3D printing areas

Top 3D Printing Applications Across Industries

Construction 3D printing offers various technologies that use 3D printing as the main way of fabricating buildings or construction components.

3D printing applications that are used in construction include extrusion (concrete/cement, wax, foam, and polymers), powder bonding (polymer bond, reactive bond, sintering) and additive welding. 3D printing in construction has a wide array of applications in the private, commercial, industrial and public sectors. Advantages of these technologies include allowing more complexity and accuracy, faster construction, lower labor costs, greater functional integration, and less waste.

The first fully completed residential building was constructed in Yaroslavl, Russia in 2017. 600 elements of the walls were printed in a shop and assembled on site, followed by completion of the roof structure and interior decoration for a total area of 298.5 sq meters (3213 sq ft). The project represents the first time in the world the entire technological cycle had passed building requirements, from design, building permit, registration, to connection of all engineering systems. The building was not built just for presentation, today a real, normal family lives in it.

Concrete 3D printing has been in development since the 1990s, as a faster and less expensive way of constructing buildings and other structures. Large-scale 3D printers designed specifically for printing concrete can pour foundations and build walls onsite. They can also be used for printing modular concrete sections that are later assembled on the job site.

In 2016, the first pedestrian bridge was 3D printed in Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain. It was printed in micro-reinforced concrete at a length of 12 meters (39 ft) and width of 1.75 meters (5.7 ft). The bridge illustrates the complexities in the forms of nature and was developed by both parametric (using a set of rules, values, and relationships that guide the design) and computational design, allowing the optimal distribution of materials while maximizing structural performance.

It was a milestone in the international construction industry, being the first large-scale application of 3D printing technology in the field of civil engineering in a public space.

3D printing is used to produce architectural scale models, enabling a faster turnaround of the scale model and increasing the overall speed and complexity of the objects produced.

As a futuristic concept, 3D printing is being studied as a technology for constructing extraterrestrial habitats, such as habitats on the Moon or Mars. It has been proposed, using building-construction 3D printer technology, fabricating lunar building structures with enclosed inflatable habitats for housing human occupants inside the hardshell lunar structures. These habitats would need only ten percent of the structure to be transported from Earth, using local raw lunar materials for the other 90 percent of the structure.

An unexpected application of 3D printing technology has been in the world of art and jewelry making.

3D printers allow jewelry makers to experiment with designs not possible with traditional jewelry making methods. 3D printing also allows the production of individual, unique pieces of jewelry or customized pieces at a much lower cost, using 3D printing materials such as PLA (polylactic acid filament), gold or platinum.

3D printing technology has served to inspire artists all over the world. With metal 3D printing especially, artists now create beautiful intricate pieces.

Just a few examples of 3D printing technology in the arts include Banksy, the mysterious and famous British street artist, whose works’ have been rendered from 2D to 3D using powder binding 3D printing.

The Dutch artist Oliver van Herpt creates ceramic vases with 3D printing. From the Netherlands, Danny van Ryswyk creates eerie 3D printed sculptures, reminiscent of filmmaker Tim Burton’s characters. The digital artist Gilles Azzaro even makes the invisible visible by creating 3D images of voices using the sound waves from the voices.

Recently, the Prado Museum organized an exhibition of paintings by well-known artists rendered in 3D. The purpose was to allow visually impaired people to feel these works that were previously inaccessible to them.

These are just a few of the countless ways, from education to medicine to industry to the arts, that 3D printing technologies impact our world today.

25 (Unexpected) 3D Printing Use Cases

For years, hype around 3D printing captured audiences in the mainstream press. With visions of a future including a 3D printer in every home, these predictions were light on details and ultimately most did not come to fruition. However, the possibilities of 3D printing were undeniable, despite the youth of the technology and the relatively low number of use cases that were viable in the past.

The initial hype masked legitimate and growing business applications for 3D printing. With a proliferation of high-performance desktop and benchtop machines being introduced into the market, we are now seeing a broader variety of businesses expanding their product offerings and delivering better results to customers.

What can you do with a 3D printer? Read on to discover 25 (often unexpected) 3D printing use cases that show the broad scope of possible applications for the technology.

Report

A new industry report that compares how recent and early adopters are using 3D printing for their business, and explores future trends of the technology.

3D printing can add enormous value to supply chains, unlocking a broad spectrum of production applications. The technology is growing more workable and affordable, with companies able to bring additive manufacturing in-house to support processes on the factory floor. New, resilient 3D printing materials are opening opportunities for the production of high precision, functional 3D prints that can stand in for final parts, offering customization opportunities that help designers radically push the boundaries of high-performance cars. Industrial design studio Vital Auto has put all of this technology to work creating high-fidelity prototypes and concept cars, rapidly working through iterations using a variety of advanced tools, including a large fleet of in-house 3D printers.

“We've used 3D printing from day one. We wanted to introduce it to our manufacturing processes, not only to reduce costs, but to give the customer more diversity with their designs and their ideas,” said Design Engineer Anthony Barnicott.

The automotive industry has seen the value additive manufacturing can add to multiple touch points in the creation of automobiles. This means going well beyond rapid prototyping to include:

• Creating custom, complex, and high-performance parts
• Producing tooling and manufacturing aids
• Manufacturing replacement parts and spare parts on demand
• Cutting costs and lead times by up to 90% compared to outsourcing

See How Concept Cars Are Created

Recent advancements in 3D printing technology have started to fundamentally change the audio industry, meaning that digital printing of custom fit ear devices for the audiology, noise protection, and consumer audiology industries has never been so affordable. In recent years, 3D printing manufacturers have brought skin-safe biocompatible materials to market, allowing for in-house production of ear models and headphone tips.

