President’s Message
Steve Deak
President
Growth can be a challenge. For the past five years, AMUG has experienced unprecedented growth. My waistline has also experienced unprecedented growth during that time, but that is off topic! Growth is the result of our shared AM industry success. Growth is also the result of AMUG’s reputation as a quality conference where “how-to” experiences are combined with technology sharing and user-based applications. Networking, where life-long connections are made, is also a fundamental element of our growth.
The AMUG Board has just completed its strategy meeting to plan for the 2017 conference and beyond. A portion of the meeting included a review of our post-conference member survey and consideration of all suggestions. Throughout the long days we asked ourselves, “How are we going to keep the users group ‘feel’ as we grow beyond 1,200 attendees?” We also discussed how to engage members beyond the conference dates and how to offer more hands-on workshops, training and educational topics. The AMUG Board came away with action items designed to meet our growth challenge, which we will share in the coming months.
AMUG’s growth means we can’t go back. We can’t go back to the Hilton El Conquistador in Tucson, Arizona. We can’t go back to the Hyatt Regency in Jacksonville, Florida. In fact, we can’t hold a conference in ANY hotel in which we have been previously met. Why? We don’t fit anymore. AMUG set new records for attendance, sponsorships and exhibitors each of the past five years. We need more conference, breakout and demonstration space than ever.
Look for an announcement regarding the 2017 conference venue in the next month. Don’t be alarmed if the dates change slightly by a week or two. Our 2017 conference site will be chosen carefully with our anticipated growth in mind. Innovative ideas will be implemented to keep the “users group feel,” information sharing and networking. As for my waistline, well, I have a strategy to resolve that growth challenge as well!
Steve Deak
President
President@am-ug.com
Past President’s Message
Mark Barfoot
Past President
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for the encouragement and support over the past two years while serving as your AMUG president. It has been an amazing experience; and I have learned a lot and developed many new friends and colleagues.
Your AMUG Board just finished an intensive, multi-day session to begin preparations for next year’s conference. As past president, it was encouraging to sit back and see how others are stepping up and working to make this group a success. I can see the passion that Steve, your new president, has for the group, and I am glad to be passing the torch on to someone who has done this role before but also wants to see the group grow while striving to keep the user group feel. I was also encourage by the entire board asking the question “Is it best for our members?” for any discussions that came up.
Leaving the president’s role behind will not lead to me disappearing. I will still be heavily involved as the past president, and I will be here to support and help Steve and the rest of the team on next year’s conference.
Thanks again, and I hope everyone enjoys the summer.
Mark Barfoot
Past President
PastPresident@am-ug.com
Survey Results
Thank you to all that completed the post-conference survey. The insights you offered are extremely valuable for the planning process.
We were very pleased to learn that 91% found the 2016 conference to be great or outstanding (see chart above). We were also pleased to hear that 93% are likely or very likely to attend the 2017 conference and that 92% are likely or very likely to invite peers (see charts below).
Your comments were also quite encouraging. One respondee said, “I thought that this was the single most valuable conference that I’ve had the good fortune to attend.” Another stated, “OMG! It was one of the best conference I have ever been to, and I have gone to many. In terms of networking, the absolute best one, and you should give lessons to other organizations.”
Of course, the survey also indicated that we can make the conference even better. Acting on your input, the AMUG Board will keep what works, adjust where necessary and add where needed to make the 2017 AMUG Conference the best ever.
Sponsor News – SLM Solutions
SLM Active Around the World
SLM Solutions Strengthens Services in Russia
Aiming to strengthen sales and service in Russia’s growing market, SLM Solutions opened a new branch office in Moscow. In support of the application center, which opened in February, the new office will provide support for the entire SLM portfolio, consumables and related services. Read more here.
SLM 500HL Live at RAPID in Orlando
With a turn toward production, this year’s RAPID event showcased three days of additive manufacturing technologies. A stream of visitors stopped by to see the SLM 500HL quad laser production system running live. See the video and customer testimonials here.
