3D Printing News Briefs: March 21, 2017

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Editor’s Note: With so much going on in 3D printing these days, 3DPrint.com is moving from featuring one news roundup each week to two. While we’d been calling these features Stories We Missed, they are more appropriately a look at the news in brief; we’re not missing these stories, we’re collecting them in easy-to-digest news nuggets. As we introduce our first edition of the rechristened 3D Printing News Briefs, we’d like to welcome you to our twice-weekly feature as every Tuesday and Friday afternoon we present a gathering of some of the latest goings-on in the 3D printing industry.

 

Today, we’re talking about business partnerships, new materials, and retired 3D printers. Xaar and Materialise will be working together to facilitate the development of 3D inkjet equipment, while Aleph Objects expands its partnership with colorFabb. Royal DSM is introducing a new high-temperature 3D printing material. The International Dental Show featured a 3D printed tooth, inmates in Chile are 3D printing prostheses, and Formlabs says good-bye to its Form 1+.

Xaar PLC Adds Materialise 3D Software Bundle Option to Additive Manufacturing Development Kit

xaar logoXaar PLC, a leading digital inkjet technology developer, announced a new bundle option with its additive manufacturing development kit, which will include Materialise Magics and Materialise Build Processor 3D printing software. With this new option, Xaar’s customers can enjoy a “one-stop shop” approach to developing their own inkjet-enabled 3D printing equipment.

Neil Hopkinson, Director of 3D Printing at Xaar, said, “We are delighted to be collaborating with 3D Printing software leader, Materialise, to deliver to our customers a fantastic and comprehensive development kit. Combining Xaar’s printing systems and Materialise’s software solutions gives our customers easy access to best-in-class complementary technologies and will undoubtedly allow for much easier and faster 3D printer development programmes.”

Materialise Magics, a leading data preparation software for additive manufacturing, gives users the ability to make their 3D models printable, thanks to advanced mesh editing and mesh enhancement functions, as well as cutting-edge mesh repair. The Materialise Standard Image Build Processor easily interfaces with Materialise Magics to enhance users’ build strategies and update 3D models to a data format specific to inkjet machines. Users can take advantage of advanced pixel fill methods, like gradient fills and tilling, to add patterns to print areas.

“We believe that partnerships are important to empower the 3D Printing ecosystem with the best solutions,” said Karel Brans, Director Business Line OEM at Materialise. “The bundling of Xaar’s printhead expertise and Materialise’s neutral software backbone will enable Xaar’s customers to get the most out of their inkjet machines.”

Aleph Objects Partners With colorFabb BV 

ColorFabb recently moved into a new state-of-the-art facility allowing greater filament production throughput and warehouse capacity. An inventory of LulzBot 3D printers will be maintained in the Belfeld, Netherlands facility, allowing quick delivery to colorFabb’s customers throughout Europe.

An inventory of LulzBot 3D printers will be maintained in the Belfeld, Netherlands facility, allowing quick delivery to colorFabb’s customers throughout Europe.

Colorado-based Aleph Objects, maker of the popular LulzBot 3D printers, has partnered up with 3D printing filament manufacturer colorFabb, to bring colorFabb BV to its expanding network of European resellers. Aleph Objects, a reseller of colorFabb’s 3D printer filaments itself, has extended its technical support team’s hours to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in support of this new partnership.

“Supporting our users is critical to us,” said Aleph Objects President Harris Kenny. “With 24/7 access to our technical support team of 3D printing experts, LulzBot users can get the help they need, no matter their timezone.”

Since it founded in 2011, Aleph Objects has been increasing its global reach, adding inventory in the UK and Canada in 2014, and opening a warehouse in Australia in 2016. It has also been working to expand its reseller network in order to offer local sales support to its customers, and as colorFabb is headquartered in the Netherlands, it seems like they’re moving in the right direction.

Kenny said, “We are thrilled to expand our partnership with colorFabb. colorFabb has earned tremendous respect in the industry thanks to their unique and innovative materials and their commitment to the highest quality standards. We are honored they have chosen LulzBot 3D printers to pair with their filaments, and we look forward to increasing awareness and adoption of the LulzBot Free Software and Open Source Hardware platform in Europe.”

colorFabb recently moved into a new facility, which has more warehouse capacity and allows for greater filament production. An inventory of LulzBot 3D printers will be kept in its original facility; the 3D printers can be purchased on colorFabb’s web store.

“We are excited to bring our cooperation with Aleph Objects to the next level by adding the highly popular LulzBot Mini and TAZ 6 printers to our webshop and our European customers,” said colorFabb CEO Ruud Rouleaux. “The combination of the LulzBot printers and our portfolio filaments will result in a great customer experience. The new production facility of colorFabb will deliver filament production, materials testing and efficient European distribution in order to provide more value for both brands.”

Royal DSM Introduces New High-Temperature Somos Taurus SLA Material at AMUG

somos-taurusGlobal science-based company Royal DSM, which is active in health, materials, and nutrition, announced its newest Somos SLA material offering at the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) conference this week. High-performance Somos Taurus features a heat deflection temperature of 203°F, and is the first SLA material to have both durability and the ability to hold up under elevated temperatures.

