Formnext is Europe’s largest additive manufacturing (AM) tradeshow, with 632 exhibitors from 32 countries and roughly 27,000 visitors. This means that of those 632 businesses on show, a significant portion will be making significant announcements.
To cover it all, engineering.com will be breaking the story into two parts: all of the news released ahead of the event and everything announced at the event. Think of it like pre-game and post-game shows before the Super Bowl, except, instead of breathtaking concussions performed by masterful athletes, we’ll be discussing new materials, machines and partnerships from 3D printing vendors.
CEAD and Siemens
We previously covered CEAD and its impressively large and fast fiber reinforcement 3D printing process. For Formnext, the Dutch startup will be showcasing the AM Flexbot, a Comau industrial robotic arm outfitted with CEAD’s single screw extruder and powered by Sinumerik CNC with Run MyRobot /Direct Control. The AM Flexbot is a hybrid system, meaning that it first 3D prints an object to near-net-shape before switching to a CNC head to mill the part to completion.
3D Printing Materials
A wide range of 3D printing materials will be on display from just about every chemical company with additive solutions on the market. Though each are surely unique in their own way, there are just too many to cover in any substantial depth. For that reason, we’re breaking them down in list form here:
- Henkel: A photopolymer resin dedicated to Origin’s programmable photopolymerization process. The material meets UL’s 94V-0 fire safety standard and withstands 12 and 60 second vertical burn tests adhered to in the aerospace industry.
- Evonik: A copolyester; Polyamide 613 with high mechanical strength, chemical and temperature resistance, low water absorption, and a high heat deflection temperature; a PEEK filament for medical implants, and bioresorbably filaments and powders for implantable medical devices. an implant-quality PEEK-based filament; and bioresorbable RESOMER filaments and powders for implantable medical devices.
- LEHVOSS: A PET filament, along with two PET filaments reinforced with carbon fiber, a polyamide filament, and a TPU laser-sintering powder designed for 3D printing custom insoles.
- DSM: A UL Blue Card-certified flame-retardant PA6/66 filament, tested with the Ultimaker S5 3D printer. DSM is also teaming with Belgian customization software firm Twikit to create workflows for 3D printing customizable products for the medical, automotive and apparel industries
- Solvay: The company’s Sinterline Technyl PA6 powder range for selective laser sintering can now boast the mechanical and thermal requirements for use in low- to medium- volume production with improved processing characteristics. Solvay has also launched HUB by Sinterline, service platform that includes a predictive simulation tool for printing parts made from Sinterline materials, as well as prototyping and applications testing services.
- Lubrizol: has created a new thermoplastic polyurethane for the HP Jet Fusion 4200 system. The ESTANE 3D TPU M95-A is designed for flexible and elastic parts
Autodesk
Sometimes attracting attention at tradeshows is all about the most elaborate booth possible and, at this year’s Formnext, attendees may be attracted to that of Autodesk. The software developer will host a massive 3D-printed boat from Italian startup moi composites. The boat, dubbed MAMBO, measures 6.5 meters in length and 2.5 meters in height.
However, the size of the craft may not be as impressive as the technology and material that made it. MAMBO was printed from continuous fiberglass composite using moi’s Continuous Fiber Manufacturing (CFM) process. CFM uses a six-axis industrial robotic arm to cure photopolymer composites into large-scale objects.
Tritone
Israeli startup Tritone will be unveiling its new metal AM process, Tritone DOMINANT, for the first time at the European trade show. Details about the process are still under wraps, but the information that has been released revolve around the fact that the technology is meant to enable mass production of 3D-printed metal parts.
DOMINANT is able to use a wide array of metals, such as stainless and tool steels, titanium, copper alloys and some ceramics, such as alumina. Tritone claims that its system can print parts from 2mm to 250 mm in size and at a speed of up to 1000 cc per hour. The 3D printer is also meant to be safe and clean in terms of work environment because the printing material is stored in cartridges.
Lithoz
Benefits of Incus technology include speed, resolution and surface finish. (Image courtesy of Lithoz.)
Lithoz is known for its digital light processing (DLP) technology for high-performance ceramics, but now the Austrian firm has spun out a new company dedicated to the DLP 3D printing of metals: Incus. Incus will debut at Formnext with its Hammer Series of 3D printers designed to 3D print resins loaded with metal particles. The resulting green parts then undergo a debinding process before sintering results in the final part.
Launcher
New York startup Launcher has just closed a $1.5 funding round with the U.S. Air Force and has a massive rocket engine to show for it. At 86-cm tall, the E-2 copper rocket engine is the world’s largest liquid rocket engine combustion chamber printed as a single part. The engine was printed on the M4K 3D printer from AMCM, a consulting company spun out of EOS. The engine will be on display at Formnext before test firings begin next year.
Admatec
Admatec, a manufacturer of ceramic and metal DLP 3D printers, will be unveiling its Admaflex 300 3D printer at the trade show. The new system improves on the firm’s original technology by increasing the build volume, incorporating in-process quality control, and adding automated feedstock handling. The machine is open and modular in design so that future developments can be added to the machine, including multi-material 3D printing. With a build volume of 200 x 200 x 300 mm, the Admaflex 300 is targeted at investment casting large components.
BCN3D
After spinning out of its parent company in March 2019, BCN3D has released its third 3D printer, Epislon, and plans to showcase it at Formnext. The system builds off of its predecessors, the Sigma and Sigmax, with the ability to 3D print a wider range of engineering-grade materials, such as polypropylene, polyamide, ABS and fiber-reinforced filament. The system also includes IDEX dual-extrusion, for which BCN3D is known, as well as industrial-grade HEPA and carbon filters, a 5” touchscreen, cloud connection, an enclosed passive heated build chamber and an emergency stop feature.
HP
HP announced new subscriptions and services to expand the adoption of its 3D printing technologies, as well as new use cases from partners such as Siemens and Volkswagen. HP 3D as a Service (3DaaS), is a new business model from the company in which customers can subscribe to have HP 3D printing supplies automatically replenished, along with tracking and billing and remote on-site support.
Available for the HP Jet Fusion 5200, 4200, and 500 series machines is HP’s new Pay-per-Build service. There’s also 3DaaS Plus, which combines the use of the HP Jet Fusion 340 3D printer and additional 3DaaS subscriptions yet to be released.
HP also added more members to its Digital Manufacturing Network, Prototal in Europe and Solize in Japan. Additional partnerships include one with Siemens, with the two partners planning to display serial production-ready 3D-printed parts designed with two auto suppliers, EDAG and Adient.
Additive Manufacturing Technologies
Challenging Autodesk for most over-the-top booth display at Formnext will be Additive Manufacturing Technology (AMT). The UK AM firm with an 84-square-meter stand made up for over 6,000 3D-printed parts connecting 1,100 meters of aluminum tubing. The stand, which will be four-meters tall, was designed and built by Steel Roots Design, with 3D printed connectors post-processed using AMT’s automated post-processing technology.
This is just a small selection of what will be on show at the big European event. You may notice some big industry names missing from the list, which is most likely because they are waiting until Formnext actually takes place to make their big announcements. For those, you’ll have to check back in for our post-game wrap-up.