With UK expertise debuts, an unparalleled free convention programme, and ample networking alternatives, right here’s 25 issues to see at TCT 3Sixty, the UK’s definitive additive manufacturing and 3D printing occasion, on June 4th-Fifth on the NEC Birmingham.
1) The TCT Convention
A packed two-day, two-stage convention showcasing AM functions throughout defence, aerospace, client items and healthcare, plus key tendencies and future developments. Guests get free entry to talks from organisations reminiscent of Ministry of Defence, GKN Aerospace and Sartorius, alongside The Manufacturing Expertise Centre, Boston Consulting Group and extra.
2) 3T-AM | #D48
Because the UK’s largest impartial AM contract producer, 3T-AM is dispelling misconceptions about additive manufacturing with a single philosophy. ‘The entire provide chain in a single manufacturing unit.’ 3T’s digital roadmap is driving effectivity and deeper information insights throughout your complete worth stream. By embedding a full digital thread, the corporate says it’s chopping waste, accelerating lead instances, and enhancing high quality, empowering smarter choices and better worth for purchasers.
3) Undertaking TAMPA
The UK Ministry of Defence’s Undertaking TAMPA was created in 2021 to speed up using AM throughout the UK defence trade. Following the publication of the MOD’s first superior manufacturing technique with AM as its central focus, Undertaking TAMPA will host its second assembly of 2025 on day considered one of TCT 3Sixty.
4) TCT UK Person Group
The day earlier than the doorways swing open to TCT 3Sixty, the third annual TCT UK Person Group Assembly will convene on the NEC for a full day of discussions surrounding the challenges and options going through UK AM adoption. It is invite-only so register your curiosity at tct3sixty.com.
5) SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT | Javaid Butt
Professor of Manufacturing and Product Design, Birmingham Metropolis College
Optimising Additive Manufacturing with AI and Digital Twin – Add to your occasion agenda
Insights Stage | 05 June | 13:50
TCT: Why the precise deal with materials extrusion-based 3D printing?
JB: Materials extrusion stays some of the accessible and extensively used 3D printing applied sciences as a consequence of its low value, ease of operation, and materials versatility. Nevertheless, its industrial adoption is hindered by challenges like poor mechanical properties and floor end, problem in optimising processing parameters, and the unpredictability of faults throughout prints. These points usually result in trial-and-error experimentation, losing time and assets in addition to limiting scalability for high-performance functions.
TCT: You’re discussing combining two vital future-facing applied sciences – AI and digital twins. How essential is it that the manufacturing trade leans into these applied sciences right this moment?
JB: AI and digital twins aren’t simply future ideas, however have grow to be indispensable enablers of agility, sustainability, and competitiveness. As manufacturing shifts towards sensible, data-driven operations, these applied sciences enable firms to optimise processes, scale back downtime, improve effectivity, and customise manufacturing in actual time. Firms that delay funding in and adoption of those applied sciences will discover themselves lagging behind.
TCT: In a single sentence, why ought to guests come to this discuss?
JB: To find how AI-powered digital twins can unlock the subsequent technology of dependable, environment friendly, and scalable extrusion-based 3D printing.
TCT: One ultimate thought?
JB: I imagine that innovation in AM is now not primarily about machines and supplies however is more and more changing into extra about information intelligence. Digital twins and AI collectively redefine that intelligence, providing a pathway to smarter, sustainable, and extra adaptable manufacturing.
6) Co-located Occasions
Use your TCT 3Sixty badge to enter Med-Tech Innovation Expo, the UK’s main occasion for medical machine manufacturing, plus the Med-Tech Innovation Convention.
7) TCT Awards
With 11 expertise and utility classes, inductions into the TCT Corridor of Fame, plus this yr’s TCT Ladies in 3D Printing Innovator and SMF Rising Star Awards, the TCT Awards on June 4th is the AM trade’s largest celebration.
8) Data Bar
Received a technical query? The Data Bar powered by Additive Manufacturing UK (AMUK) gives free 1-2-1 recommendation from a variety AM consultants.
9) TCT 3Sixty App
Get a head begin with our AI-powered matchmaking and proposals, and join with attendees, audio system, and exhibitors earlier than the occasion.
10) PrintCity | #G18
On its TCT 3Sixty sales space this yr, PrintCity MMU will probably be internet hosting a stay design competitors throughout each days of the present. Day one’s competitors will pit 4 Manchester Metropolitan College MSc college students in opposition to one another, whereas day two will welcome members of most people.
The competitors – which will probably be judged by AM trade professionals Andrew Allshorn, Robin Dallen, Claire Scott, and Steve Cox – will take a look at every participant’s capacity to optimise half designs to exhibit power and high-performance in a repeatable manner inside a strict time restrict.
