3D Printing Industry Hails Biden’s AM Forward Initiative
A reprint from 3DPrintingindustry.com Leaders from across the 3D printing industry have hailed the potential of President Joe Biden’s AM Forward program to drive the technology’s wider adoption. Launched last week, the initiative is designed to promote 3D printing’s uptake by SMEs as a means of helping better secure their supply chains and revitalizing the US manufacturing sector. Initial participants include industry heavy-hitters like GE Aviation, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Siemens Energy, while its 3D printing focus has also drawn praise from stalwarts such as Carbon. “We’re at an undeniable inflection point — bringing digital manufacturing to US businesses will be a critical component to the success of the American economy both now and into the future,” said Carbon CEO Ellen Kullman. “The administration’s acknowledgment of 3D printing to boost the economy is a solid step forward and a proof point that digital manufacturing is critical in addressing our ongoing supply chain challenges and beyond.” “THE AM FORWARD PROGRAM IS FURTHER VALIDATION OF THE URGENT NEED TO REBUILD AGILE MANUFACTURING CAPABILITIES IN THE US” With US inflation at its highest rate in 40 years, and both COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continuing to disrupt global trade, the fragility of the country’s [...]
MakerBot and Ultimaker Merger will Accelerate Global Adoption of Additive Manufacturing
MakerBot and Ultimaker, two leaders in desktop 3D printing, announced that they have come to a business combination agreement that will accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing by providing a comprehensive desktop 3D printing ecosystem of hardware, software, and materials. The new entity will be backed by existing investors, NPM Capital and Stratasys (Nasdaq: SSYS), and will benefit from a planned cash investment of $62.4 million to fuel innovation and expansion into new markets. The new company will be led by Nadav Goshen, current MakerBot CEO, and Jürgen von Hollen, current Ultimaker CEO, who will act as Co-CEOs, with Nadav managing operations and R&D and Jürgen managing the commercial functions. “This merger marks an important milestone for Ultimaker and MakerBot,” says Jürgen von Hollen, CEO of Ultimaker. “Innovation and growth are both critical to bringing desktop 3D printing from a specialty technology into mainstream business adoption. The new company will leverage and expand its combined global footprint with sales and operations in the Americas, EMEA and APAC.” “Technological innovation is paramount in growing the availability of easy-to-use professional 3D printing solutions,” says Nadav Goshen, CEO of MakerBot. “By combining our teams and leveraging the additional funding, we can accelerate the development of advanced [...]
Important Mastercam Mill Features You Need to Know
The majority of modern machined parts are produced with milling, where a rotating cutting tool advances into the workpiece to cut away excess stock. Mastercam Mill was developed to provide powerful, stock-aware toolpaths and machining strategies for milling operations. It offers wireframe, surfaces, solids, and mesh design so that virtually any part can be designed and machined without requiring third-party add-ons, although it works seamlessly with specialized tools like Port Expert and Blade Expert. Mastercam Mill even supports 3 + 2 machining, a stepping stone towards multiaxis motion. But what are the three most useful tools for the average milling shop? Dynamic 2D Toolpaths Mastercam’s well-known Dynamic Motion Technology analyzes tool motion and stock – as well as their relationship to each other – constantly during machining, checking for any unoptimized motion. If it does find this inefficient cutting, it automatically changes tool angles to bring chip thickness into the most effective range. Chip thickness is determined by the amount of the tool’s diameter that is engaged with the stock along with the feed rate. Dynamic toolpaths ultimately reduce cycle time and minimize tool notching and excess side load, which lengthens tool life. The benefit with Dynamic is that the operator doesn’t have [...]
3DGence Industrial Grade 3D Printers
This blog post will take a look at the most cost-effective and accessible Industrial 3D printing platform by 3DGence. Capable of printing high-temp and high-performance materials, this robust solution is geared to accommodate a wide range of demanding industrial applications. The Industry F350 and F421 are based on the traditional FFF printing process, where the extruder heats & deposits a plastic to build your geometry layer by layer. The F350 offers approximately 13” x 13” x 13” build volume while the larger F421 can produce parts that are 15” x 15” x 16”. The 3DGence platform grants engineers access to an open certified materials platform with the widest range of options. They have accomplished this through three swappable print modules that are quick and easy to remove. The M280 is optimized for your standard low-cost thermoplastics which include ABS, ASA, PLA, PET, Nyon and TPU. The M360 is optimized for advanced engineering materials like PC and Ultem. M500 is compatible with high-performance ultra polymers like PEEK and PEKK. All three modules contain reinforced steel components that allow for printing in all types of abrasive carbon reinforcement composite materials. PEEK & PEKK are traditionally used where components must withstand high mechanical loads at high [...]
CNC Machining vs. 3D Printing
This article is reprinted from 3DPrint.com. 3D printers have quietly been transforming production lines at some of the world’s leading manufacturers. Once considered primarily for prototyping; advancements in materials and productivity have made 3D printers a powerful tool for applications beyond prototyping that range from tooling to end-use parts. As these 3D Printers move from R&D onto the shop floor the question that keeps coming up is “Will 3D printing ever replace CNC Machining?” The short answer is no because it doesn’t need to. Both 3D Printing and CNC Machining have their place in manufacturing. The truth is they are friends, not adversaries. Simply put, these are two different tools in your toolbox! Both are useful but do different jobs. The key is to know how to use them for your application. The main difference between the tools is that 3D printing is an additive process while CNC is a subtractive process. 3D printing starts from nothing and builds a part layer by layer. Whereas CNC begins with a stock of material and removes that material until the desired shape is achieved. Here are the advantages of each: 3D Printing Advantages Design Freedom – geometries can be achieved that are otherwise not possible [...]
A Guide to CAD/CAM Post Processing
CAD/CAM software is a combination of computer-aided design (CAD) software and computer-aided machining (CAM) software. CAD creates the design geometry and then CAM takes the design intent and produces optimum toolpath strategies to subsequently drive the CNC Machine. Most CAD/CAM systems are machine-independent, which means the user is required to pass the intermediate format (Cutter Location, CL Data) through a post processor to produce the correct G-Code for the selected machine. A CNC post processor is a type of software meant to turn CAM code into a readable CNC code according to which machine will be running the part. How do post processors work? Post processors take into account each individual machine’s kinematics – how the tool or workpiece moves along the linear and rotary axes. This motion data dictates how the post processor should use the original CAM code. The post processor can adjust things like feeds and speeds, transitions between toolpaths, and tool length compensation. The best post processors optimize machining. What happens during post processing? Step 1: The 3D CAD model is imported into Mastercam. Step 2: Mastercam is fed information about the machining operations by the CNC programmers. It creates the paths the tools will take. Step 3: The post processor [...]