Recap: Additive Manufacturing show Europe

If you made it out to the Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and stopped by our booth from June 28th until 30th, we hope you had a great time! If you missed the show or just want to relive it, here’s a detailed recap and review of our amazing projects and guests.

The Additive Manufacturing Show was a massive source of inspiration for business owners and engineers. This year, it specifically focused on Aerospace, Healthcare, and Automotive, and we invited some of our most inspiring users in these areas with incredible projects ranging from functional prototypes to prosthetics, primary education, and more. Our impressive 102m² booth allowed us to give every of our guests enough space to tell their story!

Enhancing performance cars

Eventuri, a British engineering startup that tunes supercars, used their Ultimaker 3D printer to redesign and improve the housing technology and increase engine performance. And guess what! We had a gorgeous Audi RS5 at our booth, with both 3D printed prototypes and final carbon fiber parts installed! Bilal Mahmood and his team completely re-engineered the inlet track from the ducts to the filters and inlet tubes, and 3D printing was a crucial part of the workflow. You can read the full overview of this showcase on 3Ders and Disruptive Magazine.

Eventuri has also completed projects for the Mercedes C63 AMG, FK2 Honda Civic Type R, and are currently working on a bespoke system for the Lamborghini Huracan. As you may know, supercars are not always that easy to find.  Luckily with his 3D printer, Bilal has the flexibility to work outside of his office. While looking for this specific Lamborghini model, he only had access to one in Germany for three days. Was it a problem? Not with an Ultimaker! Bilal just shipped his 3D printer ahead and set up shop in Germany. In just two and a half days, he was able to take measurements, create prototypes, test three iterations and check all the necessary boxes to work towards the final product. We’ll be sure to keep an eye on this Lamborghini project, so stay tuned!

Advanced 3D printed prosthetics

The Open Bionics guys are already superstars when you talk about disruptive prosthetics. Led by Joel Gibbard and Samantha Payne, this award-winning team of engineers is working on developing advanced, open source bionic hands. Hospital-grade myoelectric limbs can cost up to $100,000. However, Open Bionics can produce a robotic arm in a matter of days that would be 50 times cheaper. These hands are just as functional as more expensive prosthetics, but with a lighter, custom-fit design which makes them more comfortable for the wearer. We were lucky to have Patrick, one of their talented engineers, and Dan, one of the Open Bionics arm users, on our booth to demo the usage of their advanced prosthetic solutions in real life.

Silicone extruders

Right next to the Open Bionics, you could meet Charles Mire of Structur3d. His Discovery Extruder attracted a lot of attention because it is not every day you see silicone being used for 3D printing! Adding the Discov3ry Extruder to your Ultimaker opens up some exciting opportunities if you're interested in printing with conductive materials, bio-materials, or elastomers (silicones, latex, polyurethane, etc.) The fantastic combination of the power and precision of FFF desktop 3D printers and material expanding properties of the Discov3ry Paste Extruder allows you to go beyond printing plastic filament. This integrated system is ideal for laboratory or research centers, as well as schools use for students to learn about design, materials science, and electronics.

Aerodynamic Testing

To display one of the many applications of 3D printing in aerospace we chose to showcase a custom wind tunnel at our booth with a 3D printed airplane inside. Many calculations and predictions can be done using software, but at some point you can’t beat a physical model.

Coursera and MakerGirl

And finally, all visitors also had the chance to talk to our partners in Education from the US. Coming from the University of Illinois, there was Aric Rindfleisch on behalf of Coursera introducing their new online course on 3D printing. You could also meet the amazing team behind the MakerGirl project designed to get more girls interested in STEM.

At the same time the press was happy to use this show as an opportunity to talk to our CEO Jos Burger, who explained our vision for the future. Make sure you read Davide Sher's interview with Jos at 3DPrint.com, there are some great insights there!

Today, while the mass media report on the impending doom of 3D printing in a sort of “reverse hype”, one Dutch company is showing that the dream is far from dead. Instead, it is evolving in something that has empowered more people than ever, opening the doors to the world of advanced manufacturing to everyone who could afford to buy a desktop 3D printer. Ultimaker is now leading this new chapter of 3D printing. - Davide Sher

Thanks again to everyone who came to speak with us at the exhibition! If you didn’t make it to Amsterdam this June or want to meet us at the next show, visit our Events page today. There are plenty of exciting shows coming up, so be sure to stop by and say hi!