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HP makes design engineering post-Covid easier with tools for flexible and efficient workflow

2021-07-31T15:25:00-04:00

This post is brought to you in partnership with HP

In some ways, the work world will never be the same. Here are the tools that make a flexible and efficient workflow possible.

The pandemic has accelerated the process of digital transformation across all industries including the product design and manufacturing sectors. As part of this transformation, design engineers are now creating products and systems that align with artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and advanced robotic process automation.

At the same time, the design process itself has also evolved. Workflows are now being automated to unprecedented levels. To stay competitive and allow for efficient workflows on every project, design engineers must ensure their physical processes are faster and more flexible than ever before. Chief among these physical processes is printing.

What’s needed now is a printer that seamlessly integrates with the design process. This is why HP recently released its new HP DesignJet...

Tiny 3D Printing: A laser-activated 3D printing technique pushes the limits of speed, size, and precision

2020-02-25T18:45:00-05:00

In recent years, 3D printing has become the go-to technology for designers looking to prototype and deploy new designs and products.

Researchers from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have made a great (tiny) leap forward in the technology by creating a groundbreaking printing method that uses translucent liquid and a spinning container to produce tiny 3D prints.

According to a press statement by EPFL, "The new technique draws on the principles of tomography, a method used mainly in medical imaging to build a model of an object based on surface scans. The printer works by sending a laser through the translucent gel – either a biological gel or liquid plastic, as required."

Image still courtesy of EPFL.

As one can imagine, this new micro 3D-printing system has potential applications in a range of fields, including architecture.

3D printing company Readily3D is already in the process of creating a version of this print system that will be available for the market. The tr...

MIT's DCP robot can quickly print large-scale structures completely made of local materials

2017-05-10T15:02:00-04:00

[The] Digital Construction Platform (DCP) [is] a four-ton solar powered robot arm on tank tracks. And yet, it’s a working proof-of-concept that a machine can build a lot like a tree does, sourcing local energy and adapting to local conditions to construct a building out of local materials–anything ranging from dirt, to ice, to moon dust...The tip of the arm is fit with a nozzle that can mix and spray mud, foam, or concrete–basically any viscous building material you could imagine.

Designed by the MIT Mediated Matter group, the DCP robot is an “experimental enabling technology for large-scale digital manufacturing” that has shown impressive results in printing with various media, including light printing, excavation, welded-chain construction, and additive fabrication with the Print-in-Place process.

The DCP can potentially be used in the design and construction industries, but the lab is diving deeper into how to take their DCP technology to the next level — like constructing ice structures on the Moon or printing “living buildings” made of animal proteins and other microorganisms.

See the DCP in action below.