AMUG March 2021

President’s report

My fellow AMUG Members,

We are now less than two months from the start of our annual conference. The journey to this live event has been challenging, but the culmination of the effort is in sight.

Understandably, some of our members will not be able to attend, and they will be missed. As for the rest of us, it’s time to get ready for a memorable event that will not be forgotten. We appreciate that everyone is anxious to get back to in-person events to discover details, as well as subtle nuances, that are needed when taking action and making decisions with confidence. For that, we are bringing you AMUG 2021.

There may be some COVID-19 developments before our event. We will be paying close attention to any changes that occur and will adapt accordingly. We ask that you also stay informed of any requirements you may need to abide by to avoid surprises that could hamper your experience. Together we can make this a memorable event for all the right reasons and avoid any blemishes to the standing and reputation of our fantastic AM community.

If you are still working on your plans for attending, I’d like to remind you of our FAQs and preparation guidance documents. These will help answer many of the questions you or your employer may have. AMUG publishes these to be transparent as to what we know and what we are doing. The documents also cover the part you play in making the conference a success.

Please make sure your transportation and lodging reservations are confirmed as soon as possible. I booked my flights some time ago and noticed that the prices have increased. For the Hilton Orlando hotel, please make sure you get the AMUG rate of $129.00/night. If you are not able to get the discounted rate, please advise our event manager, Tom Sorovetz.

When we gather, conversations will range from small, incremental advances to significant changes that have occurred over the two years since the last AMUG Conference. That is a lot of information to digest!  I look forward to networking with everyone and hope to remember all of the details we share.

Please be well and stay safe!

Carl Dekker
President

AMUG Technical Competition update

The annual AMUG Technical Competition is a staple of our event, year in and year out. Attendees are always amazed at what their peers can and have accomplished with AM. There are two categories in the competition: Advanced Finishing and Advanced Concepts. To be part of the competition, please submit an entry form. The deadline for entries is April 25, 2021, so please don’t procrastinate too long—get your submissions in ASAP.

We would like to announce a new Technical Competition Committee Chair and say, “Thank you,” to our outgoing Chair, Jason Lopes of Carbon. Taking the lead will be Bonnie Meyer, a DINO recipient while at Stratasys.

How AM enables automotive interior innovation

Register for our webinar and discover our whitepaper.

After adopting AM mainly for rapid prototyping, OEMs increasingly shift to 3D printing their end-use parts. The industry’s high entrance barriers and various certifications can pose challenges to the transition to AM. At Forward AM, we have developed solutions that work—and that show how to harness the benefits of AM: lightweight designs, value-adding functionalities—by complying with industry requirements.

Live Webinar: Additive Manufacturing for Automotive Interiors

Our experts will guide you through a variety of car interior applications revolutionized by AM. Together with our partner Oechsler, we will take you through the development process of a 3D-printed car seat.

March 24, 2021, 4:00 pm CET / 10:00 am EDT

Register here to find out more and to get your questions answered in the Q&A.

Whitepaper: Automotive—Ultrasint® TPU01 for Car Interior Applications

For the automotive industry, AM enables completely new application concepts, lighter parts as well as time and cost savings for product development. Read this white paper for an introduction to AM application of thermoplastic polyurethane for car interiors. And find out more about the requirements of automotive interior applications, real-life use cases, selected test results and certifications, and added benefits of simulation and post processing.

Download here.

Automotive interiors: join the webinar; read the white paper.

Fuse 1 for patient-specific prostheses

Formlabs is excited to showcase how the Fuse 1 is expanding mass customization in the field. Outsourcing and expensive tools have been obstacles to mass customization for years. Matthew Mikosz, founder of Partial Hand Solutions, has experimented with all kinds of workflows to create patient-specific prostheses while aiming to keep costs down.

When we began shipping the Fuse 1, possibilities opened up to produce truly custom, cost-effective, and high-performance prostheses. In this Office Hours session, go inside Matthew’s workshop and see his end-to-end workflow in action. He will share an in-depth case study of a pediatric prosthesis, discuss various finishing techniques for nylon parts, and speak to what’s possible with the Fuse 1.

Register for the session here.

Partial Hand Solutions produces prosthetics in nylon-12 on the Fuse 1.

