3D Printing News Roundup: Titomic, Materialise, Arcam, K2M, Bremen Castings, Eaton, Neri Oxman, more

Dec 21, 2017 | By Benedict

Christmas is just around the corner, but not everyone in the 3D printing industry has given up on work just yet. Today brings news from Titomic, Materialise, Arcam, and several other additive manufacturing companies.

Titomic and Callidus team for oil & gas 3D printing

It might be snowing where you are, but it’s summer in Australia, which is where we start today’s roundup: Australian metal additive manufacturing company Titomic has entered into a collaboration with Callidus Welding Solutions to 3D print parts for use in the mining and oil & gas industries.

Work is set to start February 2018, when Titomic will attempt to use its Titomic Kinetic Fusion process to fabricate Callidus’s product development range. 3D printing of the prototype parts will take place at the new Titomic manufacturing facility in Melbourne, which should be fully built by February.

Titomic CEO Jeff Lang said the deal will “enable Titomic to illustrate how rapid additive manufacturing via the Titomic Kinetic Fusion process can put companies ahead of their peers and provide significant efficiencies.”

Upon completion of the project, Titomic plans to supply Callidus with its own Titomic 3D printing system. The 3D printing company says its large-scale Kinetic Fusion 3D printers are 10-100 times faster than some of the fastest printers in world.

Materialise may borrow $41.5 million from European Investment Bank

3D printing software giant Materialise has put pen to paper on a finance contract with the European Investment Bank (EIB). The deal will support Materialise’s ongoing research and development programs for growth between 2017 and 2020.

Big money could be changing hands as part of the deal. According to a press release, the contract provides credit of up to 35 million euros ($41.5 million) drawable in two tranches. The first tranche, drawable during the contract’s first year, cannot exceed 25 million euros; the second can be drawn during the second year subject to a specified debt ratio being met.

The loan, which will be made at a fixed rate based on the Euribor rate at the time of the borrowing (plus a variable margin), will last six to eight years starting from the disbursement of the tranches.

North Carolina’s Additive Device Inc. raises $650,000 in equity

Additive Device Inc., a 3D printing company based in Durham, North Carolina, has raised $650,000 in equity, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

If you haven’t heard of Additive Device, well, you’re not alone. The company doesn’t have a website, and appears to be in the early stages of its existence. Nonetheless, 11 investors contributed funds to the company, whose CEO is listed as Andrew Miller.

The filing puts Additive Device within the “Other Health Care” industry group.

Arcam EBM moving into 3x larger Gothenburg facility

Additive manufacturing specialist Arcam AB has signed a lease agreement with Castellum, allowing its EBM business to move into a refurbished 11,800-square-meter facility in Härryda, outside Gothenburg in Sweden.

Now part of GE, Arcam AB is expanding operations across several areas, including its Electron Beam Melting (EBM) division. Arcam EBM’s new facility is almost three times bigger than its current site, allowing it to expand and cope with the growth of 3D printing.

The space will increase machine production capacity and allow for greater collaboration within the company, pulling together logistics, research and development, services, and operations, and follows the inauguration of an AP&C powder production plant in Canada earlier this year.

“We recently raised almost one billion Swedish Krona ($119 million) in a new issue with the plan to invest in our growth; securing this new facility is testament of our commitment to the future of Arcam and the Additive Manufacturing industry,” commented Magnus René, President and CEO. “The new larger facility will accommodate the strong growth of Arcam and allow for further expansion as the market demands.”

The facility will be ready in the first quarter of 2019.

K2M introduces Cervical 3D Expandable Corpectomy Cage System

K2M, a global leader in spinal solutions based in Leesburg, Virginia, has launched the world’s first 3D printed expandable corpectomy cage with cervical spine indications after receiving a CE Mark for its product.

The new CAPRI Cervical 3D Expandable Cage System attempts to provide “Total Body Balance” by stabilizing the cervical spine in cases of vertebral body resections resulting from trauma or tumor. It is purportedly the world's first 3D printed expandable device that can facilitate continuous in-situ height expansion and endplate angulation in the cervical spine.

The newly launched product has already been tested on a patient during a landmark surgical procedure. “Using the CAPRI Cervical 3D Expandable Corpectomy Cage, we were able to dial in a precise height and lordotic angle in-situ while also utilizing a 3D printed device designed to allow for bony integration,” commented Martin Gehrchen, MD, PhD, chief of spine surgery at Rigshospitalet in Denmark.

K2M's Lamellar 3D Titanium Technology uses an advanced 3D printing method and titanium powders to create structures that are impossible to fabricate with other manufacturing techniques. The company offers a comprehensive range of 3D printed spinal solutions beyond the new corpectomy cage system.

Bremen Castings and Eaton partner for 3D printed hydraulics components

Indiana-based CNC specialist Bremen Castings, Inc. (BCI) has partnered with power management company Eaton to accelerate new product development for hydraulics customers using 3D printing.

With an ExOne 3D printer, BCI and Eaton will be able to print 3D sand molds and cores used in the iron casting process at BCI’s foundry and machine shop. This will enable BCI to supply a true, machined-complete prototype casting to customers before final approval, adding value for its customers by shortening product-to-market time.

“Utilizing 3D printing in this way lays the groundwork for both companies to save time in material, tooling, engineering, inventory, transportation, and startup cost for new projects," said JB Brown, President, BCI.

The collaboration and use of 3D printing will also provide extra jobs in the Bremen area, as well as benefitting both supplier and customer.

“The addition of this 3D printer allows BCI to produce cores and molds for low volume work and prototypes without producing expensive and time consuming tooling for customers,” Brown added.

Neri Oxman’s 3D printed death masks acquired by Australian gallery

We’re ending the roundup where we began, because Vespers, a series of 3D printed death masks designed and 3D printed by Neri Oxman and Stratasys, has been acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. The masks will be shown as part of the NGV Triennial exhibition until 15 April 2018.

It’s been over a year since we first saw Neri Oxman’s stunning Vespers collection, but the 3D printed death masks continue to turn heads and will now be shown to a whole new audience.

The masks have been acquired for the NGV Triennial, a celebration of contemporary art and design practices featuring more than 100 artists and designers from 32 countries. Works by Iris van Herpen, known around these parts for her amazing 3D printed fashion collections, will also appear in the exhibition.

“For a Triennial that sets out to explore the interface between art, design, architecture, science, ecology, and technology, Neri Oxman’s work could not be more fitting,” said Ewan McEoin, Senior Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Vespers consists of 15 masks in three sub-series: past, present, and future. The death masks explore the themes of ancient traditions and future technologies and speculate about the cultural and biological preservation of life.

Stratasys Objet500 Connex3 printers were used to make the 3D printed masks. This led Naomi Kaempfer, Creative Director of Art, Design and Fashion at Stratasys, to wryly observe that the 3D printing company doesn’t often “get the opportunity to contemplate the topic of life and death from within the discipline and perspective of industrial design.”

Posted in 3D Printer Company

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