Formnext, the world’s leading exhibition for additive manufacturing and intelligent industrial manufacturing methods, was once again our host and allowed us to showcase our latest developments in metal powder atomization and processing.

Formnext 2017 drew in over 20,000 attendees and 470 exhibitors.

Blue Power was among one of the wide range of international exhibitors who were excited to present their expertise in additive manufacturing. It was a great opportunity to connect with customers and learn about the latest industry trends.

Our booth featured a full size AU3000 atomization plant along with an air classifier AC1000.

Visitors were able to get a better understanding of our equipment’s features and capabilities for producing spherical metal powders. We showcased the emerging full production duties of DMLS, SLM technologies as well as powder bed fusion, binder jetting applications and MIM.

It was a pleasure to exhibit and attend Formnext 2017 and Romanoff West would like to thank everyone who visited us.

Stay tuned to learn about for our future events and show attendances.

According to an interview published yesterday by Machine Design, 3D printing’s presence in the automotive industry is set to evolve rapidly. Additive manufacturing already holds a firm place in the sector but it is forecast to grow even further. The interview was with Scott Dunham, who is Vice President of Research at SmarTech Publishing and he explained how the automotive industry is poised to fully embrace the benefits of 3D printing.

Dunham has produced a number of industry analysis reports and thus is well positioned to assess the current position of 3D printing in the automotive industry and it’s expected trajectory.

Rapid Prototyping

According to Dunham, the key factor in driving 3D printing technology into the automotive industry is rapid prototyping. This is the area in which 3D printing is most prevalent and it involves primarily design. The benefits of 3D printing for the automotive industry are that it is fast and efficient when compared to traditional prototyping methods.

Users can design and create a model almost immediately, or least rapidly, meaning a model can be remodeled and reprinted several times accordingly. This allows for speedy product iteration and refinement. The use of rapid prototyping can help cut lead-times considerably and it is through this that 3D printing is expected to grow in the automotive industry.

Dunham expects to see a strong correlation between advancements in the technology behind 3D printing and it’s level of use in the industry.

Other kinds of 3D printing in the Automotive industry

Another aspect of 3D printing that has found ground in the industry is additive tooling. This is something that General Electric are exploring with their LEAP engine, an engine made with 3D printing and also repairable with 3D printed tools. The production of hard tools through metal powder-bed fusion and other metal 3D printing methods is an another application which in automotive industry is growing rapidly.

Linked to developments in the automotive industry, 3DPI also recently looked at how Local Motors have combined 3D printing and drones, in a new vision of the future of transportation.

Penn State’s College of Engineering published their findings in an issue of Nature Scientific Report in September.

Researchers at Pennsylvania State College of Engineering claim to have developed a way to speed up the process of 2D printing and 3D printing by up to 1,000 times.

Their apparent breakthrough is thanks to a major technological advance in the field of high-speed beam-scanning devices. Using a space-charge-controlled KTN beam deflector – a crystal consisting of potassium tantalite and potassium niobate – with a large electro-optic effect, researchers have found it is possible to conduct scans much more quickly.

“When the crystal materials are applied to an electric filed, they generate uniform reflecting distributions, that can deflect an incoming light beam,” said Shizhuo Yin, professor of electrical engineering in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “We conducted a systematic study on indications of speed and found out the phase transition of the electric field is one of the limiting factors.”

To overcome this issue, the electric field-induced phase transition in a nanodisordered KTN crystal was eliminated, making it work at a higher temperature. Yin worked with his team of researchers, Penn State graduates Wenbin Zhu, Ju-Hung Chao, Chang-Jiang Chen and Robert Hoffman from the Army Research Laboratory in Maryland. They not only surpassed the Curie temperature (a point where certain materials lose their magnetic properties, replaced by induced magnetism), they also went beyond the critical end point (in which a liquid and its vapour can coexist).

This increased the scanning speed from the microsecond range to the nanosecond range. It also improved high-speed imaging, broadband optical communications, and ultrafast laser display and printing.

The findings were published in an issue of Nature Scientific Report in September.

Yin believes the advancement in technology like this, high speed imaging would now be in real-time, would be especially helpful in the medical industry. It would allow, for example, optometrists, who use a non-invasive imaging test that uses light waves to take cross-section pictures of a person’s retina, would be able to have the 3D image of their patient’s retinas as the surgery is being performed. This means they would be able to see what needs to be corrected or changed during the procedure.

The research team are also confident their findings will be able to benefit the wider world too. A 3D printing that once took an hour, would now only take seconds, and 20,000 pages printed in 2D would take around one minute.

Rapid Show 2016 – Update / Overview

We had a great turn out from the minute doors opened at the Rapid Show. We would like to thank everyone that came by and supported us! For those that could not make it, this is what you missed out on…

The focus of our presentation was our AU-series atomizers, which are developed for the economic production of small batches of metal powder.

The focus of our presentation will be our AU-series atomizers, which were developed for the economic production of small batches of metal powder.

 

After a conference call in which the medical device giant announced an expanded use of metal 3D printing, Stryker has made even more progress in bringing 3D printed implants to market. The company has just announced 510(k) clearance from the FDA for their Tritanium PL Posterior Lumbar Cage, a device aimed at encouraging spinal fixation in patients with degenerative disc disease.

Stryker’s Tritanium is described as a porous titanium material designed for improved bone growth, necessary for securing a spinal implant in place over time. This patented material is essential for the company’s Tritanium PL Posterior Lumbar Cage, used to treat degenerative disc disease, grade I spondylolisthesis and degenerative scoliosis. Because the device is 3D printed, Stryker is able to offer the lumbar cage in a variety of widths, lengths, heights, and lordotic angles. And, through the use of large lateral windows and an open architecture, fusion of the cage with the body can be observed in CT scans and X-rays. And increased surface area, achieved through serrations within the cage, allow for bidirectional fixation

Brad Paddock, President of the Spine Division at Stryker, says of the product, “This is an exciting time for Stryker. We are committed to offering a full range of innovative spinal products that allow surgeons to help their patients return to a more active lifestyle. Our advanced 3D additive manufacturing capabilities allow us to precisely manufacture the porous structures of Tritanium and specific implant geometries. We are pleased to bring this technology to our spine surgeon community and their patients.”

The device will be made available to orthopaedic and neurosurgeons in the second quarter of 2016. This, along with news from Materialise about its new inPrint software and the ongoing clinical trial of 3D printed pre-surgical models, suggests that 2016 may just be the year that 3D printing becomes mainstream in the medical field.

Source: Michael Molitch-Hou@3dprintingindustry.com