the classic tapered fissure geometry to a limited extent. With increasing aesthetic and performance demands, ceramic 3D printing rises as a solution which meets the challenges of the dental

sector. It offers newfound design freedom as complex 3D metal-free applications are produced layer-bylayer while enabling the technological limitations of standard ceramic processes to be overcome. With 3D printing there are no limitations to where the milling burst can get into and no limits to the thickness of the restoration. Minimally invasive veneers can be reliably fabricated with very thin borders and feather edges down to 100 µm and with better mechanical stability compared to milled veneers. In addition, aesthetic results of monolithic reconstructions can be achieved as 3D printing can produce geometries which resemble the nature of an occlusal surface. For replacing a missing tooth, endosseous screw-type dental implants offer a suitable treatment option. Using Lithography-based Ceramic Manufacturing, it is possible to manufacture complex shaped and patient-specific ceramic implants in large numbers in a highly reproducible manner. In a production environment, machines are capable of producing upwards of 60,000 items per year. Furthermore, ceramic 3D printing offers different applications within the field of cranio-maxillofacial surgery and treatment of critically-sized bone defects in the lower jaw. The challenge in treating such large defects is that, without proper measures, the bone itself will not be able to heal the defect. Thus, a dual approach is presented here, with a shell of high-strength zirconia giving the proper support during the healing phase and the inner volume of the implant being made of bioresorbable beta-Tricalcium Phosphate (ß-TCP). It has been proven that ß-TCP has good osseointegrative properties and that by choosing suitable pore and strut dimensions, the bone ingrowth can be significantly influenced. The ß-TCP will be resorbed by the cells and replaced by newly formed bone, while the zirconia cage can be left in place due to its biocompatibility.

SHOWN:

ZIRCONIA IS USED TO RESTORE LOST TEETH OR TOOTH SUBSTANCE BY MEANS OF TOOTH SUPPORTED CROWNS, FIXED DENTAL PROSTHESES AND DEFECT-ORIENTED RESTORATIONS

27.6 / www.tctmagazine.com / 017

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CARBON AND DENTSPLY SIRONA LAUNCH WORKFLOW FOR 3D PRINTED DENTURES Carbon has teamed with Dentsply Sirona, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of professional dental products and technologies, on a new 3D printing workflow for dentures. The Lucitone Digital Print Denture workflow and material system has been optimised for Carbon’s M-Series printers to deliver the first digitally produced complete single arch dentures over existing dentition (1 arch), and full-overfull dentures (2 arches) made with Dentsply Sirona material. The cloud-based workflow includes five core products: Lucitone Digital Print 3D Denture Resin, IPN 3D Digital

Denture Teeth, Lucitone Digital Try-in 3D Trial Placement Resin, Lucitone Digital Fuse 3-Step system, and the Lab Speedcure Processing Unit. Leveraging Carbon’s Digital Light Synthesis technology, the Lucitone Digital Print 3D Denture Resin enables labs to print up to eight denture arches in approximately two hours. Dentures produced with the resin hold high impact and flexural strength, while True Color Technology allows for consistent results in five Lucitone shades. The news has been described as “a paradigm shift for 3D printed prostheses” and aims to provide significant advancements in materials, laboratory processes, and functionality for patients.

STRUCTO SECURES EDBI FUNDING FOR DENTAL 3D PRINTING SOLUTIONS

the printing of precise prosthetic surgical guides. With Class I biocompatibility, the Surgical Guide grade is safe for transient Zortrax has announced new contact with human tissue. The biocompatible resins that have been material is also translucent to optimised for dental and prosthetic enhance visibility, features high applications on its Inkspire 3D dimensional accuracy to enable printing platform. correct placement of implants Raydent Crown & Bridge is class or guidance for tools, and low IIa biocompatible, ensuring it is safe viscosity and water resistance to for contact with human tissue for up make the guides easy to wash. to 30 days, and boasts high abrasion With the introduction of these resistance guaranteeing permanent news materials, Zortrax believes smooth surfaces and anatomical users will now not only be able to shape for the duration of its usage. generate prototypes, but move Raydent Surgical Guide, into the production of final parts meanwhile, has been developed for for intraoral use.

ZORTRAX LAUNCHES BIOCOMPATIBLE DENTAL 3D PRINTING RESINS

Singapore-based dental 3D printer manufacturer Structo has announced the closing of its latest funding round led by high-growth technology investor EDBI. The funding will be used to continue the development of dental-specific additive manufacturing solutions and support the launch of new products that leverage automation for mass production of patient-specific devices. Huub van Esbroeck, coFounder and CEO of Structo, said: “EDBI’s support has allowed our team to develop capabilities in Singapore in engineering, product

development, material sciences and manufacturing. By leveraging EBDI’s strategic industry partners, investor community and network of talent, we were able to push the boundaries of additive manufacturing. EDBI’s investment in our company is a testament to the successes our team has achieved in a short period of time.” Structo was founded in 2014 as a project out of the National University of Singapore and has since secured funding from participating investors such as GGV Capital, Wavemaker Partners and Pavilion Capital, and expanded its footprint to the US, Canada and UK.

27.6 / www.tctmagazine.com / 019

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TCT SHENZHEN

TCT SHENZHEN HEAD OF CONTENT DAN O’CONNOR FLEW OUT TO TCT’S PIN IN THE MAP, THIS TIME IN SOUTH CHINA, FOR A LOOK AT THE INAUGURAL TCT SHENZHEN.

espite the trepidation from my colleagues both in England and China, I arrived in Shenzhen via boat without any issues (except for not having any change for the bus from the port). Such is my reputation with travel mishaps that the very idea of transferring onto a boat in Hong Kong Airport, where your baggage is collected by the ferry company, caused much guffawing. Now, I may have nearly missed the first night’s partner dinner and I’m currently panicking about my flight home but I did get to spend three days on the inaugural TCT Shenzhen show floor. Walking in, immediately I was struck by what a swish and polished show this looked, the team from VNU Rapid have transported the professionalism and organisation from the Shanghai event with aplomb. They’ve also exported the ability to draw a crowd; from the moment the doors opened to the very last bell the booths and the aisles were packed with visitors looking to see the latest and greatest in 3D printing technology. I started my first day in the conference listening to Context’s Chris Connery’s excellent summation of the current state of the 3D printing market, which you can read more about on page 39 of this issue. In his presentation, Chris highlighted a number of companies that were exhibiting on the show floor. As always with China there’s a raft of metal 3D printing technologies but not

in the masses we saw at TCT Asia earlier this year. Here in Shenzhen, with the majority of visitors likely to come from the consumer electronics industry, there’s an emphasis on jigs and fixtures and tooling of the polymer variety. Western players like Formlabs, Stratasys, 3D Systems, Ultimaker and HP have become experts in showing these particular applications to visitors. Front and centre is HP’s booth, with the Chinese debut of the Multi Jet Fusion 5200. If you want to know how you should do a booth, HP’s is a prime example. A HP representative discussed with me the desire for interactivity on the booth; it’s like a veritable applications playground with a medicine ball to fling into a wall of prints to test strength, a 3D printed screwball scramble contraption to test how bouncy a material is, and even a fully 3D printed functional scaletrix track. It’s no wonder the HP booth remained the busiest throughout TCT Shenzhen. A talk I’d earmarked to attend during the TCT Shenzhen Summit was that of Ami Galperin who is currently the Director of Global Additive Manufacturing at the contract manufacturing giant Flex. Flex has been relatively quiet on its applications of additive manufacturing but with 200,000 employees, including 20,000 design engineers, you shouldn’t mistake quietness with a lack of activity. In fact, what Ami demonstrated was that Flex is solving some of additive manufacturing’s most complex problems and applying the technology to more areas of the business than most companies combined.4

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TCT SHENZHEN

SHOWN: PARTS FROM DYEWIN’S STAND

SHOWN: THE TPM3D S360 SYSTEM

I had the chance to briefly walk the show floor with Ami, formerly of Stratasys, and we spotted some interesting booths including a new one for me, DyeWin, who are offering an automated post-processing solution that includes blasting and dying. The sample parts on display were of good quality and the team has said they have CE accreditation to sell inside of Europe.

Flex’s mission is to accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing by identifying use cases, potential applications and opportunities to make a business case for switching to additive manufacturing. Some of the use cases Ami was able to share span the complete spectrum of manufacturing adoption from prototypes to jigs & fixtures, and end-use parts. A common theme throughout was cost savings and after his talk Ami told TCT that the margins in contract manufacturing are so slim that every cent matters.

TPM3D is another interesting booth. I first saw TPM3D at TCT Asia some years ago and learnt that the SLS company was in partnership with Stratasys. TPM3D CEO Lucy Zhai was formerly General Manager Greater China for Stratasys and informed me that last year TPM3D broke from Stratasys and was now independent. TPM3D was showcasing its new technology at TCT Shenzhen in the form of its S360 system and automated powder handling.

One example Ami shared was an end-use part for the beta production of a kitchen appliance. It is a 20 part 3D print on a HP Multi Jet Fusion 4200, dyed in black. It’s a complex 20-part assembly 3D print that, due to its end-use nature, required a high-level of print quality and finish. The result is a part that eliminated tooling, saving 60% in cost and three weeks in time. Flex manufactured 2,500 parts in total and Ami suggested in his talk that the customer was initially worried about the quality of 3D printing but is now a complete convert.

The Powder Processing Station now takes a build platform from the printer and acts as a depowdering, recycling, sieving and redepositing system for a complete endto-end solution. It’s currently a partner with DyeMansion and had some coloured parts on display that rival that of any SLS parts I’ve seen before. TPM3D has always been an interesting company to see, thanks to its historical ties with Stratasys and SLS being one of the only ASTM defined polymer 3D printing technologies missing from its portfolio.

Ami is tasked with fitting additive into the way Flex operates across its global sites by improving performance with part consolidation, topological design and part replacement as well as fitting additive into procurement processes.

TCT Shenzhen will return again next year and, judging by booth rebooking on the giant map at the bottom of the entrance escalators, it’s going to be huge!

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FORTIFYING INJECTION MOULD TOOLS

roups like Catalysis Additive Tooling specialise in creating injection moulded prototype parts that allow designers and engineers to run tests on a product and gather customer feedback before going into full scale production, de-risking investment in production tooling costs. Because of this need, it is invaluable for their customers to prototype their parts in their end-use plastic as soon as possible. Traditionally, injection mould tools made for prototyping are produced by machining a large block of aluminium, which can cost thousands of dollars and is subject to long lead times, often upwards of six weeks. Boston-based composite 3D printing company Fortify has created a digital tooling process that gave Catalysis Additive Tooling the ability to create quick-turn injection mould tools at a fraction of the cost and time. Using fibre-reinforced systems and materials, the tools are said to function better than traditional 3D printed injection mould tools and eliminate the need to wait weeks for an aluminium tool. “We are currently focused on short run injection mould tooling - an application that has been attempted for years with limited success and adoption with other 3D print technologies,” Josh Martin, CEO and CoFounder at Fortify, explained. “The primary reasons for this come down to a lack of

performance of available polymer materials or challenging workflows with metals. Fortify Digital Tooling is different because we are reinforcing high-temperature thermoset systems with specialised ceramics to improve strength, stiffness, wear resistance and performance at temperature. When we couple this material system with DLP technology, we are able to achieve a surface finish that does not need secondary machining. So the complete package [offers] both higher performance and less processing. We are excited to explore other tooling applications where we can add value.” Accelerating time-to-market when launching a new product is invaluable in enabling R&D teams to stay competitive. The need to produce agile prototypes faster and accurately evaluate the geometry, design, performance and feel of

5 ABOVE:

DIGITAL TOOLING PRODUCES 200+ PARTS

plastic injection moulded parts is necessary before creation of the final mould. However, the cost and lead time associated with machining aluminium soft tooling can make many iterations impractical for most organisations. Commenting on the growing use of AM as an alternative solution, Martin said: “I believe the growing use [in] tooling and moulding is due to the buying market maturing and the awareness of additive manufacturing increasing. Many companies are in the early phases of adopting additive manufacturing. Additive tooling wins are much lower risk than full adoption of additive manufacturing. Tooling in many ways is a perfect “gateway” application to customers’ transition to the new technology platforms of AM.” The Fortify Digital Tooling material is the first launched by Fortify and believed to be the industry’s first microparticle filled DLP/SLA resin. By reinforcing this material with microparticle-sized engineering-grade ceramics, the company is able to produce additively manufactured tools that are stronger, stiffer, exhibit a higher heat deflection temperature, and an increased wear resistance compared to other 3D printed tooling. These are crucial metrics to maximise when designing a 3D printed tool due to the repeated exposure to high temperature polymers at high pressures. In one case, this led to a 35% reduction in cost compared to CNC machining and a 3 to 5 day lead time for over 200 parts produced using a tool measuring 100 x 95 x 150 mm. According to Fortify data, the same tool produced on a laser sintering system would have cost more than three times the amount for the same number of parts, while polymer material jetting would have been slightly cheaper but would only have provided 25 parts. By reinforcing the resin with engineering-grade ceramic microparticles, Fortify achieved optimum mechanics compared to other additive techniques, which suggests that Digital Tooling can offer comparable performance to aluminium soft tooling with shorter lead times and lower costs.

