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2024-09-28 15:13:22

The Cleveland section of SPE hosted “Additive Manufacturing: Printing the Path for the Future” on October 17, 2024. Speakers signaled where AM is and where it is headed with session topics ranging from pellet-based 3D printing to qualification and commercialization of additively manufactured products.

The C-FREX exoskeleton from Uchida was developed to provide mobility to people with spinal cord injuries. Composites provide for a lightweight design. Most parts are made through conventional composites processes, but 3D printing is used for components that are tailored to the individual. Photo credit: Uchida Carbon Composite Technology.

Generative design creates stiff, lightweight brackets for EXCITE mission monitoring planets orbiting other stars. The Cool Parts Show visits Goddard Space Flight Center.

The maker of the Predator and SkyGuardian remote aircraft can implement additive manufacturing more rapidly and widely than the makers of other types of planes. The role of 3D printing in current and future UAS components hints at how far AM can go to save cost and time in aircraft production and design.

I think we are going to see more and more positive collisions between additive manufacturing and composites manufacturing processes

Find these companies that are exhibiting for the first time in IMTS’s Additive Manufacturing Sector (in the West Building). Their offerings include printers, parts and powder, with areas of expertise ranging from large-format to atmosphere control to supply chain solutions.

How can ceramic 3D printing provide a unique solution for every patient? What is the added value? Ceramic 3D printing is not about replacing well-established processes — it's here to complete them. In this webinar, Lithoz will look at several current applications in the medical field: first with silicon nitride manufacturer SiNAPTIC Technologies and then bioceramic experts Himed. With their years of experience in medical applications, this webinar will explain in full detail how ceramics can complement the metal materials conventionally used for implants and why ceramic is even sometimes the material of choice over metal. Agenda: Introducing the challenges in the medical industry today The powerful ceramic 3D printing technology for medical applications, explained by Lithoz An overview of ceramic medical applications already in use today by advanced ceramic materials expert SiNAPTIC Technologies An in-depth look at ceramic materials and their applications by experienced bioceramic manufacturer Himed

Sloan: The tooling world is complex for composites manufacturing. There are a couple of possible solutions that could help make tooling manufacturing more efficient, less expensive and more robust.

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Innovative industrial solutions in additive technology and 3D printing will take center stage at the ninth edition of ADDIT3D, to be held from June 3-5, 2025 at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre. The international trade show will take place as part of +INDUSTRY, one of the major meeting points for advanced manufacturing and Industry 4.0.

Speed to market is a critical advantage 3D printing can enable. For its new product innovations, Pella iterates quickly using prototypes and tooling produced via AM.

Formnext 2024: PA12-based Infinam 6013 P and Infinam 6014 P are specially designed for laser powder bed fusion techniques like selective laser sintering, and offer high flowability and homogenous sintering.

To continue enjoying the articles, videos and podcasts from the AM editorial team, please key in your name and email address, as well as your company and title info. Doing so unlocks AM’s premium web content on this device.

Paralympic champion with 20 medals, including eight golds and 24 World Major Marathon wins, looked to 3D printing service provider to create wheelchair racing gloves that can withstand the intense stress of wheelchair racing while providing the necessary precision and comfort.

It’s a system I think signals where some of this technology is heading, and I think we are going to see more and more positive collisions between additive manufacturing and composites manufacturing processes.

The project is designed to prove the sustainability and environmental benefits of additive manufacturing for next-generation production of aerospace and defense products with 6K Additive working alongside RTX Technology Research Center and the University of Arizona.

3D Systems say this successful implementation demonstrates its Oqton Manufacturing OS’ ability to accelerate the design and production of additively manufactured parts across the entire manufacturing workflow to increase efficiency and facilitate regulatory compliance.

