3D Printing News Briefs: October 27, 2017

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Congratulations, we’ve all made it to Friday somehow! To celebrate, take a look at all of today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, compiled just for you in one article. The University of Miami just dedicated a new 3D printing lab, while a Virginia Tech professor has received a National Science Foundation grant to study nanoprinting. There are four 3D printing winners in the Merck Life Science Awards, and BEEVERYCREATIVE is 3D printing trophies for an international film festival. AstroPrint is introducing a new 3D printing desktop app, SABIC will launch a new high-strength filament at formnext, and Airwolf 3D roars into the SEMA Show at Las Vegas with 3D printed car modifications for its Hellcat Project.

New 3D Printing Lab Dedicated at University of Miami

Provost Jeffrey Duerk, President Julio Frenk, and College of Engineering Dean Jean-Pierre Bardet at the Collaborative Laboratory opening.

Earlier this week, the University of Miami (UM) in Florida dedicated its new UM College of Engineering-Johnson & Johnson 3D Printing Center of Excellence Collaborative Laboratory. The 5,850-square-foot lab, or “collaboratory,” located inside the McArthur Engineering Building, will be an innovation hub that fosters “constructive change” and supports materials development, testing of 3D printing processes and technologies, and joint research. There are ten MakerBot printers, along with two metal 3D printers, which UM faculty and students will have access to, along with J&J scientists and engineers.

“An engineering education has to give students the chance for hands-on creativity and allow their imaginations to soar. Thanks to Johnson & Johnson, we have yet another resource to educate tomorrow’s technology leaders,” said Jean-Pierre Bardet, the dean of UM’s College of Engineering, at the ribbon-cutting event.

Guests at the event were able to tour the new facility, which also includes other equipment, such as instruments used to measure the chemical composition of powders and microscopes for examining material quality.

Virginia Tech Professor Receives Grant for Nanoprinting

Rayne Zheng, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been awarded a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study 3D printing at the nano-level, as part of an initiative to build both the experimental and theoretical foundations of nanoprinting. Zheng’s research centers on how to create 3D constructs with nanoscale features, with a goal of creating extremely strong materials with high thermal and electrical conductivity. The grant will be used to develop technologies so researchers can 3D print at the nano-level, and then “scale up their creations.”

“Current commercially available additive manufacturing technology doesn’t include a printer of the resolution and scalability needed to do work at the nanoscale level. This grant program will support building the foundations needed to underpin scalable additive nano-manufacturing,” Zheng said.

“In our early work we’ve created 3-D nano-architected materials that are simultaneously strong and damage tolerant. However, we realize there are challenges with current high-precision 3-D manufacturing technologies in scaling up nano patterns to sizes comparable to the size of the palm of a hand. With the support of the NSF, we hope to make a leap forward, gaining new knowledge on the underpinnings of high-resolution additive nano-manufacturing of scalable materials and components.”

Merck Announces 2017 Life Science Awards Grand Prize Winners

Steffen Zobel-Roos, Alexandra Rutz, and Ruben R.G. Soares

At its new Life Science Center in Boston, global science and technology company Merck has awarded a group of 12 postgraduate students for their life science innovations after they presented their 3D printing, bioseparations, and food and beverage safety research this week in the company’s third international Life Science Awards competition. This is the first year that the competition, which recognizes outstanding students from universities in the US, Canada, and Europe, has included the 3D printing and food and beverage safety categories.

Udit Batra, Member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science, said, “We are privileged to play a small role in advancing science and technology through these awards. I congratulate all of the winners on their projects. Their talents and imagination are already making an important contribution to the next generation of problem solvers.”

Alexandra Rutz, Steffen Zobel-Roos, and Ruben R.G. Soares each won the $10,000 grand prize in their respective categories – Rutz took the 3D printing grand prize for her research in Engineering Hydrogel Inks for 3D Tissue and Organ Printing. $1,500 prizes were awarded to the other nine finalists; in the 3D printing category, Molly Kupfer won for her work in tissue engineering, while Michelle Xuanyi Ma’s research centered around a 3D printed Human iPSC Derived Hepatic Model to improve in vitro liver functional maturation and Malachy Maher worked with Cardiac Patches.

