review TCT LIVE
With this machine (and its predecessor), the emphasis is on it being Director of Admeasure Scanning, Geoff Le Good, was similarly optimistic in his
environmentally friendly and cheap to run, as it uses just ordinary, A4 paper and response. “This financial year was better than the previous,” he said. “We’re
water-based adhesive to make solid 3D parts. As Sales Manager, Seamus currently involved with a major sports project — although I obviously can’t say
Yendole, pointed out, “Most companies make the bulk of their money on their any more than that — and on the whole, the future’s looking pretty rosy.”
consumables as oppose to their hardware.”
Although primarily a Geomagic re-seller, the company was also pushing the
Yet another 3D printer to be launched in the days leading up to our event and that newer, service side of its business at TCT Live, “I’m pleased to say that a lot of
I was keen to find more out about was Z Corporation’s ZPrinter 350, which — it interest has been shown in both areas of our business,” he added. “We plan on
is claimed by the company — is the ‘first ever’ automated, monochrome 3D offering industry-specific event days next year to demonstrate the long-term
printer. The primary aim of this latest machine is to make advanced rapid benefits of maintaining the software.”
prototyping technology more accessible to mainstream engineers, designers,
architects and educators. Yet another satisfied exhibitor was Managing Director of Proto Labs UK, John
Tumelty. “There’s been an interesting mix of visitors this year, and I’ve been
Vice President of European Sales, Peter Hansford, said, “We’ve had a lot of pleasantly surprised at how many more potential customers have visited the
interest shown in all our printers, but even more so in the 350. This printer is a stand,” he said. The company was promoting its highly successful online quoting
direct response to customer feedback. It has all the functionality of the 450 and system, ProtoQuote.
650 in terms of ease of use, but at a much lower price.”
The Huntsman Advanced Materials stand also attracted hordes of visitors,
Peter went on to express how “very beneficial” he felt being at TCT Live was for Z according to Marketing Manager, Andreas Moser. “We were very pleased with the
Corp. “We’ve always been at the show and I definitely can’t see that changing,” number of visitors who showed an interest in our products this year,” he said,
he said. “The TCT Live audience is precisely the one we want to attract.” “and we were impressed with the quality of the presentations.”
RP service bureaux Malcolm Nicholls did something ‘a bit different’ on its stand At last year’s event, the company launched its first additive manufacturing
this year, which I simply could not leave out of this review. A 7 ft Darth Vader machine — the Araldite Digitalis — and this year followed up with the UV-
paced the aisles and posed for photos on both days to raise money for Great curable resin Araldite MLS 70000, which Andreas informed me, “will soon
Ormond Street Hospital. UK Technical Sales Manager, Tracy Nicholls, explained, enable us to be in commercial operation.” Using this material, the machine will
“A member of staff has two grandchildren who are currently being treated at the be capable of producing large numbers of parts simultaneously, at high speed
hospital. We wanted to help her raise some cash as a thank you and thought TCT and with pinpoint accuracy.
Live would be ideal.”
Another interesting development in the materials arena came from DSM Somos.
Tracy was very secretive about the identity of the man behind the mask, but did Two of the company’s best-selling stereolithography materials — WaterShedXC
say that he was “very pedantic” about his costume. He wanted to resemble the 11122 and ProtoGen 18420 — had just received medical standards certification.
Star Wars III ‘Revenge of the Sith’. “His aim was to create the most movie- Marketing Specialist, Aaron Boruch, told me that this was “a very important
accurate costume in the UK,” she said. “The helmet was produced from the announcement” as it meant that the materials could now be recommended for
original movie moulds. MNL was commissioned to produce the remaining chest use in a multitude of medical device applications.
pack and belt assembly, which are movie accurate and made to a very high
standard of finish.” There was plenty new on the Wenzel stand I discovered. The company,
specialising in metrology, showed the new exaCT, its CT scanning machine,
A total of £280 was raised and the company would like to thank everyone who MobileScan3D, reportedly the first CNC mobile scanning system, and
donated. Pointmaster, its latest offering in 3D surfacing software.
Twenty years of providing toolmaking and moulding services were being And newest of the new, Wenzel launched the UKAS calibrated CMM artefact,
celebrated on the Midas Pattern Company stand. There was a display of cupcakes Wenzel X-checker, which allows CMM verification and determines machine
— each sporting the company logo in icing — spelling out 20, which visitors capability.
were invited to help themselves to.
So many companies and so much news, yet we have to stop somewhere. All in
In response to my asking how the company had done over the last 12 months all, a hugely successful event and the TCT Team ethos is — ‘it can only get
and what 2010 was looking like, Technical Sales Manager, Rachel Collier, replied, better’. If you are interested in exhibiting at TCT Live 2010 — and I think the
“This year has undoubtedly been tough, but we are still trading strongly. Things general consensus of the exhibitors quoted in this article would be that it really is
are definitely on the up and we’re looking forward to our 21st year.” an event not to be missed at — please contact Duncan Wood, Group Director.
20 tct 17/6
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