3D printing - Applications and end users

Stratasys Ltd is further extending its commitment to the medical industry with the new J750™ Digital Anatomy™ 3D Printer. Designed to replicate the feel, responsiveness, and biomechanics of human anatomy in medical models - the system improves surgical preparedness and training while helping bring new medical devices to market faster.

VELO3D has entered into a collaborative partnership with PWR for material development for the Sapphire 3D metal printer and serial manufacturing of state-of-the-art heat exchangers. \r\n\r\n

With the ability to quickly produce replacement parts on-demand, 3D printing helps operators to better maintain trains and improve the quality of service for passengers.

Building conventional robots typically requires carefully combining components like motors, batteries, actuators, body segments, legs and wheels. Now, researchers have taken a new approach, building a robot entirely from smaller robots known as "smarticles" to unlock the principles of a potentially new locomotion technique.

The 60th Maintenance Squadron is the first field unit in the Air Force to be certified with an industrial-sized 3D printer that is authorized to produce nonstructural aircraft parts.

IDTechEx, a market intelligence and events company focused on emerging technologies, reports that the market for 3D printed medical devices and pharmaceuticals will be worth $6.1 billion by the year 2029. IDTechEx finds this to be a rapidly growing market with compound annual growth rates of up to 18% in certain sub-segments.

The automotive sector is constantly looking for more eco-friendly alternatives to the traditional methods of transportation due to growing concerns over climate change and global warming. The issue that is most difficult to overcome is the economics of the endeavor, however with the right combination of engineering ingenuity and additive manufacturing technologies we might find some progress in this department as well.

Worldwide, around one third of all food is wasted. Despite the fact that wasted volumes in percentage of the total production amounts are relatively low, the numbers in kilos is an considerable amount and a great incentive to find new possibilities to lower the amount. 3D food printing could play an interesting role.

Researchers have created a new type of tiny 3D-printed robot that moves by harnessing vibration from piezoelectric actuators, ultrasound sources or even tiny speakers. Swarms of these "micro-bristle-bots" might work together to sense environmental changes, move materials - or perhaps one day repair injuries inside the human body.