Each year Products Finishing partners with thousands of finishing operations in the U.S. to celebrate National Surface Finishing Day (NSFD) on the first Wednesday in March. NSFD is designed to celebrate and showcase the industry to trade schools, businesses, officials and media, as well as to celebrate employees and staff. The overarching goal of NSFD is to bring further awareness to the important roles plating and coating facilities play in their communities. Facilities are encouraged to host events and work with local media to build awareness about the contributions made by the surface finishing industry. For a helpful guide to reaching out to media outlets, download the NSFD toolkit here. How can you celebrate? Share your company’s story Hold an open house where the public can check out your facility –— either in person or virtual Offer student shop tours to local trade schools Invite local elected officials to visit and get to know your staff Celebrate your employees Share news about what you’re doing on social media and use the hashtag #NationalSurfaceFinishingDay or #NSFD

For example, there are some new AM materials out there with integrated fibers for conductivity. Hexcel just came out with a 3D-printable material that does this; you can integrate fibers for health monitoring of the part. So, you might have a larger composite structure that’s made with traditional composites manufacturing processes, but it integrates smaller discrete parts of a specialized material or functionality like this that is most effectively made via additive manufacturing.

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Formnext 2024: The PSLA 270 system is a high-speed, projector-based stereolithography solution developed to efficiently deliver midsize, high-quality parts with stable mechanical properties.

PTXPO 2025 is a comprehensive showcase of cutting-edge technologies and innovations within the plastics molding industry. Join fellow molders, moldmakers, brand owners, OEMs and their full suite of suppliers in Rosemont, IL for three days of non-stop networking, education and business development opportunities.

Vacuum cycle nucleation (VCN) is an immersion cleaning and extraction process which takes place in a sealed processing chamber. The pressure in the chamber is lowered and raised at and below the vapor pressure of the heated cleaning liquid. When the vapor pressure is reached, vapor bubbles are formed on the solid surface and these bubbles collapse and exit the bulk fluid. As they exit, they carry the particles and solubilized material to be removed. This vacuum pressure cycle is repeated every two seconds until the desired cleanliness is achieved. VCN cleaning is followed by a VCN water rinse and vacuum drying. Agenda: What is VCN? How does VCN work? Videos of the process

Why does the gate appear repeatedly for me? If the gate continues to show up on premium content after you’ve already provided your information, it could be for one of these reasons:

9T Labs’ deposition process places continuous carbon fiber only where necessary to save material, reduce waste, and more precisely control the structure of preform composites.

The Detroit Auto Show, formerly known as the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), is located squarely at the intersection of technology and mobility. It’s a global event filled with tangible advances ready to hit the pavement today. Here, the software is as revolutionary as anything out there, and the hardware always looks better with a good polish. You won’t find any devices that will fit in your pocket, but you will discover machines that will move you in the most literal sense. You’ll also connect with thought leaders from around the world, both in and outside the automotive industry, whose collective visions for the future of mobility will shape the way we move for years to come.

AM: Are there cases in which a part is being made through composites today, through a conventional composites manufacturing approach, where 3D printing offers a better way to make that part?

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Cranial implants are typically made from titanium or PEEK; in this episode of The Cool Parts Show, we look at how implants made from a bioceramic can improve osseointegration and healing.

Can you print high-quality parts using recycled thermoplastic powder? JawsTec saves 2 tons of waste per year by investing in SLS printers that reuse scrap to make new parts.

Jeff Sloan, CompositesWorld: Yes. By “composite,” we generally mean a thermoset or thermoplastic polymer matrix material that is reinforced with continuous or discontinuous fibers, and those fibers typically are carbon fiber; glass fiber; or natural fibers such as jute, flax, aramid or basalt fiber.

Vertical Layer Printing (VLP) 3D prints layers perpendicular to the floor, extending Z height to the length of the print bed — as long as 40 feet.

The Colorado startup aims to reduce the carbon footprint of new buildings, homes and city infrastructure with robotic 3D printing and a specialized geopolymer material.

One Click Metal’s compact metal 3D printing platform offers powder handling features to make this affordable system accessible and safe for many types of facilities. See one application in this video, filmed at IMTS 2024.

