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Next big thingAlistair Welch travels to Los Angeles and attends the celebration of 3D CAD that is Solidworks World

A week before the great, the good and the glitzy of the music industry assembled

in downtown Los Angeles for the Grammys, the stars of the 3D CAD world were out in force this February as some 5,000 delegates headed to the LA Convention Center for Solidworks World 2017.

Whilst the couture at Solidworks World might have been branded polo shirt rather than tuxedo or cocktail dress, the event is still very much an energetic celebration of a fantastically creative community. Solidworks users, professionals and resellers gather from all over the world to hear about the latest developments in the 3D CAD software and participate in a packed calendar of training seminars and demonstrations.

The Solidworks community comes together to network, learn, share and discover the latest in Solidworks 3D applications and engineering technologies that help millions of users create compelling customer experiences. This year’s four-day conference programme – based around the motto ‘the new, the next, the never before’ – featured keynote presentations from imaginative explorers who are nurturing the kind of technology, business and sustainability breakthroughs that inspire engineers

and designers to innovate.

Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American engineer who, as the first female private space explorer, spent eight days aboard the International Space Station, captivated the audience with a presentation celebrating both personal and engineering ambition. Also presenting on the General Session main stage Jason Silva, a futurist, media artist, and host of the National Geographic channel’s hit television series ‘Brain Games’, inspired delegates with his rapid-fire takes on technology, creativity, and the metaphysics of the imagination.

The programme also featured a variety of customers, highlighting the cutting-edge nature of engineering, design and collaboration possible with Solidworks technologies. Rock fans enjoyed an appearance by Mark Tremonti, lead guitarist of the band

Creed, alongside Paul Reed Smith of PRS Guitars to discuss the use of Solidworks and collaborative design in the development of Tremonti’s signature guitar.

Sustainability expert and social visionary Duane Elgin, with Jon Friedman, co-founder of Freight Farms, showed how the company modifies shipping containers to create year-round agriculture in any environment and empower local food production. And Motiv Robotics, a partner of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to discuss

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the design of advanced robotic systems for industrial applications, disaster relief, defense, and extreme environments.

There were also presentations from a number of educational partners highlighting how Solidworks is being used to inspire and train the next generation of designers and engineers. On the final morning of the conference, delegates in the General Session were treated to a live ‘Battle Bots’ competition which saw robots designed by student teams fight to the mechanical death in the ‘Dodecagon of

Doom’. The fearsome robots, bristling with

buzz saws, pick axes and flipping mechanisms, were all designed in Solidworks and the audience were baying for smashed circuit boards as the sparks, literally, began

to fly.Beyond the metallic

carnage of robot warfare, Solidworks World 2017 also offered more than 200 tutorials, training sessions and events dedicated to beginning, intermediate and advanced Solidworks users that address best practices for 3D CAD and innovations in mechanical design and engineering. Highlights included: breakout and hands-on training sessions on topics including design automation, electrical and electronic design, simulation and product data management; the much-anticipated unveiling of the user community-

generated top ten list of enhancements to future versions of Solidworks; demonstrations of Solidworks 2017 portfolio enhancements; and previews of upcoming features in Solidworks 2018.

“The Solidworks community shares a passion for innovation, collaboration and design that is unique,” reflects Solidworks (a Dassault Systèmes company) chief executive officer Gian Paolo Bassi. “Solidworks World fuses this unbridled energy with product development and technology strategies that are pushing the evolution of the internet of things, model based definition, additive manufacturing and other approaches. It’s the place to be for innovators looking to connect with each other, learn new skills, and transform how products are designed, manufactured and supported.”

Solidworks World is not just a great place to catch up with everything that’s going on in the world of Dassault Systèmes and Solidworks, the convention also offers the opportunities to learn about trends across the product development and 3D industries.

The convention hosts the Partner Pavilion, an exhibition populated by key companies in high performance workstations, 3D printing, CAM, and Solidworks software plug-ins.

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Walking the floor of the exhibition is an education in itself, and with many companies using Solidworks World as a platform to launch new products or make major announcements there were plenty of developments to take in.