4 SHOWN: PARTS FOR CATALYSIS ADDITIVE TOOLING

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MOULDING INSPEX & TOOLING

EGGSHELL MOULDING: 3D PRINTING’S HIDDEN APPLICATION WORDS: DANIEL O’CONNOR

D Systems’ Patrick Dunne (Vice President, Advanced Application Development) likes to sidle up next to me at a trade show and produce an item from his pocket from a project he’s working on with great glee. The most recent example was not much to look at, geometrically speaking, but it felt nothing like any other 3D print. Because it wasn’t a 3D print, it was pure silicone, enabled by 3D Systems’ Figure 4 technology and its application, eggshell moulding. Eggshell moulding is a sacrificial technique where a thin mould is printed and then a material is injected into the mould with the resulting mould then broken away. It’s a technique many resin-based 3D printers offer, and its advantages in the ability to offer the pure forms of materials like rubber and silicone have numerous applications. Two years ago, one company that caused something of a splash in eggshell moudling was Collider Tech. The Tennessee company, founded on the vision of an exShapeways employee, finished runner up at the prestigious TechCrunch event Startup Battlefield. However, all is quiet with Collider, their social media hasn’t been updated in over a year and they haven’t replied when TCT has reached out. Whereas 3D Systems now has customers buying Figure 4 standalones specifically to run eggshell moulding. ACS Custom is one such firm. The UK-based production house for custom hearing protection, in-ear monitors

SHOWN: 4

and other communication devices is using two Figure 4 Standalone systems to produce eggshell moulds. “ACS were already doing eggshell moulding,” explained Colin Blain, Advanced Applications Engineer at 3D Systems. “But we went through a Figure 4 benchmarking process with them and it was a win on every level where we were twice the speed, we could achieve much thinner wall thickness and our resolution was better. Plus the cost of ownership for both hardware and materials was lower.” As a result of the enhanced workflow, ACS has realised a 4X increase in capacity and 2X increase in efficiency while reducing material consumption by 50% and labour cost by as much as 80% on one part. “The Figure 4 Standalone, and the overall collaboration with 3D Systems, has totally exceeded our expectations,” said Andy Shiach, Managing Director, ACS Custom in a press release. “By transforming our workflow with Figure 4, our company is being elevated to a whole new level. We have been able to dramatically increase production capacity and efficiency through our ability to nest multiple parts on the same build plate – producing more parts in the same amount of time. These results are amplified by the incomparable surface finish allowing us to deliver high quality product to our customers. The strength of the technology coupled with the expertise of 3D Systems’ team has made a significant impact on our business.” THE PROCESS Creating the eggshell moulding is relatively simple; a CAD user creates a positive offset on the external surface of the model, then removes the original CAD to leave a hollow shell. The resulting shell is, typically in the Figure 4’s case, 0.3 mm thick. The CAD designer will then add features to allow the injection of the material and some vents to prevent air pockets. In ACS’s case, that shell is then printed using Figure 4 standalone and the specific eggshell moulding resin 3D Systems has developed. A material like silicone can then be injected in using a syringe 4

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27.6 / www.tctmagazine.com / 027

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and the shell is then broken off with ease by hand thanks to the elastomeric properties of the usual end-use material. Such is the growing popularity of the technique, 3D Systems is working on ways to reduce those steps: “We’re looking at including this as a workflow feature into our 3D Sprint software product,” Colin told TCT. “It would give people that don’t have access to the native CAD the ability to do eggshell moulding at an STL level. The workflow in 3D Sprint would also include placement of the injection and venting features as well as the actual kind of shelling process itself.”

“BY TRANSFORMING OUR WORKFLOW WITH FIGURE 4, OUR COMPANY IS BEING ELEVATED TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL.” An eggshell moulding update to 3D Sprint would go down well with ACS who are already sold on the software.

efficiency and productivity, and ultimately reduce time-to-part.” ACS Custom’s current workflow is 100% digital production. ACS 3D scans a customer’s ear, imports that data into design software to design the end part, and 3D prints an eggshell mould which is then cleaned and filled with silicone. Once the silicone is set, the mould is broken away, and electronic components are added to complete the device. In the last four years, the 3D printing of elastomeric materials like TPUs has come a long way, far enough for the likes of New Balance and Adidas to use in production of training shoe midsoles. However, what’s also been evident at any 3D printing trade show in the past few years is that there is a desire to process pure medical-grade silicone in a quicker and more efficient way, the likes of Wacker have launched 3D printing machinery specifically to tackle this requirement. “Direct 3D printing the elastomeric materials are pretty good but most of them is still somewhat lacking in rebound and tear strengthen and some require additional thermal post curing to get the enduse properties,” explained Colin. “If you’re looking for a food/medical grade silicone or rubber part in a specific colour and shore hardness then eggshell moulding is a really good fit. Real-world applications like that of ACS go a long way to prove this.”

“3D Sprint is an invaluable part of our workflow,” explained Dan Bennett, Technical Director at ACS Custom. “It includes so many useful tools which help us prepare and optimise the CAD data, and manage the entire print process. 3D Sprint has been instrumental for us to increase

5 SHOWN:

ACS PRODUCED THESE CUSTOM IN-EAR DEVICES UTILISING A 100% DIGITAL PRODUCTION WORKFLOW THAT INCLUDES 3D SYSTEMS’ FIGURE 4 STANDALONE 3D PRINTER (IMAGE CREDIT: ACS CUSTOM)

27.6 / www.tctmagazine.com / 029

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ONE SHOT STORY WORDS: SAM DAVIES

alk the floor at an additive manufacturing trade show and one will find companies pitching their solutions for the design and prototyping of a product, the manufacture and measurement of the parts, and everything in between. What happens in between often requires a lot of thought, even more action, and more time than anybody would like to spend. It’s likely that prototypes are 3D printed in one material and

the subsequent end-use components injection moulded or machined in another. “That is a risky process because it entails new validations, it entails new materials, it entails extra time, extra costs,” Lasse G Staal, Co-founder and CEO of AddiFab, said for possibly the umpteenth time on the third afternoon of TCT Show. AddiFab is a company positioning itself in the in-between, hoping to relieve manufactures of the above considerations: “I see a gap between the prototyping and production that is not really being remedied by many 3D printing solutions,” Stall emphasised. The company has brought to market Freeform Injection Molding (FIM) and a

portfolio of open digital light processing (DLP) 3D printers promising high precision and high repeatability for the additive manufacture of advanced single-use moulds with proprietary tooling resins. These moulds are then placed in an injection moulding machine – AddiFab exhibited alongside a Babyplast system at TCT Show – where a material will be pressed into the mould’s cavity. The mould is then dissolved, inlets and outlets trimmed away, and the final part revealed. Because AddiFab only expects the printed moulds to last one shot, the company says it can process thousands of high-performance injection moulding materials – from flame retardant ABS grades to ultra-soft TPEs to carbonreinforced PPA injection moulded at 350°C – and enable users to validate their components before scaling to thousands of parts with the same material and the same technology. In Birmingham, UK in September, AddiFab pitched this to hordes of visitors who, at times, waited up to 20 minutes to learn about FIM. Talking to TCT – just the ten-minute wait for us – Staal revealed the motivation4

“IF I WANT TO BE ABLE TO SCALE INTO THE MILLIONS, THEN I WANT TO START WITH INJECTION MOULDING FROM DAY ONE.”

SHOWN: CERAMIC GEARS PRODUCED WITH FREEFORM INJECTION MOLDING

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6 SHOWN:

DOUBLE HELIX SAMPLE PART

behind the company’s cross over between additive manufacturing and injection moulding. “We’ve tried to create a platform that combines the benefits from 3D printing with injection moulding, so you get the same low start-up costs, short lead times and design freedom, but the baseline is injection moulding. That means we can process all the materials that an injection moulding user would normally want to process: all those pre-qualified grades for the automotive industries, all the pre-qualified grades for the aerospace industries, the stuff you use for medical devices, which also have to be biocompatible. Most of those materials are not available as 3D printable materials, but FIM allows us to process them off the shelf.” These materials are the kind to feature on approved lists inside factories in the aerospace, automotive, and medical industries. There are similar documents at Danfoss, a company currently testing FIM, which include grades such as PEEK and 40% glass-filled PPS, the former of which is notoriously not the easiest to 3D print, and the latter of which is barely 3D printable at all. It means that Danfoss is rarely able to 3D print prototypes of parts in the same materials it intends to use when it steps into production. AddiFab believes FIM has the capacity to resolve this issue and encourages manufacturers to work backwards from how they intend to manufacture their part in order to decide how to prototype it. “If you’re basing your prototyping on 3D printing, you may get to a point where you get it qualified, then you need to decide how to produce. If you want to scale up to massive levels, you need to go into injection moulding because 3D printing is neither cost competitive nor quality competitive for higher volumes,” Staal argued. “If you decide ‘I’m only going to sell this [product] in low volumes’, then stay with 3D printing, but you need to make that decision before you go into market. That’s a pretty important decision to make. “If I want to be able to scale into the millions, then I want to start with injection

moulding from day one. The decision point is not, ‘do I want to prototype on a 3D printer?’ It’s, ‘what is my end production going to be? Is it going to be a highly specialised geometry or is it going to be a high run of product?’ If it’s high run, let’s start with injection moulding from day one. That’s why we’ve built this platform and that’s why we want to be able to comply with the requirements of the injection moulding industry.” While AddiFab is looking to meet the accuracy, repeatability and materials standards of the injection moulding space, it also hopes FIM can bring change to the sector. A big driver for the commercialisation of FIM was to help companies produce small volumes in the early days of product development to test the water. Typically, companies have to meet a minimum order quantity to injection mould parts but, prior to launch, will often be uncertain of the level of demand in the marketplace. “Because of minimum order quantity, a lot of products get scrapped,” Staal said. “With Freeform Injection Molding, we don’t have a minimum order quantity. That means [users] can move into the market incrementally. When you hit the tipping point where you can see that it now makes

sense to invest in a tool, you can make that investment because your demand is there. You can step away from Freeform Injection Molding into conventional injection moulding, but you haven’t over-invested in capacity from the beginning and you can do the capacity investment when demand has been verified. That means you save a lot of material and you save a lot of energy in the start-up of a new product.” Similar tentativeness in launching products into market can be found at Mitsubishi Chemical, who recently invested in AddiFab as their partnership intensified. The company would quite like to make around 7,500 of its materials available in the additive manufacturing space, but with further hardware and process developments still needed, Mitsubishi can’t place an accurate measure on demand for many of its products. Without a guarantee of demand, the company is reluctant to invest in the required conversion processes. Mitsubishi Chemical sees FIM as a possible gateway into the additive space, having users of FIM process off the shelf injection mouldable materials to produce prototypes, and perhaps draw conclusions as to the demand that way. That, AddiFab told TCT, is a main goal of the collaboration – and its general industrialisation efforts – but beyond, conversations are still to be had about how the partnership moves forward. “Mitsubishi Chemical has aligned now with Freeform Injection Molding as a platform, it has a clear need we have demonstrated we can meet, but I’m not sure either Mitsubishi or AddiFab know where the collaboration is going to end up in a couple of years,” Staal finished. “We can see some evident opportunities with the KyronMAX, Tefabloc, Trexprene and DIAKON series of materials – materials which are difficult to 3D print. But I think Mitsubishi Chemical has about 450 subsidiaries. I haven’t even started talking to ten of them yet. It’s going to be a very interesting journey.”

SHOWN: PARTS MANUFACTURED IN MITUSBISHI CHEMICAL’S KYRONMAX MATERIAL

27.6 / www.tctmagazine.com / 033

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WHAT IS WASHOUT TOOLING? T WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS

he production of lightweight composite materials is high in demand for sectors like aerospace, automotive and defense, where weight savings, strength and durability are crucial factors for winning a race or completing a mission. It is, however, a highly time-consuming and costly, multi-step process. ExOne, a U.S. based additive manufacturing company which specialises in metal and sand binder jet printing, has developed an alternative that enables the manufacture of complex carbon- or glass-reinforced parts, doing away with multi-piece metal breakdown tooling or difficult to remove sacrificial tooling commonly used to build composite parts with trapped geometries. That means no need for solvents, deflating tools, or hacking away at parts with a chisel. The technique, a washout tooling process, involves creating a robust yet dissolvable 3D printed support core of silica or ceramic sand. The part is coated with a watersoluble spray or Teflon layer to leave an impenetrable surface before composite layup through filament winding or woven fabric depending on specific strength requirements. Once cured, the soluble support material is then easily washed away with tap water to leave a hollow composite part. Better still, that dissolved media can also be recovered and re-used for future print cycles. “This is something that we have been kicking the tyres on for a while,” Rick Lucas, Chief Technology Officer at ExOne told TCT. “We really decided this year that this was a market we wanted to target and go after. We’ve got engineers here who have worked in the composites industry and [understand] that people have not been satisfied with the current options that are out there.” Since 2013, when ExOne engineers first discovered they could bind silica or ceramic sand particles with a solvent that remains water soluble to 180°C, key areas of development have focused on the coating step and applying binder jetting

experience to optimise the material. It’s a complex challenge as customers require different resins to cater to various applications. “The ceramic sand that we generally print with is porous,” Lucas explained. “So, if you were just to lay a composite over that, and autoclave with pressure and heat, and cure that, the resin would soak into the tool and no longer be wash out. So, we had to put a coating on it to prevent that from happening. The coating methods and processes for that have been where we’ve spent a lot of our time in the last year or so, really fine tuning and making sure we’ve got good coating options for customers.” This approach is now being used to create carbon and glass fibre reinforced composites, including aircraft ducting, pressure tanks, shrouds, struts and mandrels, particularly for designs that were previously unsuitable for manufacture through more traditional techniques. Take for example, Royal Engineered Composites, a company which creates air ducting for Sikorksky Aircraft Corporation’s heavy-lift helicopters. The company used ExOne’s washout tooling to create the mandrels for air ducts on two CH-35K helicopters which have already been successfully delivered to the Marines for demonstration. “One of the things that we had to develop as a result of that programme was the ability to join long pieces,” Lucas said. “We generally print these in our smallest sand machines, the S-Print. It’s roughly 800 x 500 x 400 mm and so we developed a joining technique, where we can print these and on the ends we have designs [that can] only go together one way. That enables us to make really long shapes.” For many customers, specific use cases can be highly sensitive due to the nature of their work but Lucas says it’s not uncommon for the company to receive orders from major aerospace and defense firms or racing teams. In one particular case, the process was used to supply a washout mandrel for an engine air4

SHOWN:

FINAL COMPOSITE MANDREL CREATED FROM WASHOUT TOOLING

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SHOWN: FILAMENT WINDING ON 3D PRINTED WASHOUT TOOLING

“That’s why those two materials are the two primary ones we refer to because one is close to glass composite in terms of thermal expansion, the other is close to carbon.”

SHOWN: HOLLOW COMPOSITE FIBRE PARTS CREATED WITH 3D PRINTED SACRIFICIAL TOOLING

intake manifold for the University of Texas at Austin’s racing team. “What’s valuable to them is really our turnaround time,” Lucas said. “We can turn around a mandrel within a couple days and for that industry, time, it’s not just the performance there but the timing, and being able to turn it quickly is really, really important.” ExOne has also sought to combat another common challenge found in the traditional autoclave process; thermal expansion and its effect on part geometries. With the washout tooling process, Lucas says the expansion can be controlled and distortion minimised by changing the powder. For example, silica sand’s high CTE may be suitable for some materials but in other cases where a lower CTE is needed, ceramic sand could be a more suitable option. “What drives the thermal expansion is really the media, not the binder,” Lucas added.

Currently the technology is available on-demand through ExOne’s Adoption Centres primarily in the U.S. but the company says it is looking to expand these capabilities to Europe in the near future and potentially working with partners as demand increases. ExOne says it is also working on refining its binder even further with a next generation version that will deliver higher strength, finer resolutions and higher temperature capabilities. Building on that, it is also delving into an area many manufacturers are looking to increase their efforts in; automation.

“WE REALLY DECIDED THIS YEAR THAT THIS WAS A MARKET WE WANTED TO TARGET AND GO AFTER.”

Lucas added: “One of the big things that we’re looking to scale up is; we have some applications where the parts are not really large, they’re less than the size of a volleyball but they need hundreds of thousands of parts a month. So how can we automate the coating process? How do we take what’s primarily a manual process right now and convert that and automate that to where we have very high throughput? “We have a great product as it stands now but we think we can improve it even further.”

