The Dutch national hockey team very nearly found themselves without a captain recently, when triple Olympic medallist Eva de Goede fractured her wrist a mere two months before the start of the 2021 European Championship. For mere mortals like ourselves, a broken wrist can take many weeks (and months) to heal properly. But for a […]

Over the last year we have seen wider adoption of AM processes for use in repairing items, particularly in the marine and aerospace sector. Sometimes companies make parts so complicated and expensive that it’s simply not economical to make a new part from scratch or to repair it with traditional means (normally cutting/machining and welding). […]

UK-based jetsuit company Gravity Industries has announced their plans to develop a new flying suit, this time with an electrical propulsion system rather than a hydrocarbon-burning kind. As you can guess by the spoilerific headline, this new product, named the Gravity eSuit, will be realized thanks to the wonder of 3D printed engineering plastics. Specifically, […]

Last month, 3D Systems announced the acquisition of bioprinter manufacturer Allevi. It is the latest in a series of moves by the company intended to push them to the forefront of bioprinting. We reported more on one of those other moves some more in this previous article on printed lungs. In this article, we will […]

GE has announced that their printed metal jet engine sump cover has received USAF airworthiness certification, adding another example to the very small list of printed critical parts for use in aviation. Previous examples have been in the domain of civil aviation, but this part is the first printed metal critical engine part to be […]

Ivory has been historically valued due to its white finish, its relative hardness, as well as of its ease of carving. Chemically speaking, the ivory found in the tusk of an elephant is no different than what is found in the teeth of your dog. The size of elephant tusks significantly adds to the allure […]

Laser metal deposition (LMD) is proving more and more useful to industry, as this recent impeller repair has shown. LMD, also known as directed energy deposition (DED) or direct metal deposition, or laser cladding, works by blowing metal particles (or feeding wire) via a nozzle into a melt pool on a part undergoing repair. The […]