Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/739236
30 cgw s e p t e m b e r . o c t o b e r 2 0 1 6 folding all its APIs, services, and sample applications into its Forge Platform, a cloud-based repository for design tools, APIs, and utilities. Some of the major play- ers with metal 3D printers are meeting the challenge of speeding up the printing pro- cess with additional lasers. EOS is announcing a new large-for- mat printer, the M400-4, which has up to four lasers, to succeed its M400. Competitors Additive Industries and SLM Solutions already have their own multi- laser systems for metal printing. Early fall is a busy season for 3D printing announce- ments in advance of the IMTS (International Manufacturing Technology Show) conference in Chicago. Stratasys has announced two new printer designs in advance of that show. Its Infinite Build prototype has the potential to print a part of variable lengths. Stratasys has turned the printer on its side so that the part is built on the vertical wall of the printer rather than the floor. Stratasys is also introducing a print system that works at the end of a robot arm. C O N V E R G E N C E In addition to Autodesk, Siemens is probably the most proactive of the CAD companies in the field of 3D print, which makes sense given its larger business as a manufacturer of industrial prod- ucts. The company is a customer as well as vendor on several industrial manufacture fronts. Siemens has spent $21.4 million building a 3D printing plant in Finspång, Sweden, to construct spare parts for its turbines so it can offer its customer "rapid re- pair" services. The factory is also used to prototype new designs. (Siemens competitor GE has also built a 3D printing facility to enable production of parts for jet engines, wind turbines, locomo- tives, and for water treatment.) Siemens enthusiastically supports a number of printing initiatives, including the large-for- mat Lasertec printer from DMG Mori, which combines additive and subtractive manufacturing. Siemens announced an alliance with DMG Mori in 2016. The La- sertec combines laser deposition welding with a five-axis milling machine. DMG Mori says laser deposition is up to 20 times fast- er than powder bed approaches. The Lasertec machines can alternate between milling and laser deposition, enabling access to internal areas of the part that are inaccessible aer the part is completed. Laser deposition enables larger parts to be cre- ated, and the hybrid approach also includes turning capability to build large, long parts. Siemens has also given an approving nod to the HP printer and is a member of 3MF. In fact, Andreas Saar, vice president of Manufacturing Engineering Solu- tions at Siemens PLM Soware, says it's the evolution of modern formats like AMF and 3MF that enable direct manufacture tech- niques to be an integrated part of the PLM process. Last year at PLM World, Saar told the audi- ence that older formats, such as STL, are "dumb" formats, which break the PLM cycle. 3MF allows the 3D print process to be better integrated into the design process and perhaps even main- tenance on the other end. In addition to alliances and factories, Siemens has its own experiments in 3D printing, including its kind of adorable SiSpis, spider robots with 3D printing ability developed in Siemens' Princeton, New Jersey, research facility. The SiSpis are part of a system called Siemens Agile Manufacturing Systems (SiAMS). The plan is that the SiSpis can work collaboratively to create large-scale, complex structures. The team is led by Livio Dalloro, head of product design, modeling, and sim- ulation research at Siemens Corporate Technology. Make no mistake, though, GE is not about to relinquish terri- tory on the 3D printing front to Siemens. GE also has its own 3D printing factory for print-to-re- pair operations and prototyping. The company has just gotten a whole lot more committed with the announcement of a $1.4 billion investment to acquire ad- ditive manufacture companies Arcam and SLM Solutions. Arcam AB, based in Mölndal, Sweden, invented the electron beam melting machine for met- al-based additive manufacture. It produces its own metal powders and has customers in aerospace and health care. The company reported $68 million in revenue in 2015. SLM Solutions, based in Lübeck, Germany, also produces metal-based additive manu- facturing machines and has customers in aerospace, energy, health care, and automotive in- dustries. The company reported $74 million in revenue for 2015. The acquisition complements the work GE has been doing in material science and additive manufacture, investing over $1.5 billion since 2010. As a result, the company has built services ap- plications for additive manufac- ture throughout the company. Its choice of metals printing companies is not so surprising either, with the revelation that the company holds 346 patents in powder metals. The teams from both com- panies will report to David Joyce, president and CEO of GE Avia- tion. He will lead the integration of the companies into GE, devel- op GE's new business in additive manufacturing equipment and services, and push additive manufacture throughout GE. GE says it expects to grow its new business in additive manufacture to $1 billion by 2020. In addition, the company says it expects the acquisition to enable GE to reduce costs within the compa- ny by $3 billion to $5 billion over the next 10 years. Joyce says the technology developed by the two companies is complemen- tary, and he pledges to extend the line of additive manufactur- ing equipment and products. GE's Arcam and SLM Solutions' additive manufacturing opera- tions will remain in Europe. T H E F U T U R E It no longer makes sense to talk about the 3D print industry as a monolithic technology. It encompasses a multitude of companies developing different processes and materials for ad- THE LASERTEC PRINTER FROM DMG MORI IS AN EXAMPLE OF AN ALL-IN-ONE PRINTER COMBINING ADDITIVE MANUFACTURE AND SUBTRACTIVE. IT COMBINES A 3D PRINTER WITH A MILLING MACHINE. COURTESY DMG MORI