Additive manufacturing -3D printing

The latest publications in this offer are:

• December 10, 2025

  BM7941

  Additive manufacturing: designing differently

  This article explores additive manufacturing (AM) and structural design, focusing on an optimized flange for a robotic arm. It details topological optimization using SolidWorks®, aiming to minimize mass while maximizing stiffness, with constraints such as a safety coefficient. The flange, initially weighing 692 g, weighs 156 g (-78%) in aluminum and 67 g (-90%) in PA11. AM allows for parts with complex geometries to be manufactured, but requires supports and adjustments to manufacturing process parameters ; this methodology is detailed.

• October 10, 2025

  BM7950

  Additive manufacturing: controls

  Additive manufacturing is increasingly used in industry and the medical sector. However, the technology can be fully adopted only if there is proof that the characteristics of the additive manufactured parts are equivalent to those produced traditionally. Inspections are required at all stages of the manufacturing process chain: feedstock, material, finished part and machinery. After a reminder of some basics, this article specifies the inspections needed in additive manufacturing. These are then presented in detail, and characterization methods are proposed.

• October 10, 2025

  BM7927

  3D nano/microfabrication

  3D printing emerged through the coupling of material and energy, with stereolithography as the first technology. This process relies on spatially resolved single-photon polymerization. Since then, other processes have been developed, drawing closer to those derived from nanotechnologies, microtechnologies, and microelectronics. Among these achievements, a technique stemming from single photon stereolithography particularly sto-od out: multi-photon polymerization. Where relevant, this article highlights potential applications of these 3D printing techniques, keeping in mind the need to design nano- and microdevices that remain manipulable.

• November 10, 2024

  BM7937

  Materials for 4D printing

  Invented in 2012 in the UK, the concept of 4D printing has hardly left the academic world, despite the "extraordinary" aspect of being able to animate or modify matter from a 3D-printed form. After 10 years, we felt it necessary to take stock of the situation, to examine the facts, and to discuss possible avenues for the development of 4D printing based on additive manufacturing in industry, a field in which 4D materials could obviously play an eminent role. Indeed, for lack of industrial applications, 4D materials constitute a "reservoir" of knowledge on synthesis and 4D properties, with their advantages and limitations. Artificial and design sciences can support the emergence of ideas applied in the industrial field for the hyper-object that is 4D printing.

• June 10, 2024

  BM7998

  Safety in additive manufacturing

  This article sheds light on particle (or aerosol) emissions in metal additive manufacturing. Different phases of work are analysed in order to overcome the lack of information concerning unintentional emissions of nanoobjects, their aggregates and agglomerates (NOAA) and to facilitate their consideration in risk analysis. A stepby-step approach similar to that used to assess exposure to intentional NOAA is deployed. The feedback presented in this article shows the results of a study carried out to characterise and control NOAA emissions in metal additive manufacturing.

• April 10, 2024

  BM7935

  Materials for 3D printing

  Additive manufacturing is a digital fabrication technique that allows physical objects to be built from a geometric model by adding materials. Mass customization and free model manufacturing are increasingly common uses of 3D printing in the agriculture, healthcare, transportation, mechanics, and other industries. Using a CAD model as a starting point, 3D printing technology can build a three-dimensional object layer by layer with different materials.The author has therefore taken the side to show how a step-by-step construction allows the choice of materials that have the possibility of being "printable" first and foremost, while offering performances adapted to industrial purposes. In the same way, the desire to produce 3D objects can be associated with specific processes.

• March 10, 2023

  BM7987

  Topological optimization

  In this article it is first illustrated the potential of topological optimization in many areas. It is also clearly explained what is hidden behind this method that has long remained reserved for mathematical experts. Simple examples are analyzed to help you better understand all its features and help you to practice it with the many software available on the market. This method naturally generates complex shapes that are entirely manufacturable by 3D printing and is particularly suitable when mass saving is a major objective.

• January 10, 2023

  BM7997

  Safety in additive manufacturing

  Additive manufacturing brings together a large set of processes with their own specificities and using various materials in different forms. In order to support companies in making their facilities safer, it is important to take into account these specificities and to list know and emerging risks. This inventory and the associated recommendations are carried out at all stages of the manufacturing chain. This article focuses on the three processes dealing with powdery materials: binder projection, fusion on powder bed, deposition of material under concentrated energy.

• January 10, 2023

  BM7982

  STL file

  The use of STL files become common in recent years with the democratization of additive manufacturing processes and also the advent of numerical technics in the medical field. These two technologies, among others, use the STL file format to save the geometry of the shapes. After defining this file extension, a description of important information related to its operation is provided. Then methods of calculating the area of ​​an STL mesh and the volume included inside it are described.Common faults and key criteria which can be used to quantify the geometrical quality of an STL mesh are detailed. Finally, alternatives are proposed in order to overcome certain drawbacks of the STL format.

• January 10, 2023

  BM7996

  Safety in additive manufacturing

  Additive manufacturing brings together a large set of processes with their own specificities and using various materials in different forms. In order to support companies in making their facilities safer, it is important to take into account these specificities and to list know and emerging risks. This inventory and the associated recommendations are carried out at all stages of the manufacturing chain. This article focuses on the four processes excluding powdery materials: material extrusion, material spraying, layer lamination, photopolymerization in tank.

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