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Voting shortlists for the 2021 3D Printing Industry Awards are now open. Who do you think should receive top honors this year? Have your say now. Interested in tuning in? The Youtube livestream link is also live, so viewers can now subscribe and set reminders to ensure they don’t miss out. Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a machine learning (ML) algorithm with the potential to expedite the process of identifying 3D printable materials.  Packaged within their ‘AutoOED’ software, the team’s optimization algorithm is capable of automatically identifying viable printing materials with desired qualities such as toughness, rigidity or compressive strength. In doing so, the program allows users to bypass the costs, lead times and waste incurred via traditional resin formulation, and potentially find mixtures that have evaded human-led R&D.  “Materials development is still very much a manual process,” said the paper’s co-lead author Mike Foshey. “A chemist goes into…    read more 

The 2021 3D Printing Industry Awards shortlists are open for voting, have your say now. Make sure to tune in to the live stream of the event on our YouTube channel. Roboze, a manufacturer of high-temperature industrial-grade 3D printers, has announced a new project that will allow customers to return their waste material and 3D printed parts at the end of their lifecycle to be processed into recycled, lower-cost 3D printing materials. Beginning in January 2022, the circular economy project will seek to reduce the firm’s environmental impact while also democratizing its 3D printing technology by offering recycled material at a lower price point.  “We are working to refine the management of the entire supply chain, at any cost and with all the necessary efforts,” said Alessio Lorusso, Founder and CEO of Roboze. “3D printing technology can be one of the solutions to combat CO2 emissions, reducing transport and producing just in time and on-demand.  “But…    read more 

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have announced the development of a novel water-soluble plastic binder that can be added to 3D printing materials and jetted into parts with “exceptional strength.”  By tweaking a high-amine content, low molecular weight polyethyleneimine (PEI), the ORNL team has been able to tailor its properties in a way that doubles its strength compared to conventional binders. To showcase the capabilities of their new material, the scientists have already used it to bind and strengthen silica sand, before 3D printing it into a bridge capable of holding 300 times its own weight.  “Few polymers are suited to serve as a binder for this application,” said Tomonori Saito, one of the lead researchers on the project. “We were looking for specific properties, such as solubility, that would give us the best result. Our key finding was in the unique molecular structure of our PEI binder…    read more 

Researchers from the Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology have developed and analyzed 3D printed nanoparticle-infused plastic materials using machine learning techniques.  Designed for the FFF 3D printing process, the six new filaments are made up of a combination of recycled plastics and nanoparticles, with a graphene coating used in two of the materials.  During the study, the team evaluated and compared the materials’ properties, including microstructure, surface texture, mechanical behavior and thermal characteristics. With the help of machine learning, the researchers were able to correlate the printing parameters for given 3D printed products in order to achieve more reliable and enhanced mechanical and physical qualities. Pellet mixture of: a. PLA and HDPE, b. PLA, HDPE, and TiO2, c. recycled plastic, PLA and HDPE, d. recycled plastic, PLA, HDPE, and TiO2. Image via Polymer Testing. Process parameters for FFF In line with the ever-increasing demand for more complex and multi-functional…    read more