AMUG Newsletter May 2017

President’s Report

Thanks again for being part of the record-setting 2017 AMUG Conference!  It was the largest attended and sponsored conference in our history. On behalf of the board, I thank you for your participation and support of AMUG and its mission – educating and advancing the uses and applications of additive manufacturing technologies. Now go share your learnings with others in the AM community; tell others about the AMUG community; and put your expertise and knowledge to use!

The 2017 AMUG Conference proceedings are compiled, and you should have received your access code. What’s cool about the 2017 conference proceedings is that you can access them using the mobile app or online, anytime. Be sure to check them out.

So, what did you take away from the conference? And more importantly, what are you doing differently? You invested five days networking with 1,600 owners and operators of AM equipment with deep technical expertise. What nuggets of intelligence caused you to say, “WOW!”?  The value of the AMUG Conference can be evaluated like a “return on investment.” The time and money spent at the conference should yield value that exceeds the cost.

We had about 160 people take the time to complete the 2017 conference survey. Thank you! The AMUG Board will be discussing survey responses in detail as we plan the future of AMUG. Your honest feedback and suggestions will help shape the 2018 AMUG Conference.

It takes many volunteers to put together a program “for users, by users.” If you are interested in getting more involved in AMUG through our sub-committees, send a note to secretary@am-ug.com to find out how you can plug in.

Randy Stevens Scholarship Winner

Attending the 2017 AMUG Conference was a great experience. This was my first time—made possible by the Randy Stevens Scholarship—but not my last. I will absolutely be involved in this platform of additive manufacturing in the future.

My background focuses on powder-bed-fusion-based additive manufacturing as an assistant professor at Georgia Southern University. Before attending AMUG, I used to spend lots of time in academic-oriented conferences that concentrate on design, innovation, and material characterization regarding AM technologies. Honestly, I paid little attention to how the AM industries are growing and how manufacturing techniques are facilitated by AM vendors. Thanks to the AMUG Conference my field of vision was greatly expanded by what I saw, what I learned, and what I discovered at AMUG.

The conference provided great flexibility for attendees to communicate and develop their professional network, and it also helped to bridge industry and academia through a great many presentations and exhibitions. I met a number of my old friends who are now performing AM research or business. I also talked to many AM machine vendors regarding their state-of-the-art technologies and how they are going to integrate their innovation in industry and education.

I discovered potential opportunities to conduct my future research and realized some possibilities to convert technology to business when talking to the AM users. Surprisingly, I also got connected to Renee Sullivan, the director of materials and process at Daniel Defense, which is a neighbor company of our university. We exchanged ideas on how to collaborate on utilizing AM technology and cultivating students between Daniel Defense and our Manufacturing Engineering Program. After the AMUG Conference, Renee followed up by visiting the campus with her colleagues to see our advanced manufacturing laboratory.

At the AMUG Conference, I became more enthusiastic and confident about AM development. Through this platform, technology, business, and education are well connected. I believe it benefits every attendee.

Guy E. Bourdeau Scholarship Winner

Once again, I would like to thank Renee Bourdeau and the AMUG Board for awarding me the Guy Bourdeau Scholarship for 2017. The week in Chicago was exciting and full of innovative, new technology. Because my background is in plastics, I had hoped to learn more about metal AM. The week did not disappoint as I was able to listen to keynote speakers and discuss topics with attendees ranging from material development to post processing. One of the biggest standouts to me was the large number of interesting ways to print materials and metals that have piggy-backed off of the traditional FDM, SLA, and SLS processes.

My scholarship responsibilities provided me the opportunity to meet lots of new people and to see how vast the 3D printing spectrum is across industries all over the world. This experience has broadened my perspective on how big AM is and heightened my sense of excitement about entering an industry with such a broad appeal and diverse members. Thanks again for the fantastic week, and I hope to see all of you at AMUG 2018.

2017 AMUG Conference Proceedings

The proceedings for the 29th annual AMUG Conference in Chicago, Illinois, are now available online and through the mobile app. Note that we are still working with sponsors and speakers to upload missing presentations.

The proceedings are made available to paid conference attendees and an email notification with an individual access key has been sent to the email addresses that were used for conference registration. If someone registered you for the conference using their email address, the login information was sent to that individual. In the future, we recommend using your email address for registration since the email on file will be used for all communications and connections, including access to the mobile app and conference proceedings.

If you have not received your access code for the proceedings, please contact secretary@am-ug.com. We will need your name, company and email address used for conference registration.

Strategy meeting for 2017 conference. Pictured: Tom Sorovetz, Derek Ellis, Vince Anewenter and Dana McCallum.

