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)