Additive manufacturing startup pitches and announcements from EOS, HP, Materialise and more.
This year’s Formnext in Frankfurt, Germany kicked off with a slew of announcements from major industry players as well as pitches from up-and-coming additive manufacturing (AM) startups. Here are some of the highlights from Day 1.
EOS introduces P3 NEXT
AM supplier EOS has announced its new P3 NEXT industrial polymer 3D printer, designed for increased productivity and material efficiency in a smaller footprint than the prior EOS P 396 but with the same build volume (340x340x600mm).
“We listened to our customers and the market and delivered what we believe sets the new benchmark for midframe serial polymer SLS production,” said EOS Chief Business Officer for Polymers, Virginia Palacios, in a press release. “The EOS P3 NEXT is an exceptionally productive machine, and when combined with remarkable new materials – such as EOS PA 2220 HighReuse and ALM PA 950 HD, which require minimal refresh, the EOS P3 NEXT makes the strongest case yet for SLS for in-mouth devices, eyewear, surgical guides, structural components.”
According to the company, the P3 NEXT includes advanced software updates and scanning algorithms, improved recoater speed, optimized heating and new peripheral equipment. EOS claims these improvements translate into up to 50% increased productivity, up to 90% machine availability, up to 30% reduced total cost of ownership and 80% material reusability with ALM PA 950 HD nylon 12 material and 70% material reusability with EOS PA 2220 HighReuse.
The EOS P3 NEXT is commercially available beginning December 2024.
HP announces new material, software and collaborations
As part of its stated focus on scalable, cost-effective and sustainable solutions for polymer 3D printing, HP has introduced a new halogen-free, flame-retardant material: HP 3D HR PA 12 FR. According to the company, the material is 50% reusable and is produced using renewable energy.
HP has also introduced a new automated software tool at Formnext: the HP 3D Build Optimizer. Slated for launch in 2025 as a free application accessible via the cloud in the HP Digital Production Suite, the tool is designed to re-nest parts and reduce build costs using nesting rules specifically for Multi Jet Fusion technology. “As an early customer, Forecast 3D expects a 20% savings in total build costs with the HP Build Optimizer’s unique nesting rules for MJF,” said VP of commercial at Forecast 3D, Ken Burns, in an HP press release. “ In addition to these total build cost savings, we anticipate a 21% improvement in printer utilization with the HP Build Optimizer’s ability to increase packing density and parts per build.”
In addition to its own software tool, HP announced several collaborations, including the Autodesk Fusion bundle, a CAD/CAM and 3D build preparation solution integrated with HP’s Multi Jet Fusion and Metal Jet technologies. A single, year license of Autodesk Fusion will be included with every new purchase of a MJF or Metal Jet printer. HP is also collaborating with Materialise, integrating the former’s Lattice Library into the latter’s Magics 3D print suite, and with Fabrex to give HP customers access to its AI-powered platform for smart manufacturing.
Finally, HP also hosted a launch event for Leading Minds Consortium, a new initiative that brings together industry leaders — including 3D Systems, Ansys, EOS, Materialise, Nikon SLM, Renishaw, Stratasys and TRUMPF — with the goal of overcoming barriers to AM adoption, such as cost, expertise and system integration.
Materialise opens Magics SDK, introduces comparison tool and expands nTop partnership
‘Collaboration’ seems to be the watchword at Formnext 2024, with Materialise announcing several of its own collaborative efforts in addition to the aforementioned one with HP. The biggest isn’t with any particular organization but rather with everyone: Materialise has opened the software development kit (SDK) for Magics, enabling users to create custom workflows using Python and C++ scripts.
“We’ve seen tremendous potential for businesses to optimize their workflows with the Magics SDK, enabling enhanced manufacturing processes and substantial improvements in ROI,” said Egwin Bovyn, product line manager for Magics. “At Materialise, we’ve customized our SDK to optimize data and build preparation in our own manufacturing operations. By sharing our algorithms via Python code, we enable the automation of data and build preparation at scale. These advanced automation tools empower manufacturing service providers by ensuring our technology meets their individual needs.”
Materialise has also introduced a new orientation comparison tool within its e-Stage for Metal+ software, which provides support optimization for any given orientation as well as comparing any given set of orientations in terms of cost and quality parameters, such as build height, max XY cross-section and mean and max deviation of simulation results.
Finally, following up on its collaboration with nTop, announced earlier this year at RAPID + TCT, Materialise has extended the availability of nTop Core in Magics to several major 3D printer OEMS, including Additive Industries, Renishaw and Stratasys.
“nTop’s leading modeling technology enables our customers to design some of the most advanced and complex products on the planet,” said Bradley Rothenberg, CEO and Founder of nTop in a Materialise press release. “In partnering with Materialise to now be able to 3D print directly from nTop models, our customers have access to the fastest and most reliable design-to-manufacture process, removing the need for a slow and painful conversion from lightweight nTop models to heavy and fragile meshes or boundary representations.”
Additive Manufacturing Startup Pitches
Day 1 on the Formnext Industry Stage saw moderator Sven Krause welcome representatives from more than a dozen AM startups to the Pitchnext Event. Here’s a quick rundown of a few of the most interesting pitches:
- Imprintec builds metal AM testing systems that promise orders-of-magnitude speed improvements over conventional testing methods. “We can determine stress-strain curves within minutes and the classical tensile test sample preparation is not needed,” explained Imprintec engineer, Peter Zok. “Normally, customers have to wait one or two weeks to prepare all their samples to go to the lab, get the results done, and use this as an input for their development loop.” In demonstration, Zok explained how Imprintec uses indentations to get tensile testing results within two hours, compared to more than two days using conventional methods.
- SelectAM uses AI-driven software to help companies choose which parts to 3D print as well as when to use on-demand manufacturing. “We crunch the [CAD and ERP] data and, based on that, we give you the estimate of how much it would cost to make or buy,” explained Kalle Lepola, SelectAM’s Chief Business Officer. Lepola gave the example of a use case from Denmark in which his company identified just 8% of roughly 100,000 candidate parts that were suitable for additive or on-demand manufacturing.
- Additive Appearance focuses on the aesthetics of 3D printing, drawing an analogy to the quality of previews for conventional 2D printing. “The colors are correct, the text is in the right place, and maybe some of the older guys like me remember a time when this was not so natural,” said Thomas Nindel, CEO and co-founder of Additive Appearance. “In additive manufacturing, we do not have the same thing.” Nindel’s company aims to address this with its PrismSlicer software that generates photorealistic previews of resin mixtures using material data. “We proposed that additive manufacturing using multi material printing unlocks additive digital appearance creation and this is where our core competency lies,” Nindel said.
Stay tuned for more announcements and more highlights from the Industry Stage on Day 2!
