DEVELOP3D - Technology for the product lifecycle

EOS’ M 270 Machine - gives you build capabilities for metals of an increasingly wide range of metal types in a 250 mm x 250 mm x 215 mm envelope

German rapid manufacturing vendor, EOS (Electro-Optical Systems) has just launched two new powdered metals for the rapid manufacture of nickel alloy and aluminium alloy components in its EOSINT M 270 laser-sintering systems (spec sheet is here - PDF). If you’ve not come across EOS before, they provide a range of processes, all based on laser optics systems building a variety of powders. The P series machines produce plastic derivative parts (although some of the most popular materials are aluminium and carbon-based powders), the S-series machines build using sand (for casting patterns and cores), while the M-series machines build using metals. The generic term for EOS’ metals process is DMLS, direct metal laser sintering. Don’t call it SLS - that’s a 3D Systems trademark term.

EOS NickelAlloy IN718

EOS NickelAlloy IN718 is a nickel-based, heat resistant superalloy which corresponds to Inconel 718.  It is a precipitation hardening, nickel chromium alloy characterized by good tensile, fatigue, creep and rupture strengths at temperatures up to 700°C. It shows outstanding corrosion resistance, is ideal for many high temperature applications, and possesses excellent cryogenic properties.
The material will be of particular interest to the aerospace industry due to its demanding requirements. EOS has already carried out extensive tests in collaboration with several pilot customers. It has developed process parameters that enable good part building and ensure that the relevant industrial standards for this material type can be reliably fulfilled.  These include, for example, heat treatment in accordance with AMS 5662 and AMS 5664 standards as well as tensile and stress rupture properties at elevated temperature (650°C).

Fuel Injection–Swirlers (actually built in EOS’ CobaltChrome MP1 material) courtesy of Morris Technologies

Greg Morris, President of pilot user Morris Technologies Inc in the US said: “We have been supplying parts in EOS CobaltChrome MP1 as a preferred material for high stress / high temperature environments since 2005. Since working with EOS NickelAlloy IN718, this has become our front-line material of choice for many applications in aerospace and other demanding applications.  The material allows us to produce parts that will see some of the most demanding environments including high temperatures, high stress loads and extended fatigue situations. Not only has the sintered nickel alloy performed well in such tests and environments, but Morris Technologies’ material characterization efforts have also demonstrated that it performs to ASTM standards”.

Ian Halliday, CEO of pilot user 3T RPD in Newbury, UK, added: “EOS NickelAlloy IN718 has helped to open up new application areas for us.  We are working with some of our customers to qualify this material for future series production of aerospace components. Tests have shown that the mechanical properties of parts built from the material exceed what our customers are used to from cast parts.  They also report that the components are easier to machine than conventional Inconel 718.”

EOS Aluminium AlSi10Mg

The second material is EOS Aluminium AlSi10Mg powder, a typical casting alloy and the first aluminium-based powder to be qualified for EOSINT M 270 systems and opens up new application areas due to its light weight and thermal conductivity. Thorough process development and testing were performed as preparation for the launch. Cast parts in conventional AlSi10Mg are typically subjected to T6 heat treatment including solution annealing and quenching followed by age hardening at elevated temperatures.

Few thoughts

What I found interesting is a quote from the VP of M (Meaning Metals) Technology at EOS, Mike Shellabear claims that “Due to the rapid melting and resolidification caused by exposure to the lasers, the sintered parts match or even exceed conventional heat-treated parts in the as-built condition.  So even more time and cost can be saved in the process chain.” This is something that’s been talked about with regards to metals for some time. Traditionally vendors have been aiming to develop processes which allow the user to replicate traditional production intent materials processed using traditional means (such as casting, machining, heat treatment etc) using direct manufacturing technology. While this is obviously still an end goal, it’s clear that the more advanced vendors are finding that the combination of materials and processes is creating a new set of materials with new capabilities. When combined with the freedom from many of the geometric limitations associated (but certainly not all by any means) with traditional production methods, this is truly exciting times.

