Last night the third annual TCT Awards celebrated the people, technology and collaborations behind the best in design-to-manufacturing innovation. Ford Motor Company, Siemens AG, Renishaw and XJet were amongst the prestigious award winners.
The celebratory evening recognised ground-breaking technology, collaborative projects, industry leaders and innovators.
In addition to the 15 competitive award categories, the TCT Group inducted another industry giant of additive manufacturing (AM) into the TCT Hall of Fame. Professor Gideon Levy, a distinguished AM researcher, was honoured during the evening for his contribution to the AM industry and to the growth in technology adoption in selective laser sintering (SLS) materials, which he holds over 30 patents for.
A new accolade of the evening was the ‘Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award’ which was presented in collaboration with the Women in 3D Printing network to Professor Wai Yee Yeong.
Professor Wai Yee Yeong has been active in 3D printing research since 2004, she has created multiple frontiers in 3D printing, taking the leads in 3D Bioprinting, electronics printing and metal printing research. A truly deserving winner of the inaugural 'Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award'.
Kadine James, UK Chair of Women in 3D Printing commented “Its a huge honour to have presented the TCT Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award 2019 which celebrates and shines a wonderful spotlight on all of the trail blazing women, pioneering the use of additive manufacturing technologies across the globe. We must encourage more women and girls into tech careers and amplify the importance of equality and diversity within our remarkable industry - Many congratulations to all of our superb nominees and to our incredible winner —You are all inspirational!"
James Woodcock, VP Content, Strategy & Partnerships at Rapid News Publications Ltd, commented: “It was an honour to share the evening with so many truly inspirational people from all sectors in the industry. I would like to personally congratulate all of the winners for their successes.
Professor Wai Yee Yong needs a special mention for her exceptional contributions and we are delighted to welcome Gideon into the Hall of Fame. We are proud to the development and success of the industry."
See below for a full list of winners:
TCT Aerospace Application Award 2019
Winner: Veripart Digital Supply Chain
Tech Lead: Moog Inc
End User: Air New Zealand
Partners: Microsoft, ST Engineering
In a world first experiment, Moog’s blockchain enabled VeriPart process was utilised to create a point of use, time of need digital supply chain. The proof of concept had Air New Zealand order a digital aircraft part from Singapore-based ST Engineering. The digital file was immediately sent to an approved printer (Moog) in LA, 3D printed and installed on an Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300 aircraft 30 minutes after landing.
TCT Automotive Application Award 2019
Winner: Automated Design of Jigs & Fixtures
Tech Lead: Trinckle
End User: Ford Motor Company
Partners: Ultimaker B.V.
Ford and Trinckle have partnered to enhance the use of AM for the production of labelling jigs and fixtures. Through the development of an internal application using Trinckle’s paramate software, the design of AM jigs has been automated - reducing design time from 2-4 hours to 10 minutes and saving up to 50% of the total costs.
TCT Consumer Product Application Award 2019
Winner: Precision Diamond Helmet Liner
Tech Lead: Carbon
End User: Riddell
Choose Water have utilised 3d printed moulds to develop an important and timely alternative to single-use plastic bottles. The specialist moulds include thousands of tiny holes to allow paper pulp slurry to be shaped and then water extracted to form a solid product. The use of 3DP in place of 2-part steel and mesh moulds led to a 90% cost and 75% time saving.
TCT Creative Application Award 2019
Winner: Replica Dragon Conservation Project
Tech Lead: 3D Systems
End User: Historic Royal Palaces
Partners: Paul Jewby Master Carver
3D systems used digital scan-to-CAD workflow alongside SLS printing and intricate post processing techniques to produce 72 replicas of ornately carved dragons for Historic Royal Palaces. Missing from a UNESCO World Heritage Site for over 200 years, the replica pieces were a lighter weight, longer lasting alternative to direct replacement of the wooden pieces, and were achieved in a much quicker timescale.
TCT Hardware Award 2019 - Non Polymers
Winner: CFC Technology
Tech Lead: Anisoprint S.a.r.l
Anisoprint S.a.r.l have developed Continuous Composite Fibre Co-extrusion (CFC) technology which can produce parts which they say are several times stronger, lighter and cheaper than single material metal or polymer parts. The process can use different combinations of polymers and fibres, as well as extrude each filament at different rates to produce local variation in mechanical properties in the printed part.
