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Researchers from German institutes are planning to send a robotic mobile selective laser melting (SLM) printer to the Moon, to demonstrate in-situ additive manufacturing using lunar regolith as a feedstock. The project is carried out by engineers from the Hannover Laser Center (LZH) and the Berlin Technical University (TU Berlin), and the technology has already been demonstrated successfully on Earth, using simulated lunar conditions. You can see a render of the robot in the image below. Printing with moondust (Image credit: LZH) Moonrise The three-year long “Moonrise” project has received funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Action to the tune of 4.75 million euros ($4.82 million). It is intended to pave the way for technologies for lunar construction by using in-situ resource utilization, in this case, the resource being the silicate regolith of the Moon’s surface. Why utilize local materials? Because sending stuff to the Moon…    read more 

3D printed solid-state battery manufacturer Sakuu has opened up an innovation hub in Silicon Valley aimed at accelerating their battery printing initiatives. The company, who have developed the world’s first solid state battery, intends for the new site to serve as a blueprint for battery printing gigafactories around the world. The new 79,000 square ft facility will house battery, engineering, material science, R&D and 3D printing departments, and will oversee employee training and client product demos. 115 employees are expected to be working at the factory by early 2023, in time for the product rollout later in the year. New Sakuu gigafactory (Image credit: Sakuu) Sakuu has developed two key products that will be showcased at the new factory. The first is the company’s Kavian platform which is the world’s first large scale 3D printing platform for the additive manufacturing of custom ultra-high energy density solid-state batteries for a variety…    read more 

VisiJet M2S-HT90 High temperature & translucent VisiJet M2S-HT90 (MJP) is a strong and transparent / translucent material ideal for applications requiring temperature resistance and/or biocompatibility. It is well suited for rapid tooling, functional prototyping in warm environments, and medical devices with fine features and internal structures. This VisiJet material is fine-tuned for use with 3D Systems’ ProJet 2500 Plus MJP printer running in UHD mode. Source link 2022-08-11 19:55:53

A research paper and associated video has been published demonstrating the freeform printing of extruded thermoset plastics. The video shows a thermoset composite being extruded and curing in mid air, and without support material. It has been achieved with a process known as Frontal Polymerization, and the researchers from Colorado State University claim this is the first time that freeform printing thermoset composites with FP has been demonstrated. You can see the FP printing in action in the video below. Read on to know more about Frontal Polymerization. Thermoset The vast majority of extrusion-based carbon-fiber composite printer systems utilize feedstock consisting of short chopped fiber pieces encased within a thermoplastic matrix (the filament or pellet). This is exactly how a heat-based plastic printer works. It melts a thermoplastic with its hotend, it extrudes it, the extruded plastic cools rapidly as it leaves the nozzle, and it sets into shape. The…    read more 

3D printer giant Creality has two new product lines launched today and has also teased the upcoming release of the Klipper-integrated Creality Sonic Pad. Read on to know more about the new and upcoming releases, plus a couple of extra goodies for fans of Creality Cloud and the CR-Laser Falcon cutter. Ender-3 Neo series The new Ender-3 Neo series is the latest addition to the Ender 3 line and consists of three printers, the Ender-3 Neo, Ender-3 V2 Neo, and Ender-3 Max Neo. The Ender-3 Neo series carry durable full-metal Bowden extruders, offering great extrusion force and smooth feeding and retracting of filaments. They also integrate the CR-Touch automatic leveling system with Z-axis compensation functions, providing a hassle-free print bed leveling experience. The Ender-3 Neo is the updated version of Ender-3 Pro, and it integrates a silent mainboard reducing the noise during the printing process. The compact wavy-fin heat sink…    read more