Rich Annino Latest Blog Articles Page 3

Magic is in the air this holiday season at TriMech with all of the new toys we’ve been getting here in our print lab lately. Since we’ve been given the gift of an incredible new Stratasys J750, I decided that it would be great to get into the holiday spirit and create a miniature winter scene to share with some of my clients and co-workers that don’t get to experience all of the charm and joy that snow brings this time of year.

The J750 is Stratasys’ new flagship PolyJet 3D printer, capable of creating some of the most amazing parts and assemblies you can imagine. Here at TriMech, we’ve upgraded to the newest version of the J750 with all of the latest updates, and we’re all incredibly excited to start making new parts that fully take advantage of what this state of the art system can do!

Anyone who has compared traditional FDM (sometimes called Fused Filament Fabrication) to other 3D printing technologies, such as PolyJet, SLA and SLS, has definitely thought at one time or another, “This technology is both inexpensive to print and strong, but I really wish it had better resolution.” In this blog, we explore how to make FDM look as good as other technologies while remaining inexpensive and not impacting overall strength. We’ve printed a horde of Easter Island Moai to play around with the top three ways to smooth PLA parts.

3D printing is a process that embraces the production of unique, customized, short-run parts. During the holiday season, I can think of nothing better to take advantage of this concept than by designing some interesting TriMech and Stratasys themed cookie cutters in SOLIDWORKS and then printing them out using the food-contact safe ULTEM 1010 CG material.

To wrap up our three-part blog series focused on applications of 3D printing in the medical industry, we'll discuss the use of 3D printers specifically in the hospital setting. While research on 3D printing in hospitals has been published as far back as 1998, the majority of publications date after 2014—this is a result of recent technological advancements and being more newly adopted into this medical sector. Keep reading to see how 3D printing is changing the game for hospital's surgical departments, clinical training and patient recovery programs. 

Are you familiar with which PolyJet materials are compatible with Stratasys' Connex line of printers? Have you ever used the Tango family of simulated rubber-like materials, one of the most flexible sets of 3D printing materials on the market? If you answered "yes" to either of these questions, then you are going to LOVE Stratasys' newly released formula for simulated rubber. Keep reading to learn why you should add Agilus30 to your toolbox of 3D printing materials.

MakerBot Tough PLA is an amazing material that combines the low cost and ease-of-use that regular PLA offers with strength that is similar to (or in some situations better than) ABS. In this blog, we investigate one of those surprising situations by exploring Tough PLA and printed living hinges and cantilever snap fits.