TCT Awards 2019 celebrates best of design-to-manufacturing industry

Last night the third annual TCT Awards celebrated the people, technology and collaborations behind the best in design-to-manufacturing innovation. 

Ford Motor Company, Siemens AG, Renishaw and XJet were amongst the prestigious award winners.

The celebratory evening recognised ground breaking technology, collaborative projects, industry leaders and innovators. Hosted by Georgie Barrat, a technology journalist and presenter of Channel 5's The Gadget Show, the 200+ guests enjoyed a 3-course gala dinner and fantastic entertainment. before the awards ceremony begun.

In addition to the 15 competitive award categories, the TCT Group inducted another industry giant of additive manufacturing into the TCT Hall of Fame. Gideon Levy was honoured during the evening for his contribution to the AM industry and to the growth in technology adoption in Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) materials, which he holds over 30 patents for. 

A new accolade of the evening was the ‘Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award’ which was presented in collaboration with the Women in 3D Printing network to Professor Wai Yee Yeong.

Professor Wai Yee Yeong has been active in 3D printing research since 2004, she has created multiple frontiers in 3D printing, taking the leads in 3D Bioprinting, electronics printing and metal printing research. A truly deserving winner of the inaugural 'Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award'.

Kadine James, UK Chair of Women in 3D Printing commented: “Its a huge honour to have presented the TCT Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award 2019 which celebrates and shines a wonderful spotlight on all of the trail blazing women, pioneering the use of additive manufacturing technologies across the globe. We must encourage more women and girls into tech careers and amplify the importance of equality and diversity within our remarkable industry. Many congratulations to all of our superb nominees and to our incredible winner. You are all inspirational." 

James Woodcock, VP Content, Strategy & Partnerships at Rapid News Publications Ltd, added: “It was an honour to share the evening with so many truly inspirational people from all sectors in the industry. I would like to personally congratulate all of the winners for their successes. Professor Wai Yee Yong needs a special mention for her exceptional contributions and we are delighted to welcome Gideon into the Hall of Fame."

Finally, thank you to our supporting partner Innovate UK for their endorsement of the event, our drinks sponsor Desktop Metal, and, of course, all our judges. 

Please see below for a full list of winners, highly commended and our Rising Star announcement.

TCT Awards 2020 will take place in Birmingham, UK on Wednesday 30^th September 2020. Please keep an eye on the official website www.tctawards.com for updates.

TCT Hall of Fame inductee 2019

Gideon Levy

TCT Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award 2019 

Professor Wai Yee Yeong

TCT Rising Star Award 2019 

Winner: VELO3D

Highly Commended: Spectroplast AG

TCT Aerospace Application Award 2019

Winner: Veripart Digital Supply Chain

Tech Lead: Moog Inc

End User: Air New Zealand

Partners: Microsoft, ST Engineering

In a world first experiment, Moog’s blockchain enabled VeriPart process was utilised to create a point of use, time of need digital supply chain. The proof of concept had Air New Zealand order a digital aircraft part from Singapore-based ST Engineering. The digital file was immediately sent to an approved printer (Moog) in LA, 3D printed and installed on an Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300 aircraft 30 minutes after landing.

Highly Commended: Rocket Engine Combustion Chamber

Tech Lead: Frazer-Nash Manufacturing

End User: Skyrora

Partners: Renishaw

TCT Automotive Application Award 2019

Winner: Automated Design of Jigs & Fixtures

Tech Lead: Trinckle

End User:  Ford Motor Company

Partners:  Ultimaker B.V.

Ford and Trinckle have partnered to enhance the use of AM for the production of labelling jigs and fixtures. Through the development of an internal application using Trinckle’s paramate software, the design of AM jigs has been automated - reducing design time from 2-4 hours to 10 minutes and saving up to 50% of the total costs..

Highly Commended: PSPM Ball-Joint Exhaust System

Tech Lead: Poly-Shape

End User:  Pipo Moteurs 

TCT Consumer Product Application Award 2019

Winner: Precision Diamond Helmet Liner

Tech Lead: Carbon

End User: Riddell

Carbon and Riddell partnered to produce the first ever digitally printed helmet liner for the SpeedFlex Precision Diamond football helmet. Athlete data from Riddell’s proprietary database of 5 million head impacts was used to create the next-gen head protection precisely contoured to the athlete’s head, incorporating intricate, bespoke lattice structures with custom energy absorbing materials developed by Carbon.

Highly Commended: Home Appliance Spare Parts

Tech Lead: Spare Parts 3D

End User:  Whirlpool EMEA

TCT Creative Application Award 2019

Winner: Replica Dragon Conservation Project

Tech Lead: 3D Systems

End User:  Historic Royal Palaces

Partners: Paul Jewby Master Carver

3D systems used digital scan-to-CAD workflow alongside SLS printing and intricate post processing techniques to produce 72 replicas of ornately carved dragons for Historic Royal Palaces. Missing from a UNESCO World Heritage Site for over 200 years, the replica pieces were a lighter weight, longer lasting alternative to direct replacement of the wooden pieces, and were achieved in a much quicker timescale.

Highly Commended: Church Retable

Tech Lead: FIT AG

End User: Pfarrei St Laurentius Altmuhldorf

Partners:  Kunstlerduo Empfangshalle Munchen; Studio Tessin

TCT Hardware Award 2019 - Non Polymers 

Winner: CFC Technology

Tech Lead: Anisoprint S.a.r.l

Anisoprint S.a.r.l have developed Continuous Composite Fibre Co-extrusion (CFC) technology which can produce parts which they say are several times stronger, lighter and cheaper than single material metal or polymer parts. The process can use different combinations of polymers and fibres, as well as extrude each filament at different rates to produce local variation in mechanical properties in the printed part.

