Organovo CEO Keith Murphy presented the afternoon keynote at Inside 3D Printing Santa Clara. In his presentation to several hundred attendees, Mr. Murphy described a vision of Organovo as an enabling technology bioprinting platform.

The context behind this vision is a dose of reality that 3D printing, especially bioprinting, is still in its infancy.

While bioprinting can provide unique capabilities to the pharma industry for toxicology testing and disease models, the technology is simply too complex to deploy. Instead, Organovo is working hand in hand with drug companies to develop custom bioprinting strategies and execute them.

“I compare the way we use our platform to a punchcard computing system,” said Mr. Murphy. “It’s so early, we need to be there at the site and working closely.”

Mr. Murphy stated Organovo’s value add to the pharma industry as an enabling technology that can position cells in 3D dimensions so they can have function.

The market size is interesting. There are 6,500 prevalent programs in pharma each year across all therapeutic areas, and each program needs a project run every 9 months. Mr. Murphy quantified these contracts at about $200-600K each, with a median target of $250,000.

Replacing Animal Models

Organovo sees a fundamental flaw with the industry practice of using animal models for drug discovery and disease testing. “The goal is to replace animal models,” said Mr. Murphy.

While the holy grail of bioprinting is to print human organs, this is still a long way off. Organovo’s primary work is generating small tissues, such as liver, in multi-well plates for toxicology testing and disease models. These tissues measure about 3mm in size. 

MecklerMedia (OTCQX: MECK) and 3D Printing Industry announced that Jeff Kowalski, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Autodesk, will be featuring Autodesk’s latest 3D printing and design software during the Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo in Santa Clara on October 21-23, 2014.

Kowalski will also discuss his predictions about the future of how things are made with an emphasis on how widespread access to 3D design and fabrication technology is disrupting industries of all kinds.

In the event’s exhibit hall, MecklerMedia confirmed that Made In Space, Inc. will be displaying one of their 3D printers that is designed to print in zero-gravity conditions. Also on display will be a scale model of a 130-piece motorcycle, created on Stratasys 3D printers using FDM® technology.

Ticket prices will increase on site, so attendees are encouraged to register before October 21 for the best rate. Group discounts are available for 2+ attendees from the same organization.

For complete information on Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo, visit inside3dprinting.com.

About MecklerMedia
MecklerMedia (OTCQX: MECK) is the producer of conferences including Inside 3D Printing, Inside Bitcoins, and AllFacebook Marketing Conference. MecklerMedia produces over 25 conferences annually. The MecklerMedia news sites and newsletters, including Inside Bitcoins News, 3D Printing Industry, and Allfacebook.de provide up-to-date coverage on emerging industries to help drive business forward.

“We see a huge value and a huge benefit in 3D Printing.” Curtis Carson, Airbus

Curtis Carson, Head of Systems Integration, Centre of Competence Manufacturing Engineering at Airbus, presented the afternoon keynote on Day 2 of Inside 3D Printing New York City.

Carson opened by setting the stage for the magnitude of the airline industry and Airbus’ operations. Every day, 8 million people get on an airplane. There are over 80,000 flights daily and 15,500 commercial jets that take off and land. And Carson said we can expect significant growth in the future.

“Air traffic will grow at 4.7 percent annually requiring over 29,220 new passenger and freighter aircraft valued at nearly US$4.4 trillion (3.3 trillion euros),” Airbus said in a statement last year.

The supply chain and assembly of aircrafts are large and complex. For example, the Airbus A380 has 4 million individual components. If you were take out all the seats, its floorspace is bigger than a basketball court.

Airbus’ supply chain spans the globe. “These parts are traveling distances, either the raw material, sub-assembly parts, or completed parts,” said Carson. The levels of stock in inventories require significant amount of investment capital.

So where does 3D printing come in?

Airbus is working on 8 main domains of 3D printing exploration:

1. Prototyping
2. Tooling
3. Flying parts
4. Spare parts
5. On demand production
6. Methods and tools
7. Skills and competencies
8. R&D

Carson provided some examples of how Airbus has already embraced 3D printing. Plastic equipping brackets are now being 3D printing, saving the company 650,000 Euros per year, and saving weight, about 2.5 kg on a single aircraft.

Airbus is also 3D printing cabin brackets and hinges out of titanium.

“On 2 parts, I can save almost 1 million Euro per year,” explaining that there is potential to integrate 3D printing into aircraft assembly. And these 3D printed parts perform just as well as the traditional parts.

In another example, one of the suppliers for spare parts went bankrupt and the tools to manufacture those parts were lost. When the airlines started Airbus for spare parts, the company embraced the challenge. “Can we adapt something that was designed 30 years ago with today’s technology?” said Carson.

