3D design engineering expands to healthcare, fashion
Visitors try designing a smartwatch during the SOLIDWORKS WORLD 2016 exhibition at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Yoon Sung-won
By Yoon Sung-won
DALLAS ― The advancements of 3D design and engineering technologies are bringing innovations to a wide range of industries including manufacturing, fashion, healthcare, robotics and space science.
As more than 130 companies are participating at SOLIDWORKS World 2016, Wednesday, 3D design and engineering technologies are exhibited that boost the efficiency of product manufacturing and realize ideas which were impossible in a 2D perspective.
Dassault Systemes, the parent company of the event’s host SOLIDWORKS, has established the largest booths to present its latest 3D design solutions including CATIA, one of the world’s most-used 3D computer-aided design (CAD) software packages.
Among them were the Living Heart Project, a healthcare development initiative based on the company’s realistic simulation and optimization application SIMULIA. The application is designed to enable users to simulate actual behavior of products, natural phenomena and live body parts by leveraging physics-based simulations and high-performance computing.
“The Living Heart Project has been designed to simulate heart surgery based on the information on a patient’s actual heart scanned using magnetic resonance imaging,” a Dassault Systemes official said. “This tests whether the patient’s heart can endure certain levels of stimulus that may be inflicted on the patient during actual surgery.”
Besides such personalized patient care, the project will contribute to develop and produce more effective cardiovascular products and treatments, the official said.
Dassault Systemes also set up FashionLab, a pop-up fashion accessory design corner. In this corner, which has been jointly prepared with the U.S. fashion brand Fossil, visitors could try personalizing the exterior of a smartwatch using the SOLIDWORKS software and render their designs through a 3D TV and 3D glasses.
Trusst Lingerie, a U.S. women’s underwear startup, has suggested a new brassiere design. Based on the 3D engineering perspective, co-founders Sophia Berman and Laura West suggested putting a truss instead of a thin wire underneath a bra to give sufficient support to a woman’s body, especially for those with large breasts.
The two entrepreneurs said they have collected over five times their original fundraising goal through a Kickstarter initiative and are looking to develop more diverse women’s underwear with ergonomic designs.
The Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA), an organization dedicated to the research and development of a space elevator that connects the surface of the Earth to objects in orbit, has display simulations of the climbing functions of model space elevators using SOLIDWORKS.
The idea of a space elevator is sending up a ribbon made of special material to an orbiting object to lift an elevator from the surface to space. Though no material or technology has proven successful in realizing this concept, global initiatives such as the X Prize have continued to hold competitions to develop a way to transport humans to space more efficiently.
At the event, companies exhibited advancements in 3D printing technologies using more diverse materials.
3D Systems, one of the world’s leading 3D printer makers, has shown that 3D printers have been improved to use multiple materials such as resin, rubber and metallic ingredients and combine them into features to create materials with different textures, said Cyle Caplinger, an official at 3D Systems.
Irish company Mcor Technologies showcased the “Mcor ARKe,” a full-color desktop 3D printer that uses recyclable paper instead of plastic materials.
“The ARKe costs less both in purchasing and operating,” an official at the company said, “because it uses paper as the build material, it is non-toxic and eco-friendly. This is why we plan to provide it to schools for educational purposes.”