Design World

The Covid-19 pandemic brought considerable attention to the 3D printing/additive manufacturing industry. Much of it focused on systems that work with polymer and resin materials. But what about metal additive manufacturing? How has the pandemic affected the metal side of additive manufacturing? Kevin Brigden, additive manufacturing applications engineer at Renishaw, addressed this and other developments in metal AM.

Recent events show the need for agility to meet market demands. Dr. Joe DeSimone, executive chairman of Carbon, discussed the unique levels of agility offered by additive manufacturing.

In today’s episode of Technology Forward, we explore trends in additive manufacturing. I’m speaking with Arjun Aggarwal, VP of business development at Desktop Metal. Desktop Metal uses carbon fiber to make metal 3D printing with a desktop system accessible to all engineers, designers, and manufacturers.

The additive manufacturing (AM) industry is continuously changing. We asked Justin McCurnin, Vice President of Marketing at Stratasys what trends and developments he sees today. (Stratasys was one of the founders of this industry, and not only have the engineers witnessed a number of developments, they have created many of them as well.)

One of the biggest trends is the additive community’s response to the COVID pandemic. It is highlighting a little recognized capability of additive manufacturing – the importance of a near and quickly responsive supply chain.

The use of 3D printing technology to build devices with embedded electronics has evolved. In the early days, special 3D printers injected dielectric inks onto a layer of a build, creating electronic traces, to build electronic parts. Nano Dimension was the first company to develop such a system, and it continues to evolve the technology. Today, it offers Additive Manufacturing Electronics (AME).

In a recent interview with Jonah Myerberg, co-founder and CTO of Desktop Metal, we explored how metal additive manufacturing, including desktop printers, will affect automotive design and production.

Listen as Greg Thompson of Protolabs discusses how service bureaus are helping in the battle against the Coronavirus with their ability to offer a range of prototyping and manufacturing capabilities.

Disruptive is a familiar word to those in additive manufacturing. This technology has been labeled disruptive by many. As it turns out, when other types of disruption arise, you need a disruptive technology to handle it, a technology that can offer a bridge among multiple manufacturing methods to get you through the disruption. Additive manufacturing’s ability to quickly shift and build new objects is exactly what is needed during disruptive times, such as the current pandemic.

Additive manufacturing has matured to the point where software is becoming key to further adoption. An interview with Radhika Krishnan, Executive Vice President, Software Healthcare and Digitization at 3D Systems offers insight into developments in software as additive manufacturing becomes part of a hybrid manufacturing environment.

In this podcast, we explore the efforts Siemens is contributing to the pandemic. One of the things Siemens offers is its Additive Manufacturing Network