Bridging the Gap Between Prototypes & Production

We had a great week in Pittsburgh and were happy to see so many of you. RAPID just keeps growing — a testament that our industry and the need for new materials is stronger than ever before.

Somos® has been at the forefront of innovating materials since the very beginning. At AMUG, we launched Somos® Taurus, a material that brings the combination of thermal & mechanical performance that until now has only been achieved using polymer 3D printing techniques.

We are also focusing more on applications such as investment casting and rapid tooling. Using our materials in these applications, you can speed up production time while reducing cost. Learn more.

We look forward to innovating with you to build the future of 3D printing.

Somos® team at RAPID + TCT in Pittsburgh.

Dr. Dieter Schwarze Honored with Industry Achievement Award

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) announced its Additive Manufacturing Community Awards at the RAPID + TCT event, held May 9-11, 2017, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. The Industry Achievement Award, established in 2008 by SME’s Additive Manufacturing Community, was developed to recognize an individual, team or company for outstanding accomplishments that have had a significant impact within the additive manufacturing industry or in any industry through the application of additive manufacturing technologies.

This year, the community has recognized Dieter Schwarze, Ph.D., of SLM Solutions with the 2017 Industry Achievement Award because of his significant and continued impact on additive manufacturing through the development of processes and technology applied in industry.

More Information and the History of Selective Laser Melting

Dr. Dieter Schwarze (3rd from left) with previous Industry Achievement Award winners.

Now Available – EOSPRINT 2.0

Available now, EOSPRINT 2.0 software is a game changer for user-friendliness and parameter editing possibilities, pushing the boundaries of EOS industrial 3D printing systems. An intuitive, open, and productive CAM tool for EOS systems, EOSPRINT 2.0 enables users to assign and optimize build parameters for CAD data. Together with data preparation software like Magics, it offers an extensive AM CAM environment for engineers to fully leverage the benefits of additive manufacturing with production-ready design. Intuitive and easy to learn, EOSPrint 2.0 simplifies the initial step of additive manufacturing.

EOSPRINT 2.0 is now available for the EOS M 290 and EOS M 400, with support for all current EOS metal systems, as well as future polymer systems, arriving in upcoming releases. By purchasing EOSPRINT 2.0, you will also receive the next release, EOSPRINT 2.1, in October 2017 free of charge.

Click here for more details about EOSPRINT 2.0.

EOSPRINT 2.0, intuitive, open and productive CAM tool for EOS systems.

ExOne at Rapid + TCT 2017

Pittsburgh hosted Rapid + TCT at the David L. Lawerence Convention Center, and we were happy to be a part of the excitement in our beautiful city. ExOne provided a group of attendees the opportunity to view Binder Jetting up close on the factory tour on Monday, May 8. At the tradeshow, we had several visitors to our booth. Show attendees were able to see sample parts in sand, metal and ceramic materials. We showcased washout tooling parts as well as parts in 17-4 and 316L stainless steel.

In addition to Rapid + TCT 2017, ExOne has been busy growing our reseller relationships. We have added Sculpteo to our list of fine resellers. Information about Sculpteo’s new 420 stainless steel offering can be found here.

To learn more about ordering with Sculpteo, visit their website: https://www.sculpteo.com/en/.

To learn more about ExOne Binder Jetting, visit our website: http://www.exone.com/.

The ExOne team at RAPID + TCT in Pittsburgh.

GE Additive Establishes Customer Experience Center in Germany

GE Additive is establishing a “Customer Experience Center” in Munich, Germany – the first of several GE Additive centers planned worldwide to accelerate the use of additive manufacturing. Customers will benefit from hands-on training and instruction at the facility, covering additive design, machine operations and support.

The Munich center will allow current and potential customers to experience designing and producing components using additive manufacturing. The center, launched with an investment of about $15 million, will adjoin GE’s Global Research Center (GRC) in Munich, and is expected to be operational by year’s end. Up to 10 additive machines from Concept Laser of Germany and Arcam EBM of Sweden will be installed.

These additive machines will be enhanced by GE’s cloud-based Predix operating platform to enable industrial-scale analytics and GE Edge devices, which provide real-time control and monitoring.

“The concept of customer experience centers is an integral part of GE Additive’s strategy to expose and engrain the additive technology to manufacturers worldwide,” said Robert Griggs, general manager of the Customer Experience Centers for GE Additive. “We expect to announce the second GE Customer Experience Center later this year with others to follow.”

For further information, please view the entire article.

GE Additive’s Customer Experience Center in Munich, Germany.

BASF and Essentium Team Up to Propel 3D-printing

In case you haven’t heard, earlier this month BASF and Essentium announced that they are joining forces to enable the creation of more robust parts for use in mass production, leveraging fused filament fabrication (FFF) technology. The partnership brings together BASF’s comprehensive portfolio of innovative materials with Essentium’s FlashFuse™ electric welding technology.