In the 3D printing sector, Stratasys unveiled a new range of FDM-based machines – the F123 Series – aimed at the professional rapid prototyping market (read the full story from p.44).

Meanwhile, a relative newcomer to the 3D printer market – Rize – announced the public availability of its One 3D printer. A robust, industrial system, Rize One uniquely produces isotropic thermoplastic parts, with detailed text and images, that are twice as strong as ABSplus. Rize One is also the only office-safe 3D printer, with no toxic particle emissions, mess or harmful materials throughout the process and without post-processing after the machine saves both time and staffing costs.

“Today’s hobby-class desktop 3D

printers only serve the prototyping market and large, expensive 3D printers in labs only address the mid-volume manufacturing market,” explains Rize President and CEO, Frank Marangell. “Only Rize One, powered by our patented Augmented Polymer Deposition (APD) technology, serves the enormous, untapped market for safe, efficient one-offs of customized, end-use parts, tools and functional prototypes on the manufacturing floor or in the office, wherever and in whatever form that office might be.”

“We are seeing enormous worldwide demand for our Rize One 3D printer, particularly among global manufacturers and healthcare facilities, and we are excited to begin shipping,” he adds. “Our passionate and deeply experienced team has accomplished an impressive amount in a very short timeframe and we will quickly expand our go-to-market initiatives, while continuing to develop

innovative new products.”Moving to high performance

workstations, NVIDIA used Solidworks World 2017 to announce the introduction of a range of Quadro products, all based on its Pascal architecture, that transform desktop workstations into supercomputers with breakthrough capabilities for professional workflows across many industries.

Workflows in design, engineering and other areas are evolving rapidly to meet the exponential growth in data size and complexity that comes with photorealism, virtual reality and deep learning technologies. To tap into these opportunities, the new NVIDIA Quadro Pascal-based lineup provides an enterprise- grade visual computing platform that streamlines design and simulation workflows with up to twice the performance of the previous generation, and ultra-fast memory.

“Professional workflows are now

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infused with artificial intelligence, virtual reality and photorealism, creating new challenges for our most demanding users,” says Bob Pette, vice president of Professional Visualization at NVIDIA. “Our new Quadro lineup provides the graphics and compute performance required to address these challenges. And, by unifying compute and design, the Quadro GP100 transforms the average desktop workstation with the power of a supercomputer.”

Lenovo unveiled a host of updated versions of its machines, including the ThinkPad P71 Mobile Workstation – built with the demands of virtual and augmented reality in mind. The all new NVIDIA Quadro GPUs bring a high level of performance never before seen in a mobile workstation. Paired with Intel Xeon processors, up to 2TB of the ultra fast PCIe storage and 64GB of memory and users have in their hands the fastest and most powerful mobile workstation Lenovo

has ever built. Capable of staggering speed and power, the ThinkPad P71 will have what it takes to meet the needs of the most discerning users in the most demanding fields of work.

Solidworks supports a large number of third-party plug-ins that help users to get the most out of the software for their particular needs.

One such company SimSolid was in the Partner Pavilion to promote its unique approach to structural, modal, and thermal analysis that eliminates the need for model simplification and mesh creation.

SimSolid, a Solidworks Certified Solution Partner, is the next generation of structural FEA. It uses new computational methods which allow you to solve assemblies with hundreds to thousands of parts directly on your standard desktop computer. “SimSolid is the perfect complement to Solidworks Simulation,” says SimSolid founder Ken Welch. “It extends the analysis

range to large assemblies and provides feedback in seconds to minutes.”

Plethora, meanwhile, is a company looking to put the factory at your fingertips. The Plethora plug-in provides complete, end-to-end manufacturing service – from manufacturability feedback to fulfillment in our San Francisco factory. With a simple add-in inside a user’s SolidWorks or Inventor CAD programme, users can manufacture customized parts to keep pace with rapid design cycles. The plug-in offers real-time pricing of your part within Solidworks, helping the user to get the prototype they need as fast as possible.