BEEVERYCREATIVE 3D Prints Film Festival Trophies 

For three years, Portugal-based 3D printing company BEEVERYCREATIVE has been partnering with the Curtas Vila do Conde International Film Festival, which is currently celebrating its 25th year. The festival presents eclectic Portuguese cinema, while also “creating an intersection between cinema and other areas of art.” A few years ago, festival organizers were looking for something more “contemporary, even ecological,” to award the festival winners, and turned to BEEVERYCREATIVE, which has been providing 3D printed trophies ever since.

“In 2014 we were contacted by the organizers of the Curtas Vila do Conde Film Festival, because they had a specific problem they would like to see solved which was to have a trophy to award to competition winners,” Sergio Moreira, Chief Marketing Officer at BEEVERYCREATIVE, said in a BEEVERYCREATIVE video. “They wanted a solution that was different to what they had until then, and that was quick to manufacture, highly customizable if needed, and for a low cost. So 3D printing naturally pops up in this process.”

AstroPrint Launching New Cross Platform 3D Printing Desktop App

Earlier this month, cloud-based platform AstroPrint introduced a mobile 3D printing app for iOS and Android, and today it’s launching a new cross platform, cloud-enabled 3D printing desktop app, available for Mac OSX, Windows, and Linux. AstroPrint Desktop makes it possible to send designs to your 3D printer through a USB without the use of an AstroBox Gateway. Additionally, for current AstroPrint users, the app can extend your workflow capabilities.

Sticking to our goal in making 3D Printing accessible to more and more people, AstroPrint Desktop is another pillar in the master plan,” AstroPrint Growth Team Member Dilanka wrote in a company blog post about the new app.

With AstroPrint Desktop, you can use the GCODE viewer to diagnose your prints, rotate, scale, and multiply objects, easily find local and cloud 3D printers, and even synchronize your cloud file manager, all while still having access to AstroPrint’s standard functionalities.

SABIC Introducing New High-Impact Strength Filament at formnext

formnext is less than a month away, and we’ve been seeing plenty of announcements about innovative new products and printers that will be introduced at the event in Frankfurt, including a new FDM 3D printing filament from global diversified chemicals manufacturer SABIC, headquartered in Saudi Arabia. The unique high-impact strength filament meets the demand for higher performing 3D printing consumables, and is a good choice for aerospace, automotive, and consumer applications. It’s the first in the company’s new series of differentiated materials, and will expand its 3D printing materials portfolio.

At formnext, SABIC will exhibit parts 3D printed with the new filament from its Additive Manufacturing Centers of Excellence in Massachusetts and the Netherlands, as well as demonstrate its application development, design, and AM testing resources. Company representatives will be at stand 3.1-G78 to discuss the company’s AM capabilities, services, and products.

Airwolf 3D Unveils Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and 3D Printed Modifications

Artist and Sales Manager Tyler Caros sands a 3D printed spoiler designed for The 3D Printed Hellcat Project by Airwolf 3D.

At next week’s SEMA automotive trade show in Las Vegas, 3D printer manufacturer Airwolf 3D will be rolling up in a red 2016 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, complete with lots of custom 3D printed modifications. Most of the employees, or Wolfpack members, are big car fans, and get to take advantage of company Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Erick Wolf’s custom-built collection of project cars, adding 3D printed parts like air intake covers, speaker covers, license plates, cup holders, and consoles.

“We’re basically a hot rod shop that builds 3D printers. We customize cars using Airwolf 3D printers because it’s fun and it’s our passion, but it’s also a great way to show off our printers’ capabilities,” said Wolf. “If a group of amateur car nuts can design and 3D print beautiful parts for the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, what can a true automotive professional achieve when empowered with the same tools?”

The SEMA car has been dubbed the World’s Most 3D Printed Hellcat, and the project began nearly ten months ago, as various members of the Wolfpack worked together to make custom 3D printed parts for the car; they even designed and 3D printed a large ducktail-style rear spoiler with the Airwolf 3D logo, to showcase the large build volume of the company’s AXIOM series of 3D printers.

Let us know what you think about these stories, and other 3D printing topics, at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

 

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