Engine Turbine Fan Blades made in LPBF using the i-DAMP solution.jpg

i-DAMP

AM in 2024: The 3D printing trends and applications you need to know about

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In the first issue of TCT Magazine for 2024 (read and subscribe for free), our content team, with the help of our expert advisors, provided a snapshot of some of the additive manufacturing (AM) and 3D printing topics we'll be keeping a close eye on throughout the rest of the year. We spoke to end-users, technology providers and researchers in key industries about everything from the rise of AI and what it means for industrial 3D printing to emerging opportunities for vertical integration. 

Aerospace

Hyphen Innovations, a relatively new company, is the name behind a TCT award-winning aerospace innovation, i-DAMP. i-DAMP, meaning inherent Damping via Additive Manufacturing Processes, was developed to be a solution for unpredictable and underperforming fatigue properties in aerospace associated with additive manufacturing. Although the application is aerospace focused, it is actually having numerous benefits for customers in other industries as well. Other applications that are benefitting from i-DAMP include automotive vibration suppression, fatigue in train car components, shock absorption, and noise reduction. Founder, CEO, and CTO of the company, Onome Scott-Emuakpor, says that with Hyphen Innovations, he will “create the impossible” on a canvas that will define the future of aerospace and defence technologies.

Scott-Emuakpor told TCT: “Hyphen Innovations anticipates significant growth in i-DAMP applications this year. We are currently in collaboration with The Ohio State University, EOS North America, and GE Aerospace on a funded project to demonstrate the damage resistance capability of i-DAMP in turbine engine blades. We also have a collaboration with the University of Akron on incorporating i-DAMP to Integrally Bladed Rotor repairs while introducing a novel stress relieving machining capability to the procedures.

“Our work in the aerospace industry has always been the motivation for i-DAMP. But what we're most excited about this year is how i-DAMP capabilities transcend a single industry. We've received i-DAMP interest to solve problems like fatigue in train cars, reducing vibration in machining, cutting, and boring tools, and shock absorption for the automotive industry. And the exciting thing about all this activity is that it's only January. We're certainly looking forward to what the next 11 months has in store for i-DAMP.”

Elsewhere in the aerospace industry, Ursa Major, an independent rocket propulsion provider, and the first American company to fire an oxygen rich staged combustion engine, raised 138 million USD in Series D and D-1 funding rounds in late 2023. The initial Series D round was completed earlier in the year, but fundraising was extended due to “strong interest" in accelerating development on several future programs. Shortly prior, the company revealed it had developed a process which leans on additive manufacturing and a product-agnostic tooling system to rapidly produce multiple scalable rocket motors (SRM).

Speaking to TCT about what 2024 holds for the company after the recent significant investment, Nick Doucette, Chief Operating Officer of Ursa Major, said: “The additive industry continues to evolve and provide new solutions for companies like Ursa. We see progress in two key areas that will be important for Ursa in 2024: large volume platforms and high production throughput capabilities. Large platform printing has seen advances in the past few years at OEMs. The limitations, however, have been material choice and part consistency. Most OEMs have invested in solving those problems which benefits our larger liquid engines. Larger engines typically use older manufacturing methods due to their size (casting, welding, etc.), but these larger additive machines can print them in single pieces, thus reducing lead time while increasing part performance. We will lean heavily into this during 2024.

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“High production printing, while it uses large print beds, presents a different challenge: per part costs at volume. Support structures, high volume part consistency, and repeatability are key focus areas. Ursa Major, along with OEMs and new entrants are transforming high volume production printing, for use in our solid rocket motors which demand higher rates than our liquid engines. We will continue to invest in the additive industry during 2024 and use the technology to deploy propulsion where it is needed most.”

The rise of AI

"AI is going to change pretty much everything simply because it gives us an alternative intelligence," said RepRap founder Adrian Bowyer on a recent Additive Insight podcast episode. As such, you can expect to see an uptick in the mention of AI in additive manufacturing this year, and not just as a buzzword shoehorned into marketing campaigns.

The capability of AI lends itself well to AM, with multiple software tools already leaning on the technology. We detail how Nexa3D is using AI to optimise build orientation in more detail inside the magazine on page 16, but 1000 Kelvin, AI Build and Markforged are among the others with AI-enhanced products on the market. From design through to inspection, more and more companies will turn to AI to advance their AM offerings.

Energy

If the point of additive manufacturing (AM) is not to do things the way we’ve always done them, and nuclear fusion is to be the ‘holy grail’ of our ambitions for clean energy, then 2024 could see the two colliding like a couple of atomic nuclei. In December, The University of Birmingham was awarded nearly 1.5 million GPB by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to research technology for fusion energy. The funding will go towards the FATHOM2 project (FAbrication of Tungsten using HOt isostatic pressing and Additive Manufacturing), which focuses on scaling up 3D printing and powder HIPping technologies to produce complex, cooled tungsten components for plasma-facing components in nuclear fusion reactors.