Sure, unlike the Grammys, Solidworks World 2017 might not have had a goddess-like performance by a pregnant Beyoncé, but that aside the event truly delivered on its promise to showcase “the new, the next, and the never before.”

www.solidworks.com

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Filling the gapStratasys unveils a range of 3D printers addressing the professional prototyping market

During Solidworks World 2017 ,Stratasys, the 3D printing and additive manufacturing

solutions company, unveiled the new professional, versatile and fast FDM-based F123 Series (F170, F270 and F370) for smarter prototyping, designed to make professional rapid prototyping more productive for design workgroups.

The Stratasys F123 Series empowers vir tually any user, regardless of 3D printing experience, to build durable and accurate prototypes using a range of functional FDM 3D printing materials. A single Stratasys F123 Series 3D Printer addresses the complete prototyping workflow, from initial concept verification to design validation and final functional performance, to ensure product designs are thoroughly evaluated and endorsed before manufacturing – resulting in better products and

shorter lead times. Design workgroups play a

dominant role in product design and development in consumer products, aerospace, automotive and other key industries. According to recent Stratasys surveys, accessibility, ease of use and material choice are among the top priorities in the wider adoption of 3D printing for rapid prototyping in workgroups. The F123 Series addresses these and other rapid prototyping requirements to potentially accelerate the adoption of 3D printing for product design and development.

The Stratasys F123 Series accepts up to four material types in 10 colours to support a wide range of prototyping and tooling applications. For example, the F123’s new Fast Draft Mode leverages PLA material to quickly produce conceptual prototypes at a low cost per part. Production-grade ASA and ABS are

ideal for producing strong, stable, repeatable parts and for even stronger, impact-resistant parts there is engineering-grade PC-ABS.

Enhanced user experience dominates the Stratasys F123 Series design, with no special 3D printing expertise required to achieve professional results. Fueled by Stratasys Insight software, almost any CAD file can be utilized while Stratasys’ GrabCAD Print eliminates time wasted on file conversion and STL preparation.

“It’s pretty powerful having this much capability in a single system that sits right in our work space. We’ve tried lower-end 3D printers in the past, and to be honest, they’re dimensionally inaccurate. The Stratasys F370 matches the CAD input every time with accurate, high quality prototypes,” says Jesse Hahne, par tner, Center for Advanced Design. “The key for us

The F123 Series

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to fast-track product development is getting physical samples in front of our customers as soon as possible. With our new Stratasys F370, we’re able to get brand new iterations in a matter of hours. This rapid prototyping solution has truly become a member of our team.”

The exterior design for the Stratasys F123 Series was created together with leading industrial design firm Designworks, a BMW Group Company. Most operations are easily performed using a touch screen user interface. Stratasys F123 Series can be operated remotely from any networked computer in a shared workgroup setting and build progress can be monitored from portable devices. Installing and replacing material is equally fast and easy.

“Our inspiration for the design of the Stratasys F123 Series was advanced robotics. Just as robotic tools of the future will adapt to their envisioned usage environment, we worked with Stratasys to create a look, feel and ergonomic design for the F123 Series that would offer expertly crafted user interactions,” comments Andre de Salis, creative director, Designworks. “The Stratasys F123’s striking metal cladding expresses the performance, durability and refinement of the 3D printer to bring a new level of excitement and accessibility to professional 3D printing.”

“Today there is a vast market opportunity in product prototyping that we feel is not being addressed by current 3D printing systems. The launch of the Stratasys F123 Series targets these product design workgroups, industrial designers, engineers, students and educators who demand a professional quality rapid prototyping solution that’s simple to use, produces reliable, engineering-quality results, integrates perfectly within an office or lab setting, and is affordable to own and operate,” adds Zehavit Reisin, vice president, head of rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. “As the company that invented FDM, Stratasys brings a rich pedigree to the F123 Series, providing our customers an optimal balance between usability and high performance.”

A long-time member of the Solidworks Partner Program, Stratasys is also announcing a GrabCAD Print Add-In for Solidworks. It enables the user to estimate and 3D print parts for a range of Stratasys systems, including

the F123 Series without leaving the Solidworks environment, giving 3D printer access to the entire community of Solidworks design and engineering professionals.

www.stratasys.com

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Additive manufacturing – why the time is right nowNigel Pready on why AM is enabling businesses to produce components that deliver performance-enhancing solutions to their engineering issues

You can’t have missed the revolution taking place in manufacturing. The potential of

additive manufacturing (AM) seems to grow every day – whether it’s enabling tools to be generated on the International Space Station, or every type of object from nano-sized electronic components, to concept cars, to entire office buildings to be produced here on Earth.

