Bristol Fighter: The Coolest Car You've Never Heard Of - XCAR

Scan your face to pay your bill

First 3D Printed Supercar - A New Way To Build Cars

Disruptive Innovation Changing Manufacturing

By Steve Heller | More Articles 

June 18, 2015 | Comments (0)

Since being coined the "Third Industrial Revolution" by The Economist in mid-2012, 3D printing has captivated the imaginations of investors and enthusiasts as a technology that offers the potential to fundamentally change the way the world manufactures.

While in total dollar terms the 3D printing industry currently generates a trivial amount of revenue compared to worldwide manufacturing activity, which generates upward of $12.8 trillion annually, it can still be viewed as a disruptive innovation changing manufacturing.

What is 3D printing?On a high level, 3D printing is an additive manufacturing process, meaning it builds objects one layer a time -- the opposite of subtractive manufacturing, or machining, in which a solid block of raw material gets cut or milled down into its final shape.

Compared to machining, 3D printing doesn't require tooling to create objects, which can limit a part's geometric complexity. In other words, 3D printing invites complexity in manufacturing that would otherwise be impossible to produce with subtractive manufacturing techniques.

The other major benefit of 3D printing over subtractive manufacturing is that it doesn't create as much waste material, which can be quite cost-effective for manufacturers when they are working with costly materials such as titanium.

Although it's difficult to estimate the size and scope of the worldwide subtractive manufacturing industry, the CNC machining market, which covers a large subset of subtractive processes, is worth about $90 billion per year. Of that $90 billion, 3D printing could have the greatest disruptive impact in CNC machining applications with high complexity and material cost.   

From prototypes to final productsWhen 3D printing was first invented in the 1980s, it offered a cheaper and quicker way for product designers to make prototypes and therefore bring products to market faster. Although this use case still holds true today, the data suggests that the future of 3D printing will be increasingly tied to using the technology to produce parts that end up in final products.

According to Wohlers Associates, a leading 3D printing insights firm, the market for 3D-printed parts that end up in final products expanded by 66% in 2014 to $1.75 billion in revenue, representing about 43% of the 3D printing industry's total revenue for the year. To put this growth rate in perspective, it more than doubled the industry's annual growth rate of 35.2%, suggesting that there's a strong underlying shift in how the technology is being used.

To be clear, 3D printing for final products isn't just being used to produce trivial trinkets or your next smartphone case. General Electric, for instance, has turned to metal 3D printing to manufacture its next-generation fuel nozzle for its upcoming Leap jet engine, which will take to the skies in the coming years.

By leveraging 3D printing, GE was able to consolidate the number of components needed to create a jet engine fuel nozzle from 20 conventionally manufactured parts down to a single 3D-printed component. This reduction resulted in a fuel nozzle that's five times stronger and 25% lighter than its conventionally manufactured counterpart. All told, GE has plans to produce upward of 85,000 3D-printed nozzles to meet the demand of the next-generation engine.

To put this figure in perspective, 85,000 3D-printed fuel nozzles is a huge number for 3D printing, and will likely make history as the largest mission-critical production run of in the history of the technology. However, compared to more conventional means of manufacturing, it's pocket change compared to processes that can produce millions of units with ease.  

Putting it into perspectiveAccording to Wohlers Report 2015, the worldwide 3D printing industry generated $4.1 billion of revenue in 2014, and is expected to exceed $21 billion in revenue by 2020. Looking beyond 2020, if 3D printing grew to represent 1% of the entire worldwide manufacturing industry, it would be worth in the neighborhood of $128 billion.

On one hand, it appears that 3D printing's ability to produce complicated parts at a cost-effective price suggests there's tremendous potential for 3D printing to easily disrupt certain areas of more traditional manufacturing.

On the other hand, it could be a very long time until conventional manufacturers view 3D printing as a serious threat, considering 3D printing is slow as molasses. The layer-by-layer nature of the technology inherently struggles with speed, which doesn't make it well suited for large-scale manufacturing applications that demand speed. Although breakthroughs around speed are expected to be made in this future, this limiting factor will likely keep the technology off large-scale manufacturing runs for the time being.      

