Markforged, a leading developer of metal and composite 3D printing systems, has announced the launch of a new 3D printing material. Precise PLA is an affordable filament designed specifically for rapid prototyping applications, allowing users to iterate and validate their designs in a low-cost manner. As such, the firm’s materials portfolio now has something for every stage of product development, including Precise PLA for initial concepts and metals and fiber-reinforced composites for high-strength end-use parts. The company will offer its latest material in eight colors: yellow, red, green, blue, orange, black, white, and gray. “An affordable material devoted to design validation was a top request from our customers to deliver a uniform and smooth print on the Digital Forge from the beginning to the end of the product life cycle,” said Shai Terem, President and CEO of Markforged. “The growth and adoption of the Digital Forge depend upon our ability… read more
Alex
MELD Manufacturing, a 3D printing technology developer based in Christiansburg, Virginia, has teamed up with Virginia Tech to advance its Additive Friction Stir Deposition technology. Having invented the metal 3D printing process, MELD Manufacturing continues to develop its technology while manufacturing 3D printers based on it. Now, the Yu Research Group from Virginia Tech’s Materials Science and Engineering lab has begun spearheading the study of the technology in an academic capacity. According to Virginia Tech, its research interests include process fundamentals such as temperature, material flow, and distortion, dynamic phase and microstructure evolution, and the design and manufacturing of heterostructured materials. The team also hopes to develop new applications using magnetic materials, metallic glass, and shape-memory materials. Nanci Hardwick, CEO and Founder of MELD Manufacturing, explains, “We have a primary relationship with the Material Science Department. And they’re so critical for us because they have expertise. They have one of… read more
Despite being one of the world’s most-consumed plastics, polypropylene (PP) is yet to be leveraged to its full extent for 3D printing, due to issues surrounding interlayer bonding, warpage, bed adhesion, and inadequate support materials. PP 3D printing materials specialist PPprint is on a mission to change this, though. Having built up a comprehensive materials portfolio dedicated to PP since its founding four years ago, the firm also offers printing services and support to its customers in order to accelerate the use of PP within additive manufacturing. I spoke to Product Manager Sebastian Schmidt about the benefits of PP and its advantages over other polymer materials for FDM 3D printing, as well as the firm’s ambitious plans for growing the adoption of PP 3D printing within highly demanding industries like automotive, tooling, medical technology and others. “The great thing about PP, and why it is so widely used in injection… read more
A novel project underway at the University of Strathclyde has received just under £500,000 to develop miniaturized acoustic systems by means of additive manufacturing. The university’s RESINators – Miniature Acoustic Resonator Systems project, delivered in partnership with the University of Glasgow, is exploring ways of creating acoustic resonators formed of metamaterials via 3D printing, rather than relying on electronic systems. “We are aiming to eventually develop cutting edge systems for personal audio that could constitute the science of audio of acoustic systems for the next generation of technologies in wearable consumer projects,” said Project Lead Dr. Joe Jackson, from the University of Strathclyde’s department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. Acoustic 3D printing Additive manufacturing has been utilized in the past to develop sound-enhancing and proofing properties to objects. Last year, Fraunhofer UMSICHT and Fraunhofer IBP 3D printed fungus-based sound-proofing devices which could be used to fabricate a new line of… read more
Fortify are the inventors and developers of Fluxprint, a magnetic 3D printing technology that uses resin to make composites with optimized microstructures. Josh Martin, CEO, and Co-founder, now continues our series looking at the State of Resin 3D Printing with his insights. 3D printed luneburg-like RF lenses. Photo via Fortify. 3DPI: How have you seen resin-based 3D printing develop in recent years? Josh Martin: In recent years the application space of resin-based printing has shifted from prototyping to manufacturing. Vat-based printing has always had respectable throughput and part quality (accuracy, surface finish, etc) but functional materials are relatively new to the field and long overdue. 3DPI: What do you consider the next technology hurdles for photopolymer-based 3D printing to overcome? Josh Martin: An area of opportunity with photopolymer-based printing is in everything that comes after printing a part. I believe that post-processing is an underappreciated part of the manufacturing process…. read more
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