Additive Manufacturing replaces numerous traditional manufacturing processes, facilitates the development of new products and business models and helps establish new value-added and supply chains. Are these claims about the possibilities of Additive Manufacturing real, and in which industries have they already been successfully implemented?

Supplier of polymer 3D printing solutions, Stratasys, introduced three new 3D printers that together address a large portion of the multibillion-euro market opportunity in additive manufacturing of end-use parts. The systems collectively are aimed at accelerating the shift from traditional to additive manufacturing for low-to-mid-volume production applications underserved by traditional manufacturing methods.

Germany — The more difficult a material is to machine, the more robust, the tools for machining them have to be. However, the production and sharpening of hard tools, such as PCD tools, requires specially tailored machines. Anca has therefore developed an EDG machine suitable for this task.

USA — One of the critical components of a plastic 3D printer is the extrusion tip. To protect these components, tip shields made of heat resistant materials had to be machined. Savillex developed a method to produced tip shields made of PFA by injection moulding, allowing Stratasys and their customers to significantly reduce costs.

With OPS-Ingersoll’s high-speed Eagle V9 milling machine 3D geometries or 3D surfaces can be produced efficiently and reliably for the die and mould industry due to its high dynamics and precision. In contrast, the Promech company in Abtwil, Switzerland moved into a completely new territory with this machine. Here, the focus was primarily on parts production for the medical industry. Accordingly, the requirements for a universal and at the same time high-precision machine were demanding.

UK — Materials informatics (MI) is one of the most exciting areas in materials science. 3D printing has presented an obvious target for the use of materials informatics and is already producing some very promising results.

Two years after the last trade fair for the metalworking industry took place, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. Metav 2022 is set to open its doors from 8 to 11 March in Düsseldorf.

In times of travel restrictions online tool ordering, services and training are gaining in importance. How do suppliers react to this demand? ETMM presents some of the current developments that make tool ordering faster and easier and support training efforts.

The 3D Systems additive manufacturing technology that is available in the UK from the Engineering Technology Group (ETG) has now been enhanced with the release of 3D Sprint 3.0.

Germany — Under the brand names Infinam TI 3100 L and Infinam ST 6100 L, Evonik has launched two photopolymers for industrial 3D applications.