SHOWN:

3D PRINTED CORE EASILY WASHES AWAY WITH TAP WATER

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PROFESSIONAL PRICE CLASS

atest CONTEXT analysis of the global 3D printer markets sees the Professional, Design and Industrial markets set for growth in spite of cautious outlook in some sub-markets, but the Personal sector is continuing to struggle. Double-digit printer shipment growth for the year as a whole is still projected with rising shipments from new form factors and from within certain vertical markets offsetting newly cautious forecasts for slowing manufacturing and automobile sectors.

PERSONAL PRICE CLASS

Defined by having an entry-level price point (below 2,500 USD/approx. 1,900 GBP), this class of 3D printers has now seen six consecutive quarters of declining sales. Projections for the remainder of the year show that the class may struggle to see flat yearon-year shipment totals after a fall of -10% in Q2 2019. With no signs of emerging geographies, and sales yet

This is now a hot sector. On a trailing twelve months (TTM) basis, this class – along with the Industrial class – has seen the greatest growth: unit shipments up +8% and revenues rising +37% over the past year. While the dental market has embraced many modes of 3D printing using machines at a range of price points, sales of Professional printers have been exceptionally strong in recent quarters – exemplified by strong shipments of 3D Systems’ Figure-4/ NextDent platform and EnvisionTEC’s One line. The segment saw a short-term downturn in Q2 2019 with shipments falling by -7% year-on-year, but this was more a supply-chain/product transition issue for one vendor rather than due to reduced demand.

bed fusion printers in Q2 2019 than in the year before – and many are pointing to slow sales into this market as a key issue. However, other verticals are still strong and the outlook for the year remains positive. Shipments of Industrial class printers in the Chinese domestic market were particularly strong in 1H 2019, and the new sub-class of lower-priced metal 3D printing solutions from the likes of Desktop Metal and Markforged have also buoyed this class this year. Bottom-up forecasts for 2H 2019 project that strong Q4 shipments will yield doubledigit unit shipment growth in the Industrial, Design and Professional classes with the Professional class poised for the strongest annual growth of +15%.

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CHART 1: GLOBAL 3D PRINTER SHIPMENTS BY PRICE CLASS SHOWING Y/Y CHANGE (NOTE TWO SCALES)

DESIGN PRICE CLASS

Unit sales in this segment have long been dominated by three of the oldest players in the market (Stratasys, 3D Systems and EnvisionTEC) but recent quarters have seen HP enter the field and contribute to an 11% rise in shipments in Q2 2019 – and an even stronger rise in printer revenues of +26%. HP’s new colour 3D printers performed especially well in this period.

INDUSTRIAL PRICE CLASS

Industrial price-class printer shipments were up just +4% in Q2 2019 and only +5% in 1H 2019 but, historically, over 30% of this category’s shipments come in the fourth quarter. Key verticals such as the European automotive sector are currently weak – as evidenced by the shipment of -18% fewer metal powder

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GREY MATTERS IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION WORDS: Jason Teng, partner and patent attorney at European IP law firm, Potter Clarkson

ntellectual property (IP) protection is a major feature of the additive manufacturing (AM) sector, with the registration of IP rights covering new AM processes, hardware, materials and end products as well as copyright issues over digital files all commonplace. Yet, while existing IP laws are generally viewed as adequate for current needs, new technological developments have exposed a number of grey areas in the industry, specifically around subsistence of IP rights, infringement and enforceability. BIOPRINTING 3D bioprinting is increasingly used to fabricate tissue models for in vitro testing and research, but the long-term goal lies in its application to the field of regenerative medicine. Although many aspects of 3D bioprinting are patentable, bioprinted tissues and organs may face barriers to patentability in the form of excluded subject matter, medical exclusion and public policy. European and US patent laws exclude a human organism from patent eligibility but conversely do not explicitly rule out patent protection for human organism parts such as tissue and organs. Furthermore, non-human subject matter constitutes patentable subject matter as long as it is synthetic or modified to an artificial state. Accordingly, 3D bioprinted tissue and organs will remain patentable so long as they are distinguishable from natural tissue and organs. In terms of infringement, identification of an infringing bioprinted product would be less clear-cut and more complicated if it is only distinguished from a natural tissue or organ by its fabrication process and if it is then implanted into the human body. Moving forward, the level of artificiality

in a bioprinted product will be a key point of contention in determining matters of patentability and infringement. 4D PRINTING 4D printing takes existing 3D printing techniques to create, from a digital file, a 3D object with the added ability of transforming its appearance or function over time. When considering infringement in AM, it is often asked who the infringer might be if the 3D printed object is designed, digitally modelled and printed by different parties. 4D printing further complicates this question because infringement by a party responsible for transforming the 4D printed object may hinge on whether the IP-protected elements of the 4D printed object cover the untransformed object, the transformed object or both. Protecting the transformed object without covering the untransformed version may lead to future difficulties in catching the infringer in the act of transforming the 4D printed object. Moreover, the 4D printed object in its untransformed state may be initially infringing but over time becomes noninfringing due to shape and structural changes. Therefore, to maximise the scope of IP protection for 4D printed objects, patents and IP agreements should be carefully worded to incorporate the transformative ability of 4D printed objects in addition to the 3D printing aspects. PERSONALISED MEDICINES The 3D printed pharmaceuticals market has attracted the involvement of many major industry players in recent years. Whilst patent and design rights can provide protection for 3D printed pills and production methods, there is the question of the ability to effectively enforce such IP rights. Under the UK Patents Act, an exemption to infringement exists for the preparation in a pharmacy of a medicine for an individual in accordance with a prescription given by a registered practitioner. This exemption appears to apply to medicine printing performed using AM in a pharmacy based on a prescription. UK patent law also provides an exemption to infringement for acts conducted privately and for non-commercial purposes. On the other hand, patents may be enforced against infringers supplying the means or materials relating to essential elements for putting the invention into effect. Whilst this might help restrict domestic medicine printing, digital file sharing via the internet could still make IP rights enforcement difficult. Ultimately, when bioprinting and pharmaprinting become more ubiquitous, IP in these areas is expected to attract the same questions faced by other medical inventions around rewarding innovation versus protecting public interest.

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TCT SHOW REVIEW

EOS: “PRODUCTION IS WHERE THE FUTURE IS GOING” WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS

t this year’s TCT Show, there was a curious metal structure drawing visitors to the EOS stand. The one-metre-high aluminium latticed cone was, in fact, a light shade and the result of a 76-hour build on a custom laser melting system from the German additive manufacturing leader’s Additive Manufacturing Customised Machines business. A closer look revealed an intricately detailed surface finish achieved with a 90-micron layer height on a machine tailored for exactly that: big prints and high resolutions. It is but one example of how EOS is delivering solutions across polymers and metals, and with an estimated install base of around 3,500 machines, is doing so in droves. Walk into any major service bureau and you’re likely to see at least one EOS system churning out white laser sintered polymer parts, while over in metals, it has secured partnerships with the likes of Premium AEROTEC and Daimler focused on volume additive manufacture of end-use parts through its NextGenAM project. Though EOS’ booth at TCT was divided into these two clear sections, there was a single resounding focus – production. “Service bureaus are still the bread and butter of this industry but production is where the future is going,” Dr. Jose Greses, EOS’s regional director, told TCT. “That transition

into production is the biggest challenge in this industry because the requirements for production are different. You need reliable machines and a different service level, repeatability, reduction in cost per part and so on.” Besides big prints, another prominent talking point on the booth was the EOS P 500, an automation-ready platform designed for series production of polymer parts. The machine, first introduced at Formnext two years prior, is now in the hands of customers including German 3D printing service provider Protiq. The key takeaway is automation and builds on concepts EOS has been exploring since 2016 to interconnect the various stages of the AM workflow – but don’t expect to see self-guided robots whizzing powders and parts around every shop floor just yet.

SHOWN: 1 METRE METAL LIGHT SHADE PRODUCED BY EOS’ AMCM BUSINESS

“Of course, that’s what we’re striving for but there are also different degrees of automation,” Greses explained. “We also ensure that all the machines have open interfaces, so each customer can define their own degree of automation and what is right for them.” On the flipside was metals, fronted by the EOS M 300-4 system, “the equivalent to the P 500 in the metal world” according to Greses, but with a huge productivity boost thanks to its four-lasers which can reach all areas of the build platform and compatibility with EOS Shared Modules. A year on from its debut, a handful of these systems have been delivered to end-users, most notably Siemens’ Materials Solutions factory in the UK, which already has a considerable fleet of EOS machines in-house. Commenting on EOS’ track record of multiple machine installations, Greses said: “Ultimately the customers realise what is really working and what is hype, and in production you cannot be a hype, you have to be [a] reality, you have to deliver.” During the show, EOS also launched a new material, TPU 1301, a well-established polymer developed in partnership with BASF that could open up mass production opportunities in footwear, lifestyle and automotive industries. Collaborations like this, Greses says, whether in materials, software or auxiliary technologies, are crucial to the industry’s ongoing development. “It has to be,” Greses said. “We cannot do that alone, we need partners. The industry is all about collaboration and actually letting the customers pick up and choose what is best for them.” EOS is celebrating a significant milestone this year; it has been three decades since Dr. Hans J. Langer founded the company with a vision and a request from BMW to construct a machine designed exclusively for its requirements – sounds familiar. It was also recently announced that Langer’s daughter, Marie Langer will now take the helm as CEO as EOS looks to the future with a new product line-oriented focus. Greses said: “It’s our 30th anniversary, but it’s still a relatively young industry. I think the best years are ahead of us.”

SHOWN: AT TCT SHOW, EOS HAD A CLEAR FOCUS: PRODUCTION

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TCT SHOW REVIEW

POWDER REMOVAL GETS SMART WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS

arlier this year, I took a tour of Materials Solutions – a Siemens Business’ new additive manufacturing (AM) facility in Worcester, UK. The facility, dedicated to direct metal AM, currently houses more than 20 machines with the capacity to extend to around 50. It’s a smart factory in every sense of the word, covering the AM production line from digital file all the way to finished part, with one exception; the trusty little chisel that sits in the post-processing station of the factory floor, used to knock off supports from laser sintered parts destined for Siemens Power and Gas, and customers in the aerospace, automotive and other industrial markets. That chisel is not an uncommon sight for any digital factory floor, coupled with blast cabinets for manual powder removal. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that German powder removal solutions specialist Solukon Maschinenbau GmbH took home the award in the post-processing category at this year’s TCT Awards ceremony for its intelligent de-powdering solution, the product of a collaboration with none other than Siemens, which

SHOWN: PARTS ARE ROTATED IN A SEQUENCE DERIVED FROM THEIR CAD GEOMETRY

now has five Solukon systems at its Worcester site. “We quickly realised that this was a very good fit for the type of de-powdering that we wanted for complex additively manufactured parts,” Nick Turner, Project Manager at Materials Solutions, told TCT on the TCT Show floor. “We’re now experimenting with the de-powdering times to make industrialised manufacture of additive parts more efficient and more reliable. Using the Solukon machines, we have confidence that we’ll de-powder the parts effectively meaning that we have more confidence in our downstream processes.” You’ll hear post-processing referred to as a few things in the AM world; the Achilles heel, the dirty secret. A word you will rarely hear associated with it, is intelligent. This winning solution packages Siemens software knowledge with Solukon’s post processing expertise into an SFM-AT800-S de-powdering system. Equipped with an intelligent algorithm, the machine rotates the part in a sequence derived from its CAD geometry, rather than programmed, to successfully and safely remove residual powder from even the most inaccessible areas. Andreas Hartmann, CEO/CTO at Solukon, explained: “Siemens came and said, ‘let’s do a software

SHOWN: SFM-AT800-S DE-POWDERING SYSTEM

that detects the internal channels of the part so that our machine moves exactly along a path, along the labyrinth’. So, we changed the machine with two endless rotating axes to give more freedom for rotation.” “It has given us a confidence in our process that wasn’t present before and that’s something that we pass on to our customers as well,” Turner said. “So, with the confidence that we can effectively depowder complex components, we know that we can focus our efforts on our other downstream processes and continue our automation journey knowing that this stage of the journey is a gap that has been filled effectively.” Manufacturing for the gas and power industry means a huge portion of Materials Solutions output are large-scale parts with internal cavities. Dealing at these volumes, there may be multiple parts placed on a single build plate and it is crucial that each is processed in the same way to ensure repeatability. “We have the digital link on our Solukon machines where we can tailor our de-powdering programmes specific to the parts that we want to de-powder,” Turner adds. “If we know we have a certain complex channel structure on a part, then we can design the routing for de-powdering specifically on that part.” Yet, there’s another major advantage to this automated solution. In the list of AM benefits you’ll no doubt hear reeled off at any given conference, one is sustainability. Unlike subtractive manufacturing, additive allows you to use up only the material you need, but what about powder that doesn’t get used? Solukon’s intention is to reclaim that residual powder, free of contamination and ready for further processing. Hartmaan concludes: “We are concentrating on the sustainability and I think [this is] a good product to have in the industry, to have a sustainable tool for reclamation of powder, recovery of powder and [provide] much more for health and safety and automation.”

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TCT SHOW REVIEW

MAKERBOT’S X FACTOR I WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS

t has been almost a year since MakerBot, one of the most instantly recognisable names in desktop 3D printing, introduced its new line of machines and gestured a new era of “performance 3D printing.” Powered by technological enhancements from parent company Stratasys, such as soluble supports and a sleek professional aesthetic, the Method was designed to bridge the gap between desktop and industrial 3D printing. Since then, the Brooklyn-based company has introduced six materials for the platform, attracted hundreds of small and large industrial customers such as PENSA, and launched the next iteration, the Method X, promising realABS printing. “The Method X has three main breakthrough technologies,” Nadav Goshen, MakerBot CEO told TCT at this year’s TCT Show. “One is the 100°C chamber. The second, because of that, we can now print with real ABS and provide the same properties as injection moulding. The third is the SR30 [support] material. By combining all of these three, we can get a part quality which looks like that.” “That”, the part in Goshen’s hand, is a functional 3D printed outdoor electrical housing, designed to withstand the elements. The part was printed in ASA (acrylonitrile styrene acrylate), the latest material in the Method’s Precision Materials library and formally unveiled at TCT Show. ASA’s high weather and chemical-resistance make it an ideal choice for 3D printing outdoor components such as electrical box covers, gardening equipment, and automotive side view mirror housings. Goshen jokes that a colleague referred to the material as “ABS on steroids” due to its similarities but with added UVresistance and heat endurance. Goshen continued: “The company that makes [the housing] wants to manufacture on a small production line because they don’t [need] millions [of these parts]. So, they use Method X to print the part. Now with ASA, they can take it even further and the durability

SHOWN: EXAMPLES OF PARTS PRINTED IN MAKERBOT ASA MATERIAL

will be much better.” Another customer is Dallas-based robotics company All Axis Robotics which is deploying the Method to manufacture custom tools and robot arm end-effectors for CNC and brake press machine tending, and part sanding. In one case, All Axis engineers designed and manufactured a custom sander as a single complex ABS part in order to automate a time-consuming manual aluminium sanding operation. The part features two sides with different grid sand pads as well as a connection for a vacuum to remove debris. According to the company’s CEO Gary Kuzmin, having a 6,500 USD machine inhouse to tackle these kinds of applications has enabled the shop’s million-dollar legacy machines to keep running. “They have so many machines and so many different applications,” Goshen commented. “They have the sander, tomorrow, they may have something else. So, they can just do a quick turnaround as they get requests from different customers. This is a new application that was not available before.” With the Method taking centre stage at TCT (there wasn’t actually a single Replicator on the booth) and the new X model dropping the original Method’s price point to an accessible 4,499 GBP, where exactly does the Replicator + fit in with this new industry-focused MakerBot?

