Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
>>> Why the Metals 3-D Printing Space Is the Place to Be in 2014
By Beth McKenna
3-10-14
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/10/why-the-metals-3-d-printing-space-is-the-place-to.aspx
If they were making a 2014 version of The Graduate, the iconic one-word line uttered to Dustin Hoffman's character as advice in where to make his fortune might be "metals." That's because demand for 3-D printers that can print in metals is in the relatively early stages, and it seems that we're on the cusp of an incredible growth trajectory.
The most direct way for Hoffman's character -- or you -- to invest in this growth story would be to buy shares in one of the publicly traded pure-play 3-D printer makers that offer systems that can print in metals: 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE: DDD ) , Arcam AB (NASDAQOTH: AMAVF ) , and ExOne (NASDAQ: XONE ) . Neither Stratasys nor voxeljet offer systems that can print in metals, but it's just a matter of time before Stratasys enters the metals space, in my opinion.
Industry juggernaut 3-D Systems Corp. just acquired metals capabilities last summer when it brought Phenix Systems, while Arcam has long been solely involved in metals, and ExOne has offered systems that can print in metals for some time.
From the demand side, General Electric Company (NYSE: GE ) is an important player, as it's the world's largest user of 3-D printing technologies in metals.
Major metals 3-D printing technologies and the players
There are various metals 3-D printing technologies, though investors might want to home in on just three types: laser sintering, electron beam melting, and binder jetting, as these are the technologies employed by 3D Systems Corp., Arcam, and ExOne, respectively. Laser sintering is the most common metals printing technology.
Technology
Manufacturer(s)
Laser Sintering
3D Systems Corp., U.S.A.
Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), a trademark name for laser sintering tech
EOS,Germany (privately held)
Selective Laser Melting (SLM)
Renishaw,U.K. (listed on London Stock Exchange)
SLM Solutions,Germany (privately held)
Electron Beam Melting (EBM)
Arcam, Sweden
LaserCUSING, a laser sintering tech
Concept Laser, Germany (privately held)
Digital Part Materialization (DPM), or what the ASTM considers binder jetting
ExOne, U.S.A.
Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS)
Optomec, U.S.A. (privately held)
This table is not all-inclusive; however, it should be a good summary of the major technologies and manufacturers.
Laser sintering and electron beam melting are both forms of powder bed fusion technology. In this tech, heat -- from a laser or an electron beam -- is used to melt and fuse the powder material. In binder jetting, a liquid bonding agent is deposited to join the powder material.
Laser sintering and EBM are more similar to one another, given they're both forms of the same core technology. Laser sintering is generally viewed as the best choice for producing components that have complex geometries and internal features or passages, while EBM is considered a good choice for bulky complex solid geometries or extremely delicate shapes. EBM is generally a faster tech, so it has advantages when larger production runs are needed. That said, the companies in the metals 3-D printing space are all focusing on increasing their systems' speeds, as speed is one critical hurdle that must be jumped before 3-D printing will make notable inroads into mass manufacturing.
Arcam, for instance, is involved in a project called FastEBM, whose goal is to zip up how fast its EBM systems can churn out components.
As to metals capabilities, 3D Systems' Phenix systems can print in a wide range of metals, including titanium. Arcam's systems can print in titanium, several titanium alloys, and a cobalt-chrome alloy (used in orthopedic implants), while ExOne's machines have bronze, 316 stainless steel/bronze, and 420 stainless steel/bronze capabilities. Arcam's a pure-play on metals 3-D printing, while 3D Systems has the industry's widest range of materials capabilities, and ExOne's systems can also print in sand (which customers use to produce molds, used for casting metal components) and glass.
Titanium deserves special mention, as it's a key aerospace industry metal that's used to produce airframes and engine parts, and also heavily used in the medical implant industry. Its uses stem from its very high strength-to-weight ratio, and good corrosion and fracture-related properties.
Big opportunities for the metals 3-D printing players
Here's some supporting evidence that demand is significantly increasing for 3-D printers that can print in metals:
3D Systems Corp. is forecasting huge growth in its metals business
In its recently released fourth-quarter and full-year 2013 earnings report, 3D Systems noted that its 2013 direct metal revenue was $14.3 million. While this represents just a small portion of its total revenue, 3D Systems is forecasting a fast ramp-up in revenue from this business. As CEO Avi Reichental said on the earnings call: "Metals is in the beginning stages of what we believe is a very exciting journey. As we have said repeatedly now, we have been sold out of capacity every quarter since we acquired this business [Phenix] and we expect that this year it could generate some place between $25 million and $50 million in revenue and it's just the beginning."
General Electric Company's 3-D printing capacity ramp-up
General Electric Co. is already the world's largest user of 3-D printing technologies in metals, and it plans to invest "tens of millions" in this technology in the next five years. So, GE's actions should significantly shape the 3-D printing space going forward.
GE needs considerably more capacity beyond what it already has at its full-scale 3-D printing operation, which it acquired when it bought Morris Technologies in 2012, to produce fuel nozzles for its new Leap jet-engine. General Electric reportedly began testing 3-D printers from both 3D Systems and Concept Laser last year to determine if either or both of these companies' printers will be part of its capacity ramp-up.
Wall Street firm Jefferies sees big orders for metals 3-D printers on the horizon.
Last week, Jefferies upped Arcam's rating to buy from hold, citing that it believed Arcam had a shot at receiving some large orders for metals 3-D printers. Jefferies noted that its checks indicated that "6-12 large industrial groups are in deep discussion with metal 3D printing companies on larger orders that will be integrated into existing production lines." The firm believes "GE, Stryker, JNJ, EADS, Airbus, BMW, Medtronic, and others are likely to place large orders in 2014."
Foolish final thoughts
The metals 3-D printing space is likely to be an attractive one for investors. Demand for 3-D printers that have metals capabilities will likely grow at a faster rate than the overall 3-D printing sector, as 3-D printing makes increasing inroads into manufacturing applications.
<<<
SLM Solutions -- >>> Competition Among 3-D Printer Makers Could Heat Up as SLM Solutions Explores a Potential IPO
By Beth McKenna
March 21, 2014
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/21/competition-among-3-d-printer-makers-could-heat-up.aspx
Germany-based SLM Solutions has hired Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse to explore a potential IPO, according to a recent Reuters article, which cited two unnamed sources. If this information proves accurate and SLM lists on a U.S. stock exchange, it would join 3D Systems Corp. (NYSE: DDD ) , Stratasys Ltd., ExOne Co. (NASDAQ: XONE ) , Arcam AB (NASDAQOTH: AMAVF ) , and voxeljet AG (NYSE: VJET ) as 3-D printing companies trading on U.S. exchanges. (While Arcam is listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, it also trades over-the-counter in the U.S.)
Could SLM Solutions be an attractive investment? And where does SLM fit into the 3-D printer-maker landscape?
Laser melting tech, industrial metals focus
SLM Solutions uses selective laser melting, or SLM, technology. It's an industrial metals focused 3-D printing company, which reportedly has customers in the automotive, aerospace, construction, consumer electronics, and medical device industries. In addition to making 3-D printers, SLM also produces vacuum casting and investment casting systems.
Last year, DPE Deutsche Private Equity bought a 57% stake of SLM Solutions, which provided the company with capital to be used for expansion. The rest of the company is owned by the founding partners.
