interview
Limitations for 3D printing are now first of all in the users heads The last day of September in the space of the Faculty for Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, a conference "Rapid development and production" was held. At the conference the participants had the opportunity to see solutions of the equipment and computer programs for rapid prototyping or rapid production of final products. Under presentation of 3D prototype production that was carried on by Bryan Ferrand from company ZCorporation, a large number of possibilities for the industry as well as for home use were presented. We have invited Bryan Ferrand, a person with more than ten years of experience in this area, for a short conversation about development 3D rapid prototyping and 3D printing. Miran Varga 

 KLEX, a company that offers a service of design, more precisely development, is a pleasant surprise among Croatian companies, both with reference list and the level of their business and this is development which includes production of prototypes on selective laser sintering machine.
Every branch and every industrial sector has a status indicator that it has reach manhood. Some of the engineering experts, especially for the engineering designs, can claim that the sector is mature from this or that reason, but what is common for all mature industrial branches is an existing of small companies that can do a business which was lately strongly "bounded" with large industrial companies. One of such good "signs on the path" on which are Croatian designers is the company KLEX from Zagreb. The company KLEX presents its own service on the web page as: "Basic service in wider sense is everything connected with research and development of new products - from first idea to implementation of serial production." 

 At the largest exhibition of innovations INPEX (Pittsburg), that was held in period 16th to 18th June 2010, in the competition of 1.800 exhibits from USA and 15 other countries, silver medal and special award of Spanish delegation has got a set of plastic products for yachtsmen. The products are peg and universal fender carrier for yachtsmen. Products was invent and physical realised by the innovator and entrepreneur Marko Kravar. Additional confirmation of his products he has got at the innovation exhibition in London BIS 2010 (13th to 16th October 2010.), by winning a platinum and double gold award, as well as two gold medals. 

 Fair EuroMold was hold for 17th time in Frankfurt Messe Center i period 1st to 4th December 2010. EuroMold 2010 have visited around 60.000 people, which were able to enjoy in interesting exhibition stands of 1.384 exhibitors from 38 countries, on exhibition area of larger than 65.000 m2, and in large number of additional events (conferences, forums). Light recovery of the industries that were presented on EuroMold, first of all it is about new products development, production and mouldmaking, can be noticed in growth of the number of exhibitors compared with last fair (EuroMold 2009) of about 2,2 %. 

 The principle of prototype production by vacuum casting is based on casting of two-component polyurethanes into silicone moulds, and whole process is carried out in vacuum chamber. Production is based on pattern (master part), which is a start point for production of silicone mould. Two-component material, which is chosen based on demands or required properties of final product, has to be gravitational cast into the mould. Actually it is a process of reproduction of certain object. More the pattern is accurate and with smoother surface, better is casted part. Prototypes and so-called products of null-production, made by vacuum casting, are assigned to all faced with a necessity for high-quality prototypes. These are parts that are with their properties and accuracy similar to the final products produced in serial production. Important property of the silicone moulds is, that with their application, it is possible to get a full copy of pattern. 

 Third international conference on additive technologies iCAT 2010, in one of the westernmost Slovenian towns Nova Gorica, in period 22nd to 24th September has gathered leading names from field of rapid manufacturing. More than hundred authors have presented 40 papers and 14 posters, news, trends and examples of successful application of additive technologies in development and production from many different areas: from general engineering, through medicine, to the shoe industry. 

 All cars producers are focused on optimisation of production process. Significant movement in that direction presents assembly of car parts performed by robots, aided with systems for image processing. Thus, it is possible to perform many operations during assembly without stopping the assembly line – in motion. Important element of such complex system is ISRA VISION measuring 3D system. 

 Positive movements at the polymer market can be seen from the first moment of opening the biggest fair for plastics and rubber in the world – K2010, which was held in period 27th October to 3rd November. At the fair were 3.102 exhibitors from all around the world, and more than 200.000 visitors. Exhibitors reports about unexpected number of contacts and about the determination for the new investments at the market, and lot of them about signed contracts during the fair, which speaks for itself about the return of the optimism in plastics and rubber industry. Innovations presented at the K2010 strongly encourage belief of realisation of the contracts. 

 Quantum computers was thought as a "holy grail of the computer engineering" because they will satisfy all our needs for computers – which is despite first "commercially available machine" still far away from real utilisation. In the past years, a lot were written about " first commercially available quantum computer" Orion from the company D-Wave Systems from Burnaby, Canada. Many recognised it as an ultimate model that will lead to the development of real quantum computers. Despite such publicity, experts from company D-Wave, can on this computer solve so far task such as sudoku or similar, which can be solved today even by inferior simple computers at our desks.