TCT Hardware Award 2019 - Polymers
Winner: Micro AM
Tech Lead: Nanofabrica
Micro AM provides an end-to-end solution bespoke to manufacturers requiring micron and sub-micron levels of resolution and surface finish. Nanofabrica's technology allows the repeatable mass manufacture of micro parts and components via additive manufacturing for manufacturers that previously had to rely on disproportionately expensive and non-agile manufacturing technologies such as micro moulding.
TCT Healthcare Application Award 2019
Winner: Neuroinfuse Drug Delivery System
Tech Lead: Renishaw plc
End User: North Bristol NHS Trust
Partners: The Harley Street Clinic; Herantis Pharma plc
A 3d printed titanium port has been developed to allow accessibility to the brain as part of a neuroinfuse drug delivery system which allows pharmaceuticals to bypass the blood-brain barrier for ongoing treatment of neuro disorders. The port features a roughened surface below the skin to encourage bone integration, and a polished surface above the skin to discourage bacterial settlement.
TCT Industrial Product Application Award 2019
Winner: Industrial Robot Dough Cutting Knife
Tech Lead: K3D B.V
End User: Kaak Group
Partners: Additive Industries ; Civon Project
An industrial robot dough cutting knife has been redesigned for powder bed fusion leading to a myriad of benefits including part reduction of 20 to 1 and weight reduction of 90%. Unique AM improvements include porous structures for better cleaning as well as an inbuilt bearing, leaf spring and thread. This led to more cuts per hour reducing the need from 8 to 6 robots and saving €120k.
TCT Materials Award 2019 - Polymer
Winner: Formlabs Draft Resin
Tech Lead: Formlabs
Draft Resin is the fastest-printing Formlabs resin, making it ideal for rapid prototyping. Parts printed with Draft Resin print three to four times faster than parts printed with other Formlabs general purpose resins. The print speed of Draft Resin makes it ideal for same-day design iterations and printing bulky, full-build-volume parts.
TCT Materials Award 2019 - Non Polymers
Winner: XJet S100 Soluble Support
Tech Lead: Xjet
XJet S100 is the only 100% soluble support material in the additive manufacturing of stainless-steel that has fully automated support removal. It brings huge advantages to the user in geometric freedom, preservation of fine details & smooth surfaces, as well as huge savings in post processing labour time and cost.
TCT Inspex Application Award 2019
Winner: Non Destructive Imaging in Forensics
Tech Lead: University of Warwick
End User: West Midlands Police
Partners: Crown Prosecution Service; University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire
Numerous criminal cases have benefited from a range of scanning and multi material 3D printing technologies that have, up until now, not been readily available within the Criminal Justice System. This technology has been used to provide evidence in over 120 Homicide cases for over 14 Police Forces throughout the UK and overseas.
TCT Inspex Hardware Award 2019
Winner: FARO OPTOR LAB
Tech Lead: Faro
Optor Lab is a 3D dental scanner that combines all kinds of dental professional needs to support a digital workflow. This all-in-one 3D scanning device with its flexible modules is both an ideal entry-level solution and the most advanced 3D scanning desktop scanner. The flexibility in features and the open structure is built for convenient desktop scanning applications in any dental laboratory.
TCT Post-Processing Award 2019
Winner: Intelligent de-powdering
Tech Lead: Siemens AG
Partners: Solukon Maschinenbau GmbH
Partnering Solukon’s SFM de-powdering technology with Siemens’ software has enabled a unique solution for powder removal of DMLM parts. The parts are rotated in a sequence calculated from the CAD geometry to precisely drain the residual powder from intricate cavities such as conformal cooling channels. This not only saves manual labour time, but also reduces waste powder and scrap parts due to powder residue issues.
TCT Software Award 2019
Winner: nTop Platform
Tech Lead: nTopology
nTop Platform is a unified engineering environment for design, simulation and advanced manufacturing processes. It is said to be the only design solution that allows engineers to simultaneously consider function, geometry, and manufacturing within a single computational methodology. Engineers can create lightweight and optimized parts with functional requirements built right in.
About TCT Awards
TCT has always existed at the intersection of technology and applications, and the TCT Awards reflects this position. Celebrating the innovators, technologies and collaborators behind the leading examples of additive manufacturing, 3D printing, design and engineering across the globe.
The very best use cases of ground-breaking technologies are collaborative projects – and the TCT Awards recognises the partners in a project from designers and engineers to technology providers.
Now in its third year TCT Awards will once again celebrate design-to-manufacturing innovation across a range of industries including medical, aerospace, automotive and consumer products. Technology innovations will also be in the spotlight along with a further three inductees to the prestigious and coveted TCT Hall of Fame.
TCT Awards 2020 will take place in Birmingham, UK on 30 September 2020.