Annual Shareholder’s Meeting at Lübeck Headquarters
The 2nd annual general meeting of SLM Solutions Group AG took place on June 14th in Germany. Presentations covered a year of growth for the company, faster than the industry average and accelerated by the company’s German IPO in 2014, as well as joint ventures for metal powder and design software.
See the SLM Solutions factsheet here.
Sponsor News – Somos
Enter to Win a 3D Print of Your Mold Design
Using the best material to make 3D printed tools for injection molding makes your job easier. Discover what’s possible by using additive technology and Somos® PerFORM to solve a problem in mold design that would be difficult or too costly with metal. Submit your part design using the following link: http://bit.ly/1Uqmy6e.
Enter now through July 11. The winner is to be announced July 15.
Sponsor News – Carbon
New Customer Announcement — Delphi Automotive
Carbon recently announced a new customer, Delphi Automotive, which engineers and manufacturers a variety of components and integrated systems for the global automotive industry. Delphi has worked at the apex of innovation in additive manufacturing for over twenty years, but now, through its work with Carbon’s M1, it has been able to produce functional prototypes, enable true-part validation testing and explore new opportunities for the production of final, end-use parts.
Since receiving the M1 in the fall of 2015, Delphi has worked to produce and validate a number of parts using an array of Carbon engineering materials, including EPU for grommets to protect wiring, FPU to shield parts during product assembly and RPU for an array of electrical connectors. Our partnership with Delphi, as an industry leader in product development innovation, is a powerful step in setting a higher standard for 3D printing across the manufacturing industry.
Learn more about Carbon’s customers at http://carbon3d.com/stories.
Array of Delphi Automotive parts printed with Carbon’s M1.
Sponsor News – 3D Systems
End-to-End Manufacturing Solutions Help Mold Makers Achieve Unprecedented Productivity and Savings
Bastech — an Ohio-based, one-source solution provider for shop floor, additive manufacturing services and equipment sales — used 3D Systems’ end-to-end 3D solutions to introduce a new level of simplicity, efficiency and economy to its conformal cooling mold-making process.
Well versed in traditional as well as additive methods, Bastech recently performed two benchmark tests for manufacturing molds with conformal cooling channels. The first test used conventional processes. The second used a combination of 3D Systems’ Cimatron mold-making software, the ProX DMP 200 direct metal 3D printer and Geomagic Control inspection software. Bastech found that by using 3D Systems’ technology, the company was able to reduce design time by 70%, cycle time by 14% and overall costs by 16%.
“The bottom line is that by working with Cimatron, Direct Metal Printing and Geomagic Control, we are designing faster and making more efficient molds more economically,” said Ben Staub, president and owner, Bastech.
Read more on Bastech’s conformal cooling mold-making process here and watch a video.
Core insert with conformal cooling channels prototyped with Stereolithogroghy (left) and printed in maraging steel on the ProX DMP 200.
Sponsor News – Concept Laser
Concept Laser and Arizona State University Build Largest Academic Additive Manufacturing Center in Southwest
Arizona State University (ASU) currently offers the only manufacturing engineering undergraduate program in Arizona. It is also 1 of only 21 programs in the entire country. Concept Laser, Honeywell Aerospace, PADT, Inc., and Stratasys have partnered with ASU to build a 15,000 sq. ft. center that holds over $2 million of polymer and metal 3D printing equipment.
The lab has a Concept Laser M2 cusing and an Mlab machine that are dedicated to metal 3D printing. ASU is using the machines for a wide range of R&D activities, including alloy development, ceramics direct sintering and prototyping complex mechanical and energy systems. Below is a picture of parts built using LaserCUSING; this is an exploratory project focused on enhancing thermodynamic processes. The material is 316 stainless steel, and the build time was approximately 8 hours.
To learn more about this partnership, please refer to our case study.
316 stainless steel parts for exploratory work on enhanced thermodynamics.
