3D Printing Business: Y Soft Partners with Konica Minolta for 3D Print Management, Oerlikon Looks to the Stars with New Partnership

In a week already rife with announcements of new 3D printing industry partnerships, the collaborations continue. Y Soft Corporation, based in the Czech Republic, is a leading provider of enterprise workflow solutions, and as of today, its flagship be3D eDee print management solution for education is now available in Australia, thanks to a new partnership with Konica Minolta Australia.

“3D printing in schools provides the space for ideas to develop and makes education more fun. When students are more engaged, their motivation for learning increases, the quality of teaching improves and results are boosted. Y Soft offers safe, secure access to 3D printers enabling schools to easily manage their 3D printing environment,” said Adam O’Neill, Managing Director, Y Soft Australia. “Y Soft chose to partner with Konica Minolta for the roll out of YSoft be3D in Australia because of Konica Minolta’s experience and expertise in 3D. Konica Minolta already has a trained 3D salesforce and support crew, as well as the service model infrastructure in place to optimize schools’ use of 3D and truly harness the power of 3D.”

In today’s STEM learning environment, the 3D education market is growing fast. But, according to the results of an international Y Soft education study, 3D printer usage in schools is often limited, because teachers have a hard time managing and controlling access to the machines, along with not being able to properly manage time and materials costs in order to allocate classroom/department expenses. Print management can help educators manage both 2D and 3D printer fleets, and by having the ability to control access and potential theft, educators can really appreciate the potential and value of the technology in a school environment. Y Soft’s unique be3D eDee is the first 3D print management solution that encompasses an accounting system to manage and recover 3D printing costs, as well as comprehensive print management features.

Last year, Y Soft revealed that it was experiencing extremely rapid growth in Australia and New Zealand, thanks to a growing demand for professional 3D printing services and products in both countries. So its new partnership with Konica Minolta Australia, which is headquartered in Sydney and provides integrated solutions and managed services to both large and small organizations, makes a lot of sense.

“Konica Minolta is pleased to be partnering with Y Soft to bring YSoft be3D eDee to Australian schools and universities,” said David Procter, Sales Director, Konica Minolta. “We look forward to seeing how the technology will assist educators in expanding their curriculum while effectively managing 3D across the facility.”

Continuing in on the look at new partnerships, Oerlikon and UK-based disruptive rocket propulsion startup LENA Space have agreed to collaborate on advanced manufacturing for space launch technology. The two will work together to develop optimized 3D printed components for propulsion systems used in small launch vehicles that send payloads into low Earth orbit.

“We look forward to partnering with LENA Space to develop truly innovative products using our additive manufacturing capability,” said Dan Johns, Global Head of R&D-Additive Manufacturing at Oerlikon. “In particular, we will bring into the collaboration our differentiating capabilities in four areas: design for additive engineering, rapid alloy development (RAD), additive process knowledge to create high quality, repeatable components and our advanced coatings. Through our expertise, we aim to expand the operational envelope.”

LENA Space, which was just founded last year, designs and develops combustion chambers, impellers, pumps, regenerative cooling systems, turbines, and more – it even received a National Space Technology Programme 3 grant in partnership with Lockheed Martin to deliver turbine and pump technology. Right now, it’s focusing on low-cost, end-to-end propulsion systems for launch vehicles.

There are extremely stringent conditions that components, parts, and systems used in space need to meet, including requirements on power, structural design, and weight; in addition, these parts and pieces must be able to function under the demanding conditions of outer space. Thankfully, we know that additive manufacturing technology can be used to help deliver cutting-edge solutions to even the toughest space challenges. By working together, Oerlikon and LENA will be able to develop new designs for printing functional propulsion system parts.

“Working with Oerlikon is a unique opportunity to explore the new field of Additive Manufacturing in space technology. At LENA, we continually challenge and innovate technology and processes. Additive Manufacturing allows us to make step changes in producing complicated designs not possible with traditional machining, improving the performance whilst reducing the mass of our products,” said Natasha Allden, Chief Commercial Officer at LENA Space. “We look forward to our partnership with Oerlikon and shaping the future of space propulsion technology.”

Next week at formnext in Frankfurt, Oerlikon and LENA Space will be exhibiting together at booth E30 in Hall 3.1 from November 14-17. 3DPrint.com will also be at the event, bringing you all of the latest news straight from the showroom floor.

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