SLM's corporate lineage is a bit complicated, and its roots go back quite a bit, so I'm just going to cover its more recent history. The company was formerly known as (no, not Prince) MTT Technologies GmbH, or more commonly, the German branch of MTT Technologies. There was also a U.K. branch of the company, as MTT had split into two branches in 2010. The German branch was renamed SLM Solutions, while the U.K. operation was bought by Renishaw Plc.
The metals 3-D printing space: 3D Systems Corp., ExOne Co., and Arcam
SLM Solutions' publicly traded competitors appear to be 3D Systems Corp., ExOne, and Arcam, as these three companies all make 3-D printing systems that can print in metals. 3D Systems acquired metals capabilities when it bought Phenix Systems last summer, and while metals comprised just a very small percentage of its business in 2013, the company expects its nascent metals business to quadruple in 12 to 18 months. ExOne offers systems that can print in metals, as well as sand and glass, while Arcam is a pure-play on industrial metals 3-D printing. Neither Stratasys nor voxeljet offer systems that have metals printing capabilities, though it's just a matter of Stratasys finding the right acquisition, in my opinion.
I'll be digging further into the competitive landscape if SLM does, indeed, announce that it's going public. As I recently wrote, the metals 3-D printing space seems to be the place to be in 2014 and beyond.
Revenue puts SLM in Arcam's and ExOne's (at the time of its IPO) leagues
According to the Reuters article, SLM Solutions generates more than 20 million euros, or about $27.8 million, in annual revenue, and is profitable. If this revenue data is accurate, SLM Solutions is nearly two-and-a-half times as large -- from a revenue standpoint -- as fellow German 3-D printing company voxeljet was when it went public in October 2013. Voxeljet's 2012 revenue was $11.3 million, while its first half 2013 revenue was $5.8 million.
Further, nearly $28 million in annual revenue puts SLM in Swedish 3-D printing company Arcam's league, as Arcam generated revenue of 199.4 MSEK (million Swedish Krona), or about $31.0 million, in 2013. Finally, if SLM goes public soon, it would be nearly exactly the same size as ExOne was when it went public. ExOne, which IPO'd in February 2013, generated revenue of $28.7 million in 2012.
Foolish bottom line
We'll need more details, of course, to determine if SLM Solutions would make for a potentially attractive investment. That said, based upon the very limited information available, SLM does seem like it could be a stock worth exploring. Its industrial metals focus could make for an attractive niche, and it's certainly a plus that the company, if the Reuters information is accurate, is profitable.
The 3-D printing stocks -- 2013's darlings -- have cooled down in 2014. They've had an especially tough week this week, with ExOne's much weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter 2013 results and light 2014 guidance dragging down the sector. Even though SLM is a few months late to the party, it still seems likely it could go public soon. That's because, while the overvalued 3-D printing stocks are correcting, there still appears to be solid support for 3-D printing's ability to revolutionize manufacturing, health care, and other segments of our economy over the long term.
<<<
>>> Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc. designs and develops robotic exoskeletons to augment human strength, endurance, and mobility. The company offers Ekso, an exoskeleton bionic suit or a wearable robot that helps to walk again for people with various levels of paralysis or hemiparesis due to neurological conditions, such as stroke, spinal cord injury or disease, traumatic brain injury, and more. It serves rehabilitation clinics in North America, Europe, and Africa. The company was founded in 2005 and is based in Richmond, California with additional offices in London, United Kingdom. It also operates locations in the United States, Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. As of October 31, 2012, Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, PA. <<<
Arcam -- >>> Why 3D Systems Corporation and Arcam AB Could Be Big Winners Because of This New U.K. Development
By Beth McKenna
February 10, 2014
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/02/10/why-3d-systems-arcam-could-be-big-winners-because.aspx
Cambridge University spin-off Metalysis has developed a process to cut the cost of titanium powder by up to 75%, and reportedly is in talks with commercial partners to build a $500 million plant to churn out low-cost titanium powder. Titanium is incredibly lightweight, yet also strong and highly corrosion resistant. These properties make it a top materials choice for aerospace applications, medical implants, and other specialty uses, yet it isn't used much in mass manufacturing because it's very pricey.
If Metalysis' process works as well as is being reported, companies that make 3-D printers that can print in titanium could be big winners. Of the five major 3-D printing companies that trade on U.S. exchanges, only industry leader 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD ) and Sweden-based Arcam (NASDAQOTH: AMAVF ) make systems with titanium and/or titanium alloy capabilities; ExOne has reportedly been working on developing this capability, while Stratasys and voxeljet don't offer any systems that can print in metals.
The 3-D printing titanium players: 3D Systems and Arcam
The reason this development could turbocharge the already fast-growing 3-D printing sector is that this lower-cost titanium will only be available in powder form: 3-D printing uses powder as a raw material, while conventional "subtractive" manufacturing uses solid materials.
It's very likely that some companies that now use other metals to produce certain components will consider using titanium if it's more competitively priced. Higher-end automakers and others will likely start using titanium for select parts that are now made from aluminum or steel.
The titanium powder produced by Metalysis' process is high-grade, but not quite aerospace-grade. So, at this point, manufacturers that currently produce titanium aerospace components using conventional manufacturing won't have the extra cost-savings incentive to switch to 3-D printing.
3D Systems only recently acquired metals printing capabilities when it bought Phenix Systems last summer. Its printers use laser sintering technology, which is the most commonly used metals 3-D printing technology. 3D Systems machines can print in stainless steel, tool steels, aluminum, titanium, precious metals, among other metals. There are a few privately held companies that also make 3-D printers that use laser sintering technology; most notable is Germany-based EOS.
3D Systems launched three rebranded Phenix Systems' printers at last year's EuroMold: ProX 100, ProX 200, and ProX 300, and is already competing for key new business with its new metal printer lineup. General Electric has reportedly been testing printers from 3D Systems to see if the company will be part of its capacity ramp-up necessary to produce thousands of fuel nozzles for its new Leap jet-engine.
Arcam has considerable experience making 3-D printers that have titanium capabilities, as it's been solely involved in the industrial metals end of the 3-D printing sector since it was founded in 1997 (though the company's roots and technology go back further). Arcam's 3-D printers use its proprietary electron beam melting, or EBM, technology, and can print in titanium, several titanium alloys, and a cobalt-chrome alloy. The company has been exclusively focused on two markets: aerospace and orthopedic implant.
Arcam's systems are relatively small, so they'd currently not be able to produce larger components in titanium. However, surely the company could develop and make larger systems using its EBM technology if demand warranted it.
Titanium economics, and titanium making 101
Metalysis' development could turn the metals markets topsy-turvy, as demand for titanium should rise at the expense of the aluminum and steel markets.
Titanium powder sold for $200 to $400 per kilogram, as of December. Shaving up to 75% off its cost would make titanium much more competitively priced with aluminum powders, which were selling for about $30-$50 per kilogram, and almost as cheap as specialty steels. Given the cost factor, it's not surprising only about 140,000 tons of titanium was produced and consumed globally in 2012, compared with 1.5 billion tons of steel and 48 million tons of aluminum, according to the Financial Times.
Titanium is now produced using the Knoll process, which is an 80-year-old technology that's very inefficient. The four-step process uses a lot of energy and only produces small quantities of titanium. By contrast, Metalysis' technology involves just one step. It uses electrolysis to convert rutile sand, a naturally occurring titanium ore present in beach sands, directly into powdered titanium.
