3D Printing News Briefs: July 19, 2019

July 19, 2019 by Sarah Saunders 3D Printers 3D Printing 3D Software Business Medical 3D Printing

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We’ve got a new partnership to tell you about in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, followed by a software update and some news about 3D printing in the hospital. FIT AG and Mitsui & Co. Machine Tech Ltd are partnering in Japan. Volume Graphics has released Version 3.3 of its CT software solution. Lastly, Rady Children’s Hospital is bringing the technology in-house with a new 3D printing lab.

FIT AG and Mitsui & Co. Machine Tech Ltd. Announce Partnership

Back, L-R: Alexander Bonke, CEO, FIT Production GmbH; Carl Fruth, CEO, FIT AG; Albert Klein, CFO/CSO, FIT AG)
Front, L-R: Shigeo Watanabe, General Manager, Business Planning Division, Corporate Planning & Strategy Unit, Mitsui & Co. Machine Tech Ltd.; Yasushi Murata, Director Project Management, Japan FIT AG, Takahiro Sueki, Business Planning Division, Corporate Planning & Strategy Unit, Mitsui & Co. Machine Tech Ltd.

German company FIT Additive Manufacturing Group (FIT AG) and Mitsui & Co. Machine Tech Ltd have announced that they will be partnering up to give Japanese manufacturing companies access to proven 3D printing solutions. Mitsui Machine Tech, which is a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co., Ltd. will propose that its Japanese customers use FIT’s engineering, manufacturing, and project management services in cooperation with subsidiaries FIT Production GmbH and FIT Japan K.K. In addition, it will offer FIT’s 3D printing solutions to customers in Japan who are looking to invest in their own AM capacity.

“The cooperation of Mitsui Machine Tech and FIT offers Japanese customers the combination of trust and expertise. This is essential during the introduction of new technologies,” stated Carl Fruth, the CEO of FIT AG. ” We have developed a well-defined set of services in the additive design and manufacturing of final products and volume parts, and now Mitsui Machine Tech and FIT offer this to the Japanese market. Our cooperation with Mitsui Machine Tech fills us with pride and joy. We have high expectations as to the results.”

The news about the partnership was announced at the recent German-Japanese Additive Manufacturing Forum.

Volume Graphics Releases Updated Version of Software

Multi-material surface determination

Volume Graphics GmbH has over two decades of experience in developing and providing software for non-destructive testing based on industrial computed tomography (CT). Now, the company has released the latest generation of its advanced CT data analysis software. Version 3.3 of its VGSTUDIO, VGSTUDIO MAX, VGMETROLOGY, and VGinLINE include multiple updates, such as multi-material surface determination and volume meshing for simulations, and Volume Graphics has also announced the addition of a Technical Consulting unit that will provide customers with professional consulting and evaluation services.

Christof Reinhart, the CEO and Co-Founder of Volume Graphics, said, “With version 3.3 of our software solutions, we are once again laying the foundation for customers to make their processes smarter.
“For example, using the new data export, metrology data derived with the tremendous measurement capabilities of our software can be seamlessly shared with QA systems, where the values can then be combined and checked over time. More than ever before, this new feature enables customers to better integrate leading-edge CT technology into their existing software landscape. The new export feature is based on the native support of the widely used Q-DAS format, which makes using results in third-party statistical or analysis software especially easy.”

Rady Children’s Hospital Opening 3D Innovations Lab

San Diego-based Rady Children’s Hospital – the largest children’s hospital in California and the region’s only pediatric trauma center – has decided to stop outsourcing its 3D printing projects and bring the technology in-house. The hospital knows the positive impact that 3D printing can have on the outcome of a patient, and is opening its first 3D Innovations Lab, which will be centered around the HP Jet Fusion 580 Color 3D printer. The system will be used to make anatomical models for specialists and surgeons to use in pre-planning, which can help lower the risk of complications in the OR. One example is that of Leanne Wilbert’s son, who needed open heart surgery for a condition where two of his main arteries were switched. A scale model of his heart was 3D printed to allow the surgeon to practice different approaches.

“3D printing and 3D innovations as a whole has a major role in a hospital,” Justin Smith, PhD, a research scientist at Rady Children’s Hospital, said in a video. “It helps our surgeons, helps our doctors, helps our students, helps the families themselves, helps the whole team. By creating a workflow that enabled 3D printing, we brought this incredible technology in house. It’s helping improve our patient outcomes, but also helping our economics, in helping new opportunities for device design and fabrication.”

In addition to 3D printing, the hospital’s new 3D Innovation Lab will also include virtual and augmented reality technologies.