Custom 3D printed Eyewear with HP
An exclusive interview with Emilio Juarez, HP's EMEA Head of 3D Printing Sales reprinted from 3D Printing Media Network Horizons Optical is not your typical eyewear company. The company doesn’t simply produce glasses, rather, it develops innovative technologies and services for ophthalmic laboratories, optical chains and the optical sector on the whole. One of its most cutting edge projects is the Made4U concept, which utilizes imaging and 3D printing technologies to create fully customized frames. On the manufacturing end of the Made4U project, Horizons Optical has turned to emerging 3D printing leader HP to leverage its Multi Jet Fusion technology. We recently caught up with HP’s EMEA Head of 3D Printing Sales, Emilio Juarez, who not only provided some insight into the Horizons Optical partnership but also testified to the quality of the 3D printed frames—which he wears every day. 3dpbm: Could you give some background on how Horizons Optical and HP started to work together? Emilio Juarez: Horizons Optical is working with one of HP’s Service Bureau partners, World Tooling, which uses HP Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing technology. From there we connected to learn more about their interesting project. What was the process to obtain the custom 3D printed glasses? How [...]
New Mastercam Model Chamfer Toolpath
A new Mastercam toolpath is now available for 2D machining. The Model Chamfer toolpath allows you to machine safe horizontal chamfers on solid models. Model Chamfer only supports the following: Chamfer mill tool type Solid edges and faces for Chain geometry Surfaces, solids, and meshes for Avoidance model After selecting your Chain geometry, Model Chamfer has several unique parameters to further control the toolpath. You can enter a Side clearance for the Solid model, which is the distance away from the solid model you want the vertical part of your flute to clear. This option is set on the Toolpath Type page. On the Cut Parameters page, you can set a Chamfer width value to set the width from the chain geometry. Use Top offset to define how far the full diameter of the tool is above the top rail of the chamfer and use Bottom offset to define how far the tip of the tool is from the bottom of the chamfer. Select Model Chamfer from the 2D gallery in the Mill Toolpaths contextual tab. Please be sure to sign up for our 2 Minute Tuesday video series to receive tips and tricks like this one in video form every week. More [...]
Announcing Variscan
Working with a U.S. based scanner and software development company, Cimquest is proud to introduce the Variscan line of light-based, metrology grade, stationary scanners. There are several models of the Variscan scanner, each powered by the powerful AEOS software. They all possess unique capabilities in the scanning world. For example, each scanner can use structured white light and can switch light source to red, green or blue, depending on the surface to be scanned as different light sources work better at acquiring different surface textures. Additionally, each scanner can use monochrome metrology camera lenses yet through software, can capture color texture, making use of the RGB light sources provided. These scanners can set multiple exposures for a single scan. This means that when scanning an object containing several colors and textures, each Variscan scanner can set up to three resolutions to capture each of the different surfaces without the need to spray. By simply switching out the lens, or in the case of the Variscan Flex, by sliding the metrology-grade camera along the mounting bar, a user can change the field-of-view, on-the-fly. This enables the scanner to function much more like a standard camera. The 'heavy lifting' of the Variscan scanning solutions and [...]
HP Launches HP 5200 Series 3D Printers
HP just launched a new line of Jet Fusion 3D printers, the HP 5200 series. HP’s latest machines target volume production, with accuracy and repeatability likened to injection molding. The company also released a new flexible TPU for Jet Fusion, confirmed new industrial alliances, and introduced its Digital Manufacturing Network. This new 5200 series is part of a natural progression at the company. The 500/300 series targeted functional prototyping and the 4200 is aimed at short runs and production. The new 5200 series is HP’s 3D printer for volume production. Volume production, as defined by HP, is production runs in the thousands of parts. Depending on size and complexity, this number can reach tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of parts. The main driver of this productivity is the upgraded power of lamps inside 5200 3D printers. More power means the printhead can do more with one single pass and fuse materials with much higher temperature. The series has also been released alongside a cooling unit, which automatically removes a finished print bed and replaces it with a fresh one to minimize downtime. This is such late-breaking news that we don't have these products listed on our website yet. Please stay [...]
Trend Analysis in Geomagic Control X
Today we will discuss how to analyze various trends of inspection results. The non-contact inspection world is ever growing. More and more companies are using metrology grade scanners to inspect their product. This allows them to utilize the scans and check geometric dimensions and tolerances, extract 3D deviation color maps, and quickly generate full-color 2D and 3D PDFs. But what if you wanted to take this even further and analyze trends based on your inspection results? This is exactly what Geomagic Control X software is able to do. Shown above is a GoPro mount that we designed in-house, and the goal is to track the length, width, and a few other critical dimensions of the manufactured part. At this point in time, we have already scanned and processed them in Control X and produced an XML file for each. From here, we are ready to open the Trend Report application. After selecting the source reports, choose the entities that you want track or report, whether it’s a linear dimension, geometric tolerance, and so forth. Statistical data is then generated for each entity. For example, if you analyze the trend for a linear dimension, the first chart will show the upper and lower control [...]
Desktop Metal Studio+ Current Materials
Desktop Metal's Bound Metal Deposition technology brings metal 3D printing into the office environment, making low-cost prototyping of metal parts achievable as well as user-friendly and cost-effective. The Studio printer extrudes rods that have metal powder bound within wax and plastic to form the parts. The binders in these parts are then removed through a two-step process of debinding and sintering similar to metal injection molding; also known as MIM. Desktop Metal's Bound Metal Deposition platform will ultimately have access to a wide range of metals from the MIM industry and there are currently 30 materials in development. The materials currently available are 17-4 & 316 stainless steels: 17-4 stainless is characterized by its combination of strength, hardness, and corrosion resistance. It is ideal for a variety of applications including tooling, molds, and production parts. In its as-sintered state, 17-4's material properties consistently meet industry standards. 316 stainless was just released and is a fully austenitic steel known for its corrosion resistance and performance at both high and low temperatures. It is well-suited for applications involving chemical processing, saltwater environments, and household or industrial fixtures. One great example is a Fuel nozzle by John Zink Hamworthy Combustion, used on steam propulsion boilers on [...]