This is here-and-now technology, not tech that's still in the R&D stage. Metalysis has long collaborated with Sheffield University's Mercury Center, which specializes in metal powder-based manufacturing. Engineers at the Center have successfully 3-D printed various components using titanium produced by Metalysis' process. This includes what they believe to be the world's first 3D-printed titanium car component, according to an article in TCT Magazine.
In what appears good news for Arcam, Prof. Iain Todd, director of the center, was quoted by TCT as saying: "We've been operating since 2007, which is when we got our first Arcam system. We're more focused around electron beams than lasers and we do a lot of work mainly with industrial partners, so our projects are supported by the European Regional Development Fund."
Foolish final thoughts
There are several reasons why investors might want to keep their eyes on Metalysis' progress in building a titanium powders production plant based on its technology. First, companies that make 3-D printers that can print in titanium, which include Arcam and 3D Systems, would almost surely see demand for their systems increase. Second, there could be some significant investment opportunities in the metals market. Lastly, Metalysis could make for a potentially attractive IPO.
<<<
3D Printing -- >>> Today's Market: How To Continue Playing 3D Printing
Nov 12 2013
includes: DDD, ONVO, SSYS, VJET, XONE
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1831312-todays-market-how-to-continue-playing-3d-printing?source=yahoo
The 3D printing stocks have been good to our readers over the past year or so, with gains exceeding 100% in some cases. We are believers in the practice of farming profits in winning trades, and as such think that with the latest run higher in the sector that readers would be well served taking a little bit off the table at these levels. We still like the momentum behind the trade, as well as the progress that these companies are making as their product transitions from a novelty item to a mainstream product, but acknowledge the need to take advantage of these prices.
Our favorite play, 3D Systems (DDD), Stratasys (SSYS), ExOne (XONE), Voxeljet (VJET) and Organovo (ONVO) have all performed well over the past month. It should be noted that Voxeljet, a newly-listed company, has already doubled from its IPO listing price in the mid $20s.
Chart of the Day
Voxeljet sold its shares for $13/share during its IPO and they began trading around $25/share. In the month after the IPO the shares have already doubled from their first day close and been a big winner in the industry since November began.
(click to enlarge)
Source: Yahoo Finance
We have no economic news today but will have news this week starting Wednesday.
Asian markets finished higher today:
•All Ordinaries -- up 0.11%
•Shanghai Composite -- up 0.82%
•Nikkei 225 -- up 2.23%
•NZSE 50 -- down 0.13%
•Seoul Composite -- up 0.92%
In Europe, markets are trading lower this morning:
•CAC 40 -- down 0.37%
•DAX -- down 0.32%
•FTSE 100 -- down 0.49%
•OSE -- down 0.52%
Our View
When we initially threw our hat into the ring and called a bottom in the stock prices of the 3D printing names, we were brutally honest with readers and stated that many of these names would not be long-term investments but rather momentum plays and short-term investments as we saw the chance that these companies would be able to compete against the big boys of tech highly unlikely. That view was nothing against these companies or their management teams, but rather based on how these new market trends generally play out. We still believe that most of these names will either be bought out, go out of business or be consolidated and simply forgot about in larger companies' product offerings.
That is however more there than here, and although we are not so bullish long term on these names as investments we have been some of their biggest backers when it comes to treating them as trades. We essentially called the bottom in 3D Systems and Stratasys when we initially went bullish and because of our continued bullishness we have had readers venturing outside of our recommendations and finding names like Voxeljet and Organovo.
Calling the bottom of the last correction put readers in a very good place. The latest leg up has created what we believe to be a good time to book some profits.
(click to enlarge)
Source: Yahoo Finance
The two 800 pound gorillas in the industry are of course 3D Systems and Stratasys, and they both pretty much set the tone for the industry. But those who pay attention to the industry are probably realizing that there is a big wave of companies that are private and looking to come to market via the IPO process. Already we have seen Voxeljet, a German company, and ExOne come public this year to cash in on the 3D printing bull market but there are many more names out there.
Many of the names which keep showing up in our research are what we shall call more hybrid names. They are indeed 3D printing companies, but they have a focus on healthcare - an industry where 3D printing has long had a strong foothold (such as making the hip joint transplants). The next wave of 3D printing companies are going to resemble Organovo with a focus on merging two exciting technologies to help solve extremely important issues facing humans today.
<<<
>>> 10 amazing uses for 3D printing
From fully functioning firearms to tiny medical devices, the rapidly advancing technology has sparked a revolution in small-scale manufacturing.
By Michelle V. Rafter
MSN Money
http://money.msn.com/leadership/10-amazing-uses-for-3d-printing
A manufacturing revolution
When doctors in Michigan battled against a rare birth defect that nearly killed a baby boy, they turned to 3D printing and came up with a solution that saved his life.
It is one of the latest and most remarkable developments in a technology that is rapidly revolutionizing how things get produced, who's making them and what they're made of.
Medical science is just one field exploiting the new technology. Jay Leno uses 3D printing to create spare parts for the rare classic cars he collects and restores. The Smithsonian Institution uses 3D printing to make copies of the museum's warehoused treasures.
The technology, sometimes referred to as additive layer manufacturing, works by printing out and stacking material layer by layer. Exactly what materials are used depends on what's being made, from paper and plastics for bone models or statues to organic compounds for producing food.
While the technology is largely restricted to commercial applications (and high rollers like Leno) today, by 2016, prices for business-grade 3D printers are expected to drop under $2,000, according to Gartner Group, opening the technology to anyone with vision and some cash.
Here are some of the more amazing things being done or envisioned today using 3D printing technology.
Body parts
Little Kaiba Gionfriddo of Ohio was born with a birth defect that caused him to stop breathing nearly every day. But in a breakthrough development, specialists were able to use a 3D laser printer to create an airway splint and save his life.
Kaiba was born with an incompletely formed bronchus, one of the two airways that branch off the windpipe. His parents didn't know until he almost died when he stopped breathing at a restaurant when he was 6 weeks old.
In a single day, doctors "printed out" 100 tiny tubes, using computer-guided lasers to stack and fuse thin layers of plastic, according to The Associated Press. Acting with special permission from the Food and Drug Administration, they implanted one of the tubes in Kaiba, the first time this has been done.
Now nearly 19 months old, Kaiba has not had a single breathing crisis since coming home a year ago. "He's a pretty healthy kid right now," said Dr. Glenn Green, a pediatric specialist at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where the operation was done.
Food
Pizza from a printer? It could happen. Texas-based Systems and Materials Research Corp. got a $125,000 NASA grant recently to create a 3D printer capable of producing food for astronauts traveling to Mars or on other long-distance space missions.
The same technology, which builds food out of layers of powdered proteins, oils and other nonperishable organic material, could remedy the world's hunger problem. "I think, and many economists think, that current food systems can't supply 12 billion people sufficiently," SMRC senior mechanical engineer and project manager Anjan Contractor, tells Quartz. "So we eventually have to change our perception of what we see as food."
Bone models
Doctors at a university hospital in Belgium are reconstructing skulls, jaws and eye sockets for accident victims and cancer patients using 3D printing to build models as surgical guides. Maxillofacial specialists use the same 3D models to shape metal inserts for reconstructive surgery.
Both have helped doctors at the Universite Catholique de Louvain shave hours off surgeries, "and that's a major benefit for the patient," says Dr. Raphael Olszewski, in this testimonial about the devices the facility uses.
