3D Printing News Briefs: May 5, 2017

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In this week’s second helping of 3D Printing News Briefs, we’re talking about challenges and awards, 3D printer distribution, and a little business. Airwolf 3D is sponsoring the fourth annual ocMaker Challenge, the first 3D printed home in America wins an award, and Mouser Electronics has released video footage of the winning ISS Design Challenge design being 3D printed in space. Kyocera is adding MakerBot 3D printers to its portfolio, and Nano Dimension is working to bring its DragonFly 2020 3D printer to the UK and Ireland. Avi Reichental has joined the Techniplas board of directors, and Oerlikon signs an agreement to acquire an advanced materials development solutions provider.

Airwolf 3D Sponsoring Fourth Annual ocMaker Challenge 2017

Airwolf 3D engineer Hasanain Shuja teaching visitors about 3D printing at the ocMaker Challenge.

3D printer manufacturer Airwolf 3D is hosting California’s largest student maker challenge at Chapman University next weekend. The ocMaker Challenge is an integrated STEM project, where creative students design and 3D print their own inventions, then present their creations in an epic battle for prize money. The challenge is organized and supported by several organizations, including the Orange County Department of Education’s Career Technical Education Partnership (CTEp).

This year’s challenge prompt is for the students to “Design and build, or significantly repurpose, a product that will solve a problem, need or want.”

Jillian Johnson-Sharp, CTEp administrator and a speaker at the 2016 Annual California STEM Symposium, said, “The purpose of the ocMaker Challenge is to use ‘Making’ as the vehicle for delivering STEM/STEAM education to all students. The Challenge promotes 21st century skills, innovation and creativity, combined with new technologies, and provides a way for these to be delivered in an exciting and engaging way across all disciplines.”

Airwolf 3D has been an ocMaker Challenge partner since the first challenge in 2013, and is the primary industry sponsor of the challenge prize money. Additionally, the company holds 3D printer training for teachers who have not attended the free event before. The first ocMaker Challenge had only 45 entries, but there are more than 200 this year, including a possible cure for Type 1 diabetes and a portable radiation detector. Win or lose, the student participants are turning in some innovative, inspiring work, and are definitely benefiting from the unique educational design experience.

America’s First 3D Printed House Wins Design Award

Back in 2014, architect Adam Kushner decided to design the first full-scale 3D printed home in the US, and joined forces with Enrico Dini, a world-renowned 3D concrete printing inventor, to found the New York City-based D-Shape Enterprises, LLC. Kushner’s futuristic 3D concrete design for a five-bedroom estate, including a 3D printed pool, that reflected the beauty of upstate New York, has certainly turned heads over the years. The land is being cleared and developed, and a huge D-Shape 3D printer is currently operating on the property.

Kushner said, “This technology—3D-printing concrete structures in various shapes, without forms or molds—fascinates me and most everyone who hears about it. We’re excited to be on the brink of this cutting-edge project. Our home design contrasts the rustic with slick modernist—the rough texture of raw 3D-printed concrete forming a sharp juxtaposition against large expanses of glass.”

The largest and fastest growing architecture website in the world, Architizer.com, just awarded Kushner’s unique 3D printed home design with its Architizer A+ award, out of thousands of architectural projects, from over 100 countries, submitted for consideration. The judging criteria was based on excellence in such categories as Innovation, Form, Function, Reality, and Intent.

Official Footage Released of ISS Design Challenge’s Winning Design 3D Printing in Space

The winning design of Mouser Electronics’ ISS Design Challenge has been 3D printed aboard the ISS. Engineer Andy Filo designed the device, which allows astronauts to launch femtosatellites in zero gravity.

Last month, Mouser Electronics and Grant Imahara announced that engineer Andy Filo’s winning ISS Design Challenge entry had been successfully 3D printed aboard the International Space Station. Filo’s femtosatellite launcher is currently in orbit, and is available for astronauts to use when launching the tiny femtosatellites in their zero gravity environment. This week, the exclusive, official footage of Filo’s design being 3D printed in space was released in the latest video episode of Mouser Electronics’ Empowering Innovation Together program.

“Mouser brought together engineers, students and makers from around the world in this exciting design challenge,” said Glenn Smith, President and CEO of Mouser Electronics. “All the designs were excellent, but in the end there was one design that stood above the rest. The heart of this challenge was ‘innovation,’ and Andy’s femtosatellite-launching device embodies forward-thinking design.”

Filo’s project was declared the winner from a total of 242 entries, and after he made a few modifications to the original design, it was digitally transmitted to the ISS and 3D printed by Made In Space’s Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF) on April 3. The footage also explains how the astronauts aboard the ISS may use the 3D printed device in space, such as launching the femotsatellites off to monitor cosmic rays and coronal events. Check out the official 3D printing footage below:

KYOCERA Announces Partnership with MakerBot Distributor ArtSystems

Leading document solutions company KYOCERA Document Solutions UK has announced that it will be partnering up with 3D printer distributor ArtSystems, which distributes MakerBot 3D printers in the UK and Ireland. To further its commitment to 3D printing technology, KYOCERA will be adding the entire MakerBot FDM 3D printing suite to its portfolio. MakerBot 3D printers minimize downtime thanks to the Smart Extruder+, which pauses the printer when it runs out of filament. The 3D printers are fitted with on-board webcams for remote monitoring, and are Wi-Fi and cloud-enabled. The MakerBot Replicator Mini+ is over 50% quieter, making working environments, like educational establishments, more productive.