“We’re split into two verticals. For the professional market, the Method is the solution and for education, we have the Replicator + and we still continue to invest in that,” Goshen explained. “The good thing about education is it grows with you. You want something entry-level for small kids or something which can be deployed on a much larger scale. Then when you have engineering schools, higher education, high schools, etc., then they want to go into this more professional space, and they can do the same with Method and with MakerBot.” There’s still more education needed across the market. In one conversation Goshen recalls from the show floor, an engineer spoke about how he hadn’t considered the impact of a heated build chamber on certain material properties. For Goshen, the main goal is to keep having conversations like this and show that it is very possible to tap into real manufacturing with a desktop machine.

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TCT SHOW REVIEW

REPLACEMENT PARTS SERVICE IN OPERATION WORDS: SAM DAVIES

SHOWN:

nce upon a time, an asset management company in charge of a third of the UK’s rolling stock entered York’s National Railway Museum, identified ten air conditioning vents in the driver cabins of its exhibits, and took off with them to install on trains currently in service. It was a desperate measure, made after an automotive company gave a minimum order size of 10,000 to manufacture replacements. Angel Trains is faced with a predicament like this all too often. The trains they lease are in operation, on average, for 20 years, with some having lasted half a century before being put into retirement. And while, that’s the goal for a company that generates profit by maintaining rail vehicles through regular refurbishment, those trains are also often fitted with parts that are obsolete, originally supplied by companies no longer in business, with design drawings nowhere to be found. In the case of the air vents, drivers have been known to refuse to operate trains without working air conditioning, while interior carriage parts like armrests and grab handles need to be replaced to avoid hefty Department for Transport fines. At TCT Show, Angel Trains was proud to announce that Chiltern Railways, one of its customers, had avoided those fines recently thanks to a collaboration with Stratasys. In the run up to the show, where James Brown, Data and Performance Engineer at Angel Trains, delivered the opening keynote, seven grab handles and four armrests produced with Stratasys’ Fortus 450mc Production 3D Printer in ULTEM 9085 had been installed on an inservice passenger train running out of London Marylebone station. “We saw what was going on in Germany,” Brown explained, referencing Deutsche Bahn’s prolific additive manufacture of thousands of spare parts since 2015, “saw the potential for [3D printing] and realised our supply chain wasn’t really doing anything with it. The aim behind this is to get the approvals in place, get the technology in place, and also give a bit of a kick to the supply chain. ‘Do this or we’ll do it for you.’” The armrest and grab handle components represent the first-ever compliance of 3D printed parts to the EN45545-2 UK rail industry standard having come through a number of fire, smoke and toxicity tests. Engineering consultancy DB ESG, a Deutsche Bahn company, oversaw these tests and helped to verify the design, production and finishing of the parts. They were first 3D

3D PRINTED GRAB HANDLE

scanned before design work was conducted straight from that captured data into manufacturable CAD models with automated design tools where possible. These digital models would then go through a design review process and given the green light to be manufactured. The armrests were produced within a week, a 94% lead time reduction, while the grab handles were obsolete parts that would have taken around two and a half months to produce and required a 15,000 GBP tool to be cut. With 3D printing, it took three weeks. More gains are on the way. Brown instructed the designers who worked on the parts to leave nothing to chance, modelling the armrest, for example, as a solid block of material with no geometric optimisation. With future iterations, they’re looking to halve the weight of that component. Meanwhile, around 120 other parts have so far been digitised, a target of 100 installations has been set by this time next year, Great Western Railway is the latest operator to commit to trialling printed parts in the next few months, and a digital inventory is in the works. In partnership with Stratasys and

5 ABOVE:

3D PRINTED ARMREST

DB ESG, Angel Trains is looking to put the museum raids behind them once and for all. “We want to enable a supply chain that is faster, cheaper and responsive to our operators’ needs,” Brown summarised. “And we believe digital manufacturing is the answer.”

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TCT SHOW REVIEW

PREACHING TO THE PROS R WORDS: SAM DAVIES

ows of people spill into the aisle, a glass of champagne in one hand, a smartphone stretched above the head in the other. In this industry, it can mean only one thing. At this time, at this show, it was Ultimaker launching to market the S5 Pro Bundle and the S3 desktop machine. The S5 Pro Bundle includes the Air Manager, designed to better control the build chamber’s environment, and the Material Station, which stores up to six spools of filament at sufficient humidity levels. The S3 is being brought to market as a ‘composite ready’ desktop platform that gives new adopters of 3D printing a more affordable alternative to the S5. These new product developments come as a direct consequence of the company’s open materials programme, which now has around 80 partners within it. With users having access to a wider range of materials on Ultimaker machines, and those machines being increasingly applied in professional settings, the company has sought to increase the reliability of its platforms. “Our goal is to make 3D printing easy, reliable and accessible in order to accelerate the world’s transition to digital distribution and local manufacturing,” commented Paul Heiden, Senior Vice President Product Management at Ultimaker, in a company press release. “We have heard many professional users express a need for a more enclosed 3D printing environment and we

understand the desire for good, dry material storage and smart material handling in order to reduce the risks of humidity, dust and human error. “The accessible Ultimaker S3 is capable of reliably manufacturing smaller parts and models at a price-point that removes the barrier to entry for entrepreneurs and SMEs to adopt 3D printing.” The S5 was launched at RAPID + TCT 2018, the same event in which the company’s open materials programme was announced, and now represents over half the machines the company has ever sold, per Heiden. But wanting to increase the confidence companies felt when using the printer, and recognising a demand for such an addition, the Air Manager has been integrated to provide a closed, inside-out air flow to filter 95% of ultra-fine particles created during the printing process. It also aims to help companies

meet health and safety standards and to reduce the need for their employees to tinker with the printer to maximise the quality of builds. “If there’s anything we have learnt over the years, it’s that professional users have virtually zero tolerance for experimenting,” Heiden told TCT. “They just want to use the printer as a production method. By building this top cover on the S5, we had to ensure that the print profiles that come with the materials, the Ultimaker materials or the third party materials, would be adapted in such a way that it could manage the air suction that this cover generates to ensure there is a stable chamber environment and that it doesn’t in any way influence the print results in a negative fashion.” By adding this top cover, Ultimaker’s materials partners are having to ‘adapt’ their material profiles to ensure the 4 SHOWN: THE S3 HAS BEEN DESIGNED AS A 3D PRINTING ENTRY POINT FOR SMES

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TCT SHOW REVIEW

suction of the Air Manager’s filter does not negatively impact the quality of prints. Those material adaptations have already been completed for Ultimaker-developed materials ready for launch, while S5 machines and top covers have been shipped to every material partner to do the same for their products. Heiden expects the bulk of these adjustments to be carried out within the next two months, ready for an array of filaments to be loaded into the Material Station. Up to six spools can be stored in the Material Station’s enclosed chamber, which works to maintain humidity at around 40%, a sufficient level to work from according to Ultimaker’s partners. Each spool is placed into the Material Station by hand with the end of the filament being fed into a mouth which will sense that a) the material is loaded properly, b) exactly which material product has been loaded, and c) when spools are about to run out so the machine can get ready to draw from the next one. Ultimaker’s Cura Connect software integrates with the Material Station to manage print jobs based on which machine is adequately loaded for the application. The Material Station also marks the beginning of the end for ‘one of the most iconic things about Ultimaker printers, but also one of the most annoying’ as Heiden puts it: materials are now front loaded, instead of being stored on the back side of the machine. It was 2017 when Ultimaker began to realise, though that was a nice way of presenting its machines, ergonomically it was a pain point for customers. A year later, as the company matured, its eyes were opened again. “In 2018, we delivered on our promise for an open materials system and, as a result, we noticed there were many materials that had some sort of sensitivity to humidity,” Heiden explained. “It was not just about front loading, it was also about making sure that material conditions would stay in such a way that a machine could continue to use, for instance, PVA even in somewhat humid environments that the new polyamides that were coming to market from third parties could deal with. So that was the second thing and thirdly, make sure that if a certain spool is at its end then a new spool is automatically started.”

SHOWN: FROM L TO R: ULTIMAKER’S CURA SOFTWARE, THE S5 PRO BUNDLE AND THE S3 PLATFORM

3 LEFT:

CROWDS GATHER AT TCT SHOW AS ULTIMAKER LAUNCHES THE S5 PRO BUNDLE AND S3 PRINTING SYSTEM

It is supposed these enhancements, the Air Manager and the Material Station, will lead to gains for Ultimaker’s professional customers. Materials partners DSM and BASF gave praise to the new additions to the S5 platform upon their launch, reckoning they are another step towards industrial applications for fused filament fabrication technology. That is what Ultimaker is going for, as further demonstrated by the launch of the S3. This machine is being offered as a cost-effective, almost entry-level platform for companies just starting out in their deployment of additive manufacturing for production and will displace the Ultimaker Extended 3 once current stock is sold out. Boasting a smaller build volume than the Ultimaker 3 Extended – 230 x 190 x 200 mm vs 197 x 215 x 300 mm – Ultimaker has

prioritised technical capability over size. The S5’s CC Print Core, which features a hardened nozzle that won’t falter after extruding fibre-reinforced materials, has been integrated, while the feeder wheel at the back of the machine has been replaced for similar reasons. Other features of the S3 include a heated build plate, advanced active levelling, more accurate stepper drivers, and dual filament flow sensors which will pause print jobs when filament runs out. With the adoption of its technology increasing in industrial environments, Ultimaker has committed to engineering new capabilities to keep pace with its customers as boundaries are pushed. Not only has it sought to better the control it has over the print environment on the S5, and advance the capabilities of its Ultimaker 3 line, but in doing both Ultimaker has given manufacturers more options. “People reach a certain plateau of professionalism and that’s really easily reached. They’ll use that printer every hour of the day,” Heiden said. “I think if you want to start with printing go and have an S3. If you’re one step ahead and start using 3D printing to start using the printed objects, don’t even think about buying anything else than the S5 Pro Bundle.”

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TCT SHOW REVIEW

WORDS: SAM DAVIES

t’s hard,” said Anisoprint CEO Fedor Antonov, “but it’s only possible to convince people through business cases; show that, using this process [or] this material, the characteristics, whether it’s cost or time, are twice or three times better, not just 10% or 20% because no one would be interested. “That’s what the whole additive manufacturing (AM) industry is fighting for, so we, altogether, grow the market. We try to find new niches, new business cases, bigger and bigger and bigger business cases, to get, to capture, to disrupt more of the traditional manufacturing.” That might well have been an excerpt from Antonov’s acceptance speech as his company fought off the likes of HP, AddiFab and Velo3D to take home the 2019 TCT Hardware Award for non-polymer systems on a night where it seemed each winner chose to pay tribute, or issue a rallying cry, to the rest of the industry. Turns out, the hours spent in conversation with TCT Show visitors earlier that day left Antonov bereft of little more eloquence as he excitedly, and repeatedly, gave thanks before delivering a high five to every incumbent of every seat at his table. Fortunately, we were one such conversation. At the back of Ansioprint’s TCT Show stand was one of the company’s Composite Fiber Coextrusion (CFC) desktop machines – Anisoprint currently offers the Composer A4, with a build platform of 297 x 210 x 145 mm, and the Composer A3, with a build platform of 420 x 297 x 210 mm. Both machines

are equipped with two spools of filament being fed through a single, heated dual nozzle extruder. On the right, a spool of reinforced fibre passes through a cutter and into the heated extruder head where it joins a thermoplastic polymer. The extruder then lays down the fibre and thermoplastic material to build up parts, with the layer scheme of the part orchestrating both nozzles to deposit material once at a time several times per layer. “The idea is that you take a thermoplastic material, bond stiff and strong fibres in one composite material, and this material is an order of magnitude stronger than any plastic,” Antonov said. As ever with 3D printing technologies, most of the value comes in the design of the part. That’s true of composites too, which, Antonov told a TCT Introducing Stage audience, are best suited to latticed structures because their key properties are directionally dependant due to their natural anisotropy, similar to how wood is stronger along the grain than across it. When working with composite materials on traditional manufacturing technologies, where they are hamstrung by the design limitations, it’s common for engineers to attempt to make a quasi-isotropic laminate and ‘squeeze’ the material properties in different directions. That can compromise the quality of the material. “But in lattices where you have ribs - a rib is a 1D structure - you have the fibre along the rib and it only has stresses and internal forces along the rib,” states Antonov. “That’s why our approach is called Anisoprinting because we believe that4

5 ABOVE:

ANISOPRINT DESKTOP COMPOSER PLATFORM

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TCT SHOW REVIEW

3 LEFT:

ROBOTIC BRACKET PRINTED WITH CFC

anisotropic properties of material are not a disadvantage, but are a big advantage, because if you have control of the anisotropic properties, you can focus them in the right direction. You can not only optimise the shape of the part, but also the internal structure of the part.” CFC allows users to implement four different types of fibre infill in their parts, as displayed by four sample parts manufactured by Schunk Carbon Technology on Anisoprint’s TCT Show stand (shown below). Among that selection is a solid infill part, where solid fibres sit next to each other in different directions, or three lattice options: Anisogrid reinforced infill, rhombic reinforced infill, and reinforced perimeters. Meanwhile, Antonov spotlighted some industrial applications during his talk including a clevis for a dairy company’s production line which moved bottles around and needed to be able to resist hydrogen peroxide and an aircraft seat support which is projected to save up to $50,000 a year in cost thanks to a 40% weight reduction. Notably, these are components that would typically be made in metal with solid infills, and, as per the t-shirts adorned by the Anisoprint team at TCT

5 ABOVE:

FEDOR ANTONOV & TCT AWARDS HOST GEORGIE BARRAT

Show, the company is all about stopping ‘metal thinking’. “Metal thinking is what engineers do with composites today,” Antonov said. “They try to make this quasi isotropic thing which would work almost exactly as a metal plate would and they mill it and drill it and cut it, damaging the fibres, introducing defects inside like delamination. We believe this is the wrong way of thinking. They shouldn’t do that with composite material, you should keep fibres intact for them to work properly.” Anisoprint, a 17-strong team made up mostly of engineers, knows that better than anyone. The company oversees the development of fibres for its CFC technology and currently offers both carbon, for high-performance applications, and basalt, as a cheaper option. More fibres are being worked on at its R&D base in Russia. Meanwhile,

most machine sales are done through regional resellers. Composer platforms have been available in Germany since Formnext 2018; in France, Belgium and the Netherlands since spring; and in the UK as of September when iMakr was announced as a distribution partner. Anisoprint deploys a team of application engineers to work closely with these partners and aid customers as they get to grips with CFC. The company sees suitable applications in several vertical markets, with jigs, fixtures and tooling being highlighted as the obvious low hanging fruit and spare parts also being touted in the mobility sector. But Anisoprint wants to cater for bigger parts too and this autumn will unveil the Composer A2. It will come with an increased build platform to satisfy the industry demand for larger printed parts, advanced features to guarantee superior productivity and, such is the nature of carbon fibre reinforcement, should actually be easier to use. “The bigger the part, the bigger the savings. Everything is related to volume,” Antonov said. “You can make people interested with these small pieces, but they are much more interested when they start talking about bigger parts. And, actually, the [CFC] technology works much better on bigger parts, because the fibre has a certain layer thickness tolerance, there’s still some limitations when you try to place the fibre in a tiny part. “In this range from 300mm to 1m, there is no real offer,” he continued, in reference to composite machines currently on the market. “You might have large metal printers like Electron Beam or something like that, but that’s metal. [Manufacturers] do one metre, one and a half metre tools with metal, but to move those tools around the shop you need cranes or trolleys, and that’s where composites can bring the extra value. It will have the same stiffness and strength as metal, but many times lighter so you can carry it easily.” Further along Anisoprint’s R&D roadmap, bigger machines again will be introduced, more and more fibres too, and, in the company’s ideal world, composite manufacturing will no longer be restrained by ‘metal thinking’. In years to come, Anisoprint wants to see composite moulds carried across shop floors, rather than metal ones trolleyed; it wants to see latticed components in the cabin of aeroplanes, rather than solid blocks of material; it wants to see Antonov back up on stage, with a heart full of thanks, and a hand full of a TCT Application Award.

