Simulating is Believing June 12, 2017 Simulation tools are making it much easier for manufacturers to optimize their processes, visualizing the entire path of production from NC metalcutting simulations through 3D design and factory-floor imaging.
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.
Keeping Old Planes in the Air with Laser Scanning June 21, 2017 Your father’s Oldsmobile may be long gone but his B-52 is still pulling missions, and they haven’t built the “BUFF” (Big Ugly Fat Fellow) since 1962. The last KC-135 tanker was built in 1965. Besides aging warbirds (the average plane in the US Air Force is over 28 years old) there are hundreds of ancient civilian airliners carrying friendlier payloads everyday. The key to doing this safely is of course excellent maintenance and periodic upgrades. Laser scanning plays an essential role.
Buck Rogers Blasts into the Toolroom June 21, 2017 In addition to carbide, ceramics, and cermet, the drive to create the hardest possible cutting tool materials has given us the alphabet soup of PCD, PCBN, CVD-D, and MCD (polycrystalline diamond, polycrystalline cubic boron nitride, chemical vapor deposition diamond, and mono-crystalline diamond, respectively).
2016 Was a Good Year for Lasers; 2017 Looks Even Better June 21, 2017 Strong 2016 earnings among top industrial laser providers, continued brisk adoption of fiber lasers, cheaper ultrafast lasers, and a host of novel applications and notable corporate acquisitions signal a big year ahead for photonics-based manufacturing.
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.
Impossible Objects Introduces Pilot 3D Printing Machine May 9, 2017 Impossible Objects announced today the launch of Model One, its pilot 3D printing machine to revolutionize high-volume manufacturing and initial customer deployments with select Fortune 500 customers. The announcement took place at the RAPID+TCT 3D printing and additive manufacturing conference.
3D Printing to Accelerate, GE Executive Says May 9, 2017 The pace of 3D printing adoption will accelerate, a General Electric Co. executive said during an address at RAPID + TCT today.
