AMUG August 2023

President’s report

August already!?  The summer is blazing right by us!

The AMUG Board has been actively reviewing our 2023 conference and planning for our 2024 conference. Much of this board exchange happens as a result of your feedback — by way of sending us messages, catching us on a show floor, and completing our surveys. We read, and hear, all of it. We talk about all of it. We take the praise and the critiques with professionalism and define if/what/where things should continue to evolve in an effort to present the conference we all anticipate!

In addition to bi-weekly conference calls, the board meets for three days in July, at the conference hotel, to dissect all of this information and vote together for each proposed change.

And here we are… ready to share some of the things we have responded to. This begins with our upcoming registration, which will open on September 1, 2023, at 9:00 a.m. EST. At that time, we will accept registrations for attendees, sponsors, and exhibitors. Why so early, you ask? There were two big reasons. One, we’ve had sponsors ask for earlier registration to help them when building marketing budgets for the coming year. Two, our conference is earlier this year (March 10-14, 2024), so this tightens the belt on task accomplishment and timelines.

We are working on our new Sponsor & Exhibitor Prospectus now. In it, you’ll find some changes. The days of the AMUGexpo are changing, what sponsorships offer is changing, the Special Event (formerly Awards Banquet or Off-site Event) is changing, and we will have private rooms available for purchase by  Gold, Platinum, or Diamond Sponsors. The prospectus will be released before registration opens on September 1.

Our 20 committees have started their regular meeting/planning cadences. We’ve got some new team members, both chairing committees and participating as members. And we celebrate the involvement of some first-time volunteers. I offer my appreciation for your willingness to contribute and serve!

AMUG 2024 is taking shape to be a conference filled with relevant content, educational panels, tactile workshops, opportunities for networking, and the exhibition of sponsors who value our attendees and are willing to share their goods/services to further enhance our AM efforts.

Keep an eye on our social media for updates, as well as our website. Our emails (board members and committee chairs) can all be found on the website (board page, committees page) as well, should you wish to engage on a more personal level. We value you and welcome your feedback and questions.

I am so looking forward to a wonderful AMUG 2024 together with you!

Shannon VanDeren
President
President@amug.com

AMUG 2024 is going back to the ‘80s

We heard our members regarding having more technical content and are taking the AMUG Conference ‘Back to the USER’. So, we will refocus our program to have even more technical content in our conference tracks and sessions.

Other big changes for the AMUG Conference will include switching our offsite event to Wednesday night. This change results from members requesting more time for the AMUGexpo; more time to investigate what solutions our sponsors and exhibitors offer. The AMUGexpo will run Sunday night and mid-morning through evening on Monday and Tuesday. Everyone will remain together to promote more networking and conversation.

Wednesday night will feature our ‘Special Event and Dinner.’ While the day and name (formerly called the Off-site Dinner) change, it will once again be a great time for all, and its location won’t be revealed in advance.

Thursday’s agenda will once again have a focus of hands-on workshops. In these, you will roll up your sleeves to learn AM-related operations by doing them.

We will end the conference with a themed casino night. The theme will be the 1980s and we want you to dress for the occasion. So, dig out your brightly colored headbands, a pair of ankle boots, and those Members Only jackets.

These changes are in response to our members’ feedback. We heard you loud and clear.

Looking forward to seeing you all in March!

AMUG 2024 call for speakers is now open

The AMUG Conference agenda consists of two sections, AMUG technical tracks and Diamond/Platinum Sponsor tracks. This call for speakers is specifically for the AMUG technical tracks where the focus will be on providing training and educational talks, hands-on workshops, and panel discussions.

Sessions within the AMUG technical tracks are intended to be led by users of AM technology and geared toward the users in attendance. If you are an OEM, please consider giving one of your users the opportunity to share their knowledge and expertise. Commercial presentations and sales pitches will be rejected.

When responding to the Call for Speakers, we ask interested presenters to contact the Track Leader Committee Co-Chairs, Nate Schumacher and Alex Roschli, at trackleader@amug.com. Based on your topic, they will put you in contact with the appropriate track leader, who will continue to work with you to ensure your proposed session will be valuable to the AMUG members.

