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If you think that AM is sitting comfortably into its allotted seat, that it has already found its target market, you’d be wrong. AM’s flexibility enables us to find numerous potential fields to disrupt. This flexibility is made possible by its assortment of technologies, hardware, software and everything in between, that change the rules year by year. Advances in robotics and AI enable groups of autonomous, mobile units to step up the construction process. After the 3D printed pills and surgical models and implants, we are now beginning to use AM in the development of new future-proof antibiotics. Strong of its success of sending the first 3D printer to the ISS, Made in Space is aiming to produce higher quality fiber optics in space, creating a new business case for manufacturing in and outside Earth’s orbit.
Mobile Robots Cooperate to 3D Print Large Structures
Roboticists at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have, for the first time (as far as they know), performed “the actual printing of a single-piece concrete structure by two mobile robots operating concurrently.” The big advantage of this system is that you can use it to build structures that are more or less arbitrary in size without having to change the system all that much, since the robots themselves can define their own build volume by moving around.
Read more at IEEE Spectrum.
HP Partners With CDC To Test And Bioprint Antibiotics
HP has announced its participation in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pilot program that aims to develop new antibiotics designed to fight antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. With HP’s bioprinting technology, microbiologists are able to print antibiotics samples for testing directed at halting the spread of such bacteria.
Read the full article here.
Optical fibre made in orbit should be better than the terrestrial sort
Made in Space and FOMS (Fiber Optic Manufacturing in Space) are both proposing to manufacture optical fibre of the highest quality in the free-falling conditions of the International Space Station. At $1m a kilogram, this is a material that is well worth the trip to and from orbit.
Read more on The Economist.
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AUTHENTISE will be exhibiting, through a partnership with America Makes, the power of smart digital tools within the AM production thread. Showcasing our 3Diax modular platform and MES for AM, you’ll be able to witness how our machine learning algorithms and automation tools can boost operational performance through the roof for each role within the pipeline.
WHERE: additive ETC, located on Level 3 of the West Building at McCormick Center.