Future Links August 7th 2015
Here are our daily links with the most important news from the printing industry. Today they feature Makerbot’s new smart extruders, Honda’s use of Stratasys’ 3D printers, Cimpress’ acquisition of Tradeprint, a record-breaking supersized magazine, diamond powder for pharmaceutical packaging, Saxoprint’s expanded product range and a new material that could match or surpass graphene’s capabilities.
Makerbot is offering composite filament in 2016
Makerbot creations will no longer be plastic only: The 3D printer manufacturer is planning to introduce smart extruders in 2016, which will support composite filament. The PLA composite filament will come with bronze, with maple wood, with limestone, and with iron.
More at Digital Arts
Honda uses Stratasys printer to make car and motorcycle accessories
Car manufacturers have been pioneers in the use of industrial 3D printing. The Honda Accessories development center in Japan uses a Stratasys Object Eden500 V 3D printer to improve the development efficiencies and synchronize the development schedule of Honda’s accessories. Honda manufactures 300 accessories per year for each car model.
More at 3ders
Cimpress acquires UK printer Tradeprint
Cimpress, a company specializing in mass customization, has acquired Tradeprint, the leading trade printer in the UK. Tradeprint is known for its next-day delivery. Cimpress mass customisation platform will enable the company to increase the breadth and depth of the product range offered to their customers.
More at What They Think?
Supersized magazine breaks world record
Innovation is often a result of pushing the boundaries of what is believed to be possible. UK printer Polestar and content marketing agency the River Group have done just that. They have broken the Guinness world record for producing the largest single edition of a magazine. Measuring 3.055 m in height and 2.35 m in width, the issue of Healthy magazine took 14 hours to print and weighs 106 kg once fully bound. The amount of ink needed to print the magazine ran to 9.3 liters. The surface area of the magazine is 7.179 sqm, beating the previous Guinness world record of 6.96 sqm.
More at i-Grafix
Diamond powder to strengthen counterfeit protection
Counterfeit products are a serious problem that affects the pharmaceutical industry in particular. Solutions like barcodes and color-coding have proven to be insufficient to curb the problem. A new solution, diamond powder, promises to add a level of security.
Diamond is an inert substance that can be added to packaging materials and the inks used in product labeling. When diamond is exposed to certain wavelengths of light, it emits unique spectral signatures that cannot be duplicated.
More at Packaging Digest
Saxoprint expands product range
Online print company Saxoprint has launched a new product range, including customizable sticky notes with hardcovers and page markers in five different colors. Customers can also order letterheads with double or fourfold punching, as well as brochures with four loops.
More at Print Monthly
Wonder-material graphene gets competition
Graphene is hailed as the new wonder-material for printed electronics. Now, another material with spectacular characteristics has been developed. Chemists at the Technische Universität München (TUM) have created a semiconducting material in which individual phosphorus atoms are replaced by arsenic. In a collaborative international effort, American colleagues have built the first field-effect transistors from the new material.
More at Printed Electronics World