The 2018 edition of the
TCT Show (
www.tctshow.com) — an additive-manufacturing and product development event — attracted more than 250 exhibitors to the NEC (near Birmingham) to create the largest show in the event’s history and to showcase game-changing design and manufacturing technologies to around 10,000 visitors.
Jim Woodcock, from Rapid News Group, said: “The number of new products on show reflected the current pace of change in the industry. From advances in additive metal technologies to materials and innovative software, the technologies that will shape manufacturing in the future were on display across the show floor.”
Some of the highlights of the show included: the UK debut of Mimaki’s 10 million-colour 3DUJ-553 3-D printer (in partnership with Hybrid Services); Trumpf’s debut of its TruPrint 3000 metals system; Shapeways’ full-colour 3-D printing service with a Stratasys J750 machine; Ultimaker’s unveiling of new material alliances; DyeMansion showing the increased colour capabilities of its DM60 post-processing machine; and the introduction by Materialise of a simulation module for its Magics software.
Meanwhile, Sculpteo announced the direct integration of FDM to its Fabpilot cloud-based ‘end to end’ solution, and several partnerships were struck on the show floor.
For example, XJet secured a distribution agreement with Carfulan Group, Additive Industries teamed up with Laser Lines to bolster its UK presence, and Link3D partnered with the ACAM Aachen Center for Additive Manufacturing.
The TCT Show conference programme covered the entire industry with almost 100 speakers, with the likes of Airbus, PepsiCo and BMW highlighting technical breakthroughs and advances.
TCT Show 2019 will be held at the NEC next year (24-26 September).