Custom fit offers a unique individual listening experience built around the earphone fitting exactly in the customers ear. This gives a secure fit that removes any possibility of earphones falling out of the ear, in addition to improved comfort and noise isolation.

“We are very excited about the concept of custom fit to deliver a custom experience to further enhance immersive listening. Formlabs shares Sennheiser’s drive for innovation – and improving the customer experience through this prototype is a testament to that mindset.”

Sennheiser Director AMBEO Immersive Audio, Veronique Larcher

The challenges that come with customized manufacturing can be overcome through the combination of Formlabs' disruptive printing technology and mobile scanning coupled with machine learning. This means customers can have easy access to custom fit earphones, with lead times reduced from four days to next day delivery or even same day.

Learn More About 3D Printing in Audiology

restor3D tools being printed, along side their final form. 

Ten years ago, few people were talking about the huge impact 3D printing would have on the medical industry, from helping create advanced medical devices to patient-specific surgical guides. One company no one saw coming was restor3d, who leverages 3D printing capabilities to drastically improve surgical care by printing procedure-specific polymer instrumentation tailored to cervical spine implants.

With a fleet of over 25 Formlabs 3D printers in its production line, restor3D is already printing the next generation of surgical tools. For surgeons using these tools, this procedure-specific, single packed sterile instrumentation system results in:

• Replacement of large, expensive surgical trays.
• Ability to iterate designs and quickly introduce new tools or features based on surgeon preferences.
• Dramatic reduction of supply chain and sterilization costs for hospitals.

Read How restor3d Is Creating Next Generation Tools

As much as 3D printing technology has developed in the past few years, there are even more high-impact, use cases currently in development. 3D printed organs is one of them.

Being able to easily create new organs has for decades been a dream for scientists working in regenerative medicine. While it remains in its early stages, the use of the 3D workflow to produce organic tissue eligible for transplant is bearing early fruit.

Dr. Sam Pashneh-Tala from the University of Sheffield is leading the way. His research uses high-precision desktop stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing to enable the production of tissue-engineered blood vessels with a variety of geometries. This will allow for patient-specific vascular graft designs, improved surgical options, and provides a unique testing platform for new vascular medical devices for those suffering from cardiovascular disease—which is currently the number one cause of death worldwide.

“My differentiator is that I’m able to create blood vessels with geometries that are more closely matched to those found in the body. This offers the potential for improved surgical options and even patient-matched blood vessel designs. Without access to high-precision, affordable 3D printing, creating these shapes would not be possible, ” said Dr. Pashneh-Tal.

Read About Tissue Engineering

The reconstruction of the three cities in the two different time periods consisted of over 650 segments, which were printed using Formlabs White Resin, each measuring 12x12cm. 

As an industry already based on geometric design, prototyping, and modeling, architecture stands to gain enormously from advances in 3D printing technology.

On top of saving time during model production, the 3D printed models allow architects to anticipate the effects of certain design features with much greater certainty, e.g., by seeing a model produced with a fuller complement of materials, an architect can measure aspects such a light flow through the structure with higher precision.

But 3D printing’s use case goes beyond a single model: some firms are recreating entire towns. Institute of Architecture at the Hochschule Mainz - University of Applied Sciences. The result is an extraordinary exhibition that showcases six large-scale models of the cities, in the years 800 and 1250 AD. The models consist of over 650 parts, all of which were created using SLA 3D printing technology.

Learn About the Reconstruction of Medieval German Cities

The 990S TripleCell and the FuelCell Echo Triple.

The sport-footwear industry has long relied on technology to optimize the performance of their products, and with the digital workflow they have more options than ever in customization.

Large brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Nike, having recognized the power of additive manufacture, intend to mass produce custom midsoles made from 3D printed materials. As in other industries, the digital workflow will augment traditional methods of manufacture here—critical, highly-customized components of each product will be entrusted to the 3D printing, and the rest left to traditional means.

Given the unique properties required for footwear, New Balance worked with Formlabs to create a custom printing material which could resist the daily wear and tear faced by an athletic shoe. Shoe materials experience  a variety of environments, with the additional need to withstand various levels of pressure thousands of times per day. Designed to create springy, resilient lattice structures, Rebound Resin has a much higher energy return, tear strength, and elongation than any other Formlabs material. Rebound Resin is strong enough to be used in gaskets, seals, and automotive interiors, but light and flexible enough for the sole of a shoe.

“One of the things that’s really exciting for us is that it provides a very different experience for the runner.”

Katherine Petrecca, General Manager of Footwear at the Innovation Design Studio, New Balance

See the 3D Printed New Balance Shoe

3D printing has already been integrated into the production of Hollywood films and is widely used for practical visual effects and costuming.

Whereas the creation of film's most fantastic creatures once required meticulous handcraft, the increased deadline pressure and time demands of modern moviemaking have made a quicker method of creating practical effects vital. Effects studios like Aaron Sims Creative now use a hybridized approach, practical effect-making enhanced by the digital workflow, to create new opportunities for collaboration and cut lead times on bringing ideas to life.

“The Demogorgon was one of the first prints that we did using our Formlabs 3D printers, and we were amazed. Before that, we had always outsourced printing. So to be able to grow it in-house, and see a design that we helped create from the very beginning printed right in front of us, was kind of an amazing thing. It was like going back to the days when we used to sculpt with clay,” said Aaron Sims.

