I was surfing through a bunch of links I recently found and one of them included a link to an article on Laser Focus World from last year (Link) which mentions a company with which I’m unfamiliar: TRUMPF. From the article:

Another emerging process in the field of rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing involves the use of high-power lasers and metal powders to create end-use products. Since the mid-1990s, engineers have been working to advance rapid prototyping technologies for metal alloys, and their work is now paying off. According to industry analyst Terry Wohlers, at least a dozen companies now offer systems that produce metal prototypes layer by layer.

Foremost among these manufacturers is Trumpf (Ditzingen, Germany), which offers both direct laser forming (a stereolithography approach) and direct metal deposition (DMD) systems for the rapid manufacture of metal parts.

I assumed MCP might have a lock on some of the patents which was why I’d not heard of anyone else. I guess not. In any event, here’s another one to add to the list.

For those of you who would like to see a nice page describing the laser rapid manufacturing process (which I highly recommend), head over to TRUMPF’s site and on the left side click “Laser Systems”. Go to the bottom and click “Laser Forming” and then TrumaForm LF. That last one is a page talking about a machine, but at the bottom is a link called “Processing of Direct Laser Forming”. That’s the page.

Also, try to find time to read that story on Laser Focus World. It has some things in it that echo what I’ve been discussing. For example:

Another RMRG project involves studying how termites make their mounds to see if their methods might be adapted to enable field-based fabrication of large buildings on the battlefield, or after an earthquake or other disaster.

Awesome. That’s just the kind of thing I’ve been wondering about for the last few months and which came up on the WorldChanging piece I wrote (Link). Perhaps I can find information on that project. Oddly enough, along with an oil spill containment device (Master and Slave units), I’ve been thinking about a kirkyan robotic termite system that has a Master/Supply system and Slave builders. I’ll stop there for fear of getting too off-topic in this post.

{Image Copyright © 2006 TRUMPF}