Our Blog

This week aircraft manufacturer Boeing has officially celebrated the opening of its Center of Additive Manufacturing Excellence in Auburn, Washington. The facility employs over 100 people who will be operating the multitudes of printers at the factory who will continue to research, develop and manufacture the lightweight components for Boeing’s aircraft and spacecraft products. And that’s a lot of components, as Boeing currently has over 70,000 3D printed parts in their portfolio. Belated opening ceremony. (Image credit: City of Auburn) While the facility officially opened in 2020, the pandemic cut short any kind of formal opening, and so this week they have finally had the opportunity to rectify that. “It’s been a while since we’ve been doing this, but this is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to celebrate it,” said Susan Champlain, Senior Director of State and Local Government Operations at Boeing. The facility has the capacity for…    read more 

The first 3D printed concrete water chamber has been built and installed in Cheshire, UK. Among other things, the printed water chamber, which is to be installed as part of the local sewage system is designed to reduce the risks associated with working at heights. Read on to know more about this example of “Printfrastructure”, which you can see in the image below. Hugging the tank. (Image credit: Costain/Changemaker3D) The structure which has been installed at the local water authority facility for testing was designed in collaboration with Costain, United Utilities and ChangeMaker3D. The concrete water tank, which will contain wastewater from the sewage system was printed in just four hours, and offered a 25% reduction in carbon, 20% cost saving and 55% reduction in labor versus traditional construction methods. “A 3D printed structure of this kind is ground-breaking within the UK water sector. We work with water and wastewater…    read more 

A team of researchers from Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi has developed a means of 3D printing rugged optical fibers that can be used as temperature sensors. The group has published their findings in the Additive Manufacturing journal. Using polymer resins embedded with color-changing powders, the researchers have been able to produce flexible and tough optical fibers that are vastly more robust than the traditional (brittle) kind that are made of glass. More Robust While industrial sensors made from glass fiber optics are commonplace, they are prone to readout errors due to the harsh environments they are often placed in. “Optical fiber sensors can work in harsh environments as they are immune to electromagnetic interferences and have remote sensing capabilities,” said Dr. Haider Butt, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, at the university. “They show high sensitivity but they do have durability issues and are prone to be affected by small…    read more