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2019 3D Printing Innovation of the Year: the Wildcard update

The shortlist for the 2019 3D Printing Industry Awards has now been open to the public for over a month. In this time, we have already received over 42,000 votes, making it the largest annual survey of the 3D printing industry as a whole.

As in previous years our readers, decide the best 3D printers, materials, software, award winning research teams and applications.

To keep the 3D Printing Industry Awards as open as possible, we are also offering “Other” submissions for every single category. This means that if you think there’s anything missing from the shortlist, you can let us know. Every submission in this box will count as a vote and so, if enough people mention the same thing, we could always end up with a Wildcard winner for any of these awards.

The Innovation of the Year Award encompasses many developments from across additive manufacturing. This year, the shortlist names many 3D printing technologies, from EOS, Mimaki, XJet, BigRep, Digital Alloys, Digital Metal, Farsoon Technologies and Glassomer. Also named on the list is Betatype’s 3D printed heatsink application, and the University of Michigan’s volumetric 3D printing research.

Is your company missing? Then get voting now!

A University of Michigan "M" 3D printed by the new high speed fabrication technique. Photo by Evan Dougherty/Michigan Engineering
A University of Michigan “M” 3D printed by the new high speed fabrication technique. Photo by Evan Dougherty/Michigan Engineering

Expanding the bounds of this varied category, the Wildcard entries for the 2019 3D Printing Industry Innovation of the Year Award cover everything from hardware and additive technology, through software, materials, and applications to peripheral devices, such as 3D scanners, and improved toolheads. Read on to learn more about the “Other” nominees for the 2019 Innovation of the Year Award, and how to submit your suggestions and votes.

New 3D printing technologies 

Following in the same frame of many of this year’s shortlisted nominees, some Innovation Wildcard suggestions have focused on 3D printing technology (rather than, say, the machine itself). Launched in March 2019 at JEC World, there is Russian 3D printer manufacturer Anisoprint’s continuous carbon fiber FFF technology, and VELO3D SupportFree Metal AM, as found in its Sapphire System.

Yet to make it into a machine, as with EOS LaserProFusion technology, there are also nominations for Physical Mask Curing, from Anglo-American developers CALT Dynamics, and Stratasys‘ entry to the metal 3D printing market: the Layered Powder Metallurgy platform.

If any of these technologies are your Innovation of the Year, vote for them now in the “Other” category, using both company name and technology reference.

3D printed metal parts produced using the LPM system. Clip via Stratasys.
3D printed metal parts produced using the LPM system. Clip via Stratasys.

Could it be a hardware innovation?

Building on the technology, hardware innovations have also been named by readers as potential for Innovation of the Year. A number of construction 3D printers, the COBOD BOD2 and the ICON Vulcan II, have received mentions. Roboze, which is already formally nominated in the Enterprise 3D printer of the year (Polymers) category, has had its patented beltless FFF system put forward. The colossal 10-head Bombyx Prod 3D printer is a Wildcard Innovation of the Year submission, as is the iTero Element 2 3D scanner, the 3D Systems ProJet MJP 2500 IC  and Mosaic Manufacturing’s Palette 2 color mixing device.

Innovative 3D printing materials developments

In Innovation Wildcard nominations that could be considered material, so far we have received mentions for Tiamet 3D’s nanodiamond filament, 3DGence’s development of soluble support for PEEK, and the Ultimaker Material Alliance Program which recently exceeded 80 members.

The Hildreth Lab at Arizona State University (ASU) has also been submitted for their work developing dissolvable supports for 3D printed metal.

Interlocking steel loops after supports have been dissolved. Photo via 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing journal Volume 4, Number 1, 2017
Interlocking steel loops after supports have been dissolved using the Hildreth Lab’s method. Photo via 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing journal Volume 4, Number 1, 2017

Software and simultaneous innovation in 3D printing

Completing the 3D printing trifecta – softwares nominated under Other for Innovation of the Year include the nTopology nTop platform, CogniCAD by Paramatters, VELO3D’s native CAD software Flow.

And finally, rounding up the Wildcard nominations for Innovation of the Year so far are E3D‘s Tool Changer, the Anycubic Ultrabase build plate, and the 3DGence Module system for changing printheads.

Decide the winners of the 2019 3D Printing Industry Awards

To decide this year’s winners of the 3D Printing Industry Awards all you have to do is fill out this form, complete with your email address, and click submit. Wildcard/Other nominations can be made under each category by selecting option K: “Other” and typing in your suggestion.

We will continue our updates of the Wildcard nominees up until the event on Thursday, June 6, 2019. If you have been nominated for 3D Printing Industry Award, either on the shortlist or under “Other” now is your time to get involved. Share the voting page with your network to encourage more people to get involved, and contact us to buy tickets for the annual Gala Dinner.

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Featured image shows Sruthi Venkatest 3D Printing Industry Awards 2018 trophy winning competition entry.