3D Printing Is Becoming Manufacturing Reality
A reprint from CNBC Additive manufacturing is on the cusp of being adopted more widely by industry, as large corporates Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and Boeing as well as small innovative start-ups prove it can work well at scale in manufacturing. Picture shows a non-pneumatic tire (NPT), an airless tire, during the presentation of the NPT tire of Goodyear in Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg, on May 17, 2022, where the tire manufacturer has a new plant where it is experimenting with 3D printing.Francois Walschaerts | Afp | Getty Images In May, Goodyear opened a $77 million plant in Luxembourg that centers on 3D printing and can make tires four times faster in small batches than with conventional production. Goodyear also is testing its new 3D printed airless tire technology on Tesla electric vehicles and Starship Technologies' autonomous delivery robots. It has been working for the past several years on improved manufacturing techniques at an R&D center near Columbus, Ohio. By 2030, Goodyear aims to bring maintenance-free and airless tires to market, and 3D printing is part of that effort for the Akron-based tire-making leader founded in 1898 and named after innovator Charles Goodyear. Currently, about 2% of its production is through additive [...]
Upcoming Desktop Metal Webinar
How Your Business Can Outperform the Competition During the Supply Chain and Labor Crisis with 3D Printing How long will the current mix of supply chain and labor issues last? How can your business outperform during this challenging time? Join Desktop Metal on August 24 at 2 PM EST for a special two-hour webinar event to discuss how 3D printing can help solve your supply chain and labor challenges. During this webinar, Desktop Metal assembles both company and industry experts to share up-to-date forecasts on how long the supply chain and labor crisis will last and show how machine shops and other manufacturers are carving out an advantage during this time with agile, turnkey digital manufacturing tools. In this webinar you will learn: How to use additive manufacturing to ease supply chain disruptions How Desktop Metal customers are using a digital inventory strategy and producing replacement parts on-demand with 3D printing How to identify parts in your inventory that could benefit from 3D printing production How to get started digitizing your data and what tools are available to help Which printers and materials are available for plug-and-play adoption Register Here
Action Figures Spring to Life With 3D Printing
A reprint from DE247 Digital Engineering Formlabs 3D printers, materials, and processes are powering the Hasbro Selfie Series, a new family of custom action figures produced at scale. Imagine being able to cast your image as a fellow Ghostbuster or Power Ranger. Or even joining forces to battle for good with your favorite G.I. Joe character. Thanks to a partnership between Formlabs, a 3D printer maker, and toy giant Hasbro, devotees can indulge their fan-fic fantasies. The pair have collaborated to create the Hasbro Selfie Series, which enables consumers to create collector-grade, six-inch customized action figures in their likeness—the latest in the stream of projects that illustrate the power of 3D printing for mass customization at scale. The Hasbro Selfie Series exemplifies the power of 3D printing as a personalization platform. Image Courtesy of Hasbro. Slated to be available this fall, the Hasbro Selfie Series employs Formlabs 3D printers as the personalization platform. Fans simply download the Hasbro Pulse mobile app, available for both Android and iOS, log into an account, scan their face, and then customize their character and hairstyle. The resulting custom action figure, which can draw from characters from the above-mentioned popular action TV series and comics, will [...]
Desktop Metal Nickel Alloy Inconel 625
Desktop Metal Qualifies Nickel Alloy Inconel 625 for Additive Manufacturing on the Studio System 2 Recently Desktop Metal announced that they qualified the use of IN625 for the Studio System, a turnkey metal 3D printing platform that offers customers the easiest way to print high-performance metal parts in low volumes for pre-production and end-use applications. The Desktop Metal Studio System platform now offers more materials than any other metal extrusion 3D printing system on the market, a total of eight in all. In addition to IN625, Studio System users can now print titanium alloy Ti6Al4V (Ti64), copper, 4140, two tool steels (H13 and D2), and two stainless steels (17-4PH and 316L). Shipments of IN625 are available now. “The Studio System 2, which features our streamlined and easy-to-use two-step process, remains the most flexible metal 3D printer in its class,” said Ric Fulop, Founder and CEO of Desktop Metal. “It’s never been more important for manufacturers to have the agility of on-site, on-demand metal production, and the Studio System is a perfect gateway into metal 3D printing for production. Adding IN625 to the portfolio only amplifies the flexibility of this proven system.” IN625 for High-Strength, High-Performance Flexibility IN625 is a high-performance nickel alloy known [...]
More Math Calculations Available with Control X
There are many analytical tools available in Control X under the Measure command that are extremely useful. This edition of Metrology Minute will explore common measurements that could prove useful to metrologists. Measure Distance is a quick way of determining the approximate length of a blade, in this example, without going through the trouble of creating a 2D or 3D dimension. Just a quick vertex selection of opposing ends quickly returns an approximate distance. Measure Volume calculates the volume of material within a fully enclosed (sometimes called “a water-tight”) mesh file. This can be a very handy tool to explore the volume of material required to produce a 3D Printed model. Volume would be provided in cubic units (i.e., in^3, mm^3, etc.). Surface Area can be a useful tool when measuring the individual blade surfaces. It can come in handy to determine the surface area of a blade on a turbine. Units here would be in^2, mm^2, etc. Lastly, Virtual Calipers can also prove very useful by simulating actual calipers on the model and taking random measurements. The image below illustrates measuring the width of the blade at the very edge of the model. The actual nominal value is .06” so this is [...]