AMUG February 2022

President’s report

AMUG 2022 Members and Friends,

We are still pushing against the challenges of nature, but it looks like brighter days are close.  We have received notification that the Illinois State mandate for masks will terminate this month.  We have seen countries eliminating all of their COVID-19 restrictions and anticipate seeing the backside of this pandemic.  Yet, AMUG is not immune to COVID-19 effects, so we have posted our 2022 AMUG Preparation Guide.  Changes are possible, so we will continue to monitor the requirements, and we recommend that you do the same.

As we march forward in making AMUG 2022 available to all past, present, and new members, our amazing team has worked endlessly to pull everything together.  You will see a glimpse of this in our agenda (preliminary), including competition/award submission dates.  I recommend you review the exciting things in store for you, such as the hands-on Workshops on Thursday.  Exciting times!

If you have not registered for the conference or made a hotel reservation, I highly recommend doing so soon!  We have addressed capacity limitations at the Hilton Chicago, and we are almost done with (fingers crossed) the pandemic restrictions.

I eagerly look forward to seeing you soon. Until then, be well and stay safe.

Carl Dekker
President
president@amug.com

New members/First-time attendees

With a heavy heart, I must inform you our committee member Matthew Gray passed away. Matthew has been a part of the New Member Committee since it was formed three years ago. We will miss Matthew’s enthusiasm and willingness to help the AMUG community. I ask that you keep the Gray family, friends, and work associates in your thoughts and prayers.

As for the conference, by now you have received our welcome letter. Please pay special attention to the COVID regulations amendment for both the hotel and the AMUG Conference. We’ve also posted a 101 guide with some questions asked and answered to help make your first experience a memorable one (look for it in the FAQ section of the AMUG website). Please keep checking this section as there will be a 202 and 303 guide.

Finally, please remember that on Sunday, April 3, there will be a New Member/First-Timer meeting in the Grand Ballroom at 3:00 pm. This meeting will be your first opportunity to network with other members and AMUG DINO’s.

I look forward to meeting you!

Derek Ellis
New Member Committee Chair

DINO Award nominations

The DINO Award is one of AMUG’s most prestigious recognitions. Its goal is to recognize those that have contributed to AM with the intent to advance the industry as a whole or to advance the skills/knowledge of individuals in an altruistic, unselfish way. At the heart of the DINO Award is a passion for and dedication to AM coupled with a desire to share and be accessible to others.

Does that sound like you or someone you know? Submit a self or peer nomination before March 1, 2022.

AMUGexpo: nearly sold out

The sponsorship/exhibitor response has been phenomenal for #AMUG2022, showing that our industry is ready to get back to business as normal. The AMUGexpo is at 99% capacity, and it would be fantastic to get to 100%. So, let’s make it happen. Even if we don’t hit 100%, there will be plenty for AMUG Conference attendees to see and explore with 140 companies represented.

The Platinum sponsorships sold out in December, and the last 10 ft. x10 ft. booth (available to Gold Sponsors and exhibitors) was taken earlier this week. The only remaining sponsorship opportunities, if a booth is desired, are the two remaining Diamond spots.

If you are interested in one of these Diamond sponsorships (with booth) or Silver/Bronze sponsorships (without booth), then please email us at Vicepresident@amug.com. We will help you through the process and answer any inquiries you have.

SPONSOR NEWS

Scaling 3D printing of technical ceramics with Binder Jetting

Despite their categorization as “metal” 3D printers, ExOne binder jetting systems are often used to 3D print technical ceramics. Materials like silicon carbide (SiC) are difficult to process with traditional technologies. Even other additive methods struggle to process dark powder that won’t UV cure and those with melting points higher than lasers can achieve.

Binder jetting is uniquely positioned to combine the design freedoms and manufacturability advantages of 3D printing with the high-temperature stability, high hardness, resistance to chemical reactions or oxidation, and biocompatibility of a range of ceramic materials.