Jasper van Dieten-Blom, Global Marketing Manager Somos Materials, said, “We are thrilled to expand the performance of our high impact family of materials. The higher HDT of Somos Taurus allows us to expand into new applications for the automotive, aerospace and electronics markets where high temperature performance and durability are required. We are excited to deliver this material to our customers and provide them with even more uses for SLA 3D printed parts.”

Somos Taurus is charcoal gray and has a high build speed. It’s easy to process and clean, and can create parts that have fine details and smooth surfaces. The material is perfect for applications that need functional parts able to withstand high heat requirements for prototyping. Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG), a leading engineering services supplier, customer motorsport business, and winner of four driver’s titles, will be utilizing Somos Taurus as one of its product beta testers.

Gerard Winstanley, TMG, Manager Composites Fabrication and Additive Manufacturing, said, “We are proud to work so closely with Somos and be involved in the alpha and beta testing of new products. It has been a great experience to work together on the development of Somos Taurus. Our engineers and technicians have been working with the Somos team to optimize the material for real-world motorsport applications. We are extremely excited with the durability and side wall quality of the parts. The added temperature resistance of the material has allowed us to expand where we use the material to test new prototype parts for our high-performance race cars, giving us a competitive edge in design and testing.”

3D Printed REPLICATE Tooth Introduced at IDS 2017

milled-replicate-toothAt this week’s International Dental Show, which has been filled with 3D printing-related announcements, Germany-based Natural Dental Implants (NDI) announced that it had developed a 3D printed version of the REPLICATE Tooth. Just like the CNC milled commercially available version, the 3D printed REPLICATE tooth has both a zirconia abutment portion and a titanium root portion. It is a one-piece, anatomical copy of a patient’s natural tooth: a super-hydrophylic root that’s fused to a zirconia preparation. This single-tooth replacement options gives patients a much less invasive alternative to dental implants and bridges.

Each one is individually designed after the dentist takes a DVT/CBCT scan and dental impression, and then submits the data. NDI will design the custom REPLICATE Tooth, manufacture it, and deliver it in time for the original tooth to be extracted. The REPLICATE Tooth is placed into the empty tooth socket, no drilling required, and covered with the REPLICATE Temporary Protective Crown. Once osseointegration (living bone and surface of artificial implant connection) is done, the REPLICATE crown is removed, and a final crown takes its place.

“We started thinking about customized tooth replacement systems more than ten years ago,” said Ruedger Rubbert, CEO of NDI. “Our patent portfolio includes endossoeus and perio-integrative implementations, various surface enhancements, CAD/CAM systems, and manufacturing technologies, utilized in rapid prototyping methods and 3D printing. This enables industrialized and chair-side fabrication of individually shaped dental implants.”

“Using new technologies like 3D printing helps us reduce costs and provide even more value to our customers.”

NDI currently has a working prototype, and should start “extensive product testing” later this year.

Chilean Inmates Make 3D Printed Prostheses for Children in Need

chilean-inmate-prosthetic

[Image: Chile’s Ciudad del Niño Foundation]

Young inmates in the Chilean city of Valdiva are taking part in a one-year program to learn about 3D printing technology and how to use it in order to make prostheses for underprivileged children. The project is financed by Banco de Chile via the Desafio Levantemos Chile Foundation, and is also getting assistance from a private company.

Program director Montserrat Arevalo said, “The kids have really surprised us with their motivation and commitment to the project.”

The Ciudad del Niño Foundation is heading up the project, which is called “The Freedom to Undertake 3D Dreams.” It’s aimed to help young inmates who have been “deprived of their liberty” under Chilean Law 20,084, a responsibility system for adolescents who commit a crime.

Arevalo said, “In the beginning, there were some concerns over how the learning process was going to work, especially the use of specialized software and caring for the machines.”

The project will promote training for young people in the creative industry, contribute to the integration of children who need the prostheses, and also help with the process of socio-educational intervention for the young inmates. He said that all of the inmates chosen to participate in the program have families that support the opportunity to improve their lives.

Arevalo explained, “We are having talks with others who may also be able to take them on as employees, but the priority is to train them so they can be entrepreneurs.”

Formlabs Retires Its Sold Out Form 1+

form1plus-hero-modelsFormlabs‘ Form 1+ 3D printer is now officially sold out, after a busy three years on the market.

Formlabs said, “For those of you who already own a Form 1+, we’ll support this printer and continue to offer consumables such as build platforms and resin tanks for as long as we reasonably can. We’ll honor all existing warranties, provide replacement parts, and repair units for as long as we’re able. Resin bottles will be available in the Form 1+ store until we run out of existing stock. You’ll be able to purchase the same materials in cartridges after that.”

The company will “continue doubling down” on and developing the platform of its Form 2 3D printer, and said that if any Form 1+ owners are interested in upgrading to its more mature desktop SLA machine, you can contact Sales to get a discounted Form 2 bundle. Discuss in the News Briefs forum at 3DPB.com.

 

 

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