3D Printing Information Briefs, June 24, 2023: Sustainability, Titanium Alloys, & Extra – 3DPrint.com

In at this time’s 3D Printing Information Briefs, Aniwaa has launched the primary version of its AM {hardware} panorama infographic, and Prusa Analysis has introduced its first sustainability report. C3D launched the Center East’s first large-format 3D printing facility, and a group of researchers used 3D printing to develop new designer titanium alloys. Lastly, Domin is utilizing Renishaw’s AM expertise to supply hydraulic valves, and Mighty Oak Medical is bettering spinal surgical procedure outcomes with HP’s AM expertise.

Aniwaa Releases First Version of AM {Hardware} Panorama Infographic

Whereas consolidations are taking place on a regular basis, the additive manufacturing trade remains to be very fragmented. On-line AM {hardware} B2B market Aniwaa needed to supply a complete have a look at the lively producers in every market section, and has launched the first version of its AM {hardware} panorama infographic. Over 500 lively industrial AM producers have been mapped and categorized by expertise, supplies, and extra, proving that Aniwaa is a trusted useful resource within the skilled AM trade. Necessary findings embrace the continued dominance of polymer 3D printers, and the recognition in steel AM of laser powder mattress fusion (LPBF) expertise. Aniwaa additionally introduced updates to its AM {hardware} database, including new filtering choices, incorporating the newest ASTM requirements, and extra. One other a part of the discharge is the launch of Producer accounts, which permits producers to showcase their merchandise and higher handle their presence on the Aniwaa platform.

“At Aniwaa, we perceive the challenges confronted by skilled patrons in navigating the advanced additive manufacturing ecosystem. Our panorama infographic, mixed with our product catalogs, gives patrons with a complete view of all lively producers and options in every market section. These insights are invaluable of their journey to make knowledgeable buying choices,” mentioned Martin Lansard, Co-Founding father of Aniwaa.

“Our purpose is to offer producers with the instruments they want to reach this aggressive trade. Our platform serves as a gateway for producers to showcase their merchandise, attain new markets, and finally obtain their objectives. We imagine that by enabling seamless and useful interactions between producers and patrons lively out there, we’re driving the trade ahead.”

Prusa Analysis Presents First Sustainability Report

Prusa Analysis is now presenting its first sustainability report a 12 months after publishing sustainability plans for the primary time. Analysis and requests for person suggestions yielded three matters that have been deemed crucial: assist customers recycle ineffective prints and leftover filament, supply filament on spools with out sides, and lift consciousness about printing significant issues. The primary of three pillars of Prusa’s sustainability technique is utilizing 3D printing to unravel up to date environmental and social issues, and the corporate is working with others that use its 3D printers to make their operations extra sustainable, in addition to utilizing the expertise to assist these wounded within the battle in Ukraine and assist handicapped sportsmen. The second pillar is attempting to reduce the influence of its actions on the surroundings, and Prusa has began making recycled variations of its Prusament PLA and PETG, providing Prusament refills, decreasing its water and vitality consumption, and dealing on extra ecological packaging and transport of its merchandise. The third pillar is having truthful relations with those who assist Prusa efficiently conduct its enterprise, and the corporate is working to enhance its work surroundings so it’s safer and friendlier, in addition to being extra clear when discussing sustainability; for instance, it’s stopped labeling PLA as biodegradable.

“The goal of the report is to not say that we excel in each side of the sustainability matter and that all the things we do is the perfect factor to do. Our purpose is to point out you the place we stand proper now, what we’re good at, and what we’re simply starting with,” defined Vladimír Víšek, Head of Sustainability at Prusa Analysis. “Making the report itself was train for us: we summed up all the things we do and discovered the place we don’t have e.g. knowledge or haven’t began coping with one thing but.”

C3D Launches Center East’s First Massive-Format 3D Printing Facility

Dubai-based 3D printing providers firm C3D, a part of the Chrysels Group of Firms, launched a primary for the Center East—the area’s first large-format 3D printing facility. Positioned in Dubai, the power will assist the rising demand for AM within the UAE’s industrial sector. The corporate is targeted on selling eco-conscious manufacturing and decreasing waste, and so has invested in its first Weber additive manufacturing system, which can also be the primary within the Center East. The Weber DX 025 incorporates a construct quantity of 1600 × 1200 × 1300 mm³, RBG IP cameras for print monitoring, Bosch Rexroth linear items and CNC management, and makes use of recycled, sustainable plastic granules because the uncooked materials. Now, the corporate can produce high-quality, large-scale prints extra sustainably and at a sooner tempo.

“We have been impressed to launch this pathbreaking expertise right here in Dubai, led by the visionary management of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, who has at all times emphasised the significance of expertise in driving progress and innovation within the UAE,” mentioned Babu Radhakrishnan, Founding Companion of C3D. “Right now, the UAE has made large strides within the discipline of expertise, turning into a world chief in lots of areas. From synthetic intelligence to renewable vitality, the UAE has demonstrated its dedication to creating a greater future for its folks and for the world. C3D is proud to be part of this imaginative and prescient.”