Stem cells
Scientists at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, have successfully used modified 3D printing technology to print embryonic stem cells, a first step toward growing new organs. Scientists modified a valve-based printer nozzle to squirt out the stem cells in blobs rather than a single layer, closer to the way they form in the body, according to New Scientist.
The experiment, art of the emerging field of biofabrication, demonstrates that valve-based printing doesn't harm stem cells or inhibit their ability to transform into any type of tissue, according to a writeup of the experiment in the academic journal IOPScience.
NASA Space Rover
NASA is testing a Hummer-sized rover in the Arizona desert made with approximately 70 heat-resistant plastic parts created by a production-grade 3D printer.
The rover, big enough to house two astronauts on a mission to Mars or near-Earth asteroids, includes flame-retardant vents, camera mounts, pod doors and other parts manufactured by 3D printers from Stratasys, whose devices sell for $30,000 to $50,000 and have been used to make everything from sneakers to motorcycles.
The NASA rover is among the first of what could be many more spacecraft with 3D printed parts. California startup Made in Space is designing a zero-gravity 3D printer that will work in space. The experimental device is scheduled to be delivered to the International Space Station in 2014.
Classic car parts
Jay Leno is a huge classic car collector, and uses a high-end home 3D scanner and printer to create spare parts that are impossible to find or tricky to have a machinist build. The "Tonight Show" host used a 3D printer to create a feedwater heater for a 1907 White Steamer, oil pan and other parts for a 1935 Frazer Nash and air-conditioning ducts for his EcoJet turbine biodiesel supercar.
"There are cars sitting in garages around the country, and they haven't moved in years for lack of some unobtainable part. Now they can hit the road once more, thanks to this technology," he writes in Popular Mechanics.
Guns
Earlier in May, University of Texas law student Cody Wilson built what's thought to be the first 3D-printable gun and put the plans online, a move that landed him in hot water with the State Department.
Wilson's nonprofit organization, Defense Distributed, removed blueprints for its Liberator gun after the department said sharing them violated federal law. By then, though, the plans had been downloaded more than 100,000 times and made available elsewhere online.
The Liberator consists of 16 snap-together 3D printed plastic pieces, a metal firing pin and a six-ounce steel piece that by law all guns must contain so they set off alarms passing through metal detectors.
Shown above are magazines for an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle produced from a 3D printer.
Houses
In a space age twist on the kit houses Sears sold via mail order 100 years ago, several U.S. and European groups are working on prototypes of mass producible 3D printed homes. A University of Southern California engineering professor wants to place large-scale 3D printers overhead on home sites that could build walls from layers of concrete. Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis says the system could build a home in less than a day, according to this report.
Last October, a London architect and design team exhibited the Protohouse, a 3D printed house made of fibrous nylon the developers say could be built in three weeks and snapped together in a day, according to design magazine Dezeen. A Dutch architecture studio is working on its own 3D house, which would be molded from sand and a binding agent, and printed in 6-by-9-meter sections, according to the magazine.
Shoes
If you'd rather not carry your smartphone in your pocket, you can stow it in the iPhone Mashup Shoe, a combo iPhone case and platform wedge sandal created by product designer Alan Nguyen for Paris and Milan fashion weeks in 2012. "I heard they're pretty comfortable -- I haven't tried it myself," Nguyen told the BBC in a May 8 interview.
Nguyen works for Amsterdam-based Freedom of Creation, which makes 3D printed jewelry, housewares and other objects.
<<<
3D printing -- >>> Teeth aligners to jet engine parts: 3-D printing's booming business
By Tom DiChristopher, CNBC
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/teeth-aligners-jet-engine-parts-170000870.html
Three-dimensional printing's origins can be traced to Japanese researchers, who printed the world's first 3-D objects three decades ago. That technology today has blossomed into a multi-billion-dollar industry that's just getting started.
The global market reached $2.2 billion last year-up 28.6 percent from 2011, according to Wohlers Associates, an additive manufacturing research firm. Much of the industry is devoted to creating prototypes. But experts say most of the growth moving forward will be in manufacturing parts and finished products for consumers.
"That's where the money is," said Terry Wohlers, president of Wohlers Associates. "That's where the excitement is.That's where the opportunities are."
Here's what could be next for 3-D printing.
(Read more: 10 ways 3-D printing will blow your mind )
1. How is additive manufacturing likely to grow?
Industry growth is likely to come from organic sales and output, and acquisitions. For example, industry leader Stratasys (SSYS) acquired Brooklyn, N.Y.-based start-up MakerBot in a $403 million deal in June.
Additionally, about 20 percent of Stratasys's growth is organic, said Andrea James, senior research analyst at Dougherty & Co. Much of that organic growth stems from expanding the applications for its systems, and diversifying its 3-D printing materials.
"As materials' properties improve and processes become more robust, 3-D printing could become increasingly appealing for end-parts production," according to an Aug. 7 Goldman Sachs (GS)note on disruptive technologies, including additive manufacturing.
And throughout the industry, entrepreneurs will be able to use existing technology to bring new systems to market, according to Wohlers.
(Read more: The 'gold rush' for 3-D printing patents )
2. Who are the major players?
There are roughly 30 companies that sell additive manufacturing systems for industrial production. Plus, there's a growing number of smaller businesses that specialize in desktop 3-D printers. Many companies overall are seeing solid double-digit profit growth, and steadily increasing stock prices.
Shares of Stratasys, for example, recently were trading around $96 a share, up roughly 48 percent from a year ago. The company, based n Eden Prairie, Minn., has installed 21,000 3-D printing systems for industrial use since 1991, more than any other company peer. In 2012, its annual profit jumped 60 percent to $59.6 million.
European companies such as EOS, Concept Lazer and Arcam lead the industry in printing systems for metal products. (In metal printing, metal powder is fused together to create objects. In printing with plastics, tiny bits of polymers are melded together.) The leaders in metal 3-D printing have given them an edge in the lucrative market for aerospace components, health-care products and medical devices.
Notable newcomer ExOne (XONE), based in North Huntingdon, Pa., has focused on selling systems for industrial production that draw on a wide range of materials including metal. Since its IPO in January, shares have soared more than 150 percent to recently trade around $65 a share.
At the retail level, UPS (UPS) will feature 3-D printing from Stratasys (SSYS) as part of a test program for entrepreneurs, architects and other customers. The 3-D printing market's other big names include 3D Systems (DDD) and upstarts such as Shapeways.
3. How much does this technology cost?
Industrial systems can run as low as about $5,000, with high-end systems, topping hundreds of thousands of dollars. Consumer 3-D printers are available for roughly $1,000 or under.
Like any growing industry, 3-D printing is morphing quickly. Already sales in the middle tier of additive manufacturing systems-which span industrial operations and personal 3-D printers-is showing growing pains. More specifically, the low-end of industrial 3-D printing systems, with unit prices ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 are "not selling as briskly" due to the popularity of consumer 3-D printers priced under $5,000, according to Wohlers.
As businesses and individual customers gravitate toward really expensive units or affordable desktop models, these factors combined are raising the average selling price of industrial systems.
4. Which industries stand to benefit from 3-D printing?
The early 3-D printing adopters are primarily aerospace firms and medical device manufacturers. For example, doctors have placed about 30,000 hip implants, manufactured by Arcam's 3-D technology. And 3D Systems machines creates Invisalign teeth straighteners.