With all the current interest surround the HP and Stratasys link up, now is a good time for the RP industry and as it happens, the team behind one of europe’s most interesting product development events, TCT Live, has just sent out the call for papers for it’s 2010 Additive Manufacturing Conference, to be held in Coventry later this year. According to the press release, theme of this year’s event is “is business critical and advanced technologies for product development and manufacturing” and the conference manager is now looking to recieve paper submissions from parties who can present a definitive application of Additive Manufacture in the following areas:

• Business ˜ The Advantages of Adopting Additive Manufacture
• Automotive Applications of AM
• Aerospace, Applications of AM
• Medical or Dental Applications of AM
• Jewellery Applications of AM
• Sustainable Manufacturing Models of AM

Presentations should address at least one of the following aspects: the design issues, the business benefits in terms of time-to-market and financial objectives, material issues and/or part performance.The conference will once again be held at the prestigious and centrally located Ricoh Arena, Coventry, 19 thˆ20th October 2010, and anyone submitting a presentation must be available to present on either of these two days. In terms of ownership and direction, the release states that “all submissions must be non-promotional in content and presented by companies that are utilising and/or researching the technologies for an industrial application. All submissions will be reviewed by the conference steering committee to ensure that they meet the necessary and exacting requirements of TCT.” Also no vendor papers will be accepted from companies that sell machines, materials or associated services (so no sneaking in a product pitch).

If you’re interested, you should submit a detailed abstract (3-400 words) of the proposed paper before 15th March 2010, including the working title, all authors/contributors and their affiliations. Send them to Conference Manager, Jenna Reid (email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).

The battle to provide CAD tool online, in addition to the desktop took a step forward this month, with Autodesk unleashing Project Butterfly on its innovative Autodesk Labs website. Here users can try for free, a tool which allows the viewing, mark-up and editing of 2D DWG files, either solo or in realtime co-editing with a colleague. As the system is totally web-based the parties can be anywhere in the world and neither requires a copy of AutoCAD.

Previous cloud technology previews on the Labs website have been forthcoming new products, such as Project Dragonfly for room layout and more recently Project Twitch, to allow remote delivery of AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor and Maya (currently only available to those who live in US and Canada). Project Butterfly offers functionality similar to Autodesk View but the DWG files and the application are hosted on Autodesk’s servers and is accessed by a web browser. This means that drawings could be remotely stored, viewed, interrogated and marked-up on any PC with an Internet connection.

Once DWGs are added to the Project Butterfly servers, other users can be invited to view and edit DWGs online as well as download to their local computer. Two-party online review sessions can be held, where mark-ups can be added as well as notes made and stored. This first version also provides co-editing where two users can simultaneously create or delete geometry using familiar AutoCAD tools. For those who have used Google Wave, they will notice a similar philosophy.

Origin

Project Butterfly is the result of Autodesk acquiring PlanPlatform, a developer of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions based in Tel Aviv, Israel. The company was cofounded in 2007 by Jonathan Seroussi and Tal Weiss, who both used to work for Israel Aerospace Industries. PlanPLatform’s VisualTao product was demonstrated its beta DWG collaboration product early last year, after which Autodesk obviously took interest and completed acquisition in December 2009, for an estimated $20-$30 million.
 
In the drive to develop online CAD tools and a viable SaaS business Autodesk is evaluating a number of core technologies to get its products online, VisualTao is the latest. According to Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, there are four basic technologies currently under evaluation but he feels that there will be no one way, or single technology to deliver all the end-user experiences for cloud-based computing. Previously we have reported on Autodesk investment and testing of ‘onLive’ gaming technology which utilises cutting edge data compression algorithms to ‘squirt’ real time video over the web. OnLive is the technology behind the Project Twitter approach and relies of powerful servers to run the desktop applications on servers, sending the video and receiving keyboard and mouse input back over the web.

