GE Global Research has joined the 3MF Consortium, an industry association created to develop and promote a new full-fidelity file format for 3D printing.
Scientists and engineers in GE’s additive manufacturing lab have been pioneers in developing new additive produced components with metals and ceramics and GE built the first mass production additive manufacturing (AM) facility in the US in Auburn, Alabama. Currently, GE is said to be the world’s largest user of additive technologies with metals.
‘With the successful integration of 3D printed metal parts in two different jet engine platforms and the construction of GE Aviation’s US$50 million state-of-the-art high-volume additive production plant in Auburn, Alabama, we achieved major milestones with our additive program in 2015,’ said Prabhjot Singh, manager of the additive manufacturing lab at GE Global Research. ‘But we have only scratched the surface on additive’s potential [...] That future will arrive faster through the strong ecosystem that 3MF is building to bring the right stakeholders together to accelerate new innovations and breakthroughs in this space.’
The 3MF Consortium was formed to close the gap between the capabilities of modern 3D printers and outdated file formats. The 3MF specification eliminates the problems associated with currently available file formats, resolving interoperability and functionality issues, and enabling companies to focus more on innovation. The first version of the 3MF specification can be found here. Founding members of the 3MF Consortium are 3D Systems, Autodesk, Inc, Dassault Systèmes SA, FIT AG, GE Global Research, HP,Inc, Materialise, Microsoft Corporation, Shapeways,Inc, Siemens PLM Software, SLM Solutions Group AG, Stratasys and Ultimaker.
This story uses material from 3MF, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