At the end of the day, no one can know with certainty the disruptive threat that 3D printing poses to conventional manufacturing. To me, 3D printing offers the most promise in areas where it could be used to create fundamentally better products than its conventionally manufactured alternative. 

Steve Heller has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of General Electric Company. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The 3D printing revolution you haven’t read about

Posted on 12 Jun 2015 by The Manufacturer

The advent of 3D printing is ushering in a fundamental change in the operation of manufacturing supply chains, says Antony Bourne, global manufacturing industry director at software provider IFS.

As the Global Industry Sales Director at IFS, Antony’s responsibilities include acting as the Global Industry Director for Industrial Manufacturing and High Tech.

We’ve read the articles and watched the TV stories. It’s yesterday’s news that the 3D printing revolution is one of the most promising technologies to emerge in recent years. We’re well-versed in the fascinating array of use cases for this technology—from healthcare, to housing, to handicrafts. (One of my personal favourites is the printed hearing aid—a device that’s transformed a labor-intensive industry).

3D printing is much bigger than its hype and it’s already a part of today’s manufacturing business. The technology is proving indispensable in research and prototyping, and for creating unique and obsolete parts—in particular for the automotive and aerospace industries.

But one area of 3D printing that’s not had its due time in the spotlight is the slow but unstoppable march towards a completely new way of managing manufacturing processes. As 3D printing ushers in a new era of securing the right parts at the right time, we’re seeing a fundamental change in the supply chain and it’s time to start considering what this means for your business.

Change is good 

3D printing won’t replace high-volume manufacturing, but the ability to print-on-demand for parts is hugely attractive. The technology makes it possible to print and have parts in a few hours, without the need to buy large volumes, and with positive implications for the environment as customers source products locally, and quickly.

This change means fundamental disruption to the supply chain. It dramatically reduces lead-time and reactiveness, and presents immediate opportunities for make-to-order manufacturing. Rather than keeping spare stock on hand, parts can be printed as needed from a stock of materials. For industries where storage for parts inventory is limited, this is welcome news. We may even see manufacturers source 3D-printed parts on their own premises, bypassing the supply chain altogether.

In the near term, 3D printing is creating demand for smaller, hyper-local premises. But the future ramifications for the supply chain are huge—in particular, the need to have information systems in place to protect the integrity of the new manufacturing process.

Change is challenging

The onset of the 3D printing revolution poses new challenges for assuring the quality and authenticity of products. Competitors attempting to reverse-engineer products will be able to do so far more rapidly since there is no need to develop the likes of tools, dies, fixtures and jigs. That’s why, come 2018, 3D printing will have triggered the loss of at least $100bn per year in IP, globally.

So how can manufacturers ensure they are purchasing genuine replacement parts for industrial equipment? And how can equipment manufacturers be sure that equipment they sell to customers is under warranty and uses genuine parts? Part serialization—the type of functionality normally associated with highly regulated industries such as defense—may become attractive across the board. We’ll see attempts to embed ‘DNA’ into 3D-printed parts, and the development of processes capable of checking for DNA matches.

Part serialization can be achieved in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Blueprints to be downloaded for printing should have a serial ID attached to them that corresponds to the serial ID in the ERP application. This way, it’s possible to ensure warranty issues are not compromised and quality standards are maintained.

ERP will be essential for supporting these authenticity measures and controlling stock at every level.

ERP supports change

Accommodating 3D printing within an ERP system requires a few considerations. All manufacturers using 3D printing will need process manufacturing software in their ERP application to integrate traceability and provide fast access to data on DNA and blueprints being applied by different plants.

It will be more important than ever to maintain records of the chemical components that make up parts. While 3D printing might reduce inventory for spare parts, an enterprise application will need sufficient forecasting functionality to determine the amount of raw materials to be consumed—and how much usage the 3D printer will receive. Manufacturers will need to be able to carry out regular quality checks to determine if parts conform to specifications and requirements.

