Materialise Announces Innovations and Initiatives to Advance Additive Production

"With the introduction of Streamics 8, our software tool to manage and streamline 3D printing operations, Materialise wants to transform those isolated hubs into productive and integrated production facilities, by connecting to existing production management systems and adding specific additive manufacturing execution capabilities.

Industrial print factories are operating in an increasingly cost-competitive environment. As they plan to scale their operations they are looking for ways to raise output while reducing cost. With the new version of Magics, its flagship software suite for data and build preparation, Materialise introduces a powerful tool to significantly improve productivity, helping manufacturers to optimize the production process and allowing them to free up time to focus on scaling their operations. 

Productivity improvements include up to three times faster results for Boolean-based operations, such as Hollow and Shrinkwrap, and up to 30 times faster automatic nesting. In addition, the new Bounding Box feature reduces the nesting process to mere milliseconds. Magics 24 also offers enhanced usability features, including improved navigation for the View Cube. 

The new Support Transfer feature enables mass customization by making it possible to copy the support generation of an object and transfer it to one or more similarly shaped objects, without the need to completely redesign the support structures. The Support Transparency feature allows users to make the support structures transparent, providing optimal viewing when inspecting the structures from all possible angles. Users looking to scale their operations, can now schedule multiple simulation sessions by simply dragging and dropping them to a job queue, and let all prepared simulation operations run automatically. By allowing multiple simulation sessions to run overnight without any manual intervention, Magics 24 redefines the traditional 9 to 5. 

At Formnext, Materialise presents a vision of its next-generation Build Processors that will advance serial production. Materialise Build Processors are widely used in industrial printing, translating 3D designs into machine-specific build files for a variety of machines. As companies scale their 3D printing processes, they operate in increasingly more complex and distributed environments, facing multiple machine technologies. 

With its future Build Processors, Materialise creates a closer integration between software and machine, providing users with a fully integrated, end-to-end workflow to support industrial scale 3D manufacturing. In addition, the next-generation Build Processors are modular in design, making them more flexible and accessible, and allowing machine builders to integrate their proprietary software.

“We continue to introduce new innovations and improvements to increase productivity and efficiency in the 3D printing process,” says Stefaan Motte, Vice President and General Manager of the Materialise software division. “But as companies scale their 3D printing operations and integrate these operations with existing and proven production processes, they are confronted with increased complexity. By collaborating with other industry leaders, we are able to optimize the entire process and create a more seamless workflow.” 

Materialise extends its collaboration with EOS with plans to introduce a new Build Processor. This Build Processor will integrate the EOSPRINT software, providing users with a seamless connection between Materialise software and EOS machines and removing the need for additional software. With the Build Processor integration customers are able to print directly from Materialise Magics and Streamics on EOS machines. By bringing together the power of both companies, customers will enjoy a smooth workflow with reduced complexity, allowing them to scale their operations and adopt serial additive production. The new Build Processor will be available in the first half of 2020. 

Rüdiger Herfrid, Product Line Manager Data Preparation at EOS: “A seamless data preparation workflow with automation capabilities is one of our top customer requests. EOS is committed to an open software infrastructure and developed an API with easy integration capabilities of EOSPRINT. We are pleased that Materialise, as a preferred EOS partner, will use the open interface to offer a consistent data preparation workflow for EOS machines.”

Materialise and Sindoh, a South Korea-based company that makes multi-function printers, copiers and 3D printers, announce a strategic partnership to develop a new generation of Sindoh 3D printers to accelerate the company’s entry in the South Korean industrial market. As part of the agreement, Materialise will combine its software with Sindoh’s hardware platform.

Manufacturers who scale their 3D printing operations over a global distributed manufacturing network require a safe and secure way to print high-value end parts. Materialise continues to pave the way towards Digital Rights Management (DRM) with the introduction of a secure and controlled workflow for RS Print, a collaboration with Superfeet for the creation of personalized 3D-printed insoles and custom footwear. By creating a controlled production environment, Materialise offers more control across this multi-step, distributed environment, restricting the printing of designs to pre-determined printers and guaranteeing the build quality. 

About Materialise

Materialise incorporates nearly three decades of 3D printing experience into a range of software solutions and 3D printing services, which together form the backbone of the 3D printing industry. Materialise’s open and flexible solutions enable players in a wide variety of industries, including healthcare, automotive, aerospace, art and design, and consumer goods, to build innovative 3D printing applications that aim to make the world a better and healthier place. Headquartered in Belgium, with branches worldwide, Materialise combines the largest group of software developers in the industry with one of the largest 3D printing facilities in the world. For additional information, please visit: www.materialise.com.