这些年International Manufacturing Technology Show(IMTS) may have now come to a close, but the event served as a valuable meeting point for manufacturers both in and outside of the 3D printing industry.
With the show’s last edition canceled due to COVID-19, IMTS 2022 represented the first time McCormick Place has been able to host 3D printing, machining, injection molding and other production technology developers since 2018. As such, the show offered participants with a long-overdue chance to share new products, strike partnerships and network across industries.
Given the mixture of technologies on show, IMTS also provided a unique opportunity to weigh up the future of 3D printing, and identify where it stands in the wider world of manufacturing. In an effort to find out, 3D Printing Industry covered the event live from the showfloor, and has since reached out to insiders at语境， 这Association For Manufacturing Technology（amt），Siemens，，，，碳and more.
In the view of CONTEXT’s VP of Global Analysis and Research, Chris Connery, “excitement around AM was stronger than ever, with the technology continuing to punch above its weight in terms of media and attendee attention. New additive technologies and companies were showcased alongside industry stalwarts, with companies not a part of the AM industry prior to IMTS, showing their wares and technologies alongside longtime players.”
AM’s continued need for speed
According to Siemens Additive Manufacturing Business Manager Tim Bell, the industry is seeing “a significant increase in the use of metal binder jet printing for high volume production.” Bell will no doubt have seen the launch ofHP’s Metal Jet S100 3D printer在活动的开幕日。在系统揭幕之前，HP的3D打印金属业务负责人拉蒙·牧师（Ramon Pastor）表示，其成本效率将使它在粘合剂喷射生产中“驱动尺度”。
在Showfloor上的许多其他技术中，这种吞吐量也很明显，包括大量的驱动器Inkbit Vista 3D printer，，，，which began shipping earlier in 2022. At its booth, the firm’s CEO Davide Marini explained how it has developed a “breakthrough algorithm” that allows its machine to achieve a world-record build plate density of 42%.
Marini added that this is also made possible by the inherent benefits of Inkbit’s technology, which allows users to realize prints that combine soft and rigid characteristics, such as manifolds with integrated gaskets or robotic grippers, while “only needing to leave a millimeter’s gap between parts” on the plate.
Elsewhere, at theNexa3Dbooth, the firm was debuting its newQLS 820 3D打印机，，，，a machine designed to target consistent, high-throughput batches. Mohit Chaudhary, a Senior Applications Engineer at the company, demonstrated during the show how the dashboard system of the printer’s packaged-in software is key to allowing users to “control, regulate and monitor” builds.
在反思IMT时，AMT的新兴技术和投资总监Dayton Horvath认为这是一种新兴趋势。实际上，霍瓦斯（Horvath）认为，在活动中，软件开发人员为“运营效率和工作流程管理为例”，以“称赞机器人技术和自动化产品的表现”。
Gaining ground in oil and gas
For his part, Andrew Sink, a Senior Applications Engineer at Carbon, noticed in his IMTS experience how a growing number of firms are taking notice of 3D printing’s “potential to change the supply chain as we know it.” Sink says that businesses are now “recognizing that AM is no longer an offshoot but a mature technology that has a place in their manufacturing toolbox.”
This push towards in-sourcing production was reflected in a growing confidence among 3D printing firms that their products are ready to meet the needs of offshore oil and gas clients. At3D Systems， 这firm showed off认证的CUNI30开发的铜镍合金Huntington Ingalls Industries子公司Newport News，，，，that’s getting a wider launch later this year.
乔·多普科夫斯基（Joe Dopkowski）在公司的展位上发表讲话，解释了该材料对盐水腐蚀的抵抗力如何使其不仅适合生产海上零件，而且是具有石油和天然气应用的零件。That said, while Dopkowski anticipated there being “a lot of interest” in the alloy there, he added that because there “aren’t any regulations” for 3D printing such parts, potential customers are saying “they don’t know what the implications are.”
同时，在麦考密克广场的东翼Oqton首席执行官Ben Schrauwen概述了其业务软件的计划，以使新行业的零件认证更加容易。使用机器学习，该公司的制造操作系统允许用户快速优化打印参数以实现特定的零件几何形状。在IMTS，Schrauwen吹嘘说，该软件允许在任何金属系统上使用16°悬垂的零件打印零件，而无需更改其硬件。
Moving forwards, Oqton’s Co-founder explained that as there’s so much data in the system, “generating automated certification reports becomes easy.” Unsurprisingly, given that this streamlines manufacturing applications in new areas, he said the software itself was first used in dental, but is now “getting into the energy sector” as well as areas like oil and gas.
LFAM taking off in aerospace
At IMTS 2022, it was also clear that Large Format Additive Manufacturing or ‘LFAM’ is continuing to gain traction in aerospace. While theThermwood Corporation’slarge-format 3D printing displays have become something of a feature of recent manufacturing trade shows, it did display some interesting new parts.
