University of Minnesota 3D Printing Class MM 3305

MM 3305 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing Final Projects "Businesses for the Third Industrial Revolution"
Spring 2015
University of Minnesota (UMN)

Credible Fully Functional 3D Printed Motorcycle

This vehicle manufactured using ABS plastic, has the ability to hold two adult riders driving between 10-15 miles per hour using an all-electric motor. (Read more...)

3D Printing for Snowboard

This snowboard, which is comprised of three separate 3D printed sections, was designed in CAD using extremely complex geometries. ¿What do you think about this 3D printed snowboard? ¿Do you think we will see more and more snowboard manufacturers using 3D printing for snowboards and snowboard bindings in the future? (Read More...)

Morgan Selects Stratasys

Dating back to 1909, family-owned British automobile manufacturer Morgan Motor Company has been hand building high quality, highly sought-after cars for customers in Europe and all over the globe. The SP1 (Special Project 1) is a one-of-a-kind bespoke creation, which was designed and produced in order to show off the capabilities that Morgan Motor Company has in producing custom vehicles. Morgan has used Stratasys FDM technology to 3D print parts for the SP1, as well as other custom vehicles. (Read More...)

University of Louisville will open a 3-D printing training facility

A 3D Printing training facility will open next fall as a 50-50 partnership between the University of Louisville and UL LLC, a global safety science organization.

"We hope, beginning this fall, that ultimately hundreds of people from around the world will be coming here to University of Louisville and to Kentucky to receive training and take classes in advanced manufacturing and courses related to digital manufacturing," U of L President James Ramsey said.

Ramsey, Gov. Steve Beshear, Mayor Greg Fischer and others made the announcement at the future site of the facility, the Engineering Education Garage on the U of L Belknap campus Tuesday afternoon. Fischer said that the facility, which will be called UL Additive Manufacturing Competency Center, has the potential to introduce new jobs to Louisville.

As additive manufacturing technologies rapidly evolve, the UL center will update course curriculum and introduce new content every six to 12 months. Looking forward, UL will develop a formal workforce additive manufacturing certification program during 2016 to help designers, engineers and operators expand from traditional manufacturing techniques into additive manufacturing techniques.

Chris Krampitz, director of Additive Manufacturing Technology at UL said the envisioned curriculum is for current manufacturers who are hoping to transition into additive manufacturing. The UL AMCC will join U of L's global advanced manufacturing campus, the Institute for Product Realization, and collaborate and share knowledge with other corporate residents, including GE and Local Motors' FirstBuild.

(Read More)

Why 3D Printing Adoption Is Accelerating Globally

Prototyping (63%), proof of concept (27%) and production (26%) are the three most dominant uses of 3D Printing in Europe today.

These and other insights are from an extensive survey of 3D printing adoption published today by Sculpteo titled The State of 3D Printing (26 pp., opt-in)

Key take-aways of the study include the following:

• 44% reported they will increase their spending on additive manufacturing by 50% or more this year.

• Accelerating product development (32%), offering customized products and limited series (28%) and increasing production efficiency/buying a 3D Printer (13% each) are the top three priorities related to 3D printing in 2015. 

• Determining factors in the adoption of 3D printing globally that are most important center on machine consistency & capabilities and material & supply costs.

• When respondents were asked if there are any trends that they anticipate having a major impact on 3D printing, materials (21.5%), new markets (17.2%) and easy 3D modeling (17%) emerged as most significant.

• European 3D printing early adopters are more focused on attaining scale, while their Americas-based counterparts are focused on pragmatic factors of co-creation and buying a 3D printer.
• 26% of European respondents consider themselves advanced or professional at 3D printing techniques compared to 23% of Americas-based respondents.
• 3D printing power users have significant competitive advantages over their peers in accelerating product development and offering customized products and limited series today through 2020.
• 50% of 3D printing power users are relying on these technologies, systems and processes to support production today.

(Read more)

Airbus Delivers Cutting Edge 3D Printed Plane To Qatar Airways

The aviation industry takes a giant leap as Airbus launches their most cutting-edge passenger plane to date.

For this project, Airbus collaborated with the 3D Printing leader firm Stratasys to build the Airbus A350 XWB, which boasts 1,000 3D-printed parts made with state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques: “We are delighted that Stratasys additive manufacturing solutions are being adopted by Airbus for its flagship A350 XWB aircraft. Both companies share a vision of applying innovative technologies to design and manufacturing to create game-changing benefits,” Stratasys Executive Vice President of Business Development, Marketing & Vertical Solutions Dan Yalon said. “Our additive manufacturing solutions can produce complex parts on-demand, ensuring on time delivery while streamlining supply chains. Additive manufacturing also greatly improves the buy-to-fly ratio as significantly less material is wasted than with conventional manufacturing methods. Stratasys is looking forward to bringing these and other advantages to its collaboration with Airbus and to being part of Airbus’ Factory of the Future initiative.” Added.

To fabricate each part on a Fortus 3D Production System, Stratasys used an ULTEM 9085 resin. Though 3D printing has been used in the past for military aircrafts, the Airbus A350 XWB is the first attempt to incorporate Additive Manufacturing in commercial passenger jets.

(Read more)

Stratasys Joins SME's BME Program

Stratasys has joined SME's Bright Minds as a program partner for three industry events to help develop and enhance future careers in additive manufacturing. 

The first event was May 13 at EASTEC in West Springfield, Massachusetts, followed by RAPID and SOUTH-TEC.

