If you close your eyes and meditate hard enough, plunging yourself into a deep transtemporal trance, you may be able to conjure up your ancient ancestors wielding a mighty hammer to smash and shape a hot piece of iron against an anvil. The world’s oldest recorded metalworking process, forging still exists today, albeit in a … Read more
A friend took a broken part of his old boat out of his pocket. “Can you fix this?” he asked me. It was a complicated aluminium die-casting from the cold end of the engine’s heat exchanger. A tab with a hole for one of the fixing screws had sheared off, and the decades had not … Read more
Canadian medical doctors Adnan Sheikh and Bruce B. Forster examine the growing importance of 3D printed models and instruments like surgical tools, outlined in the recently published ‘Holding It in Your Hand’’: Musculoskeletal Applications of 3D Printing.’ Noting the impacts digital fabrication offers to the medical realm, the authors see 3D printing as one of … Read more
This year’s Additive Manufacturing Strategies, held in Boston and co-hosted by SmarTech Analysis and 3DPrint.com, featured a Startup Competition, interesting keynotes, multiple panels and presentations, and industry forecasts by SmarTech. But something new at the 2020 event was a dedicated metal 3D printing track. I listened to an interesting presentation by Brett Harris, the Product Manager, … Read more
Open Bionics is a company located in Bristol, United Kingdom, that develops affordable and assistive devices to enhance the human body. Founded by Samantha Payne and Joel Gibbard in 2014, the company started by introducing stylish bionic arms called “Hero Arms”, and, later on, they started developing upper limb prostheses such as grippers, hooks, and … Read more
Known in the additive manufacturing (AM) industry for its quality assurance software and hardware products, Sigma Labs has made steady progress in proliferating its QA technology across AM. The latest development in this trend comes in the form of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Sigma Labs and Materialise, an AM software developer and … Read more
Quick Answer Box: Russian Cats with 3D Printed Prosthetic Paws What happened? Two Russian street cats, Ryzhik and Dymka, received four 3D printed titanium prosthetic paws each after suffering severe frostbite in Siberia. Who performed the surgery? Veterinarian Dr. Sergei Gorshkov and his team at the BEST Veterinary Clinic in Novosibirsk, in collaboration with researchers … Read more
Align Technology acquires Global Dental CAD/CAM software firm, exocad. Known for their dental CAD/CAM solutions, exocad will strengthen Align’s presence among dentists, labs, and partners around the globe. The two companies have signed a cash deal for the purchase of the privately held company for around 376 million Euro, giving Align new access to the … Read more
Fatema Tuz Zohra Moonmoon has submitted a thesis, ‘Possibilities of 3D & 4D printing technologies for personalized medicine’ to Brac University, exploring the ways digital fabrication may continue to impact the medical field. While medicine has always been an area of incredible breakthroughs, innovation, and even what many refer to as miracles, scientists and doctors … Read more
Researchers in Sweden are digging deeper into the world of 3D printing and the ever-expanding, accompanying science of related materials. Their findings are outlined in the recently published ‘Ambient-Dried, 3D-Printable and Electrically Conducting Cellulose Nanofiber Aerogels by Inclusion of Functional Polymers,’ as they seek to fabricate cross-linked aerogels from both cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) and alginate. … Read more
There are a lot of startups in 3D printing and a lot of established companies developing 3D printers, but there is only one BCN3D. Born from a foundation, BCN3D quietly grew a line of FDM printers into a thriving open source based business with adherents around the globe. BCN3D’s systems are solid and the firm … Read more
Now that we’ve covered the roots and present state of carbon fiber 3D printing, including current research, we should take a look at where carbon fiber goes to die—or, to put it less morbidly, where it goes at the end of its lifecycle. The carbon fiber market is currently booming, with a great deal of … Read more
Researchers from China are exploring the feasibility of 3D printing for pre-planning of complex surgeries, detailing the results of their study, involving the data of 124 patients, in the recently published ‘Three-dimensional printing in the preoperative planning of thoracoscopic pulmonary segmentectomy.’ The overall goal of the study was to compare 3D printing in pre-operative care … Read more
“We will benefit more and more from the possibilities of additive technologies,” – Professor Alberto Ortona Sintratec has just released a case study featuring The Hybrid Materials Laboratory at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) and their latest work as they create new 3D printing composites. … Read more
A material’s ability to resist degradation, erosion, or impregnation from contact with liquids, solids, or vapors of a different nature, like chemical solvents, acids, and bases, is known as chemical resistance, and it’s pretty important to achieving successful parts. When you’re choosing the materials you want to use for 3D printed end-use applications, especially for … Read more
University Medical Center Utrecht is working with two European startups in the development of an end-to-end solution for radiation-free pre-operative planning in orthopedics. With a grant from European Eurostars, MRIguidance and Axial3D will be collaborating on the project to create accurate 3D printed medical models. The team will rely on imaging software from MRIguidance, the … Read more
So far in our series on 3D printing carbon fiber and other reinforcement materials, we’ve discussed much about the present state of the technology, including large-scale composite deposition and some of the most recent startup developments. What we have yet to cover is the state of the research around 3D printing carbon fiber, which will ultimately … Read more
Those of us following additive manufacturing (AM) news have little doubt that the technology is growing rapidly, but the latest report from SmarTech Analysis can anchor that confidence in hard data. According to the leading industry analysis and market forecasting provider, the polymer 3D printing industry will generate $11.7 billion in revenues in 2020. The … Read more
2020 is already promising to be a fantastic year for space exploration. The next generation of Artemis explorers can begin applying for the program that will be journeying to the Moon, Mars and beyond; the James Webb Space Telescope is ready to test key deployments made in space, and even the Orion spacecraft that will … Read more
Business comes first today in 3D Printing News Briefs, as ANSYS and 9T Labs announce a partnership and Sinterit and Prima Powder Laserdyne are both opening new facilities. Moving on to education, RAPID + TCT has extended the deadline for its AM Student Challenge. Finally, an interesting hybrid makerspace is welcoming visitors in Rome. 9T … Read more
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is the epicenter of a great deal of exciting research currently taking place in the 3D printing industry, much of it dedicated to further industrializing the technology. The latest partnership coming out of the U.S. lab is with nTopology, the New York-based software startup focused … Read more
Last year, 3D Factory Incubator, the first high tech business incubator specializing in 3D printing in Europe, celebrated its inauguration in Barcelona. After reporting on a successful first 100 days this summer, we’re happy to say that the initiative has had an excellent first year in operation. The project, which is led and promoted by … Read more
Creality CR 10 V2 Along with competitors Anet and XYZPrinting Creality form a trio of manufacturers that dominate the low-cost 3D printing segment. Only a few years ago 3D printers under $500 were rare, but these firms have made them accessible and have sold hundreds of thousands of them. In this segment, there are often … Read more
Researchers from Spain and Ecuador are focused on nature-driven materials for digital fabrication, outlining their findings in the recently published ‘New Materials for 3D-Printing Based on Polycaprolactone with Gum Rosin and Beeswax as Additives.’ Nature is often the inspiration for scientific findings and innovations, and the world of 3D printing is no exception, from the … Read more
It’s 2020, and additive manufacturing has finally emerged as a mature technology for production in a growing number of sectors. In the last decade, it made a full run of the technological Hype Cycle but has finally arrived at the Plateau of Productivity. Pankl Racing Systems showcases a replicable custom fixturing system with Formlabs technology … Read more