Fusion energy is created when a mix of two forms of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium) is heated to form a controlled plasma at temperatures around ten times hotter than the sun’s core. They fuse to create helium and release energy which can be harnessed to produce electricity. With its raw material, hydrogen, in abundance and the potential to produce energy with near-zero carbon emissions, nuclear fusion, while challenging, is thought to be a cleaner, and crucial, source of energy for the future. But getting there will be no easy feat.

“In general, nuclear fusion is relatively uncharted territory,” Professor Moataz Attallah, Director of the Advanced Materials Processing Lab at the University of Birmingham, told TCT. “People don't know how to qualify material or which manufacturing techniques to use.”

In phase one, researchers completed a successful feasibility study to explore laser powder bed fusion as an assisting technology for nuclear fusion cooling structures made from tungsten, believed to be one of the key materials in our fusion future due to its extreme temperature resistance. With phase two now underway, Professor Attallah says it’s all about scaling up, and the team is developing a ‘proof of concept’ to prove that the material properties achieved in its small-scale demonstrator can be replicated on a larger scale.

In October, the UK Government announced its 650 million GBP Fusion Futures Programme as part of its updated Fusion Strategy. There is a growing private sector for nuclear fusion in the UK, and if this project is successful, the aim is to commercialise. With around 15 months left to deliver, the university has teamed up with Metamorphic Additive Manufacturing Ltd. and Oxford-based nuclear fusion start-up Tokamak Energy Ltd. to accelerate development.

"The presence of the industry has been a key aspect for us working with Tokamak Energy because they bring that reality that we were missing as academics or people working in the field,” Professor Attallah added. “It was quite exciting to walk inside a nuclear fusion reactor and see how things look, essentially trying to create a small sun on earth.”

The university is one of nine institutions which secured a slice of the 11.6 million GPB in funding to focus on manufacturing and materials. Another is TWI, which is working on cold-spray technology and its subsurface machining technology, CoreFlow, to create large-scale components from fusion-grade materials. Elsewhere in the UK, on a recent episode of the Additive Insight podcast, Dr. Evren Yasa, Head of Additive Manufacturing at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, shared another example from a Catapult project exploring the feasibility of Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) for the manufacture of liquid hydrogen storage tanks.

"Hydrogen is considered to be the fuel of the future due to its advantages, but still the storage of this fuel is problematic because you need to store it either in a pressurised gas form or a liquid state, and both of them require different specifications," Dr. Yasa told TCT. "Therefore, in this recent project, we have investigated the feasibility of using Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing for making liquid hydrogen storage tanks from aluminium alloys. We have chosen that method because it provides the advantages of large-scale manufacturing, as well as being able [to deliver] geometries that may be necessary for compact areas to store hydrogen.

Building momentum

For every cynicism-inducing ‘world’s first 3D printed office block’, there are modest examples that show where rapid AM construction can add value. At the end of 2023, Mighty Buildings, together with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Habitat for Humanity, announced it had received a 5 million USD grant to develop sustainable and affordable housing in California. The project will see three prefabricated lowcarbon townhouses produced using Mighty Buildings’ proprietary stone-like LUMUS 3D printing material, robotics, and automation. The homes are expected to be built faster than traditional construction methods, with Scott Gebicke, CEO of Mighty Buildings, envisioning a future “where affordable, resilient, and energy-efficient homes are the standard, not an exception.”

Japan goes big

When CONTEXT's Chris Connery guested on our Additive Insight podcast last year, he noted a positive shift in Japan’s quiet AM adoption, and recognition of 3D printing as a “key technology.” News of service provider Kurimoto establishing Japan’s largest metal AM facility certainly supports that. With a fleet of 24 polymer AM systems and auxiliary technologies already in-house, Kurimoto is entering the metal AM market with newly installed LPBF machines from GF Machining Solutions, including the large DMP Factory 500, meaning Kurimoto will now offer the biggest metal parts in Japan combined with depowdering, wire-cutting, and post-processing, backed by a recently obtained JISQ 9100 certification.

President of Kurimoto, Mr. Hidetoshi Kurimoto, told TCT: “Our ambition is to continue to develop 3D printing technology, which is attracting attention not only in Japan but also around the world for nextgeneration applications in key industries such as semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace, defence, and electric vehicles.”

Automotive

Gigacasting is among the biggest trends in the automotive sector, with some of the largest brands in the space jostling and jousting for key casting suppliers. General Motors caused Tesla a significant headache in November with the acquisition of Tooling & Equipment International (TEI), who were one of four gigacasting suppliers to the Californian automotive giant.

The gigacasting process sees casts for large automotive structures manufactured in one piece, eliminating the need for welding and assembly, and saving on labour, time, and cost. With the help of TEI, Tesla implemented the gigacasting process for its Model Y vehicle; the rear and front portions of the vehicle’s frame being made in two single pieces. When compared to Tesla’s Model 3, that’s said to amount to a reduction from 171 assembled components, 1,600 welds and around 300 robots being removed from the assembly line.

