With just over a month to go until the 2016 AMUG Conference starts, it’s a mad rush to the finish line,

Mark Barfoot
President

and the board is busy making final preparations. I’m pleased that our preparedness includes contingencies, such as the Hilton at the Ballpark hotel as a backup, since we have already filled the St. Louis Union Station hotel. If that isn’t enough motivation to take care of registration and reservations soon, also consider that advanced registration really helps the board’s planning (and it can save you $100 if done by February 29th).

The conference agenda is coming along, and we now have several of our Diamond and Platinum Sponsors providing details of their sessions. The sessions will continue to be populated as we receive the information from our sponsors. Take a look, and you will see that we have lots of very informative sessions for you. The topics list is broad: the US patent office providing education on how to obtain a patent, various sessions on material research, some exciting new medical advancements and even some rocket science. To plan your conference activities and to map out the vendors to visit during the AMUGexpo (which is at 96% of maximum booth capacity), visit our online planner. There you will find an AMUGexpo layout, vendor descriptions, presentation descriptions and speaker bios.

Please make sure you check out the articles listed below for more details on everything from bylaw changes to updates from our sponsors. Our sponsors are an important part of the event, and they help to keep your conference fee low, so we encourage you to support them by attending their conference sessions and reading their articles in each newsletter.

If you have any questions prior to the conference, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Mark Barfoot, AMUG president
President@am-ug.com

Awards Banquet

It is a long-standing tradition to gather on the Tuesday night of the conference for a fun-filled Awards Banquet. Part of that tradition is to keep the destination a secret, learning where we are holding the gala only once you have arrived.

The Awards Banquet may be indoors, outdoors or both. So we recommend that you take a look at the weather forecast and dress for all contingencies. We suggest layers, keeping it casual and comfortable.

Fun and food (lots of it) at the 2015 Awards Banquet

Important: Online Ballot to Amend Bylaws

An online ballot is underway to amend the AMUG bylaws. We’re conducting this effort online to free up valuable 2016 conference time. The initiative will simplify the AMUG bylaws and prepare the organization for future growth. The AMUG Board of Directors recommends a “YES” vote to approve these changes.

Look for two separate emails containing important ballot information and voting instructions.

The first email, sent January 30, 2016, to all 2015 AMUG conference attendees, provided a summary document, a “redlined” bylaws document, and the amended bylaws document. If you did not receive this email, check your spam folder or request the documents via email from the AMUG secretary.

The second email, containing voting instructions, will be sent on February 29, 2016. Voting will remain open between February 29, 2016 and March 13, 2016.

Only 2015 conference attendees (2015 members) are eligible to vote. Your vote matters, so please give this ballot your attention when you receive it! Should we fail to receive a minimum number of return ballots, this item will be introduced again at the 2016 business meeting.

Please note that new AMUG members, those registered for the 2016 conference, are not eligible to vote during this online period. Your membership and voting rights will begin on April 3, 2016.

Sponsor News – ExOne

ExOne at 2016 AMUG Conference

ExOne is excitedly planning our first year as a Diamond Sponsor of the 2016 conference. Come visit our booth in Foyer B Regency Ballroom A where we will be hosting open conference sessions that will showcase our system’s versatility and functionality.

Some of the topics that will be covered are:

• Washout/composite tooling
• Printing in ceramics using binder jetting
• Casting optimization
• Using printed sand molds to create lattice or truss structures
• Machine performance measurement on binder jetting system for additive manufacturing
• Considerations for binder jetting
• Adjusting process settings on the ExOne® metal systems

In addition, we are conducting an ExOne users’ group meeting on Wednesday, April 6th at 3:15 in our booth. No pre-registration is required, however, it is a closed session for system users. The ExOne users’ group will give an opportunity for system owners to participate in a discussion about best practices and learn about changes to service.

ExOne session at the 2015 conference.

Sponsor News – 3D Systems

Jay Leno’s 3D Advantage

Jay Leno, comedian and past host of NBC’s The Tonight Show, is almost as well known for his beloved classic car and motorcycle collection. Housed in Burbank, Calif., the Big Dog Garage collection includes more than 200 cars and 100 motorcycles, all kept in pristine and fully drivable condition by Jay’s small team of top-notch mechanics and engineers.

When you have 100-year-old classic cars or modern, hand-built custom cars, how do you make spare parts? In the below case study, Jay Leno and his chief engineer, Jim Hall, explain how they use 3D printing and on-demand parts manufacturing services from 3D Systems to create high-performance, end-use parts for his most exotic vehicles.

Check out Jay’s story above and come see us at the AMUG Conference in April. As the originator of 3D printing and a shaper of future 3D solutions, we’ve spent the last 30 years helping customers like Jay accelerate their workflows and drive better products. And we’re just getting started.

Sponsor News – Concept Laser

Presents QMmeltpool 3D and AM Factory of Tomorrow at AMUG 2016

Concept Laser is thrilled to be a part of the 2016 AMUG Conference. In addition to new products and customer presentations, Concept Laser will offer an in-depth overview of the importance of metal additive manufacturing safety, quality management and in-process monitoring, and where the future of metal additive manufacturing is heading with the AM Factory of Tomorrow. Join us for interactive discussions and hands-on training.

Concept Laser sessions Monday – Thursday in Grand Ballroom B

• AM Factory of Tomorrow
• Metal Additive Manufacturing Safety
• LaserCUSING Parameters and New Materials
• QMmeltpool 3D
• Customer Presentations – including Dustin Lindley, UCRI and Dhruv Bhate, PADT
• Hands-on Training of Support Removal

We will have the M2 cusing Multilaser and Mlab cusing machines building parts throughout the week.