The Bright Minds program gives students the opportunity to learn about additive manufacturing through lectures, workshops, panel discussions and various hands-on challenges.

"Stratasys is proud to be sponsoring Bright Minds for the fifth year in a row," said Sig Behrens, general manager of global education at Stratasys. Bright Minds is an educational program created by Society of Manufacturing Engineers for high school and college students, educators, and administrators to support the future of manufacturing careers.

"Bright Minds creates an environment for students and educators to connect with industry leaders and experience technology innovations firsthand," said Dolores Nixon, member and industry relations manager for Bright Minds.

(More info)

CBC Selects Stratasys

The Engineering Technology Department at CBC (Columbia Basin College) in Pasco is expanding thanks to a new Stratasys uPrint SE Plus 3D Printer.

The school was able to buy the uPrint SE Plus 3D Printer with a generous $20,000 donation from HAPO Community Credit Union. This state of the art 3D Printer will allow students to construct objects that can be used in everyday life.

This has the students and faculty excited about the opportunities in front of them: "It puts us in a whole new realm. We're in a position where we can print parts for the ag department, manufacturing and have usable parts that we can use here on campus or if we were to partner in the industry," says Paige Wyatt, CBC Associate Professor.

Wyatt also says by having the knowledge that comes with using this printer, it will open many doors of employment for students.

China Begins Construction on Its First National 3D Printing Lab

While there were plenty of varying factors in play, for the most part it wasn’t until President Obama began mentioning 3D Printing technology and actually funding research that the it began exploding into dozens of  national industries.

For a nation like China, who had almost cornered the market on inexpensive mass production, it has taken them a little longer than you would expect to hop onto the 3D printing train. But now, the Chinese government recently finalized a deal with Hunan Farsoon Hi-tech Co. Ltd. to build and manage a new, national engineering lab focusing entirely on 3D printing.

¿Should already established 3D printing industries throughout Europe and North America be worried about China’s sudden interest in Additive Manufacturing?

(Read more)

ClearCorrect Expands Its Fleet of Dental 3D Printers

ClearCorrect LLC, a leading manufacturer of clear aligners, has incorporated an additional batch of 3D Printers to its sizable fleet of 3D Printers, key component of the ClearCorrect manufacturing process. The additional 3D Printers that ClearCorrect has added will benefit their customers by shortening the company's lead times, and also by helping to accommodate rush orders. "Initially we started with just a few 3D printers, and we have quickly transitioned to full production, where 100 percent of our models are now 3D printed," said Jarrett Pumphrey, CEO of ClearCorrect. (Read more)

3D Printing, Diabetes, and Race Cars

¿How does a diabetic regulate their blood sugar while thoroughly concentrating on the track and other vehicles around them, traveling at speeds which are 300% faster than most of us are used to driving? (Read more)

Benilde University: 12 years of 3D Printing

Deep in the basement of Benilde-St. Margaret's, students are huddled over their work benches, refining projects that are three years in the making. In year one, students learn the basics. By year two, they are building robots. By year three students are printing out parts, and working on a college-level competition to create search and rescue robots that literally take students all over the world. Students compete with college teams from around the world where that technology is put to the test, and then shared so students can further advance their work. What they learn has real-world applications. (Read more)

Lamborghini Selects Stratasys

With a 50 year heritage that has seen its brand become synonymous with extreme and uncompromising automotive design, Lamborghini relies upon the most cutting edge technologies to uphold its reputation for automotive excellence. Meeting this objective is aided by the company’s continued use of Stratasys FDM-based 3D printing technology, which Lamborghini employs throughout the entire lifecycle of its parts, from rapid prototyping applications to direct digital manufacturing of end-use parts...(Read more)

ISS and SpaceX Freezers Customized with 3D Printing

Polar is a powered, single middeck, -80°C freezer developed by the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) Center for Biophysical Sciences & Engineering (CBSE) for the NASA Crew and Thermal Systems Division (CTSD). The main function of Polar is to provide a -80°C freezing and storage unit for a broad range of science samples during transportation to and from and while aboard the ISS. (Read more)

3D Printing for Bionic Arms

The University of Central Florida has been using 3D printers to create the coolest, branded prosthetic arms for kids. (Read more)

Top 4 Things to Consider When Choosing 3D Print Material

In the Stratasys Direct Manufacturing white paper, “3D Printing: Choosing the Right Material for Your Application”, they explore the factors surrounding process and material choices to result in the best process-material marriage for your project. (Read more)

Soluble Support: ¿Why? ¿For What?

Learn about Soluble Support and why it is important in 3D Printing today:

Sony Selects Stratasys

Certainly the future of shopping isn’t going to require scuba gear and the ability to swim, but Sony’s recent launch of their Xperia Aquatech store was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for those lucky enough to pay a visit. If you are familiar with Sony’s Xperia line of smartphones and tablets, then you know that many of them are waterproof for up to 1.5 meters in depth. Sony teamed with Dubai-based Paradigm 3D, a 3D printing service provider and part of the Red Eye Global Direct Digital Manufacturing Network. Working together they brainstormed ideas, as Sony wanted customized holders for all their devices within the underwater store. (Read more)

Airbus Selects Stratasys

The leading global provider of 3D printing and additive manufacturing solutions, announced that leading aircraft manufacturer Airbus has produced more than 1000 flight parts on its Stratasys FDM 3D Production Systems for use in the first-of-type A350 XWB aircraft, delivered in December 2014. 

(Read more)