Read About How Aaron Sims Creative Builds Their Worlds

3D printing's artistic potential is not limited to physical artwork. It also has the power to bring entirely new dimensions to forms like dance and music. Given the design freedom inherent in 3D printing, even the most complex or unique instruments can be modified or created from scratch, at a fraction of the price of traditionally made instruments.

Having been around for centuries and barely changing, the violin’s form is recognizable to all. Violin music has evolved to such a high level that the instrument has attained an almost legendary status in our culture. But Formlabs engineer Brian Chan challenged himself to create a fully-functional acoustic violin, using a 3D printer and Formlabs White Resin.

Get an Inside Look at Design Process

3D scanning, CAD, and 3D printing have been used to restore the works of some of history's most famous artists, returning works by the likes of Michelangelo and da Vinci to their former glory.

Art restoration projects can be enhanced by combining 3D printing and 3D scanning, two powerful technologies that allow builders to take physical objects, turn them into three dimensional shapes, make changes or restorations, and re-print the parts.

Mattia Mercante uses 3D replication to replace lost pieces of sculptures and fine artworks at the world-renowned Opificio institute in Florence, allowing museum visitors to experience the art as the artists intended.

For one 17th-century reliquary, Mercante scanned intricate frame details from elsewhere on the piece using an HP 3D Structured Light Scanner, and then replicated the missing pieces on a Formlabs 3D printer. The prints were painted to appear identical to the original decorations. Best of all, the restoration required minimum CAD modeling, and was fast and affordable compared to hand craft.

Learn More About Art Restoration

3D printing has as much potential utility in reconstruction as it does in production. The work of a forensic artist is often made difficult by incomplete evidence. Digital technologies can be of tremendous use in legal investigations and can augment the abilities of forensic artists to reconstruct accurate models of persons of interest or victims.

The digital workflow here involves turning CT scans into 3D prints to aid in identification. For instance, when investigators find just part of a skull as evidence, a printer can model and replicate the complete sample.

Reconstructions of the appearance of crime victims have already played a key role in attaining justice, proving once again the utility of 3D printing beyond considerations of design and productive efficiency.

Just like 3D printing can be used for preoperative planning, CT scans of crime victims can help detectives get up-close to bones. Digital CT scan and X-ray data of remains can be used to produce 3D-printed replicas of various body parts. Then, the pathologist can determine the full circumstances of a crime, from the number of participants to the nature of the weapon used.

Learn More About Solving Crime

3D printing's impact is not limited to improving workflows or enabling rapid prototyping. It can also change lives directly. With 30 million people worldwide in need of artificial limbs and braces, there is hope that 3D printing can provide new solutions where cost and specification have traditionally been hurdles.

3D printing can provide an affordable alternative that, like many related advances in medicine, can provide therapy that is much more closely tailored to a patient's needs. The affordability and customizability of 3D printing techniques can profoundly alter the quality of life for the better for those suffering from injury or disability, as we saw in this story of a father and son.

We saw this type of innovation first hand with Matej’s and Mateja’s son Nik, who was suffering from cerebral palsy. Matej set out with a simple goal: to enable Nik to walk. Months of research and development followed, resulting in a custom-made, 3D printed orthosis that provides support and correction exactly where Nik needs them, which finally helped him take his first steps independently. Watch the full video above and read their story.

Beyond prosthetics which return lost function to a user’s body, it is possible to 3D print devices which are, in some ways, even better than the limbs they are replacing. With 3D printing, this is no longer a future possibility about bionetic, robo-cop like body parts, but part of the latest in cutting-edge prosthetic production. Some firms, such as Psyonic, are already delivering advanced prosthetics.

Arm Wrestling With A Bionic Hand

Maybe people think of 3D printing as producing smaller items which you can hold. In recent years, firms have been exploring manufacture-scale additive workflows that can produce much larger functional components. In the last few years, various initiatives have gotten underway to create houses and larger structures that are entirely the product of 3D printing, opening new frontiers in sustainable living and construction.

3D printing technique gives freedom of form to architects, even with previously less malleable building materials like concrete. More broadly speaking, it allows fully sustainable and energy-efficient homes to be built that also meet modern comfort standards. Construction by this means could be entirely waste-free, as well as less expensive and environmentally costly as traditional methods.

While you will not be moving into a 3D printed house on the near horizon, you can experience 3D printed construction projects today. The MX3D Bridge in Amsterdam is currently open to foot traffic. According to dezzen.com, the “structure used 4,500 kilograms of stainless steel, which was 3D-printed by robots in a factory over a period of six months before being craned into position over the canal this year.”

Source: www.dezeen.com

Read More About the 3D Printed Bridge

With one of the highest barriers-to-entry of any industry in the world, space travel is ripe for 3D printing innovation. Lowering prototyping costs for expensive, space-specific tools and machines will lower costs and allow smaller companies to help innovate in space.

Aerospace startup Relativity has tested the creation of aluminum rocket engines using additive manufacturing. If successful, this application would sharply reduce the costs and practical difficulties of space travel, opening up the field to new business and to a vast potential for growth.

Masten Space Systems is another changemaker for 3D printing in the aerospace industry: founded in 2004, the company specializes in vertical takeoff and vertical landing rocketry. The company is launching a mission to the moon in 2022 as part of the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Project. Using Formlabs 3D printers, Masten produced plastic rocket engines for R&D testing.

