Germany — Through its Venture Capital unit, speciality chemical company Evonik has acquired a minority stake in Chinese company Union Tech. The Shanghai-based company is active in the field of stereolithography 3D printing.

Germany — Featuring two 500-watt lasers, a revised inert gas flow concept and melt pool monitoring, Trumpf has further developed its Tru Print 3000 laser melting system.

Germany — Formnext is to enable the world of additive manufacturing and the next generation of industrial production to finally come together again in Frankfurt on 16 to 19 November 2021. To account for developments in the ongoing pandemic, the trade fair is now offering exhibitors flexible planning and reservation options, including an early-bird discount that will be valid until 16 April.

In December 2020, Ex One was issued a patent on binder jet 3D printing in an inert atmosphere sufficient to allow reactive materials to be processed. The feature is to smooth the way for production 3D printing of high-demand materials that require environmental controls.

USA — In collaboration with Jabil, 3D Systems has developed the novel industrial 3D printing platform High Speed Fusion (HSF). The fused filament printer is said to be three times faster than standard systems — which the company intends to prove from 2022.

Rapid Tech + Fab Con 3D is becoming Rapid Tech 3D. The trade fair for additive technologies will take place from 5 to 7 May this year under the new name.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems Enas participated in the digital Lopex 2021 from March 23-25, 2021. The institute presented its inkjet printing technology for 3D components as robot-assisted processes as well as printed components for fuel cells.

USA — Chromalloy, a manufacturing and repair solutions provider for gas turbine engine manufacturers and operators worldwide, recently selected the Velo3D Sapphire system as their additive manufacturing (AM) solution. The customer hopes to significantly impact the economics of future Maintenance, Repair & Operations (MRO) projects in their aviation and energy markets.

Provider of laser scanning solutions, Scanlab, launches a new scan system. The Scancube IV, as the primary representative of this product range, features optional read-back functions, thereby providing an essential process monitoring component.

USA — 3D printing specialist Ex One announced that aluminium alloy 6061 is now a Customer-Qualified material in collaboration with Ford Motor.