The Hague to Host European Trade Fair on Drones
The exposition is expected to attract 2,500 international visitors.
3D printing is not the miracle we were promised
Mike Murphy for Quartz: 3D printing has been hailed as the future of manufacturing for years now. Consumers and investors were sold on the idea of being able to print anything at any time from a little box in their houses. But that Jetsons-like vision hasn’t come to pass. The 3D printers available to consumers are great for making small prototypes or tchotchkes. But they’re still slow, inaccurate and generally only print one material at a time. And that’s not going to change any time soon.
That reality is setting in for 3D printer makers. Stratasys, which owns MakerBot and is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of commercial and industrial 3D printers, announced its fifth straight quarter of losses today. 3D Systems, which was founded by the man who invented 3D printing—Chuck Hull—isn’t faring much better.
Wall Street’s interest in 3D printing seems to have peaked in the first week of 2014: The stock prices for both Stratasys and 3D Systems were at their highest on January 3 last year. Stratasys had completed the purchase of MakerBot—which has been called the “Apple” of 3D printing—about three months earlier, and it looked as if things were on the up. But a little over a year later, MakerBot laid off a fifth of its staff, closed its stores, and started focusing on selling to schools.
As it stands, it seems that the market is retracting to industrial printers, for companies that benefit from rapidly prototyping objects. 3D printing makes a lot of sense when companies can quickly model and print their ideas—anything from new bike helmets to car doors or sprockets. These are where (relatively) cheap, disposable plastic models thrive, as companies can churn out all the models they need, and then turn to more traditional automated processes, like CNC milling or vacuum forming, to build their final product at scale, using materials that will actually last. Cont'd...
SLIPS Welcomes Allowance of Foundational Patents Providing Broad Coverage for New Class of Super-Repellent Surfaces
Patent allowances strengthen position of super-slippery surfaces that even defy Geckos
MVTec launches new HALCON Release 12.0.1
New machine vision features
---Significantly improved bar code and data code reading
Polymaker Expands Lineup of Groundbreaking 3D Printing Materials for Industrial Design Applications
Unique Highly Versatile Materials Enable More Complex 3D Printing and Expand Artistic Creativity
Proto Labs Launches Rapid Magnesium Injection Molding Service
Low-volume magnesium molding bridges manufacturing gap between prototyping and production.
OMRON to Acquire U.S.-based Motion Control Company
- Strengthening Technology Development and Sales Capabilities for Factory Automation Business -
Join DARPA to Envision the World of 2030
The physics of harnessing light to see around corners …
The Crowning Conclusion: Universal Robots Saves 9 Hours of Production Time at Glidewell Laboratories
Having a UR5 robot tend four CNC machines milling dental crowns optimizes a substantial part of the production cycle at Glidewell Laboratories in Newport Beach, California.
Energid's Actin Control Software Enables Nuclear Inspection Robot in China
Actin-controlled Articulated Inspection Arm (AIA) Deployed to Tokamak in Hefei, China for Thermonuclear Fusion Power Studies
KC Robotics, Inc. Partakes in Summer Camp for Robotics Week
Industrial Robotics Company Happy to be Part of Primrose Schools Summer Camp Program
Adept Technology Hires Vice President of North American Sales for Fixed Robotics
"Brian McMorris brings to Adept more than 20 years of experience in the
automation industry, successfully cultivating companies' sales and
distribution teams, developing strategic marketing plans, and consistently
exceeding revenue goals"
Energid Technologies Developing Lightweight Robot Arm for Flying Platforms
New Robot Arm Funded by NASA and Leveraging Energid's Actin Software will Support Space and Terrestrial Applications
STRATASYS COLLABORATES WITH THE VA'S INNOVATION CREATION SERIES EVENT
The Prosthetics and Assistive Technology Challenge event is July 28-29 in Richmond, Virginia
AIS Expands Intelligent Automation Control and Monitoring Portfolio with Box Industrial PCs, Din Rail and Thin Client IPCs for Connecting Data, People and Machines
AISs Box Industrial PCs, Din-rail and Thin Client IPCs Offer a Highly Integrated Form Factor for PC-based Automation for IoT Gateway and Industry 4.0 Applications
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