The company has experience in 3D printing in both plastics and metals--they’ve even helped develop new custom metals for their NASA Tipping Point project. “We really like 3D printed rocket engines because they enable you to do a lot of things that you can't do in a traditional manufacturing process. In our goal to drive down costs and increase our effectiveness, we started looking at how we could use the Stereolithography printers, particularly once Ceramic Resin and High Temp Resin were released. Those have some rather attractive engineering properties for seeing if we could actually use them in a rocket,” Matthew Kuhns, chief engineer at Masten, said.

Formlabs’ High Temp Resin and Rigid 10K Resin are examples of materials with optimal engineering properties for aerospace applications. High Temp Resin is designed for functional prototyping in high heat applications while Rigid 10K Resin is the stiffest material in our engineering portfolio, making it suitable for industrial-grade prototypes.

Read More About Masten Space Systems

Origin Labs, within the Innovation Hub, will have a space dedicated to 3D printing for students and the broader community. 

Most institutions of higher education are focused on preparing their students for the workforce of the future. The Pennsylvania State University is focused on the current workforce as well and has recently invested millions of dollars into building the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub, which serves the public as well as the University community.

The Appalachian mountain range in western and central Pennsylvania has historically been the center of the nation’s coal mining industry, and enjoyed a solid and prosperous economy in the first half of the twentieth century because of it. As global and domestic economies shifted away from coal, the Appalachian region suffered, with a higher rate of joblessness and one of the lowest household income rates in the country, as reported by the Appalachian Regional Commission.  
 
Over the last two decades, leadership at the local and state levels have sought to change that through investments in manufacturing, education, and technology. The Appalachian Regional Commission offers $1 million grants to “support educational opportunities and institutions, especially by connecting skill development and workforce training with local and regional business interests and opportunities.”

As additive manufacturing rapidly expands in a wide range of businesses (as seen in this blog post!), hiring managers are looking for employees trained in working in digital spaces and fluent in CAD. Universities are looking to address this market lead by creating large and well funded innovation hubs.

See the Investment the Pennsylvania State University is Making

Besides training tomorrow’s workforce in CAD and 3D printing, universities are starting to see the benefits of deploying 3D printers across a wide range of educational disciplines.

At UMass Lowell, that meant modernizing its sculpting and 3D design courses for the 21st century. Enter Yuko Oda, who joined the university in 2017 and got started by ordering a multitude of 3D printers, including a Formlabs SLA machine.

Yuko is able to take her passion for art and technology into the classroom, currently teaching sculpture,  3D modeling and animation, and interactive media. Most students know that they’re required to understand 3D animation and 3D modeling for future careers in various fields, including sculpture design for cinema. For studio artists, 3D modeling has become an essential skill.

“Students sculpt a 3D model, import it into Zbrush, then print in various resins, including Clear Resin. The ability for Formlabs machines to show intricacies that were modified in Zbrush is unparalleled when compared to other printers in the lab.”

Yuko Oda

One of the most promising new developments in sculpture is the integration of 3D printing and Virtual Reality (VR). This is especially salient for students intimidated by 3D design. VR is rapidly reducing barriers for 3D design, allowing artists and students to create with their hands in programs such as Oculus Medium. Yuko has taught 8th graders how to create a 3D object in 30 minutes in VR, and then print the artwork on a 3D printer. Even for seasoned sculptors, VR reduces the time it takes to go from an idea to a physical object, potentially opening up new areas of experimental art.

Learn How How UMass Lowell Integrates Art and Technology

While caretakers at ZooTampa were performing a routine check-up on a 25-year-old great hornbill, they found a lesion at the base of the bird’s casque, the yellow helmet-like growth on top of the head. Further examination determined that the bird, named Crescent, was suffering from life-threatening cancer.

The cancer, located near the bird's skull, couldn't be removed because it housed part of the bird's sinuses. The team wanted to know if they could remove the casque, and replace it with a 3D printed replica designed specifically for this bird. Patient-specific prosthetics and devices have been used before in human procedures, but never for a great hornbill. Would it be possible, and if so, which materials would be safe for the bird?

ZooTampa says the successful 3D-printed “replacement beak,” was created using BioMed White Resin. This material is an opaque white material for biocompatible applications requiring long-term skin contact or short-term mucosal contact. Special among Formlabs SLA 3D printing materials, this medical-grade material is validated for short-term tissue, bone, and dentin contact.

3D Printing and Veterinary Medicine

During the COVID-19 pandemic and following supply chain crises of 2021/22, many firms turned to 3D printing to help keep machines online and products rolling off the factory floor. The expanded use of in-house 3D printing to create end-use parts, such as replacement parts for machines, has made additive manufacturing a key tool to address supply chain problems.

Formlabs commissioned the 2022 3D Printing Applications Report to better understand what, if anything, has changed recently among 3D printing users. The report demonstrates the shift in attitudes around 3D printing from an R&D and prototyping tool to an invaluable manufacturing technology needed to meet evolving consumer preferences and overcome supply chain challenges. Whether working to ease supply chain constraints, creating limited run products, or personalizing devices, businesses have been forced to rethink how they produce goods to meet customer demand.

End-use parts printed on the Fuse 1.

An IR sensor purge printed on the Fuse 1 in Nylon 12 Powder.

Building 3D printers is always an engineering challenge. Packing industrial-grade performance into an affordable, sleek desktop machine requires years of engineering and design work. This was especially true of Formlabs’ much anticipated selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printer, the Fuse 1.

