A Night of Additive Excellence 2023 Winners Announced: TCT Awards

8 June 2023

15:53

Wednesday night saw the winners announced at TCT Awards, sponsored by HP, alongside the 2023 inductees to the prestigious TCT Hall of Fame and the Women in 3D Printing Award.

Over 200 industry professionals gathered to celebrate the winners of these prestigious awards. The sold-out, 3-course dinner was held at the National Conference Centre, Birmingham, hosted by F1 sporting legend Johnny Herbert.

This year's awards recognised a multitude of achievements and outstanding contributions to the 3D printing and additive manufacturing sector.

The night saw 11 winners in total, alongside 11 projects and organisations recognised as highly commended.

The TCT Awards categories are split into two main areas: Innovations and Applications. The Innovation categories celebrate developments in additive manufacturing hardware, software, materials and post processing. The Applications categories celebrate how 3D technologies are applied to give real life improvements from financial and business to social, environmental and educational. Winners are chosen by the TCT Advisory Board, a selection of nearly 30 industry experts, who vote on a shortlist.

The 2023 TCT Hall of Fame Inductees were also announced on the night with Jean-Pierre Kruth and Diana Kalisz announced as the 2023 inductees. The TCT Hall of Fame celebrates those members of the additive manufacturing community who have made a positive, significant and long-term impact on the industry.

Diana has been part of 3D Systems for over 30 years and has been instrumental in the development of the technology, materials and its applications. Under her leadership, 3D Systems have commercialised dozens of products to facilitate the maturation of AM.

Professor Jean-Pierre Kruth has been a researcher for over 30 years, with his work in stereolithography leading him to co-founding Materialise. His research activities resulted in him authoring over 770 scientific papers and founding numerous spin-outs such as Metris and Layerwise.

After a busy first day at TCT 3Sixty (the UK's definitive and most influential 3D printing and additive manufacturing event), guests enjoyed a three-course, black-tie dinner, drinks and entertainment.

Phill Dickens, AM Researcher, Consultant and Educator said: "Many thanks for inviting me to the awards. It was a great evening, I met some new interesting people and it was good to see so many deserving finalists. Congratulations to all the winners. A must attend event."

Duncan Wood, CEO of TCT Group added: "What a fantastic evening celebrating the best of the best in additive manufacturing. Huge congratulations to all of tonight's winners, highly commended and finalists! It was such a privilege to introduce our two new Hall of Fame inductees who have made such an impact on our industry."

Winners and highly commended entries from each category were as below.

Winner: Hyphen Innovation

Partners: United States Air Force; Perceptive Engineering Analytics

A vibration suppression method called inherent Damping via Additive Manufacturing Processes (i-DAMP) has been developed to allow the suppression of vibration stresses by up to 95% in critical turbine engine parts.

Use of this method can reduce manufacturing time of advanced small compressor suites by more than 90%.

Highly Commended: Yuri

Winner: Markforged

Partners: Larsen Motorsports

Larsen Motorsports, who build jet engine drag racing vehicles that race at speeds of over 280mph, have used Markforged Simulation to design and print a custom Continuous Carbon Fiber reinforced Onyx™ steering wheel.

The design was customised to the driver's hand shape to maximise safety, and took the lead-time from 8 days to 2 days.

Highly Commended: Enable Manufacturing

Winner: Shapeways

Partners: Microsoft

Microsoft Adaptive Accessories consist of an Adaptive Mouse, Adaptive Hub, and three Adaptive Buttons, designed to empower users who may have difficulty using a traditional mouse and keyboard to increase their PC productivity and create their ideal setup.

Users can customise adaptive accessories with 3D printed add-ons like mouse tails and button toppers to fit their unique needs using the Shapeways Configurator.

Highly Commended: Additive Appliances

Winner: Mackinnon and Saunders

Partners: Laser Prototypes Europe; Netflix; Shadow Machine; Southern GFX

Pinocchio is the world's first stop motion puppet in a major movie to be animated with an armature created with 3D metal printed technology.

The most significant innovation was the ability to combine and print the organic detailing with the armature itself. This allowed the creation of stronger, more durable puppets, which retained a delicacy of design seen in traditional techniques.