It’s not an exaggeration to claim that 3D printing is revolutionary. After all, it’s capable of fundamentally changing supply chains and the way in which things are produced.

As the most cost-effective and streamlined way of addressing the unique authenticity and stock challenges associated with 3D printing, ERP systems are proving paramount in the new age of manufacturing.

- See more at: http://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/the-3d-printing-revolution-you-havent-read-about/#sthash.OQ60obtq.dpuf

What’s Behind the Renaissance of Rolls Royce?

3-D Printing Hershey Kisses

Every piece of Pez is made here

This is how you hand-make a Rolls-Royce

He tastes 600 cups of tea a day

3-D Printing the Space Colonies of the Future

How single-serve coffee became a "must-have"

You can own a flying car by 2017

Today's Quote

“The virtue of a man ought to be measured not by his extraordinary exertions, but by his every-day conduct.” ―Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal

Born: June 19, 1623

Died: August 19, 1662 (aged 39)

Nationality: French

Occupation: Philosopher

Bio: Blaise Pascal, was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen.

Flightless Jet Engine Will Keep 900-Year-Old Eastern European City Warm

This earthbound version of the CF6 engine, which GE calls the LM6000-PF SPRINT gas turbine for power applications, will produce heat and more than 45 megawatts of electricity for Oradea. The city partnened on the the project with the Italian power developer STC SpA. Image credit: GE Distributed Power

The picturesque Romanian city of Oradea dates back at least 900 years. Some locals joke their heating system is just as old. Large portions of the city, which sits near Romania’s western border with Hungary, have relied on a district heating plant that opened in 1966, one year after Nicolae Ceaucescu consolidated power. The plant has been mostly fueled by low quality brown coal and oil. (Only recently it also started using cleaner-burning natural gas.) 

The pipes of the city’s heat distribution network are feeling their age, too. They leak more than a quarter of the thermal energy that flows through them before it reaches customers, almost four times the norm.

But Oradea’s power sector is now moving into the jet age. The city will start using a new gas-fired turbine based on technologies originally developed for jet engines to produce lower-emissions heat and electricity for more than a quarter of its residents, or 140,000 people.

The combined electricity generation and heating unit will have a sky-high efficiency of 92 percent at the output from the power plant. This is the first installation of such jet engine-based power plant in Romania.

The technologies at the heart of Oradea’s new power plant will come from GE Aviation’s CF6 jet engines, the same engines that power Air Force One. Image credit: GE Aviation

In a nod to the technology’s aviation history, GE calls the machines “aeroderivatives.” They are using the compressor, combustor and turbine from the CF6 jet engine to generate power. (The CF6 powers many Boeing 747 passenger jets, including Air Force One). The earthbound version of the engine spins a shaft attached to the generator to produce electricity.

Many cities and businesses around the world are using aeroderivatives to efficiently generate reliable heat and power. For example, in October 2012, when Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast of the U.S. and knocked out power to 2.6 million people, several aeroderivatives rode out the storm.

One such co-generation plant at Princeton University used the technology to keep the campus lit and warm, while the surrounding town went dark.

In 2012, MIT’s Technology Review selected aeroderivatives as a “key innovation” for “building flexible and efficient natural gas power plants,” and the technology is at the core of GE’s Distributed Power business. There is also a mobile version of the technology that can be quickly deployed anywhere and moved around on a plane and a trailer.

The company says some 2,100 GE aeroderivative gas turbines are generating electricity and keeping people warm in 73 countries, from Sakhalin Island to South Africa.

For more stories like this, check out GE Reports.

A new source of biofuel - leather sludge

Hershey moves to ban U.K.-made Cadbury chocolates in U.S.

Why an electric car could be Apple’s biggest disruption yet

The very idea is enough to send Apple faithful and fanbois into a frenzy: an iCar! It appears Apple is working on its own electric-car project – code-named “Titan” – and is intent on giving Tesla “a run for its money”.

There is no doubt about it, cars are the next frontier of tech after smartphones, cloud and tablet computers. Every tech company is clamouring to interface with existing car companies, while some – note Google and Apple – are slyly working to reimagine the personal transport of the future.

