Hello [NAME],

This is the fourth newletter of the RM-platform.

The goal of this newsletter is to give you a quarterly update of the most relevant news of the RM platform and new posted RM-items on the website, such as papers, case studies, publications etc.
You can easily scan through it and access the website to get the complete item.
Most items of the newsletter are freely accessible for everybody. Some are restricted for stakeholders only. To become a stakeholder, please express your interest via info@rm-platform.com.

Group activities
We have a new organisation in place with several working groups. These are currently still in a starting up phase and will be coming out soon with the first activities and results.
- The Industry Advisory Group is evaluating how to create added value to industrial stakeholders, and how to translate their objectives into activities.
- The support group is working on the implementation plan and roadmap, in collaboration with Manufuture.
- The national & regional working group is setting up a strategy to create local activities around RM.
- The PR group is f.i. working on more publicity, among which a more attractive homepage and regular column in the TCT magazine.

There is still an open position for a coordinator in the National & Regional Working Group; this person gets the opportunity to coordinate the RM related activities of the National and / or regional platforms. Please mail in case interested to info@rm-platform.com.

Users forum
One of the new initiatives is a discussion forum for the Management Board. Accessible from the website, and able to discuss any topic regarding the RM platform. It is established now able to access, and the MB has chosen to keep maximum open communication with all stakeholders so you can see it all and even post a comment or topic.

Next stakeholders meeting
The next stakeholders' meeting will take place on Tuesday Sept 25th, in the UK, in combination with TCT conference. An official invitation will be sent out to the stakeholders within a few weeks.
- Main attention on creating business with RM without EC funding. Main reason for this is that most stakeholders will not be involved with the 2nd stage submission of the RM call, and many opportunities are still waiting to be picked up without having the need of EC funding. Basis for this will be the proposal summaries submitted to the bulletin board (after approval of the submitters).
- FP7: first call, 2nd stage submission, and next calls (realising that only last minute things can be done before the Oct 4 deadline)
The meeting location is Ricoh Arena, Coventry, less than half an hour drive from both Birmingham Airport and Coventry Airport.

If you haven't done so yet, you are also able to expose your experience with RM by posing an item: please use this instruction. If you like your organisation or event to be present in the "link" area, please provide title, hyperlink, optionally a subtitle and the prefered folder to be placed in. The only condition is that you have shown your RM relevance by having posted an item. Please contact us in case you like to know more.

In case you do not like to receive this newsletter in the future, then you can unsubscribe at the bottom.

Best regards on behalf of the platform management,

Martin Schäfer & Anton Gerrits
Chairman & coordinator

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Upcoming events for 2007

2007-05-22: Rapid.Tech, Erfurt

Rapid.Tech 2007 is an international Users Conference and Exhibition for Rapid Technology. It takes place on May 22 - 23, 2007 at Messe Erfurt. The concept of conference-cum-exhibition addresses both visitors with general interest searching for a convenient overview as well as RM experts looking for exchange of experience and new applications. Please refer to link for further information.

2007-06-25: FLAMN-07, St.Petersburg, Russia

International Conference on Fundamentals of Laser Assisted Micro- & Nanotechnologies. The conference will be devoted to the wide spectrum of laser micro- and nanoprocessing from physical fundamentals of different processes and their experimental demonstration till industrial set-up's and their realization.

2007-07-11: International RM conference, Loughborough

The 2nd International RM conference will take place at Loughborough University on the 11th & 12th July 2007. The conference will be a two day event with both industrial and academic speakers from around the world. The focus of the conference will be on the business benefits and research opportunities afforded by Rapid Manufacturing. This years conference will feature 20 presentations from companies including Boeing, Siemens, BAE systems, Renishaw and the Universities of Texas, Newcastle and Maastricht to name but a few. This will be the premier Rapid Manufacturing event of the year, which will also feature a parallel RM technology vendor's exhibition. Registration has just opened.

2007-09-24: VRAP 2007, Leiria, Portugal

3rd International Conference on Advanced Research in Virtual and Rapid Prototyping. VRAP is designed to be a major forum for the Scientific exchange of multi-disciplinary and inter-organisational aspects of virtual and physical prototyping and related areas

2007-09-26: TCT RM Conference 2007, Coventry, UK

The TCT 2007 Conference will, once again, focus on actual applications of RM from the global marketplace, however, this year's programme will go one step further and will also address the real issues of implementation - facts not theory! The provisional programme is almost complete. Key industry figures that have already confirmed that they will participate in the conference programme include: Geoff McFarland, Renishaw plc; Terry Wohlers, Wohlers Associates; Dan Johns, Airbus UK; and Tim Steward - Contour Premium Aircraft Seating. Furthermore, following the extremely positive feedback from TCT 2006, a panel session will feature at the start of day two, featuring some of the most notable experts from the RM industry, and this will give delegates the opportunity to openly discuss pertinent issues that they would like addressed.

2007-10-07: MCPC 2007, Boston & Montreal, USA

The biannual World Conference on Mass Customization & Personalization (MCPC) is the premier event of its kind. Bridging academic research and management practice, the conference provides an interactive and interdisciplinary platform to share ideas about mass customization strategies and to discuss the latest technologies and enablers.

2007-10-10: 12th User's Forum Rapid Product Development, Stuttgart Vaihingen, Germany

12th User's Forum Rapid Product Development - Without Detour to the Product. Stuttgart Vaihingen, October 10th, 2007 The annual User's Forum Rapid Product Development provides the visitor with lectures about the latest developments in the field of generative manufacturing technologies as well as an accompanying exhibition of recent and future trends in Rapid Product Development. The Event is organized by the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation, Stuttgart Vaihingen

2007-12-03: uRapid, Frankfurt/Main

International User's Conference & Exhibition on Rapid Prototyping & Rapid Tooling & Rapid Manufacturing. The future of mass customization and rapid, flexible and customized product supply belongs to state-of-the-art Rapid technologies and processes. If you are interested in profiting from rapid advances from all over the world, then don't miss Euro-uRapid2007 where internationally established firms, service providers, researchers and rapid experts meet with potential users.

