Meet Us in St. Louis!
We are pleased to announce where the 2016 AMUG Education and Training Conference will be held. We will be going to St. Louis Union Station – a DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel for the 2016 AMUG conference from April 3rd to April 7th. This hotel is set in the former location of the St. Louis train station. It is full of history and character with many features from the late 1800’s. Everyone will find lots of things to examine and look at in this very historic setting. This hotel is set up to adequately fit our many training programs, sponsors and the AMUGexpo.
Your AMUG board finished four days of intense planning and discussion at the facility, and we had the opportunity to try many of the food choices. You won’t go away hungry; it was delicious. At the strategy meeting, our discussions reinforced AMUG’s mission. Many people confuse the AMUG Conference with a tradeshow. It is not a tradeshow; it is an educational conference focused on training and advancing applications throughout the industry. We are going to use that focus as our basis in everything we plan. From speakers, to workshops, to sponsors and exhibitors, our goal is to build on our mission of education and advancement. Throughout the year we will use the mantra “is it in the best interest of our users/members” as we work through the agenda.
We made many decisions over the four days of meetings that revolved around our long-term strategy and how we support the members, sponsors and exhibitors. We will be communicating many of these discussions with our members throughout the coming months.
AMUG Board in the Grand Hall of St. Louis Union Station
2016 Conference Registration
Mark Barfoot
President
We will open conference registration in October. Be on the lookout for an email from AMUG with more details and a link to the online registration.
Next month in the September issue of the AMUG newsletter, we will provide more details on registration, agenda, tracks and speaking opportunities. We will also introduce the entire AMUG Board, sub-committees and track leaders with contact information for specific questions you may have.
If you have any questions or concerns as we move forward to April, please don’t hesitate to contact anyone on our board.
On behalf of the entire AMUG Board – thank you.
Mark Barfoot, AMUG president
President@am-ug.com
New AMUG Members
Derek Ellis
Deputy Vice President
For those of you that were first-time attendees at the 2015 AMUG Conference, WELCOME to the AMUG Community!
It is an honor to be designated The Red Tag Guy. Why the red tag? The red tag for first-time attendee badges is important because it tells every past attendee that you are new to the community so that they can introduce themselves and welcome you to one of the most exclusive networks of AM users. It is important to us that you get the most out of your experience with AMUG and build a solid network of individuals that you can call on in the future.
Your membership in AMUG doesn’t stop with the conference. One of the purposes of AMUG is to build a network throughout the AM community that can provide assistance, continued education and services throughout the year.
It was a pleasure meeting most of you, and to those I did not have the opportunity to meet, please feel free to reach out to me at any time for assistance.
Derek Ellis, The Red Tag Guy
NewMembers@am-ug.com
Sponsors and Exhibitors
Steve Deak
Vice President
Dana McCallum
Vice President
Thank you to all 2015 AMUG sponsors and exhibitors. Your participation and dedication to the AMUG community made the conference and user experience a success.
The 2015 AMUG sponsorship will come to a close this month, and we will reinitiate the sponsorship programs in October. We’re pleased that we have had a lot of interest in sponsorship and exhibiting at the AMUGexpo already. 2016 AMUG Sponsorship and Exhibitor Programs will be available in September.
For additional information on sponsorship or exhibiting opportunities, please contact us at VicePresident@am-ug.com.
Dana McCallum & Steve Deak, AMUG Vice Presidents
VicePresident@am-ug.com
Hotel Information
Tom Sorovetz
Event Manager
We have secured the entire St Louis Union Station hotel for the 2016 AMUG Conference. We will open reservations at the hotel in September with a room rate of $129.00 + tax.
To accommodate the anticipated increase in attendance, we have also secured rooms at the Hilton Ballpark, which is a 10-minute trolley ride to the conference, to accommodate any overflow. Transportation from the Hilton Ballpark to the St Louis Union Station will be provided by AMUG throughout the entire conference.
In the coming months, we will provide more information on transportation, events and excursions. Additional details will soon be made available on the AMUG website.
