AMUG August 2021

President’s report

My Fellow Users,

The AMUG Conference was the first to return to a live event format. Roaming the halls of the Hilton Orlando, you could feel the excitement and exuberance of a return to normal. Now, we are weeks away from the start of the fall trade-show season where many other events will be bringing us together for face-to-face interactions. We wish them all the best and hope that you can participate.

With many spring events pushed back to the fall, the calendar is jampacked, so it may be difficult to attend all you are interested in. While that decreases the chances of us crossing paths, let’s make the most of it when we do. Greet your fellow AMUG members and the AMUG team with a warm ‘Hello’ and a lively conversation on what you are seeing.

Our committees did a fantastic job last year, and we are looking forward to further developments in/from all of them. Every year, we review the committees’ needs and adjust rosters accordingly. So, committee members will change and volunteers’ roles may shift. . We encourage you to consider contributing to AMUG’s efforts and invite you to participate. For a rundown on AMUG committees, visit amug.com/committees, and if interested in being part of the team, reach out to a committee chair.

I feel like this is premature, but I want to advise everyone that registration for AMUG 2022 will open on October 1. It may seem like that is a long time away, but six weeks will be gone before you know it. The AMUG Conference will take place April 3-7, 2022, in Chicago. Tom Sorovetz, director of events and hospitality, has done a great job securing excellent rates and lots of space at the Hilton Chicago. However, the hotel fills up fast, so I recommend planning your visit far in advance.

Approaching the opening of registration and nearing the end of summer, the flow of information and details will begin ramping up. Stay tuned in by reading our newsletter and watching your inboxes.

I look forward to seeing you at one of the many AM industry events to come and to working with you as we prepare for the next amazing users group gathering, AMUG 2022!

Thank you for making AMUG amazing.

Sincerely,

Carl Dekker
President

Automotive—Ultrasint® TPU for car interior applications

Automotive engineers and designers have long relied on polymers to simultaneously save cost, reduce weight, and enhance aesthetics all while delivering the required performance characteristics. TPU has traditionally been used a lot in car interior applications. It is very good in long-term stability and durability as well as in outstanding haptics and pleasant touch.

TPU powders from Forward AM’s Ultrasint® portfolio have been perfectly adapted to create a variety of innovative design patterns using the AM processes of Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) as well as selective laser sintering (SLS).

Ultrasint TPU01 is a multi-purpose TPU powder designed explicitly for HP’s 5200 series Multi Jet Fusion printers. Ultrasint TPU01 offers strong, flexible, and durable part performance, combined with excellent surface quality and level of detail. The material is extremely easy to print, has very high process stability, and one of the highest throughputs for flexible materials in the 3D printing market.

Ultrasint TPU 88A is a TPU powder designed to be very easy and stable to process on any powder bed busion equipment. Parts printed with Ultrasint TPU 88A offer strong, flexible, and durable performance, combined with excellent surface quality and level of detail. Parts have a stable white color, allowing easy finishing through dyeing and chemical etching.

Download the white paper here.

The interior of a vehicle provides the perfect opportunity for value-added AM product differentiation.

Essentium to acquire Collider to advance one-shot tooling technology

Essentium has signed a letter of intent to acquire Collider, a pioneer of Programmable Tooling, a system that combines DLP 3D printing with common injection molding materials.

As manufacturers look to respond quickly to market changes, many are challenged with late-stage product development. Creating injection molds or specific tooling for low-quantity parts production is both costly and time-consuming. Collider’s DLP 3D printing technology offers a solution. Instead of a permanent, hard tooling mold, it creates a thin photopolymer shell that is then injected with various materials and cured through a chemical process. After some post processing, a production-quality part or mold is left.

The 3D printing technology unlocks a vast array of high-performance thermosetting polymers and composites including polyurethanes, silicones, epoxies, polyesters, foamed resins, carbon fiber composites, as well as sintered metals and ceramics, with one machine. Parts have structural integrity that is ‘on par’ with injection-molded components coupled with high-detail aesthetic surfaces, enabling manufacturers to speed up the design process and obtain parts in a few hours rather than weeks.

