Today, we'll talk not of classic FDM 3D-printers such as the Creatbot DX but about food 3D printing.
Israeli company Redefine Meat has launched five new "meat" products. No cow or lamb was harmed in the process, because all these steaks and sausages are 3D-printed using plant biomass.
Autodesk, a leader in the development of solutions for design, construction, development, production, animation and graphics, held an annual conference that brought together professionals from all over the world.
Automotive manufacturer Škoda Auto received an award from the Czech Republic’s Confederation of Industry for its ‘More flexible with 3D print farms” project of integrating additive technologies into manufacturing. The company mainly uses domestic 3D printers by Prusa Research.
In this article, we are talking not of desktop 3D printers like the Creatbot DE but about powders for the production of metal parts.
The Tula powder metallurgy plant Polema (part of the Industrial and Metallurgical Holding) has mastered the production of high-entropy alloys and NiCrAlY coatings for import substitution in aircraft construction and other industries. These alloys are suitable for the manufacture of products using 3D printing.
Nowadays, 3D printing solutions are of great interest for companies of any profile. According to experts, by 2025, the global market for additive technologies will be worth $32 billion, and by 2030, it will be $60 billion. 3D printing is actively used for the creation of art modes, in the automotive industry, construction, film industry, and even in the field of fashion. Printing technologies are especially relevant in healthcare — not only as visual aids for future physicians but also for the treatment of various diseases. Many of the latest advances in medical science have been made thanks to 3D printing, and in the foreseeable future, artificial organs and even medicines can be created by means of these technologies. Let's take a look at how 3D modeling and 3D printing help companies achieve great results with relatively small investments.
CreatBot is a 3D printer manufacturer based in China. The CreatBot D600 is one of their most successful devices. This 3D printer can work with various materials, including demanding ones. It offers industrial-grade quality, high level of precision and large-scale 3D printing.
The newer version, the D600 Pro, was developed and released later, in 2018 (the original D600 has been available since 2016). It’s designed to work with an even wider range of materials, including Nylon and polycarbonate.
Both versions feature a massive build volume of 600 x 600 x 600 mm and dual extrusion.
On the stand of the Samara National Research University named after academician Korolev, there are a number of interesting developments, including a mock-up of the AIST-3 satellite and parts of aircraft gas turbine engines obtained using 3D printing technologies.
Stavropol-based Russian company Smart Build launched an open contest of small architectural forms. The winning project will be brought to life with an in-house developed constructional 3D printer.
The exhibition stand iQB Technologies and TWIZE at the Expo Control 2021 event was a good way to see metrological 3D scanners in action. It was held at the Expocentre in Moscow, Russia.
In the beginning of September 2021 Moscow first-graders could visit 17 educational places. Those who participate in the ‘First Grade September’ event will gain knowledge about relevant professions, will visit the programming and 3D modeling courses and will find out more about AR/VR technologies and robotics (you can learn more about educational robotics here).
Top Systems participated in both the science-business part and exhibition side of things of the forum. The company presented their PLM-solution for digital transition of enterprises. The T-FLEX PLM (covers (CAD/CAM/CAE/CAPP/PDM/CRM/PM/MDM/RM) is a compelling and relevant solution that can work even with the defense industry.
Autodesk presented new capabilities of its Fusion 360 software, as well as a whole package of solutions for designers, engineers and manufacturers. The company also how these abilities can be utilized for faster and collaborative production. The improvements allow Autodesk to equip engineers, designers, manufacturers and innovators with modern tools needed for solving current issues.
Instead of desktop 3D printers, such as Raise3D E2, today we will talk about a metal 3D printer. Chinese company Farsoon offers the FS273M additive manufacturing system that works with laser powders. It’s a modernized version of the FS271M LPBF (Laser Powder Bed Fusion) 3D printer that is offered with one or two lasers.
Belgian FGF (Fused Granulate Fabrication) 3D printers manufacturer Colossus and Dutch material supplier colorFabb signed a partnership agreement regarding pushing high-efficient large-format 3D printing with the usage of foam granular polymers (We’ve written about large-format 3D printing before. As an example, read our review of the Modix Big-60 3D printer).
Andreas Muller, 3D printing enthusiast, developed an open-source project that makes color printing with regular FDM 3D printers possible with the custom system of replaceable printheads and permanent color marker pens.
VIAM (All-Russian Institute of Aviation Materials) held the 7th international conference “Additive Technologies: Present and Future” on 7-8th October 2021.
A heart needs to function properly. pumping blood and getting rid of CO2 in that blood. Modern technology provides solutions for the doctors, sometimes with the help of 3D printing. Cardiac phantoms would be one example, since they can be used for mimicking anatomical imaging tasks.
The use of 3D printing for making cardiac phantoms was recently described in the study called ‘Optimisation of CT protocols for cardiac imaging using three-dimensional printing technology,’ by Kamarul Amin Abdullah of the University of Sydney.
It covers making a cardiac insert phantom, placing it inside the “Lungman” multi-functional chest phantom and performing a CT scan. The last step covers the use of algorithms for dose optimization.
Phantoms are the solution to optimize and refine imagery, especially for CT scans. and evaluate the needed dose of radiation. The latter is more important than it sounds, since various studies show that radiation doses from CT scans have been steadily on the rise during recent years in both Australia and the US.
Since the CT scan technology is more widely available today than ever before, the level of radiation exposure continues to be a cause for concern. There are various solutions to reduce cancer risk during exposure, including tube current reduction, low tube voltage, other protocols, ECG-gating and Bismuth shielding, as well as others, including iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms.
The usage of phantom-based dose optimization methodology proves to be advantageous, especially for imaging of coronary issues, since basing studies only on real patients has its own limits.
The All-Russian Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM) showed its own developments in the field of additive technologies, including a series of small-sized gas-turbine engines MGTD-10, MGTD-20 and MGTD-150.
Reverse engineering of such parts can be done using 3D scanners. You can see some examples and sample deviations here.
Shayaan is a Bahraini boy who was born without both arms in 2006. His rare disorder is called dysmelia. And now his mother is reaching for modern technologies to help her son perform simple tasks that people without limb differences take for granted.
His mother, Fadia, said in the interview: “On 11th December 2006 I had my second child. My son Shayaan, was born that day bringing with him shock, disbelief and unimaginable pain. He was born with no arms. We were all mourning instead of celebrating the new addition in the family. While the whole family cried, my older son Sheheryar (6 at the time) accepted his younger brother with open arms and an open heart!”
She added: “Sheheryar showed me all the body parts that Shayaan had, rather than focusing on the ones he did not. I then looked at my baby for hours concentrating on his tiny eyelids and ears that showed the most intricate network of capillaries and wondered how the creator could miss making his arms? How could he forget and how could he make a mistake?”
Chinese company Weistek offers low-price desktop MSLA 3D printers with 2K monochrome screens.