The 3D printing team at Saint-Gobain Research North America identifies use cases where AM can improve production or product performance, as well as advance the use of 3D printing for materials within the company’s portfolio.

With two different ExOne binder jetting machines, the team is forging the path to industrial adoption of more efficiency through ceramic materials research and development.

Read the complete case study here.

Register for new EOS Webinar Series—Industrial 3D Printing: The Most Common Questions

Whether you’re looking to develop a comprehensive strategy or just experiment with 3D printing, you need to start with the basics. Our webinar series, Industrial 3D Printing: The Most Common Questions, premiers Monday, February 28, with 10 Basics in 20 Minutes. Join Fabian Alefeld, EOS North America Additive Minds senior manager, and Patrick Schrade, EOS head of application engineering & Additive Minds Academy, to learn more about recognizing the opportunities and benefits of AM while also being cognizant of its challenges and limitations.

In this first webinar, we will discuss:

• What is 3D printing/AM, and how does it work?
• What industries are using AM and what applications are they printing?
• How does 3D printing compare with other manufacturing technologies?

Register today.

Functional materials—How to evaluate your material options

Widespread adoption of AM across production requires functional materials that bring the necessary properties for manufacturers’ applications. So make materials a main priority!

As the number of available performance materials grows, the question is how to choose the right one? Testing can help to evaluate material properties in varying conditions. However, with a myriad of tests available, it is not always easy for non-material experts to select the most relevant. The wrong test may provide misleading performance data, impacting product performance and company liability. And only testing immediately after printing will not guarantee the correct part performance over time.

Not sure where to start? Learn from Covestro material experts, partners, and customers. They will present the results of testing commercially available materials, underpinning the importance of using the right and recognized testing methods.

Covestro Diamond speaking session at AMUG 2022: Monday, April 4, 1:30-2:30 pm, International Ballroom, 2nd floor.

Dyndrite announces Digital Manufacturing Investor Day (DMID) 2022 on March 2, 2022

Dyndrite’s Digital Manufacturing Investor Day (DMID), sponsored by BNP Paribas, provides a virtual space where emerging AM and other digital manufacturing companies showcase their innovative solutions to the investment community. DMID was created by Dyndrite at the start of COVID-19 to assist companies in building relationships with the investor community. This year’s event includes the following speakers:

• Special Guest – Klaus Kleinfeld, Former CEO Siemens AG
• Event Host – Harshil Goel, CEO Dyndrite
• Event Sponsor – Christian Hartenberger – BNP Paribas, Head of Industrial Technology
• Presenting Companies
  • Evolve Additive – Steve Chillscyzn, CEO
  • Fast Radius – Lou Rassey, CEO
  • HoloAM – Arian Aghababaie, Ph.D., President & Chief Strategy Officer
  • Nexa3D – Avi Reichental, President & CEO
  • PrinterPrezz – Shri Shetty, CEO
  • SLM Solutions – Sam O’Leary, CEO
  • Uniformity Labs – Adam Hopkins, Founder & CEO
  • Xerox Elem Additive – Tali Rosman, GM & VP

Register here for the March 2, 2022, event.

Production + Automation = high-throughput AM with the Nexa3D QLS 350

The promise of industrial 3D printing is a high-throughput production system with lights-out capabilities. The QLS 350 powder bed system from Nexa3D is on a path to fulfill these promises.

Current AM solutions require excessive manual labor, making the costs per part prohibitively high for production-scale manufacturing. Scaling up with full process traceability, workflow automation, and an AGV-enabled architecture brings down TCO while speeding ROI. These wish-list acronyms come together in a single system: QLS 350, coming to market later this year.

The QLS 350 offers the highest part throughput and lowest TCO with a flexible, scalable, and automation-ready architecture to enable serial production of plastic AM parts. Start to finish, this production-ready system has been designed with lights-out manufacturing in mind – to create a turnkey solution for tool-less manufacturing at scale.