One of the tools Formlabs engineers used to prototype parts was the Fuse 1 itself. But the use of 3D printing didn’t stop at prototyping. Today, every single Fuse 1 unit shipped to customers  contains multiple production parts printed directly on a Fuse 1 using Nylon 12 Powder.

Using the Fuse 1 SLS printer to prototype and create end-use parts offered three main advantages, according to Seth Berg, the engineer program manager overseeing the Fuse 1:

• The design freedom to create complex parts without internal support structures.
• Reducing supply chains by prototyping and creating end-use parts in-house.
• Eliminating outsourcing to achieve an affordable solution for small-batch production with a proven, versatile Nylon 12 material.

To see how the team did this, and which end-use parts on the 3D printer and 3D printers, watch the video below.

In May of 2020, Forbes ran an article titled: How 3D Printing Test Swabs Will Help Fulfill America's Shortage. They noted that the 3D printing industry has come together to tackle the COVID-19 swab shortage head on, with Formlabs, HP, Origin, Carbon, Desktop Metal and more working to ramp up swab production.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic required a global, concerted response. Through collaborating with USF and Northwell, Formlabs enabled a solution that has been deployed worldwide. With the accessible design, affordable equipment, and validated processes, the swab design enabled over forty million COVID tests in twenty five countries. Over the last year, Formlabs 3D printers have continued being used by governments and healthcare providers to improve patient testing and care. This global solution is just one example of how the agility of 3D printing can benefit the public good.

We saw this happen dramatically in Singapore, where Eye-2-Eye Communications ramped swab production to over 30,000 swabs per day to help keep the city safe.

“It has not only been an excellent opportunity to showcase the advantages of 3D printing for rapid design and development but it has also shown Formlabs effectiveness in being able to mass produce products in very short timeframes. Also, as we see spikes in cases across the globe it is reassuring to know we can scale our production relatively easily to meet demand if required,”said Chief Executive Officer of Eye-2-Eye Communications, Miles Podmore.

One controller with buttons printed on the Fuse 1 (left), and another with buttons injected molded (right).

One problem with creating custom aftermarket parts is these orders are typically low volume, and need to evolve in response to product updates by the original manufacturers. But with the rise of in-house 3D printing, custom manufacturing has sprouted in multiple industries.

Battle Beaver Customs is focused on delivering a premier gaming experience through custom gaming controllers. Their modifications make the controllers more responsive and more competitive, allowing players to increase their gaming potential and reach peak performance across a range of games. Rapid prototyping with the Fuse 1 SLS 3D printer allows Battle Beaver Customs to quickly change their mount and button designs. When building custom consumer products, quick turnaround times can pay dividends for businesses looking to stay ahead of their competitors. According to Head of Research and Design at Battle Beaver Customs, Michael Crunelle, the “Fuse 1 has been great for being able to make changes quickly, from concept to end-use part. Our competitors can’t keep up with us."

JetBoatPilot, a marine parts and accessories manufacturer, has built a reputation as an authority in the industry by creating aftermarket products that improve the performance and low speed handling of jet powered boats.

JetBoatPilot utilizes the Form 3 SLA and Fuse 1 selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printers to prototype and manufacture aftermarket parts. A newly designed and now top performing product, the Lateral Thruster 2.0, was designed and manufactured on the Fuse 1. Equipped with the Fuse 1 and Nylon 12 Powder, JetBoatPilot was able to cut costs by 6x compared to their previous manufacturing methods.“I probably would have made that (aluminum version) retail price somewhere in the $400 dollar range, maybe even $600 dollar range, if I really had pushed it. I wouldn't have sold nearly as many at $600. But now I'm selling it for $199 and the customer is happy as they can be. And I'm twenty times the cost of goods,” says JetBoatPilot founder Will Owens.

With 928 stores spanning across 48 countries, Lush Cosmetics is a retailer known globally for making creative and crowd pleasing products such as Massage Bars, Body Butters, Bath Bombs and more, attributes its success to being able to respond quickly to trends and customer demand.

To bring new, industry defining, highly-detailed cosmetics to life, Lush needed to turn to 3D printing for much more than prototyping new shapes. They’ve invested in a next-generation additive manufacturing center for mold creation, tooling, and end-use parts.

The Lush Cosmetics team vacuum forms using 3D printed molds in-house. 

“We use our Formlabs 3D printers for a mix of mold creation, custom tooling, and end-use parts. We’re a reactive business and having this capability in-house means we don’t need to share designs externally as we own everything in the product development process,” said Damien Carter, Innovation Lab Manager at Lush Cosmetics.

See How Lush Cosmetics Operates

3D printing is unleashing new possibilities and business opportunities, such as mass customization. What used to be too complex, prohibitively expensive, or impractical to produce with traditional methods is available at no extra cost with digital technologies, giving full control to designers and opening the door for fully customizable consumer products to become a reality.

A good example of this is Gillette’s Razor Maker™, which gives customers the opportunity to customize the handle of their razor by picking various designs, colors, or adding custom text.

“For Gillette, piloting Razor Maker™ represents a crucial step in our customization journey where new technology and new business models must come together in order to deliver products that are as unique as our consumers,” said Donato Diez, global brand manager for Gillette and Razor Maker™

Learn How Gillette Uses 3D Printing to Unlock Consumer Personalization

White Paper

This guide will provide manufacturers with insights into the different approaches to customization, how to choose the most applicable approach, and more.

