Helping design and engineering professionals discover, evaluate and specify technologies and processes that shorten the design cycle and enable success.
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John Newman · December 20, 2012 · Christmas Day is almost here! The tree is loaded down with lights and crowded round with presents. Christmas crowds have been dodged to find the perfect gift, or possibly avoided altogether if you shopped online. Have some eggnog and a slice of fruitcake (does anyone actually eat that…
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John Newman · December 19, 2012 · …close, the trend for additive manufacturing (AM) systems seems to be size. Bigger isn’t always better, but some projects call for a more robust build envelope. Rapid Ready has already covered such behemoths as the Objet1000 and Concept Laser’s X line 1000R, and today we have a new…
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John Newman · December 18, 2012 · …attention to advances in manufacturing sees the potential of additive manufacturing (AM) as an up-and-coming technological force. The US and UK have already invested in 3D printing, partially in recognition of the promise of the technology, partially as part of a reshoring effort.Now, China has taken its first…
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John Newman · December 14, 2012 · …on the state of additive manufacturing (AM), I come across many interesting news items. I’ll gather them up every so often and present them in a Rapid Ready Roundup (like this one). You can find the last Roundup here.Let’s start today’s Roundup with some news about RAPID 2013.…
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John Newman · December 13, 2012 · …new ways of adapting additive manufacturing (AM) to improve not only the design process, but the production process as well. In the aerospace industry, Airbus and Aerosud are developing large scale AM facilities to produce major components of aircraft (such as entire wings). Now the automotive industry has…
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John Newman · December 12, 2012 · …getting a boost with additive manufacturing (AM). Rapid Ready has previously looked at the use of 3D printing by the Smithsonian and to build dinosaur bones. As more people are exposed to AM, it’s no surprise that other branches of academia are finding ways to use the technology.Archaeologists…
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Kenneth Wong · December 11, 2012 · The list of major players in rapid prototyping and 3D printing is not a very long one. In fact, if you try to count them with your fingers, you wouldn’t need to use both hands. In that tightly packed corner, a new super pact was formed when 3D…
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John Newman · December 11, 2012 · …ways, the future of additive manufacturing (AM) is in materials. If you don’t have suitable materials for the task at hand, it doesn’t matter how large a build envelope manufacturers can develop, or how quickly objects can be built. Objet (now Stratasys) is a good example of a…
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John Newman · December 7, 2012 · Additive manufacturing (AM) continues to chug along, building up momentum with each new technological innovation. Sometimes it’s a new material or AM system, other times it’s a refinement of an already existing product. Continuing research and development is what will bring 3D printing to the forefront of prototyping…
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John Newman · December 6, 2012 · …on the state of additive manufacturing (AM), I come across many interesting news items. I’ll gather them up every so often and present them in a Rapid Ready Roundup (like this one). You can find the last Roundup here.Let’s begin with a look at the newest versions of…
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John Newman · December 5, 2012 · …you haven’t been following additive manufacturing (AM) for long, back in April, Stratasys (company profile) and Objet (company profile) agreed to merge. Following a round of final talks, government approval and all the other little details that went into getting the deal to work, the merger is complete.The…
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John Newman · December 4, 2012 · …embraced the concept of additive manufacturing (AM) in a big way. The agency has looked to AM to build satellites in space, used it to create parts for the space exploration vehicle (SEV), and has investigated including a small 3D printer on board the SEV and future spacecraft…
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DE Editors · December 1, 2012 · …tested. “We need a manufacturing system that’s capable of handling that sort of throughput, where each component is a one-off and complex in its shape,” he adds. “It’s all flowing, 3D aerodynamic-detailed shape, so no straight lines, no easy angles. Everything is made to get the most of…
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Jamie Gooch · December 1, 2012 · Additive manufacturing (AM) can optimize prototyping by allowing multiple physical iterations of a design to be quickly created and evaluated. However, the technology really shines when it’s used to create optimized end-use parts that would not be economically feasible to manufacture via traditional means. It’s a win-win situation…
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Jamie Gooch · December 1, 2012 · …design is also driving additive manufacturing technologies as engineers discover the optimal design might not be feasible to manufacture by any means other than additive manufacturing.Upfront simulation also helps ensure problems are discovered and corrected before they ever see a test bench. Instead of simulation verifying a design,…
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DE Editors · December 1, 2012 · …out complex calculations and manufacturing that are otherwise not feasible. However, none of these tools can create new designs. The quality of a design remains primarily dependent on human creativity and intuition. This is why optimization is a truly revolutionary engineering tool: It can now “create” unintuitive designs…
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DE Editors · December 1, 2012 · …terms 3D printing and additive manufacturing (AM) interchangeably. Many from the scientific and technical communities prefer AM, especially for industrial systems. About everyone else, including bloggers, the investment community and the mainstream press, prefer 3D printing. There’s no going back to the old definition of 3D printing, which…
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Pamela Waterman · December 1, 2012 · …its design. Part count, manufacturing approaches, assembly requirements, material properties, and costs must be constantly reviewed and evaluated. The more complex the product is, the harder it can be, especially under time-to-market pressures. The ideal product includes innovation at every step, and Altair ProductDesign offers this through its…
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Kenneth Wong · December 1, 2012 · …fuel economy. In large-volume manufacturing, a lighter, smaller personal computer requires less material to build and package, and costs less to ship. But optimization possibilities have to be balanced against the stresses and loads anticipated. Shave off too much material from the wrong part of the structure of…
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John Newman · November 30, 2012 · …be shifting focus from additive manufacturing systems to the data that feeds them.Geomagic has announced the forthcoming release of its 3D modeling software: Freeform 2013. The newest version of Freeform continues to leverage the company’s Phantom haptic feedback technology, which allows users to virtually sculpt new designs. Freeform…
Digital Engineering June 2026
In the latest issue of Digital Engineering, we focus on automotive design innovations, including light and sound simulation, additive manufacturing applications. Our editors head to NVIDIA GTC and RAPID+TCT, and we investigate whether you can…
May 2026 Special Focus: Artificial Intelligence in Design and Simulation
In this Special Focus Issue, learn about the latest developments in the integration of artificial intelligence into engineering workflows.
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