Cobra Puma Golf's Limit3D iron uses 3D printed stainless lattices to remove weight from the interior so that it can be reintroduced with tungsten inserts that lower the center of gravity. The combination offers a smaller, sleeker club head with the forgiveness of a larger one.

The eighth annual Additive Manufacturing Strategies (AMS 2025) networking business summit takes place February 4-6, 2025, in New York City. This 3D printing conference features keynote presentations and panel discussions surrounding growth, deployment and investment strategies in industrial additive manufacturing.

The shock absorber maker has responded to its staffing shortages through extensive use of collaborative robots. In-house 3D printing makes this possible by providing the related hardware needed to complete the cobot-automated cells.

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Can you print high-quality parts using recycled thermoplastic powder? JawsTec saves 2 tons of waste per year by investing in SLS printers that reuse scrap to make new parts.

Additive Manufacturing: Jeff, a basic question to start: What do you mean by “composites”? Technically, the term describes many different materials. But when you cover “composites,” you mean something specific.

A Q&A with the editor-in-chief of CompositesWorld explores tooling, continuous fiber, hybrid processes, and the opportunities for smaller and more intricate composite parts.

As an alternative to wooden tooling, 3D-printed forms for precast concrete are proving to be more durable and better able to support a large-scale renovation project.

New additive manufacturing technologies on display at Formnext were in many cases producing notable end-use components. Here are some of the coolest parts we found at this year’s show.

Under current manufacturing regimes, you need a mechanical fastener to attach frames and structures to the fuselage skin. That’s currently being done with a variety of complex brackets and fasteners and other hardware made using traditional composites manufacturing — compression molding — and I can see a future where that might be more efficiently done with additive manufacturing, depending upon volumes and material requirements.

Würth Additive Group’s Digital Inventory Service (DIS) platform aims to make it easy and secure to store part files in digital inventory, and deploy the data for manufacturing as required. See a demo in this video filmed at IMTS 2024.

There are some challenges here as you build those layers up. The biggest is two-layer adhesion, or Z-direction strength. It’s critical to achieve strength equal in the Z direction to the X and Y directions, which means you have to have some mechanical interaction or mechanical interlocking between layers as you build up this tool. The other challenge with tooling made additively is the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). If you’re using a composite tool to make a composite part, you need that composite tool to have similar CTE to the material that is being molded. If you don’t, you run the risk of the tool distorting in some way during the manufacturing process that could be detrimental to the part — it may affect the part’s dimensions, break the part or cause the part to become stuck on the tool. Managing that CTE is critical, but there are ways to do that, and we’ve been covering this.

Additive Manufacturing is the media brand devoted to industrial applications of 3D printing technology. We cover everything from 3D printing news and product releases to expert interviews and in-depth application stories centered around real AM users. About Us

Formnext 2024: The printer features UpNano’s adaptive resolution technology, which dynamically expands the width of the laser beam tenfold to speed up printing in bulk material areas or shrinks it where precision is needed.

AM: You spoke of AM expanding the range of parts that become viable for composites. How does AM enter the established composites industry? What impact or inroads do you see it having there — is tooling the way this happens?

Sloan: Composites replacing metal parts has been the modus operandi of the composites industry for about 50 years. So that is the established mindset a lot of our audience is already in, and there’s a natural extension of that into composites additive manufacturing. The industry is always looking for opportunities to apply the benefits that composites offer in a way that can displace the legacy material.

Another supplier of materials to the composites industry, Airtech, recently invested in this large-format additive manufacturing machine from Thermwood. Through 3D printing, composite material can be used to build tooling for composites, so Airtech has expanded its offerings into this service.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is the technology disrupting manufacturing today, but a generation or so ago, the technology playing that role was composites. Like additive, the use of fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials brings opportunities for lightweighting, transitioning from metal to polymer and consolidating assembly. Also like additive, composites manufacturing entails building parts in layers — though in the case of composites this generally involves building onto a custom tool.

