Cool Stuff We Discovered at Rapid + TCT 2019 (See Our Video Collection)

Last week, the Additive Manufacturing team attended Rapid + TCT 2019 in Detroit. It was an exciting show; here are our big-picture impressions. But people ask about the small picture, too—they want us to name the most interesting specific exhibits we saw. This is a tough question! We come across various impressive technologies at the show and they are not directly comparable. Still, one of our missions at the show this year was reporting on notable discoveries using social media video.

Here are some selections from our video coverage … some innovations we really wanted to tell you about straight from the show floor, as shared on our LinkedIn page. Before you scroll down, take a moment to go follow us there. Seriously. We are going to be doing more on-site video reporting like this and you do not want to miss it. 

Now, from AM senior editor Stephanie Hendrixson and me, here is cool stuff we found at Rapid + TCT 2019:

1. Dissolvable Injection Mold Tooling

Obtain the geometry of 3D printing with the material portfolio of injection molding. From Addifab.

 

2. 3D Printing With Metal Paste

No debinding step and water is the only byproduct. This is office-friendly metal AM (even the sintering furnace runs on standard power), plus the freedom to use polymer supports saves on metal. From Rapidia.

 

3. AI for Adaptive Manufacturing

"Blacksmith" applies artificial intelligence toward adapting the CAD model so the process gets better and better at producing the part over time. From Markforged.

 

4. Simple Printers in Scale Production

A system for running low-cost desktop-size printers in coordinated continuous production. From 3DQue.

 

5. Build Change via Autonomous Vehicle

This is the droid you're looking for! Production continues because one build unit leaves and another finds its way in. From XponentialWorks.

 

6. "Hard Rock" Additive Manufacturing

Thank you to AM's Katie Arnold for seeing that pun. Here is my pivot from a titanium-lattice unsmashable guitar to an innovation in 3D printing a very hard material. From Sandvik Additive Manufacturing.