3D Printing News Briefs, December 10, 2020: Velodyne Lidar & Local Motors, Philament, PostProcess & Orthodent, Keyshot & Stratasys

In today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, we’re talking about business, materials, dental, and software. Velodyne Lidar has announced a multi-year sales agreement with Local Motors. Filamania has launched its Philament electrical filament product line, and PostProcess is partnering with Orthodent Laboratory to automate surface finishing and resin removal for orthodontic solutions. Finally, KeyShot 3D rendering software now supports full-color, multi-material Stratasys 3D printers.

Velodyne Lidar and Local Motors Announce Sales Agreement

Local Motors includes multiple Velodyne Puck™ sensors in Olli, a self-driving shuttle which provides mobility services across neighborhoods, campuses and urban city centers. (Photo: Velodyne Lidar, Inc.)

Public pure-play lidar company Velodyne Lidar, Inc. (Nasdaq: VLDR), which invented real-time surround view lidar sensors, has announced a multi-year sales agreement with sustainable mobility solutions provider Local Motors, which manufactures digital vehicles such as its self-driving, 3D printed, electric Olli shuttle. Several of Velodyne’s Puck lidar sensors, which provide a 360° high-resolution surround view and rich computer perception data, are used by Local Motors to help Olli achieve reliable, safe operation in campuses, neighborhoods, and city centers by eliminating blind spots. As part of the agreement, Local Motors will incorporate other Velodyne sensors, such as the Velarray H800, into its Olli 2.0 designs so the autonomous vehicle’s perception system can be improved.

“With Olli, Local Motors is empowering communities to redefine local transportation and create opportunities for people with mobility challenges. Our sensors provide the much-needed data for Olli’s critical safety features,” said Laura Wrisley, Vice President of North American Sales for Velodyne Lidar. “Local Motors is a valued customer that is open and easy to collaborate with in addressing their lidar needs. The insights from Local Motors on our product development and prototypes have been very helpful in shaping our sensor portfolio to enable safer autonomous driving.”

Filamania Launched Philament Electrical Material Line

Philament Electrical

In 2016, Hungarian filament producer Filamania Ltd. developed the first ESD-safe conductive filament in its Philament PLA product line, and has now launched a Philament Electrical product line, with three more PLA-based filaments that feature different surface resistance. These materials are being used in the automotive and electronics industries to make things like component trays, computer and circuit board housings, and mechanical jigs, and there are three available filaments, based on the user’s needs. The first is Philament Antistatic, and features the best mechanical properties of the three materials but a slow charge decay. Philament Conductive is the most rigid due to how much carbon powder and fiber is used, but offers a much faster charge decay. Philament ESD falls in the middle range. You can order filaments with a 1.75 and a 2.85 mm diameter, on 750 gram and 2.5 kg spools.

“Our aim was to provide the FDM users filaments with different surface resistivity,” explained Zsolt Bodnar, CEO of Filamania Ltd. and the developer and producer of its Philament products. “Philament’s developments are mainly based on PLA, this is the case with Philament Electrical products also. One of our customers, an electronics company for example, needed a light blue box for its electrical boxes. Since the high electrical conductivity was not a critical factor for them, they could use Philament Antistatic, which was produced for them in the desired colour.”

PostProcess and Orthodent Collaborate for Orthodontics Automation

PostProcess DEMI Resin Removal Solution

Automated and intelligent post-printing solutions provider PostProcess Technologies Inc. is partnering with digital orthodontic solutions provider Orthodent Laboratory (ODL) to make novel orthodontics more efficient. ODL works to streamline the fitting process for patients by using Carbon’s continuous liquid interface production (CLIP) 3D printers and its own 3D intraoral scans to create custom, accurate orthodontic solutions, and now it will make everything even more efficient by implementing two PostProcess automated post-print solutions. The PostProcess DEMI Resin Removal solution optimizes resin removal through additive formulated chemistries and software-driven Submersed Vortex Cavitation (SVC) technology, while the PostProcess RADOR Surface Finishing solution uses advanced vibratory technology to make the surface finish of 3D printed appliances match their desired roughness average.

“Much like PostProcess, we entered our industry to revolutionize it and drive digital innovation. Both the DEMI and RADOR are bringing us closer to a fully automated workflow, and simultaneously bolstering our operation with smart solutions that streamline our processes and help us upkeep the high product quality standards we are nationally recognized for,” said Michael Wright, the President of ODL.

KeyShot 3D Rendering Software Supports Stratasys Printers

Designers can now 3D print in full color and textures like wood right from KeyShot software to Stratasys PolyJet printers.

The full-color, multi-material PolyJet J55 and J8 Series 3D printers from Stratasys can now easily, and accurately, simulate color, material, and finish (CMF) for realistic prototype designs, as these are now fully supported by the latest KeyShot 10 software from 3D rendering and lighting technology developer Luxion. Both KeyShot and these Stratasys printers now support the new open source 3MF file format, published by the 3MF Consortium, of which Stratasys is a member. The format includes all model information in a single package, including the model’s metadata and interior voxel level control, and Stratasys is the only company offering a PANTONE-validated color 3D printer that can take advantage of 3MF capabilities. KeyShot 10 can produce files that are ready for 3D printing—texture, color, and all—by saving designs to 3MF, and Stratasys believes that with KeyShot’s 3MF support, 3D print modeling time of CMF models can be decreased to just one day, as the workflow allows the design process to begin earlier. Priority Designs, based in Ohio, was a beta user of KeyShot 10’s enhanced capabilities, pairing the software with the J55.

“We developed this Bluetooth speaker model and used KeyShot to add all the textures like the speaker grill, then just saved to the new 3MF file format for 3D printing. Overnight, we had five different models with five different wood samples and different fabric samples,” said Erik Fickas, senior industrial designer with Priority Designs. “To rapid prototype a wood texture would have been a heck of a lot of work. It’s really incredible what we can do now.”

Check out this video to see Priority Designs’ story on using the new KeyShot functionality with the Stratasys J55.