Using a process in which materials such as aluminium powder are deposited, layer-by-layer, and solidified to create objects based upon computer-generated three-dimensional models, AM is enabling businesses to produce components that deliver performance-enhancing solutions to their engineering issues – changing the way we design, manufacture and create.

Some industries are ahead of the curve in AM, with the aerospace, construction and health arenas already investigating its potential. Specialist and racing car manufacturers, including Formula 1 teams, have embraced the design freedoms that it offers: many other industries, however, still

seem uncertain or unconvinced of the benefits that it can bring to their business. But with interest now starting to build beyond the ‘early adopters’ and academia, and an almost threefold rise in the number of commercial organisations involved in additive manufacturing research, it’s not something that you should ignore. If your organisation hasn’t considered the value that AM can add to your design and production processes, now is the time to investigate.

In our work across a range of sectors we solve complex engineering challenges for our clients, sharing cross-industry best practice, and thus we’re able to see the potential benefits that AM offers across a wide range of industries. As we don’t produce or sell AM machines we’re able to offer a completely impartial opinion as to whether additive manufacturing or conventional processes are more appropriate for our customers’ business needs. One of the key contributions we see AM making to our clients is in enabling manufacturing design freedoms. It allows companies to design and produce components

that aren’t possible with subtractive methods, perhaps because of their complex geometric structure, or due to the constraints of traditional casting or machining methods.

The combination of 3D computer-generated design and the additive layering process, allows multiple parts to be consolidated within a single design, with the same functionality. Reducing the number of parts needed can simplify assembly and mean that less material is required and this, in turn, can potentially drive down the product’s price. Another way in which consolidation can benefit the manufacturing process is in the provision of engineering solutions that may not have previously been achievable, for example in the area of weight reduction. In one of our projects, we not only integrated six elements into a single component, but were also able to achieve a reduction of 30% in its mass.

AM also offers the opportunity to individualise designs. Unlike a moulding or casting process, which requires a pre-made form or die that can be costly and time-consuming to change, in AM manufacturing you can simply alter the digital design. This means you can produce a one-off component as a prototype, create a more cost-effective small batch of parts, or even offer bespoke shapes, sizes or colours for a mass-produced item. Because components can be, effectively, printed ‘on demand’, your production schedule can be lean, with only the quantity required by the customer created, while modifications to a part can be made

Oak Ridge National

Laboratory

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and implemented without lengthy delays for mould changes – reducing production costs and time. Indeed, the flexibility of AM’s ‘print on demand’ system can offer benefits across your inventory management, cutting storage overheads, and transportation and distribution costs. It can shorten the turnaround time to your customer, by allowing a product to be created locally, and lessen your environmental impact, with reduced energy consumption and decreased waste.

The opportunity for one-off production offers a further lifetime advantage, in that it may give you the opportunity to manage obsolescence and extend component lifespan, by recreating parts when needed for repair or replacement in legacy systems. Keeping a ‘digital library’ of part specifications on memory cards takes up less storage space than maintaining a stock of actual parts – each of which will begin to deteriorate from the day of manufacture.

While AM can benefit legacy equipment, it can also contribute to innovation. One area in which AM has already proven itself is in delivering lower-cost component prototypes

quickly, allowing tests to be undertaken and investment decisions made faster. This benefits both start-up companies looking to get investment or to launch new products onto the market quickly, and established companies wishing to innovate with existing products or branch out into new lines

Perhaps you’re in a high hazard or safety critical industry, which uses critical components that need to meet high/regulatory standards, or you may be trying to work out how AM could integrate into your current processes. While AM is becoming more widespread, what isn’t common are the skills and expertise needed to ensure that these critical components can be matched – and potentially improved – using AM techniques. Rather than simply switching manufacturing production to AM, specialist advice should be sought, to ensure that you fully exploit the benefits of AM whilst meeting the certification criteria.

