On this episode of the Additive Insight podcast, TCT editors Laura Griffiths and Oliver Johnson discuss their week in Chicago at the 2024 Additive Manufacturing Users Group Conference.

They talk about conference highlights including a keynote talk from Jason Lopes on the 3D printing story at Legacy Effects, and a special Innovators Showcase conversation between Todd Grimm and metal additive manufacturing pioneer Greg Morris. 

Plus, technology launches from the show floor, key conversations and some previews of AMUG content still to come in the next issue of TCT Magazine.

On this episode of the Additive Insight podcast, TCT Group Content Manager Sam Davies is joined by Joe Laurienti, the founder and CEO of aerospace company Ursa Major Technologies.

Laurienti founded Ursa Major as the first pure play rocket propulsion company in America in 2015, having previously worked on SpaceX and Blue origin engine projects.

In setting up Ursa Major, Laurienti and his team have aimed to develop technology that can allow companies to double launch capacity and solve supply chain risks at a lower cost.

Through that endeavour, the company has been leveraging additive manufacturing technology, and Laurienti joins me today to share how AM enables the designs of Ursa Major’s rocket engines, how the company inspects its complex components, and its focus on developing alloys for metal 3D printing.

We also touch on the potential impact of Ursa Major’s Lynx approach to manufacturing solid rocket motors and what a 138 million dollar Series D round will mean for the company moving forward.

On this episode of the Additive Insight podcast, Group Content Manager Sam Davies is joined by Ivana Llobet, the founder and CEO of medical device company Odapt.

Ivana founded Odapt in a bid to solve the problem of leakage in conventional ostomy bags. Using 3D printing, the company is developing personalised silicone wafers that better fit the user of ostomy bags and are adapted to the shape of stomas and pouches.

Throughout our conversation, we discuss why 3D printing is suitable for this application, what considerations were made around the selection of material, and the potential impact of the product. We also touch on the company's next steps as it looks to bring its 3D printed wafer product to market.

On this episode of the Additive Insight podcast, we're joined by Olaf Diegel, Professor of Additive Manufacturing at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and founder of ODD Guitars.

Renowned for his stylised 3D printed guitars, Diegel will present at the 2024 Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) Conference as part of a duo of keynote talks focused on creative adoption of 3D printing technologies.

Throughout the episode, Diegel shares his thoughts on the importance of design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) (and why we're not using it nearly enough), how his work at the University of Auckland's Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Lab combines engineering and creative thinking, and of course, those famous 3D printed guitars.

To launch the vote for this year's TCT Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award, we invited our five finalists onto a panel to discuss their journeys into additive manufacturing (AM) and how they're each impacting the industry today.

This year's finalists are: Brigitte de Vet, Chief Executive Officer at Materialise; Cora Leibig, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Chromatic 3D Materials; Melissa Orme, Vice President of Additive Manufacturing at The Boeing Company; Nesma Aboulkhair, Director of Additive Manufacturing at the Technology Innovation Institute; and Olga Ivanova, Director of Applications & Technology at Mechnano.

On this bonus episode of the Additive Insight podcast, you can hear the panel in full, co-chaired by TCT Head of Content Laura Griffiths and Women in 3D Printing President Kristin Mulherin,

On this episode of the Additive Insight podcast, we're joined by Adrian Bowyer, the founder of the RepRap movement and a TCT Hall of Famer.

Bowyer, a former mechanical engineering academic, came to prominence within the 3D printing world around 20 years ago when he shared a blog on the Bath University website detailing the idea for a replicating rapid prototyper.

Once published, he was encouraged to take the lead on the project, and what came next was a movement that attracted the support of hobbyists and consumerists all over the world.

Throughout today’s episode, Bowyer discusses the motivations behind the RepRap movement, how the RepRap machines evolved through the generations, and the decision to sell of the RepRap Pro business.

He also provides his assessment of the desktop printer market that spawned from the RepRap movement and how AI might impact 3D printing.

On this Additive Insight episode, we're joined by Essentium co-founder and CEO Blake Teipel.

Essentium came into the 3D printing industry primarily as a filament manufacturer, before moving into polymer extrusion hardware with the High Speed Extrusion series.

Having expanded into hardware, the company picked up several contracts with the US Department of Defense, where it has generated most of its revenue in recent years, and was recently acquired by Nexa3D. In between, Essentium was one of several AM firms that decided to partner with a SPAC to list on the stock market, but the deal fell through in early 2022.

As we sat down at last year’s Formnext event, Teipel explained in detail why the company moved into hardware, why the SPAC deal fell through, and why the Nexa3D merger makes sense.

In the Additive Insight podcast's latest Innovators on Innovators episode, Victoria Sears, a Senior Engineer at Mayo Clinic, catches up with Nicole McMinn, a Biomedical Engineer at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

The pair met while at an industry conference back in 2021 and found common ground as young engineers relatively new to the field of healthcare 3D printing.

Throughout this podcast, the pair touch on their introductions to 3D printing, while also detailing their respective workflows, discussing their favourite projects, and outlining why vat photopolymerisation is the most used 3D printing process in their labs.

They also share their advice for young engineers coming into the additive manufacturing industry.

On this week’s episode of Additive Insight, Shannon VanDeren, President of the Additive Manufacturing Users Group and President of Layered Manufacturing and Consulting, joins us as our latest Executive Interview guest.

Ahead of the 2024 AMUG Conference, the Distinguished INnovator Operators Award (DINO) recipient shares how her enthusiasm for additive manufacturing began at Materialise in 2010, tips for getting the most out of this year’s event ("Talk to everybody!"), and her optimism for the future of 3D printing.

On this episode of the Additive Insight podcast, we're joined by Victor Roman, the Managing Director of ARBURGadditive.

Arburg set up its additive manufacturing subsidiary in 2021 after introducing its Freeformer 3D printing technology several years earlier.

As the head of that business unit, Roman joins the Additive Insight podcast to discuss why the subsidiary was set up, the application opportunities its Freeformer technology is opening up, and the company’s additive manufacturing materials strategy.

We also touch on AM’s impact on manufacturing supply chains, and the industry’s place on the Gartner Hype Cycle.