2007-12-05: Euromold, Frankfurt/Main

World Fair for Moldmaking and Tooling, Design and Application Development From 5 - 8 december.

New public downloads available from RM-platform.com

Case studies

3mat: RM Phantom Head

This case study represents a direct RM manufactured phantom anatomical head used for accuracy qualification and validation of the producing process in accordance with Quality Management validation tests for medical product applications (ISO 13485).

ASCAMM: RM Case Study Ashtray

Ashtray for leisure device

3mat: Soft and Flexible Breathing Mask Studies

Dr. A.T.Bens & Dr. C.Tille ; 3mat Germany Medical Technology
Direct RM manufactured Parts for design studies with biocompatible stereolithographic material as functional prototypes for medical technology applications which require the need of a soft-touch and rubber-like material.

RM Case Study Cranioplasty: Medical custom implant

Medical custom implant, Master model via RP
Additional Technologies: manual milling and Vacuum casting
Mold Implant Material PEMA

RM Case Study Porous Filter Elements

It was shown high selectivity our filters by the gas and oil of centrifugal pumps, which included in the setup of shipped hydro seal electromotor.
Main requirement here is low permeability on liquids (oil, crude oil, water) and sufficiently good permeability on gases.
Possibility of governing characteristics of filter (membrane) on the micro and meso level, wide prospects of introduction in the porous filter structure of nano size catalysts, active additives and others.

RM Case Study Implants

Porous implants and scaffolds from nitinol and titanium.
Implants, Scaffolds, Cell repository, Drag Delivery Devices

RM Case Study Aorta Model Studies-Rev03

In this joint case study we present the redesign and usage of the exact geometries of a human aorta for research and testing studies (IDEE) by the RM production with the biocompatible, soft and flexible stereolithography material FlexSL(R) SE-25 (3mat)

RM Case Study UAVs Engine Exhaust

The component were design to be produced only by a layer manufacturing process, in this case, SLS. Two components where integrated in one, and the axys was integrated to improve assembly process. The parts where hollow inside to reduced the weigth.

Papers

London College of fashion: football boot out soles

Philip Delamore, Research Fellow London College of Fashion
High performance football boots for professional players have the potential to take the proof-of-concept of an approach focusing on highly individualized products to a market success. At the same time, they point to a long term strategy to enable the development of the manufacturing technologies involved to a cost and performance level that would serve in the production of consumer products on a mass customization scale.
This paper presents the background, motivation and research targets of a research project dealing with various finishing technologies to influence the performance of laser sintered parts with the focus on football boot out soles for professionals.

DMU, Laser Printing of Polymeric Materials

Soumya Banerjee & Prof. David Ian Wimpenny, RP & RM Group, Faculty of Computing Sciences & Engineering, DeMontfort University, UK
Electrophotography, the basis of photocopying and laser printing, is a reliable method of precisely depositing powders to form text or images. The process is highly adaptable to different materials; commercial toners are based on particular polymers, but the potential is shown to deposit other materials including metals and ceramics.

CTU & IFAM, Structure of Multi - Layer Metal Materials

Lodererovà Michaela, Steidl Josef, Rybnàek Jan, Hornàk Jakub, CTU, Czech Republic
Godlinski Dirk, Fraunhofer IFAM , Germany
Dourandish Mahdi+, Sharif University of Technology, Iran.
Multi-metal functionally graded specimens of a CoCr alloy and AISI 316 steel were prepared by Multi-Material Sintering and 3D-Printing. Element distribution and interface thickness were determined by  X-ray analysis. Microhardness was measured across the multi-material interface. Optimum processing conditions with regard to porosity and microhardness were identified.

Presentations

Fraunhofer IPA, Gripper from automation engineering; potential investigation with an innovative ...

Andrzej Grzesiak, Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation, Germany
The project investigates and evaluates the possibility to replace parts of a new gripper by laser-sintered components. Using EOSINT P and pusuing new design ideas the optimal solution is realised directly in CAD. After considering test results, the final design is an award-winning innovation in gripper technology.

EC FP7 NMP

KU Leuven Presentation RM-Platform Kruth

Microsoft PowerPoint - AFPR Philippe Multimat

Neotech Martin Hedges

Inkjet Printing

Articles / publications

Kunststof Magazine, The development of Rapid Manufacturing, (3 parts, only in Dutch)

Hugo van der Horst, Kunststof Magazine, Netherlands
Dit artikel verscheen in 2005 in Kunststof Magazine, het grootste vakblad voor de kunststofindustrie in Nederland en België
In het eerste deel van deze driedelige serie worden bestaande RP technieken besproken en maken we kennis met RM.
Het tweede deel laat zien hoe het grijze gebied tussen RP en RM ingevuld gaat worden, wat we onder personalised manufacturing verstaan en hoe het Europese Custom-Fit project daarin een belangrijke rol speelt.<
Het derde en laatste deel gaat over ontwerpers: hoe kijken zij aan tegen de RM ontwikkelingen en welke omslag moeten zij maken?

EOS/P2L: RP (RM) scores well on all fronts

Dean Palmer, Eureka magazine January 2006, UK
The goal of mass customisation goods to suit individual tasts is nearing reality. This articles shows SLS being used to tailor the design of football boots for individual players.