Listen as Greg Thompson of Protolabs discusses how service bureaus are helping in the battle against the Coronavirus with their ability to offer a range of prototyping and manufacturing capabilities. Welcome to Technology Forward. In addition to additive vendors’ efforts to help healthcare workers, service providers are also doing their part. Today, I’m here with […]
3DEO and “moldless manufacturing”
Service provider 3DEO started as a 3D printing company with its metal 3D printing technology, Intelligent Layering, at the core. Intelligent Layering is cost competitive with CNC machining and metal injection molding (MIM). To compete in high-volume traditional manufacturing, the company evolved into a vertically integrated, next generation factory. 3DEO is essentially a one-stop-shop for […]
Thermoplastic identifications and best uses in part design
What is the best type of thermoplastic to use for your product design? We’ve put together a quick-hit list of some thermoplastics as a good starting point. Not all polymers are the same, and each type of polymer or co-polymer has specific characteristics. Before you can go down the path of designing a product, material…
MakerBot adds PC-ABS and PC-ABS FR specialty materials for use on Method X
MakerBot, a global leader in 3D printing and subsidiary of Stratasys, continues to expand its materials portfolio for the Method X 3D printer with PC-ABS and PC-ABS FR. These two new materials bring the number of MakerBot materials for METHOD to ten, underscoring the company’s efforts to deliver a wider range of industrial-grade solutions to […]
Bunting provides essential support to plastics industry during COVID-19 outbreak
COVID-19 has caused a great deal of disruption to everyday life. Many businesses have been forced to close or enact extreme limitations of their operating hours in order to protect public safety. Only essential businesses have been allowed to stay open, and this has caused many people to ask: “What makes a business ‘essential’?” Bunting…
Generative design for flow applications
Flow driven generative designer is a new application from Dassault Systèmes. Its intended use is to give users or designers access to simulation capabilities for fluid optimization. As many designers know, the process of creating a part is typically based on experience and intuition. Generative design, however, offers a different approach. Generative design programs use […]
Predict how materials and manufacturing methods affect design
e-Xstream engineering, part of Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, unveiled a new 10X Integrated Computational Material Engineering (ICME) Solution that applies academic research with leading software and inspection solutions to accelerate innovation by enabling manufacturers to design, engineer and test components virtually through simulation. With ICME, designers can work with materials such as carbon fibre composites […]
igus donating 100,000 headbands made with injection molding for face masks
igus is donating 100,000 headbands made with injection molding to apply to face masks to help medical professionals reduce their exposure during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Prusa, a 3D printer manufacturer, has developed a face mask and placed the design on the internet for downloading, free of charge. The mask can be used to protect…
Additive is helping to build capacity fast
The additive community continues to impress with how quickly additive vendors meet the needs of healthcare workers and the general public in the development of protection devices. I spoke with Blake Teipel, cofounder and CEO at Essentium, on what the company has been and is doing during this pandemic. Here are some highlights from the […]
3D printing face masks for the general population
It’s not just the healthcare community that needs personal protection. The general population needs a practical, reusable device when out in public. Answering this challenge is the manufacturing specialist FIT Additive Manufacturing Group. They are responding to the Corona Pandemic by developing a special filter carrier (FiT) for the general population, which can be combined […]
Hack the Crisis: Georgia Tech works to scale production of needed medical supplies
By John Toon, AVP Research Communications, Georgia Institute of Technology It’s a race against time to improvise ventilators, face shields, respirators, surgical gowns, disinfectant wipes, and other healthcare gear to help the hundreds of thousands of people expected to swamp hospitals with waves of critical COVID-19 illness over the next several weeks. The demand for ventilators alone…
Pragmatic solutions for fight against COVID-19
Nanofabrica has been highly pro-active in the last few weeks in light of the emerging COVID 19 pandemic and has reached out to professionals involved in the front-line fight against the disease to offer up its support for new protective and diagnostic solutions. In a recent virtual roundtable, Nanofabrica invited interested parties from around the […]
Fictiv donates tool to make millions of face shields available to hospitals at cost
Global manufacturing ecosystem Fictiv announced that hospitals and healthcare providers can begin ordering the protective face shields in batches of up to 10,000 per order at cost for shipment as fast as one (1) day: https://fictiv.com/covid-19-face-shields. The company is leveraging its global manufacturing network and a newly designed tool to produce millions of face shields […]
