3D Printing

From the Greek 'topo' meaning 'place' and 'ology' meaning 'study', topological optimisation is the study of mathematically optimising material layout. When approaching a component part in this way, the end goal is to remove superfluous material in areas of low stress whilst maintaining structural integrity of the whole; the lighter and stronger the better.

According to a report published by IDTechEx, the 3D printing materials market is expected to increase from $800m in 2013 to $8bn by 2025. 3D printing is already common in aerospace, orthopaedic, jewellery and dental sectors, and is becoming more common in education, military, architecture, medical research and automotive sectors. This is because 3D printing is no longer used just for one-off pieces and prototypes, but for final part producti...

Quant 3D, a division of OK International, will preview an industrial 3D printer in stand 11.F103 at EuroMold 2014, scheduled to take place 25th to 28th November 2014 in Frankfurt. The Q1000 Industrial 3D Printer is a high-performance, cost-effective 3D printing solution for industrial and large commercial applications.

In response to demands for miniaturisation, Morgan Advanced Materials has further developed manufacturing capabilities using temperature stabilised dielectric materials with high permittivity for advanced substrate applications.

  Having obtained a compliance certificate from TÜV SÜD for its AM250 laser melting machine, Renishaw intends to help 3D printing evolve from being considered an emerging technology, reserved for design and testing, into a mainstream manufacturing tool.

We are pleased to announce the first London 3D Publishing Conference on November 20th at IDEALondon in London’s Tech City.

KIC will showcase the affordable and easy-to-use ProBot automatic profiling system at the SMTA Intermountain (Utah) Expo & Tech Forum (Oct 23) at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT. The ProBot automatically measures the profile for each PCB and verifies whether each PCB is processed to specification in the reflow oven.

Plastics specialist igus has developed a new tribo-polymer filament for 3D printers, developed specifically for engineers who wish to create structurally robust prototypes or small batch components for test in real-world applications or solutions. Suitable for use with any 3D printer that has a heated nozzle, print bed and uses ABS filaments, the material is up to 50 times more  resistant to wear and abrasion than products made from conventi...

After extensive testing, Panasonic have implemented Viscom's closed-loop interface into it's printers and placement machines. The interface, developed by the two companies, provides a closed control loop between solder paste inspection (SPI) and printer. This allows the print process to be inspected and immediately optimised. To automatically correct the printing process, data is sent from the SPI directly to the printer. 

3D printing is hot and has emerged as manufacturing technology with a thousand uses, spread across a very diverse user base.