Apr 11 2008 9:43AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |

To the growing list of low-cost desktop modeling systems that you might actually be able to buy, add the V-Flash from 3D Systems. The company early this month began shipping this $9,900 machine, bundling it with Alibre Design Software. The V-Flash marks the company’s first use of its new Film Transfer Imaging technology, which you can read about in this earlier post. One promising use for this new technology platform involves the direct digital manufacturing of custom hearing aid shells. Dreve Otoplastik, an earmold manufacturer, this m...Read More

Apr 4 2008 8:27AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |

The most important debate taking place in the additive fabrication circles today involves the role that direct digital manufacturing technologies will play in the everyday life of consumers. When, if ever, will significant amounts of our material goods be “3D printed” rather than molded, machined, cast or stamped? Will there be a desktop manufacturing system in every home, turning out on-demand goods?

No one understands the barriers and possibilities of a digitally manufactured future better than those engineers who control the practical aspects of design and manufacturing. Yet artists and industrial designers can provide some insight into additive fabrication too.

Paola Antonelli, the senior curator at the Museum of Modern Art’s department of architec...Read More

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Jan 29 2008 4:19PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |

With the ability to turn CAD models into real molded parts in as little as a day, Protomold's rapid injection molding service is undeniably fast. Still, the service has never been a cure-all for the long lead time blues because Protomold's automated tooling and molding systems impose size and geometry limitations that rule out some plastic part designs. Earlier today at the Pacific Design & Manufacturing Show in Anaheim, the company literally had some big news about those limitations. According to senior quality engineer Kevin Crystal, Protomold's rapid injection molding system now accommodates parts with projected areas up to 175 in², up from  75 in² in the past. Maximum x-y dimensions have increased to 13.5 x 30.5 inches, subject to that projected area limit. Ma...Read More

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Jan 15 2008 9:25AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

Though best known for its high-end prototyping machines, 3D Systems has now created a new low-cost desktop modeler aimed at design engineers who want to build their own prototypes. And thanks to the machine's compact size and low cost, those engineers may soon be able to build those models without even leaving their cubicles.

This new V-Flash modeler, which comes in versions for general purpose use and for hearing aid production, sells for just $9,900, a fraction of what the company's stereolithography (SLA) machines cost. As for its desktop status, the new modeler measures 26 x 27 x 31 inches and weighs about 145 pounds.

V-Flash makes use of an entirely new technology platform that 3D Systems calls...Read More

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Dec 6 2007 8:04AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

Suppliers of additive fabrication systems have been touting the potential for direct digital manufacturing for years. Now more of them are starting to walk that walk–by using their own additive machines to make parts for their new machines. The latest example comes from Stratasys, which this week revealed that 32 of the parts on its latest large-format fused deposition modeling (FDM) system were produced via FDM.  This machine, the FDM 900mc, features a big 3x2x3-ft build envelope and has been designed from the ground up to support direct digital manufacturing. Among the FDM parts on the new machine is a touch-screen bezel. With direct digital manufacturing, Stratasys can create this low-volume part on demand, saving an estimated $100,000 of tooling costs and at least six weeks of tooling lead time.  Stratasys isn’t alone in ...Read More

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Oct 11 2007 10:52AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

For an idea of just how far additive manufacturing technologies have come–and how far they have to go–consider the experience of Festo. This supplier of advanced pneumatic and electric automation systems, recently revealed some of its successes and struggles with additive fabrication during an International Media Day held Germany.

 

Festo’s in-house additive production capabilities center on Stratasys fused deposition modeling systems, which have produced more than 30,000 plastic prototypes of pneumatic components over the past 14 years, reports Klaus Müller-Lohmeier, a Festo technology mana...Read More

Jul 27 2007 6:23AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |

What do rapid prototyping machines have in common with private jets? Alex Linde sums ups the connection in two words--“fractional ownership.”

 

Linde is the president of Tangible Express, a new company that offers the first fractional ownership program for rapid prototyping machines. Tangible's facility in ...Read More

May 11 2007 8:20AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

If you've struggled in vain to get your manager to sign off on a 3D printer for your engineering team, don't give up just yet. Desktop Factory, an Idealab start-up company, has come up with a system that costs just under $5,000. And in time, the system may cost far less. "Our intention is to bring the price down to $995 by 2011," says Cathy Lewis, Desktop Factory's CEO.

