3D printing news ICYMI: 2017 Hackaday Prize, Formlabs Form 1+ discontinued, Formide cloud solution, more

Mar 25, 2017 | By Benedict

In a week that saw a large number of dental 3D printing innovations showcased at IDS 2017, there was also additive manufacturing news from the U.S. Navy, SLA pioneer Formlabs, beloved tech website Hackaday, and others. Here’s a quick roundup.

Navy and Marine corps showcase 3D printed innovations at Pentagon-hosted 3D Print-a-Thon

On Tuesday, Navy and Marine corps showcased a handful of military 3D printing innovations at the 2017 Department of the Navy (DoN) 3D Print-a-Thon, which was held at the Pentagon. A total of 40 innovative projects were presented, including a 3D printed electric motor cooling fan which could be fabricated for $1.39 compared to the $375.00 open purchase price for the item. Other 3D printed items included explosive charges, fuel cells, sonobuoys, shipboard antennas, customized propellers, sensors, and valves.

"Additive Manufacturing is a potential game-changing technology for naval warfare,” said Dr. John Burrow, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development, test and evaluation (DASN RDT&E) and keynote speaker at the Print-a-Thon. “It accelerates capability development and will increase our readiness by reducing obsolescence or long lead time issues. It also enables a new design space that allows for component or platform characteristics not possible through legacy manufacturing methods.”

Participating organizations at the military event included Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Air Systems Command, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific, Naval Surface and Undersea Warfare Center divisions, Naval Research Laboratory, Marine Corps 2nd Maintenance Battalion, and organizations throughout the Naval Research and Development Establishment. Selected 3D printed items from the event will be shown at the Navy League's 2017 Sea-Air-Space Exposition from April 3-5.

SLA 3D printing company Formlabs sells out of the Form 1+

Formlabs’ current 3D printer model, the Form 2, is a year and a half old, but is generally regarded as one of the strongest resin 3D printers available to the general consumer. Its predecessor, the Form 1+, also got itself a good reputation within the stereolithography community, but that 3D printer’s time has now come to an end. After three years on the market enabling projects from medical devices to stop-motion films, the Form 1+ is officially sold out,” Formlabs says.

Formlabs says it will continue to offer customer support to Form 1+ users, which will include providing consumables, such as build platforms and resin tanks, “for as long as we reasonably can.” In order to move more customers toward the Form 2, Formlabs is currently offering a discount on upgrading the Form+ to a Form 2.

“While it's always bittersweet to say goodbye, we’re celebrating this shift,” the company adds. “We’ll continue doubling down on the Form 2, a printer we strongly believe in, and continue to develop the ecosystem and platform that surrounds it.”

Prodways readies French stock market launch

3D printing company Prodways announced on Friday it has filed its Base Document with the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) under the number I.17-008. The filing constitutes the first stage in Prodways’ planned initial public offering (IPO) on the Euronext Paris exchange, France’s securities market, subject to market conditions and the AMF's approval of the prospectus relating to the operation.

Prodways’ revenue went from €0.1 million in 2013 to €25.2 million in 2016, including €13.1 million for its SYSTEMS division and €12.2 million for its PRODUCTS division. PRODWAYS generated 58% of its revenue in international markets in 2016. The planned IPO will allow Prodways to accelerate its R&D investments and business development, as well as to finance targeted acquisitions in the 3D printing sector.

2017 Hackaday Prize launches

The fourth annual Hackaday Prize was launched on Monday. The contest aims to “expand the frontiers of knowledge and engineering while innovating to make an extraordinary impact on peoples’ lives.” Sponsored by Digi-Key and Microchip, this year’s edition of the competition features a new technical design challenge every five weeks and will award thousands in cash prizes to engineers, inventors, and tinkerers who “build something that matters.”

The first round of the Hackaday Prize 2017 is called “Design Your Concept.” This round encourages entrants to present a problem and pitch an answer that will change the world. They will be judged on how they map out their theories and concepts via hacks, logs, drawings, and diagrams.

The remaining rounds are “Internet of Useful Things,” “Wheels, Wings and Walkers” (projects that move), “Assistive Technology” and “Anything Goes.”

A bonus round, Best Product, will run simultaneously during the entire competition.

Twenty projects will be chosen from each of the 6 rounds, and awarded $1,000 per project. At the end of all 6 rounds, 120 projects in total will advance to the finals during which 6 top prizes will be awarded, totaling $250,000: $50K (grand prize), $30K (Best Product prize), $20K (second prize), $15K (third prize), $10K (fourth prize) and $5K (fifth prize).

In addition, the winner/winning team of the grand prize project will be interviewed and considered for a residency in the Supplyframe DesignLab to further develop their project.

Hackaday previously awarded the grand prize to the inventor of Dtto, a modular self-reconfigurable robot designed for all-terrain search and rescue operations.

The 2017 Hackaday Prize judges represent the best of the best of the engineering and maker communities, including inventor, maker and robotics enthusiast Simone Giertz, educator and engineer Christal Gordon and hacker and TV-B-Gone inventor Mitch Altman.

Printr announces Formide cloud solution for Raspberry Pi

Dutch 3D printing startup Printr has announced the launch of its cutting-edge Formide cloud solution, which is compatible with Raspberry Pi technology. 3D printer users can now connect a Raspberry Pi and 3D printer to Formide without any startup costs. The startup also says the solution has the “right mix” of proprietary and open source technology.

“Printr was founded with the very idea of making 3D printing easy and accessible to everybody, every time and everywhere,” say Printr founders Douwe Bart Mulder and Chris ter Beke. “Each step we took during the last two years had this ultimate goal in mind. Today we open up our Formide cloud solution to Raspberry Pi users as well as to The Element users.”

“Our cloud solution is based on the feedback addressing how the iterative design-to-print process can be accelerated and streamlined while producing a high level quality of printed objects; no matter if it’s a single user or a team of engineers working on a project.” ter Beke added.

State-run Russian corporation Rosatom to release 3D printer by end of 2017

Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, a state-run Russian corporation that specializes in nuclear technology, this week announced plans to produce a prototype 3D printer by the end of 2017. According to Alexey Dub, director general of JSC Science & Innovation, a scientific research division of Rosatom, the 3D printer will be used for nuclear applications as well as medical ones.

“Industrial production of printers for the 3D printing of metal products has a great future, and not only in the nuclear industry,” Dub said. “The market [for 3D printed medical implants] can be estimated at more than 8 billion rubles.”

DSM introduces Somos® Taurus for elevated temperature 3D printed part applications

Royal DSM, a global science-based company active in health, nutrition and materials, announced this week the introduction of Somos® Taurus. Somos Taurus is the latest addition to the Somos SLA material portfolio which expands its product offering for elevated temperature performance.

Somos Taurus is the first SLA material to be both durable and have the ability to withstand elevated temperatures. With a heat deflection temperature (HDT) of 95°C (203°F), fully functional parts can be created for applications that have more stringent high heat requirements for prototyping or low volume end-use parts. The material is charcoal grey in appearance giving it the look and feel of traditional thermoplastics. In addition, Somos Taurus builds quickly and is easy to process, clean and creates parts with smooth surfaces, fine features and details.

"The higher HDT of Somos Taurus allows us to expand into new applications for the automotive, aerospace and electronics markets where high temperature performance and durability are required," says Jasper van Dieten-Blom, Global Marketing Manager Somos Materials. "We are excited to deliver this material to our customers and provide them with even more uses for SLA 3D printed parts."

Somos Taurus is the first of several high-performance SLA materials to come from Somos that combines the toughness and temperature combination that is required for end-use applications.

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