Researchers Use 3D Printing to Develop New Titanium Alloys

Workforce members Dr Tingting Tune and Professor Ma Qian (left to proper) with a titanium alloy half created with the laser 3D printer that the group used at RMIT College. (Be aware: this isn’t an alloy half that the group made for this analysis.) Credit score: RMIT

A group of researchers led by RMIT College and the College of Sydney, in collaboration with Melbourne-based Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence and Hong Kong Polytechnic College, built-in alloy and 3D printing course of designs to develop a brand new class of “designer” titanium alloys. These alloys, robust and never brittle below rigidity, couldn’t solely enhance sustainability but additionally prolong purposes within the biomedical, aerospace, chemical engineering, vitality, and area sectors. The alloys are made up of a mix of alpha-titanium section and beta-titanium section crystals, stabilized and strengthened by cheap iron and oxygen, and 3D printed utilizing Laser Directed Vitality Deposition (L-DED). Moreover, the group used round financial system considering of their design, and there may be promise for printing the brand new titanium alloys out of low-grade supplies and industrial waste, which might assist decrease the titanium trade’s excessive carbon footprint.

College of Sydney Professional-Vice-Chancellor, and co-lead researchers, Professor Simon Ringer, defined, “This analysis delivers a brand new titanium alloy system able to a large and tunable vary of mechanical properties, excessive manufacturability, monumental potential for emissions discount and insights for supplies design in kindred programs.

“The crucial enabler is the distinctive distribution of oxygen and iron atoms inside and between the alpha-titanium and beta-titanium phases.

“We’ve engineered a nanoscale gradient of oxygen within the alpha-titanium section, that includes high-oxygen segments which can be robust, and low-oxygen segments which can be ductile permitting us to exert management over the native atomic bonding and so mitigate the potential for embrittlement.”

Domin Makes use of Renishaw Metallic AM to Print Hydraulic Valves

Deconstructed Domin valve

Fluid energy specialist Domin wanted to satisfy rising demand for its energy-efficient, high-performance hydraulic valves, and determined that steel 3D printing was the way in which to go. International engineering applied sciences firm Renishaw provided its RenAM 500Q system, with 4 high-powered 500W lasers and an clever fuel circulation system, to Domin’s new Expertise Centre within the UK, which permits the corporate to design advanced geometries with inner options, like environment friendly stiff buildings, that conventional manufacturing strategies can not obtain. Domin has mixed steel AM with massive knowledge, high-speed motor management, related expertise, and extra to create a extra aggressive vary of servo proportional hydraulic valves, whereas additionally decreasing waste and serving to to save lots of the hydraulics trade one gigatonne of CO2e by 2030.

“We designed these servo valves to realize a better-performing, extra sustainable product at a cheaper price level. The success of those valves in a broad vary of purposes means demand is outpacing what we are able to provide. Renishaw is the go-to alternative for coupling productiveness with high quality, and we anticipate that the elevated capability the brand new AM system gives will enable us to keep up low manufacturing turnaround occasions and ship persistently top quality to our rising buyer base,” mentioned Domin CEO Marcus Pont.

“Most hydraulic programs at this time solely function at 23 per cent effectivity, ensuing within the wastage of billions of kilowatt-hours yearly. Globally, hydraulics produces twice the CO2e emissions of the aerospace trade (1). Over its lifetime, every of those game-changing valves has the potential to save lots of a number of tonnes of CO2e, and with them we are able to spearhead the advance of the fluid energy trade in the direction of a sustainable future.”

Mighty Oak Medical Utilizing HP’s Multi Jet Fusion to Enhance Spinal Surgical procedures

Medical system growth firm Mighty Oak Medical focuses on creating and commercializing patient-specific spinal options, and is partnering with HP to revolutionize healthcare purposes with its Multi Jet Fusion 5200 3D printers. The expertise might be used to print customized surgical guides and fashions for its flagship FDA-cleared and CE-mark FIREFLY product, a patient-specific pre-surgical planning and navigation platform. FIREFLY’s correct concierge pre-surgical planning helps enhance security and precision, whereas additionally decreasing the effectivity challenges widespread in spinal fusion surgical procedure when inserting pedicle screws, and HP’s industrial MJF answer will assist the corporate lower print turnaround occasions for FIREFLY, which implies extra sufferers can profit from customized care. Since bringing manufacturing in-house and putting in HP’s 5200 printers on its manufacturing facility ground, Mighty Oak Medical is reporting improved replicability and consistency in placement of pedicle screws, because of the patient-specific guides 3D printed out of HP’s robust and detailed 3D Excessive Reusability PA 12 materials. The fabric’s floor end has the next distinction, which makes it a lot simpler for surgeons to verify for gaps and skim markings within the OR.

“It was necessary for us to keep up our deal with the backbone and develop revolutionary options that make surgical procedures safer and extra environment friendly. We’ve got at all times seen 3D printed, patient-specific options as a perfect strategy to obtain these two aims, and now, because of HP’s 3D printing expertise, the healthcare trade is present process a large transformation when it comes to the options, affected person expertise and outcomes new 3D printed medical gadgets can present,” mentioned Heidi Frey, President at Mighty Oak Medical.