“It’s not like landing gear,” said Carson, acknowledging that the parts 3D printed to date were not mission critical per se, ”but these examples allow us to give credibility to [3D printing].” There are also savings on lead time, getting parts to the assembly.

Where do these savings come from?

• Accuracy – Airbus is incredibly still producing parts with printed drawings. 3D printing is a forcing function for digital designs and better tooling
• Less waste – Airbus wastes 90-95% of material through subtractive processes. With 3D printing there is no waste.
• Lighter weight parts – In the airline industry, weight is performance. Less weight means less fuel burn, which can be a huge savings for the airlines, Airbus’ customers.

Carson also showed a video of the future for Airbus.

But these advantages of 3D printing do not come easy. It takes years of planning to modify which parts are used in assembly and how they are manufacturing. Further, Airbus has 55,000 employees and it takes time to train people across a variety of functions from engineering to assembly to quality inspection. Carson also suggested that the fact 3D printing moves so fast is a challenge. When should Airbus commit to one particular 3D printer or 3D printing process?

Overall, it’s clear that Airbus envisions a 3D printed future. “We see a huge value and a huge benefit behind the technology,” said Carson. The investment case for 3D printing is there, he said. Even though today the value is incremental, the future is wide open.

The excitement is high for 3D printing.

Yesterday, the 3D printing world saw a new IPO announced and an acquisition.

Belgium-based Materialise NV, which provides 3D printing software to industrial manufacturers and medical equipment makers, filed for an IPO of American Depositary Shares. In the announcement, Materialise said it had provided more than 8,000 3D printing software licenses to over 4,000 customers, including Ford Motor Co, Airbus and Boeing Co.

Meanwhile, 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) announced that it acquired Medical Modeling Inc., a leading provider of personalized surgical treatments and patient specific medical devices, including virtual surgical planning and clinical transfer tools, using 3D modeling and printing that is rapidly changing how reconstructive surgery is done today.

Today, there are 4,000 attendees at the second annual Inside 3D Printing conference and expo in New York City, hailing from over 45 countries and 43 U.S. states. These attendees will hear from 56 speakers and get to shake hands with 37 exhibitors.

3D Systems CEO Avi Reichental started his keynote on a personal note with a story about his grandfather, who was a shoe cobbler and made shoes to measure. Reichental said on a somber note that he did not have a photo of his grandfather, who perished in the Holocaust. 

Reichental said he inherited “his [grandfather's] passion for making,” and sees a connection between his grandfather’s trade and 3D printing, in that 3D printing enables localized digital craftsmanship.

Reichental then showed a picture of the very first 3D printed part, created in 1983 by Chuck Hull, the same man who founded 3D Systems and launched the 3D printing industry. From there, Reichental shared his vision for the future of digital manufacturing, from aerospace advancements to medical devices and beyond.

Below is a photo of Reichental wearing bespoke 3D printed eyewear from pq. No hinges!

Reichental highlighted Project Ara, the 3D printed phone coming to market early next year from Google. This phone is modular, allowing a user to swap out components based on whatever is most important to them. This is part of a movement Reichental articulated as cloud-enabled 3D printing at scale.

Reichental continued to dazzle the audience with examples of 3D printing coming to the kitchen, disrupting the toy market, and changing the fashion industry.

The conference is off to a good start! Want to know what else to expect? Read our exclusive preview of Inside 3D Printing.

In less than two weeks, Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo will take over the Javits Convention Center in New York City for two full days of comprehensive programming, impressive exhibits, 3D printer giveaways, and more. The conference, which is expecting more than 3,000 attendees, will feature a startup competition, exhibits on 3D printing design and business, hands-on workshops, and more.

Session topics will explore the current state of the 3D printing industry, the capabilities of modern technologies, and what’s on the horizon for this exciting field. Comprehensive programming has been scheduled for April 3 and 4, including presentations titled “3D Printing, Past and Future,” “Virtual Surgical Planning in Craniofacial Surgery,” “How Professional Investors are Playing the 3D Printing Boom,” “Using 3D Printing to Eat Healthier,” and more. View the full agenda here.

With 3D printing DIY and design attracting growing interest, the conference has added a separate track of programming geared towards the Maker community. A special section of the exhibit floor has also been dedicated for art, fashion, and creativity within 3D printing. The Maker Summit and Pavilion will explore how even those who are new to 3D printing can use these technologies to craft and create objects.

We’re partnering with Inside 3D Printing NYC to offer 10% OFF full conference passes with code ON3DP. If you register before April 3 you’ll save an extra $300 on on-site prices. Click here to register now.

Inside 3D Printing will be hosting additional conferences this year in Seoul, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Santa Clara, and Milan. Click here to see the full world tour schedule.