Product Growth Specialist Mark Chester stated: “We’re excited to showcase additive manufacturing in motion this yr at TCT 3Sixty. It gives a improbable alternative to see all features of 3D printing along with our unbelievable MSc college students on day one.”
11) SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT | Tom Ranson
3D Visualisation Specialist, Pure Historical past Museum – Add to your occasion agenda
Scan You Dig It? 3D Expertise for Museum Analysis, Conservation and Exhibition
Insights Stage | 04 June | 14:00
TCT: First, are you able to clarify the way you’re utilizing 3D applied sciences to make artefacts extra accessible to the general public?
TR: My particular lab I’m in command of right here on the NHM is the 3D Vis Lab, and we focus solely on floor imaging. So with my laser scanners, mild reconstruction scanners and Infinite Focus Microscopes, we picture the floor of just about something, to an accuracy of just a few microns, and might then both make that information accessible to the general public by way of portals like SketchFab, or we could be bodily printing them out to make use of in Outreach occasions.
TCT: And the way do you utilize this to assist additional analysis into your collections?
TR: Think about you’re a researcher in Australia doing all your PhD on the consuming patterns of the Tyrannosaurs Rex. Right here within the NHM we maintain the holotype (unique instance that each one different T-Rex fossils are in contrast in opposition to) of the jaw. As a substitute of a sophisticated and costly analysis go to to the UK to evaluate the microwear within the tooth of the specimen, I can picture the floor right down to an accuracy of 10s of microns and add the info to a portal all inside a day. We allow analysis to occur a lot sooner, after which the info is digitally preserved for the subsequent particular person to entry, lowering potential injury to the unique by having to get it out once more to remeasure.
TCT: What would be the key learnings of your discuss at TCT 3Sixty?
TR: I hope that it’ll assist individuals to see novel new methods we are able to apply this expertise to contemporary issues in any trade, not simply Heritage and Conservation. It is considered one of my favorite features of this job to take these analysis issues and get to unravel them by making use of expertise like this in a manner that wasn’t beforehand thought-about.
12) TOP ADDITIVE | AM Futures | #H32
In a UK first, AM Futures will probably be exhibiting a spread of post-processing techniques, together with the TCB 300 automated powder removing system and TVS-F20 powder conveyor and sieving station, all absolutely supported within the UK.
13) Globus Steel Powders
Sponsoring the TCT Awards, Globus Steel Powders (UK) are specialists in Nickel, Iron and Cobalt-Chrome-based powders for aerospace, area, energy technology, defence, nuclear, oil & gasoline and hydrogen. Utilizing a Vacuum Inert Gasoline Atomiser, the corporate produces top quality and extremely repeatable powders with trade main low-levels of oxygen, essential for profitable top quality HIPped and LPBF elements.
14) ASTM Worldwide
Fashioned in 2018, the ASTM Worldwide Additive Manufacturing Heart of Excellence (AM CoE) is a collaborative partnership amongst ASTM and organisations from trade, authorities, and academia, that conducts strategic R&D to advance AM requirements throughout your complete worth stream of additive manufacturing. The AM CoE will host a panel on the Insights Stage that includes audio system from ASTM, APWORKS and 3T-AM entitled ‘Again to the Future: Did We Get Our Predictions Proper, and What Comes Subsequent for Additive Manufacturing?’
15) Conflux | #J4
Conflux Expertise, an Australian producer of 3D printed warmth exchangers, lately introduced the launch of a brand new facility within the UK. The location is slated to open later this quarter with a deal with R&D, supplies certification, and native buyer assist.
16) EOS | #F28
EOS will current its next-gen beam shaping expertise, designed to raise manufacturing effectivity. Its mild engine is alleged to afford distinctive flexibility with beam shapes of assorted sizes that change in a matter of microseconds, and enhanced course of stability and decreased course of by-products and spatter.
17) Europac3D | #D32
Europac3D is providing VoxelDance print preparation software program to the UK market. Suitable with a variety of 3D printers, the software program gives automated assist technology, clever slicing, and customisable settings. An intuitive interface makes it simple to make use of, whereas its sturdy efficiency ensures exact management over each facet of the printing course of.
18) Eplus3D | #G38
Eplus3D will display its serial metallic manufacturing capabilities and functions throughout industries reminiscent of aerospace, automotive, tooling, and healthcare. After taking the lead within the multi-laser metallic race – 64 lasers on board its EP-M2050 system – Eplus3D additionally lately debuted its copper printing capabilities at TCT Asia.