In both Project Dragonfly and Project Butterfly Autodesk uses Adobe’s Flash web engine, while we noted that Project Cooper (the potential LT version of AutoCAD LT) required the installation of Microsoft Silverlight. All these products have different ways of working and delivering the application experience over the web. Autodesk will use the best suited toolkits for each commercial product.

Project Butterfly is based on streaming technology but instead of dumb rendered graphics, sends accurate vectors and metadata using optimised compression, allowing for impressive CAD-like functionality and interaction within the browser. In use it does actually feel like a desktop CAD application. More CAD functionality is in the pipeline for Project Butterfly, together with the potential to handle 3D.

Future

Autodesk is clearly making the most of its Labs website to allow its customers to test out these new technologies. With everything from full AutoCAD or Inventor, home layout tools and now real-time collaboration delivered to a browser near you.
A full review of Project Butterfly will be up soon.

The wire’s been abuzz since yesterday since HP and Stratasys announced a partnership, with many seeing this as the long-overdue point where the 3d printing world jumps off and really becomes mainstream. So, let’s take a look at the announcement, then make a few judgement called on what it means for both companies, why it’s happened and what it means. First, the announcement:

Stratasys, the leading manufacturer of 3D printers and 3D production systems, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement with HP for Stratasys to manufacture an HP-branded 3D printer. Used by product designers and architects, Stratasys 3D printers create three-dimensional plastic models directly from 3D digital designs.

Under the terms of the agreement, Stratasys will develop and manufacture for HP an exclusive line of 3D printers based on Stratasys’ patented Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology. HP will begin a phased rollout of the 3D printers in the mechanical design (MCAD) market in selected countries later this year, with the right to extend distribution globally.

“We believe the time is right for 3D printing to become mainstream,” said Stratasys Chairman and CEO Scott Crump. “We also believe that HP’s unmatched sales and distribution capabilities and Stratasys FDM technology is the right combination to achieve broader 3D printer usage worldwide. HP has made a similar move in this market before, capturing a dominant position in large-format 2D printers. Together we hope to repeat this success with 3D printers.”

“There are millions of 3D designers using 2D printers who are ready to bring their designs to life in 3D,” said Santiago Morera, vice president and general manager of HP’s Large Format Printing Business. “Stratasys FDM technology is the ideal platform for HP to enter the 3D MCAD printing market and begin to capitalize on this untapped opportunity.”

HP’s Graphic Solutions Business - part of the company’s $24 billion Imaging and Printing Group - will execute the distribution agreement. HP is a leading provider of Designjet and Scitex large-format printing solutions, Indigo digital solutions for commercial and industrial printing, inkjet high-speed production solutions and specialty printing systems.

For me, the key part of this announcement is this “Stratasys will develop and manufacture for HP an exclusive line of 3D printers based on Stratasys’ patented Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology.” There have been link ups between traditional RP vendors in the past. see the merger between Contex, a scanning device manufacturer and Z Corp. And of course, Sony were active in the stereolithography market for quite sometime but that seems to have died a death of late.

So, this is the first time that there’s been a rapid prototyping link up between a traditional player and a major manufacturing force - and they don’t come more major that Hewlett Packard. What’s interesting here is that it appears that HP will not be badging Stratasys’ products (as Contex do with Z Corp products), but Stratasys will be developing new line of products - and that is huge. While Stratasys’ Dimension Printing business line has been shifting major units of its lower-cost products for a good decade or so and has been a market leader, running ahead of the pack with Z Corporation for some time.

Why Now?

Many have been talking about mainstream rapid prototyping for many years, but until very recent, it was still restricted to the world of design, engineering and manufacturing. the reasons for that were down to two key factors as far as I could see. The major is cost. RP machines have, until recently, been very very expensive. From the early days of stereolithography with 3D Systems and EOS, through the introduction of Sintering-based process, the equipment was costly (mostly because it uses laser optics based methods). FDM changed the game, as it uses an molten extrusion of filament to build parts, rather than costly lasers and optics. Z Corp offered lower cost products for the same reason. Lower cost parts, process and materials meant they could offer lower cost machines.

