In this edition of Sliced 3D printing news, we feature: GE, Arcam, Höganäs, MIT Technology Review, Carbon, Desktop Metal, 3D Systems, Ultimaker, Stratasys, Leapfrog, DuPont, RWTH Aachen, Attack of the Cyber Octopuses, Lulzbot and Hyperflesh.
GE orders 10 Arcam EBM machines
General Electric, having acquired metal 3D printer manufacturer Arcam last year, has now announced the purchase of 10 EBM machines. The internal order has a value of $11.9 million and will be delivered in 2017 and 2018.
Magnus René, CEO at Arcam, says,
This order from GE confirms the interest of our EBM systems for Additive Manufacturing. GE is, with its broad industrial business, a major user of Additive Manufacturing
Höganäs delivers metal 3D printer to CETIM
Swedish metal manufacturing company Höganäs has delivered a metal 3D printer to French industrial institute, CETIM. Specialists in metal powder production, Höganäs has also developed its own metal additive manufacturing technique known as ‘Digital Metal.’ The Digital Metal P2000 machine has been sent to St Etienne in France.
MIT names 3D printing companies in 50 smartest companies of 2017
The MIT Technology Review has named two 3D printing companies in its annual list of the 50 smartest companies. Californian company Carbon comes in at number 18 with Desktop Metal closely following in at 19th.
Carbon made headlines earlier this with the announcement of a partnership with sportswear brand Adidas. While Desktop Metal, founded by several former MIT professors, made its own headlines by finally unveiling its first two metal 3D printer systems, having raised a further $45 million in February. Desktop Metal subsequently won startup of the year in the 3D Printing Industry Awards.
3D Systems releases update Geomagic software
South Carolina-based 3D Systems has announced its latest software updates to Geomagic Wrap and Geomagic Freeform. The 2017 edition of Geomagic Wrap improves its scan-to-CAD workflow and the Freeform update improves overall work performance.
Director of Product Management, Software at 3D Systems,Scott Green said,
Geomagic Wrap 2017 delivers high value improvements to the workflows our Wrap customers know and love. We want our users to continue to find new areas and use cases to apply Wrap to, and enjoy a solution that grows alongside the 3D scanning hardware environment.
Ultimaker increases 3D printing offerings
Dutch 3D printing company Ultimaker has announced an update to its software and materials for the Ultimaker 2+ and 3 3D printers. The company has announced a new material in the form of Polypropolene (PP) which is intended for functional prototyping and an expansion of profile materials in the NFC system. Ultimaker has also updated its Cura software with version 2.6.1 which includes enhanced support adhesion, support meshes and extruder buttons.
Paul Heiden, Senior Vice-President, Ultimaker Product Management said,
Our Ultimaker 3 has changed the way companies and organizations produce prototype parts, small-scale production, tools, jigs and fixtures. With the additions of multiple materials, kits and accessories, as well as software upgrades, users can better optimize and maintain printers at scale and achieve consistent and high-quality output.
Stratasys at Goodwood Festival of Speed
Stratasys has announced it will be presenting at Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex this weekend. At the new for this year ‘Future Lab’, Stratasys will showcase the use of its 3D printer systems in motorsport with McLaren F1 and the recent deployment into electric aircraft.
In addition, Stratasys has 3D printed this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed trophy. Designed by Belgian Nick Ervinck and printed on the Stratasys J750, the trophy will be presented to this year’s winner at the event.
Leapfrog announces 20% investment
Dutch 3D printing company Leapfrog has announced a new investor in the form of Swiss CNC machining company Rollomatic Holding SA. Rollomatic will take a 20% stake in Leapfrog who have just released the Bolt Pro 3D printer.
Leapfrog’s Vlad Szilagyi said the “investment will help us to build our team, our operations and our research and development capabilities.”
DuPont and RWTH Aachen 3D print chair
Materials company DuPont has been part of a designing project to create a chair. Using DuPont’s new high-performance filaments, designer Frederic Rätsch created a prototype chair with RWTH Aachen’s 3D printing facilities. Aachen is now home to the largest SLM facility thanks to Concept Laser. Nicolai Lammert, from the Plastic Processing Institute at RWTH said,
…the making of a full-size 3D printed chair has been a challenge, due to its size, the use of DuPont’s new engineering filaments and the time constraints. There was no room for production repetition, but these new filaments revealed to be low warpage and easy in the printing process.
Dalles-Wasco County Public Library’s Maker in Residence
Dalles-Wasco County Public Library in Oregon has announced it will host its first ‘Maker in Residence’ this July. Arthur Hash, who is both an artist and professor of contemporary jewelry and advanced 3D digital manufacturing at Rhode Island School of Design, will spend four days at the library sharing his knowledge. Hash will give a number of talks on 3D printing, design and reverse engineering.
Do you even benchy?
Following the announcement of Formlabs’ upcoming SLS 3D printer, the Fuse 1, engineer Michael Fogleman has posed the question as to just how many benchys can fit on its build plate. Citing the fact SLS 3D printers do not need support, Fogleman calculated the maximum number of benchys that could fit using a number of different algorithms and equations.
You’ll be happy to hear the machine can fit 113 boats into the Fuse 1’s buildplate. However, Fogleman was not finished and also calculated the optimum number of R2-D2 models (27) with his 3D packing code.
Attack of the Cyber Octopuses almost ready
Nicola Piovesan, director of 3D printing-enabled short film – Attack of the Cyber Octopuses, has announced on his Kickstarter page that filming is almost complete. We spoke to Piovesan earlier in the year about the crowdfunding project which used 3D printing to create a number of its props.
Ultra realistic masks made with Lulzbot 3D printers
Hyperflesh, creators of the super realistic baby masks (among many others) have revealed their use of Lulzbot 3d printers for molds. In a video posted by Lulzbot, founder Landon Meier explains how the 3D printers have advanced their mask production technique.
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Featured image shows Sliced logo over an image of the packed benchys. Image via Michael Fogleman.
