3D Printing News Briefs: February 2, 2018

In celebration of finally leaving the long month of January behind, we’ll start today’s 3D Printing News Briefs with some good news – Carbon is celebrating its fifth anniversary! Moving on, some other companies have things to celebrate, as Sharebot introduces a new material and CollPlant announces its Nasdaq listing. UL and Ricoh will allow for a tele-presence capability at their upcoming AM workshops, while Ampower and inspire AG are partnering to hold their own AM workshops, and some innovative research has been published about 3D printed titanium drug-delivering implants. Finally, on a less celebratory note, Type A Machines announced that it is closing its doors for good.

Carbon Celebrates Fifth Anniversary

I don’t think anyone in 3D printing will forget when Silicon Valley-based Carbon, founded in 2013, first emerged on the scene out of stealth mode with its innovative CLIP technology in 2015. Since then, the smart company has only continued to grow, and its 3D Manufacturing digital solution has been busy tearing down barriers to innovation at every step of the manufacturing process. Carbon’s partners have used the company’s expertise and technology to create all sorts of products, from dental models and mobile device protection solutions to automotive prototypes and functional mass-produced athletic footwear. The company, which now has 10 material families, 7 biocompatible resins, and 35 patents (with over 250 patents pending) is celebrating five years of business this week.

“The age of digital 3D Manufacturing is here, and Carbon is fundamentally changing how the world designs, engineers, makes, and delivers products,” said Carbon CEO and Co-Founder Joseph DeSimone, PhD. “Since its inception, Carbon has continuously pushed the boundaries and transformed industries; we’re creating new classes of products, workers, and business models, where product design and engineering is facilitated by cloud-based computing and a wide range of technologies and materials that enable the creation of perfectly tuned–even personalized–products that, until now, were impossible to produce.”

Sharebot Introduces New Professional Material

Professional 3D printer manufacturer Sharebot, headquartered in Italy, told 3DPrint.com at formnext 2017 that it would be launching more 3D printing materials this year. The wait is over, as the company has just introduced a special new format for its unique PLA-S material, in the form of PLA-S 4kg. The format is dedicated to professional users and companies that work with FFF 3D printing technology and need a long-lasting, reliable material for large-scale models and projects.

The new material format, available in both black and white, works well with the company’s recently launched Sharebot QXXL. The professional 3D printer, which has a 700 x 350 x 300 mm build platform, touchscreen display, and auto calibration, is Sharebot’s biggest offering, and also features Internet connectivity. PLA-S 4kg is now available now on Sharebot’s online store for €99.

CollPlant Listed on Nasdaq

Israeli regenerative medicine company CollPlant, which uses its plant-based rhCollagen technology and 3D printing bioinks for tissue repair products, announced that its American Depository Shares (ADS) have now been approved for listing on the NASDAQ Capital Market. Collplant’s ordinary shares will continue trading on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange market (TASE) simultaneously, and ADS trading began on Wednesday, January 31st, under the CLGN ticker symbol.

“We believe the Nasdaq listing gives us the opportunity to increase the trading liquidity of our securities, broaden our shareholder base and significantly raise our profile in the investment community,” said Yehiel Tal, CEO of CollPlant. “CollPlant’s proprietary product line addresses indications for a diverse fields of organ and tissue repair, and is making a real impact in the field of regenerative medicine. Our flagship rhCollagen BioInk product offering is being developed for 3D bioprinting of tissues and organs, and our Vergenix line of rhCollagen products includes a soft tissue repair matrix for the treatment of tendinopathy, as well as a wound repair matrix to promote rapid, optimal healing of acute and chronic wounds. Trading of CollPlant’s ADSs on Nasdaq is a natural extension of our growth goals.”

Tele-presence Allowed at Upcoming Additive Manufacturing Workshops

Global safety science company UL continues its focus on training, as now working with Ricoh USA, Inc., it will now be incorporating a new Tele-presence capability in the public workshops it holds under UL’s Additive Manufacturing Training program. Thanks to Ricoh’s proprietary technology, students will be able to participate in Tier 1 and Tier 2 instructor-led training courses through video conference, without throwing a wrench into the group dynamic of the training. The new capability will also expand the reach of the workshops by making them available to a wider audience.

