President’s Message

Steve Deak
President

I am very happy to announce that the 29th annual AMUG Conference will be held March 19-23, 2017, at the Hilton Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Mark your calendars now! With over 100,000 square feet of conference space, the hotel is the largest conference facility that AMUG has ever occupied. It is a testament to our continued growth.

Chicago is centrally located for our North American members, with easy access by ground and air. Our international members will certainly appreciate the convenience of Chicago O’Hare airport, which has numerous non-stop flights from every continent on the globe.

The 2017 conference agenda continues to take shape. Now is your chance to contribute to the 2017 agenda by stepping up to lead a workshop or submit a presentation. Contact the agenda committee soon at chairman@am-ug.com since time slots are filling fast.

Finally, as the 2016 sponsorship cycle comes to a close at the end of September, a special “Thank You” to our 2016 sponsors. Sponsors help strengthen the AMUG member experience through direct interaction with technical experts and hands-on workshops. We hope to continue our existing sponsor relationships, and foster new ones, through the 2017 conference and beyond.

We have the conference date and location … now we need your participation to make the 2017 conference a success.

Steve Deak
President
President@am-ug.com

Dates to Note

Now that AMUG has a schedule and location for the 2017 conference, there are some important dates to take note of.

For details and links, visit www.am-ug.com.

Travel Plans

Chicago is home to two international airports so travel from around the globe should be convenient.

O’Hare International (ORD)

• Distance from hotel: 19 miles
• Drive time: 45 minutes
• Taxi fare (one way): $50.00

Midway International (MDW)

• Distance from hotel: 11 miles
• Drive time: 30 minutes
• Taxi fare (one way): $35.00

AMUG will be arranging discount shuttle services to/from the airports. Details will be available in the next few months.

Sponsor News – ExOne

ExOne Expands Lowe’s Home Improvement Offerings with Metal 3D Printing Services

The ExOne Company is collaborating with Lowe’s Innovation Labs to assist Bespoke Designs, a custom 3D scanning and printing service provided by Lowe’s, in expanding its home improvement and consumer product offerings.

ExOne direct metal 3D printing, using its Binder Jetting technology, will enable Bespoke Designs to offer customers unique home and office items. Products can be ordered online or at its Lowe’s City Center in the Chelsea neighborhood within New York City. ExOne receives 3D scanned data and files through Bespoke Designs and manufactures the made-to-order items. Customers can now easily order customizable or replacement parts and receive their printed metal products in less than two weeks.

Tom Pasterik, ExOne’s manager of business and process development, commented, “This new venture brings the benefits of 3D printing into the home or office in a practical manner, further advancing the awareness of 3D printing capabilities. ExOne’s Binder Jetting technology integrates well with the Lowe’s business concept due to its ability to fulfill customizable orders in a very responsive timeframe. While remaining cost-effective, the customer receives a high quality, unique product in a timely manner.”

To view the new product offerings, please visit www.lowesinnovationlabs.com/bespoke-designs.

Sponsor News – Renishaw

How Much Can You Recycle Metal Additive Manufacturing Powder?

At the end of a build, unmelted metal powder is collected, sieved and ready for re-use. Potentially, powder can change either physically or chemically with repeated re-use, causing it to go out of specification and rendering it unsuitable for the AM process. Renishaw has conducted a study to examine to what extent powder is affected by multiple re-uses.

Tests were carried out on the Renishaw AM250 metal additive manufacturing system, which features a class-leading inert atmosphere inside the build chamber whilst processing. Titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) was selected for the study, due to its high cost and propensity to pick up oxygen and nitrogen impurities from the air. Over the course of thirty-eight metal AM builds, the same batch of titanium powder was used, with no addition of fresh powder to test a “worst case” scenario. The conclusion was that the powder did not change to any significant extent, either chemically or physically, over multiple re-use cycles.

Read Lucy Grainger’s full blog post and download the white paper here.

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis of the powder.