Download the White Paper

Dentistry has also been one of the most prominent drivers of 3D printing investment, desktop 3D printers are an increasingly common sight in dental labs and practices. As a matter of fact, the popular clear aligners, thermoformed on 3D printed molds, are possibly the single most successful use of 3D printing we've seen to date.

Over the past ten years, 3D printing has so advanced in dental that now no new dental labs are opening without using some form of digital dentistry. With materials so good they can 3D print permanent crowns, full dentures, and more.

3D printing technologies thrive in an environment where our unique bodies require custom solutions. As a result, the dental industry is going through a rapid digital transformation with digital workflows bringing increased efficiency, consistently high quality, and lower costs to dental labs and practices.

Five Ways 3D Printing Has Redefined the Dental Industry

Next time you’re out for a night on the town, keep your eyes peeled for our next unexpected 3D printing use-case: 3D printing is coming to custom glasses frames.

Marcus Marienfeld AG set themselves apart from conventional glass frames, using different and unique production techniques to create their frames. Recently they started integrating selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printing into the production line for frames in their Swiss workshop for printing end-use parts and rapid tooling for forming titanium.

“You get very inventive and imaginative when you have a 3D printer in-house. I can do things with little effort that I wouldn't otherwise try," said Marcus Marienfeld.

See the 3D Printed Glasses

Visualizing 3D printing-driven changes in the way things are made does not require the feats of imagination it once did. As workflows have developed over the last several years and gained footholds in various industries, we are beginning to see that revolutionary potential demonstrated.

From dentistry and across healthcare to consumer goods, architecture, and manufacturing, the public is interacting more and more with the end products of 3D printing. Making custom parts cost-efficient, cutting lead times and overheads, and empowering customers by bringing them closer to the products they want—we can only expect the influence of 3D printing to continue expanding.

Explore Formlabs 3D Printers

3D printing applications

Aerospace engineers use 3D printing to produce high quality products. Now the most popular printing methods are being actively introduced: stereolithography (SLA), deposition method (FDM), selective laser sintering (SLS) and printing with metals.

The technology enables the creation of topologically optimized structures with a high strength-to-weight ratio and the ability to combine multiple components into a single part. nine0003

Optisys is a supplier of micro antennas to the aerospace and defense industries. They used metal 3D printing to reduce the number of individual pieces of tracking antenna arrays from 100 to 1. With this, Optisys was able to reduce lead times from 11 months to 2 months, while achieving a 95% reduction in product weight.

There are also 3D printed parts in the systems that propel the aircraft. As a rule, these are metal products made by laser metal sintering. So, in the Boeing 777, the compressor is connected to the temperature sensor using a 3D-printed adapter. In the F-15K Slam Eagle military aircraft, 3D printing is used to make the casing of the turbines, reducing the cost of the part from $34,000 to $2,550 and cutting its production time in half. nine0003

Automotive

3D printing is taking over the automotive industry with its speed and ease of change.

Volkswagen has traditionally used CNC machining to create custom fixtures and tools. But using CNC machines usually means longer production times and higher costs. The same fixtures can be printed within hours and tested on the assembly line. The test results will be instantly taken into account and the engineers will make adjustments to the 3D model of fixtures the very next day. nine0003

Robotics

In the field of robotics and automation, non-standard parts are often required to develop new mechanisms. 3D printing has become one of the main manufacturing technologies in this industry due to its speed, great design freedom and ease of making adjustments to the product.

A team of engineering students from the University of Antwerp have created a robotic arm that can translate speech into sign language. They used 3D printing to produce most of the custom parts for their robot. nine0003

Industrial tools

The emergence of new materials with high heat resistance and rigidity in the 3D printing market, combined with the ability to quickly and inexpensively create custom geometries, has pushed manufacturers to widely use the technology to create industrial tools.

For example, today 3D printing is used to make injection molds for the production of short run products. These molds are used to make several hundred parts (compared to 10,000+ using metal molds), but they cost less than "traditional" molds and can be made in a day. This makes them ideal for low volume, low cost production or testing before full scale production. nine0003

Health

The use of 3D printing technology in global healthcare began in the 2000s. Since then, the use of 3D printing for medical purposes has evolved significantly.

The first area in which products printed on a 3D printer were involved was dentistry. Dental prostheses, for obvious reasons, are the easiest to replace with products made of plastic and similar materials. To date, there are examples of implantation of whole jaws made of titanium. The first such operation was carried out in 2012 by the private dental company LayerWise. nine0003

3D printing has proven to be extremely effective in creating prosthetic bones. In addition to high speed, modern technologies help to ensure the desired weight, and most importantly, the porosity of the product. The latter is extremely important for reducing the duration and improving the quality of osseointegration. There are many examples of successful pelvis, scapula, collarbone and other commonly operated bones performed around the world.

Product design

3D printing allows designers to easily make changes to the product they are developing at no additional cost. They can also create high quality functional prototypes to test new concepts. The use of 3D printing speeds up the design cycle and reduces risks before the product is introduced into full-scale, high-cost production. nine0003

Paul Kohlhaussen designed and built a functional prototype of his latest camera. He combined camera parts from different models under one printed body.

Entertainment

3D printing has found widespread use in cinematography due to its ability to create believable props. The near-limitless possibilities of 3D printing to create intricate designs allow entertainment professionals to bring objects from their imagination to life. Thanks to technology, this can be done quickly and at a much lower cost than in the past. nine0003

One example is Vitaly Bulgarov, a concept designer whose resume includes work with film studios such as Paramount and Dreamworks. He used 3D printing to quickly turn his computer sketches into props for a movie he was working on.

