In this edition of our 3D printing news digest – Sliced, we tell you about the latest trends in 3D printing. We have news from the medical and entertainment sectors, new materials and business opportunities. Read on to know more about Nano Dimensions, Local Motors, AMUG, Doctors Without Border, and Fabrisonic.
Promoting 3D printing
Nano Dimensions, an Israeli AM company specializing in 3D printing precision electronics, has sold a machine in South Korea. With the help of the company’s reseller in South Korea, HDC, Nano Dimensions installed a DragonFly Pro system at the Chungbuk Technopark, a not-for-profit business incubator focused on biotechnology. Gilad Reshef, Nano Dimensions’ APAC Director, said, “The South Korean market is very important to Nano Dimension and installations at premium and innovative customers such as Chungbuk Technopark are one of the key reasons why we have partners like HDC.”
GoProto Inc., an on-demand 3D printing and manufacturing service bureau, has opened a facility in Melbourne, Australia. The new 9,000 sq facility is now producing using the HP Jet Fusion 4210 printer.
Gener8tor, a startup accelerator operating in Madison, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis, has partnered with Youngstown Business Incubator, a part of the additive manufacturing cluster in Ohio and part of the MAMLS project.
Gener8tor will introduce gALPHA and gBETA programmes on additive manufacturing in Youngstown, Ohio. gALPHA is a four-week workshop to help student form start-up companies and gBETA will provide professional help to early-stage startups operating in Youngstown. Both programmes will begin in 2019.
Driving 3D printing forward
Local Motors, an Arizona-based automaker, has announced the Olli Fleet Challenge, which invites residents and councils to propose a three-month use of the Olli in their district. Olli is an environment-friendly autonomous electric vehicle, nearly 30% of which is 3D printed.
Jay Rogers, CEO and co-founder of Local Motors said:
“The world is eagerly searching for innovative solutions for sustainable transportation. Over the past few weeks, we’ve provided nearly 2,000 Olli rides to thrilled audiences including government decision makers,”
Rogers further added, “This challenge is a meaningful opportunity for local and business leaders to take the next step and put their collective heads together to envision how mobility is going to change in their communities, and then have the opportunity to immediately test that vision.”
The BMW iFE.18, an electric race car by BMW will have its debut at the ABB FIA Formula E Championship in Ad Diriyah, Kingdom of Saudia Arabia. The electric motor of the drivetrain component has an aluminum casing which is 3D printed.
The Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) has announced the recipient the annual Innovators Award. Professor Gideon Levy of Technology Turn Around (TTA), an Israeli start-up consulting company, will receive the award at the 2019 AMUG Conference.
The Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) has appointed a new President. Marcus Burton will serve for two years as the President of the association. On 4 December Burton met with Business Minister Richard Harrington and Chi Onwurah MP at Westminster. Burton commented, “I’m honoured to take up the Presidency and looking forward to using my term to make a difference to the industry in which I have enjoyed such a rewarding career. Issues such as Brexit and Industrial Digitalisation will have a major effect on our industry and I want to make sure that our voice is heard.”
A peek at support materials
3DGence, a Polish 3D printer manufacturer, known for the INDUSTRY F340, has released a soluble support material for PEEK and ABS. The Engineering Soluble Material (ESM-10) is designed to serve as support for the PEEK and ABS models.
Furthermore, the Polish manufacturer has also introduced the Support Dissolving System (SDS), a 55.2 liter capacity tank. Finished parts are dipped into the SDS to remove support material.
Making people smile
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has announced that 3D printed dentures will be provided to inmates in Texas prisons.
The proposition was granted after a piece of investigative journalism revealed that prisoners in Texas penitentiaries were denied dental prosthetics on a regular basis.
An Australian woman, Anelia Myburgh, has received a jaw restoration surgery with the help of 3D printing. In 2017, Myburgh had lost eighty percent of her jaw due to cancer. Dr. George Dimitroulis, a Melbourne-based maxillofacial surgeon replaced Myburgh’s jaw with a 3D printed titanium prosthetic.
Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders, is providing 3D printed prosthetics to amputees in Amman, Jordan.
Pierre Moreau, a rehabilitation engineer and part of the 3D printed prosthetic project, said, “The MSF Foundation launched the 3D project in Amman in February last year, and we started to see the first patients two months later … So far, we have delivered 16 printed prosthetics.”
Axial3D, a Belfast-based 3D printing company in the healthcare sector, has partnered with Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, a not-for-profit community health care organization. Initially, the partnership will focus on neurosurgery to provide pre-surgery care to patients with the help of 3D printed anatomical models.
Daniel Crawford, CEO of Axial3D, said, “Our 3D printed models are used extensively by leading surgical centers across Europe … Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare offers a leading neurosurgery program and by utilizing 3D printing, it is expanding its already high standards and providing a better experience for its patients and clinical team.”
In a study titled, Bioprinting neural tissues using stem cells as a tool for screening drug targets for Alzheimer’s disease, Stephanie Willerth of the University of Victoria, Canada has shown the use of 3D bioplotting and bioprinting to mix cells with bioink in order to produce neural cells for treating Alzheimer’s disease.
Making movies more real
Weta Workshop, a New Zealand-based Oscar-winning design and prop studio, has installed a Massivit 1800, a large-scale 3D printer by Massivit, an Israeli 3D printer manufacturer. The printer was set up in the studios Wellington workshop in New Zealand. Weta Workshop is known for its work grand design and prop work on such films as Lord of the Rings and Blade Runner 2049.
Richard Taylor, CEO Weta Workshop, said, “For 15 years, we have dreamed of a day when a printer would provide super large scale, speed and build strength at low print costs, in equal measure. The Massivit 1800 has delivered this for us.”
Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, a Kentucky-based whiskey maker, has launched the Bulleit 3D Printed Frontier, a collaboration between artists and makers in Oakland, California. The event features a 3D printed bar designed by a Berlin-based architectural company FAR frohn&rojas.
Smart bonding with Fabrisonic
Fabrisonic, an American additive manufacturing company, has partnered with Luna Innovations, a manufacturer of optical measurement equipment for defense and medical industry. The partnership will see the manufacturing of smart structures made of metals using Luna’s optical sensors and Fabrisonic proprietary Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing (UAM) method, which can bond various metals at a low temperature.
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Featured image shows the shop front of Weta Workshop, The Weta Cave with Sliced Logo. Image via Weta Workshop.
