/ News
Tanaka to Exhibit World’s First Successful Platinum-Based Metallic Glass Powder for 3D Printers
Tokyo-based Tanaka Holding announced on November 18 that, through Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo, they have become the world’s first company to succeed in the development and formation of platinum-based metallic glass powder for use with Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D Printers. This is big news for the 3D printing materials world; this discovery has the potential to revolutionize the materials used during the SLS process. The company also succeeded in developing platinum group metallic powder using nickel-based alloys with platinum and iridium additives, and even manufactured objects using these powders as a Proof of Concept, proving their materials do in fact work, so much so that they are bringing them to market.
Platinum-based metallic glass powder material
Tanaka will be exhibiting at Powtex Tokyo 2014 (the International Powder Technology Exhibition Tokyo) next week, from November 26th to the 28th. After showcasing the platinum group of materials at the Big Sight exhibit, sample deliveries will begin December 1st. Which means by December 1st the true test for the company will have arrived: what do the customers think about their new next-gen materials?
Tanaka obtained a patent for the composition of platinum-based metallic glass in 2004, with successful production taking place only 10 years following, which means it took the company about a decade to work out the kinks to the point where they felt it was ready to be taken to the market — with impeccable timing, might I add. For example, over the past couple years 3D Systems has taken huge steps in regards to SLS machinery, and these materials can be added to those machines giving users the ability to manufacture in three new types of metals. The new discovery could revolutionize SLS machines in terms of their current capabilities; the more materials we can print with, the more complex the structures, prototypes, and parts become.
In the past, the strengths and true capabilities of 3D printed metals have been questioned, especially by the traditional users within the manufacturing industry, and people are still resistant to the change that is coming from the newer 3D printing and additive manufacturing methodology. However, with the introduction of more resilient, lightweight, and equally stable next generation materials, more industry players from the manufacturing sector will be making the switch from traditional methods of manufacturing to the new more efficient, profitable, and time-saving methods of additive manufacturing. With more materials available to the world of manufacturing, more people will enter that world and accept it as a viable one.
Tanaka’s introduction is one of many to come from a number of different companies, and it sets the stage for a realm of possibilities that has never before existed. Additive manufacturing, which had originally only provided prototypes and parts, is evolving with the expansion of usable materials into end-use product manufacturing. The use of additive — rather than traditional subtractive — manufacturing techniques can save significant amounts of time, energy, and materials.
Platinum group metals in particular will be a strong boon to the materials portfolio available for 3D printing. Platinum metals’ high melt points have typically limited their viability for use in manufacturing products that required much complexity. Products that, however, benefit from these metals’ corrosion-resistant nature — like medical and specialty industrial components in the automotive and aerospace industries — can utilize 3D printing technology for small-volume production of finished products. If, of course, Tanaka’s breakthrough is as sound as they promise.
Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo is banking on this, though — literally. They’re projecting FY 2020 annual sales of 400 million yen, basing much of the anticipated growth on the use of 3D printing materials including platinum group metallic powders.
A diagram of the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) process.
Let us know your thoughts on this announcement over in the Platinum Group Metal Materials for 3D Printing forum at 3DPB.com.
Source: http://3dprint.com/25917/tanaka-platinum-powder/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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