The other reason is patents. The RP world has been patent mad - to qualify that statement, the various manufacturers have been rabid about protecting their intellectual property to the point where it’s nearly killed some of the bigger vendors by distracting from product development and real innovation.

But patents expire and many of the original and highly fundamental patents have now started to expire. One of the key patents is US Patent number 5121329. US patents have a lifespan of 20 years. As you’ll see, this fundamental patent expired last October. Without that fundamental protection, Stratasys have gone past the point of no return and despite of a heavy schedule of filing new patents, without this core patent, there would be interesting times. But alongside these commercial shenanigans, there’s an interesting analogy with the RP world and HP, who famously started in a garage.

The last few years have seen a similar movement in the RP world. Much of these were kicked started by Adrian Bowyer at the University of Bath and his RepRap project with developed over the course of a number of years, a fully open source rapid prototyping machine. this work has exploded in the last few years and spured many commerical endevours to build businesses of the back of it - perhaps the most famous is the MakerBot . These products offered dramatically cheaper alternatives to traditional vendor’s offerings (often by a factor of 10x cheaper or more) BUT, you’ll notice that they also use the extruded deposition method of construction.

So, with those in the ‘garage’ (if you call MakerBot shifting 150+ units a month a garage business) jumping all over their turf with cheap (and I mean really cheap) alternatives and patent expiration, the time is perfect for a link up with an organisation that has the ability to shift serious volume of products. With volume comes the ability to reduce cost of manufacture and that for me is another key factor.

This is the dirty little secret of the RP world. Unless you’re talking laser optics-based systems, many 3D printing machines are pretty basic mechanical devices. Z Corp uses powder, ink, binding agent and off the shelf inkjet print heads to create models. FDM uses plastic filament, a heated tip to do the same. All have some form of movement mechanism, but these are height enabled version of the same mechanisms that have been around in dramatically lower cost machines for decades.

With HPs involvement the potential for Stratasys to shift dramatically larger volumes at lower costs means even cheaper machines and that in turn means more volume. The cycle is endless. According to Ralph Grabowski’s blog, Stratasys admitted that they’d only be able to produce 5,000 units per year. While this initial agreement sees Stratasys building the machines for HP, my prediction is that HP will bring its global manufacturing expertise to play if things take off. And that’s when it’ll get crazy.

Why Stratasys?

The answer is simple. There are many different rapid prototyping methods. SLA uses resins and lasers. Sintering uses lasers and powder. Z corp uses powder and printed binder. The list goes on. And on.

What links these is that they all have at least one advantage - of mess or of complexity/cost. Z corporation is a relatively cheap process in comparison to SLA, but the powder nature of material means that it’s not ideal for home or office, widespread use. Stratasys’ FDM process is perhaps the cleanest of them all.

I had this part built when we tried out the uPrint machine when it launched - data straight from SolidWorks built in a couple of hours. And yes, you can jump on it and it won’t break.

It also builds very very tough parts. While the material is often referred to as being a production intent material (such as ABS), the product method and the production process means that you’ll never get the same mechanical characteristics as injection moulded plastic - but it’s helluva lot tougher than most RP parts and the company has built its reputation on that fact alone.

Questions?

The deal raises many questions. When? Later this year. Where?  For once, the Europeans will get first go at it, with Germany, France, Italy, UK, and Spain getting the first dibs (I’d guess there’s either some patent licensing/commerical agreements, perhaps with resellers stopping the US getting in on the act at launch too. How much? God knows. My prediction is that these will be much lower than the uPrint machine (it’s currently $14,900) - my guess around about the $6K to $8K mark.