Melissa Albrecht, UL AM Global Program Manager, said, “We’ve been receiving numerous inquiries for public workshops at locations and geographies we haven’t visited yet. Tele-presence is a great way for us to reach those audiences in an effective way, providing greater access to instructor-led training while decreasing travel as a potential deterrent for participation.”

Ricoh and UL will have this new learning format available for the Foundations of 3D Printing and Design for AM workshops on March 19, 20, and 22, and the Managing Quality and Safety in AM workshop scheduled for May 22 and 23.

Ampower and inspire AG Holding Joint Additive Manufacturing Workshops

Speaking of workshops, additive manufacturing consulting company Ampower and Zurich technology competence center inspire AG, the Swiss Competence Center for Production Technology, are teaming up to offer joint AM workshops, in order to enable industrial customers to implement the technology. The program was developed by inspire, and offers three-step support to customers over an eight month period of knowledge building, component design and identifying potential components workshops, along with developing an AM implementation strategy.

“Our workshop has already been successfully carried out with both large and medium-sized companies,” said Dr. Christoph Klahn, Head of Department at inspire. “Through the process and production chain know-how of Ampower, the customer will be competently supported after the workshop also in the technical implementation of the identified applications and the establishment of a qualified production.”

3D Printed Titanium Drug-Delivering Implants

Drug-delivering implants can be used to lower infection-related implant failure through a controlled medication release. Researchers from the University of Birmingham and Kingston University recently published a paper, titled “Tailoring selective laser melting process for titanium drug-delivering implants with releasing micro-channels,” in the Additive Manufacturing journal; co-authors include Hany Hassanin, Laurane Finet, Sophie C. Cox, Parastoo Jamshidi, Liam M. Grover, Duncan E.T. Shepherd, Owen Addison, and Moataz M. Attallah. The study used SLM 3D printing to make Ti-6Al-4 V (titanium) samples, with releasing micro-channels (MCs) and internal reservoirs, in order to simulate a drug-delivering orthopaedic or dental implant.

The abstract reads, “Investigations were performed to optimise the design and SLM process parameters required to create the releasing MCs with minimum dimensional deviation to allow a controlled dosing of the drugs, while considering the process impact on the surface roughness and porosity of the builds. The build orientation, internal contour spacing, and laser process parameters were varied to assess their effect on the resolution of the MCs with diameters of ∼200–500 μm. It was found that, vertically oriented channels were found to have the least dimensional deviation from the target dimensions compared with horizontally-oriented or inclined channels. The dimensional deviation of the MCs was found in range of 220–427 μm, while the horizontal surface roughness (R_a) was in range of 1.46–11.46 μm and the vertical surface roughness (R_a) was in range of 8.5–13.23 μm when applying energy density varying from of 27–200 J/mm³. It was found that, there was a clear correlation between the energy density with both dimensional deviation and horizontal surface roughness, while no correlation was found for the vertical’ surface roughness. The study identified the optimum conditions to manufacture drug-delivering metallic implants, creating hollow samples with releasing MCs equivalent diameter of ∼271 μm, horizontal surface roughness (R_a) of 4.4 μm, vertical surface roughness of (R_a) 9.2 μm, and build porosity of 1.4% using an internal contour of 150 μm and energy density of 35.7 J/mm³.”

Type A Machines Shutting Down

Only a few months after Silicon Valley startup and 3D printing industry pioneer Type A Machines — founded in 2012 and the creator of the Series 1 and Series 1 Pro 3D printers — announced the grand opening of its new facility with Circuit Launch, the company is making a different sort of announcement this week. Type A Machines, after six years of serving the maker community, is closing down.

“I’m deeply appreciative and proud of the many customers, partners, and individuals who helped make Type A Machines a unique and innovative company, who pushed the boundaries of what was possible, and dedicated themselves to an ideal,” said Andrew Rutter, the Founder and CEO of Type A Machines. “Our future will be a bit better thanks to them.”

The award-winning Series 1 was the first 3D printer to include material profiles and on-board WiFi. We’re sure to hear more from Rutter and the other innovators behind the now-defunct company in the future, and wish them the best.

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