The flexibilities that AM provides can potentially save costs across the whole-life of the component, so considering it at an initial design stage makes sound economic sense. Even if unsuitable for a current project, the

technology behind AM advances daily and its cost continues to fall, and as it develops it will enable production of ever more complex components – those with variable mechanical properties, or complex shapes with additional functionality such as electrical or even biopharmaceutical properties.

Whether you have a potential idea in mind for which you need assessment, are looking for help with concept generation, or are uncertain whether AM meets your business needs, finding out more about AM now can get you ahead of the curve, ready to capitalise on the many benefits this technology can bring.

Nigel Pready is Group Leader of Frazer-Nash’s Structural Technology team

www.fnc.co.uk

ISS AM component

Shelby Cobra

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Future forecast: four 3D printing predictions for the months ahead2017 is already looking like a busy year for 3D printing. For the industry and end users alike, the next 12 months will be filled with opportunity. Here’s what to expect by Mark Tyrtania

1. New mid-range hardwareIt is no secret. Last year was a challenging one for 3D printing. But things are looking up for 2017. Manufacturers can only release so many products every 12 months, and last year the focus was on rolling out a revamped range of entry-level MakerBots, and bedding in Stratasys’ flagship J750, a full-colour printer. The latter turned the industry on its head and—as the first printer capable of outputting more than 360,000 colours natively—it’s taken users’ expectations to the next level.

This year, the focus will fall between these two markets since re-revving the same product areas would be needless duplication and do little to bring new users to the market. Speed increments are always welcome and, with faster processors and key components now on stream, it wouldn’t be unrealistic to expect improvements here.

Whether we see prices falling in sync is open to question, particularly with the global economy in a state of flux and showing no signs of improving any time soon. But with the tech behind 3D printing starting to mature, we can hope to see manufacturers at least thinking about ways to reduce costs with a view to attracting upgrades from entry-level users and bringing a whole new audience to the platform.

2. A fresh file formatSTL—the format that’s served the industry well for so long—is on its way out. It won’t disappear in 2017, but by 2020 we can expect it to be a legacy format supporting hobbyists and older machines.

In its place will be GrabCAD Print, which should go mainstream over the next 12 months. GrabCAD, the company behind the eponymous software and format, was established as a community for 3D designers who wanted to collaborate. Before long, it was developing its own applications, and it now ships both GrabCAD Workbench, its core collaboration product, and GrabCAD Print, the software so hotly tipped for 2017.

GrabCAD Print marks a fundamental shift in the 3D workflow, which until now has required designers to translate their work from the original CAD to STL format before it can be used by the printer. GrabCAD’s native file format cuts out this intermediate step, allowing the software to address the 3D printing hardware directly. It integrates other functions too, like repair and packaging, which would previously have required some manual wrangling using a third application like Materialise Magics.

Aside from the simplified workflow, the move to GrabCAD will give us all more meaningful interfaces and a unified working environment, which I believe will be adopted across the

board sooner rather than later. The GrabCAD development team hasn’t been working in isolation, but building alliances with the biggest names in 3D printing, giving it the potential to be an industry standard within the next three to four years.

3. Novel materialsAll the hardware and software in the world are useless without materials, and while they might not be headline-grabbers, there are innovations aplenty primed for release in 2017.

Stratasys is rolling out soluble material support across its entire PolyJet range, including printers designed for desktop use. This kind of material is used during the printing process to support otherwise overhanging parts, and it washes away once the model is complete, leaving just the finished object behind. It’s a far neater, quicker and less painstaking option than relying on designers to snap off and sand down the parts they don’t need.

This coincides with the release of a newly announced material called SR35. This dissolves more quickly than existing options to significantly shorten the overall production time.

Other, permanent materials currently coming on-stream (such as Nylon 6) are stronger and more durable, so they can be used for the small-scale production of finished parts or for more accurate test printing during an iterative development process.