The tracks for the 2024 program are:

• Aerospace/Transportation/Defense/Military
• AM Metal Technologies
• AM Non-Metal Technologies
• AM Materials
• Casting Metal
• Education and Training
• Healthcare (Medical and Dental)
• Scanning & Metrology
• Software

We are expecting to fill up the speaking slots very quickly, so don’t delay!

Engage as a new member of AMUG

The success of AMUG is tied to attracting and retaining new members with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and skill sets who are willing to share and contribute. We need your contributions, whether you’ve been in AM for a few weeks or decades. Whatever your experience level,  you bring valuable insights and experiences to other AMUG members.

The New Member Committee wants to welcome you and be your guide into this wonderful community. We want to encourage you to join, help you prepare, celebrate your contributions, and ensure we can assist you in engaging during the conference in a way that is comfortable for you. We are happy to help you grow your network, locate that technical resource for you, and introduce you to the pioneers and innovators of our industry.

The best way for you to contribute is to engage. During the conference, take every opportunity to join those conversations, make those introductions during lunch, ask those technical questions during the sessions, discuss your successes, pain points, and failures with the OEMs during the AMUGexpo, sing that karaoke duet with someone you are meeting in person for the first time although you’ve emailed with them for years, and most importantly, always split Aces and 8’s at the blackjack table during casino night.

Please reach out with any questions, comments, or concerns, and our committee members will be happy to help ensure you have a great first AMUG Conference experience.

Nick Licari,
Chair – New Member Committee
NewMember@amug.com

Director, education & conference introduction

Hello members! I am Ed Graham, and I am honored to serve you as director, education & conference.

I have been in the additive industry for 27 years – working for ProtoCAM (now Prototek). ProtoCAM was one of the earliest service bureaus in the US. I was born into the AM industry, coming directly from college as a plastics engineer. I enjoy helping to change the manufacturing landscape one print at a time. And I firmly believe that AM will revolutionize how we design and make the products of the future.

My journey with AMUG includes:

• 2019: Technical Competition – Advanced Concepts Winner
• 2020: Casting Track Leader
• 2020: DINO Award Recipient
• 2021: Casting Track Leader
• 2021: Technical Competition – Advanced Finishing Runner-up
• 2022 – 2023: Track Leader Committee Chair

This journey has been incredible and led me to this great opportunity. I am excited about 2024 and will do my best to serve you well. I am looking forward to seeing you soon. I close with a special thank you to the AMUG Board and Jordan Weston for their continued support.

Feel free to reach me anytime.

Ed Graham
Director, Education & Conference
DConfEd@amug.com

Technical Competition at AMUG 2024

If you had the opportunity to showcase your AM innovations in an intimate, hands-on environment, would you take it?  If you had an occasion to initiate a lot of conversations, make networking easier, and provide exposure to your work, would you be there?

These are just a few reasons why AMUG members participated in the 2023 Technical Competition and why you should start planning your entry for AMUG 2024. If you are unfamiliar with the Technical Competition, it is where users of AM technologies highlight their unique applications and finishing capabilities. It is an opportunity to showcase your projects, your team, your organization, and your creativity to your peers.

Choose to enter Advanced Concepts or Advanced Finishing using any AM technology, and your entry will be evaluated by a panel of judges to determine the winners. The Members’ Choice Award recipient is solely chosen by you, the AMUG members!

Stay tuned for more details about the competition, and start planning your entry today!  Check out the website for more information, or contact TechComp@amug.com with any questions.

Preparing for 2024 AMUG Board elections

CHANGE IS INEVITABLE!  This has been said many times, and perhaps the key to this is that we are always learning— within AMUG and everywhere else. The roles involved with AMUG are also changing, so we need great people to help fill these positions.

We have had several changes to the team since our last election, but the AMUG Board has made some amazing additions to fill the roles. You may have noticed that our new leadership additions have had experience in AMUG committees. These are great places to learn how things on the inside work and what is required. But, there are no requirements to have served before running for a board of directors position, and the team will help train all that step up to lead.

With the 2024 AMUG Conference taking place earlier in the year, many timelines have been compressed, such as registration opening a month earlier. But to help manage the workload, we are not changing the opening date for nominations for those interested in an AMUG Board position. The forms for nominations will be available on October 1, and we ask you to use the form since it will help us refine the process as part of our continuous improvement. With the earlier-than-usual conference date, we will close nominations a bit earlier, sometime around the end of the year.

