3D Printing: The Stories We Missed This Week — June 18, 2016

This week proved to be an exciting and busy one for the 3D printing industry, and as per usual, it was nearly impossible to cover it all. Out in Abu Dhabi, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology has filed a patent for new ultra lightweight metals and plastics. The venture capital sector of the France-based Air Liquide Group, called ALIAD, has been increasing their investments in tech-based startups. Prototyping and manufacturing firm The Technology House (TTH) has announced that they’ll be installing CLIP 3D printing technology into their facility. Out in Portugal, BEEVERYCREATIVE’s co-founder Francisco Mendes will lead the charge for the Portuguese Network of Fablabs and Makerspaces. In addition, the electronics 3D printing company BotFactory releases a new software update, while 3D Systems and Bastech have been proving the value of 3D printing to mold-makers.

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology Files Patent for Ultra Lightweight Materials

This week in Abu Dhabi, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology filed a patent to produce ultra lightweight metals and plastics for 3D printing. Aside from being lightweight, these materials will have optimized electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties. According to Dr. Rashid Abu Al Rub, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, the research group is not inventing new materials, rather they are manipulating the internal geometry of standard materials to reach their desired properties. With these reinvented materials, the researchers hope that these materials will be used to produce lighter and stronger vehicles, as well as improving the efficiency of water and energy production.

“We have introduced a paradigm shift in how materials are being designed. Currently, people design materials based on a material’s existing chemistry, structure and its corresponding properties. Our vision for material design instead looks first at the desired properties you are targeting in a material for a product application and then applies our proprietary design methods to optimise the structure and its internal geometry so that it will give you those desired properties,” Dr. Al Rub said.

Venture Capital Firm ALIAD Accelerates Investments in Various Technology Start-Ups

The venture capital arm of the France-based gas company Air Liquide Group, called ALIAD, has recently announced a major expansion in their investment of tech-based startups. According to their new investment strategy, ALIAD will primarily target investments on areas such as energy transition, healthcare, and high tech. The strategy seems to be playing out quite well thus far. Earlier this year, Air Liquide Group acquired an equity stake in the French biomedical company Carmat, while ALIAD recently established two partnerships with high tech companies. The venture capital group now has stake in the Oregon-based Inpria, which is developing a unique lithography technology for small surfaces, as well as Poly-Shape, a French SME that specializes in design, prototyping, and small series production via additive manufacturing.

The Technology House to Roll Out CLIP Technology in Their Manufacturing Facility

Ohio-based prototyping and manufacturing firm The Technology House (TTH) has just revealed that they will be one of the five sites to introduce Carbon’s CLIP (Continuous Liquid Interface Production) technology to their customers. According to TTH’s president Chip Gear, this will be the third production capable 3D printing system from Carbon in the company’s Streetsboro manufacturing facility. There are a number of advantages that the CLIP technology will provide to TTH, including 10x faster print times, the ability to 3D print production-level quality parts, and a wide range of specialized materials.

“We’ve worked closely with the engineers at Carbon during the past year to pilot its new technology with a variety of design suggestions to improve its performance in the field,” Gear said. “It represents a dramatic improvement for an engineering team and removes a variety of significant barriers product designers used to face, enabling them to design without restrictions of the past.”

BEEVERYCREATIVE’s Co-Founder Francisco Mendes Will Lead the Way for Portuguese Fablabs and Makerspaces Network

The desktop 3D printing company BEEVERYCREATIVE has recently announced that their co-founder and head of the company’s Innovation Team, Francisco Mendes, will lead a new initiative to expand upon the network of innovative workspaces across Portugal. Mendes will lead the Portuguese Network of Fablabs and Makerspaces, part of StartUP Portugal, working to develop and help cultivate growth in the country’s current ecosystem of Fablabs and Makerspaces along with Bernardo Gaeiras, who hails from Fablab Lisboa. With the goal of “imprinting change with 3D printing,” which has essentially become BEEVERYCREATIVE’s motto, Mendes hopes to strengthen the tech startups in Portugal, helping them reach an internationally competitive level through enhancing their access to emerging technologies.

BotFactory Releases Software Update for the Squink 3D Printer

New York City-based electronics 3D printing company BotFactory has just released a new software update for their PCB printer, the Squink. With the latest firmware update, v.0.9.24, the Squink will now be able print circuits, dispense glue, and pick-and-place components at twice the speed it could before. To test the speed increase, BotFactory printed a single pass, single layer, 2 x 2 inch BotFactory Logo both before and after the software update. Compared to the 2:15 minutes it took before the firmware was updated, v.0.9.24 enabled the electronics 3D printer to do the same job in just 1:10 minutes. In addition to speed enhancements, the software update will also include simplified network connectivity, improved tip cleaning during dispensing, improved head height calibration, and other assorted bug fixes.

3D Systems and Bastech Provide End-to-End Manufacturing Solution for Mold-Makers

Using 3D Systems’ end-to-end manufacturing capabilities, the 3D printing solutions provider Bastech has made their conformal cooling mold-making process more simple, efficient, and economical. To improve their process, Bastech first utilized the toolsets of Cimatron software to tailor their mold designs. Then, these mold designs were produced into complex metal geometries by 3D Systems’ ProX DMP 200 3D printing system. Finally, Geomagic Control was used to perform a quality inspection on these 3D printed molds. All-in-all, Bastech was able to reduce their design time by 70%, their cycle time by 14% and finally, their overall cost by 16%.

This week takes us around the world in business, where 3D printing and affiliated technologies have been seeing more steps forward! Would you like to discuss some of these topics further? Let’s talk over in the 3D Printing News We MIssed forum at 3DPB.com.