NASUG update

From: Elaine Hunt (ehunt@ces.clemson.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 26 2001 - 19:40:11 EEST


Sunny Florida turned out to be false but the meeting itself was
great. Over 270+ attended the meeting and as usual I learned more than I
expected....... While my notes are less than organized maybe I can make
some sense of them.

What's new..............

I did see a few faces wearing new company names on their name badges.

The Viper----neat system that seems be be based on NASUG's wish list. The
system should make our old SLA's obsolete at some future point. It will be
interesting to see how the beta sites perform. The ANACONDA version is due
out later ( just joking).

WATER CLEAR resins from DSM....... REALLY CLEAR....
Ceramic material from DSM.... heavy, good surface finish to touch... did
not hear about other properties...I just touched it and picked it up.

Custom color resins even for Q-cast..........

The European Excellence Award winner spoke on Direct Metal Encapsulated SLA
parts......... Design Research Center was the winner.

3D is focusing on Motorsports as an industry. Seems to be selling them SLA
7000s. All but one Formula one teams own a SLA and most own multiples.

Even after all these years I enjoyed the session with Dave Flynn and Steve
Hanna on Practical Accuacy.

The night out was a blast as usual. Our shirts spoke for themselves. Only
the hearty from the polar regions gathered around the bonfire.

The Excellence Award went to none other than Boris Fritz and crew. Boris'
group always challenges the technology to greater heights. The
participants were great this year as usual. I should have taken notes
during the parts fair but I did not.

Did not get to stay for the wish list generation but the overall voting
list was strong.

What was missing....application speakers.
Why is this important? When people speak in the public arena the
information becomes apart of the public domain. This information keeps the
technology from becoming landlocked by over enthusiastic patent prospects
such as trying to patent the use of RP models for wind tunnel applications,
medical purposes, tooling, etc. The technology will be driven
underground. We all know what happens thennnnnn.. SO SPEAK UP or pay some
joker for using your ideas.

The users asked for some limited training session to make the trip more
attractive for funding. It doesn't hurt to be able to build the ole resume
considering the announced cutbacks.

Oh well, I look forward to Huntsville next week and then Cincinatti.

Elaine

*******************************************************************
Opinions, suggestions, and other controversial matter VOID where prohibited.

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
  The important thing is to not stop questioning. " --Albert Einstein--
******************************************************************
Elaine T. Hunt, Director elaine.hunt@ces.clemson.edu
Laboratory to Advance Industrial Prototyping
Clemson University 206 Fluor Daniel Bldg.
Clemson, SC 29634-0925
864-656-0321 (voice) 864-656-4435 (fax)
http://www.vr.clemson.edu/credo/persall/persall.html
http://www.vr.clemson.edu/rp/
http://www.vr.clemson.edu/credo/rp.html

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



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