Highly Commended: Sapphire System

Tech Lead: Velo 3D

TCT Hardware Award 2019 - Polymers

Winner: Micro AM

Tech Lead: Nanofabrica

Micro AM provides an end-to-end solution bespoke to manufacturers requiring micron and sub-micron levels of resolution and surface finish. Nanofabrica's technology allows the repeatable mass manufacture of micro parts and components via additive manufacturing for manufacturers that previously had to rely on disproportionately expensive and non-agile manufacturing technologies such as micro moulding.

Highly Commended: Low Force Stereolithography

Tech Lead: FormLabs

TCT Healthcare Application Award 2019 

Winner: Neuroinfuse Drug Delivery System

Tech Lead: Renishaw plc

End User: North Bristol NHS Trust

Partners: The Harley Street Clinic; Herantis Pharma plc

A 3D printed titanium port has been developed to allow accessibility to the brain as part of a neuroinfuse drug delivery system which allows pharmaceuticals to bypass the blood-brain barrier for ongoing treatment of neuro disorders. The port features a roughened surface below the skin to encourage bone integration, and a polished surface above the skin to discourage bacterial settlement.

Highly Commended: Biomimetic Regenerative Scaffold

Tech Lead: Osteopore International Pte Ltd

End User: Queensland University of Technology

Partners: Julius-Maximilians University Wurzburg; Princess Alexandra Hospital, Australia

TCT Industrial Product Application Award 2019

Winner: Industrial Robot Dough Cutting Knife

Tech Lead: K3D B.V

End User: Kaak Group

Partners: Additive Industries ; Civon Project

An industrial robot dough cutting knife has been redesigned for powder bed fusion leading to a myriad of benefits including part reduction of 20 to 1 and weight reduction of 90%. Unique AM improvements include porous structures for better cleaning as well as an inbuilt bearing, leaf spring and thread. This led to more cuts per hour reducing the need from 8 to 6 robots and saving €120k.

Highly Commended: Generatively Designed AM Workholding

Tech Lead: Matsuura Machinery Ltd

Partners: Autodesk; HP

TCT Materials Award 2019 - Polymer

Winner: Formlabs Draft Resin

Tech Lead: Formlabs

Draft Resin is the fastest-printing Formlabs resin, making it ideal for rapid prototyping. Parts printed with Draft Resin print three to four times faster than parts printed with other Formlabs general purpose resins. The print speed of Draft Resin makes it ideal for same-day design iterations and printing bulky, full-build-volume parts.

Highly Commended: Filamentive ONE PET

Tech Lead: Fliamentive Ltd

Partners: Tridea; MCPP Netherlands

TCT Materials Award 2019 - Non Polymers

Winner: XJet S100 Soluble Support

Tech Lead: Xjet

XJet S100 is the only 100% soluble support material in the additive manufacturing of stainless-steel that has fully automated support removal. It brings huge advantages to the user in geometric freedom, preservation of fine details & smooth surfaces, as well as huge savings in post processing labour time and cost.

Highly Commended: Vibenite 480, Cemented Carbide

Tech Lead: VBN Components AB

Partners: Uppsala University

TCT Inspex Application Award 2019

Winner: Non Destructive Imaging in Forensics

Tech Lead: University of Warwick

End User:  West Midlands Police

Partners: Crown Prosecution Service; University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire

Numerous criminal cases have benefited from a range of scanning and multi material 3D printing technologies that have, up until now, not been readily available within the Criminal Justice System. This technology has been used to provide evidence in over 120 Homicide cases for over 14 Police Forces throughout the UK and overseas.

Highly Commended: Heritage Forensics

Tech Lead: University of Warwick

End User:  Oxford University Museum of Natural History

TCT Inspex Hardware Award 2019

Winner: FARO OPTOR LAB

Tech Lead: Faro

Optor Lab is a 3D dental scanner that combines all kinds of dental professional needs to support a digital workflow. This all-in-one 3D scanning device with its flexible modules is both an ideal entry-level solution and the most advanced 3D scanning desktop scanner. The flexibility in features and the open structure is built for convenient desktop scanning applications in any dental laboratory.

Highly Commended: Ophir BeamWatch AM

Tech Lead: MKS Instruments

TCT Post-Processing Award 2019

Winner: Intelligent de-powdering

Tech Lead: Siemens AG

Partners: Solukon Maschinenbau GmbH

Partnering Solukon’s SFM de-powdering technology with Siemens’ software has enabled a unique solution for powder removal of DMLM parts. The parts are rotated in a sequence calculated from the CAD geometry to precisely drain the residual powder from intricate cavities such as conformal cooling channels. This not only saves manual labour time, but also reduces waste powder and scrap parts due to powder residue issues.

Highly Commended: H6000

Tech Lead: Hirtenberger Engineered Surfaces

TCT Software Award 2019 

Winner: nTop Platform

Tech Lead: nTopology

nTop Platform is a unified engineering environment for design, simulation and advanced manufacturing processes. It is said to be the only design solution that allows engineers to simultaneously consider function, geometry, and manufacturing within a single computational methodology. Engineers can create lightweight and optimized parts with functional requirements built right in.

Highly Commended: Dyndrite Additive Toolkit

Tech Lead: Dyndrite Corporation