This collaboration provides a range of polymer solutions that overcome the traditional interlayer weakness of 3D printed parts. The focus is on FFF printing technology because of its ability to use a wide range of thermoplastics; fabricate large, complex parts rapidly and efficiently; and easily combine multi-modality materials in the same print.

For more information, please contact us at 3d-printing@basf.com.

To learn more about the partnership, please watch the video below.

Big Thank You from Team Renishaw AM

Renishaw would like to thank AMUG organizers, delegates and guest speakers for another successful conference.

The Renishaw AM expert team thoroughly appreciated the comprehensive range of informative talks delivered throughout the week. Once again, AMUG organizers selected an excellent venue with great food and ensured the week-long event ran like clockwork. The secret awards evening, held at the Museum of Science and Industry, was a wonderful surprise.

Diamond Sponsor Renishaw, had good turnouts to its presentations with standing room only for all three of its guest speakers talks – Dr Sarat Babu, founder of Betatype; Professor Mathieu Brochu of McGill University and Brian Slocum of LeHigh University.

Renishaw team received some great, informed technical enquiries on its advanced technology and there was excited interest in Renishaw’s flagship metal AM system for high performance, series production RenAM 500M.

Professor Mathieu Brochu speaking on the advantages of pulse laser powder bed fusion technology.

Building a Factory of the Future: Smart. Scalable. Reliable.

Last week at RAPID + TCT in Pittsburgh, Stratasys unveiled its new 3D manufacturing system – the Stratasys Continuous Build 3D Demonstrator – the latest addition to its growing fleet of manufacturing solutions, which also includes the Infinite-Build and the Robotic Composite 3D Demonstrators.

The Stratasys Continuous Build 3D Demonstrator is a modular, automated FDM 3D manufacturing system with interconnected additive manufacturing print cells and high-throughput capabilities. Designed for reliability and repeatability at scalable volumes, this Demonstrator lets users tackle multiple jobs in parallel without downtime and minimal user interaction.

Whether it’s 100 parts a week or 500 parts a day, the Continuous Build easily scales to any need thanks to the automated workflow and scalable production, helping manufacturers sell and then produce what they need when they need it, fast.

To learn more about all of the Stratasys Demonstrators, visit Stratasys.com. 

The reveal of Continuous Build Demonstrator at RAPID + TCT.

New Customers and Partners Accelerate Global Reach and Adoption of HP’s Commercial 3D Printing Solutions

HP Inc. recently announced the global momentum of its Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution as it scales its business to meet rising customer demand. This includes the official unveiling of the new HP Partner First 3D Printing Specialization program, a wide array of installations with manufacturing service bureaus and product design firms in key geographies, and more than a dozen new HP 3D Printing Reference and Experience Centers across the U.S. and Europe. HP also announced the addition of Henkel AG & Co. to its open ecosystem for 3D printing materials and applications.

Read more about the latest HP news here.

Map of HP  Reference and Experience Centers.

MTI Increases Productivity with 3D Systems’ Metal Printing and 3DXpert Software

With over 40 years of experience in metal manufacturing and a client list that includes companies like NASA, Metal Technology, Inc. (MTI) has earned its reputation for high-quality, custom metal parts. In keeping with the company’s never-ending commitment to reshape and advance how metal parts are made, MTI adopted metal 3D printing by 3D Systems as a solution for complex components in aerospace, defense and medical applications.

Following this decision, MTI reports a dramatic increase in its workflow efficiencies and capabilities. Equipped with a ProX® DMP 320, ProX DMP 200 and the industry’s first all-in-one software solution for metal additive manufacturing, 3DXpert™, MTI has reduced print processing times by up to 75% and introduced productivity gains of 40% or higher.

“We went from using at least three different software systems to get the final product to doing it all with one,” said Jason Stitzel, director of engineering at MTI. “3D Systems’ printers and 3DXpert software are a big part of our success, as they allow us to produce better parts faster, and make a part work on the first try.”

3DXpert is now bundled with all of 3D Systems’ direct metal printers. For more details on MTI’s experience with 3DXpert, click here.

MTI parts like these realize 75% print processing reduction times and 40% productivity gains.

Parts for Production: How Oracle Printed 10,000 Server Mounts using Carbon’s Digital Light Synthesis Technology™

Recently, Oracle designed and printed 10,000 board alignment brackets for its new research server using Carbon’s Digital Light Synthesis (DLS)™ technology powered by Carbon’s CLIP process. Oracle initially designed the bracket as an injection-molded part, but traditional techniques would’ve been ineffective because they can’t produce parts quickly nor support design iterations.

