Who is the Cheddar Man? Can 3D printing improve healthcare? Looking for a new 3D printing challenge?
In Sliced we collect the latest 3D printing to provide our readers with the most up-to-date coverage of the technology as possible. Today’s edition features: Lost Maya pyramids, Stanford University Libraries, MX3D, SpaceX, the Paramount Group, Allianz, Local Motors, Nano Dimension, Paragon Rapid Technologies and more.
Thousands of years unearthed by 3D technologies
60,000 Maya structures have been uncovered by a large-scale LiDAR 3D scanning project in the Guatemalan jungles. The survey, conducted country’s Mayan Heritage and Nature Foundation PACUNAM, has revealed houses, palaces, pyramids that existed over 1,000 years ago.
Ancient Maya Cities Found Hidden in Guatemalan Jungle, clip via National Geographic
The Cheddar Man is the oldest complete skeleton ever to be found in Britain. Despite being unearthed in Somerset over a century ago, little is known about his condition when alive, and what caused his death. For a new Channel 4 documentary, The First Brit: Secrets of the 10,000 year old man, the Cheddar Man’s likeness has been recreated for the first time base on genome data, and 3D scanning/modeling technology.
An analysis of the genome found that the Cheddar Man would have had dark skin and blue eyes, a significant insight into British ancestry. Alfons Kennis, one of the artists responsible for creating the Cheddar Man’s face comments, “People define themselves by which country they’re from, and they assume that their ancestors were just like them. And then suddenly new research shows that we used to be a totally different people with a different genetic makeup.”
Stanford University Libraries has launched an initiative to create an online collection of its art collection and skeletal artifacts. In a pilot project, the university has already created 100 3D models of animal bones and fragments using 3D scanners. By compiling this collection, Stanford hopes to share its knowledge remotely with researchers around the world.
Kickass 3D prints for aerospace and your place
MX3D’s plan to 3D print a steel bridge across a canal in Amsterdam has gained new light in relation to delays. Initially tipped for construction in 2016 the team came up against a number of snags including a change to stainless steel material, and difficulties with planning permission.
Tim Geurtjens, CTO at MX3D explained, “When we started we thought let’s get an old robot arm the kind you see on car production lines and put a simple EUR 1000 welder on the end. We thought, ‘this is going to be easy’. But things turned out to be much more complicated.” The team will renew efforts to meet the new deadline later this year.
The Paramount Group, a conglomerate of companies in global defence, internal security and peacekeeping industries, has revealed it is developing a metal 3D printer for titanium aircraft parts. The first prototype Ahrlac aircraft, that Paramount is building with Ahrlac Holdings, is espected to be the main beneficiary of the technology and recently clocked its 300 hour testing milestone.
YouTube channel Kickass 3D Prints has released the perfect home project to make it through the cold weeks of February. The 3D printed marchmallow grill is available to download and make for free from Thingiverse.
Design for additive manufacturing – challenge accepted
SpaceX’s latest Falcon Heavy launch inspired Andrew McCalip, CTO and founder of Cosine Additive to design a 3D printable composite Falcon 9 S1 chandelier. A fully 3D printed version of the shade can be bought online from McCalip for $500.
Global insurance company Allianz and Local Motors’ co-creation platform Launch Forth, have introduced the Mass Mobility design challenge, to find “active lifestyle device” created “with accessibility in mind.” One of the stipulations of the competition is that all devices must be able to be prototyped by 3D printing. Maybe one of our readers has the edge?
Can 3D printing provide better healthcare?
Miami University professors Paul James and Amy Yousefi are leading research to develop 3D printable cell scaffolds to treat large bone defects. “If you have a defect in a bone, and if the bone defect is beyond a certain size, younger connective tissues forms, but it’s not bone,” explains Professor James, “You need a bridge.” The goal of the project, which is almost in its 10th year, is to create scaffolds that outperform commercial equivalents.
Researchers from the Pharmaceutical College of Henan University and the Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine have published a paper demonstrating how 3D printing can be used to custom-make vaginal medication. Rings that are commonly used to treat symptoms of menopause are made using FFF technology, and present new possibilities for the field of personalized healthcare. “3D printing of vaginal rings with personalized shapes for controlled release of progesterone” is published online in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics here.
Whats new in industrial 3D printing?
With SOLIDWORKS World 2018 going on this week in LA, there has been a flurry of new partnerships with Dassault Systèmes. Nano Dimension is the latest company to announce that it will be launching a SOLIDWORKS software add-in for its DragonFly 2020 Pro 3D printer. Augmented polymer deposition (APD) 3D printer company Rize, also announced its own Rize 3D Print add-in earlier this week, and Desktop Metal has revealed a new Live Parts software product.
Stay tuned to 3D Printing Industy on Twitter for more SOLIDWORKS World announcements as they are released.
Precision ADM Inc. (Precision Advanced Digital Manufacturing) has become the “largest direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) AM manufacturer in Canada with ISO 13485:2016 Quality Management System certification” thanks to a new metal 3D printer order from EOS. The company has ordered three metal additive manufacturing systems from the German provider, 2 x EOS M 290s and 1 x EOS M 400-4. In other recent news, Precision ADM has also appointed Nelson Kalin as chief financial officer (CFO). If you’re looking for a new role, sign up to our 3D printing jobs site now.
British Olympic sailor Sir Ben Ainslie has been selected by the UK’s Manufacturing Technologies Association to open this year’s MACH exhibition for the engineering industry from 9th – 13th April 2018. The four-time gold medallist has sailed Land Rover BAR’s America’s Cup Class (ACC) race boat Rita that has been modified with 3D printed part.
County Durham prototyping company Paragon Rapid Technologies, has become the first UK production partner of Carbon CLIP 3D printing technology.
Let us know what you think are the most important applications of 3D printing. Make your nominations for the 3D Printing Industry Awards 2018 now.
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Featured image shows Sliced logo over a LiDAR 3D scan of lost Maya structured in the Guatemalan Jungles. Original image via National Geographic