以及实验模具，公司与Airtech，，，，it showcased a huge 1,540 lbs trim fixture it 3D printed forBoeing。Produced via Thermwood’s Vertical Print Layer (VLP) system, the 12-foot-long carbon fiber-reinforced part took just over 43 hours to print, and another 40 hours to machine into shape.
Large-format mold 3D printing was also high on the agenda atIngersoll Machine Tools。Though the firm was exhibiting part of a 23-foot space habitat developed with theRosenberg InstituteandSaga太空建筑师， 这team at its booth explained how the nearer-term applications of theMaster Printsystem used to build it, are more likely to be in aerospace mold production.
“So the smaller MasterPrint can be used to print a mold,” the team explained. “Then, you can pick up a milling head to final mill the mold, and if you leave it in place, you can lay carbon fiber over it, leaving a turbine blade for jet planes.” They added that the process, which comes with cost, time and material savings, is set to be adopted by a UK defense contractor later this year.
Due to their secure R&D budgets, Bell says “new manufacturing technologies are pioneered by the aerospace and defense industry.” However, while the Business Manager views this as a positive, he believes it won’t be “until the automotive industry accepts the technology due to its high volumes, that it will become a commodity and experience significant growth.”
AI-driven geometry optimization
On the software front, Sink says attendees were “eager to unlock the value and opportunity of additive processes by designing specifically for it.” This, the engineer says, was evidenced at IMTS by a shift in thinking around how parts are designed, with many now turning to software tools to improve print performance.
在booth ofFusion 360developerAutodesk，，，，Richard Stubley, a Manufacturing Specialist at the firm, explained how this is being borne out in the software’s generative design features, which are increasingly allowing users to “explore the new designs, they’ve never had time to before.”
Stubley表示，该计划通过基于投入的设计挑战提出“数十万个解决方案”来实现这一目标。他说，使用这些数据，该软件随后创建了一个图，采用者可以开始比较“负载与重量与位移作为安全系数”之类的方面。
“The core benefit is that as a designer, I can concentrate on giving the best solution possible,” explained Stubley. “It allows me to look through a list of predesigns and components to work out actually, these are going to be the best ones. I want to do something different with the way this may have mechanical interfaces.”
Similarly,Dassault Systèmes’战略业务发展总监阿德里安·伍德（Adrian Wood）声称3Dexperience现在，平台使用户能够模拟自己的稳定性方式。除了优化零件轻度外，他还解释了该公司的软件如何允许用户“降低风险”一旦制造出“确切的工作方式”，以“减轻风险”。
Automation gathers momentum
当涉及到不同过程中明显的趋势时，Horvath表示，机器人技术和自动化更为普遍，这表明对制造过程的考虑更加完整，无论技术如何。”
In the additive manufacturing pavilion, one of those embracing automation wasOptomec，，，，which rolled out the first system developed alongside itsHuffman子公司， 这镜头CS250 3D打印机。The automated cell can either be run on its own or chained together to form a production line, capable of both creating parts and conducting repairs on large aerospace builds such as turbine blades.
FormAlloy是事件中定向能量沉积（DED）自动化的另一个强有力的支持者。在IMT演讲中，首席执行官Melanie Lang声称：“每次工程师触摸机器时，您都会失去重复性。”为了解决这一问题，Formalloy已开始专注于实时梅尔特浦和离轴光学监测等领域，从而使校正能够使零件的层保持一致和可预测的属性。
“It’s very important, especially in production, to be able to repeat the same product over and over,” Lang explained during her presentation. “That way, you get the performance and the quality that you need to have a transition into production.”
Where does 3D printing stand?
Interestingly, when asked about where 3D printing stood among the other technologies exhibited at IMTS and the direction it might be headed in, each attendee had a different take. While Sink said many at the show were focusing on “consumer applications at scale,” Bell said rising automotive adoption is a sign that “AM is on the path to industrialization.”
向前迈进，Connery将Binder喷射确定为“未来几年增长潜力最高的技术之一”。除了惠普的金属喷气发射外，分析师还引用了Desktop Metal，，，，MarkforgedandGEas indicators that shipments of machines powered by the technology would achieve a CAGR of 49% between now and 2027.
Finally, and perhaps most tellingly, Horvath identified how “all the technologies at IMTS were connected,” with two of the five hybrid firms in the AM pavilion combining additive, inspection and subtractive processes. Describing this as “a sign of things to come,” Horvath predicted that the industry will now see “a more connected transition between traditionally separate technologies.”
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Featured image shows McCormick Place during IMTS 2022. Photo by Paul Hanaphy.