Instead, Oracle turned to Carbon’s tech and its RPU 70 (Rigid Polyurethane) material, which is tough, stiff, and great for consumer electronics applications. Typical SLA materials are subpar, but RPU 70 provided solid isotropic properties and gave Oracle the consistency and surface-quality needed for production at scale. Utilizing DLS, Carbon’s production partner Scultpeo continuously printed the brackets in cubes, limited only by how far the Z-axis could be pulled out, which yielded 10,000 parts in days instead of months. This is just one example of CLIP enabling end-use parts in manufacturing quality materials, all in record time.

Learn more here.

Oracle’s 3D-printed board alignment bracket.

Download Your FREE Copy of the Spring 2017 Issue Now!

In addition to 58 pages of the latest industry news, the Spring 2017 issue of Metal Additive Manufacturing magazine includes the following exclusive features:

• Distortion in metal Additive Manufacturing: Modelling and mitigation
• Materialise Magics: Advanced part orientation and support solutions to speed up application development
• EOS GmbH: Transforming companies into AM champions with Additive Minds
• The science behind a basic consumer product: Bottle openers by metal Additive Manufacturing
• Accelerating AM component design workflow with new optimization technology
• Additive Manufacturing at World PM2016: Opportunities for the use of water atomized metal powders
• Additive Manufacturing at World PM2016: Extending the range of materials in Powder Bed Fusion AM

Download your FREE PDF copy of the magazine dedicated to the world of metal additive manufacturing.

Tooling Matters!

The latest issue of AM focuses on the promise of tooling as an important application of industrial 3D printing. The cover story profiles Ohio startup Additive Engineering Solutions and its use of BAAM to provide large tools with short lead times. An article on CPI Aero describes how this Long Island company now uses FDM to produce custom jigs, fixtures and check gages that formerly would have been produced at greater expense and time through machining.

Also in this issue, a look at separating sintering from 3D printing as it applies to the new MarkForged metal additive machine; and a report on research aimed at controlling 3D printing geometry to attain more effective fixation plates in reconstructive surgery.

Visit additivemanufacturing.media or read the latest issue here.

Check Out the 5 Things We Learned from AMUG 2017

There was a lot to see at the amazing 2017 AMUG Conference – so catch our 5 things we learned from the event here.

Otherwise grab hold of our May edition (free to all), where we uncover the eye-wateringly fast design process behind Norton’s latest superbike; look at the very latest metal 3D printing technology with Desktop Metal; and ready ourselves for the weekend with some expert barware designs.

On top of this, we have six software reviews, including the latest updates to Autodesk PowerMill, Onshape, and PTC MathCAD, plus all the usual news, reviews and features.

Check out the article “5 Things We Learned” at the AMUG Conference.

It’s Here—the Spring Issue of 3D Metal Printing Magazine!

Topology and manufacturability optimization take center stage as the cover article in the spring 2017 issue of 3D Metal Printing.

It’s the third of a three-part series on design for AM, authored by AM specialist Caitlin Oswald, of LAI International, along with Joe Manzo, CEO of Titan Industries.

NOTE: Caitlin Oswald continues her contributions to 3D Metal Printing by taking over a Q & A column that will appear in every issue of 3DMP, beginning with this summer’s issue.

The spring issue also introduces new columnist Todd Grimm, who will be interviewing metal-AM users to gain their unique perspectives on metal-AM technology and its applications. In his inaugural column, Grimm talks with Ashley Nichols, general manager of 3D Material Technologies (3DMT).

Lastly, 3DMP is sponsoring a metal-AM conference in June in Monterrey, Mexico. Learn more here.

Submit Applications for TCT Awards

Here at TCT, we know that it’s impossible to quantify what makes the “Best Industrial 3D Printer” or “Best 3D Scanner” because it is all about how that technology is applied. Nobody knows that better than AMUG attendees. That’s why we’ve decided to honor applications in the inaugural TCT Awards in September.

Have you, or has your company, been involved in a particular project that you believe deserves to be appreciated? If so, spend 15 minutes submitting your project to http://www.tctawards.com, and our expert advisory board (comprised of experts in all fields) will deliberate the best. Even if you don’t win, it is an excellent opportunity to get your work in front of people who matter.

Submit applications for TCT Awards.

Caterpillar’s Model for Production

Large companies have been using 3D printing for the production of prototypes and tools since the technology’s inception. Now that they are looking to leverage it for the production of end-use parts, these companies will need a new model to follow. Industrial equipment manufacturer Caterpillar shared its model at the AMUG Conference and provided some important tips for businesses of any size looking to expand their use of 3D printing.

Inspection of track link prototype (courtesy of Caterpillar).