Find out more about your upcoming competitive advantage over your slower (other AM technologies) and more design-restricted (traditional manufacturing) competition: the QLS 350.

Innovations in software for 3D printed anatomic models

Stratasys continues to enhance anatomic modeling solutions for healthcare providers through a new software module, Digital Anatomy™ Creator, for Stratasys Digital Anatomy™ 3D Printers.

Stratasys Digital Anatomy printers can produce medical models across a spectrum of applications, from diagnosis to patient education. With the Digital Anatomy Creator, users have access to additional options and controls that calibrate their printers’ materials to meet specific anatomic requirements, replicating a patient’s pathologic and biologic anatomy to behave and respond like the real thing.

“This new software has allowed us to personalize our anatomic models to a mind-blowing level – we can now provide a level of care that is truly personalized to each of our patients, which is important when working with children and their caregivers,” said Seth Friedman, Ph.D., manager of innovation, imaging and simulation modeling for Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Learn more about Stratasys solutions for healthcare and view the announcement.

Essentium independent research shows AM is a serial production process

A recent industry survey conducted for Essentium shows a strong trend towards AM. The fourth annual study found that the use of large-scale AM has more than doubled in the past year for 86 percent of manufacturing companies.

Interestingly, the percentage of manufacturers using AM for “production runs of hundreds of thousands of parts” has increased from 14% to an astonishing 24%. Said another way, one-quarter of manufacturers are now using 3D printers for massive production runs.

It’s clear that additive technology has matured to the point where manufacturers worldwide can digitally print parts as they need them at speed, scale, and economics that challenge traditional methods.

To find out more about the reasons behind the shift, including the importance of 3D printing in sustainability initiatives and the economic value of 3D printing, please read Trends in 3D Printing at Scale.

Introducing Meltio and our objectives for 2022

Meltio takes metal AM to the next level by developing high-performance, affordable, and easy-to-use multi-metal 3D printing solutions using wire LMD technology.

LMD is a Directed Energy Deposition (DED) process that functions by precisely stacking weld beads on top of one another when introduced into a laser-generated melt pool. Our cutting-edge technology is based around welding wire, the safest, cleanest, and most affordable feedstock on the market.

In the past three years since Meltio’s founding in 2019, we have grown rapidly, and the last year was particularly outstanding. The company welcomed its first returning customers and hired its 50th employee. The ever-growing Meltio channel ecosystem has evolved significantly, currently numbering over 25 research and industrial partners and more than 35 partners for local sales, integration, service, and support. Without a doubt, one of the biggest highlights of 2021 was reaching the serial number 100 on our machines.

Visit our website and keep an eye on our LinkedIn for the latest news and updates!

Rethink and transform

The time is NOW…

…To rethink the way you design and produce parts. To transform the way business is done. To find out how much further additive can take you. For the ready, we created a one-stop shop where you can find our best additive resources and solutions.

Check out our resource library and browse for information based on your organization’s specific needs. Click here.

Taking product development full cycle with Serial 1 electric bikes

The team at Serial 1, the electric bike division of Harley Davidson, was looking for ways to improve their design. With so many software options available, they turned to Computer Aided Technology to find a scalable solution as they progressed through development to full production. Discover their journey to get this amazing tech to the streets.

Industrialized AM: See the solutions at the AMUGexpo

Most AMUG Conference attendees are familiar with at least one of Hexagon’s products and will recognize names of design and engineering solutions such as MSC Apex Generative Design, MSC NASTRAN, MaterialCenter, Digimat, and Simufact; production software solutions such as DESIGNER and ESPRIT; metrology devices, including Absolute Arms and Leitz CMMs (coordinate-measuring machines); and metrology software, such as PC-DMIS and Volume Graphics. Attendees may not know that all of these products are offered by Hexagon, which provides a wide range of technologies for industrializing AM.