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TCT SHOW REVIEW

ENTER, THE ENDUREAL I WORDS: LAURA GRIFFITHS

n the weeks leading up to TCT Show, Polish 3D printer manufacturer Zortrax teased a new product launch to coincide with this year’s TCT Show. With nothing but a short video centred on a “real 3rd generation 3D printer” and a not so subtle hint to PEEK, that machine was eventually revealed to be the Endureal, Zortrax’s largest machine to date, geared towards high-temperature materials.

Referencing a paper by Manuel GarciaLeiner in PEEK Biomaterials Handbook, Zortrax defines third generation 3D printers as those that have been built from the ground up to process highperformance polymers. The Endureal meets the criteria as an extrusion-based system with a closed build chamber which can be set to any value up to 200 degrees Celsius. Improving on its previous generation dual-extrusion Inventure printer, the Endureal has thermally shielded zones to keep all components at optimal temperatures

so that even when the chamber is at maximum temperature, the extruder and filament cables are kept at around 50 degrees Celsius.

The machine features a sizeable build volume of 300 x 400 x 300 mm and a number of new features focused on reliability. A Blackout Response System has been designed to save the exact position of the print head and resume at exactly the same spot should a job be interrupted. Given the large build volume, Zortrax believes this feature will be particularly useful for lengthy prints to minimise build failures in the event of a power outage or similar disruption. Additional sensors – 16 overall – have been installed to detect filament shortages or jams and calibrate the machine. The main goal of many of these sensors is safety, according to Zortrax:

“The Endureal is intended to work in industrial applications where cost of failure is usually very high,” Karolina Bołądź, Board Member at Zortrax, told TCT. “That’s why we think focus on safety is so important. In an industrial setting, a 3D printer quite often is just a part of a wider system. A failure to print a critical component can bring an entire production line to a halt and that can lead to immense losses. That’s why we have designed the Endureal to minimise failures and bring the lost time to an absolute minimum when failures happen.” Zortrax is doing so with sensors that monitor critical components to prevent overheating and detect any problems with parts such as the extruder or fans. Zortrax says the idea is to ensure seamless operation over long periods of constant use. The Endureal is designed to process highperformance polymers demanded by its target audience of aerospace, automotive, and manufacturing sectors. One of those materials is PEEK, a notoriously challenging material to print with that is also high on the wish list of several industries such as automotive, aerospace and medical due to its high heat and chemical resistance and durability. “Considering the growing interest in PEEK in both industry and academia, we believe PEEK printing capability is very crucial to making an industrial 3D printer future-proof,” Bołądź said. “Polymers the Endureal is compatible with, like PEEK, have excellent mechanical and thermal properties. They are comparable to aluminium but much lighter.” Similar to the Inventure, the Endureal will allow users to print soluble support via a dual-extrusion system. The machine also features two closed filament compartments to keep materials at controlled temperature and humidity levels and is said to also dry fresh filaments to ensure the best print conditions. Bołądź added: “One of the features making the Endureal stand apart is going to be an ability to print PEEK with a soluble support material designed specifically to work at very high temperatures necessary for PEEK. This enables printing virtually all shapes out of PEEK. That’s one of the things making the Endureal an incredibly powerful tool in the right hands.” Endureal is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2020. Pricing details haven’t been finalised but Zortrax confirms the machine will be “very price-competitive” compared to similarly capable machines on the market.

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THE ENDUREAL IS ZORTRAX’S “3RD GENERATION 3D PRINTER”

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TCT SHOW REVIEW

THE AM UK NATIONAL STRATEGY TWO YEARS ON: A PANEL SESSION

uring TCT Show 2017, Additive Manufacturing UK launched the AM UK National Strategy, which was a fully costed analysis of how the country can stay on top of the additive manufacturing game. As an early adopter, the UK is placed highly on install lists, with most pointing to the UK being in the top five and its academic institutes like Nottingham and Sheffield are renowned for their expertise. The launch of AM UK’s document was closely followed by the Government’s Industrial Strategy, which, on the surface, seemed to largely ignore the findings of AM UK; much to the chagrin of many in the industry. At this year’s show Head of Content Daniel O’Connor sat down with some of the key players involved in the original AM UK steering groups to see where, two years down the line, we’re at. This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity. Moderator: Daniel O’Connor (DOC) Panelists: 1. Frank Cooper (FC), Associate Head for Industry and Enterprise at Birmingham City University School of Jewellery 2. Nicole Ballentine (NB), Knowledge Transfer Manager – Manufacturing at KTN 3. Jonathan Rowley (JR), Architect and former Design Director at 3D Printing Service Bureau 4. James Logan (JL), UK Collaborative R&D Funding Manager at MTC 5. P aul Unwin (PU), Co-Chair (Industrial) Strategy Steering Group of Additive Manufacturing UK

DOC: What would you say we are actually good at here in the UK? FC: Well, we’re really good at making jewellery! We’re also good at being innovative and costeffective about our designs. NB: I see lots of small, agile manufacturers and I absolutely agree. We also have some fantastic research here but what we’re perhaps not so good at is the commercialisation of that research. PU: The government has put in a pot of £200 million into additive manufacturing since 2012/13 and we’ve become very good right across the technologies. We’re very good at manufacturing machines, the post-processing, the non-destructive testing, really understanding the complete process. But I agree with Nicola, one of the biggest problems we have is commercialisation.

DOC: How are we going about the challenge of imparting all this AM knowledge into SMEs in the UK? NB: Additive manufacturing technology is so broad-ranging and the message is potentially quite fragmented from OEMs. An OEM will go in to sell their technology, as opposed to what AM can do for manufacturers themselves. What we’re trying to do at the KTN is to dispel some of the myths and show how the technology can be used, right from the very small machines to the very large metal additive machines. We’re showing how it can be used for a number of different applications. It’s not just about jewellery design, and it’s not just about implants, but that it can be used in so many different ways. DOC: On that point, and I’ll throw this open, did we lose our way with the messaging of the technology in shouting about series production and neglecting the more mundane applications? 4

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TCT SHOW REVIEW

PU: One of the biggest challenges we’ve got to get through in the next few years is helping manufacturers with the application process and picking out the right technologies. We all know that we’ve got to go to the train station to catch the train, but we don’t know which platform to get on, we don’t know which train it is, we don’t know what stations it’s going to stop at, and we don’t know how much it’s going to cost. And it’s exactly the same in AM, there are tens of thousands of manufacturers in Britain, and too few understand AM. They all recognise 3D printing, but they don’t really understand what it can actually do for their business. JR: When I travel up from London to places like Birmingham on the train, you trundle slowly through an industrial estate where there are little enterprises inside of which people are making things. The frustration I feel is knowing that they are not engaged in this

“ONE OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES WE’VE GOT TO GET THROUGH IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS IS HELPING MANUFACTURERS WITH THE APPLICATION PROCESS AND PICKING OUT THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGIES.”

technology on any level whatsoever. There are any number of small applications they could use AM for on a very modest level. Not investing in an expensive machine, but doing a little bit of research and sourcing that from intelligent bureaus. One of the real problems with that adoption, from my perspective, is the use of language within this industry. When people do start looking into AM, what they hear is that it’s for high value manufacturing and if you’re not listening very carefully, you think oh, that’s for making expensive things. They also hear that they need to be adopting it, and if you’re not listening that carefully, adoption to them, that means buying it. Adopting AM is not about buying machines, it’s about using it. Of course, it’s got a place for people like Rolls Royce and JLR, but UK industry is not just that top tier. There are purposeful applications for all within this and if the UK economy and UK industry is going to pick up on that, it’s got to be from the bottom up. Someone needs to light a fire underneath that the bottom tier. 4

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TCT SHOW REVIEW

JL: There are fantastic companies out there with great machine needs and those are the ones who need to be looking at where the opportunities are coming from within the UK and for UK PLC. The likes of the aerospace sector is still very strong in the UK, and will continue to be so, as will motorsports and automotive. If you can gather together an impetus from a group of people who are willing to work together to create standards and the qualification processes, then it brings along that massive tier of companies that come underneath. DOC: Frank, you work with companies big and small, are you seeing the trickle down of adoption? FC: The jewellery industry is a bit of an anomaly in the 3D printing world; we’ve been 3D printing for 20 years. It’s an accepted process so we don’t face the same issues that the other industrial sectors do. Our students leave school with a working knowledge of CAD and the variety of AM technologies they may encounter. We all know that the key is getting the information out there to those who don’t know what’s going on. I’m looking at some of the people on this panel and wondering is that not part of your remit? PU: It is. We’ve recently had a meeting with nine of the trade associations representing sectors like healthcare and metals castings. Their memberships have such a broad reach right down to the company that doesn’t want to be splashed around the headlines, they just want to get on and do the job. Those nine associations represent about 20,000 manufacturers, you only need a small number of those to actually say that there is something in AM for them for the industry to take off. We’ve got the publicly available specifications, we can disseminate

that down to all those SMEs to help them and in return, we need their feedback What’s their stumbling blocks? We know from the strategy, what the 26 major specific hurdles were, but we need an update on that. The way that we have government funding really is focused more on the research and innovation, rather than on adoption. Take what the team at KTN has done, a very small team, their breakfast meetings now working alongside the MTC have done a fantastic job of getting out into the community. But that was a small amount of money compared to the £200 million that we spent on research and innovation, which was correct but now we need to focus on adoption. DOC: Nicole, when you’re talking to these SMEs at the breakfast meetings what are the recurring themes? NB: When you get a good technology agnostic applications engineer walk the production

line with an SME manufacturer armed with some good case studies, that really makes a difference. If you can show them that they can replace their storeroom full of jigs and fixtures with digital versions and can have assemblies of parts consolidated, and they can see the real money-saving productivity improvements, then you’re preaching to the converted. But maybe we don’t have enough of those applications engineers. JR: So often, in my experience, we’ve had people come to us with a CAD file of an object that they would love to be able to 3D print. If that file is 3D printable, they take one look at the cost and think it’s not for me. Meanwhile, I know back at the factory, there are 50 other objects that they will not have identified that are much better candidates to get going on. Those kind of house calls from the KTN are incredibly powerful. We need a little army.

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TCT SHOW REVIEW

NEWS FROM THE SHOW FLOOR RAISE3D LAUNCHES EDUCATION-FOCUSED E2 3D PRINTER 3D printer manufacturer Raise3D launched its latest machine the E2 initiating a new line of open, multipurpose machines aimed at specific materials, applications and industries. The E2 will focus exclusively on the education sector when it starts shipping to Europe in November at a reduced price of 2,499 EUR (plus VAT). The E2 features a flexible build plate with a print volume of 330 x 240 x 240 mm supported by automatic bed levelling. Independent dual extruders allow for mirrored and duplicate printing,

while power save options and automatic print pausing offer an improved user experience. Edward Feng, Raise3D’s global CEO, explained: “Just like automobiles, we know some drivers prefer the manual gearbox to automatic transmission and vice-versa, so we believe the new features will be vitally important for the type of future users we expect from a variety of industries”. Raise3D says the E2 will also be compatible with its RaiseCloud print management software, Open Filament

Programme, and new RaiseFactory desktop 3D printing solution which is set to launch in Europe at Formnext.

3D SYSTEMS UNVEILS LATEST FIGURE 4 MATERIALS 3D Systems unveiled its latest Figure 4 materials including Production Black 10, the first 3D printable photopolymer from the company to exhibit thermoplastic behaviours. 3D Systems says the material works with a simple isopropyl alcohol (IPA) wash and does not require a secondary thermal post-cure process, which significantly improves throughput yield and reduces extensive solvent cleaning cycles needed with other technologies. Customer tests show the material is allowing parts to be delivered up to four times faster compared to existing 3D printing methodologies. The company also announced an additional four Figure 4 materials including; EGGSHELL-AMB 10 for the

production of sacrificial tooling for casting true silicone components; HI TEMP 300-AMB, an ultra-high temperature (300 Celsius) rigid plastic suitable for production applications; FLEX-BLK 20, a durable, flexible, high impact, fatigue resistant material for functional assemblies and prototypes; and RUBBER-BLK 10, a high-tear strength, malleable, material designed for prototyping hard, rubber-like parts. Menno Ellis, senior Vice President and General Manager, Plastics, 3D Systems, commented: “The release of our newest Figure 4 materials enables production of parts through additive across the entire product development and production value chain – an industry breakthrough unparalleled by competitive offerings.”

GET MORE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING INSIGHTS WITH OUR PODCAST As always, TCT Show provided plenty of food for thought on the latest developments and challenges facing the design-tomanufacturing industry. Across three days on the Insights Stage, the TCT editorial team sat down with influential figures in the additive manufacturing sector for a live podcast to talk about how far the industry has come and where it intends to go. Industry veteran Graham Tromans shared some war stories on 3D printing in the early days, while Dr Phil Reeves offered his thoughts on the current state of additive manufacturing technologies. You can catch up on these conversations, along with our TCT Awards coverage, by downloading the latest Additive Insight podcasts.

