Wohlers Associates helps organizations take advantage of technologies and strategies that enhance the rapid product development and manufacturing process.
GE Global Research sponsored a web broadcast yesterday titled The Future of Additive Manufacturing. The company used Google+ Hangout to provide audio and video of the four panelists and moderator to about 2,000 attendees. It was GE’s first “hangout,” and mine too. The event took some advance preparation and setup, but GE pulled it off beautifully. Click here to see the program in its entirety. The broadcast covered many interesting…
I had an interesting conversation last week with three guys from Made In Space. CEO Aaron Kemmer, CTO Jason Dunn, Mike Chen, and 17 others have come together to put a 3D printer on the International Space Station. The group has completed an impressive 400 zero gravity parabolic “cycles” (known to some as the Vomit Comet) totaling more than two hours of 3D printing research in microgravity. Members of the…
This new market study was published earlier this week, marking the 18th consecutive year of its publication. The report focuses on new 3D printing and additive manufacturing (terms we use interchangeably) applications, developments, and trends worldwide. The report was produced with help from 70 co-authors in 21 countries, as well as 74 service providers and 31 system manufacturers from around the world. Principal co-author and associate consultant Tim Caffrey and…
One of the more unusual and attention-grabbing applications for additive manufacturing is the 3D printing of food. A team at Cornell University has been pioneering “edible additive manufacturing” in collaboration with the French Culinary Institute since 2009. Food items, ranging from chocolate, cheese, and hummus, to turkey and scallops, have been pureed and successfully printed into 3D shapes on the syringe-based Fab@Home 3D printer. Essential Dynamics introduced the Imagine 3D…
I have been lucky to receive many parts and products made by additive manufacturing over the past 25 years. The first was a full scale automotive distributor cap made by stereolithography. SL photopolymers in the 1980s were particularly fragile and I managed to crack the part sometime after receiving it, but it is otherwise intact and in our office. I may now have sufficient number of AM parts to create…
On March 8, 2012, the White House announced a proposed investment of $1 billion for a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation involving up to 15 institutes across the U.S. An investment of this size requires congressional support, although a pilot institute has been funded by the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Commerce, and the National Science Foundation in the amount of $30 million. With required matching funds, the three-year program…
ASTM International Committee F42 on Additive Manufacturing Technologies was organized in 2009 to develop industry standards. To date, new standards on terminology, testing, a new file format (as an alternative to STL), and a titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) have been completed by the committee. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) also has a technical committee on additive manufacturing, called TC 261, with an almost identical focus and charge. Many of the…
There’s a reasonable chance that you have not yet heard about the Additive Manufacturing Consortium (AMC), which was launched in 2010 by EWI in Columbus, Ohio. EWI is a 140-employee, non-profit organization that develops and commercializes advanced manufacturing solutions, especially materials joining technology. Tim Caffrey, associate consultant at Wohlers Associates, and I visited EWI in November 2011 and we were very impressed by the people, equipment, and organization. EWI is…
Additive manufacturing (AM) is going places that many of us never anticipated. Frankly, I believe we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. The more I explore the future potential of AM and 3D printing technology, the more excited I become. I truly believe that AM will develop to become the most useful technology for the development and production of products than any other. The need for AM education and…
ASTM unites with the Wohlers brand to build on its market influence and access to top AM industry decision-makers worldwide.
Under the leadership of the R&D team, the AM CoE partners plan and conduct coordinated R&D projects, prioritized annually and targeted to expedite...
Provide a comprehensive program that educates and trains the additive manufacturing workforce at all levels, while continually incorporating new advances...