Examples include an invention for quickly installing window and door weather stripping, a fitting for giving the proper angle to a nail gun, and a clip for which the color is an important feature.

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Today, composites have won their place in various applications. They provide the established material and method for manufacturing a variety of valuable components, most notably major aircraft parts. Yet the application of composites is still advancing, and today that advance is being accelerated by 3D printing. The use of AM offers a way to make parts out of composites without the need for a tool, and at the same time, AM brings new options to composites-industry tooling. Thus, while composites in one sense remain disruptive, in other sense, composites are being disrupted.

As printer technologies evolve, so does the need for users to handle the transfer of resin materials during the manufacturing process. Learn about the different transfer options and how to make informed decisions for simple, reliable and clean delivery into DLP and SLA 3D printing systems. Agenda: Comparison of the technologies Different material transfer options PPE essentials Tips and tricks for your system Considerations for intelligent connections

AM: When you talk about low-volume, somewhat complex parts, I imagine components that would likely be machined metal parts today. Do you see composites increasingly replacing metal, and 3D printing being a significant enabler to that?

Airbus subsidiary CTC’s mobile technology measures machine energy use on new machines and helps optimize for sustainability and efficiency. Valuable for AM applications targeting sustainability.

What I think we’re going to see is more and more effort being made to apply composites additive manufacturing in a way that complements the existing system or extends or applies existing established composites manufacturing processes in a way they just couldn’t go before. That is, AM providing design flexibility and manufacturing flexibility that doesn’t exist today. This is one of the fastest evolving, most dynamic parts of our industry — we’re paying close attention to this and eager to see how it evolves.

The window and door maker offers a picture of successful, widespread 3D printing adoption across the different needs of a manufacturing organization. The outreach and education effort worked. Now, here is the next phase.

Formnext 2024: 1000 Kelvin has expanded its flagship AMAIZE AI co-pilot software to include a more comprehensive suite of advanced automation tools for metal laser powder bed fusion workflows.

AM makes composites increasingly practical for parts that are smaller, more intricate and made in low volumes. This example from the composites material producer Hexcel is a 3D printed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) component made using the company's "HexAM" composites additive manufacturing process. Photo credit: Hexcel.

The partners are working to optimize the 3D printing process for brass by detecting real-time defects during the selective laser melting process to enhance the quality and repeatability of produced components.

For powder bed fusion technologies, electron beam powder bed fusion (EB-PBF) stands out for its high power and fast beam speed. This enables it to not only print challenging metals such as tungsten but also allows for direct control of the resulting microstructure. Join this webinar in which a demonstration of JEOL's EB-PBF technology — as well as its capability for microstructural control of Alloy 718 — will be shown with technical information on how this is achieved.

Here is a case of composites manufacturing and additive manufacturing in tandem. This system from Electroimpact first 3D prints the tool via fused filament fabrication (FFF), then builds the composite part onto that tool using automated fiber placement (AFP). Photo credit: Electroimpact.

The AM I Navigator initiative offers additive manufacturing users individual guidance with a comprehensive approach to navigate the complexity of the evolving landscape in industrial 3D printing.

What I think we’re going to see is … AM providing design flexibility and manufacturing flexibility that doesn’t exist today.

Of course, the other solution is to make a metal tool via additive manufacturing. In aerospace, I think this is going to become a highly attractive option. One of the most widely used tooling materials in aerospace manufacturing is Invar, and Invar is expensive, heavy and difficult to work with. But there’s some work being done that uses Invar as a feedstock material within an additive manufacturing process. Invar’s CTE is very similar to that of carbon fiber, so it should be a forgiving material for AM.

AM: Conventional composites manufacturing processes rely on tooling. Additive manufacturing for composite parts offers an option that is free of tooling, but 3D printing could be used to make the tool as well, and that tool may or may not itself be a composite material. What are the changing possibilities for tooling that come because of AM?