In the aerospace industry, GE (GE) is using metal systems to make stronger, lighter fuel injectors for its LEAP jet engines. The redesigned components, using 3-D printing technology, consolidate as many as 20 parts into just one, cutting certification costs.
"We're saving probably on the order of 50 to 75 percent in total costs," Gareth Richards, LEAP program manager at GE Aviation, told CNBC in July. "That can be total material cost. It can be labor. It can be the design time," he said.
Automotive, fashion, tech and consumer product companies have also invested in additive manufacturing.
5. How is 3-D printing advancing?
Additive manufacturing allows designers to create shapes and products that previously were not impossible. Traditional manufacturing is about subtracting or stamping out shapes from raw materials. In contrast, 3-D printing is about building objects layer by layer in cross sections.
Making parts and finished products using 3-D printing technology has grown to account for 28 percent of all additive manufacturing activity, up from virtually zero 10 years ago, according to Wohlers.
In recent years, researchers have experimented with printing a variety of products: clothing, batteries, surgical instruments for combat-even beef.
Xerox (XRX) is printing experimental chips so small that they can enable a number of applications that today's rigid, comparably larger chips cannot accommodate.
Researchers are also making strides toward achieving what Wohlers calls the holy grail: printing replacement organs. Chinese researchers recently unveiled miniature kidneys comprised of cells printed from a hydrogel material, which live for up to four months.
(Read more: 3-D printing set to be this generation's 'moon shot' moment )
6. The growing global market, and the China factor
Additive manufacturing so far has tapped just eight percent of its global market potential, according to consensus views of industry experts surveyed by Wohlers. By that measure, the market opportunity could be $21.4 billion.
And seeing potential dollars signs, governments around the world are taking notice. China has dedicated $242 million to a seven-year research project. A three-year public-private partnership in the United States will invest $70 million.
Wohlers said he noticed an uptick in China's investment ever since President Obama called out 3-D printing in his State of the Union address in February. "I think what it's done is light a fire, a bonfire under the Chinese to the point where they're determined to be leader," Wohlers said.
<<<
3D printing -- >>> Fledgling 3-D printing industry finds home in NYC
By PETER SVENSSON, AP
Aug 7, 2013
http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-08-07-NYC-The%20New%20Industry/id-45d57f6a4d5d4a81aafa0aad7e4288e3
In this Wednesday, June 19, 2013 photo, an engineer at Shapeways removes finished products from a 3D Printer at the company's factory in the Queens borough of New York. Shapeways’ production process is fairly simple. Anyone can upload a 3-D design to Shapeways website and submit an order to have it “printed” in plastic at the factory. The company charges based on the amount of material a design uses and then ships the final product to the customer.
NEW YORK (AP) — It looks like a bakery. A warm glow emanates from the windows of big, oven-like machines, and a dusting of white powder covers everything.
This space in an anonymous building in New York's Long Island City neighborhood, just across the river from Manhattan, isn't cooking up breads and pastries, however. It's a factory, filled with 3-D printers "baking" items by blasting a fine plastic dust with lasers.
When a production run is done, a cubic foot of white dust comes out of each machine. Packed inside the loose powder like dinosaur bones in sand are hundreds of unique products, from custom iPhone cases to action figures to egg cups.
Manufacturing is coming back to New York, but not in a shape anyone's seen before. The movement to take 3-D printing into the mainstream has found a home in one of the most expensive cities in the country.
New York's factories used to build battleships, stitch clothing and refine sugar, but those industries have largely departed. In recent years, manufacturing has been leaving the U.S. altogether. But 3-D printing is a different kind of industry, one that doesn't require large machinery or smokestacks.
"Now technology has caught up, and we're capable of doing manufacturing locally again," says Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO of Shapeways, the company that runs the factory in Long Island City.
Weijmarshausen moved the company here from The Netherlands. Another company that makes 3-D printers, MakerBot, just opened a factory in Brooklyn. And in Brooklyn's Navy Yard, where warships were once built to supply the Arsenal of Democracy, there's a "New Lab," which serves as a collaborative workspace for designers, engineers and 3-D printers.
3-D printers have been around for decades, used by industrial engineers to produce prototypes. In the last few years, the technology has broken out of its old niche to reach tinkerers and early technology adopters. It's the consumerization of 3-D printing that's found a hub in New York. The technology brings manufacturing closer to designers, which New York has in droves.
Shapeways' production process is fairly simple. Anyone can upload a 3-D design to Shapeways' website and submit an order to have it "printed" in plastic at the factory. The company charges based on the amount of material a design uses and then ships the final product to the customer. IPhone cases are popular, but many items are so unique they can only be identified by their designer, such as the replacement dispenser latch for a Panasonic bread maker. There's an active group of designers who are "Bronies" — adult fans of the show "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" — who print their own ponies. The company prints in a wider range of materials, including sandstone and ceramic, at its original factory in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
If that was all Shapeways did, the company would be little more than an outsourced machine shop. But with the help of the Internet, it's taking the business model one step further. Anyone can set up a "shop" on the Shapeways site and let people order prints from their designs. Want a replica skeleton of a Death's-head Hawkmoth? That's $15. How about a full-color sandstone sculpture of actor Keanu Reeves? He's $45.
Under the old mass production model, Weijmarshausen says, designers first need to figure out if there's a market for their product, then raise money for production, and then find a manufacturer, who usually has to custom-make dies for molding plastic. The cost can run to tens of thousands of dollars. After that, the designer must get the product distributed and find out how customers react to it.
"With the Shapeways shop, that process is completely condensed," Weijmarshausen says. "If there is no market for your product, then the only thing you lose is some time."
For its part, MakerBot is spearheading another side of the 3-D printing boom by making affordable desktop 3-D printers. About the size of a microwave oven, the printers feed melted plastic out of "print heads" that move in three dimensions, gradually building objects as the plastic cools. Instead of sending a 3-D design to Shapeways, a MakerBot owner can print an object in plastic at home, as long as it's smaller than a loaf of bread. MakerBot's printers range in price from $2,200 to $2,800.
MakerBot's factory is in an old industrial building on Brooklyn's waterfront, across the street from a Costco and a strip club. Only assembly, testing and repair is done here, so the interior looks more like a workshop than a manufacturing plant. Subcontractors elsewhere do the dirty and noisy jobs like machining of components.
The privately held company agreed in June to sell itself to Stratasys Ltd., a maker of professional 3-D printers, for $403 million in stock. Stratasys is based in Minneapolis and Rehovot, Israel, but Bre Pettis, the CEO of MakerBot, says the factory will stay in Brooklyn.
Pettis looks like a Brooklyn hipster, with his thick-rimmed glasses and upswept hairdo. The company got its start in the borough, and he says keeping the factory here is a rational economic decision. Having the engineers nearby means the company can work fast and introduce more than one new model a year, a crucial advantage in the fast-moving 3-D printing space. Pettis also notes that labor costs are going up in Asia's manufacturing hubs. "Brooklyn Pride" is also a factor.
"You can't underestimate the power of people who take pride in their work," he says.
Weijmarshausen moved Shapeways to the U.S. to get closer to its customers. He picked New York over cities such as San Francisco and Boston because of its design and fashion industry, which meshes well with 3-D printing.
Alas for New York, the consumer 3-D printing industry is still a tiny one, and there's no indication that it could singlehandedly reverse the long, slow flight of manufacturing jobs. Of the 1 million manufacturing jobs the city had at its peak during World War II, 93 percent are now gone, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Shapeways factory has 22 employees and plans to ramp up to at least 50, while MakerBot employs 274 people. And the jobs aren't necessarily well paid; Pettis says the MakerBot factory workers make "more than minimum wage."
