3D Printed Aircraft Interior Innovations
Think about the last time you took a commercial flight. What are some of the distinct things you remember about the aircraft cabin? If you could, how would you change some of the design elements using 3D printing technologies? The Paris Airshow recently took place and Stratasys was there to exhibit some of the new and innovative ways they think about aircraft interiors. From individual part weight reduction to a more comfortable layout and design, the future of aircraft interiors is set to take off in innovative ways. To celebrate the huge aviation industry event they have created an augmented reality experience that takes you inside of an airline cabin to ponder all of the ways that 3D printing can impact passenger aircraft interior design and creation. Just click on the video below to experience it. For more information on our complete line of Stratasys 3D printers, please click the button below.
Simultaneous Synchronized Scanning
This blog post is going to show you how to scan a mid-size part with tiny features. When scanning a model, you're usually faced with the decision of using a scanner that either has a large scan envelope and good resolution, or a scanner that has a small scan envelope with high resolution. But what if you needed the best of both worlds, that is, to capture both a larger part with small fine details? One way to achieve this is to run two scanners simultaneously, and synchronize them to the same turntable. The Geomagic's Capture scanner has an accuracy of about .0035" and is good for scanning mid-size objects. When scanning a model, it's able to pick up the majority of the geometry, but the small fine features get washed out. This is where simultaneous synchronized scanning comes in. You can synchronize Geomagic's Mini-Capture scanner to the same turntable that is aligned to the Capture scanner. The Mini-Capture has a smaller scan envelope, but an impressive accuracy of about .0015." This is what is needed for capturing the fine details on a small part. To run the scans simultaneously, press the Scan button and the turntable moves. Each scanner takes turns scanning [...]
Infinite Build 3D Printer
There’s a revolutionary new technology in 3D printing called the Stratasys Infinite Build. 3D printing has provided a means to produce highly accurate parts in a variety of build sizes. With production machines like the Fortus 900 and Objet 1000, industry leaders in both aerospace and automotive have been able to experiment with increasingly larger prototypes and production parts. Nonetheless, there has always been a ceiling (or cap) on the size of a part making 3D printing infeasible for certain processes. With the new Infinite-Build 3D Demonstrator, we're provided a glimpse of what the future could hold for 3D printing in manufacturing. Developed for large part production, the Infinite-Build is designed to address the uncompromising requirements of aerospace, automotive and other industries. Based on proven FDM technology, the demonstrator can generate large, lightweight, thermoplastic parts with repeatable mechanical properties. Rather than printing layer by layer in an enclosed build chamber, the solution uses an infinite-build approach by literally turning the 3D printer on its side with an open chamber. Parts are printed on a vertical plane, resulting in practically unlimited part size in the build direction. The Inifinite build uses micro pellets the size of a grain of sand rather than traditional filament. [...]
Geomagic Design X
With Geomagic Design X software you can easily produce a fully featured, editable, native CAD model, directly from a scan. What is Design X? Design X software is a tool that enables you to recognize geometrical features on a scan, utilize them to create CAD features, then transfer that tree of features directly out to the feature tree of your CAD system. Let’s break this process up into three stages: Auto Segment, Feature Extraction, & LiveTransfer to CAD. Auto Segment Auto Segment in Design X allows you to split the polygonal mesh into regions, created by grouping adjacent polygons with similar curvature. As you hover your mouse over each region, Design X displays the geometric shapes that have been identified, like a plane, cylinder, cone, etc. Feature Extraction Once you have all your geometrical regions mapped out, your next step is to extract and create the CAD sketches and features. To do this, start a mesh sketch either directly on a planar region, or a CAD plane, then offset the plane to the location where you want to extract a slice of the polygonal mesh. At this point you will be creating your 2D Sketch entities. You can use that polygonal mesh profile [...]
CPI Aerostructures Uses FDM 3D Printing for Custom Tooling
Reprint from www.additivemanufacturing Adding an FDM 3D printer enabled a producer of subassemblies for aircraft to bypass traditional tooling solutions on many custom tools and bring much of this work in-house. Cimquest customer, CPI Aerostructures was in a good position in 2013. After years as a small business providing subassemblies almost exclusively for military aircraft, the company was experiencing a massive growth spurt. Sparked by an influx of both commercial and military work, the company had grown from about 20 employees to nearly 300 in just a few years, and recently moved across the street from its original facility to a larger 171,000-square-foot space on New York’s Long Island. But CPI’s ability to meet its custom tooling needs hadn’t kept pace with this growth. The company’s niche is assembly, work that requires jigs, fixtures, check gages and other custom items. Because CPI does not produce discrete parts, its in-house machining capacity is limited to a small tooling department operating manual equipment. Historically, all custom tooling was made by this department or farmed out to local machine shops. Faced with ever-increasing demand for custom tooling on the assembly floor, the company had to make a choice: A) Continue to outsource this machining work, adding [...]
Cimquest Now Selling Desktop Metal 3D Printing Systems
Cimquest is excited to announce that we are now contracted to sell Desktop Metal. This means that in addition to offering, Mastercam, 3D scanning and inspection, as well as traditional 3D printers, we can now offer the New England and Mid-Atlantic territories a Metal 3D Printer at a price point that will allow the manufacturing community to venture into the exciting field of 3D Metal Printing. This will open up new opportunities for current Cimquest customers, from Maine to Maryland, and allow them to get into the metal 3D printing arena. Rob Hassold, CEO of Cimquest says, “I am excited that with Desktop Metal prototyping and production system technology we are the first reseller in the world to be able to leverage 19 years of additive manufacturing experience as well as over 27 years of subtractive (Mastercam) CNC programming technology to provide state-of-art manufacturing solutions for today’s industry leaders. With over 25 technical experts serving the additive and subtractive space, we are well positioned to handle almost any challenge served by those technologies.” Some of the benefits of this new Desktop Metal 3D printing system include: The Desktop Metal Studio System is 10 times less expensive than existing technology today. It eliminates the [...]