Listen and subscribe at mytct.co/AdditiveInsight 27.6 / www.tctmagazine.com / 071

TCT AWARDS 2019 AND THE WINNERS ARE... FORD MOTOR COMPANY, RIDDELL AND HISTORIC ROYAL PALACES WERE JUST SOME OF THE NAMES AMONGST THE DESIGN-TO-MANUFACTURING INNOVATORS, APPLICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGIES CELEBRATED AT THE THIRD-ANNUAL TCT AWARDS. TCT Aerospace Application Award 2019

TCT Automotive Application Award 2019

TCT Consumer Product Application Award 2019

WINNER

Project: Veripart Digital Supply Chain Technology Lead: Moog Inc End User: Air New Zealand Partners: Microsoft; ST Engineering In a world first experiment, Moog’s blockchain enabled VeriPart process was utilised to create a point of use, time of need digital supply chain. The proof of concept had Air New Zealand order a digital aircraft part from Singapore-based ST Engineering. The digital file was immediately sent to an approved printer in LA, 3D printed and installed on an Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300 aircraft 30 minutes after landing.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Project: Rocket Engine Combustion Chamber Technology Lead: Frazer-Nash Manufacturing End User: Skyrora Partners: Renishaw

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Project: Automated Design of Jigs & Fixtures Technology Lead: trinckle End User: Ford Motor Company Partners: Ultimaker B.V.

Project: Precision Diamond Helmet Liner Technology Lead: Carbon End User: Riddell

Ford and trinckle partnered to enhance the use of AM in the production of labelling jigs and fixtures. Through the development of an internal application using trinckle’s paramate software, the design of AM jigs has been automated, reducing design time from 2-4 hours to 10 minutes and saving up to 50% of the total costs.

Carbon and Riddell partnered to produce the first ever digitally printed helmet liner for the SpeedFlex Precision Diamond football helmet. Athlete data from Riddell’s proprietary database of 5 million head impacts was used to create this next-gen protection precisely contoured to the athlete’s head, incorporating intricate, bespoke lattice structures with custom energy absorbing materials developed by Carbon.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Project: PSPM Ball-Joint Exhaust System Technology Lead: Poly-Shape End User: Pipo Moteurs

Project: Home Appliance Spare Parts Technology Lead: Spare Parts 3D End User: Whirlpool EMEA

TCT AWARDS

TCT Creative Application Award 2019

WINNER

3D systems used a digital scan-to-CAD workflow alongside SLS printing and intricate post-processing techniques to produce 72 replicas of ornately carved dragons for Historic Royal Palaces. Missing from a UNESCO World Heritage Site for over 200 years, the replica pieces were a lighter weight, longer lasting alternative to direct replacement of the wooden pieces and were achieved in a much quicker timescale.

TCT Healthcare Application Award 2019

TCT Industrial Product Application Award 2019

TCT Hardware Award 2019 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Non-polymer systems

WINNER

Project: Replica Dragon Conservation Project Technology Lead: 3D Systems End User: Historic Royal Palaces Partners: Paul Jewby Master Carver

Project: Neuroinfuse Drug Delivery System Technology Lead: Renishaw plc End User: North Bristol NHS Trust Partners: The Harley Street Clinic; Herantis Pharma pl A 3D printed titanium port was developed to allow accessibility to the brain as part of the neuroinfuse drug delivery system which allows pharmaceuticals to bypass the bloodbrain barrier for ongoing treatment of neuro disorders. The port features a roughened surface below the skin to encourage bone integration, and a polished surface above the skin to discourage bacterial settlement.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Project: Biomimetic Regenerative Scaffold Technology Lead: Osteopore International Pte Ltd End User: Queensland University of Technology Partners: Julius-Maximilians University Wurzburg; Princess Alexandra Hospital, Australia

Project: Industrial Robot Dough Cutting Knife Technology Lead: K3D B.V End User: Kaak Group Partners: Additive Industries; Civon Project An industrial robot dough cutting knife was redesigned for powder bed fusion leading to a myriad of benefits including part reduction of 20 to 1 and weight reduction of 90%. Unique AM improvements include porous structures for better cleaning as well as an inbuilt bearing, leaf spring and thread. This led to more cuts per hour reducing the need from 8 to 6 robots and saving 120,000 Euro.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Project: Generatively Designed AM Workholding Technology Lead: Matsuura Machinery Ltd Partners: Autodesk; HP

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Project: Church Retable Technology Lead: FIT AG End User: Pfarrei St Laurentius Altmuhldorf Partners: Kunstlerduo Empfangshalle Munchen; Studio Tessin

Project: CFC Technology Technology Lead: Anisoprint S.a.r.l Anisoprint S.a.r.l have developed Continuous Composite Fibre Co-extrusion (CFC) technology which can produce parts which it says are several times stronger, lighter and cheaper than single material metal or polymer parts. The process can use different combinations of polymers and fibres, as well as extrude each filament at different rates to produce local variation in mechanical properties of the printed part.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Project: Sapphire System Technology Lead: Velo 3D

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TCT AWARDS

TCT Hardware Award 2019 – Polymer systems

WINNER

Micro AM provides an end-to-end solution bespoke to manufacturers requiring micron and sub-micron levels of resolution and surface finish. Nanofabrica’s technology allows the repeatable mass manufacture of micro parts and components via additive manufacturing for manufacturers that previously had to rely on disproportionately expensive and nonagile manufacturing technologies such as micro moulding.

TCT Materials Award 2019 – Non-polymers

TCT Materials Award 2019 – Polymers

TCT Post-Processing Award 2019

WINNER

Project: MIcro AM Technology Lead: Nanofabrica

Project: XJet S100 Soluble Support Technology Lead: Xjet XJet S100 is the only 100% soluble support material in the additive manufacturing of stainless-steel that has fully automated support removal. It brings huge advantages to the user in geometric freedom, preservation of fine details and smooth surfaces, as well as huge savings in post-processing labour time and cost.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Project: Vibenite 480, Cemented Carbide Technology Lead: VBN Components AB Partners: Uppsala University

Project: Formlabs Draft Resin Technology Lead: Formlabs Draft Resin is the fastest-printing resin from Formlabs, making it ideal for rapid prototyping. Parts printed with Draft Resin print three to four times quicker than parts printed with other Formlabs general purpose resins. The print speed of Draft Resin makes it ideal for sameday design iterations and printing bulky, full build volume parts.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Project: Filamentive ONE PET Technology Lead: Fliamentive Ltd Partners: Tridea; MCPP Netherlands

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Project: Low Force Stereolithography Technology Lead: FormLabs

Project: Intelligent de-powdering Technology Lead: Siemens AG Partners: Solukon Maschinenbau GmbH Partnering Solukon’s SFM depowdering technology with Siemens’ software has enabled a unique solution for powder removal of DMLM parts. The parts are rotated in a sequence calculated from the CAD geometry to precisely drain the residual powder from intricate cavities such as conformal cooling channels. This not only saves manual labour time, but also reduces waste powder and scrap parts due to powder residue issues.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Project: H6000 Technology Lead: Hirtenberger Engineered Surfaces

27.6 / www.tctmagazine.com / 075

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TCT AWARDS

TCT Software Award 2019

WINNER

nTop Platform is a unified engineering environment for design, simulation and advanced manufacturing processes. It is said to be the only design solution that allows engineers to simultaneously consider function, geometry, and manufacturing within a single computational methodology. Engineers can create lightweight and optimised parts with functional requirements built in.

TCT Inspex Hardware Award 2019

TCT Inspex Application Award 2019

TCT Rising Star Award 2019

WINNER

Project: nTop Platform Technology Lead: nTopology

Project: FARO OPTOR LAB Technology Lead: Faro Optor Lab is a 3D dental scanner that combines all kinds of dental professional needs to support a digital workflow. This all-in-one 3D scanning device with its flexible modules is both an ideal entry-level solution and advanced desktop 3D scanner. The flexibility in features and the open structure is built for convenient desktop scanning applications in any dental laboratory.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Project: Ophir BeamWatch AM Technology Lead: MKS Instruments

Project: Non Destructive Imaging in Forensics Technology Lead: University of Warwick End User: West Midlands Police Partners: Crown Prosecution Service; University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire Numerous criminal cases have benefited from a range of scanning and multi material 3D printing technologies that have, up until now, not been readily available within the Criminal Justice System. This technology has been used to provide evidence in over 120 homicide cases for over 14 police forces throughout the UK and overseas.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Project: Heritage Forensics Technology Lead: University of Warwick End User: Oxford University Museum of Natural History

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Project: Dyndrite Additive Toolkit Technology Lead: Dyndrite Corporation

VELO 3D

California-based Velo3Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Intelligent Fusion technology was developed to deliver support-free metal additive manufacturing and reduce the need to re-design production parts for additive. Launched last year, the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sapphire System and Flow print preparation software has already been adopted by a number of largescale service providers and aerospace customers such as Boom Supersonic to produce parts for its XB-1 demonstrator aircraft.

HIGHLY COMMENDED Spectroplast AG

27.6 / www.tctmagazine.com / 077

TCT Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award

TCT AWARDS

PROFESSOR WAI YEE YEONG

Professor Wai Yee Yeong took home the first-ever ‘Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award’ presented in collaboration with Women in 3D Printing. Shortlisted by leaders across the Wi3DP network, Prof. Yeong was nominated alongside Melanie Lang, Laura Gilmour and Katherine Prescott and selected via a global public vote. Active in 3D printing research since 2004, Prof. Yeong has created multiple frontiers in 3D printing, taking the lead in 3D bioprinting, electronics printing and metal printing research. Currently serving as Program Director at the Singapore Centre in 3D Printing (SC3DP), Prof. Yeong has contributed more than 130 technical papers, generating more than 3,000 citations, and co-authored two textbooks. As an educator, Prof.

Yeong continues to improve the care of students as the Associate Chair (Students) at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological University. Kadine James, UK Chair of Women in 3D Printing, said: “It’s a huge honour to have presented the TCT Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award 2019 which celebrates and shines a wonderful spotlight on all of the trail blazing women, pioneering the use of additive manufacturing technologies across the globe. “We must encourage more women and girls into tech careers and amplify the importance of equality and diversity within our remarkable industry. Many congratulations to all of our superb nominees and to our incredible winner. You are all inspirational.”

TCT Hall of Fame

PROFESSOR GIDEON LEVY Professor Gideon Levy’s work both academically and industrially has unlocked additive technologies across the broad spectrum of manufacturing. Shortlisted by his peers, Prof Levy fought off stiff competition in the public vote from the likes of Graham Tromans, Phill Dickens, Todd Grimm and Terry Wohlers. After studying mechanical engineering, Gideon became a fellow at The International Academy for Production Engneering - CIRP where he first heard the MIT presentation on 3D Printing.

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In 1996, Gideon moved from executive positions in industry to academia to become a Professor of Mechatronics at the University of Applied Sciences, St Gallen Switzerland. It was here that he set up the RPD (Rapid Product Development) Institute which included both SLA and SLS systems; it was the latter technology that Prof Levy completely revolutionised.

Levy’s group were challenged to create a more repeatable and durable material for SLS. In March 1997, PA12 material (commercialised as DuraForm PA) for SLS was shown to the world and it has gone on to be one of 3D printing’s most commonly used materials. “Intensive research and process understanding enabled us to achieve similar geometrical and mechanical properties to today’s materials,” Professor Levy tells TCT. “The PA12 material was followed by many other filled, compounded and new grades like semi-crystallin and amorph grades with specific targeted properties or applications such as stiffness or polystyrene for investment castings patterns.” Prof Levy went on to work with many of the technologies in use today. He currently holds over 30 patents, has published over 250 scientific and technical publications and is presently consulting significant players at Technology Turn Around (TTA).

THROUGH THE DOORS

ADDITIVE COMMITMENT WORDS: DANIEL O’CONNOR

HEAD OF CONTENT DAN O’CONNOR ON HIS WHISTLE STOP TOUR TO GE ADDITIVE’S NEW BAVARIAN CAMPUS.

last-minute decision to attend the opening of GE Additive’s Lichtenfels Campus meant my route was circuitous and my time to prepare for interviews limited. Arriving at my hotel I was trying to figure out the last time I was in town visiting the company GE acquired as part of a 1.5 billion USD deal, Concept Laser. Through the powers of Google Photos, I realised that it was, in fact, five years ago to the day since I took part in Concept’s 2014 user group. In many ways a lot has changed in half-adecade; gone is the Concept Laser orange colour scheme, in is GE Additive’s blue and white, the workforce is four times larger and the new facility has that smart factory, Industry 4.0 feel you tend only to get from multinationals. What hasn’t changed is the team-spirit that Concept Laser Founder and CEO Frank Herzog instilled with his commitment to the code of honour that is the Deutsche Mittelstand. “Behind the companies there are owners and we have a responsibility to take care of the people,” Frank Herzog told me five years ago. “The people that work for us, who we have a SHOWN: GE ADDITIVE’S NEW FACILITY

responsibility to as a long-term employer; being a reliable partner the people that are our customers; and the people in our local surrounding, who we support by the sponsorship of social and sporting activities. We are a community.” After working to bring the metal additive manufacturing technology to market for the best part of two decades, Frank and his wife Kerstin undoubtedly made a great deal of money in the deal with GE. One would forgive the pair for jetting off to a tropical paradise, but such is Frank’s dedication to additive manufacturing in Bavaria, he has overseen the integration between the two companies at the Lichtenfels site and GE Addtive’s CEO, Jason Oliver called the new campus ‘Frank’s Vision’. “Mohammad Ehteshami [the VP of additive integration at GE at the time of acquisition] asked me really to make a plan for how we want to ramp up here in Lichtenfels,” Frank said at the grand-opening. “The result is this

campus here, it hits the numbers of machines we need to produce, and it has the flexibility to shape what we do in the future.” The new 40,000 square metre facility will replace what is currently 26 different buildings all with different functionalities. The campus’s singularity is, for a man so focussed on community, the most important feature. “We’re a family,” says Frank. “You’re only working when you’re together, when you’re sitting together on a table in the evening [having] dinner together, it’s the same here, for efficient working and collaborating, I think you need to be together. The character of this building is like a university campus; we have open offices, we have silent working areas, we have meeting areas to exchange ideas, we have a nice canteen; people have the chance again to work closely together and to create. Concept Laser had its own culture and this4

27.6 / www.tctmagazine.com / 079

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THROUGH THE DOORS

The production of the M2, M Line, X Line and Mlab machines will ultimately move in its entirety to these two long bright and airy corridors. The facility houses shipping and receiving areas, it has a warehouse facility, it has a walled off R&D lab where the team will work on the next generation of macines, and the entire front side of the building facing the autobahn will be dedicated office space for the admin, accounts and customer service teams.

SHOWN: JASON OLIVER, PRESIDENT & CEO, GE ADDITIVE, KERSTIN AND FRANK HERZOG, FOUNDERS OF CONCEPT LASER

will change. The new culture will be a mixture of GE and Concept Laser culture, Arcam will add colour to this culture, it’s the GE Additive culture.”

come from, and we have real plans to achieve that. In the future, there will be plenty of hiring and more machines coming out the door.”