In recent weeks evidence emerged that Apple was working on some kind of vehicle experiment as Apple-registered SUVs were spotted in California and New York festooned with cameras and LiDAR sensors, giving rise to speculation it was either working on a Street View mapping exercise for Apple Maps or even a self-driving car.

Now it looks like Apple could be working on an Apple-branded electric vehicle that would compete with Tesla. An even more tantalising vision is an electric self-driving vehicle.

The Wall Street Journal has revealed that Apple has several hundred people working on an Apple-branded electric car.

Code-named “Titan” the initial prototype resembles a minivan and the project is being spearheaded by Apple’s product design vice president Steve Zadesky, a former Ford executive.

Zadesky, it is understood, has been given permission to create a 1,000-strong team and Apple has hired the president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz R&D Johann Jungwirth and other seasoned auto industry execs to work at a top secret automotive research lab.

Apple is also believed to be locked in a poaching war with Tesla, one that Tesla is currently winning through 60pc salary increases and US$250,000 bonuses.

Tesla is currently riding on a wave of triumph, as orders for its new P85D – which comes with a beguiling new “insane mode” – skyrocket and the Elon Musk-headed company builds a gigantic mega factory to keep up with orders. It has even emerged that Musk – often compared to Steve Jobs – is pushing Tesla to create giant batteries to power homes.

Road to ruin or highway to heaven?

Tesla's new P85D saloon

But in moving towards electric cars, does Apple realise what it is taking on?

Elon Musk is often compared to Tony Stark, the Iron Man hero, but in reality he’s a gutsy entrepreneur with a boundless imagination that involves not only electric vehicles but space exploration and trains that can zoom between mega cities in a matter of minutes.

As we all know the road to success is littered with failures and Musk in bringing Tesla to where it is today has had more than a few close scrapes.

Near run things include successive last-minute funding rounds and bailouts, re-imagining the idea countless times, problems with drive trains, product recalls, to even laying off 10pc of the Tesla workforce in 2007 to get the project on the right track.

The interior of Tesla's new P85D saloon

Today the company is bringing in revenues of US$3bn and more but is still operating at a loss. But either way, it is heading in the right direction with quality cars that run on lithium-ion batteries and which are capable of ranges of 320km and capable of top speeds of 249km per hour.

Not only that, but the cars are equipped with the latest in hi-tech gadgetry including radar and sonar technology.

Tesla is beginning to dabble in autonomous driving experiences and its Model S can detect road signs, lane markings, obstacles and other vehicles and new vehicles are capable of semi-autonomous drive and parking capabilities.

Tesla’s success has been hard fought, and it is nowhere near its destination.

Imagining the future of transport

Renault's Twzy electric city car

Traditional car manufacturers like Ford, Audi, BMW, Daimler and Mercedes-Benz are all trying to imagine what the future of transport, indeed car ownership will look like in the decades to come.

Eventually, the vision is autonomous driving within just a few short years of now.

A recent conversation with the chief digital officer of Renault Patrick Hoffstetter indicated that car makers know there is an intrinsic link between smart devices and vehicles and the manufacturers are coming up with all kinds of ways of marrying the two, from apps that can unlock and start your car with your phone to cars that allow you to switch between driving and autonomous driving whenever it suits you.

“We see the car as the sixth screen,” Hoffstetter said. “Our vision of the autonomous car is not so much about a car that will drive you through the city, but more about giving you time with your infotainment. You are still driving the car but in some instances you will be able to be autonomous and retrieve your focus from pure driving in order to consume services.

“We don’t talk about autonomous driving the same way most people in the media are talking about it. We believe you should also have the capacity to go back to driving much like an airline pilot or a train driver can enjoy automated functions but switch back to manual at any time.”

Google's latest self-driving vehicle prototype

Late last year Google revealed just how advanced autonomous vehicles had become proving vehicles could not only sense other vehicles but also pedestrians possibly about to cross the road.

It is in discussions with motor giants Ford, Toyota, Daimler, Volkswagen and General Motors to bring self-driving cars to market by 2020.