Discover how Rennscot MFG was able to further penetrate the aerospace and semiconductor sectors, by leveraging the EOS M300-4 to expand their production processes. David Bamforth, president and CEO of Rennscot MFG, will share his journey from a small machine shop to an advanced manufacturing powerhouse, highlighting the challenges and triumphs along the way. Gain firsthand knowledge from Fabian Alefeld of the EOS Additive Minds team, who will delve into the lessons learned from helping more than 1,000 companies to successfully enter AM, offering practical strategies for companies transitioning to additive manufacturing. Learn about the unique opportunities that metal 3D printing presents, from enhancing business development to meeting diverse customer requirements across various industries. Don't miss this opportunity to engage with our speakers and explore how metal additive manufacturing can elevate your business. Whether you're new to AM or looking to expand your capabilities, this webinar is your gateway to unlocking new possibilities in manufacturing.

Medical device manufacturer Curiteva is producing two families of spinal implants using a proprietary process for 3D printing porous polyether ether ketone (PEEK).

The first is the manufacture of large-format tools using (typically) a thermoplastic material reinforced with discontinuous carbon fiber in a system like those provided by Cincinnati Incorporated or Thermwood. You use those to build up a tool layer by layer. What you end up with is a tooling structure that then needs to be finished in some way. It needs to be sealed to make it vacuum-compliant, because a lot of composites manufacturing processes depend upon pulling a vacuum on the tool.

For a perspective on this, I spoke with Jeff Sloan, editor-in-chief of CompositesWorld. Sloan is an observer of composites technology the way the writers for this site are observers of AM. And because of the interplay between these two technologies, often we are looking at the same things from different perspectives. What follows is a conversation exploring his perspective.

Backed by decades of experience in both aviation and additive, the company is now laser-focused on a single goal: developing, proving and scaling production of engines providing 5,000 lbs of thrust or less.

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Sloan: I think about the variety of brackets and fasteners that are used a lot in the aerospace industry — particularly in some of the aerostructures I mentioned. For instance, when you’re assembling an aircraft, you have a fuselage skin, and then within the skin you’ve got a series of frames and stringers. If you think about it as a human body, the frames and stringers would be analogous to the rib cage and the fuselage would be the skin over the rib cage.

One of the most active AFP developers in the composites industry is Electroimpact, a supplier to Boeing that developed a lot of technology to apply composites to the 787 aircraft. Electroimpact recently introduced its own additive manufacturing system that literally combines AM with AFP. And it does it with a two-part system that applies additive manufacturing to build what you might call a mandrel. It then uses AFP or an AFP-like system to wind carbon fiber tapes around that mandrel, the tool, to build a composite part. The mandrel can be 3D printed to whatever shape you want, and then after winding the carbon fiber around that, the mandrel could be washed out or removed in some way.

We did a story recently on the development of a carbon-fiber exoskeleton that is designed to help people with limited mobility or some paralysis to walk, and this is a large carbon-fiber structure mostly made with traditional processes. But there are certain parts of this exoskeleton that must be customized for the size, fit and body type of the person wearing the exoskeleton. That customization is provided by additive manufacturing. Combining the larger structure with these discrete parts allowed customization of the larger structure for the user.

Debuting in 2010, the Parts Cleaning Conference is the leading and most trusted manufacturing and industrial parts cleaning forum focused solely on delivering quality technical information in the specialized field of machined parts cleansing. Providing guidance and training to understand the recognized sets of standards for industrial cleaning, every year the Conference showcases industry experts who present educational sessions on the latest and most pressing topics affecting manufacturing facilities today. Discover all that the 2025 Parts Cleaning Conference has to offer!

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Formnext 2024: The system comes in a space-efficient, cube-shaped 3D printer for LFAM printing with integrated milling options and a 3 + 1 axis system for 45-degree printing.