Highly Commended: Julia Koerner Design

Winner: Mantle

Partners: Westminster Tool

Mantle's TrueShape system prints precision injection mould tooling components at a fraction of the time compared to traditional methods. Integrating extrusion 3D printing of Mantle's metal pastes with precision CNC machining, it produces parts with the accuracy and surface finish required for tooling.

Parts are then sintered in Mantle's F-200 furnace resulting in durable tool steel components.

Highly Commended: SLM Solutions

Winner: Formlabs

Formlabs Automation Ecosystem enables a scalable fleet of- multi-user, multi-material 3D printers. Using a combination of Form Auto part removal, Fleet Control software management, and High Volume Resin, the Automation Ecosystem reduces the amount of operator labour and minimises idle printer time so users can efficiently produce end-use parts at a lower cost-per-unit.

Highly Commended: The Industry

Winner: Triastek

Partners: Eli Lilly; Merck KgA; Siemens

Triastek has developed Melt-Extrusion Deposition (MED), a pharmaceutical 3D printing technology which ensures more effective drug delivery, controlling when, where and how much API is released.

Thought to be the world's first continuous manufacturing line for 3D printing pharmaceuticals, MED has a production rate of approximately 50 million tablets per year. Eli Lilly, Merck KgA and Siemens have partnered with Triastek have all worked with Triastek in applying MED technology.

Highly Commended: Sygnis

Winner: Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions

Partners: Chevron; Stress Engineering Services

Chevron and Lincoln Electric Additive Solutions collaborated to qualify and manufacture pressure components that were installed in a hydrogen furnace of a Chevron refinery.

The large-scale components weighed 225kg and were printed with nickel 617 wire using gas metal/wire arc AM (WAAM). In less than a month, Lincoln Electric delivered production parts totalling over 2,500 kg of deposited wire.

Highly Commended: MX3D

Winner: 6K

A collaboration of world-leading organizations analyzed real-world data to capture the holistic impacts of AM part production. The outcome shows that in combination, 6K's UniMelt plasma production process and Ni718 high-quality metal AM powder produced from scrap, was shown to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions compared to conventional atomisation processes.

Highly Commended: Carbon

Winner: DyeMansion

DyeMansion launched the brand-new Powerfuse S PP, the first ever green vapor polishing solution for polypropylene (PP). The process uses a 100% bio-based non-toxic fluid in a closed loop system to smooth 3D-printed PP. The part benefits go far beyond aesthetics, including scratch resistance, impermeability to liquids, washable, and eliminates bacteria formation.

Highly Commended: Theta Technologies

Winner: Ai Build

AiSync's advanced software platform supports a broad range of toolpath generation capabilities. Through integration with OpenAi's natural language model GPT, "Talk to AiSync" makes that process intuitive by using basic text commands to generate production ready 3D print files.

AiSync Defect Detection Capability validates end part integrity and immediately alerts users to 3D print defects.

Highly Commended: Authentise

Winner: Alba Gonzalez Alvarez

Alba Gonzalez Alvarez is a doctor in Biomedical Engineering with 9 years of industrial, academic and hospital experience. Alba has developed hundreds of implantable medical devices with the use of 3D printing technology, and has also pioneered virtual surgical planning, additive manufacturing of different biomaterials and surgical navigation technologies in healthcare.

Previously, she worked at Stanmore Stryker (UK), designing personalised orthopaedic implants; and for the NHS at Morriston Hospital, UK, developing medical devices and implementing 3D printing at the point of care. Alba has been an invited speaker to many international conferences, including the World Congress of Biomechanics, and has recently been awarded with the National Design Award 2022 from the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain for her pioneering career in design for healthcare.

Winner: Zac Smith

Zac's application demonstrated that despite the challenges of his neurodiversity, he has found solace and joy exploring engineering and design, having consistently delivered outstanding results that showcase his technical skill, innovation and creative thinking, and is using his unique perspective to bring fresh and invaluable qualities to the field of engineering.

8 June 2023

15:53

Want to discuss? Join the conversation on the TCT Additive Manufacturing Network.

Get your FREE print subscription to TCT Magazine.

Exhibit at the UK's definitive and most influential 3D printing and additive manufacturing event, TCT 3Sixty.