In recent weeks, Google revealed its latest autonomous vehicles with built-in intelligence and sensors that take note of pedestrians likely to cross the street, for example.

Not only that but Google is also about to take on Uber at its own game with a ride-sharing app that will actually link with its self-driving cars, so with an app you can summon a robot car to take you to the shops, work or home.

Uber is also working on R&D for its own self-driving vehicles and has established a lab in Pittsburgh to build its own fleet of autonomous vehicles. The lab is staffed by 50 scientists from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute who had a hand in building the Mars Rover.

Why Apple might be right on the money about electric cars

One of the mysterious Apple-registered minivans spotted in San Francisco and New York. Photo via Claycord.com

Apple has money. Lots of money. Having brought itself back from the brink in 1996 through deftly and correctly guessing the right trends in tech and creating quality products like the iPhone, the company recently recorded the highest profit in business history with profits of US$18bn arising from revenues of US$75bn during which it sold 74.5m iPhones and 21.4m iPad devices.

Not only that but the company is the most valuable on the planet, with a market capitalisation that has just surpassed US$700bn.

The company has even commenced the construction of a giant US$848m, 130 megawatt solar farm in California that will produce enough energy to power its new spaceship headquarters and all of its retail stores in California, equal to 60,000 homes.

So what is the next frontier for Apple?

The very notion of an Apple Car, or an iCar if you will, is a tantalising one. When Apple builds something, it takes its time to get it right. The forthcoming Apple Watch is a case in point and Apple Pay comes at least two to three years on the heels of Google Wallet, for example.

Apple’s focus on quality industrial design thanks to luminaries like Jony Ive is celebrated.

The company’s unique approach to interface design and user experience is exemplary.

So an iCar is not totally out of the question, but building one and testing it and eventually bringing a vehicle to market is something that could take years and could prove very expensive to accomplish.

But saying that don’t forget Apple dabbled briefly with an alliance with Motorola before going it alone and changing technology history forever in 2007 with the iPhone, despite never having made a phone of its own before and in turn displacing the established computing and mobile phone giants forever. The iPhone was the ultimate disruption.

Therefore Apple has the means, the know-how and the guts to try something truly disruptive with cars.

It’ll be transport Tim, but not as you know it

You could picture Del Boy and Rodney in one of these - the driverless Lutz 'Pathfinder' Pod which is being tested by the UK government

To date – with the exception of Tesla – electric cars have lacked style, even substance. Many of them look like golf carts, something Mr Bean wouldn’t look out of place in or even that Trotter’s Trading three-wheeler from Only Fools and Horses.

Self-driving vehicles haven’t fared much better in the design stakes. Google’s self-driving vehicle reminds me of Noddy’s wheels while the driverless Lutz ‘Pathfinder’ Pod is positively poxy looking.

Most of these vehicles are small, two-seater things that for now miss the potential of what autonomous driving could be all about. That’s why reading of Apple’s use of minivans sparks the imagination a little.

In the future we may not even own vehicles. Much like today with Uber and Hailo we may just have accounts or apps that we will use to summon vehicles to bring us from A to B.

Most people, freed from the need to propel themselves on long, lone journeys in saloon cars to work, will probably spend more time at home being productive or at leisure with their families.

They may travel alone if the need requires and a two-seater is fine or they may travel in groups and hence proportionately bigger and safer electrical or autonomous vehicles that can be summoned to carry groups on nights out or take entire families to and from the airport by tapping on a smartphone app would be ideal.

Perhaps Apple has seen this future and is working on a bigger and broader strategy. The Cupertino tech giant could be biting off more than it can chew, or it could be embarking on the journey towards its biggest disruption yet.

I think this is road trip we will all enjoy.

John Kennedy | | | 

Is this the Army's next gun?

Hovercrafts, 3D-Printed Dresses and a Dog Runs for First Time, Oh My!

Today's Engineering Newswire looks at hovering over land and sea in the navy’s newest ship-to-shore connector, 3D printing a comfortable dress, and giving a dog the opportunity to run free for the first time.