But Weijmarshausen points out that Shapeways has the potential to provide a livelihood for many more people — successful designers. There are already hundreds of them making "substantial" money from their online Shapeways stores, but he won't reveal specific figures.
In a larger sense, 3-D printing opens up the possibility of a new type of manufacturing economy, one that aligns more closely with the strengths of American creative meccas like New York than with the strengths of China.
David Belt, a real estate developer whose company is refurbishing the New Lab space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, says there's a demand for products that are made in runs of less than 10,000 units. That's too few to be economical using conventional injection-molding of plastic, but viable with 3-D printing.
One example of the combined power of 3-D printing and direct-to-consumer sales is the Spuni, a new type of spoon for babies. Boston couple Isabel and Trevor Hardy noticed that a baby taking a bite from a regular baby spoon leaves a lot of food on the utensil. Together with their friend Marcel Botha, an entrepreneur who makes medical devices, they sketched up a new spoon that "front-loads" the food, leaving less uneaten. Thanks to a 3-D printer, they had a prototype utensil eight days later, ready to test with a live baby.
"We were able to reproduce what the final spoon would look like physically at a very low cost," Botha says.
With the prototype, Botha and his partners were able to demonstrate the Spuni to buyers through a video on crowdfunding website Indiegogo. Their campaign for donations raised $37,235 — enough to start a mass production run. The spoons are being made in a traditional factory in Germany, but Botha is running the Spuni project from the New Lab in Brooklyn.
On the factory floor in Brooklyn, Adjua Greaves, 32, does quality assurance work, testing MakerBot printers before they're shipped. She used to work in publishing, a signature New York business that's been hurt by the rise of e-books. After freelancing for a while, Greaves wanted a steady job, and says she had "a romantic idea about working in a factory," partly inspired by a Sesame Street episode about the making of crayons.
"I always wanted to have a connection to a factory, but more as an intellectual observer," she says. "The romantic idea of a factory is very, very different from what it's really like in a factory, but it's really, really wonderful to be here."
<<<
>>> Are 3D Printer Makers Still Additive?
Investor's Business Daily
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/3d-printer-makers-still-additive-192700309.html
Manufacturers of 3D printers and materials have been getting mixed signals lately from Wall Street. Analysts laud the industry's long-term growth prospects, but waver on just how much growth to expect, and when.
That uncertainty aided the recent slide in shares of leading 3D printer manufacturers such as 3D Systems (DDD), Stratasys (SSYS), ExOne (XONE) and Voxeljet (VJET).
Each of those companies makes printing machines and systems that can produce three-dimensional objects from computer data. The gear can be used to design complex manufacturing tools or let your kid create a toy at home.
The global industry is expected to more than triple over the next several years as manufacturers expand the size and scope of the products.
3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, has become more pervasive in a variety of different commercial and industrial applications. Companies use it to design everything from auto parts and aircraft components to prosthetic limbs, architectural models and energy systems.
The two top players — 3D Systems and Stratasys — both saw share prices hit record highs during the first week of January.
Since then, however, the stocks have been in retreat. 3D Systems has recovered to about 17% below its January high. Stratasys is down about 8% off its high.
Shares have been hurt, in part, by lowered expectations for near-term growth. Analysts are also uncertain over how to value stocks still trying to scratch their way into the mass market.
A recent note from analyst Bobby Burleson of Canaccord Genuity said he expects 2014 to be a year of "growing complexity for the investment landscape" in 3D printing.
"Recent history has seen the sector emerge from the skepticism of 'why now? — 3D Systems and Stratasys have been around for a long time — to a broader acceptance," Burleson noted.
Skepticism then gave way to rising reservations about valuations. "Many of the investors we spoke with in 2012 and 2013 (were) actively working to understand the sector while waiting for a pullback," Burleson wrote.
There is also concern over how 3D printing companies will maintain the growth rate of recent years.
Most see the solution in technologies designed for sales to consumers and professionals.
"A lot of it depends on their ability to deliver competitive costs in high-volume production,
"They need to address the markets for consumers and professionals in addition to the traditional industrial markets," said Hendi Susanto, analyst at Gabelli.
Some analysts, including James Kim of Nomura Equity Research, see "excessive market optimism" about the 3D printing sector. Growth potential in the consumer market remains uncertain, in his view, and the industry lacks mass-production capability.
1. Business
3D Systems and Stratasys are the dominant 3D printer players, with 12-month trailing sales of $460 million and $400 million, respectively. ExOne ranks third with 12-month trailing sales of $42 million, followed by Voxeljet with $14 million.
3D Systems makes content-to-print solutions — 3D printers, materials, on-demand custom parts services. It also provides content creation and design productivity software platforms. Its products are most often used in commercial settings like the aerospace/defense, health care and automotive industries, as well as consumer applications and hobbies.
It gets just more than half of its revenue from the U.S., with Europe accounting for about 28% and Asia 16%.
Stratasys specializes in high-performance and professional 3D printers and consumable materials for rapid prototyping and direct digital manufacturing applications. It makes applications for industrial, commercial and consumer use, and gets more than half of its revenue from North America, with about 29% coming from Europe and 16% from Asia.
ExOne focuses exclusively on the industrial market, making 3D printing machines and products to the specifications of customers. About half of its revenue is from Germany, with the U.S. accounting for 27% and Japan 24%.
Germany's Voxeljet is the only non-U.S. company in the mix. It specializes in large-format 3D printers for industrial and commercial clients, mainly in the aerospace, automotive, entertainment and engineering sectors. The lion's share of its business — about 85% — comes from Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Of the two industry leaders, 3D Systems has a bigger stake in metal 3D printing, thanks partly to its buyout last year of Phenix Systems, a French maker of direct metal selective laser sintering 3D printers.
However, a December report from FBR Capital said Stratasys might expand its product portfolio by acquiring a metal 3D printer.
"A key gap in the company's product/technology portfolio is in metals," FBR analyst Ajay Kejriwal noted. "Management has indicated interest in looking into metal in a very serious way. A move into this space could round out an already impressive portfolio.
2. Market/Climate
Analyst Susanto, citing data from Wohlers Associates, puts the global market for 3D printers at $2.2 billion in 2012, rising to $6 billion in 2017 and $10.9 billion in 2021.
Industry researcher Freedonia Group offers a slightly more conservative estimate. In its recent report titled "World 3D Printing to 2017," Freedonia said demand for 3D printing "is projected to rise more than 20% per year to $5 billion in 2017.
The industry is scattered with small, privately held players, though many are being snapped up as the industry consolidates.
3D Systems has been a particularly busy acquirer. The Rock Hill, S.C., company has made more than 40 acquisitions in the last three years, diversifying its product line and expanding its market share.
Stratasys hasn't been nearly as active on the M&A front. However, it probably made the biggest splash last year with its $400 million buyout in August of MakerBot, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based upstart that specializes in affordable 3D printers for the home and office.
Susanto estimates that about 60% of MakerBot sales go to the 3D desktop professional market, which includes architectural design companies, product development applications and aerospace applications.
Meanwhile, Stratasys has worked to increase MakerBot's exposure to consumer markets.
