TriMech Blog

Within the past few decades, robotic arms have allowed the manufacturing industry to develop into the fast production entity it is today. First used in the automotive industry, robotic arms can be programmed to take on any task that calls for high repeatability and precision. Today, robotic arms are used in almost every industry imaginable: from medical, to agriculture, to electronics manufacturing- and additive manufacturing tools like 3D printing is making the technology even more accessible.

The VeroFlex and VeroFlexVivid family of materials are an unbelievably unique set of new materials available on Stratasys J Series 3D printers, which are capable of producing parts that have improved strength and flexibility while retaining great shape memory. Similar to how our simulated rubber-like Agilus material works, parts produced in either VeroFlex or VeroFlexVivid do not need to be handled as gently as other material parts and will hold up with little fear of them breaking. However, unlike Agilus, this material produces parts that are rigid and will snap right back to their original shape after being flexed in any direction. This makes them a great material to print high-quality full-color parts that are thin, like eyewear and small action figures, so today we’re going to show these new materials in action as we make some incredible Fourth of July sunglasses!

This week's Product Story showcases Milwaukee School of Engineering and their use of Stratasys F123 series printers and Stratasys materials.

Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) offers an innovative partnership between business and education in its Additive Manufacturing Lab. Students have the opportunity to work with businesses as they address unique challenges that arise when developing new products. The engineering students partner with Additive Lab consortium members to find a solution for these challenges.

TriMech’s solution partner, Stratasys, has recently signed an agreement with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Don Schumacher Racing. This agreement allows the automotive teams to leverage the Fortus and F123 series of 3D printers as part of their additive manufacturing process to stay ahead of the competition by accelerating component prototyping, proof-of-concept and finished ultralight usable components. 

In our last article, “How Do I Print Wood", we learned how to 3D print a texture in full-color using the Agilus30 White material on the Stratasys J750. We discussed how to use new SOLIDWORKS 2019 features to create physical 3D displacement models using a 2D bump mapping pattern and then apply the color texture to the model in Adobe Photoshop CC.

In this article, I’m going to show you another method to accomplish nearly the same end product, this time using a stone texture and only Adobe Photoshop CC. What’s more, we’ll go into how 3D displacement using bump maps in Photoshop works, showing you a quick and easy method to manually alter those bump maps to make smoother or coarser physical textures.

Incorporating anything new into the curriculum can be daunting. 3D printing is becoming a necessary skill in tomorrow's workforce and it is crucial that students learn it in the classroom. Here are the best practices to ensure the transition is successful. 

This month Stratasys announced that their PolyJet J735/J750 successfully passed the rigorous requirements required to make it the world’s first and only PANTONE validated 3D printer. Designers and manufacturers around the world are rejoicing! This changes the game for 3D printing as design and prototype colors can now be matched with 100% specificity, making the process from concept to final product even more accurate.

Today marks the release of the fifth movie from LAIKA studios “Missing Link.” This movie studio is known for their use of stop-motion animation in major feature films, but most don't know that they use PolyJet 3D printing technology in their production process.

“It’s really kind of an insane process that we’re doing, where we’re taking 3D printing and we’re fusing it with this really old technique of stop-motion and replacement animation and forcing these two technologies and techniques together to come up with some amazing performances and amazing results,” said Brian McLean, Director of Rapid Prototype at LAIKA.

Stratasys' GrabCAD Print is a sophisticated 3D printing app that allows designers and engineers to prepare, schedule and monitor 3D printing jobs. Since its release, GrabCAD has continued to make exciting updates to this software; and we will be updating you every other month on its new features. In this set of release notes, we will be looking at versions 1.26, 1.27, and the just released 1.28.

The ultimate goal of 3D printing prototype models is to create a part as close to the final product or part as possible. Ideally, you would be able to test the part for functionality and/or appearance to determine if your design is the correct one. That said, most of the time designers create their prototypes with overall part dimensions in mind and ignore the final physical surface textures and aesthetics because they are either too difficult to design or dismissed as just a “nice-to-have” but non-essential feature for this early phase of the project cycle. But what if you could include that level of detail?

Now, with the new software tools in SOLIDWORKS 2019 update and Adobe Photoshop CC, along with the new Agilus30 White material on the Stratasys J750, it’s easy to create these textures in full color that mimic what your final production material will be.

3D printing is currently leading the pack on the prototyping side of things. It’s fast, affordable and extremely easy to design parts. 3D printers use two main technologies, PolyJet and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), each with its own set of considerations. There are several methods for creating plastic parts – at both the prototyping and production level as well as some best design practices for better parts result.

Stratasys announces the newest member to their growing F123 family: the Stratasys F120 bench-top FDM 3D printer. This latest addition makes the industrial 3D printing technologies of the most reliable printer series in the industry even more accessible to designing and engineering teams. The printer will be available at a significantly lower entry cost, all while keeping the build size the same and increasing material volume.