AM Factory of Tomorrow from Concept Laser

Sponsor News – Renishaw

Preparing for St. Louis

Renishaw will have a significant presence as a Diamond Sponsor at the AMUG Conference, in St. Louis this year, demonstrating its ongoing commitment to the additive manufacturing community.

Experts from Renishaw will be presenting talks on a range of subjects including:

• Redesigning versus designing for additive manufacturing
• Principles and fundamentals of laser optics
• The effects of multiple powder re-uses through additive manufacturing systems

They will also explain more about Renishaw’s growing network of Global Solutions Centres, with a focus on operations in Dallas and Chicago.

Other highlights include product walk-throughs of the RenAM 500M additive manufacturing system — designed for serialized production — and hands on demonstrations of Renishaw’s new QuantAM build preparation software.

For more information about Renishaw’s additive manufacturing products, please visit www.renishaw.com/additive.

Sponsor News – Stratasys

Improved Color Workflow for PolyJet

3D printing applications that demand detailed color designs in Rigid Opaque materials just got easier with Stratasys Creative Colors Software, powered by Adobe 3D Color Print Engine. Stratasys Creative Colors is the only 3D printing technology to offer Adobe color management, and it expands Connex3 applications into areas that would be impossible with Objet Studio alone. With the simple software add-on, Connex3 users can produce gradients, vignettes and texture mapping with automated color assignment, freeing users from manually picking colors shell-by-shell.

Workflow, geometric fixes, realistic preview functionality and export previews boost efficiency and enhance multi-material, multi-color, multi-application 3D printing. The new add-on to the Connex3 is recommended for realistic concept designs and presentation models that incorporate graphic elements such as organic patterns or complex logos.

Visit Stratasys to learn more about the capabilities of Stratasys Creative Colors.

Portable speaker prototype with intricate design, multiple materials, brilliant colors and smooth color gradients 3D printed on a Connex3 using Stratasys Creative Colors.

Sponsor News – Somos

Connecting You to a Solution

Are you looking for someone to help make parts for your next project? We are happy to announce that the Somos® Service Provider Map is now live on our website. Search by product and location to find your ideal match.

To begin exploring your options, click here.

Sponsor News – Carbon

Machine Coming to Conference – a First

Things are ramping up as we get ready for this year’s AMUG event. For the first time publicly, we’ll be showcasing our commercially available machine. We’re planning a robust schedule of presentations and experiences featuring a deep dive into our product solution and materials, a look at how CLIP will impact an array of industries from automotive (read more here) to consumer products to medical, and are excited to have a few of our early customers discuss their vision for CLIP. Look out for more details on our schedule and customer presentations coming soon.

Learn more about Carbon at carbon3d.com or follow us on Twitter @Carbon3D.

Metal 3D Printing Gets Down to Nanoscale

ENGINEERING.com

Cytosurge AG has announced that it has developed a new process for printing metal components on the nanoscale. The technology driving this new 3D micromanufacturing process, FluidFM, has been around for a while, but, until now, it’s been used exclusively in the life sciences field.

First developed at ETH Zurich, the FluidFM process uses a micropipette mounted on a cantilever leaf spring to deposit discrete amounts of material in an ultra-precise manner.

In Cytosurge’s latest iteration of the FluidFM process, the pipette has been manipulated to handle metals rather than biological materials. By using an electrode, Cytosurge’s researchers have been able to catalyze a chemical reaction that turns the machine’s copper sulfate material into solid copper. Researchers say the new manufacturing method can build components using a number of metals other than copper. However, those other materials haven’t been disclosed.

Read the entire article at ENGINEERING.com.

Nano-printing in metal. (Image courtesy of Alain Reiser)

Improving quality and performance with Hot Isostatic Pressing

Metal Additive Manufacturing Magazine

Hot isostatic pressing (HIP) has been used for a number of decades as a method to consolidate metal powders and metal matrix composites to produce fully dense components, to eliminate porosity in sintered parts, to produce metal clad parts through diffusion bonding and to eliminate defects in castings.

HIP is now also playing an important role in assuring and increasing the quality of critical components produced by powder-based metal additive manufacturing. In this exclusive article, Magnus Ahlfors and Johan Hjärne describe the HIP process and its influence on the microstructure and properties of AM Ti-6Al-4V alloys.

Download your FREE copy of the Winter 2015 issue of Metal AM magazine to read the full article.

TCT + Personalize

AMUG Conference Coverage

With the 2016 AMUG Conference less than two months away, we’re planning some excellent content to complement the St. Louis event. A strong editorial team at the conference will be covering AMUG from all angles, and last year’s much-read live blog will be returning to keep those that can’t make the event up-to-date and to engage those that attend with the wider TCT community.

We’re also about to start writing the previews of the conference for the next edition of our North American magazine, so if you’ll have something at the show that you think is worth sharing, please get in touch with Editor Dan O’Connor (Daniel@rapidnews.com) and let him know.

Make sure that you subscribe to that very magazine here. We’ve got North America covered now, and hard copies are delivered to homes and offices across the country — completely for free.

About AMUG

AMUG is an organization that educates and advances the uses and applications of additive manufacturing technologies. AMUG members include those with any commercial additive manufacturing/3D printing technologies from companies such as Stratasys, Somos, Concept Laser, SLM Solutions, EOS, ExOne, Renishaw, Carbon, Arcam, envisionTEC, HP Inc., Prodways and 3D Systems. AMUG meets annually to provide education and training through technical presentations on processes and new technologies. This information addresses operation of additive manufacturing equipment and the applications that use the parts they make.

Connect with members on the organization’s website and LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, and YouTube networks.