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Out-of-this-World & Practical Applications Shine at Inside 3D Printing Singapore

The Inside 3D Printing Expo has returned once again to Singapore for the 3rd year running, and was again hosted by the Suntec City Convention centre. Although somewhat scaled down in physical size since last year, there were still plenty of quality exhibitors showing off their wares to a 3D printing-hungry public.

Of personal interest was the HP booth, who had bought a variety of printed components for visitors to inspect and play around with. During last year’s expo, HP announced their entry into the 3DP game during a packed seminar, and showed a whole bunch of videos and apparently promised the Moon in terms of their ambition and capability. While HP have not officially announced a release date for their super-fast ink jet printer, their demo objects were very interesting to play with (and at least demonstrate that they are making progress)… because, let’s be honest, a swanky video is nice, but tangible demo objects speak a million words.

inside 3D printing singapore 2016 3D printed springs from HPArranged in the HP display were a variety of items, ranging from small, aesthetic models (to demonstrate colour and resolution capability) up to seeming end-use parts (to demonstrate mechanical and dimensional stability). One such engineering part was a tabbed torsion spring (pictured). While it may not look particularly notable at first glance, it should be pointed out that the stiffness of this part varies along its geometry. The 2 end tabs are soft and pliable, while the spring section is firm and stiff. This is a pretty cool achievement for a single part, printed in one go, with no extra assembly. HP informed me that this mechanical effect was achieved by altering the quality of curing agent during the print job, creating a kind of “stiffness gradient” which varied in proportion to the amount of agent used.

inside 3D printing singapore 2016 HP 3D printed scissors

Additionally, HP had bought along a pair of printed scissors; it seems that functional 3D printed plastic blades are now a thing, and, from my own demonstration, they seem pretty sharp. Or sharp enough to cut thick cardstock, at least, and definitely sharp enough to not be running with. So, although there is no official release date from the 2D printing juggernaut on when their tech will be hitting the market, HP mentioned that they aim to be releasing their tech within 18 month (tentatively), so that is something to look forward to on the plastic printing side of things.

inside 3D printing singapore 2016 metal 3D printed wheel

From the metal 3D printing world, German company SLM Solutions had a stand with a bunch of interesting aerospace parts on display. Having a background in aerospace engineering, I was immediately drawn to what appeared to be some form of space rover wheel. On talking to the SLM rep, I was informed that it was indeed a lunar rover wheel, and was a prototype for the Google Lunar X-Prize (specifically from the Part Time Rocket Scientists team, who have recently teamed up with Audi). Also among the SLM items on display was a quirky, biological-looking structure, which was reminiscent of the Crystalline Entity from Star Trek: The Next Generation (I don’t know enough about biology to make a reasonable comparison to a real-life biological example- but I do know Trek).

inside 3D printing singapore 2016 3D printed rover

This odd looking item was apparently a shower head adapter, which had been designed as a bespoke job for a customer. Given the weird and seeminlgy random placement of the water jet/tendril things, I suspect it may have been more useful at cleaning the inside of the shower, rather than the user of the shower. Regardless of how well it performed in real life, it was still an interesting design, and demonstrates how SLM/SLS can be used for the creation of intricate fluid mechanical devices, which is always of great interest to the aerospace industry.

inside 3D printing singapore 2016 3D printed fluid dynamic

Onto the desktop grade printers now, there were a few less offererings compared to last year, and sadly not many representing the host nation…but as I am currently in the market for a desktop printer for my office, then I took a looksie anyway… 2 printers that caught my eye were the Cubicon Single from South Korea’s HyVISION System (more info here) and also from South Korea was a company by the name of “Finebot”.

inside 3D printing singapore 2016 finebot 3D printerThere doesn’t seem to be much going on in terms of innovation for desktop 3D printers at the moment, but both of these companies had attractively designed units, and each had a little something extra which made them stand out from the crowd. The Cubicon Single has a heated chamber, which keeps the part heated at around 80 degrees Celcius, thus reducing the chance for thermal distortion (particularly of ABS parts), and the Finebots were capable of printing in a rubbery Polyeurethane material, in addition to the standard ABS and PLA filament. The Cubicon has received rave reviews throughout various sources, but the Finebot seems to have flown under the radar for the most part. With any luck there will be a review on 3D Printing Industry at some point in the future.

Sadly, I did not have time to attend the seminars this year- a minor mishap with an open drain cover the previous day resulted in an appointment with the radiologist after the expo… I had looked around the convention centre on the off-chance that there was an X-Ray machine conference being held at the same time, who may have wanted to use me as a guinea pig, but to no avail.

So, that is all from this year’s Inside3DPrinting conference in Singapore. For readers who will be in Germany this month, the next leg of the tour will take the expo to Dusseldorf on 24th-25th February. So, if you are in the area, do pop in for a visit. Early bird tickets are still available.