After receiving a nomination, the committee will speak with the candidate to educate, inform, and remove any surprises. This step qualifies those on the election slate to ensure you have a great ballot to vote on. Once we have vetted candidates, they are then added to the ballot.

As we always say, AMUG is ‘For Users, By Users’. You are what makes the organization strong and the conference great. Please reach out with any questions, review the soon-to-be-updated documents on the website, or ask any of our current board members for details. Also, you are always welcome to send suggestions to the Nominating Committee (nomcom@amug.com) at any time.

Carl Dekker
Chair – Nominating Committee
NomCom@amug.com

SPONSOR NEWS

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Use promo code AMUG15 for 15% off your PolyJet print order (one-time use per customer).

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Go from CAD to injection molded parts in a day with FIM

By combining the freedom of AM with the industrial strength of injection molding, Freeform Injection Molding (FIM) unlocks tremendous potential for contract manufacturers, regional molders, service providers, and low-volume manufacturers, enabling users to accelerate development and reduce costs for same-day and next-day manufacturing. Nexa3D’s LSPc® technology and dissolvable xMOLD resin printed tools are compatible with thousands of off-the-shelf injection molding materials, including reinforced, high-performance feedstocks.

FIM can get you from idea to molded part ultrafast — just look at our project timelines for companies like Wilson, Pepsi, and more. Say goodbye to compromises and hello to the perfect blend of 3D printing and IM’s well-understood process and material performance. Whether you need a traditional tool with parting lines or have a highly intricate, impossible-to-mill geometry, FIM delivers.

xMOLD resin is now available through Nexa3D’s network of authorized resellers. Visit digital tooling for more information.

SAF technology increases efficiency of robotic post-processing systems

With the design freedom afforded by powder-bed-based polymer processes, Rivelin Robotics landed on Stratasys’ H350™ 3D printer utilizing SAF technology to 3D print a solution for their challenge.

According to Robert Bush, CEO of Rivelin Robotics, “At Rivelin, we are developing solutions for post-processing metal AM parts. When off-the-shelf electrical components were not available to meet our needs, the talent and drive of the Rivelin team were deployed to develop an electrical connector that would. The SAF AM process and the materials it can utilize were a great match for our application both in terms of product development and production. It allowed us to prototype, test, and iterate quickly so that we were fully confident in our product and how it would perform.”

Read the full customer story.

Register to attend DIGITAL FOAM®: The Key Player in Polymer 3D Printing Customization webinar

The lattice design process has brought AM to the national stage through sports equipment innovation, protective helmet customization, and more. Learn how DIGITAL FOAM® is changing the game for polymer 3D printing production through design flexibility and customization in the new webinar, DIGITAL FOAM: The Key Player in Polymer 3D Printing Customization.

In this webinar, we will address some of the top questions related to DIGITAL FOAM, including:

• What is DIGITAL FOAM, and how is it different from other 3D-printed lattice structures?
• How can DIGITAL FOAM increase the functionalities of current AM applications?
• What materials are used to produce DIGITAL FOAM, and what are the current limitations?
• How are DIGITAL FOAM projects managed differently than traditional EOS Additive Minds consulting projects, and what resources are available through the DIGITAL FOAM Architects program?
• Where do EOS experts predict DIGITAL FOAM will be leveraged in the future?

Attend the webinar and listen in as EOS experts review the current polymer AM landscape, discuss future advancements of DIGITAL FOAM, and highlight real-world DIGITAL FOAM application examples.

Register Now.

Snowbird Technologies to boost Meltio’s Robot Integration to wire-laser metal 3D printing in U.S. industries

Meltio has gone a step further to meet the growing demand for manufacturing 3D parts thanks to robotic integration in the U.S., and it has done so hand-in-hand with Snowbird Technologies. The alliance between the two companies allows U.S. industries to create printed metal parts with Meltio heads. This head is offered as a standard component on the Snowbird Additive Mobile Manufacturing Technology platform — SAMM Tech.

“The SAMM Tech platform with Meltio components offers an impressive, high-performing solution for in-the-field parts manufacturing,” said Jeremy Heerdink, vice president of business development. “Our goal in expanding our sales partnership of Meltio products is to provide solutions facilitating efficient and accurate AM capabilities in the most remote and harshest environments around the world.”