Education

3D printing technology can be widely used for training specialists, for example, to create copies and mock-ups necessary for understanding. Such a visual aid gives students a practical and very valuable experience. nine0003

Aerospace engineering students at the University of Glasgow collaborated with Rolls Royce to create a functional model of a jet engine using 3D printing. The model gives instant feedback to students about the changes they make as they work.

Developers

For developers who are constantly exploring new ideas, 3D printing is the perfect tool. The ability to create an unlimited number of parts and structures without relying on contractors, develop and modify your designs, create new and improved concepts - all this becomes possible thanks to 3D printing. nine0003

Jack Davies, an engineering student at Nottingham Trent University, has created his own electric skateboard using 3D printed parts. His modified skate turned out to be 30% cheaper than analogues.

12 3D printing startups that were founded in the midst of the pandemic.

How many times have you heard that startups are the driving force behind the additive manufacturing industry? Enough to understand that we need to keep an eye out for those entrepreneurs who could be the next unicorn in this industry. While we understand that startups need to remain in stealth mode until their technology is ready enough to be officially introduced into the industry, we cannot fail to pay tribute to these startups that were created in the midst of the COVID19 pandemic.. Let's drink to these twelve startups that, in the words of Winston Churchill, did not let "a good crisis go to waste."

1. F3nice

Founded in May 2020 in Italy, one of the countries most affected by the pandemic, F3nice is the idea of ​​Luisa Elena Mondora and Matteo Vanazzi. Both founders came up with the idea for F3nice in 2019 while analyzing the situation in the oil and gas industry. With the decommissioning of offshore assets in the oldest oilfields in the North Sea and digital inventory for on-demand and just-in-time spare parts production, they explored the possibilities of using high-value offshore decommissioning scrap metal for the project circular economy. nine0003

F3nice - whose pronunciation is similar to the Italian word for "phoenix", "Fenice" (a bird that takes on new life from the ashes of its predecessor) - seeks to live up to its name by collecting scrap metal and disused parts and turning them into metal 3D - printing powder.

The company's project gained momentum over time and interested Equinor Ventures, which signed a letter of intent with the team. Under this contract, the material manufacturer will recycle Equinor's waste, and the raw material made from it will be used to print parts for the commissioning of the Johan Kastberg field, located near Hammerfest, by Fieldmade - as part of a true circular economy ecosystem. nine0003

In an interview with 3D ADEPT Media, the company told 3D ADEPT Media that its powder is "identical to any other high quality VIGA powder and can be reused as many times in the printing process [as the alloy allows]. The added value is that when If the powder is considered "exhausted", the OEM can contact F3nice and request that it be recycled instead of being disposed of (at great cost) as hazardous waste. F3nice can provide this service not only for their products, but for any powder." . nine0003

2. SphereCube

Remember we told you that startups have the opportunity to think about a green business model from the very beginning of their venture? Well, SphereCube decided to play its part in addressing these environmental issues at the manufacturing level by getting rid of composite and mold waste to reduce the environmental impact of composite manufacturing.

This 3D printing startup is a division of the Polytechnic University Marche (UNIVPM, Ancona - Italy), which develops 3D printers capable of producing composite objects using thermosetting resins and continuous fiber reinforcement. nine0003

Through the interaction of a heat source with the raw materials involved in the process, the SphereCube system allows the production of components from a composite material with continuous fiber reinforcement and a thermosetting matrix. This innovative manufacturing process is able to automatically create products from high-performance composite materials without geometric restrictions," the company said in an interview with 3D ADEPT Media. is a key step towards a 100% sustainable supply chain.

SphereCube filed its first patent "Method and system for 3D printing of composite materials" (Italian patent No. 102021000006800) and registered a European trademark.

In 2022, the focus will be on the design and manufacture of the minimum viable product, and customer feedback will further validate the company's technology solution.

3. Replique

Replique, the Mannheim-based venture of BASF's Chemovator business incubator, received some media attention when it announced a partnership with Miele, the German appliance manufacturer. Under the terms of the partnership, the company receives the exclusive right to manufacture and supply high-quality 3D printed accessories from Miele using its decentralized production network. nine0003

Founded in 2020 by Janos Varadi, Dr. Henrique Wonneberger and Dr. Max Siebert, the company provides an industrial 3D printing platform that allows OEMs to supply on-demand parts to their customers through a global, decentralized and secure 3D printing network. The company is entering a market valued in excess of US$500 billion that generates revenue at significantly higher margins than selling new services. nine0003

From qualification of 3D printed parts to digital inventory and production network, the company offers a solution that is superior to anything commonly seen on the market.

For industrial production, Replique utilizes its global network of service bureaus approved for industrial quality. With this solution, OEMs reduce total cost of ownership while increasing flexibility. Not to mention that they are able to provide the best after sales service to their customers as parts are always available, even at the end of a product's life cycle; thus, they gain a competitive advantage. nine0003

Companies that have already used Replique's services include manufacturers of components in the automotive industry and, most recently, Siena Garden, an expert in the category of garden tools and garden furniture.