Essentium and Croda share science behind Ionphase antistatic materials

Today, the introduction of new high-performance polymers is enabling manufacturers to use AM for applications never imagined before. Through an open additive ecosystem with a range of high-performance materials, industry players now have a unique opportunity to rapidly produce parts for harsh and extreme environments on-demand, save money, reduce waste, and streamline the supply chain.

Essentium and Croda have teamed up to commercialize a new line of 3D printer filaments made with Ionphase™ antistatic additives.

In an on-demand webinar, Jouni Hillberg, sales development specialist at Croda, and Brandon Sweeney, Ph.D., executive vice president of R&D for materials and co-founder at Essentium, share the material science behind Ionphase permanent antistatic polymers, their uses in industrial and consumer applications, and how these materials have been adapted for 3D printing.

Viewers will gain a deep understanding of the benefits of Ionphase antistatic filaments over other ESD safe materials, including their availability in a variety of colors, intrinsic purity and cleanliness, and uniformity of electrical properties.

View the webinar on-demand here.

Cover made with TPU 58D-AS, the first material based on Croda Ionphase.

Webinar: Pioneering New Water Solutions by Creating an Additive Mindset

Join this webinar to hear how Grundfos has kickstarted an additive transformation in every corner of the company to develop the future water solutions for the benefit of the world.

Wednesday, March 24, 2021
10:00 am EDT

Register here.

From R&D to the factory floor, Grundfos has cultivated an additive mindset.

Midwest Prototyping uses LSR molding with Somos® PerFORM to fulfill customer’s needs

In the face of the pandemic, a medical device company turned to Midwest Prototyping and 3D printing to quickly produce parts. With a list of specific requirements and a short time frame, the Midwest Team jumped into action.

The client asked for the final parts to be in silicone rubber, which eliminated the possibility of using a silicone rubber mold. The compressed timeline didn’t allow for a CNC aluminum mold to be produced. The decision was made to go directly to production by 3D printing a mold suited for the LSR (liquid silicone rubber) process. While using 3D printed molds is not novel, using them to produce silicone rubber parts, a process that requires high-temperature curing, was new for Midwest and several key lessons were learned along the way.

With its high-heat tolerance and outstanding detail resolution, Somos® PerFORM was chosen for the mold. Read the full case study.

Mold printed using Somos PerFORM.

Join us at Dyndrite Developer Conference 2021

DDC2021 is the foremost online event for next-generation, production-grade AM hardware and software. Keynotes, technical discussions, and technology showcases will feature advances by the developers, licensees, and academics using Dyndrite technology.

Watch, listen to, and interact with the experts developing the next generation of AM solutions.

This event is a key opportunity to learn how the next level of performance and automation will create new markets from those doing it. In just three hours a day over two days, DDC2021 delivers maximum information with minimum wasted time. Featuring the latest OEM research and advances, benchmarks, software demonstrations, and customer use cases, DDC2021 will highlight the changes in compute power, performance, and automation coming to AM.

Find out more and register here.

Check out the Q1 issue of AR

The latest edition of The Additive Report is filled with reports on additive manufacturers and 3D printing technology. Highlights from the Q1 issue, which is available on our website, include:

A story about the production capabilities of DLP 3D printers (“Picture This”).

A report on how Baker Hughes and Würth Industry have joined forces to simplify their customers’ supply chains (“Supplied on Demand”).

An interview with the president of GoProto, Jesse Lea, on the company’s commitment to digital manufacturing (“Going for It”).

Read the issue here.

Among the other interesting reads on the AR website is a blog about the growing use of additive to print integrated circuits (read here), an article about pellet-extrusion 3D printing, and a post on Orbex’s plan to buy Europe’s largest 3D printer to build rocket engines.

If you don’t receive The Additive Report, please subscribe here.

Want to be featured inside TCT’s AMUG Preview?

Inside the current issue of TCT Magazine, AMUG’S AM Industry Advisor Todd Grimm provides a glimpse at what attendees can expect from the 2021 AMUG Conference, including how organizers are adapting this year’s event with additional safety protocols to deliver “the AMUG experience with a twist.”

In the next issue of TCT North America, we’re turning the spotlight on exhibitors with our annual AMUG Preview feature. So, if you’re unveiling a new technology at the AMUGexpo, hosting a must-attend workshop, or have an exciting 3D printing application to share, the TCT Content team would like to hear from you.

For your chance to be featured, please email (by April 16) a short text (100 words max.) and image detailing what you or your organization have in store for this year’s event.