SAMM Tech is a newly released, patented AM system built for and operates inside a shipping container. Designed to be transportable and deployable to any location in the world, SAMM Tech supports warfighters and industrial operators by advancing in-the-field production of large-format metal parts for equipment repairs onsite and on demand.

MEDIA SPONSOR NEWS

Looking deeper into the sustainability of AM

When we talk about sustainability in AM, we’re interested in a few perspectives. For one, it’s important to talk about and understand the ways in which additive technologies are sustainable, especially compared to more conventional production methods. At the same time, we also want to understand how AM creates opportunities for greater sustainability in certain applications, such as lighter aircraft parts. Finally, it’s also important to address how AM, as a technology and as an industry, can strive to be more sustainable.

In this eBook, we’re looking at all these angles, first with an overview of the industries and applications where AM enables a more sustainable future, from wind turbines to custom eyewear to lab-grown meat. Next is an interview with Materialise’s Head of Sustainability Leen Kuijken and AMGTA Executive Director Sherri Monroe, who talk about how businesses in the AM sphere can kickstart their sustainability efforts and create a roadmap with a real impact.

Download VoxelMatters’s AM Sustainability VM Focus eBook here or read it online on VoxelMatters.com.

AM Innovations: Special focus issue

In the new Special Focus Issue on AM from Digital Engineering, we take a look at simulation for 3D printing, multi-material printing, the hidden costs of post-processing, support-free printing, and more.

You can download the issue here.

Summer activity special

It’s summer season, and the pace of news has slowed down somewhat before events and conferences return in force for autumn. Perhaps you’re even reading this newsletter on a beach. Whether tethered to the office or poolside, we have the 3D printing news for you.

First up, put down that airport paperback and pick up the revised guidance on the Proper Handling of UV Curable 3D Printing Resins. PAMA, RadTech, and NIST are behind the joint release.

Or maybe you’re looking for a project to see you through the end of summer? America Makes and NCDMM have announced a project call to advance sustainable AM. The clock is ticking, as the submission deadline is August 25.

Enjoy your vacation time.

Metal AM’s journey to industrialization: Are we there yet? And what does the destination even look like?

Metal AM is on a long journey, from the early technology concepts of several decades ago to its current usage in a relatively small number of markets with specific, highly specialized application requirements. If the journey leads to the widespread adoption of metal AM technology by industry, can we ask, ‘Are we there yet?’

Dr. Maximilian Munsch, Dr. Eric Wycisk, and Matthias Schmidt-Lehr, from strategy consultancy and AM market analysis specialist AMPOWER, delve into the evolution, current status, and future prospects for the industry, seeking to uncover the true extent of its potential.

Read the full article here.

Exclusive content inside the latest issue of TCT

The latest issue of TCT Magazine is on its way to the printers, ready to land with subscribers.

Sustainability is our central theme. Inside, you’ll read a Q&A from SPEE3D on AM in the field and sustainability; a through-the-doors report from 6K Additive; a chat with Siemens Digital Industries Software’s Eryn Devola about sustainability as a business metric, and more.

We explore the adoption of high-performance polymers for end-use 3D printed parts, specifically as metal replacements, and speak to Merit3D about manufacturing one million epoxy hanger products. We also have conversations on AM in heavy industry with Seurat Technologies and Lincoln Electric.

And there is a behind-the-scenes look at how the Natural History Museum uses 3D technologies for conservation and education. We also caught up with the team at Wilson to talk about something other than airless basketballs – baseball bats.

If you’re not already a subscriber, you can get your print + digital subscription for FREE here.

Lessons from Golden Week (and other planned shutdowns)

Countries take holidays at different times of the year, and the whole world can face downtime during wars and pandemics. However, outcomes from screeching halts can inform future production to make impactful use of digital manufacturing systems.

For example, many factories in Japan and China are accustomed to shutdowns during Golden Week as workers enjoy a prolonged vacation. With effective planning and an integrated data system, such manufacturers can recover quickly from planned downtime and prepare for unforeseen disruptions.

Read the story here.

Advancing healthcare and dental with 3D printing in the Middle East

This article by AM Chronicle explores the integration of AM in the Middle East’s healthcare sector, highlighting its potential benefits and challenges.

Read Full Story.