Design World Design World

Lattice structures have not been used as often as they could be because manufacturing methods that could produce them easily did not exist until the development of 3D printing / Additive Manufacturing. Today, though, 3D printing easily creates lattice structures in helmets, saddles, shoes, nasal swabs, and in other designs.

3D printing/additive manufacturing and injection molding do not have to be competitors. In fact, 3D printing can aid injection molding. Formlabs recently commented that 3D printing is more of an accelerator for injection molding. 3D printers can introduce a hybrid approach where molds can be created fast and at low cost. Here are key points from an interview with Kathy Bui, engineering vertical lead at Formlabs

Like so many other markets and industries, the COVID pandemic has affected the supply of components used to make semiconductor processing equipment. Semiconductor capital equipment manufacturers are turning to additive manufacturing to help repair the supply chain and enable designers to design for function first. I spoke with Scott Green, Principal Solutions Leader for semiconductors at 3D Systems on this subject. Here are some of the highlights of the interview.

The DARPA Transformative Design TRADES program was created to develop foundational design tools that will help designers take more advantage of the capabilities of additive technology. Recently, Siemens Technology completed its work on a software project for this program. I spoke with Mark Burhop, principal investigator with the research arm of Siemens, to discuss the developments. Here are the highlights of the interview.

Designers in the sports world have been one of the quickest groups to adopt additive manufacturing technology. They’ve developed a few insights and perspectives that might be useful for engineers in other fields. David Woodlock, Application Development and Design Manager at HP, discusses a few of these insights.

3D Systems, a company with decades of experience in the field of 3D printing recently announced plans to significantly expand its development efforts on regenerative medicine and bioprinting. We explore this development with Mr. Chuck Hull, inventor of the Figure 4 3D printing system used in this application.