For more information, go here.

Example of Collider’s capabilities.

Dyndrite’s new interactive architecture stack diagram

The Dyndrite Accelerated Computation Engine is a software development kit (SDK) deployable in a wide variety of digital manufacturing environments. The Dyndrite plug-in architecture and APIs provide hardware and software developers with a limitless ability to create scalable digital manufacturing solutions and integrations—without requiring you to reveal your IP.

Check out our interactive architecture stack diagram to understand how Dyndrite provides you with the tools to quickly build your additive applications with built-in GPU-processing capabilities, Python-based automation, direct CAD-to-print, and toolpathing output to any 3D print process. Build automation and traceability into your own applications and connect seamlessly with other machines and software.

Dyndrite’s interactive architecture stack diagram.

AM never sleeps

Expectations for a slow news cycle over the summer are out the window as industry consolidation speeds ahead. Desktop Metal’s post-SPAC spending spree snapped up EnvisionTEC, followed by Aerosint, and now ExOne will become the latest enterprise to join Ric Fulop’s ever-growing additive empire. How these acquisitions will shift the sales channel landscape and which enterprises might be eyeing mergers are sure to be topics of many conversations during the forthcoming trade show and conference season.

One question we have. Will there be enough independent companies left when the 2021 3D Printing Industry Awards take place in October? Surely, only time will tell.

However, time is of the essence with the nomination deadline at the end of August. Don’t dawdle; make your nominations now!

Desktop Metal’s Jonah Myerberg at the 3D Printing Industry Awards.

From metal injection molding to binder jetting and beyond

Discover the new issue of PIM International magazine, available online for free and in full.

From the publisher of Metal AM magazine, PIM International offers in-depth coverage of the metal injection molding (MIM), ceramic injection molding (CIM), and sinter-based AM sectors.

Deep dive articles in this issue include:

• FreeFORM Technologies: Leveraging MIM expertise to drive application development in metal binder jetting
• MIMplus Technologies: How innovation and research is driving developments in NdFeB magnets and sinter-based AM
• Catamold motion 8620: BASF’s new low-alloy feedstock based on pre-alloyed metal powders
• Winkworth: The development of custom solutions for the mixing of MIM feedstocks

View the issue online.

Get the latest issue of PIM International magazine online.

The role of construction 3D printing in humanitarian aid

Over the last few decades, construction using 3D printing has taken the world by storm. AM has enabled construction companies to build at unprecedented speeds, while minimizing waste and labor. Furthermore, with 3D printing, the cost of construction is considerably reduced compared to traditional methods.

The technology has also allowed designers to manifest impressive geometrically complex and architecturally interesting designs, which would otherwise be impossible to create. Its potential profitability has certainly not gone unnoticed, nor has its potential as a force for good.

In the course of the last few years, several initiatives have been founded on this concept. Taking advantage of the efficiency, low cost, and sustainability it offers, 3D printing for construction has become central to many humanitarian-focused projects seeking to combat global issues ranging from housing shortages and homelessness to the education crisis.

Read more here.

3D printing is increasingly being used in the construction of buildings in sectors like education.

New report: Metal AM Parts Produced 2021

In its latest iteration of a flagship research product, the Metal AM Parts Produced 2021 report, SmarTech Analysis looks at the production volumes of metal 3D printed components and the resulting market values. The leading firm dedicated to 3D printing market analysis and consulting has projected that the metal 3D printed parts segment will reap $50 billion annually by 2030.

The report includes a database of metal AM market projections for metal AM parts ranging from prototypes, tools, and tooling to end-use production components. These items span eight major industries and dozens of part categories, such as aircraft and helicopter engine parts in aerospace to nuclear reactor components in the energy sector.

Get more details here.

Summary graph on metal part production is one of many in the new report.

After years in China, 3D printing lets vacuum accessory maker develop U.S. production

Dustless Technologies, maker of wet-dry vacuums and related accessories, has relied on sources in China for a considerable share of its manufacturing for over 20 years. But no longer.