"MakerBot is now available in 42 Microsoft (MSFT) stores, and Stratasys has established relationships with Amazon (AMZN) and AutoDesk (ADSK) as resellers," Susanto said.
3. Outlook
Financially, 3D printing companies have run into a few more head winds lately. Stratasys last month projected 2014 EPS below street estimates, though the company's revenue outlook exceeded expectations.
Analysts expect 3D Systems to deliver a 19% decline in earnings when it reports its 2013 Q4 results on Feb. 28. That would give the company a 5% annual EPS gain for the year, down from 77% in 2012 and 81% in 2011. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters project a 1% EPS gain in 2014.
ExOne, which is due to report fourth-quarter and full-year 2013 results next month, lowered its 2013 revenue outlook on Jan. 14. It cited sales delayed by customers in Russia, India, Mexico and France.
The slowing trend notwithstanding, analysts don't sound too worried about the industry.
"Monthly orders and quarterly numbers will only tell a small piece of the story," analyst Brian Blair of Wedge Partners noted in a recent report. "We believe this is a multi-year story that is only beginning to unfold.
The bigger story, he says, is that prices of printing machines are destined to drop. The sector will need volume gains at both the low and high ends to maintain momentum.
Freedonia Group projects some of those volume gains will be in the medical and dental markets, "with especially good opportunities expected in dental applications such as braces, prostheses, crowns, bridges, dental aligners and models for dental restoration procedures.
Other growth markets for 3D printing products include consumer products like jewelry, toys and consumer electronics, and aerospace, which Freedonia reckons will deliver above-average growth.
Analysts expect the U.S. to remain the largest global market at more than 40% of global sales, though Western Europe and China should be strong growth areas as well.
4. Technology
The basic technology used by modern 3D printer manufacturers dates back more than 30 years, to when 3D Systems founder Chuck Hull invented and patented what he dubbed "stereolithography.
The technology continues to advance as 3D printers are used in more applications. But the main focus is on building machines that can do more things at a lower price.
Do a Web search for cheap 3D printers and you'll find some personal models listed for as little as a few hundred dollars. Most of these are offered by smaller, privately held firms. On its website, 3D Systems lists personal 3D printers starting at $1,299.
Meanwhile, high-end, industrial grade printers can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Analyst Blair says the industry is "on the cusp of disruption in the manufacturing sector" as 3D printing sector evolves.
The timing of breakthrough to mass adoption "isn't at all clear," Blair noted. "What is clear is that the capabilities of 3D printers are getting better every six months, and the ease of use is improving, as is the quality of what is available under $1,000."
<<<
>>> Organovo Holdings, Inc. develops three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting technology for creating functional human tissues on demand for research and medical applications. The company?s 3D NovoGen bioprinting technology works across various tissue and cell types, and allows for the placement of cells in desired pattern. It offers NovoGen MMX Bioprinter, a commercial hardware and software bioprinter platform to create tissues for bioprinting research and development. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in San Diego, California. <<<
3-D Bioprinting -- >>> 3 Ways 3-D Printing Can Revolutionize the Medical Devices Industry
By Leo Sun
March 16, 2014
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/16/3-ways-3-d-printing-can-revolutionize-the-medical.aspx
3-D printing has been a hot topic in the health care industry. Organovo (NYSEMKT: ONVO ) , which is working to print the world's first liver tissue, has captured the public's imagination with the theory that entire organs and body parts can eventually be bioprinted.
While the idea of printing replacement body parts sounds like the realm of science fiction, scientists and engineers have already made incredible advancements over the past few years in using 3D printers to create prosthetics, implants, and even pacemakers.
Open source 3-D printed prosthetics
Merging 3D printing with open source templates -- which are freely available to anyone to manufacture, distribute, and modify -- could spark a revolution in cheaper prosthetics for amputees around the world.
Hanger (NYSE: HGR ) , a leading provider of cutting-edge prosthetics, works with impressive products, such as the C-Leg prosthetic leg and the i-LIMB prosthetic hand. The C-Leg uses multiple motion sensors to allow amputees to jog and ride bicycles. The i-LIMB captures electrical signals for an amputee's remaining limb to allow finger-by-finger movement to type or dial the phone.
This makes them impractical products for rural, developing, and emerging markets. In response, several projects to create cheaper open source prosthetic hands have emerged. Joel Gibbard's Open Hand project, which started on crowdfunding site Indiegogo, aims to make its open source 3-D printed Dextrus Hand available across the world for under $1,000. A similar project, Richard Van As and Ivan Owen's Robohand, aims for an even lower price point of $150. The Robohand can be assembled from 16 3-D printed pieces and 28 off-the-shelf components.
Both the Dextrus and Robohand only have a single grip pattern, compared to the i-LIMB's individual finger movements, but they are still remarkable examples of the ability of open source prosthetics to aid amputees in lower income areas.
3-D printed medical implants
According to a recent study, 2% of Americans, or 7 million people, are living with new hips and knees. While that sounds like good news for leading orthopedic implant manufacturers Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ) , Stryker, and Zimmer Holdings, investors should remember that all three companies were recently hit with troubling recalls.
Johnson & Johnson was arguably the worst offender, reaching an agreement to resolve over 7,500 lawsuits against its DePuy Orthopedics unit last November for over $2.5 billion. DePuy's all-metal ASR hip systems were intended to be more durable than traditional hip implants, which usually consist of plastic sockets with ceramic or metal balls.
Unfortunately, those all-metal devices can leave behind dangerous fragments of metal over time, causing bone fractures, dislocations, infections, as well as nerve and muscle damage. The British Orthopedic Association and the British Hip Society reported that DePuy's ASR devices had a failure rate between 21% after four years to 49% after six years. That failure rate leads to an interesting question -- can 3-D printing be used to create better fitting, safer implants?
Three years ago, Dr. Craig Gerrand, a doctor at Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust, created a 3-D printed implant for a patient with a type of bone cancer which required the removal of half of the pelvis. Dr. Gerrand and a team of doctors scanned the patient to determine how much bone needed to be replaced, then designed a 3-D model based on the missing area. A new half-pelvis implant was then printed out of titanium and coated in a mineral to aid the natural regeneration of the connected bone.
Although Dr. Gerrand's procedure was an experimental one, it was only one of several recent successful implants using 3-D printers, indicating that these custom printed implants could eventually replace the current generation of troublesome metal-on-metal implants.
3-D printed pacemakers
Last but not least, the pacemaker industry dominated by Medtronic (NYSE: MDT ) and St. Jude Medical (NYSE: STJ ) could eventually be altered by membrane-like 3-D printed pacemakers that look nothing like today's devices.
Earlier this month, researchers at the University of Illinois and Washington University created a thin sheath of flexible silicon with a 3-D printer that could be fit around a 3-D replica of a rabbit's heart. The silicon pouch was then filled with a web of sensors that could monitor the heart and keep its rhythm steady. The 3-D printed pacemaker functions like an artificial pericardium -- the outer sac that covers the heart.
Medtronic controls over half of the pacemaker market today, but it has trailed behind its chief rival St. Jude Medical in terms of overall innovation. In 2009, St. Jude created the first Wi-Fi pacemaker that can be continuously connected to the cloud, then acquired miniature pacemaker manufacturer Nanostim last October. Nanostim's tiny pacemaker, which is the size of a triple A battery, doesn't require any wires (known as leads) that connect to the heart -- a component that has been implicated in failures of traditional pacemakers. It can also be implanted and removed without surgery. Medtronic fired back with the Micra TPS, an even smaller pacemaker roughly the size of a multivitamin.
