TCT 2017 Birmingham NEC 26-28 september

Going to sticky this till after the show.
Anyone going ?
Anyone having a stand ?

I'll be wandering around as usual - very hard to miss - big ginger beard and A Curious Aardvark, 3dprintboard.com T-shirt :-)
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Seems like every year, more people point at the t-shirt with dawning horror and turn and hurry away in the opposite direction ;-)

Not sure what day we're going yet. but probably 26th or 27th.

Anyone wants to meet up for a chat, let me know beforehand and we can arrange something.
Or just spot me on the day, point and shout: 'that's him - don't let him get away !'
Whatever works ;-)

Other than that, if you're in the uk and Not going - why the hell not ?
Tct is an awesome show - every single aspect of 3d printing is covered: from self build reprap, on up to machines worth millions of pounds.
More filament suppliers and types than you can shake a 3d printed stick at. A whole section for new technologies and startups - always a favourite of mine.

Entry is free - easy to just turn up on the day and get your badge printed. Or sign up beforehand and get a registration code.

One thing about most of the 3d printing world, is that the vast majority of companies are still fairly small. So generally when you chat to someone manning/womaning a stall - it's the company ceo/chief researcher/engineer etc.
Not just some rube hired to man a stall at a show with no knowlege of why they're there or what they are supposed to be selling.
Last year there weren't many booth bunnies (sexist term, I know - but these days they do come in both sexes) a few of the larger companies have them. But for the most part you're actually interacting with the company founders and actual staff.

One thing I will say - bring a backpack of some kind - you'll need serious luggage for all the filament samples :-)
Well you will if you're a scrounging git, like me :-)

Can 'ordinary people' go or do you have to be in the industry?

Open to anyone and everyone :-)

It's always good to see what new 3D printing toys people have been building. Larger, established manufacturer stands tend to be rather dull - move to the back of the hall for the interesting stuff.

quite a lot more stalls this year, so should be more of the smaller companies with innovative machines.

You also get a lot of europaen companies making the trip.

Also lots of talks and conference type events. Have to admit, we sat in on a talk the first year we went. But not done so since.
Far more interesting talking to the people on the stands. Don't seem to have time to sit down and listen to someone lecture :-)

As bad as it sounds, we have never made it to a talk. But you never know, there is always a first time. We won't be wearing a t-shirt with an aardvark on it, as tempting as that is (that is not sarcasm by the way).

I looked at the registration page but it appears only companies can register. Is that right?

Birmingham, Alabama is only a short drive from Atlanta!

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Originally Posted by endure

I looked at the registration page but it appears only companies can register. Is that right?

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I refer you to my previous answer.
Anyone can go. Which bit of that is unclear ?
OOps - you have to be over 16 - but apart from that ANYONE !
https://rapidnews.circdata-solutions...publish/TCT17/

If you don't have a company - leave it blank or make one up.
Or simply turn up on the day.

I used to go to a lot of the food industry trade show some years back. Just make a company up - foodl shows are really great for freebies !
Couple of years we had to leave early on account we literally couldn't carry any nore stuff !

I made the visitor comments list :-)

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Great show, only place in the UK to see every aspect of the additive manufacturing sector under one roof.
Alexander Johnson, Owner, Alexander Johnson Computer Services

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Who's this Alex Johnson bloke ? Great guy, know him well lol

Given that the city of Birmingham was a city before europaens landed in america - I don't feel the need to qualify where it is :-)

I was asking about registering rather than attending. Anyway I've now registered with my new company :D

that's the spirit :-)
Although you could simply put: Private citizen
In the business field.

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We won't be wearing a t-shirt with an aardvark on it,

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I should hope not - copyrighted is that :-)

Got any company t-shirts ? I'm always on the scrounge - xl or xxl if they're small xl's. Just saying ;-)

Yeah AM3D will be attending we will be in Hall 3 stand F40. we will be supporting VSHAPER and we should be bringing a few new machines like a 5 axis 3D printer and we will be launching some new slicing software. we will have some PC booths there so anyone who wants to have a go of the new software can and they will receive expert advice from the software techs who created it.

That sounds like fun. I'll definitely drop by :-)
So you sell pmma filament - acrylic - looks like one of the new filaments that'll be at this years show. Bring some samples :-)
I'd say bring some peek as well - but I've got nothing yet that I can print it with.

(looks it up) so Vshaper are a 3d printer manufacturer based in poland.

AM3D are based in sunderland in the uk.

So presumably it's the softshaper slicer software you'll be demoing ?
Definitely interested in seeing how that compares to simplify3d.

If you're going to be at TCT 2017 and you've got a trumpet - this is the thread in which to blow it :-)

Don't be shy - tell us who you are and what you do.

Yeah we are the VSHAPER UK re-sellers. Softshaper will be the new software that we will be demoing, we have been working hard to cater this software to the beginner and the expert. so the software can be split into expert mode and beginner mode. expert mode gives you a vast amount of settings that you can plays with and change. beginner mode will only let you change the resolution and all the different filaments will have profiles that you can select, these profiles will have the tested settings so you don't have to keep making adjustments and you can get more successful prints.

Got to say the softshaper software - even in it's current beta form - looks like a real challenger to simplify3d.

Very interesting show this year, some cool stuff, like the softshaper, that will help us home users and some really cool industrial style machines.
Pics and more info to follow.
Could have gone back tomorrow as well
But currently knackered. Spending 6 hours vertical on a leg that's recovering from a nasty quad tear is enough for one week.
Plus I'd have had to dribe any other day, and that's still painful.

But great day as always :-) Met some great people, had some good chats - throat a little raw from waffling :-)

More tomorrow.

If there's an overall theme this year, then it printed metal that's sintered in an oven rather than directly melted.
At least 5 companies doing this in varying ways.
Had my first go on a virtual reality headset at one. Wow, that was fun !

Right more tomorrow.

I was there. It was a great show. Got to meet lots of great people.
Eddie

So we had a quick look at TCT 2017 3d printing show, here were some of the gadgets we had a look at, mainly consumer rather than manufacturing printers and apparel.