Sponsor News – Stratasys

Future FDM Concepts Revealed

Stratasys unveiled at IMTS 2016 two next-generation FDM concepts key to its vision for manufacturing: the Infinite-Build and Robotic Composite 3D demonstrators. Both break traditional manufacturing barriers by building parts that couldn’t be made before.

The Infinite-Build 3D Demonstrator is a fully automated, scalable additive manufacturing cell with unlimited Z-plane (length) build capacity for production of large parts and tools. It has precise repeatability through in-situ process control, faster throughput through a high-acceleration motion system and a multiple-material capability with automated material replacement.

The Robotic Composite 3D Demonstrator is a multi-axis, robotic additive manufacturing machine for optimal alignment of directional composites. It has rapid throughput with faster material deposition and elimination of support material, and it offers hybrid processing including additive, subtractive, inspection, finishing and assembly processes.

To see these groundbreaking concepts in action, watch the video on the Stratasys blog here.

Illustrations and renderings of the Stratasys Infinite-Build 3D Demonstrator (left) and the Stratasys Robotic Composite 3D Demonstrator (right).

Sponsor News – SLM Solutions

GE Makes Offer to Acquire SLM Solutions

SLM Solutions is pleased to announce its internal approval of a merger with General Electric based on the offer made for outstanding shares of the company. GE believes additive manufacturing is the next step in their development as a digital industrial company and that SLM Solutions’ technology offering aligns with its vision of expanding this capability. GE offered to acquire the company while maintaining its innovative culture and workforce, and it is committed to maintaining and expanding the customer base of selective laser melting technology.

For the full press release, click here.

A Growing Online Resource for the Metal AM Industry

Metal Additive Manufacturing Magazine

The Metal Additive Manufacturing website has been updated. The growing industry resource has received a fresh, easy to view and navigate make-over. As well as key industry news and technology developments, the new site has all issues of Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine available to download free of charge.

The archive offers unparalleled insight into the world of metal additive manufacturing and includes reports on visits to leading metal AM part manufacturers and industry suppliers, articles on technology and materials developments and reviews of key technical presentations from the international conference circuit.

All issues of Metal AM magazine are available to download in PDF format free of charge.

TCT + Personalize

More of Everything

At the moment, TCT is en route to IMTS, the Chicago biennial event, which has never had more of an additive focus in the nearly a century that it has been running.

The event comes on the heels of GE’s acquisition of Arcam and SLM Solutions for an eye-watering sum of money. So when HP said at a recent event that they are not looking at cornering a $4 billion market but disrupting a $12 trillion one, it seems less like a pipe dream and more like an inevitability than it ever has.

On the return from IMTS, TCT Show is just two short weeks away, and this year’s event has more additive manufacturing debuts than we’ve ever seen. You can read all about it by subscribing here and registering for the show here.

ORNL’s Massive 3D-Printed Aircraft Tooling Wins Guinness Record

ENGINEERING.com

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) may not be all that interested in being recognized by the same group that awarded the “longest metal coil passed through the nose and out of the mouth” and “largest hairy family.” No, being listed in the Guinness World Records for producing the “largest solid 3D printed item” is just an added bonus. Really, it’s the functionality of the massive trim-and-drill tool, 3D-printed for the Boeing Company, that ORNL was after.

The tool was 3D printed over the course of 30 hours on ORNL’s Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) machine. Roughly the length of a large SUV, it measures 17.5 feet long, 5.5 feet wide and 1.5 feet tall and weighs about 1,650 pounds.

The record-setting tooling component will be used to secure the wing skin for Boeing 777X passenger jets as they are drilled and machined before assembly. During production, Boeing will supply feedback to ORNL about the performance and longevity of the component, with the goal of determining just how effective the use of 3D printing is for such large tooling compared with more traditional manufacturing methods.

Read the article at ENGINEERING.com.

More at ENGINEERING.com

• Four Lasers Are Better Than One with New EOS Metal 3D Printer

In the foreground, the 3D-printed tooling. In the background, the BAAM machine. (Image courtesy of ORNL)