However, the 3-D printed "heart wrap" indicates that Medtronic and St. Jude's progressively smaller devices could also become less mechanical and much softer, thinner, and more organic in the near future -- which would render their traditional devices obsolete.
The Foolish takeaway
Prosthetics, implants, and pacemakers only represent three of the many possible applications of 3-D printing in the medical device industry.
When we put together the pieces of this puzzle, it's easy to picture a future where bioprinting technology converges with traditional 3-D printing, where prosthetics and implants can be printed from organic material instead of silicon or metal. When that day arrives, humans could realistically print their own replacement parts, dramatically altering the future for companies like Organovo, Hanger, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, and St. Jude.
Invest In The Next Wave of Healthcare Innovation
The Economist compares this disruptive invention to the steam engine and the printing press. Business Insider says it's "the next trillion dollar industry." And the technology behind is poised to set off one of the most remarkable healthcare revolutions in decades.
<<<
>>> How 3-D Printing Is Revolutionizing Health Care
By Beth McKenna
March 14, 2014
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/14/how-3-d-printing-is-revolutionizing-health-care.aspx
Additive manufacturing -- a.k.a. 3-D printing -- has moved beyond being a primarily techie and Wall Street topic to capture the attention of many on Main Street. This attention is well deserved, given the 3-D printing sector is expected to balloon from $2.2 billion in 2012 to nearly $6 billion in 2017, and will eventually touch, even transform, many diverse facets of our economy and lives.
While the health-care sector is in the relatively early stages of adopting 3-D printing, it's already obvious that 3-D printing will revolutionize health care. We're going to explore a sampling of the life-improving advances in medical technology already made possible by 3-D printing, as well as the mind-boggling ones that loom on the horizon. Companies discussed are 3-D printer makers 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE: DDD ) and Arcam AB (NASDAQOTH: AMAVF ) and tissue engineering -- or "bioprinting" -- company Organovo (NYSEMKT: ONVO ) .
3-D Printing 101
First, a quick summary of 3-D printing. 3-D printing involves using digital 3-D design data to build up a component layer by layer. By contrast, traditional manufacturing is subtractive by nature, in that it involves whittling away at a chunk of material to form the desired part. It's only been recently that 3-D printing has expanded beyond prototyping and into production applications. This is because there have been tremendous recent advances in 3-D printing technology and in materials availability.
3-D printing can save time and money, as the technology uses less raw material than conventional manufacturing, and eliminates the need for tooling since the process involves going directly from design to production. More importantly, however, is that 3-D printing unleashes innovative possibilities because it allows for designing and producing some components that can't be made using traditional production processes. This factor is at the heart of 3-D printing's ability to revolutionize health care.
Personalized medicine
The sequencing of the human genome has made personalized medicine a hot topic recently. It's often overlooked that, like genetic sequencing, 3-D printing can also be a technology that's used in personalized medicine. This is because 3-D printing allows for products to be custom made to fit individuals, which is of critical importance when we're talking about medical devices, such as orthopedic implants, dental implants, and the like. Conventional manufacturing techniques can't always produce such exact-fitting devices.
Let's start with a heartwarming example that underscores this key strength of 3-D printing.
3D System Corp., which is the largest (by market cap) maker of 3-D printers, is well acquainted with the health-care sector, as it accounted for 20% of the company's product revenue in 2013.
However, just last month, 3D Systems announced a first on the health-care front: the first 3-D printed hybrid robotic exoskeleton suit, which it teamed with Ekso Bionics to produce. The suit was made for Amanda Boxtel, whose skiing accident in 1992 left her paralyzed from the waist down. She was able to stand and walk, assisted with crutches, during a public event in which she debuted the suit. "After years of dreaming about it, I am deeply grateful and thrilled to be making history by walking tall in the first ever 3-D printed Ekso-Suit, made specifically for me," she said.
Source: 3D Systems Corp.
3D Systems' designers scanned Amanda's thighs, shins, and spine so the suit would be custom fit for her. A 3-D printer then produced the Ekso suit from the scans. Mechanical actuators and controls, which Ekso Bionics manufactured, were then integrated with the 3-D-printed portion of the suit.
Pioneering 3-D-printed orthopedic implants
Sweden-based Arcam is a pioneer in making 3-D printers that can produce both standard and custom-made orthopedic implants. Implants using Arcam's proprietary electron beam melting, or EBM, technology were CE marked in 2007 (CE is the European equivalent of the FDA), and implant manufacturers using EBM received FDA approval in 2011 for select products.
There's little doubt that an increasing proportion of orthopedic implants will be produced using 3-D printing. That's because, in some instances, 3-D printing can reduce the cost of producing implants, improve their quality, and better customize them.
A good example relates to implants with trabecular structures, which are the porous type of bone found at the end of the spine and at all articulating joints. This porous section promotes bone integration, as it has an increased surface area, which new bone attaches to. 3-D printing can produce the solid and porous portions of the implant in one step, whereas traditional manufacturing involves two steps: the machining of the solid portion, followed by the application of a plasma spay for the porous section. So, there's the obvious time and cost savings here. More critically, from the patient's standpoint, is the considerable improvement in quality. Over time, the porous section produced by the traditional two-step process can debond, which means the implant won't last as long in the patient.
Bioprinting human livers and other organs
Organovo's involved in 3-D printing cells to produce human tissues with the ultimate goal of producing organs that can be used in transplants. It's a developmental stage company that made a splash late last year when it announced it bioprinted 3-D liver assays that were able to retain key liver functions for more than 40 days. The company plans to market its liver assays, which will be its first commercially available products, at the end of this year.
There's huge promise in focusing on the liver because liver toxicity is a primary reason why drugs that have made it through preclinical testing fail in clinical trials. Drug companies could prevent much wasted time and save billions of dollars if liver toxicity issues were detected earlier in the drug development process. Organovo's liver assays hold much potential as a drug-testing tool, among other uses.
Organovo's top execs and other industry experts have stated that we're at least a decade, perhaps two, away from being able to print solid organs, such as the liver, heart, and kidney. This achievement, of course, will be an ultimate gift from the gods for the many people around the world who suffer and die each year because of organ failure while they await a transplant.
Bioprinting solid organs won't remain in the science fiction realm, as some skeptics believe. There has already been considerable progress in bioprinting. Several entities -- most notably, Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine -- have used bioprinting to produce tissues and select (flat and non-solid) organs used for transplants.
Foolish final thoughts
3-D printing is well on its way to revolutionizing health care, which should improve the quality of life for multitudes of people, and enrich investors in those companies that most successfully provide 3-D printers to the health-care sector and those health-care companies that most successfully employ this technology.
<<<
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
3D Systems Corp | DDD | 8.82% |
SLM Solutions Group AG | AM3D.DE | 5.66% |
Straumann Holding AG | STMN | 5.48% |
The ExOne Co | XONE | 5.39% |
Altair Engineering Inc Class A | ALTR | 4.90% |
Dassault Systemes SE | DSY.PA | 4.63% |
Microsoft Corp | MSFT | 4.57% |
Trimble Inc | TRMB | 4.36% |
Autodesk Inc | ADSK | 4.27% |
MGI Digital Graphic Technology SA | ALMDG.PA | 4.25% |
Volume | |
Day Range: | |
Bid Price | |
Ask Price | |
Last Trade Time: |