Additive Manufacturing Users Group names technical competition winners

(Left) Andrew Sliwa’s Praetorian Guard helmet and (right) Ed Graham’s carpet loom drive assembly (original assembly on left).

The Additive Manufacturing Users Group, Milwaukee, has announced the winners of its annual technical competition, which was held during the group’s 30th annual conference in St. Louis. A panel of industry veterans selected Andrew Sliwa of Custom Prototypes and Ed Graham of ProtoCam as winners of the competition.

Andrew Sliwa’s winning entry in the Advanced Finishing category was a re-creation of a lost Praetorian Guard helmet that, according to legend, Cleopatra gave to Mark Antony. Sliwa’s team built on research to create a digital model that fueled metal and polymer AM processes. The metal pieces were polished and plated in copper, nickel, and gold. The jewels, which were printed in clear photopolymer, were dyed and painted to represent the grains of precious stones. Custom Prototypes printed each individual strand of the helmet’s crest and then dyed, plasticized, and coated the plume before shaping it with hot air.

Ed Graham’s winning entry in the Advanced Concepts category was titled “Old world engineering gets an additive makeover.” That makeover solved a decade-old problem for Langhorne Carpets, which could not acquire replacements for the carpet loom drive assembly from 1930s-era machines. Graham’s team applied design for additive manufacturing practices to reduce weight and replicate 1,000 pilot holes while creating a modular assembly that allows replacement of individual components. The five-piece assemblies then were 3-D-printed and put into service.