“We’re excited to partner with ArtSystems and boost our portfolio with the addition of the world’s leading brand of desktop 3D printers,” said Trevor Maloney, Product Marketing Manager at KYOCERA Document Solutions UK. “We’re seeing schools, colleges and universities in particular increasingly investing in 3D technology in order to improve students’ learning. The MakerBot devices are ideal for this environment, as they are built with safety front of mind as well as coming complete with the MakerBot 3D printing platform’s design community for discovering, printing and sharing free 3D models.”

Nano Dimension Collaborating with Anglo Production Processes Ltd.

Nano Dimension will be teaming up with distributor Anglo Production Processes Ltd. (APP), which supports equipment for the electronics and life-sciences sectors in the UK and Ireland, to bring its multi-layer PCB printer, the DragonFly 2020, to the UK and Ireland. The two will work on developing the necessary service and commercial infrastructure and capabilities to bring the 3D printer to the region.

Simon Fried, Chief Business Officer of Nano Dimension, said, “APP has decades of experience meeting the needs of the UK Hi-Tech sector. We are excited to collaborate with such a professional and successful team.”

APP’s client base, after 20-plus years of providing services and products in the UK electronics industry, is extensive, and includes many of the region’s top global electronics companies. The company has good relationships with clients and suppliers, and delivers regional support and comprehensive after-sales service packages.

“APP is thrilled to work with the Nano Dimension team. We see tremendous opportunity for accelerating circuit development cycles. This technology has the potential to deliver speed and flexibility to innovators in the electronics and PCB industry,” said Jack Daly, Managing Director of APP.

Avi Reichental Joins Board of Directors at Techniplas

Avi Reichental

Speaking of Nano Dimension, the company’s newest board member Avi Reichental has joined the board of directors at Wisconsin-based Techniplas as the vice-chairman. Reichental was the president, director, and CEO of 3D Systems for 12 years, and also sat on the board of directors at Harman International for two years before it was recently acquired by Samsung Electronics. He held senior executive leadership positions with Sealed Air from 1981 until 2003, serves as general partner at Israel’s most active early-stage venture fund OurCrowd First, and is the founder, chairman, and CEO of XponentialWorks, an advisory, venture investment, and product development company.

George Votis, founder and chairman of Techniplas, said, “Avi is an experienced executive, parallel entrepreneur, and visionary. He has relevant and profound global insights into the transformation of the automotive industry and deep additive manufacturing knowledge, which will be immensely valuable to Techniplas. Avi disrupted the 3D-printing industry and showed that success comes from challenging the status quo. I am very pleased he is joining our board of directors as we continue to evolve Techniplas as a technology leader.”

Reichental is also a member of Singularity University‘s core faculty, a trustee of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and a member of the XPRIZE Innovation Board.

“I am excited to join the Techniplas Board and be part of a leading company that is making the connected world possible. I look forward to working closely with George Votis and the entire team to help guide the company’s business model and technology innovation and drive company-wide digital transformation designed to position Techniplas as a cognitive connected technology provider,” said Reichental.

Oerlikon Signs Agreement to Acquire Scoperta Inc.

Leading global technology group Oerlikon announced this week that it has signed an agreement to acquire advanced materials development solutions provider Scoperta Inc., which is headquartered in California. In doing so, Oerlikon’s Surface Solutions Segment will gain Scoperta’s proprietary process technology, and its expertise in rapid design and materials development through computational software; this allows disruptive material solutions to be quickly identified.

“The expertise and team from Scoperta adds great value and complements well with Oerlikon’s existing strong materials heritage and competence. With industries seeking solutions to improve performance and sustainability, the need for advanced materials and products is continuously growing,” said Dr. Roland Fischer, CEO of the Oerlikon Group. “This investment underscores our aim to stay at the forefront of the new era of innovating for advanced materials, which will be used in surface solutions and also in additive manufacturing. In our transition to become a powerhouse in surface solutions and advanced materials, such targeted and selective investments will reinforce our in-house capabilities and provide additional growth opportunities for Oerlikon.”

Scoperta brings with it a skilled application development and engineering team, which has developed an advanced computational materials development approach.  The company has partnered with several major industrial companies to jointly develop advanced materials, and Oerlikon’s acquisition of Scoperta will make its position in the metallic and ceramic materials market even stronger. In return, Oerlikon’s access to distribution channels, industrial customers, and production supply chain will benefit Scoperta. The companies have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

Discuss these stories in the News Briefs forum at 3DPB.com.

 

 

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