4. A grand entranceFinally, this could be the year that we

Mark Tyrtania

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Metal 3D printing is set to grow dramatically over the next five years, but it’s not without its challenges says Laser Lines Paul Tickle. And when it comes to metal 3D printing, the biggest challenge is switching people on to what can be achieved with the technology. The aerospace, automotive and medical sectors are relatively advanced in their use of metal 3D printing. We now need to expand this across other business sectors.

As more industries recognise the benefits that can be realised with SLM technology, metal 3D printing will become much more commonplace. The time, cost and efficiency saving—as well as the freedom from design constraints—are incredible, but the

challenge is convincing people to adopt the technology.

In terms of how metal 3D printing compares to plastic 3D printing, the two processes are very similar. Both technologies require a 3D CAD file

that’s subsequently divided into 2D layers by the system software. The part is then produced layer by layer.

With metal printing it’s possible to produce complicated, intricate structures that reduce cost, product weight, and material waste. Structures that cannot be produced using traditional manufacturing methods can only be realised with 3D metal printing.

With the technology developing at such an astounding rate, people need to choose the right solution to suit their current business, but also future-proof that solution so they can develop it over time to meet their changing business needs.

With further realisation of Industry 4.0 and the smart factory,

welcome a new player to the 3D printing arena. Hewlett Packard (HP) has been making a lot of noise about Jet Fusion, its own take on the additive production process.

HP’s demoed some impressive development machines at trade shows throughout 2016. It’s also hired people with key industry experience to develop, market and sell the technology. Its reseller network is

ready to go. If it achieves all that it claims then it’s likely to attract a whole new user base.

HP can’t afford to take a high-profile gamble like this and fail which is no doubt why, compared to some of its rivals, it is pouring a lot of money into the project. The trouble is, for a company of HP’s size, its apparent bottom line still doesn’t represent a particularly significant

investment. Perhaps it hasn’t fully grasped the difference between 2D printing – where it excels – and the complexities of the third dimension, which it’s only now starting to address.

Mark Tyrtania is Sales Director at Laser Lines

www.3dprinting.co.uk

Why it’s time to focus on metal 3D printing

Paul Tickle

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Laser Lines Richard Hoy says it’s impossible to overstate the difference that 3D printing has made to the quality of human life . Not only has it revolutionised product development, allowing us all to reap the benefits of faster iterative design, but in healthcare it has literally been a lifesaver.

Doctors no longer have to rely on flat MRI and CT scans, combined with their own calculations. With 3D printing, particularly since the advent of multi-material devices like the Connex3 range and J750, it’s now possible to reproduce clinical data in a tactile, three-dimensional form.

It’s revolutionised the way surgeons are diagnosing illnesses and planning interventions to repair damage and

remove unwanted growths.The perfect material mixA Stratasys-commissioned

investigation into the clinical and economic promise of 3D printing for surgical planning identified 60 instances in which clinicians used patient-specific printed models to help reduce operating time and surgical complexity.

The J750’s ability to use more materials at once is key. It means you can create clear parts. Other components in different colours are clearly visible inside. Constructing such a model needn’t be difficult, either.

Traditional scan data of the

metal 3D printing will see further advancements. The technology is moving at a rapid pace with new materials and techniques being announced almost daily.

It’s now possible to print using a variety of techniques and a variety of metals. A key component in making

Industry 4.0 a reality is machines that can produce larger components faster, more flexibly and more precisely than ever before. SLM Solutions is leading the way with larger build envelopes and multi laser technology to produce parts leading to faster build times.

To maximise these benefits,

companies are realising the need to understand where to apply the technology along both the supply and value chains. Having an additive manufacturing strategy is no longer just nice to have—it’s now a necessity. Without a doubt, this will be a real game changer.

How surgical safety’s on the up thanks to 3D printing

Richard Hoy

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sor t that doctors use already is enough to generate an STL file that incorporates each of the different materials. Surgeons and medical experts can then study the body par t as a 3D model when working out how to operate, which helps

them see things in much more depth.

The models help surgeons plan for – and sometimes rule out – work on cardiac lesions and surgery, liver transplants and tumour removal.The new technology is delivering

supplementary benefits too, with cardiovascular surgeons pointing to increased patient safety and clinician confidence as two favourable consequences of its introduction.

www.3dprinting.co.uk