Sponsor News – Stratasys
3D Printing for Composite Tooling
Stratasys has developed new materials and methods to simplify composite tool design, fabrication and use while enabling greater functionality and geometric complexity. FDM Technology creates high-temperature composite lay-up and repair tools that are more durable, thermally stable and lighter than traditional tooling. 3D printing composite lay-up tools with FDM Technology can cut tooling costs by 50% and build tools that can withstand curing in excess of 350 °F and 100 psig.
For large composite parts associated with tooling typically used in aerospace, automotive and similar applications, Stratasys has developed the Fortus 900mc Acceleration Kit. This new solution allows large tools — or any large parts — to be produced in ASA or ULTEM 1010 resin up to three times faster than previously possible.
More information on FDM composite tooling is available in our application briefs, design guide and webinar here.
Composite aerodynamic fairing (right) produced on a lay-up tool (left) 3D printed in ULTEM 1010 resin.
Metal Additive Manufacturing Magazine
Planning, Preparing and Producing: Walking the Tightrope between Additive and Subtractive Manufacturing
Delcam’s Kelvin Hamilton explores the current possibilities for design, topology optimization, simulation, process planning and process preparation in metal additive manufacturing (AM). Exploring the three Ps, Plan, Prepare and Produce, all the processes involved in transforming three airbrake bracket designs into final products are revealed.
As well as explaining how important it is to appreciate and plan for the significant amount of subtractive manufacturing in metal AM, a number of the lessons learned in this project are discussed as the author reflects on the experience of planning, preparing and producing parts.
Download your FREE copy of the Spring 2016 issue of Metal AM magazine to read the full article.
TCT + Personalize
No Rest for the Wicked
We’ve just put 2016’s third issue of the European edition of TCT Magazine to bed, but you’d be wrong to think that we now have the time to rest up. The North American edition of the magazine is all set to go to print next week, and it is a bumper edition.
Some rough calculations suggest that, as the crow flies, the editorial team traveled one and one-half times around the globe for this issue’s content, including a collective trip to Orlando for RAPID, Assistant Editor Laura’s trip to Barcelona for the launch of HP’s Jet Fusion 3D printer and Editor Dan’s visit to Berlin for the hippest-of-hip tradeshows to see how one athlete’s quest for glory is aiding 3D printed prosthetics in Syria.
Subscribe, for FREE, to the print edition of the magazine right here.
Cosine Additive Partners with Oak Ridge Lab for Ultrafast, Large-Scale 3D Printing
ENGINEERING.com
The 3D printing industry is only becoming more exciting, as evidenced by an increasing number of new 3D printing processes from the likes of Carbon and XJet. A new partnership between Cosine Additive and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) demonstrates that things are just getting warmed up, as the two partners will work to 3D print large composite parts at incredible rates. The partnership will see Cosine and ORNL expand upon the capabilities of Cosine’s existing AM1 3D printer. With a build volume of 4 x 4 x 4 ft, the AM1 is able to 3D print objects at a rate of 10 lb/hr. Various options allow the printer to extrude at temperatures as high as 932°F onto an aluminum bed capable of reaching 392°F. As a result, the system can print composite materials, such as Techmer ES Electrafil filament, which is made from 90 percent polycarbonate and 10 percent carbon fiber.
ORNL has already aided in the invention of some pretty powerful 3D printing technology. Working with Local Motors and Cincinnati Inc., the DOE lab created the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) platform, a composite 3D printer with a build envelope of 7 x 13 x 3 ft and a deposition rate of 40 lb/hr.
Read the entire story at ENGINEERING.com.
About AMUG
AMUG is an organization that educates and advances the uses and applications of additive manufacturing technologies. AMUG members include those with any commercial additive manufacturing/3D printing technologies from companies such as Stratasys, Somos, Concept Laser, SLM Solutions, EOS, ExOne, Renishaw, Carbon, Arcam, envisionTEC, HP Inc., Prodways and 3D Systems. AMUG meets annually to provide education and training through technical presentations on processes and new technologies. This information addresses operation of additive manufacturing equipment and the applications that use the parts they make.
Connect with members on the organization’s website and LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, and YouTube networks.
