Smooth Surfaces for Additive Manufacturing

whitePaper | January 9, 2023

Modern manufacturing theory, tools, and best practices are focused on how to make thousands or millions of identical parts or products at a low cost per unit. Custom and low volume production pose unique challenges that require manufacturers to adapt from typical mass production models. Thanks to the rapid development of technologies and materials over the last decade, additive manufacturing has grown more capable as a true manufacturing tool and can now enable the fabrication of these custom and low volume end-use parts rapidly and cost-efficiently. This white paper presents Formlabs 3D printing hardware and material solutions for end-use part production. It documents various users' case studies and includes stress testing results to verify the suitability of 3D printing materials for end-use applications.

whitePaper | November 17, 2022

Changing customer expectations, coupled with pandemic, natural disaster, and geo-political impacted supply chain delays, renewed the spotlight on business agility and digital maturity in manufacturing. Just as customers demanded more transparency into the production process, the world saw shortages of raw materials and parts, pushing droves of manufacturers to reevaluate the way they do business. For many, the answer was smart manufacturing—achieved through cloud-based technologies that simplify digital transformation.

whitePaper | February 10, 2022

The Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) comprises a suite of frameworks and tools to help manufacturers – regardless of size or industry – start, scale and sustain their digital transformation journeys. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the reshaping of production value chains globally are spurring the manufacturing community to embrace digitalization with greater focus and urgency, motivated not only by potential gains in efficiency, but also by operational resilience. This renewed drive is further powered by the ongoing data revolution, where decision-makers increasingly expect key business commitments, plans and interventions to be supported through big data

whitePaper | December 12, 2022

While the United States semiconductor industry remains a world leader, domestic manufacturing capacity for chips has undergone a substantial decline. The US semiconductor industry remains a leader in fields like chip design, but more and more firms have moved toward a “fabless” model, in which manufacturing at semiconductors fabrication facilities (“fabs”) is outsourced internationally.

whitePaper | June 1, 2022

Robots. Artificial Intelligence. Complex algorithms that take decisions for you before you even knew they needed to be taken. Machines that ‘talk’ to each other and take action about the goods they are producing. Vehicles that drive themselves, and alert you to the fact that they are about to break down before they actually do so.

whitePaper | June 6, 2021

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a powerful technology that has wide-ranging applications, including many in the pharmaceutical industry. Among the approaches that are being explored in the production of pharmaceutical dosage forms powder-based systems which utilize either drop-on-powder or selective laser sintering and liquid-based systems which use dropon-drop deposition or stereolithography are frequently applied. With liquid-based technology, either UV, laser energy or high temperature is used to induce polymerization and build the 3D structure.1 The process of 3D printing offers the potential to produce medications tailored to the needs of patients and dosage forms in various shapes, sizes and textures with different release profiles that can be difficult to produce using conventional techniques.2