Jason Lopes of Legacy Effects gives an inspiring presentation.  His team of effects wizards and makeup artists use seven different additive manufacturing machines to help movie and commercial directors bring their entertainment vision to life. I mention him because of something he said today—his job is to recognize a changing landscape and react to it, which is why he is always on the lookout for the next AM technology, material, and information resource here at the AMUG conferences. His take on this industry is something all engineers and executives could follow.  Beyond the advice, it’s always fun to listen to the challenges and solutions his team faces in bringing the next Iron Man, Pacific Rim, RoboCop or other movie to life.

At today’s conference, Stefan Ritt of SLM Solutions and Graham Tromans, GP of Tromans Associates, and both AMUG European Ambassadors, gave us a look at what is happening in Europe and Asia with regard to additive manufacturing.

In Europe, the big trend is metal additive manufacturing, large machines capable of building parts to two feet in dimension.  The vendors are also focusing on ways to build such parts faster.

In China, the trend is to go even bigger. One manufacturing is using metal additive manufacturing to build Titanium parts that are five meters long for the wings of Airbus planes.

Europe is also looking into hybrid systems that combine subtractive and additive manufacturing technologies.

Both men noted that China is the country to watch regarding 3D printing / additive manufacturing, a view mentioned before by Terry Wohlers.

The other main technology trend is the focus on using Digital Light Processing (DLP) in various forms to build parts. In some machines, DLP is a faster way to build parts.

Plus, mention was given to several companies exploring unusual ways to additively build parts.  More on that in future blogs.

Leslie Langnau
llangnau@wtwhmedia.com