3D printing rocks at SolidWorks Word 2018

Over 5,000 engineers, manufacturers, educators, enthusiasts, and media attended. It was always exciting to be a part of the action, and International Metalworking News for Asia (IMNA) Senior Editor Kathryn Gerardino-Elagio was fortunate to be invited again and witnessed first hand all the noteworthy happenings over the course of the event.

This year was indeed an impressive event for additive manufacturing. According to SolidWorks’ CEO Gian Paolo Bassi, almost everybody has aspiring dreams such as improving the global health care system, increasing the own athletic performance or even travelling with the speed of sound.

To achieve these goals, we need more than just a Forth Industrial Revolution or a comprehensive digitisation of industry sectors; we rather need a new Industrial Renaissance, says Bassi, which ensures that humankind will be the centre of technological progress.

The insight, that embedding the power of simulations helps making better decisions, and introspecting processes through artificial intelligence (AI) might increase a company’s capacity, has become commonplace among decision-makers in the industry by now.

But Bassi states, that in the future technological progress will be about “makers and innovations”.

Dassault’s Industrial Renaissance makes all sort of things possible, such as an improved control for manufacturers in the supply chain, or simply the pure possibility of 3D metal printing in the office.

3D printing
3D printing has taken the stage at SolidWorks World 2018. Major announcements include 3DEXPERIENCE Marketplace Make and three separate pieces of additive news on day two from 3D Systems, Nano Dimension and Desktop Metal.

The “Marketplace Make” is intended to be a seamless way for engineers to get parts made and to collaborate with leading digital manufacturers worldwide across all manufacturing processes: 3D Printing, CNC Machining, Injection Moulding, Sheet Metal and more.

3DXpert for SolidWorks provides a new layer of tools, accessible in a familiar CAD environment, making it easy to prepare and optimise designs for additive manufacturing. By taking advantage of this design freedom, SolidWorks users will now be able to produce complex geometries, light-weight parts without compromising strength, and apply surface texture to deliver functional or aesthetic benefits. Within the additive manufacturing environment, complex structures can easily become a reality, while enabling rapid product development, reduced time to market, and lower total cost of operation.

At SolidWorks World 2018, Desktop Metal previewed an advanced software tool, available exclusively to SolidWorks users, that offers a new approach to designing for additive manufacturing. Live Parts™, an experimental technology, explores a new solution to simplify generative design for 3D printing. Live Parts, the latest development from within Desktop Metal’s research and innovation group, DM Labs, is an experimental generative design tool that applies morphogenetic principles and advanced simulation to shape strong, lightweight parts in minutes. Powered by a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-accelerated multi-physics engine, Live Parts auto-generates designs in real time. This enables users to quickly realise the full potential of additive manufacturing – including material and cost efficiency, and design flexibility. The tool produces functional parts with complex, efficient geometries that are ideally suited for 3D printing. For users, Live Parts requires no prior knowledge of design for additive manufacturing techniques or guidelines.

Additive electronics provider, Nano Dimension Ltd unveiled a new SolidWorks add-in to its DragonFly 2020 Pro 3D Printer that makes additive manufacturing with embedded electronics a feasible option for mechanical and electrical engineers.

For the first time, 3D printing of complex prototypes made of polymers and metals and designed in Dassault Systèmes’ SolidWorks applications can be easily 3D-printed on Nano Dimension’s DragonFly 2020 Pro 3D Printer in a single build process. This marks a significant advancement in how electronics are designed in SolidWorks, and makes it possible to create 3D printed complex geometric structures with embedded electronics, encapsulated sensors, antennas and more.

The SolidWorks add-in eliminates time-consuming processes, increases design possibilities and ultimately results in the development of more capable products. Another inherent benefit of the add-in is the dramatic reduction in the cost of errors when creating complex, geometric parts, accelerating product design and time-to-market.

From the Industrial Renaissance to ‘Naturing’

But even the Industrial Renaissance is apparently only a transition period on the journey towards future additive manufacturing possibilities, according to key note speaker Neri Oxman, a professor at the MIT lab.

The professor at the MIT Media lab described the future of additive manufacturing from a perspective of her Mediated Matter research group.

Oxman stated, that we are in the middle of the transition from the ‘age of the machines’ to the ‘age of organisms’.

In the in the “age of the machines” additive manufacturing processes work with voxels, but we must be prepared that in the ‘age of organisms’, this information will not be captured in binary systems but in systems based on genetic codes.

This will enable designers and manufacturers in the future to 3D print with organic materials. One of Oxman’s projects includes for example a Silk Pavilion, spun by silkworms released onto a nylon frame.

For IMNA this is more than a success for SolidWorks World 2018, it is an exemplary example of the work the team do every day and the success users can have when it comes together to work on a common goal. It turns out that “Think SolidWorks” helps you accelerate innovation, grow your business and build great designs.