KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Paulo Jorge da Silva Bártolo Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal     Biomedical Applications of Additive Fabrication

Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary field that necessitates the combined effort of cell biologists, engineers, material scientists, mathematicians, geneticists, and clinicians toward the development of biological substitutes that restore, maintain, or improve tissue function. It has emerged as a rapidly expanding approach to address the organ shortage problem and comprises tissue regeneration and organ substitution. Additive fabrication processes represent a new group of non-conventional fabrication techniques recently introduced in the medical field. In the tissue engineering field, additive fabrication processes have been used to produce scaffolds with customised external shape and predefined internal morphology, allowing good control of pore size and pore distribution. This article provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art review of the application of biomanufacturing additive processes in the field of tissue engineering and explores the concept of direct cell-printing technologies.

Deon J. de Beer Executive Director: Technology Transfer and Innovation Vaal University of Technology, South Africa     AM as Tool to support Sustainable Development

AM has been around in South Africa since 1991, and has been through all the typical “new technology trigger trends”, such as starting the trigger at zero level, reaching the peak of inflated expectation, entering the valley of “disappointment” an dissolution (and desolation for the instigators / researchers ), entering the slope of enlightenment and into the plateau of productivity. “Productivity” as referred to here goes beyond the effective and repeatable production of a wide array / diverse range of products in a range of materials – it also refers to producing batches on a JIT or as needed base, in whatever configuration of design for X. The paper will reflect on the development of a sustainable R&D and technology transfer facility in a “remote” part of the world, and its very effective performance in supporting sustainable economic development, support of spin off companies and effectively working with and integrating government-funded research and development programmes, and will cover success stories in general product development, specialized product development such as medical applications, rapid tooling and rapid manufacturing – all in support of new venture creation. The speaker will also highlight the development path followed in South Africa, using a triple-helix approach.

Ian Campbell Loughborough University, Great Britain     Development of Repository to Support Design for Additive Manufacturing

At present there are few established design support tools to aid industrial designers to design products specifically for additive manufacturing (AM) processes, such as laser sintering. The aim of this research is to develop such a tool. Based on a semi-structured interview that was conducted to identify reasons for AM utilisation, a taxonomy has been developed that comprises five main design advantages of AM. These are design for user fit requirements, design for improved product functionality, design for aesthetics and form requirement, design for parts consolidation and design for dual materials. Each of these requirements has been expanded to include various examples of AM design features and applications so that industrial designers will be able to visualise and gather information that could be incorporated into their own design work. The next phase of the research is to obtain responses from industrial designers and use these to improve and validate the repository.

Ian Gibson Associate Professor, National University of Singapore     RapidPRE: A new Additive Manufacturing Technique

This presentation will cover a new Additive Manufacturing technique based on reactive extrusion. The approach allows the manufacture of high quality products from polyurethane materials with the possibility of composites and multiple materials in a single part. The use of these thermosetting polymers makes it possible to create parts that are better tailored to the final application and to prevent temperature based distortion during fabrication.

Stephen Reay Auckland University of Technology   Design for Biodiversity: a new approach for ecologically sustainable product design?

McDonough and Braungart proposed the “Cradle to Cradle” design framework to provide solutions to the world’s current ecological crisis. This approach, based on examples from nature, ensures that human activities can have a positive ecological footprint, capable of replenishing and regenerating natural systems, as well guaranteeing that we are able to develop a world that is culturally and ecologically diverse. Design for Biodiversity is proposed as a potential approach for designing environmentally sustainable products. During the development of this approach, the relationship between science and design must be explored to support the notion that ecosystems are the basis of human consumption and should be incorporated as an integral part of society to ensure the development of strong sustainability. The result of this approach is to help to design ecologically beneficial products.

Sarat Singamneni Auckland University of Technology     Curved Layer Fused Deposition Modeling

Researchers at AUT University in New Zealand and the National University of Singapore have recently developed a novel Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) process in which the layers of material that make up the part are deposited as curved layers instead of the conventional flat layers. This technology opens up an entirely new possibility of building complex curved plastic parts that have conductive electronic tracks and components printed directly as part of the plastic component. It is not possible to do this with existing flat-layer additive manufacturing technologies, particularly on parts that are curved, as the continuity of a circuit would be interrupted between the layers. The elimination of the flat printed circuit boards (PCBs) and possibly even some of the electronic components, such as transistors, that are used in most electronic products creates a whole new type of product in which the housing of the product becomes its electronic circuit. This, in turn, could revolutionize the field of product design which would no longer be constrained by having to design around flat PCBs.

Terry Wohlers Wohlers Associates, USA     The Future of Additive Manufacturing

The additive manufacturing (AM) industry will grow in new and exciting ways. A much larger number of people will become aware of AM and begin to use it for the first time. Meanwhile, sophisticated and veteran users and researchers will push the development of advanced composites and metal alloys for demanding aerospace, military, medical, and automobile applications. Meanwhile, AM systems will become available for a few thousand euros. High schools will use them as an integral part of their technology education programs. In the distant future, 3D printers targeted at children and their parents will become available for 100-150 euros. These non-professional and less capable systems will be used for entertainment and play.