Northrop using AM to efficiently make coldplates, cable clamps, more August 10, 2017 How do manufacturers love additive manufacturing (AM)? Bianca Lankford, a mechanical engineer at Northrop Grumman, can count the ways: antennas, brackets, clamps, coldplates, ducts, plenums and test fixtures.
Automation Cell Integrates 3D Printing with Post-Process Machining July 10, 2017 Methods Machine Tools Inc. (Sudbury, MA), a leading supplier of precision machine tools, 3D printing technology and automation, recently introduced an automation cell designed to greatly boost 3D manufacturing throughput.
New 3D Printer Makes Fully Isotropic Parts, Virtually Eliminates Post-Processing July 11, 2017 One of the “dirty secrets” of 3D printing is the universal need to take additional steps to render the output usable, including removing the part from its support, curing the part, or improving the surface. Aside from additional cycle time and cost, these steps often require or emit toxic chemicals, necessitating special ventilation and making them unsuitable for a standard office environment. For example, parts built with fused deposition modeling (FDM) must spend about four to eight hours in a heated, agitated sodium hydroxide bath.
GE Now a User and a Major Seller of AM Technology July 10, 2017 General Electric Co. (Boston) has been very public about its use of additive manufacturing (AM) technology to build critical jet engine components, starting with the fuel nozzle for its LEAP engine.
SLM Solutions Group signs long-term cooperation pact with multi-machine order July 5, 2017 LUBECK, GERMANY, June 19, 2017 – SLM Solutions Group AG, a leading supplier of metal-based additive manufacturing technology, signed a long-term cooperation agreement with BeamIT S.p.a., which is based in Fornovo di Taro, Italy. The cooperation concerns the joint development and testing of various parameters for setting the machines when using various metal powders.
New 3D Printing Methods Can Create Shape-Shifting Objects June 12, 2017 Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta) and two other institutions have developed a new 3D printing method to create objects that can permanently transform into a range of different shapes in response to heat.
Additive Grows and Has Growing Pains May 11, 2017 Additive manufacturing is both growing and coping with growing pains. Companies “have to find ways to streamline” polishing and other finishing processes of 3D printed parts, industry consultant Terry Wohlers said today during a speech at RAPID + TCT.
First Plastics, Then Metals and Now Composites May 10, 2017 Impossible Objects LLC, a Chicago-based company, has brought to market a new composites material manufacturing technology known as Composite-Based Additive Manufacturing (CBAM) 3D technology which produces Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) or Polymer Matrix Composite (PMC) parts.
A Guide to ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING metals May 10, 2017 Additive Manufacturing (AM) machines making metal parts have been out there for a dozen years. The machines have improved since the initial offerings and the number of companies that now produce them have increased exponentially. Many companies are now ready to invest in this maturing technology, and there are many more companies with machines that vary in technology and materials. Even the experts in AM are having difficulty keeping track of all of the new offerings.
Coatings Expand Cutting Tool Capabilities, Reach New Markets May 2, 2017 When first introduced in the late 1970s, cutting tool coatings—especially titanium nitride (TiN)—were embraced by tool manufacturers for their ability to extend tool life. As workforce materials have expanded from conventional ferrous and nonferrous metals to exotic alloys, composites, ceramics, and others, coatings have likewise progressed and, thanks to new formulations and deposition methods, are extending cutting tool capabilities as well as tool life.