As a Diamond Sponsor of AMUG 2022, Hexagon has a significant presence at the AMUGexpo, where experts from each of the company’s product groups will deliver presentations and educational workshops, and they will be available to answer questions. Click here to find out more about how Hexagon is industrializing AM. We look forward to meeting you April 3-7 at the AMUG Conference. Stop by the Hexagon booth at #D16.

MEDIA SPONSOR NEWS

3D printings effects on sustainability

Among the many benefits of using 3D printing is how it affects sustainable efforts in design and production. Recently we had a chance to speak with Nadav Goshen, president and CEO at MakerBot, on 3D printing developments in this area. Here are highlights from our conversation.

3D Metal Printing has AMUG covered

Just like you, 3D Metal Printing can’t wait for the 2022 AMUG Conference in Chicago this coming April. Look for our editors in the sessions, at AMUGexpo, and everywhere else during the conference. And, look for the Spring issue of 3DMP, which focuses on the powder supply chain, directed-energy deposition (DED), and much, much more.

The issue also details what we saw at Formnext in Germany this past November. Exhibitors went heavy on showcasing material and software developments, and they revealed the advancement of AM in a host of applications.

Buying time with digital spare parts: Opportunities for metal AM

Spare parts keep the world turning, and their complex supply chain is an industry in itself, specifically designed to get trains moving, ships sailing, and industry producing. But this is an expensive business, one driven by calculated risk. Do you reduce your profits by stocking every expensive, highly engineered part that you might need, even though the chances are that most will never be used? Here, Joseph Kowen considers if digital part inventories, in conjunction with metal AM, can transform how the spare parts industry operates. What are the opportunities, and how are early adopters already taking advantage of them?

Read the full article online or download PDF.

A future for photopolymers?

Our annual thought leadership series concluded with AM experts looking beyond the world of 3D printing to ponder what other technologies might shape the next ten years. Will NFTs and the metaverse mold the coming decade? Did our experts think synthetic biology and nano-assembly will be ubiquitous? You’re going to have to click here to find out.

Back in the present, we kicked off our State of Resin 3D Printing series with articles interviewing photopolymer experts and an invitation to tell us what you think about this cornerstone of the AM industry. Take the survey now (please).

Surging EV sales offer growth opportunities for additive manufacturers

The popularity of electric vehicles has spiked in the past few quarters. Global sales of plug-in vehicles exceeded 5.57 million units through November 2021. Sales for all of 2020 were 3.1 million.

This trend will raise demand for 3D-printed components because their relative lightness extends battery life. Click here to read.

Other interesting reports you’ll find on our website:

• A manufacturer of locking fasteners explains how 3D printing tightens lead times.
• Additive manufacturer Branch Technology used its proprietary Freeform technology to print—in free space—massive panels for a parking garage exterior. Click here to read.
• Futurist and social media influencer Bernard Marr weighs in on the future of manufacturing.

3D printing job market trends in 2021

The growing adoption of AM is accompanied by more frequent and increased recruitment policies. But finding the right fit is not always easy, especially in a market that calls for knowledge and skills that have not always been previously acquired by job-seekers. Companies often seem to find that a lack of 3D printing knowledge is a real barrier to its adoption. However, the sector is constantly looking for new profiles and our Job Board is the proof. In 2021, more than 430 job offers were published, 30% more than in 2020.

To take stock of the current job market in AM and understand the main trends in the sector, we took a closer look at these job offers. In the infographic and article, we saw that companies specializing in 3D printing continue to invest, especially in more technical profiles. Read more here.

Latest issue of Digital Engineering

In the latest issue of Digital Engineering, we take a look at engineering sustainable solutions, including a feature on optimized processes and materials that have made 3D printing more sustainable and a story about additively manufactured wheelchairs and prosthetics for children. In addition, our writers investigate how PLM, digital twin, and simulation tools are being used to further corporate sustainability efforts when it comes to product design.

Read the latest issue here.