If HP use their printing experience, perhaps they’ll even discount it further and make the cash back on selling filament materials. More technical questions mostly relate to materials - both build and the question of supports and their removal. At present, Stratasys’ machines all use support material that in most cases is water soluble. I wonder how this will work out in more commercial product. The likes of the MakerBot do without it. Can the HP FDM do without it too and just produce parts, straight off the machine? Also, how will the material be delivered? Stratasys have cartridge based material deployment at present, but is that ready for the big time? Also, what about blocked nozzles and such?

Alongside these questions, there are also questions relating the industry as a whole. Other vendors are going to have to look at their business models and product/consumable prices. Service providers might be affected also if these things proliferate. and of course, there’s also a whole industry waiting in the wings to build around these types of products. If you have commmon place 3D printers, then people are going to need parts to build. Someone will build a business around providing spare part models for common appliances - you buy, you download, you print. That raises the question of liability if that part fails (something that’s been discussed at the ReBang blog.

But let’s not get carried away with the negativity. This is a huge week for the rapid prototyping world. Perhaps it’s time that the promise of the last 30 years comes true and that we can all afford to have a 3D printer in the home, or at least in the office. This might all be pure speculation and I’m sure I got a few details wrong, but it’s exciting times and we’ll find out what’s going on in the coming few months.Game on.

Siemens has just announced the Student Edition of its flagship NX software. On his recent blog post, Jerry Sarfati (NX Marketing Manager at Siemens) said:

Siemens PLM Software has a very strong and active academic program, serving more than a million students annually at more than 10,000 partner institutions, offering software for use at every academic level.  However, we have not provided a solution for individual students who wished to purchase, learn and use NX. Recently, we have addressed this need, and we are pleased to announce the NX Student Edition.

The NX Student Edition has been developed as a single-user solution.  The Student Edition includes the complete suite of NX modeling, drafting, assemblies, and rendering capabilities, with NX Product Template Studio, complete documentation and self-teaching aids.  NX Student Edition is delivered with a simple license install and a click-wrap license agreement.

The NX Student Edition is available initially through a specialist academic reseller, JourneyEd, and is listed on their websites, which include:
JourneyEd - http://www.journeyed.com/item/Siemens/NX+6/100965802
Academic Superstore - http://www.academicsuperstore.com/products/Siemens/NX+6/1307799

An international company, JourneyEd will handle all aspects of the transaction, including verification of student credentials and payments via credit cards or PayPal.  JourneyEd will also promote NX Student Edition in their physical catalogs.

NX Student Edition is not intended to replace the existing academic solutions, but to supplement them. We believe it will help increase the availability of NX trained students in the future.

Interesting move. One thing I did find very amusing was the discount that Students now receive on the package. A whopping 99% off the retail list price (which is quoted as $20,775.05). There’s no mention of what the limitations are for the Student version (some restrict the functionality, some add watermarks to drawings), how long it’s active for (a year is typical) and whether its interoperable with commerical licenses of the software (many are not, using encryption or different formats). It is worth noting that the offering is based on NX 6, rather than the latest 7.0 release and that it’s Windows only at present - and it’s not clear whether this is North America or a global initiative.

I’ve never been a huge fan of seeing companies charge for Student licenses of their software. For students, money is tight and academic versions are about building both the next generation of users and the next generation of customers - it’s an investment. Some vendors give away their software for free if you have an academic email address (Autodesk) while others charge a nominal fee. NX 6 Student Edition is affordable at $139.95. Oddly, the Solid Edge Student version is 50 bucks more.

I received this from Dassault Systemes today and found that alongside having some very interesting details on the development of a new form of vehicle, it also shows an shift and two odd details - but first the details: Terrafugia, creators of the Transition Roadable Aircraft has chosen Catia for 3D composite and finite-element modeling and will be using Catia Analysis (PDF link) and Catia Composites Design (CPD) to design and develop its beta prototype, with delivery expected in 2011. The vehicle which can cruise up to 450 miles at 115+ mph, take off and land at local airports, drive at highway speeds on any road and fit in a normal suburban garage space. The two-seat vehicle has front wheel drive on the road and a propeller for flight, transforming from plane to car in thirty seconds. Both modes are powered by unleaded automobile gasoline. By giving pilots a convenient ground transportation option, the Transition reduces the cost, inconvenience and weather sensitivity of personal aviation.

