3D Printing News Briefs: June 18, 2019

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We’re starting with business in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs: Canadian additive and space manufacturing companies are partnering up for a two-year project, while Thor3D and Polyga have announced a two-fold partnership of their own. Moving on, we’ve got some television news to share with you! Markforged products nearly 200 robot parts for this season of BattleBots, and EOS was featured on a new Science Channel show that premiered just a few days ago.

Partnership for Canadian Space Agency Project

Recently, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced that additive manufacturing company Burloak Technologies, a division of Samuel, Son & Co., Limited, and space manufacturing company MDA had been awarded a two-year project, “Large Scale Additive Manufactured RF Satellite Communication Sub-Systems,” under its Space Technology Development Program (STDP). Together, they will work to keep Canada at the forefront of space technology.

While working with MDA, which is a Maxar company, on this project, Burloak will scale up its successful technology application in commercial space flight in order to create more complex components that target the sub-system level. The company will apply its aluminum and titanium material processes, which were recently flight-certified, in addition to its Invar and copper material processes, to find a solution.

Thor3D and Polyga Announce Unique Collaboration

In another industry partnership, Thor3D and Polyga have announced their two-fold collaboration, which will be mutually beneficial. Vancouver-based Polyga will now be a distributor for Thor3D’s Calibry 3D scanners along the west coast of Canada, while Thor3D, headquartered in Moscow, and its partners, will act as resellers for Polyga’s XTract3D software. XTract3D, which is a reverse engineering plug-in made exclusively for SOLIDWORKS, retails for $999, but if a Calibry scanner is purchased at the same time, customers can enjoy a significant discount.

“Calibry handheld 3D scanner is a natural fit with XTract3D reverse engineering plug-in for SOLIDWORKS. This bundle provides a complete end-to-end solution for Scan to CAD at a very affordable price,” said Thomas Tong, President of Polyga. “With this partnership, our intention is to further drive the use of 3D scanning, even for small to medium sized organizations, to design better products for manufacturing.”

Markforged Helped Create Parts for 29 BattleBots Teams

Four Markforged 3D printers were featured on the BattleBots television series, which premiered earlier this month on both the Discovery Channel and the Science Channel. On the show, teams design, build, and operate remote-controlled robotic machines, with strict weight limits, that fight in an elimination-style tournament. In just two weeks of filming, Markforged, which was the only 3D printing company hosted by the show, created more than 160 parts onsite for 29 different teams. Its printers were used for quick robot repairs, in addition to ensuring improved performance and optimized design in the tournament. End-use robot parts were created during filming, in addition to tooling, fixtures, and prototypes, which were 3D printed ahead of time.

“Teams with broken bots were saved and able to fight again because of Markforged and their fantastic 3D printers. In addition, Markforged created custom shock mounts for many robot motors. This decreased the fail rate of motors that were poorly mounted, and increased the reliability and the excitement level for the 2019 fights! We can’t thank them enough,” said Greg Munson, the Founder and Executive Producer of BattleBots Inc.

Quantum (pictured), a crusher robot capable of delivering 35,000 lbs of force, has 21 3D printed Markforged parts. Undercutter robot Valkyrie, which damages the undercarriage of other robots, features 55 3D printed parts, while vertical disk spinner robot HyperShock has over 30.

EOS Featured on New Television Show by Adam Savage

On Friday night, June 14th, the inaugural episode of Savage Builds – a new show on the Science Channel hosted by Adam Savage, formerly of MythBusters – was aired…and industrial 3D printing leader EOS had a major part to play. On the show, which will later air on the Discovery Channel as well, Savage will be working with other notable experts to build one specific project per episode, and the first heavily featured metal 3D printing. Savage collaborated with the Colorado School of Mines to design and create a metal replica of Marvel’s Iron Man suit that is capable of actual flight.

According to The Futon Critic, “In the premiere episode, Adam calls on Richard Browning, the inventor and chief test pilot of the Gravity Jet Suit, which is powered by five 1000 horsepower mini jet engines, to help get Adam’s titanium Marvel Studios’ Iron Man-inspired suit to fly.”

Savage’s Iron Man suit, created by Gravity Industries, has 300 individual parts, which were 3D printed on EOS’ industrial quad-laser M400-4 3D printer. Mines shared CAD models with EOS at its Texas facility, and for six weeks, up to three of the printers ran almost constantly in order to finish the job on time. If you’re interested in learning more about this project, tune in to the Science Channel to learn more!

Discuss these stories and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

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