There isn’t anybody more embracing of the new culture than GE Additive CEO Jason Oliver. Jason delivered a speech to the gathered employees and dignitaries in wordperfect German.

I was given a tour of the facility by GE Additive’s Andrew Simpson, Pascal Krause and Wolfgang Lauer, all of whom have been involved in the new facility from the ground up. For those that have worked in the other Lichtenfels facility, there is more to being under one roof than ideas of culture and future, there’s a much more practical benefit.

“This campus represents a commitment to Lichtenfels,” extolls Jason. “A commitment to Bavaria, a commitment to Germany, and a commitment to Frank and the people that have built Concept Laser. An investment in the campus of 150 million euros tells you that we are committed to the industry, we know about where the growth is going to

“Do you need to ask somebody a question?” asks Pascal. “Now, instead of having to run three kilometres,”

The building itself looks every bit as good as those renders you see of factories of the future in presentations. It has the flexibility to add automation to the production/ assembly process and Jason Oliver is keen that the facility echoes the technology GE Additive is going to produce: “Automation is absolutely key. If you look at our latest product line that we will manufacture here in this facility, the M Line, that has a lot of automation already built in, where you’re now not touching powder at all. It’s highly efficient and we’ll have whole factories based on that kind of concept, where you have full production lines connected.” Although Jason has the vision for the future, coming from the world of 2D printing where speed and reliability is king, Jason is all too aware that those are the two areas metal additive manufacturing needs to address now. The GE Additive Campus and team here in Lichtenfels certainly seems like it has the wherewithal to do so.

“In the rain and the snow,” Wolfgang interjects. “Now it’s only 200 metres.”

SHOWN: GE ADDITIVE TEAM CUTS RIBBON ON NEW CAMPUS

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Additive

Innovation. Quality. Partnership. Additive Manufacturing Systems

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TCT CONFERENCE @ FORMNEXT 2019 PREVIEW

he TCT Conference @ Formnext returns for its fifth year in 2019. Bringing together thought-leadership, the latest research and most fascinating application studies, the four day line-up has been curated by TCT’s conference team. Over the next two pages, we’ve asked Conference Producer Magda Brzegowy to select some of her session highlights. For the full programme and ticketing head to: www.tctconferenceformnext.com

19 DAY 1 I TUESDAY I 19TH NOVEMBER STAGE 1 AND 2 | 10:00-10:30 AM IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION Maximilian Meixlsperger | Head of AM Metal | BMW Group This presentation will address the challenges of additive manufacturing (AM) technology with aspects like cost efficiency against conventional production technologies but also along the process chain and in the mindset of organisations. The keynote will show the potential of AM in the automotive industry from BMW Group’s point of view, and lead to possible approaches and necessary developments, for example, for machine manufacturers to overcome the challenges and reach the tipping point for the full industrial use. The session will also give insights into how the BMW Group as an organisation handles the challenges and how the BMW Group wants to bring AM to industrial scale production through clear specifications of requirements as well as processes and development targets.

components in real dimensions for rapid design validation or for pre-series components, and the spare parts business. In this presentation, André Bialoscek, Head of Vehicle Physical Integration Hennigsdorf, Bombardier, will focus on a range of application examples of AM in existing accident and refurbishment vehicles, as well as new vehicle developments.

20 DAY 2 I WEDNESDAY I 20TH NOVEMBER STAGE 1 | 14:30-15:00 AM STANDARDISATION IN THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY Dr Khalid Rafi | Senior Lead, AM Program Development | ASTM The unique characteristics of AM in making a product, introduces new possibilities to the entire healthcare sector. Despite these potential opportunities, the industry is still very cautious in adopting the technology to its fullest potential. The nuances associated with the technology and the materials used can introduce new challenges in meeting the regulatory requirements. Meeting those regulatory requirements

and the wider adoption of the technology can be facilitated only through standardisation. This presentation will focus on those requirements and the current standards development initiatives to accelerate the adoption of AM in healthcare. STAGE 2 | 13:15-13:45 THE PRESENT STATE AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF LARGE SCALE ALUMINUM ADDITIVE MANUFACTURE Kwasi Ayarkwa | Research Engineer in Fusion Welding | MTC - The Manufacturing Technology Centre Wire + arc additive manufacture (WAAM) continues to attract interest particularly in automotive and defense sectors to produce medium to large scale aluminum components. End users and manufacturers are pushing the technology to achieve robust and stable aluminum builds. The presented topic will review stateof-the-art of wire + arc additive manufacture processes that have been used for aluminum components. An overview of the current challenges in processing is considered to better understand the readiness level of the technologies available.4

10:30-11:00 HOW THE RAIL INDUSTRY CAN BENEFIT FROM AM André Bialoscek | Head of Vehicle Physical Integration Hennigsdorf | Bombardier The railway industry is not considered by experts as a pioneer when it comes to introducing new materials and manufacturing processes. However, in this industry, the benefits of AM can have a transformational impact on the traditional supply chain and spare part production. It is of the upmost importance to minimise time-to-market. This is exactly where AM provides its main advantages; cost-effective manufacturing from batch size 1,

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21 DAY 3 I THURSDAY I 21ST NOVEMBER STAGE 1 | 15:00-15:30 ALL QUALITY CONTROL – BUILD JOB MONITORING WITH NEAR-NET-SHAPE SPECIMENS Anne Rathje | AM Process Engineer | Baker Hughes A GE Company Direct metal laser melting (DMLM) is of great interest regarding the fabrication of metallic components. However, production individualisation poses the challenge of assuring the quality and consistency of each single part produced, which is often achieved using mechanical witness test specimens. Witness specimens for quality control and build job monitoring require a machined surface condition. This leads to an increased effort in specimen manufacturing, as well as the application of material properties obtained from specimens with machined surfaces, which may not always reflect the mechanical properties of AM components. Within this contribution, the effect of the surface quality of tensile and Charpy impact specimens, manufactured with DMLM, is presented by comparing the mechanical and surface properties. STAGE 2 | 11:45-12:15 SENSOR INTEGRATION IN PLASTIC AND METAL AM PARTS BASED ON TWO INDUSTRIAL USE CASES Philipp Stoll | Scientific Assistant | inspire AG, icams This talk presents the feasibility of sensor integration, both in plastic and in metal parts, based on two industrial use cases. First, for a value manufactured with stainless steel, the integration of both temperature and position sensors during the production with selective laser melting will be shown. The second industrially relevant application presented will be a housing manufactured in PA 12 using selective laser sintering with an integrated acceleration sensor. Based on industrially relevant parts, the general potential, the benefits as well as the challenges of sensor embedding during AM will be revealed.

22 DAY 4 I FRIDAY I 22ND NOVEMBER STAGE 1 AND 2 | 10:00-10:30 3D PRINTING AT MIELE Pia Gausemeier | Head of Strategic Production Technology and Head of Information Technology - Plant Bielefeld | Miele & Cie

10:30-11:00 RACE TO INNOVATE: METAL AM FOR LIGHTWEIGHT, HIGHLY COMPLEX RACE BOAT STRUCTURES Mark Chisnell | Technology Coordinator | INEOS TEAM UK

3D printing promises both improved functionality and cost advantages in small quantities. When implementing new technology, however, it is important to have realistic expectations. At Miele, 3D printing is positioned as a useful addition to a portfolio of manufacturing technologies. This keynote presentation will evaluate how the company uses 3D printing in its product applications now and explore what possibilities will be conceivable in the future. This talk will also discuss the organisational changes needed to take advantage of this technology, the concepts applicable to design departments, and examine scalable production concepts that have been implemented in cooperation with Ultimaker.

The America’s Cup is the oldest international trophy in world sport and one that Britain has never won. INEOS Team UK was formed to challenge for the America’s Cup in 2021 - the racing boat will be a 75-foot foiling monohull, built and equipped with the best of British technology. Mark Chisnell, Technology Coordinator at INEOS TEAM UK presents how Renishaw will help to optimise the design and manufacture of 3D printed metal parts, for example, the mast step for the team’s test boat that connects the mast to the hull through an articulating socket. The mast step must withstand compression loads of over three tonnes caused by the rig tension required to counter the forces of the wind on the sail and mast.

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Racing ahead with additive manufacturing AM has the power to disrupt, enabling innovative product designs and new agile business models Atherton Bikes is taking advantage of these capabilities to break free from the rigid, labour-intensive conventional bike manufacturing mould. AM gives Atherton Bikes the flexibility to hone their race bike designs, and to make high performance custom bikes accessible to enthusiasts.

To ﬁnd out more about the capabilities of our AM systems visit: www.renishaw.com/amguide

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TCT CONFERENCE @ FORMNEXT: 3D PRINTING AT SCHUBERT WORDS: SANDRA TSCHACKERT

n view of the long company history and the tradition-rich character of Gerhard Schubert GmbH (founded in 1966), the enthusiasm with which the company has launched itself into 3D printing may come as a surprise. The manufacturer of modular packaging machines, headquartered in Crailsheim, Germany, mainly works with clients in the food, drink and cosmetics industries, and tailors each machine to the respective client. Schubert first started employing 3D printing technology in 2014, and since additive manufacturing turned out to be the ideal solution for customised robot tools, five years later it is hard to find a Schubert machine that doesn’t feature additively manufactured parts. Jörg Brenner has been working at Gerhard

SHOWN: 3D PRINTED PARTS BY SCHUBERT TO GRIP THE CUSTOMER’S PRODUCT

Schubert GmbH for 15 years and is now also CEO of Schubert Additive Solutions, a company spun out of Schubert’s 3D printing division. This company now provides the 3D printed robot parts for Schubert GmbH. However, in addition to working with Schubert’s own customers, it also caters to those who use production and packaging machines from other manufacturers and need new parts or solutions, and increasingly to customers from other industries. Brenner says that flexibility is the greatest advantage of additive manufacturing, as it allows them to provide the customer with a tool that 100% solves their problem. The driving force behind the acceleration of this new technology at the company was its team of design engineers. Schubert currently employs 145 of them, 40 of which work on tooling and format

parts. When 3D printing started to become part of their job, the older employees suddenly no longer wanted to retire, says Brenner – because they noticed that this technology allowed them to make their designs a reality far more easily. Conventional manufacturing methods such as milling and turning are of course still employed when building the machines, but for parts with complex shapes which are adapted to a client’s product – usually parts that grip and move the product – 3D printing is perfect. One challenge was posed by customers who weren’t yet entirely convinced by additive manufacturing and had concerns such as: “How am I supposed to fix this part myself?”, “Can I have this as a milled part too?”, and “2 weeks delivery time, isn’t that quite long for a 3D printed part?” There was a need for a persuasive solution which covered the entire manufacturing cycle, from additive thinking through to the part design, printing and finally the digital storage, which ensures that the part can be repeatedly accessed and printed. The goal is to print analogously to how Spotify provides music. Like the streaming service, the digital part warehouse is also

SHOWN: MARCUS SCHINDLER WILL SPEAK ON DAY 3 OF THE FORMNEXT CONFERENCE

supposed to work with a single click and immediately, but for 3D printed parts instead of songs – and without further preparation on the part of the customer, such as slicing, part orientation or placing of supports. Additionally, the service is intended to work across the whole company and in as many locations as possible, e.g. to serve customers through local networks that enable them to have a part printed close to home. This entire process and the digital warehouse it relies on will be the subject of a presentation given by Marcus Schindler, Head of Materials Management at Gerhard Schubert GmbH and CEO of Schubert Additive Solutions, on day 3 of the TCT Conference @ Formnext. As part of the industrial challenges track, he will talk about the printing of functional end-use parts to increase uptime and faster time to market. “We believe that 3D printing is the solution for a large number of tools and parts and can replace conventional manufacturing methods in many places,” Jörg Brenner comments on the role of 3D printing, both for Schubert and the manufacturing industry in general. Schubert Additive Solutions, meanwhile, is not limited to packaging machines – other sectors, such as medical technology companies, have also shown interest. For this machine manufacturer, 3D printing has opened up a whole world of new possibilities. The presentation “Printing Functional End Parts for Packaging Lines to Increase Uptime and Faster Time to Market” by Marcus Schindler / Schubert Additive Solutions will take place on 21 November, 2.30pm – 3pm on Stage 1 of the TCT Conference @ Formnext.

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WHAT’S NEW AT FORMNEXT 2019?

ormnext is by far one of the busiest weeks on the additive manufacturing industry calendar. From 19-22 November, visitors can expect launches, European debuts and announcements in abundance as the industry’s biggest players and newcomers bring their latest technologies and applications to the annual Frankfurt event complemented by a packed line-up of inspiring talks at the TCT Conference @ Formnext. With two halls of exhibition space to navigate your way around, here is our handy guide to some of the fresh finds you can expect to see on the show floor.

AM POWDER PLUS (AMP+) (12.0, C119)

ADDITIVE ASSURANCE (12.0, B81D)

Process monitoring specialists Additive Assurance will be unveiling their real-time quality assurance system for metal powder bed fusion additive manufacturing. Their user-friendly sensor package pairs with a powerful machine learning platform, detecting faults as they occur. Universally compatible with all major laser powder-

bed machine types, regardless of size or number of lasers, this solution allows manufacturers the opportunity to obtain superior build quality and verify supply chain conformance. The system will be showcased in the start-up area in Hall 12.

Three specialised SMEs are joining forces to elevate efficiency in the AM process chain in a new company network: AM Powder Plus (AMP+). Formally introducing itself for the first time at Formnext, the network consisting of assonic Dorstener Siebtechnik, Solukon Maschinenbau and ULT AG aims to offer an integrated solution for automated part and powder handling in the SLM process. The solution links the collection, sieving, processing and drying of excess powders in the SLM process via the automated recovery and depowdering of parts for a clean transition into post-processing. Any non-exposed powder is then channelled back into the SLM process in a fully processable state. The solution is said to guarantee safety, explosion prevention and a clean working environment.

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES (12.1, E61) Additive manufacturing post-processing specialist Additive Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) is gearing up for this year’s Formnext event with a novel, reusable booth concept made up of more than 6,000 3D printed parts. The 84 square metre booth has been designed in collaboration with Steel Roots Design. The design incorporates a total of 6,061 complex components printed by Materialise in Nylon PA 2200 using EOS selective laser sintering and finished with AMT’s PostPro3D platform. The parts, which feature internal threads and moving features, are connected by 1,100 metres of lightweight aluminium tubing to form a structure weighing only 120 kg. The booth will also host a number of new technologies including AMT’s fully automated Digital Manufacturing System (DMS).