4. Marklix

In the field of spare parts, another startup was founded in France last year - exactly in February 2020 - with the mission of making "obsolescence obsolete". With this background information, anyone in the AM industry will quickly realize that Marklix allows manufacturers to qualify and distribute replacement parts by 3D printing on-demand and on-site production. nine0003

Their journey started with the development of "The Market", where the idea was to be able to find all parts from all manufacturers, for example a part for a vacuum cleaner, and thus allow people to repair their vacuum cleaner without having to change the entire appliance. Two problems arose during the project: the price of the parts was too expensive - it was often cheaper to buy a new instrument than to order a part - and the parts were not digitized, which meant that they could not be 3D printed with a simple mouse click. To overcome these obstacles, the Marklix team decided to develop new software solutions: The first software solution solves the problem of spare parts prices, allowing manufacturers to be more competitive and save time. nine0003

"This is an ERP/MES that allows them to manage their fleet, edit invoices and invoices, take orders online, allowing the manufacturer to choose whether the customer will pay directly or not, secure files, etc." The feedback we have received shows an average time saving of a few minutes per order, as well as an improvement in the transparency and efficiency of their company. In this way, our partners become more competitive, which makes prices more attractive," the company explains.

The second solution is to digitize inventory, which is critical for some companies due to the high cost of spare parts inventory. In this vein, this software solution helps engineers solve five main tasks: identifying 3D printed parts using artificial intelligence, qualifying parts using suitable materials and manufacturing technology, calculating ROI (from an economic and environmental point of view), transferring parts that have passed the first three stages , to the online catalog and print. The last task can be solved both internally and externally if the company does not have production facilities. After the positive response they received to launch their first software, the Marklix team, led by Pierre-Jacques Lyon and Thomas Boullier, respectively CEO and CTO, is not going to stop there. They will continue to serve the needs of 3D printer and parts manufacturers. nine0003

5. Addiblast

It's not every day we talk about AM in Slovenia... and a startup that makes us imagine something more than just a tourist trip to a land of amazing caves is Addiblast. This command forces us to explore that area of ​​the production process that every operator dreads: post-processing. Founded in 2020, the startup is part of FerroECOBlast® Europe, a family owned company that has built a strong reputation for solving the toughest surface treatment problems. The parent company's portfolio includes a wide range of solutions such as shot blasting, hardening, enameling and coating, dry ice and dry snow cleaning, and UHP waterjet. In this way, Addiblast uses more than fifty years of experience from its parent company to provide the AM industry with a portfolio of solutions that includes shot blasting, powder removal and recycling. The company debuted at this year's Formnext Showcase, showcasing the capabilities of three of its flagship products:

• The BAM station is a surface treatment solution designed for a variety of processes such as smoothing, roughing, surface unification and polishing, support structure removal and precise powder removal from extremely complex structures. It is made of stainless steel and is suitable for all types of shot blasting. shot blasting.

• MARS Kit (Metallic Removal System) Available in three versions, these machines allow you to remove powder from complex or large parts. Each machine is equipped with a system for communication and data exchange with other machines of the manufacturer. The main difference between MARS01, MARS02 and MARS03 is that the latter is fully automated, explosion-proof and ATES compliant. In addition, thanks to the closed cycle operation with inertial atmosphere, the machine can keep the oxygen level below 2%. This prevents contamination and oxidation of the powder during degreasing and conditioning, and takes the reusability of the powder to a new level. nine0137

• The latest development in this portfolio is the STAR (Additive Transfer and Recycling Station). Designed as a central station that continuously and automatically controls the pneumatic transmission, processing and conditioning of the powder, this machine provides a direct connection to the 3D printer and other equipment. This is its main advantage compared to other manufacturer's solutions. It can also be used to clean the primary powder and, like the MARS series, it prevents contamination and oxidation of the powder during dedusting and conditioning, and takes powder reusability to a new level. nine0137

6. NematX AG

The next startup on this list is an ETH Zurich spin-off project founded by Raphael Heeb and Sylvan Gantenbein. With the goal of unlocking a new generation of 3D printing using high-performance polymers and significantly exceeding existing standards in related end-use components, the Swiss startup targets all vertical industries whose parts must withstand harsh environmental conditions. NematX AG, one of the winners of the Formnext 2020 startup competition, is developing a technology it calls "Nematic 3D Printing" to help industrial companies make their small-scale business more profitable and sustainable. nine0003

"Liquid Crystalline Polymers - LCP for short - belong to a family of high performance plastic materials. Compared to conventional thermoplastics such as PEEK or PEI, LCP molecules are relatively short and stiff and have unique properties, making them very attractive for use in 3D printing. When molten, LCPs take on an order of motion, like bundles of wood logs floating down a river," the company explains. Therefore, Nematic 3D printing technology is based on material extrusion (FFF 3D printing). "During printing, we can align these individual LCP stacks along the print direction to produce parts with unrivaled polymer additive manufacturing mechanical and thermal properties," NematX AG explains on its website. nine0003

*By controlling the molecular alignment of our LCP 3D printing materials, we achieve superior stiffness and strength in 3D polymer printing. In the printing direction, we can achieve a Young's modulus of up to 25 GPa and an ultimate tensile strength of 650 MPa. In the transverse direction, the stiffness and strength of other thermoplastics such as PEEK or PLA are achieved," they note.

and Additive Drives GmbH can, and most interestingly, the company did this during the first peak of the Covid-19 pandemiclast year when the economy was not at its best. Founded by Philipp Arnold, Jakob Jung and Axel Helm, Additive Drives GmbH develops and manufactures additively manufactured electric motor components. With a $1.5 million seed investment from AM Ventures Holding GmbH, Additive Drives GmbH aims to expand the electric drive market with new applications.