Happy Friday…and happy June! In this week’s second edition of 3D Printing News Briefs, we’ll start off with something theatrical and fun, and then jump into a lot of 3D printing business news. Cirque du Soleil is using 3D printers to make costume components for its Kooza show, while GoPrint3D, XYZprinting, and FELIXprinters have all announced 3D printing industry partnerships. Veloxint has made a strategic investment and technology development agreement, and one of its target markets is 3D printing. Nano Dimension raises $4.7 million in private funding, while Oak Ridge National Laboratory introduces its new director and TechShop Pittsburgh announces that it will soon be closing its doors.
Cirque du Soleil Saves Time on Costume Design with 3D Printing
Kooza’s head of wardrobe, Jason Brass, said, “So far it’s been working like a dream.”
Kooza runs until June 11 at Belmont Park Racecourse.
GoPrint3D and EnvisionTEC Team Up to Bring Advanced 3D Printing Technology to Customers
Joanna Young, Managing Director at GoPrint3D, said, “We’re delighted to announce EnvisionTEC as our latest 3D partner. EnvisionTEC is a company that prides itself on innovation and believes in creating the best 3D printers in the world. GoPrint3D shares the same passion for 3D printing.”
GoPrint3D currently sells the top desktop FFF and SLA 3D printers for designers, educators, and manufacturers, but now it will also carry a variety of larger-format, industrial-grade 3D printers from EnvisonTEC, which include the Desktop, Perfactory, and 3SP families that use DLP and 3SP technologies.
XYZprinting Announces Partnership with HTC VIVE
So its users will be able to design 3D models in virtual reality environments, 3D printer manufacturer XYZprinting announced that it will be partnering with HTC VIVE. Its 3D scanners and printers will now become compatible HTC VIVE’s VR devices, in order to consolidate modeling and structural design in production and industrial manufacturing. The partnership was revealed at Computex Taipei, which ends tomorrow.
“In the past three years, XYZprinting has successful secured a leading position in the consumer 3D printing market. As we continue to evolve our technology, we are also getting closer to accessible and affordable business and industrial applications,” said XYZprinting CEO Simon Shen. “A future where 3D printers are a key feature of any factory, office, school and home is near and we’re delighted to be spearheading the movement.”
You can visit the XYZprinting Computex booth #L1209 in Nangang Exhibition Hall 1 to learn more.
FELIXprinters Chooses MRPEasy to Manage Its 3D Printer Manufacturing Processes
“To keep up with the growing demand of orders, and to optimize the purchasing process, we had to invest in a modern and flexible production planning system,” explained Guillaume Feliksdal, CEO of FELIXprinters. “At the end of our research, we’ve chosen MRPEasy because it perfectly syncs with our (online) requirements; particularly beneficial for us is the seamless integration with our online order system, Magento.”
3D Printing is a Target Market for Veloxint and Stanley Black & Decker
Alan Lund, CEO of Veloxint, said, “We’re excited about our collaboration and see this as a win-win for Veloxint and Stanley Black & Decker. The funding will allow Veloxint to accelerate its development activities, and the partnership will give Stanley Black & Decker access to more world-leading technology to incorporate into their products.”
Veloxint’s new alloys are about two to five times stronger than traditional alloys, while also hanging on to the toughness and ductility of the base metal. They were designed for thermodynamic stability, in order to provide long-term stable operation, including at high temperatures. The technology is being targeted toward several different markets, including 3D printing, construction, automotive, military, and aerospace. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Nano Dimension Gains $4.7M Private Placement Funding
This private funding does not include issuance of warrants. The securities may not be sold in the US absent registration, or an acceptable exemption from the registration requirements, as they have not been registered under the amended Securities Act of 1933.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory Names New Director
The UT-Battelle board of directors, which operates Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for the US Department of Energy, has chosen scientist and longtime ORNL employee Thomas Zacharia as the new director of ORNL. Zacharia was instrumental in building ORNL into a global supercomputing power, and first came to the facility in 1987 as a postdoctoral researcher. After being named associate laboratory director for ORNL’s Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate in 2001, Zacharia spent nearly a decade building a scientific enterprise, bringing over 500 new employees, and opening the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility; he also served as ORNL’s deputy for science and technology.
Jeff Wadsworth, the president and CEO of Battelle, and director of ORNL from 2003 to 2007, said, “Thomas represents the very best of Oak Ridge National Laboratory: scientific excellence, a willingness to tackle tremendous challenges for the benefit of the nation, and the vision to find innovative solutions and make them reality. His whole career shows that he knows how to apply ORNL’s unique breadth of expertise to our most important priorities in science, energy, national security, and economic competitiveness.”
Zacharia outlined several goals for ORNL under his direction, including building on its original sense of mission to reshape its creative energy for the future and leading it to be the world’s premier research institution. His appointment is effective July 1.
TechShop Pittsburgh Closing Its Doors
In an email to TechShop members, Woods wrote, “In the course of developing the new strategy for the business we’ve taken a long, hard look at the existing stores to see how they will fit into our new model. In evaluating store performance we came to the regrettable conclusion that TechShop Pittsburgh is not a fit.”
Woods further explained that the 16,000-square-foot TechShop Pittsburgh, equipped with quality design software and leading tools and equipment, doesn’t meet its operating expenses. TechShop has arranged with the Pittsburgh makerspace’s landlord to keep the shop going this summer, so it won’t impact its youth STEAM summer program and allow its members time to work out new arrangements, but unless a Pittsburgh university, foundation, or corporation is interested in licensing TechShop Pittsburgh, the doors will close on September 1, 2017.