3D Printing: The Stories We Missed This Week – February 4, 2017

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An inventor sends round a mailing to sell his stake in a company, GKN and EOS become BFFs, Xometry secures extra funding, Graphene 3D Lab makes more news, people from Youngstown, Ohio go to Israel and DUS Architects’ PR department is still the envy of the architecture world. It’s been a busy week in 3D printing.

Inventor of Artec 3D Scanners Is Calling It Quits and Selling His Stake in the Company

artec-logo-jpegAndrey Klimov is one of the co-founders of Artec 3D. Artec 3D makes 3D scanners such as the body scanner booth shapify.me, the Eva, the LEO. The company makes structured light scanners and mostly has handheld devices as well as a software package, Artec Studio, for fixing 3D scanning files. The serial entrepreneur has announced that he is stepping down from the firm that he co-founded and wants to see if someone would be willing to take over his stake in the firm.  His statement explains:

“For many years I had the great privilege of being a shareholder and inventor for a wonderful company: Artec Europe Sarl(AES) (Luxembourg). I, along with a group of talented engineers, frequently toiled into the night to achieve yet another breakthrough. I will always remember those times fondly. But now it is time to move on. Over the past two years, I have taken a step back from Artec Europe Sarl and have formed new companies and invented new technologies. AES seems to be on a new path as well and has announced a new 3D scanner called Leo (which replaces the Artec Eva scanner). I’m sure this scanner is worthy and I wish AES all the success with this new technology while I, humbly announce, that I am selling my 29.5% share in this company, as well as my 29.5% in the distribution company in California called Artec Group INC. Please contact me if you are interested in offering a bid for my shares in Artec Europe Sarl and Artec Group Inc.”

GKN Powder Metallurgy and EOS Become Partners

A close up look at an EOS machine sintering powder.

A close up look at an EOS machine sintering powder.

GKN Powder Metallurgy is a new powdered metal supplier in 3D printing. The company is part of engineering group GKN. The partnership with EOS (the leading company in powder bed fusion/DMLS metal 3D printing systems) will see the two companies work closer together. As metal 3D printing continues to become more popular in aerospace applications such partnerships are sorely needed. Aerospace companies are going through certification projects at the moment for powders and processes in order to make parts that are qualified to fly. The morphology of the powder and the grain size have a very high impact on the final part. How powders are stored and control over how batches are made is also something that aerospace companies want to track. In order to coordinate such things partnerships between materials suppliers and OEMs are important. Assuring your powder supply chain and monitoring the entire part from design to finished part is an important step.

GKN makes everything from Ariane rocket engines to fighter jets and wiring for aircraft. The company is making major inroads in 3D printing on a number of fronts. Interestingly another unit of GKN has bought a MetalFAB1 from EOS competitor Additive Industries to serially produce metal parts for manufacturers. It seems that GKN is serious about metal 3D printing and is betting on more than one horse in the race.   

Xometry Secures Investment from GE Ventures

xometrylogo3dprinting

GE Ventures continues to feed the 3D printing ecosystem. The company has invested in Xometry. Xometry is essentially 3D Hubs for companies. It connects people who want parts with manufacturers. The company, which has seen significant growth since its 2014 launch to encompass 3 offices, 80 employees, and more than 4,000 customers, will surely welcome the boost in GE money as the platform continues its growth trajectory.

Graphene 3D Lab Joins National Association of Manufacturers

The Romulus forever seeking Remus.

The Romulus forever seeking Remus.

Graphene 3D Lab, a company that is trying to commercialize aerogels with graphene, graphene 3D printing materials and itself, has joined the National Association of Manufacturers. Graphene 3D Lab, which routinely replaces members of its management board at a dizzying pace, has conductive filament, magnetic filament, graphene filament, flexible filament, an online store called Graphene Supermarket that sells lab supplies and also apparently has the time to work on developing a next generation lithium ion battery technology. Sadly Graphene 3D LAB did not end up bringing to market the Romulus III “functional 3D printer capable of printing working OLED device” because it wanted to focus on advanced materials instead.

Youngstown Young Business leaders return from 3D printing focused trip to Israel

Jim Tressel the President of Youngstown State at Technion.

Jim Tressel the President of Youngstown State at Technion.

People from the Youngstown Business Incubator and Youngstown Jewish Federation visited a number of Israeli Universities for a week to talk about potential business ventures focusing on 3D printing.

“We met with four or five other additive manufacturing companies at all different stages of development. Every meeting that we walked out of, we at least had some follow-up items we could work on to see if we could establish a formal relationship,” said Barb Ewing of YBI.

New Materials from i.materialise

I.materialise now offers Standard Resin. This cheaper resin has, “a high level of detail, feels smooth to the touch and is easy to paint and post-process. In addition, it is available with or without a support structure.” The material is yellowish/translucent and is suitable for display models and prototypes.

A man riding a dinosaur, courtesy of 3D printing.

A man riding a dinosaur, courtesy of 3D printing.

The color of 3D printing service i.materialise’s Prime Gray resin is now known as Gray Resin. A tear slowly drooped then tumbled from my eye onto my desk as I read that. Prime Gray was a strong, powerful, interesting and dynamic name. You could be friends with Prime Gray, take advice from him. He could be your overly tattooed hipster barista/designer friend. He could talk to you for hours about Fibonacci, why Calatrava’s buildings are boring, why brutalism was doomed to fail and the end of design. Pontificating from behind his trendy glasses you sometimes wanted to hate him but could only love his smug smile and all knowing matte grey eyes. Oh how you loved him. Prime Gray, you will be missed. I thought that Prime Gray was the best name for any resin anywhere ever. I for one am saddened by the demise of the Prime Gray name. Gray Resin can now be finished in white, black, blue, green, yellow, gray, red, orange and brown.

Paintable Resin has also changed its name and is now known as Mammoth Resin. I for one wonder where they’re getting the mammoths from. Why do they need to take mammoths and grind them up into 3D printing resin? 

DUS Architects 3D Printed Cabin Up for Small Building of the Year Award

DUS Architects, the company that so far has been way better at 3D printing press releases than buildings, managed to get nominated for an award. Their 3D printed Urban Cabin, is 3D printed out of a bio-material. Discuss in the Stories We Missed forum at 3DPB.com.

 

 

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