The most valuable end market for our audience is aerospace. Polymer composite materials are used in a variety of parts and structures ranging from fuselage skins, stringers and frames; wing structures including wing skins, spars and stringers; and tail structures; and also in more discrete parts like window surrounds, interior parts including luggage storage bins and inside bulkheads. The walls within the aircraft typically are also made with composites. So that’s the biggest end market, the highest value end market for us. Meanwhile, the largest end market by volume of materials is the wind blade industry. If you think about a wind turbine sitting out on a prairie and turning — those wind blades are made entirely out of composites. And those composites make those wind blades possible. You couldn’t make them with another material.

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Medical device manufacturer Curiteva is producing two families of spinal implants using a proprietary process for 3D printing porous polyether ether ketone (PEEK).

Attendees will learn how Mantle's technology enables production-quality tooling with unprecedented speed, precision and durability to produce production equivalent prototype molded parts. Rapid tooling allows teams to iterate designs faster, validate part functions earlier and scale into production seamlessly from prototype to production. If plastic parts are strategic to your organization, this is a must-attend event to learn how to bring products to market faster. Agenda: Common methods of how plastic parts are prototyped today How rapid tooling accelerates the product development process and when to use it Real-world case studies from manufacturers who have shortened product development cycles by up to 80%

Sloan: Composites technology already looks a lot like AM, and that’s important in thinking about this question. One of the most direct analogs is automated fiber placement or AFP. AFP was invented in in the late 70s or early 80s, and is basically the application of a tape or a “tow” that can be anywhere from a quarter-inch to a half-inch wide. It’s typically carbon fiber and often pre-impregnated (“prepregged”) with a thermoset material like epoxy. A robot lays the tape onto a tool, then applies it to the tool and cuts it. And then it’s laid down again — we cut in courses. You can see a lot of parallels to AM. So there is a natural fit already.

The Metal Powder Application (MPA) process uses cold spray to apply metal to an existing workpiece. Because the material deforms rather than melts, MPA opens new possibilities for functional grading and other multimaterial applications.

Additive is now too well-established for its successes to be dislodged by market change. Meanwhile, the most important factor is the promise that will continue to drive adoption.

Jeff Sloan reports on the composites industry as the editor-in-chief of CompositesWorld, a sister brand to Additive Manufacturing. Sloan has served in this role since 2006.

Alquist 3D is aiming to revolutionize construction and infrastructure with large-format robotic 3D printing using a carbon-neutral material.

Titanium bike frame manufacturer Hanglun Technology mixes precision casting with 3D printing to create bikes that offer increased speed and reduced turbulence during long-distance rides, offering a smoother, faster and more efficient cycling experience.

AM: Give examples. What are some of the kinds of parts that are now candidates for manufacturing with polymer composites, or maybe become easier to manufacture with composites, thanks to AM?

Sloan: I don’t think there’s an established composites manufacturing process that is at risk of being wholly displaced. But I do think what we will see is that composites AM will be increasingly integrated into the composites manufacturing toolkit, and AM will integrate more with existing composites manufacturing processes to add functionality.

Our video from Marshall Space Flight Center details the multi-metal part, and how it brings significant time and cost savings to spacecraft production.

Formnext 2024: Italy-based Wasp has developed technological solutions for additive manufacturing (AM) which are centered on sustainability, precision and creative freedom. This includes printing 100% recycled plastic directly from shreds, dynamically controlling pellet coloring and testing advanced geopolymer materials for reduced CO2 emissions.

Sloan: When we talk about additive in the context of composites, I’m talking about 3D printing with a material that has fiber reinforcement, and the gold standard for us is continuous fiber reinforcement. What additive manufacturing does, for our audience and their applications, is to provide a technology that allows more efficient and faster fabrication of parts that until a few years ago may not have been economically feasible using current composites manufacturing technologies. When you think about discrete parts or low-volume manufacturing, those parts might have been impossible to make with existing composites manufacturing. Modern AM makes them possible. Then, with the use of continuous fiber in additive, you’re bringing in an element of strength and stiffness that is sort of a next level in terms of part capability and applications.

Cost savings, modifications, large-format AM and more. In this episode of AM Radio, we discuss what people are saying about additive manufacturing on social media.