As Tesla works towards combining the front and rear frames into one piece, rival automotive firms are looking to emulate its gigacasting methods. Good news, then, for binder jet 3D printing companies. Tesla turned to binder jetting technology because of its inherent design flexibility and rapid iteration capabilities, and with the acquisition of TEI, General Motors has proved Elon Musk’s automotive brand isn’t alone in seeing the benefits. Already, GM’s Cadillac business has utilised TEI’s binder jetting capacity – said to be the largest in North America with three VX4000 3D printers – to support the development of underbody structures for the all-electric CELESTIQ luxury vehicle. The CELESTIQ underbody structure consists of six large precision sand-cast aluminium components, with TEI using its VX4000s – with their 4 x 2 x 1 metre build volumes – to produce the inner cores. In this instance, Cadillac has been able to incorporate stiffening features into the hollow sections, something deemed economically unfeasible with conventional manufacturing tools. Because of such advantages, all signs point towards an uptick in this application area.

“GM and its foundry TEI, who operate three of our VX4000 3D printers, demonstrate that the entire production of a car model can be handled through AM,” Voxeljet CEO Dr. Ingo Ederer told TCT. “Although the CELESTIQ series is a smaller production run, the technological advantages of AM are scalable. Our production data indicates that there is a growing trend towards larger castings, which can be attributed to the design flexibility offered by binder jetting. Additionally, 3D sand printing is becoming more cost-effective, even for larger quantities. This offers numerous opportunities to optimise costs and streamline production steps.”

What's next for desktop?

Just over six months ago, Desktop Metal was waiting with bated breath for the completion of its merger with Stratasys. It would have provided a helping hand for a company that was struggling to reach profitability as it endeavored to realise its additive manufacturing 2.0 dream. The Stratasys shareholders, however, had other ideas. Desktop Metal, then, has to chart a different path forward, but it won’t be a walk in the park. A NYSE noncompliance notice may force the company to consider a reverse stock split, while 20% of its workforce has been made redundant in January. Despite CEO Ric Fulop’s insistence that the company will move forward as an independent company, don’t rule out a sale.

Defence

In a perfect world, the capabilities of additive manufacturing wouldn’t be required in the defence space. But in recent years, an industry that has long had an interest in 3D printing has stepped up its investment and adoption as various points of geopolitical tension evolved into more severe conflicts. That has done two things: First, it has 3D printing’s ability to print parts quickly, in low volumes, at the point of need a necessity, and second, it has only made worse the supply chain challenges being faced across industry.

Thus, the pick-up of 3D printing in defense has sped up in recent years and there’s not too much sign of that slowing down. SPEE3D’s cold spray 3D printing technology is one such process that piqued the interest of many a defense organisation since the company came to market in 2017, with the US, Australian and Japanese governments all investing in the technology.

“With the current geopolitical landscape, there's a strong pull towards supporting defence needs. And, let's face it, the world's got supply chain challenges,” SPEE3D CEO Byron Kennedy told TCT. “Additive manufacturing has a big part to play in the solution – we need to be quicker on our feet and make real, strong parts, fast. We're talking rapid prototyping and making crucial replacement parts on the spot, which can be a game-changer on the front line. We predict that this widespread adoption by defence will instill much needed confidence in other commercial industries, like mining and heavy industrial manufacturing. The technology has proven itself and demonstrated enormous benefits in the defence sector, and we believe it's poised to revolutionise other sectors as well.

Enter the entry-level

While 2023 sales of industrial systems stagnated, a quiet resistance gained traction. According to the latest report from CONTEXT, the often overlooked entry-level segment dominated with 9% growth in shipments. The report suggests printer users are dismissing more expensive desktop offerings in favour of cheaper, hobbyist machines from the likes of Creality and Bambu Lab, which provide similar or “good enough” capabilities. Meanwhile, the pricier professional price class saw shipments fall for the sixth consecutive quarter, painting a very different picture to 2020/2021 where professional desktop systems enjoyed a boost thanks to work from home scenarios. As most AM investment activity has focused on the industrial class, Chris Connery, Global VP of Analysis at CONTEXT suggests the entry-level category is “ripe for investment.”

Vertical integrations on the cards

It is no secret that many additive manufacturing companies have felt the impact of recent economic conditions, with end users becoming much more cautious with their capital expenditure. While the economic uncertainty has made some clutch their purse strings a little tighter, it could represent opportunity for others to vertically integrate elements of their supply chain with the acquisition of hardware, service, software or materials providers. Align Technology’s purchase of Cubicure and Meta’s takeover of Luxexcel are two recent examples, with both parent organisations folding in 3D printing technology firms to push forward with next-generation products. As others look to do the same, don't be surprised to see them bring AM firms in-house.

Read more additive manufacturing and industrial 3D printing insights inside the latest issue of TCT Magazine. Get the digital version and subscribe for free to get your free print magazine subscription.