Todd Grimm tells TCT readers what to expect from AMUG 2021.

3D Metal Printing Experience and Tech Tour set for Pittsburgh in June

Now in its sixth year, the 3D Metal Printing Experience and Tech Tour is returning to Pittsburgh, PA, on June 15-16. Presented by 3D Metal Printing magazine, this event brings together industry experts as well as AM users and suppliers to learn about the latest developments in 3D metal printing via presentations, panel discussions, and a tour of a local AM facility.

Conference highlights include the following keynote presentations: Process Standardization, Data Collection and Transference, by Ashley Totin of NCDMM; and Making the Business Case for Metal AM, by Michael Rosplock of Enerpac. A who’s who lineup of presenters includes Tim Simpson from Penn State University on designing for AM; Patrick Gannon from ABB on the importance of uninterrupted power supply for AM; Sherry Handel from the Additive Manufacturer Green Trade Association on sustainability in AM; Francisco Medina of UTEP on increasing industrialization of metal laser powder-bed fusion; and Bret Heher of Wabtec on railroad AM applications. Also, Cullen Hilkene of 3Diligent leads a panel discussion on working with service bureaus.

Find out more and register here.

This sixth annual 3D Metal Printing Experience, June 15-16 in Pittsburgh, PA, features a local facility Tech Tour.

Design lessons from the sports world

Designers in the sports world have been one of the groups quickest to adopt AM technology. They’ve developed a few insights and perspectives that might be useful for engineers in other fields. David Woodlock, application development and design manager at HP, discusses a few of these insights.

Read the article here.

Cobra Golf putter, one example of AM in the sports world.

Latest issue—simulation, generative design, and additive technologies

The March issue of Digital Engineering takes a deep dive into the simulation technology used to keep the yachts in the America’s Cup race sailing at top speeds. The issue also includes a look at how generative design and AM are enabling lightweighting efforts in a number of industries and a case study on the use of additive technologies at Eaton.

You can download the issue here.

March issue of DE feature: simulation for America’s Cup vessels.

Let us connect you

In the Autumn 2020 issue of Metal AM magazine, we launched our multi-page Additive Manufacturing Buyer’s Guide with companies listed by product or service, making it easier for our readers to identify potential suppliers.

The value of this listing has been magnified in recent months, with the ongoing lack of in-person events impacting how people meet and connect with suppliers. Whether readers are looking for AM machines, metal powders, furnace technology, a part production partner, or more, our new guide is laid out for easy consideration.

Readers can identify and connect with your company by clicking directly through to your website or to view your advert. With an average circulation of over 34,000 readers per issue, we think you’ll agree it’s a list you want to be on. For more information on appearing in our next issue, contact Jon Craxford.

View the buyer’s guide here.

Metal AM’s Buyer’s Guide for 2020.

Register for 3Dnatives’ Next Webinar: “Progress & Current Challenges in Online Process Control for L-PBF”

Process control in Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) is often referred to as the holy grail for industrial metal 3D printing. Process control significantly reduces errors in printing, resulting in higher-quality pieces, which is critical for industries like automotive, aerospace, and medical. 3Dnatives’ next webinar, in collaboration with Aconity3D and XARION Laser Acoustics, will take place on March 30 at 10:00 am EDT (4:00 pm CEST).

Aconity3D is a leading 3D printing company offering process control solutions, and XARION Laser Acoustics depends on process control as they work on the world’s first membrane-free optical microphone. Efficient solutions for reliable process control will be covered, ranging from full control of applied parameter sets to over automated inline process adaptations all the way to applying modifiable beam shapes to allow for full temperature control during printing processes. The webinar will conclude with a comprehensive outlook on further developments to come, followed by a Q&A.

Register here.

You can register for free for 3Dnatives’ next webinar here.

Exploring the promise of AM through materials

AM’s geometric freedom is undeniable, but its true potential may come from materials. Alternative material choices and means of applying them open new avenues toward realizing the full potential of a manufactured part. We have examples in the March issue of Additive Manufacturing magazine.

In this month’s cover story, a novel method for 3D printing ceramics illustrates new potential uses for this material. We also explore the ways that 3D printing is changing composites fabrication; why one startup is tackling what it sees as the most difficult material—copper—first; the advance of metal matrix composites and thermoset plastics; and recycled metals as a means to achieve supply chain security.

Read the issue or subscribe.

Latest issue focuses on AM materials.