19) ADDiTEC | #C38
ADDiTEC’s new Laser Powder Mattress Fusion Expertise system is alleged to characterize a major growth of its metallic 3D printing portfolio, complementing its Directed Power Deposition (DED) and Liquid Steel Jetting (LMJ) options to grow to be one of many solely firms on this planet to supply three complementary metallic AM applied sciences.
20) CDG Piocreat | #A40
CDG will launch Piocreat pellet 3D printers into the UK market. The G5 system is billed as an inexpensive desktop pellet printer whereas the G12 stands as an industrial machine designed for components as much as 1.2 metres in dimension.
21) 60-second Q&A | T3DMC | #H28
TCT: First, what would be the spotlight of your TCT 3Sixty sales space this yr?
T3DMC: At TCT 3Sixty this yr, we are going to showcase our cutting-edge automated and wi-fi 3D scanning options. These techniques ship exact, repeatable measurements with minimal guide intervention, making them ideally suited for high-efficiency manufacturing environments. Guests will see stay demonstrations of how our automated 3D scanning techniques seamlessly combine with manufacturing workflows, capturing high-quality information. We will even spotlight our wi-fi 3D scanning expertise, designed for flexibility and mobility in complicated environments.
TCT: By which industries are you seeing probably the most traction for these options?
T3DMC: Our options are making a major affect within the automotive, aerospace and energy and vitality sectors. In automotive, automated and wi-fi scanners streamline benchmarking, motorsport inspections, and design validation. In aerospace, high-precision reverse engineering options assist the replication and redesign of essential elements, making certain security and efficiency. And in energy and vitality, our techniques assist within the upkeep of complicated equipment, offering information for efficiency monitoring and environment friendly restoration.
TCT: Who ought to cease by your sales space this yr?
T3DMC: Our stand is crucial for professionals in engineering, manufacturing, and product growth who search environment friendly, automated options or wi-fi flexibility in 3D scanning. If you happen to purpose to cut back guide effort, improve effectivity, and absolutely leverage 3D information, go to our stand for a stay demonstration.
22) Carbon | #K10
The Californian 3D printing expertise firm will probably be showcasing its Carbon DLS expertise, which mixes versatile printers, superior software program, and supplies, utilized by organisations together with adidas, Ford, and Becton Dickinson.
23) Formlabs | #G35
Desktop stereolithography chief Formlabs will current its newest merchandise together with the Type 4, Type 4B, and Type 4L, alongside latest updates to its Type Remedy and Powerful 1500 Resin geared toward levelling up 3D printing with injection moulding.
24) Stratasys | #K22
The 3D printing pioneer’s polymer applied sciences will probably be on show throughout a number of cubicles on the present ground and can characteristic in two panels throughout the Defence and Healthcare tracks as a part of the TCT Convention.
25) SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT | Sherri Monroe
Govt Director, AMGTA
Framing AM & Sustainability Throughout the Enterprise for Strategic Benefit – Add to your occasion agenda
Innovation Stage | 05 June | 14:30
TCT: Why is now the fitting time to be having this dialog?
SM: The uncertainty of the previous couple of months and actually because the pandemic have actually put a highlight on new applied sciences and new enterprise practices. The necessity has by no means been better for extra versatile, extra nimble, and extra useful resource environment friendly manufacturing and distribution. Organisations are centered on gaining extra management over provide chains and enabling extra round practices for key supplies.
TCT: Does AM worth, when it comes to sustainability, require a brand new mind-set?
SM: Too usually “sustainability” is seen as a value or a trade-off to financial viability – as a zero-sum sport. When seen as “useful resource effectivity” there’s usually a distinct notion. For manufacturing the assets to handle embody materials vitality, and waste, but additionally time, capital, danger, and alternative. Managing these assets efficiently results in each improved environmental AND financial outcomes. New enterprise methods that aren’t tied to conventional manufacturing constraints will take a while, extra illustrative use-case research, and extra communication throughout the enterprise.
TCT: What’s the commonest AM sustainability false impression?
JB: A mistake I see throughout the sector, whether or not evaluating value or environmental affect, is getting tied up in a part-to-part comparability. These comparisons practically all the time solely measure a portion of the lifecycle or fail to incorporate adjoining impacts. For instance, if a printed half prices 10% greater than the standard half however the conventional half has a minimal order or manufacturing amount of 100, does the one half compared embody the price of all 100 or not less than a portion of the fee to warehouse the opposite 99? Does it embody the eventual obsolescence of a few of these warehoused components? Typically the saving isn’t within the half produced and used, however within the components not (over)produced and scrapped.
TCT 3Sixty will happen on June 4-Fifth on the NEC Birmingham, UK. Register free of charge to begin planning your agenda and making trade connections forward of the occasion.