Thomas A. Sorovetz, AMUG Event Manager
EventManager@am-ug.com
Sponsor News – Stratasys
3D Printed Parts for Aerospace
“There are 3D printed parts flying,” says Scott Sevcik, aerospace & defense business development manager at Stratasys. Airbus chose Stratasys 3D printing and materials for a flexible way to create parts for their aircraft. This application shows how 3D printing is more than a rapid prototyping technology. It’s a manufacturing technology.
3D printed parts are found on the new Airbus A350 XWB interior including the electrical routing, covers and ducting. Any plastic element within the aircraft can be customized and tailored to have lighter weight and unique geometries. Aerospace manufacturers will continue to use 3D printing to push the envelope and increase performance of their vehicles through advancing technology.
Visit the Stratasys website to see the Airbus video.
Sponsor News – Concept Laser
Leaves its Mark — The New Speed Benchmark for Precision Drills
The days when precision tools and additive manufacturing strategies could not co-exist are history. The new Mapal QTD-series insert drill proves this again. For the first time, the precision tool specialists from Aalen are manufacturing drills additively, with amazing results. Mapal has emphasized its role as a think tank for high-tech drilling solutions. While searching for new, innovative metalworking solutions, the company has re-invented itself again and again in the 65 years since it was founded in 1950. In this pioneering role, Mapal now relies on additive tool solutions with LaserCUSING® systems by Concept Laser.
The new Mapal QTD insert drill is certain to impress users. Additive manufacturing from metal powder using laser melting systems by Concept Laser makes entirely new design approaches possible. The new steel tool body design with spiral cooling channels is not usually used for small diameters.
The new design now allows even solid drills to be produced in the 8 to 12 mm diameter range. The QTD insert drill was previously available in diameters of 13 mm and greater. One reason for this is the coolant supply in the tool body. The smaller the tool body, the greater the adverse effect the standard central coolant supply has on the tool’s performance. Central coolant supply weakens the core of the drill and makes it unstable. In addition to this, the cooling channels must be ever smaller. That reduces the flow of coolant to the insert.
The new QTD-series insert drill are manufactured using additive laser melting. These are hybrid manufactured parts: The tool shank is machined conventionally and the drill is laser melted with additive methods. This approach makes the manufacturing process significantly more economical. Read more on Mapal here.
Image source: MAPAL, Dr. Kress KG
Sponsor News – Somos
Preserving the Past
The older a car gets, the harder it becomes to find original parts to replace broken or worn out parts. An exotic car dealer recently contacted Custom Prototypes as they were having a difficult time finding replacement lights for a rare Renault Spider.
Andrew Sliwa, owner of Custom Prototypes, quickly got his team together to reverse engineer the lenses. They then decided to use Stereolithography as the ideal additive manufacturing technology for the job and chose Somos® WaterShed XC 11122 as the material for the entire assembly because of its clarity and ability to be colored easily.
They printed, dyed and clear coated the part to protect it from UV, and the customer was able to quickly install it back on the car. The customer was very pleased with the outcome of the parts and can now drive the classic car as if it was new again.
Since it was such a success, the team at Custom Prototypes decided to build another set to enter into the AMUG Technical Competition. The lights may look like a simple, standard part, but with five different finishes, the jury quickly recognized the extensive work, and Custom Prototypes was awarded the 3rd place prize.
To learn more about what Custom Prototypes can do for you, visit their website at www.customprototypes.ca. Click here to see how you can use Somos® WaterShed XC 11122 in your next project.
Replacement lights for Renault Spider
A Profile of Hybrid Additive Manufacturing Technology
ENGINEERING.com
Hybrid additive manufacturing (AM) has been gaining a lot of traction over the past few years, but it’s still a technology with a lot of unknowns. First, hybrid manufacturing’s name is non-descriptive to the point of being enigmatic. But if we put it plainly, hybrid manufacturing is the combination of laser cladding and CNC milling within a single machine environment.
Read the whole story at ENGINEERING.com.
More news at ENGINEERING.com