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ARBURG (12.1, D121)

At Formnext, Arburg will demonstrate four Freeformer machines producing various components with a focus on medical technology. As an open system, the Freeformer can produce customised parts with a range of original plastics such as bioresorbable plastics, PLA or other FDA certified materials. At the show, one Freeformer 200-3X will be printing with medical engineering material while another large Freeformer 300-3X with three extruders will demonstrate how higher build chamber temperatures can be used to process technical plastics. For a technological perspective, an additional Freeformer display will show how fibre-reinforced parts can be realised.

ESSENTIUM INC. (12.1, D31)

DYEMANSION (11.1, D61) Starting at 1.45pm on November 19, DyeMansion will unveil its brand new innovation. It’s called Powerfuse S and is the system behind the company’s proprietary VaporFuse Surfacing process, a clean Vapor technology for 3D printed plastics that aims to rival injection moulded parts. The solvent circulates in a closed, endless cycle, produces no waste and works sustainably. A recovery of the solvent, which is approved for the processing of plastics intended to come in contact with food according to EC 10/2011, is integrated. VaporFuse Surfacing offers a second finishing option besides the well-established, mechanical PolyShot Surfacing.

Essentium will introduce its new portfolio of advanced high-temperature (HT) nylon materials for additive manufacturing. The new materials are designed to deliver high heat, chemical and fatigue resistance as well as high strength for industrial applications while being as easy to print as PLA thermoplastics at low print temperatures. Combining nylon with carbon fibre, the materials are more than four times stronger than high-performance ABS and have a heat deflection temperature of 200°C, allowing manufacturers to print tough and impact resistant parts to withstand the rigours of the factory floor. At Formnext, the new materials will be demonstrated on an Essentium High Speed Extrusion (HSE) 3D Printing Platform.

FARSOON (11.1, C68) Farsoon has announced the launch of its latest metal additive manufacturing platform which will be debuted at Formnext. The company says it has placed a focus on productivity, safety, stability and ease of use in the development of the FS301M platform which was done in collaboration with a number of ‘key partners’ from industries such as tooling and aerospace. The FS301M boasts a build cylinder of 305 x 305 x 400 mm and offers single or dual laser options. An integrated powder feed connector prevents the operator from being exposed to potential contamination and hazards when handling powder. Similar to the rest of the Farsoon hardware portfolio, the machine’s parameters and powder options are open to enable users to have greater flexibility when manufacturing parts.

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HANS WEBER MASCHINENFABRIK GMBH (12.0, E51F)

GEWO FEINMECHANIK GMBH (12.1, B20) GEWO Feinmechanik GmbH and its 3D printing division GEWO 3D will be showing its new AM machine, the GEWO Performer 260. The company, which specialises in complex workpieces for the semiconductor industry, aerospace, medicine and research, says the new extrusion-based printer is an open material and software platform with features including automated print head switching, 46 sensors to monitor the print job and filaments, and a control system by BOSCH REXROTH. According to the manufacturer, the biggest advantages of the system are faster print speeds, high reproducibility, higher print temperatures with shorter preheating timeframes, a large build chamber and compatibility with a wide range of materials.

Hans Weber Maschinenfabrik GmbH, known for the production of extruders and grinding machines, is further expanding its product portfolio with the introduction of its “Robotics & Automation” and “WEBER Additive” divisions. The company has set itself the goal of making additive production of largevolume plastic components possible by means of granulate extrusion on

HUNTSMAN (11.1, F20)

Huntsman will be unveiling its IROPRINT additive manufacturing materials. The IROPRINT range consists of three different kinds of elastomers which are soft and flexible, yet tough. This includes; IROPRINT F filaments, a range of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) materials for extrusionbased printing methods; IROPRINT R resins, soft, durable, one-component, liquid resin systems for stereolithography (SLA), digital

an industrial scale with specially developed machines. The first system, the DX 025, is equipped with a high-quality granule extruder and is designed for 3D printing directly with low-cost granules. Working with soft TPEs to CF/GF high-filled materials, WEBER’s wear-resistant extruders can plasticize all plastic pelletized materials. WEBER Additive is set to reveal further details about the current prototype DX 025 on the show floor.

light processing (DLP) and other radiationcuring printing methods; and IROPRINT P powders, high performance, TPU powderbased materials for high speed sintering (HSS) and selective laser sintering (SLS) printing. In addition, the company will be highlighting two 3D printing grades including the soft, flexible IROPRINT F 80112 shore A78 TPU, and IROPRINT R 1801, a radiation cured one-component resin, optimised for easy processing.

HEXAGON MANUFACTURING INTELLIGENCE (12.0, B79) Visitors will be able to see the most recent release of MaterialCenter 2020, a state-of-the art data management system which allows users to merge, trace and analyse additive manufacturing data (Powders, Machines, Parts, Tests, Design, CAE models, etc.). Using web-apps users can easily search and find relevant data that is fully connected and traceable across the process. MaterialCenter allows users to quickly capture the full manufacturing process, ensure consistency and provide quality indicators. Hexagon says users will no longer have to worry about spending time gathering and consolidating process parameters to compare with test data and will be equipped to improve print quality by correlating simulated to as-manufactured components.

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KASTO MASCHINENBAU GMBH & CO. KG (12.0, E51E) KASTO will be showcasing an innovative high-performance automatic band saw, the KASTOwin amc, specially designed to handle individual cuts of additively-produced components. The band saw is equipped with a turning device that can rotate workpieces by 180Â°. Parts are machined upside down which means finished parts simply fall into the intended container without being damaged. The base plate can be easily placed on the device

with a crane or handling device and screwed on manually. The cutting range of the KASTOwin amc is standard at 400 x 400 millimetres, but an optional version with a cutting range of 500 x 400 millimetres is also available. With its innovative sawing concept, KASTO is also part of the NextGenAM project aimed at automating additive manufacturing in industrial environments.

LITHOZ (11.1, D32) Lithoz will showcase its line-up of next-generation ceramic 3D printing technologies and applications based on Lithozâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lithography-based Ceramic Manufacturing (LCM). The company will be exhibiting its latest CeraFab family of modular machines designed for the serial production of high-performance AM ceramics including the S230, S65 and S25. The modular design means up to four machines can be linked together to create a scalable and flexible production environment with build speeds of up to 150 slices per hour. This is coupled with the CeraDoc module which stores and handles all process data to offer end-to-end traceability. The CeraFab S230 is the largest of the three systems boasting a build volume of 192 x 120 x 310 mm and layer thicknesses between 25 and 200 microns.

PRIMA ADDITIVE (11.0, C28) MELTIO (12.1, C111) New company Meltio, founded by USA-based Additec and Spainbased Sicnova, will officially present its new M450 3D printer. The machine features a patented metal 3D printing technology based on direct energy deposition (DED) with a high power multi-laser printhead for manufacturing with metal wire and powder. This is said to result in fully dense metallic parts with high quality material properties and a lower cost compared to other 3D printing technologies in the market. Meltio says it will offer a complete solution from 3D file to quality control to meet the demands of several industrial sectors.

Prima Additive, the Prima Industrie Division dedicated to metal additive manufacturing systems, will be exhibiting at Formnext for the first time with world premieres planned for a number of technologies. In PBF technology, Prima Additive will present Print Genius 250 (build volume 262 x 262 x 350 mm) for the fabrication of medium sized components while in DED, it will showcase the Laserdyne 430 (working volume 585 x 400 x 500 mm) which features a high build rate suitable for 3D fabrication, repairing and coatings. In addition, visitors can expect to see the Ultrafast Direct Energy deposition head and the Convergent CS450, a highly efficient fibre laser source by Prima Electro dedicated to AM.

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SCANLAB (12.0, B41) At Formnext, RPS will have on display its NEO800 stereolithography system and parts printed in DSM resin. Attendees can find out more about the NEO800’s Titanium software and how users can capture information and export data on details such as traceability, build history, machine utilisation and viscosity tracking. For the first time, RPS will also share information on the NEO Titanium Assistant, a companion application to

Titanium software which helps assess, prepare and send build jobs on any PC linked to a NEO800 system. Visitors can also learn about the NEO Material Development Kit, designed to be used in conjunction with the NEO800 for polymer material research and development.

Having made its debut earlier this year, SCANLAB will be showcasing how the excelliSCAN 20 can tackle demanding applications, particularly in the additive manufacturing sector. With a larger aperture of 20 millimetres, it has all the advantages of the excelliSCAN product family including innovative control technology SCANahead which enables increased speed and precision, improved heat management to allow for increased long-term stability, and a digital encoder technology to guarantee the highest positioning accuracy. For AM users, the system offers a high-performance scan head with high acceleration for especially short acceleration timeframes. The higher dynamic increases productivity, since nonproductive time between laser processes can be shortened.

SLM SOLUTIONS (12.0, E03) German additive manufacturing leader SLM Solutions will present recent developments and products including the newest iteration of its SLM 500 system. The SLM 500 is the company’s first fourlaser system and will be shown alongside specific application examples

such as a 3D printed automotive swivel bearing. A presentation area on the stand will also host talks by AM experts on Selective Laser Melting Solutions along the entire process chain and provide an insight into the future of additive manufacturing.

STRATASYS (12.1, D61) Stratasys is inviting visitors to ‘Discover the New Possible’ through a range of industrialgrade additive manufacturing solutions including new hardware, materials and software. What those new products are exactly is being kept under wraps but Stratasys says it will be unveiling more details in the lead up to the Frankfurt event. The stand will also feature customer parts from numerous industries including automotive, aerospace, mobility and consumer goods to demonstrate how customers are driving time, productivity and cost efficiencies throughout design and manufacturing. Visitors can also hear from customers André Bialoscek at Bombardier Transportation, and Dr.-Ing. Andreas Henneberg at Diehl Aviation on the TCT Conference stage.

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TRUMPF (12.0, E61) German machine tool manufacturer TRUMPF says it will present the entire additive process chain for industrial production at Formnext. In addition, TRUMPF experts will be showing applications from a wide range of industries such as the aerospace, automotive and medical focusing on its two key metallic 3D printing processes, laser metal deposition (LMD) and laser metal fusion (LMF). The company has also hinted at the addition of a new member to its TruPrint AM machine family which is set to debut at the event.

VELO3D (11.0, E79)

XJET (12.1, C01) XJet is to showcase the Carmel 1400M and Carmel 1400C additive manufacturing platforms for metals and ceramics at Formnext as it updates its product line. Previously, the company has presented just one Carmel 1400 machine at trade shows, but with users unable to switch between ceramic and metal materials on the same platform, the slight adjustments to the branding will bring added clarity. Both the Carmel 1400M and 1400C NanoParticle Jetting machines will be featured on XJet’s Formnext stand, which will be its largest to date. Also on show will be a number of sample applications produced with the NanoParticle Jetting process in ceramic and metal materials, as well as a number of real-world use cases.

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Velo3D will be announcing a new quality control product called Assure which provides substantiation of part quality needed for volume production. Through real-time, multi-sensor, physics-based excursion detection algorithms, Assure delivers unprecedented traceability of part quality and flags process anomalies as soon as they occur. This decreases variation and provides comprehensive documentation to fast-track printed-part validation.

“We chose to integrate Assure into our quality-control workflow for the Sapphire system because it produces highly actionable insights into system performance and part quality,” says Kent Firestone, CEO of Stratasys Direct Manufacturing. “Best of all, it distils mountains of data into a very intuitive format that allows us to interpret the information efficiently and effectively.”

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27.1 / www.tctmagazine.com / 049

GRIMM COLUMN

ack in May, I penned a bit of a rant in the article titled “Word of the Day”. The crux of that story was that players in AM have liberally adopted the term “industrial” to describe their printers. It is now so commonplace that industrial has become a meaningless adjective used for printers of all levels. The moral of that article was that each reader needs to decide for themselves what constitutes industrial-grade and then investigate to see if a printer measures up. Well, I am now living through this dilemma of defining industrial. After hours of deliberation and contemplation, I have not arrived at a suitable definition. The reason I am now enveloped by this quandary is that I am involved with the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG). Every year, AMUG hosts a conference for additive manufacturing (AM) users. Conference attendance is limited to those that rely on AM, in their work lives, to get the job done and that are seeking input on both basic and advanced concepts. For years it has simply stated that to attend individuals must be affiliated with AM ownership or operation for commercial or industrial purposes. In the age of clear distinctions between consumergrade and professional-grade printers, that statement worked. Today, it doesn’t. AMUG provides a venue where users share insights and experiences that help them get more out of, and do more with, AM. While a casual user would certainly benefit from the conversations, he/she would likely contribute very little back to the community in terms of deep, meaningful information. AMUG is pondering the question “What is industrial?” so that it may be applied to interested attendees, sponsors and exhibitors. At the AMUG Conference, it is about quality of insightful conversations, not the quantity. While AMUG has a clear understanding of the demographic that it serves, it now TODD GRIMM

is a stalwart of the additive manufacturing industry, having held positions across sales and marketing with some of the industry’s biggest names. Todd is currently the AM Industry advisor with AMUG.

tgrimm@tagrimm.com

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faces the very same challenge I cited in the May article. As a member of AMUG’s Board, I am a part of a team trying to come up with answers; answers that have proven difficult to find. See for yourself; look up the definition of industrial and you will be presented a nebulous description that basically says, “used in industry”. The original fallback position, price point, is no longer a clear, distinct measure. The common threshold used in AM analysis is 5,000 USD (3,900 GBP). However, users convincingly prove that printers below that threshold can measure up when deployed by the dozens for a company’s engineering and manufacturing teams’ usage. At the same time, a comparably priced printer may sit idle for long stretches and then be used to make a few basic fixtures. Applications don’t work as a determining factor either. Prototyping is as valid as series production and surgical training aids are just as worthy of an industrial label as assembly fixtures. For other industries, such as power tools and office machines, an industrial label suggests high productivity, long duty cycles and extended service life. This would be an interesting and workable approach. However, the variety of technologies yields varying throughputs and vendors don’t publish expected duty cycles or service lives. In the future, we may be able to rely on OEE (overall equipment effectiveness), which incorporates throughput, scrap, uptime and usage, but this isn’t widely used or commonly published. So, what else is there that can be used to award an industrial label to an AM solution? Maybe you have the answer. Imagine that you will be at the AMUG Conference seeking deep, insightful conversations that help you and your company advance AM. Now ponder what kind of people you can get that information from, both on the attendee side and exhibitor side. What are the characteristics of the AM solutions they use or sell that would form a clear, unquestionable foundation that answers the question, “What is industrialgrade?” If you have any thoughts on this, get in touch.

Last year, during Formnext 2018, we presented our PULVERMEISTER Typ2 in its raw construction state. We announced that sales would begin in Q2 of 2019. Being the inventor of this type of fully automated post processing for SLS plastic, we insist on getting it right from the beginning. During the year, using our prototype machine in production, we came up with several interesting improvements and added them into a newly designed Typ3 for an elegant, cleaner and more integrated machine. Two years of experience in real life serial production and the third iteration of the working design will greatly beneďŹ t reliability as well as value. Now, for Formnext 2019, we present our Typ3 in its preproduction state. Come visit us and decide for yourself if the quantum leap succeeded.

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