With a housing that measures just 20 x 20 x 25 inches and a weight of 90 lb, the system lives up to its "desktop" moniker. "It's not much bigger than the early laser document printers," Lewis points out. "It really is a desktop machine sized for use in spaces as small as an office cubicle."  The s...Read More

May 2 2007 1:27PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

Just how popular will rapid manufacturing get? Stratasys CEO and founder Scott Crump believes that its impact will huge. “I expect it will be bigger than 3D printing and rapid prototyping,” he says. “We have some pretty high expectations.” And the company is backing up those expectations with new materials and machines designed for rapid manufacturing—or “direct digital manufacturing” to use Stratasys' preferred name.

At the Rapid 2007 show, Stratasys announced that it has “formally entered” the rapid manufacturing business with new materials and machines capable of turning out production parts. Crump says that the company will roll out new Fused Deposition Modeling systems for manufacturing l...Read More

May 1 2007 2:04PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

Rapid 2007, the annual conference and show for the rapid prototyping industry, began today in Detroit with an emphasis on two technology trends that will increasingly change how design engineers do their jobs. One is the huge growth of relatively low-cost 3D printers, which continues to make rapid prototyping accessible to a broader range of engineering organizations. The other has to do with rapid manufacturing technologies becoming ever more commercially viable.

3D printing now represents 49.8 percent of all additive rapid prototyping systems installed worldwide through the end of 2006, according to Terry Wohlers, a consultant who publishes a well-respected prototyping industry study called the Wohlers Report. He kicked off Rapid 2...Read More

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Apr 17 2007 8:13AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

A new rapid tooling system capable of producing stamping and die-casting tools turned up at this week's Hannover Fair. Tucked away in a booth dedicated to the winners of the 2007 Swiss Technology Awards, this new process from Tschopp Technical Engineering GmbH creates the tools from stacked layers of steel sheet. Like most rapid tooling systems, Tschopp's Metal Laminated Object Manufacturing process (LOM) starts out by dividing a 3D CAD model of the tooling component that will be manufactured into a set of slices. The process then uses the sliced CAD data to drive a CO₂ laser that cuts out the individual slices from thin sheets of steel. Next, these layers are hand stacked before undergoing ...Read More

Mar 30 2007 11:38AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

The latest EOS laser sintering system, the FORMIGA P 100, will make its North American debut on May 1st at the RAPID 2007 event in Detroit. The system produces plastic parts in polystyrene or polyamide and has a smaller format than the EOS' previous machines. According to Jim Fendrick, EOS' vice president for North America, the system represents a ground-up redesign. “It's not just a scaled down version of our previous machines,” he says, noting the the new machine features advances in its optics and scanning system that allow it to build walls as thin as 0.016 inches. The FOR...Read More

Mar 30 2007 8:16AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

Did you know that your Dimension 3D printer could produce a 32-inch flat screen TV set? Well, it can if you win the contest that's part of the company's new "Most Valuable 3D Printer" awards program--or "MV3dP" for short. "The MV3dP Customer Awards program is an opportunity for Dimension users to tell their unique story about how their Dimension 3D Printer has saved the day or made their design team look good," says Jon Cobb, vice president of 3D printing for the Dimension Printing Group's parent company,  Stratasys Inc. Winning customers will receive 20 cassettes of ABS material, which comes out roughly to a one-year supply. The engineer or design team that sub...Read More

Mar 2 2007 8:00AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

What's a reasonable amount of time to wait for machined plastic prototypes? How does one business day sound. That's how long it takes for The Protomold Co.'s new First Cut Prototype division to turn around most parts once you've uploaded your CAD file and placed an order on the First Cut website. Some larger orders may take up to three days. But that's still pretty darn fast. "For the kind of parts we make, no one is faster," says Brad Cleveland, president and CEO of Protomold Inc.  For the time being, First Cut's "kind of parts" are plastic, smaller than 10 x 7 x 3 inches, and with geometries capable of being produced on three-axis milling machines. The company can supply parts in a range...Read More

Feb 28 2007 9:52AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |

With the unrelenting time-to-market pressures facing design engineers nowadays, you don't want to spend much of your product development cycle waiting around for physical prototypes and initial production parts. Rather than weeks or months, you're thinking in terms of hours or days. That's why rapid prototyping and manufacturing comes up again and again when we ask Design News readers about the technologies they care about the most. In this new blog, we'll cover a range of prototyping hardware and strategies you can use to get parts in a hurry. Check back regularly for posts on rapid prototyping machines, high-speed machining, rapid tooling and the emerging field of rapid manufacturing. And if there's something you would like to see covered, drop me an email at jogando@reedbusiness.com.

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