Navigate the 3D Printing Maze at SEU15

You have seen the headlines – 3D printing in space, 3D printing a car, and 3D printing dinosaur bones, but if you work in manufacturing industry you probably want to know more about how 3D printing can be applied to the products you work with every day. At this year’s SEU15 event in Cincinnati October 26^th-28^th we will have experts available, devices being demonstrated and a variety of 3D printed components available for inspection.

Dennis Stajic from Learn3DP will be presenting on additive manufacturing at SEU15. Dennis is applying his 30 years of experience in the CAD/CAM industry by guiding manufacturers in how they can take advantage of the latest additive manufacturing techniques to improve their product development and manufacturing process. Dennis has a background in both NC programming and developing training courses and is helping manufacturers navigate the often confusing 3D printing maze with many hardware manufacturers and many different materials. According to Dennis “the field is growing in many directions, and too much hype is generated by news media and eager vendors. What’s missing is competency-based training that teaches additive manufacturing skills to engineers, designers and operators who are responsible for developing company products.” Dennis’s presentation is suitable for designers with all levels of knowledge of 3D printing and his content sounds like a great fit for our Solid Edge users.



SEU15 participants will be able to check out several types of 3D printers including an interesting device from MarkForged who will be demonstrating their MarkOne 3D printer. The MarkOne has two print heads, one builds nylon parts, and the second print head reinforces the nylon part with continuous fiber.This allows manufacturers to build components that combine the non-scratch surface of nylon and the strength of carbon fiber in the same part. Some recent developments they will be demonstrating include new options to optimize the infill type and pattern resulting in stronger and lighter plastic prototypes.This specialized 3D printing technique is being used to manufacture components with a wide range of applications including tooling for bending tubing for musical instruments, custom auto racing parts, and components for drones used in harsh marine environments.

The Solid Edge development team also recognize the trends around 3D printing and of course we have had the capability to create the .stl files that are used by many 3D printers for some time. We also added a “Print using Microsoft 3D Builder” command that sends a Solid Edge model to the Microsoft 3D Builder App where it can be scaled, replicated and rotated before printing – the video below shows a part being designed in Solid Edge on a tablet and then sent to a 3D printer using the 3D Builder app.

It’s not too late to register for SEU15, meet with experts in additive manufacturing and find out about new 3D printing devices – putting you in a better position to understand and apply this fast developing technology!