Advances in materials, reliability, and the cost of 3D printing now make it possible for the Utah-based company to manufacture polymer parts through its in-house printing technology. Learn more about Dustless Technologies’ journey and its first product to be mass-produced through AM in this article.

Vacuum parts and accessories aren’t the only use cases Dustless is finding, however. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and stay tuned to find out how you can win another successfully reshored consumer product.

Dustless CEO Spencer Loveless with the company’s first product to be mass produced through 3D printing in the United States.

Locally sourced 3D-printed homes

Italian architects are building 3D-printed houses that combine high-level technology and local materials. The people at WASP and Mario Cucinella Architects have done everything they can to prove that avant-garde edifices can be constructed just about anywhere—and that they can be built with next to zero emissions.

Read the story here.

Two pods: 200 printing hours and 150 kilometers of extruded earth in 350 layers. Photo credit: WASP

Xerox’s first printer lands at U.S. Navy College

The first commercial 3D printer from Xerox was installed at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Students are using the liquid-metal ElemX to help prepare for additively manufacturing parts at sea. “The Navy will be able to print parts on board ships, so if you are in the middle of the ocean and you don’t have a spare part, you can make it relatively quickly,” said Dr. Amela Sadagic, co-director of the Center for Additive Manufacturing at NPS. (Read here.)

Here are some other interesting reads you’ll find on our website:

• Additive manufacturer supplements its smart factory services with 3D printers
• Binder-jet printing is revving up in auto industry (Read here)
• Software’ silos’ work against additive manufacturing interoperability (Read here)

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

Aluminum parts that the Naval Postgraduate School 3D-printed on the Xerox ElemX printer. Photo credit: Mass Communication Specialist Third Class Lenny Weston

Get 360-degree AM insights at TCT 3Sixty

The hum of machines, keynote speakers, applications that spark new ideas, meeting new faces, reconnecting with old ones, business cards exchanges; there really is nothing quite like live events.

TCT 3Sixty is ready to welcome the 3D printing and AM community back to the halls of the NEC, Birmingham, UK, on September 28-30. For many of us, this year’s event will provide the first in-person chance to get hands-on with technologies launched over the last two years.

TCT 3Sixty has been shaped to deliver a full 360-degree understanding of the AM adoption journey. Evaluation, adoption, and optimization are the three pillars you’ll find woven into our exhibits, features, and conference, and they will allow you to make the most out of your visit, wherever you are on that journey.

In the most recent issue of TCT Magazine, we preview what you can expect to see on the show floor, including live demonstrations of the end-to-end AM workflow, machine launches, and much more.

Register for free at tct3sixty.com.

Audience at TCT’s 2019 event captivated in a keynote presentation.

3DMP ready to see you at RAPID + TCT

With RAPID + TCT set for Chicago, IL, in September, 3D Metal Printing looks forward to making the rounds at McCormick Place to view the latest 3D metal printing technology and bringing what we see to you. If you attend, be sure to visit us at booth E7049.

The 3DMP Summer 2021 issue also travels to the show, filled with the latest metal-AM news and technology developments along with feature articles recapping AMUG, detailing AM of superalloys and semiconductor applications, summarizing efforts to develop models that better predict AM part performance, assessing applications for binder jetting, and describing how a manufacturer of automation solutions employs metal AM to gain manufacturing flexibility and save time.

Look for the Summer 2021 issue of 3D Metal Printing magazine at RAPID + TCT, and look for us at booth E7049.

Trends in aerospace and automotive AM

The aerospace industry was an early adopter of additive technology, followed by the automotive industry. Where do these industries stand in relation to additive technology today? In a recent interview, David Giebenhain, global product director at Protolabs, shares his thoughts.

David Giebenhain, global product director at Protolabs.

Latest issue focuses on automotive design

The July/August issue of Digital Engineering features a special focus on automotive design. Articles include an in-depth look at best practices for metal 3D printing, the use of simulation for vehicle design, mixed-reality applications in automotive, and reviews of the Lenovo ThinkPad P15 and Shapr3D software.

You can download the issue here.

DE’s July/August issue focuses on automotive design.