Apr 19, 2017 | By Benedict

3D printing software company Materialise and additive-focused consulting firm Wohlers Associates have announced a three-day course on design for additive manufacturing (DfAM), to be held at Materialise HQ in Leuven, Belgium.

Conventionally manufactured (left) and 55% lighter, 3D printed (right) Airbus A380 spoiler

If you’re a company looking to get involved with additive manufacturing, buying a 3D printer is only half the trouble: you also have to learn how to use the thing. And as any 3D printing pro will tell you, that goes beyond reading the instruction manual. In fact, designing a product for 3D printing involves thinking about the object in a whole new way, taking into account crucial factors like its orientation, need for supports, density, and much more.

Luckily (for those in Belgium, at least), Materialise and Wohlers Associates have joined forces to offer a three-day design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) course at Materialise HQ in Leuven. There, experts from both companies will instruct attendees on numerous 3D printing design topics, such as consolidating many parts into fewer, a key advantage of 3D printing that reduces assembly time; and topology optimization, a technique of using algorithms to decide where to place material in order to optimize a part’s strength-to-weight ratio.

Wohlers Associates has twice offered a similar course for NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and received positive feedback after doing so.

During this three-day course, participants will become familiarized with CAD software and 3D printing tools, gaining hands-on experience while being shown the ropes by experts in the field. The course will even include a section about 3D scanning techniques, an important complementary discipline and an area of learning that has proved popular during other Wohlers Associates courses on 3D printing.

The lead instructor on the additive manufacturing training course will be associate consultant Olaf Diegel, PhD, who has experience with both conventional design and manufacturing and DfAM. “Olaf has created more than 80 commercial products and is an engaging instructor, making him ideal for the course,” said Terry Wohlers, principal consultant and president of Wohlers Associates. “The people at NASA had great things to say about him.”

“We are very happy to collaborate with Materialise, a company with an outstanding reputation and extraordinary track record,” Wohlers added. “Designers, engineers, and managers wanting to learn how to design products for AM will benefit from more than 55 years of combined company experience at Materialise and Wohlers Associates.”

The course will take place from May 31 to June 2, 2017 at the Materialise headquarters in Leuven, Belgium.

Materialise reported total revenue increases of over 12% in 2016.

Posted in 3D Printing Events

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