After Terrafugia completed a successful Proof of Concept for the first version of its Transition Roadable Aircraft in early June, the design team began planning the vehicle’s second iteration. Having spent several years developing the initial Transition prototype, Terrafugia identified multiple ways in which they wanted to adjust the original design, including experimenting with alternate materials and sizing for the wings. In order to analyze the way different materials would bend or move under various conditions, the company required a solution with advanced 3D composite ply-modeling, dedicated part-modeling and material behavior simulation capabilities.

Now, here’s where the press release gets weird. It states that “RAND North America, a value-added reseller of Dassault Systemes PLM solutions… recommended that Terrafugia adopt Catia for its composite modeling needs. RAND chose Catia’s composite solutions for their exacting technical features, which would help Terrafugia correct problems like wrinkles and bridges in the very first stages of design by visualizing ply characteristics and fiber behavior. They also emphasized Catia’s value as an independent finite-element analysis (FEA) tool, thereby eliminating the need for a separate FEA investment.” Now. Is it me, or is odd to have a press release stating that a reseller chose the solutions for Terrafugia? Of course they did. That’s what they do and the fact that they chose the Catia-based solutions makes complete sense too. They were hardly going to sell them products from another company were they? It seems an entirely odd thing to have in a press release.

Now. Back to the details. Many of you might remember that Terrafugia appeared at SolidWorks World last year. Yes. They’re SolidWorks users. As the press release states “Impressed by its success with Dassault Systemes’ SolidWorks 3D design suite, which it began using in March 2009, Terrafugia enthusiastically adopted Catia Analysis and Catia CPD as composite-focused complements to its existing SolidWorks infrastructure.”

According to Ben Zelnick, engineer at Terrafugia: “Catia is a great complement to our SolidWorks solution.  Being able to have a full digital model of a ply-by-ply layout will allow us to conduct accurate structural analyses, which is invaluable in reducing the weight of the Transition. In fact, we recently correlated an analysis of a Catia model of a portion of the structure closely to a sample tested in our facility.”

Now, this is a shift. This is the first time I can recall a Dassault press release telling the world that a customer is using SolidWorks alongside Catia. Yes, SolidWorks is the workhorse design tool, with Catia providing highly specialised design and simulation tools that simply aren’t available within the SolidWorks product stack. Of course, in a round about way, it also raises the question of SolidWorks/Catia interoperability. Catia has, for sometime, been able to read SolidWorks files natively and this is used to great effect here. Of course, passing data back from Catia to SolidWorks natively is not possible but in this instance, wouldn’t really need to happen. An interesting user story and one that shows a shift in the relationship perhaps between SolidWorks and the Dassault mothership. From talking to a lot of people from both sides of the company, there’s greater co-operation between the two than has ever been the case before and this is perhaps an indication of that and it should benefit both user communities - of course, once bi-directionality is added to move data from Catia to SolidWorks, rather than the other way around.

mmmm. tasty new colours for ABS parts

Dimensioning Printing has just launched an extension of the uPrint machine it launched a year ago. Still priced at under $20,000. What are the upgrades to this machine? Let’s take a look.

1) A build envelope of 203 x 203 x 152 mm (that’s 8 x 8 x 6 in for those of you in the 14th century).
2) Print in eight colours* of ABSplus material including red, blue, olive, black, dark gray, nectarine and fluorescent yellow as well as the basic ivory (the standard uPrint would only print with ivory filament)/
3) It has two resolution settings on 0.254mm and 0.33mm.
4) Smart Supports within the software reduces the support material usage by structuring the support build (this is also available now for the standard uPrint).
5) The new SR-30 support is an improvement on the standard support material that dissolves 69% faster.

*it’s worth noting that you can only build in one colour at a time and need to change filament spools to swap colours out.