Hy-Lite injection molding services available for makers of personal protection equipment
To help with the heightened demand for injection-molded products during the COVID-19 outbreak, Hy-Lite is making their Contract Injection Molding Services available to companies nationwide. Located in Pensacola, Fla., the Hy-Lite facility houses seven injection molding machines capable of small, specialty and slow run projects. “We understand manufacturers of personal protection equipment and other supplies…
Invitation to harness precision AM to fight COVID-19
Nanofabrica, a manufacturer of 3D printers for precision engineering, invites researchers, doctors and manufacturers to harness its manufacturing capabilities to develop COVID19 related medical devices and solutions. The company will host a virtual roundtable on Wednesday, March 25th, at 16:00 GMT+2 and invites all interested parties to join a brainstorming session on how we can […]
Continuous Kinetic Mixing ensures additives stay uniformly distributed in printed photopolymers
Fortify, a 3D printing startup, announced the launch of its CKM (Continuous Kinetic Mixing) system, which enables new functions in printed photopolymers. CKM addresses industry challenges that have persisted for decades when processing filled resins. This news comes as Fortify grows into its new Boston headquarters with increased printing and manufacturing capacity. The company is […]
Direct rapid soft tooling molds that last up to 20 shots
Micro additive manufacturing (AM) technology developer, Nanofabrica, recently achieved success in trials of its development of direct rapid soft tooling (DRST). The company accomplished a breakthrough that enabled the printing of a mold that lasted 20 shots, with plans to increase this to 1000 shots in the coming months. In its recent experiments, Nanofabrica (which […]
How to choose between additive manufacturing and traditional alternatives for production
Users may be confused, and in some instances disillusioned, about the role that 3D printing can really take on when looking at production scenarios. There is a lot of work to be done to illustrate that 3D printing is really now established as a viable and robust production technology when used for the correct applications […]
ERIKS collaborates with Ultimaker to scale up 3D Printing capacity for OEM and MRO industries
Ultimaker, a global leader in desktop 3D printing, announced that ERIKS, a provider of technical components and services to all sections of industry worldwide, has scaled up the 3D printing production capacity for its OEM and MRO customers. ERIKS equipped its production facilities in Alkmaar, The Netherlands, with six Ultimaker S5 Pro Bundles, to co-engineer with […]
igus insights on additive manufacturing
Additive manufacturing refers to a process by which digital 3D design data is used to build up a component in layers by depositing material. It is becoming more widely used, and has many advantages. Paul Gomer, an additive manufacturing development engineer at igus, offers insight on additive manufacturing. How do you rate the development of […]
3D printing at the micro level
Recently a couple of stories have surfaced about using 3D printing/additive manufacturing for parts that are microns in size. One of these companies is based in Israel. Now, a company out of Boston, Boston Micro Fabrication (BMF) has introduced a microscale 3D printer. I interviewed John Kawola, CEO of BMF to discuss this trend. Some […]
Overcoming the challenges of 3D printing with soft thermoplastic elastomers
Kraiburg TPE performed extensive tests to examine the suitability of its thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) for use in additive manufacturing (AM). The tests showed that most of the company’s TPEs can be used on fused deposition modeling (FDM) on devices from Pollen AM. “Due to physical limitations, most classic 3D filament printers are not suitable for […]
RJG Germany GmbH opens injection molding training facility
RJG Germany GmbH opened the doors to its new training lab on January 1, 2020. The facility consists of a classroom that seats up to 20 students and a fully-equipped lab for hands-on experience. The technical center currently consists of a 60-tonne injection molding machine from YIZUMI Germany GmbH, temperature control units and a material…
Additive service bureaus in the metal markets should see US $9.4 Billion by 2025
SmarTech Analysis issued a report on metal additive manufacturing service bureaus titled, “The Market for Metal Additive Manufacturing Services: 2020-2029”. In this report, the analysts peg revenues for Metal AM Services at $9.4 Billion by the year 2025. These projections include revenues from core manufacturing and prototyping services as well as from a number of […]
High modulus plastics for off-highway
Tom Zozokos, Product Line Director, and Beth Figliulo, Fluid Power Segment Manager Americas, Trelleborg There are few places where highly durable, temperature resistant, chemically compatible, low maintenance parts are more important than in off-highway vehicles. After all, the vehicle in question might end up in the Australian Outback enduring +130 °F temperatures, in Siberia traveling…