Take Advantage of Spindle Probes
Take Advantage of Spindle Probes Reposted from Mastercam Blog, December 5, 2014 by rah Most new CNC machines purchased today are equipped with spindle probes but few of these are being used effectively, if at all. Some manufacturers are reluctant to use spindle probes because they believe that expensive CNC equipment should not be used for measuring parts. The reality is that when parts have to be brought to a CMM for in-process inspection, far more valuable time is expended transporting the part, waiting for the inspection, transporting the part back to the machine and setting it up again. Probing during setup allows for a faster and more accurate orientation of the part with more precise tool offsets. During manufacturing, spindle probe data delivered directly to the inspection software may be used to generate reports just as if the part had been measured on a CMM. Until recently, programmers had to insert manually generated macros at appropriate intervals to incorporate probing into CNC programs. Now the Productivity Plus probing module in the latest version of Mastercam allow the programmers to create these probing functions from within Mastercam. Learning how to use this capability can improve quality with more immediate in-process gaging feedback, reduce [...]
Stratasys Scores with 3D Printed Football!
Re-posted from Stratasys Blog 27 Jan. 2015 by Stephen Burg Stratasys 3D printing and sports have often teamed up with winning results. Kite surfing, snowboarding, skiing, motors sports, fencing - all had their competitive edge sharpened with 3D printing. We even worked with the University of Texas at Dallas to help them improve their sports concussion testing protocol. But this is the first time that we at Stratasys have 3D printed an actual football. It might even be a world first! Produced on the Objet500 Connex3 Color Multi-Material 3D Production System, the Stratasys ball is 3D printed in three materials: Rubber-like (TangoPlus), Rigid Magenta (VeroMagenta), and Rigid Yellow (VeroYellow) in one 3D print job. In order to give the football that authentic feel, we incorporated the texture of a composite football into the design with raised material. It weighs about the same as the weighted warmup balls favored by quarterbacks. Of course, when you 3D print a football you have to go out and test it. Check out the video to see the final score.
Customer Applications: Jigs & Fixtures…3D Print them!
This first 2015 edition of 2 Minute Tuesday's for Stratasys is all about using 3D Printing to create Jigs& Fixtures. http://youtu.be/Yx1jeuMbzeM
3D Printed Surgical Models Improving Implant Surgery While Saving Time and Money in Twelve UK Hospitals
To understand why 3D printed surgical guides are making such an impact on medical procedures, you need look no further than Replica 3DM. This innovative supplier of medical and commercial 3D printed models is using its Stratasys 3D Printers to support 12 UK National Health Service (NHS) hospitals. The surgical models produced on the company’s Objet24 and Objet30 Pro 3D Printers allow surgeons to accurately test intended implants prior to surgery. As a result, the hospitals have seen a decrease in the length of surgical procedures leading to substantial reductions in operating room costs. It’s What You Don’t See Replica 3DM’s Stratasys 3D Printers convert patient CT scans into physical 3D printed models. The materials used and special finishing processes enable surgeons to carry out precise pre-operative planning. By providing accurate visualization of anatomy including fragment position, the 3D printed models display important features that cannot always be seen in two dimensional images. “Sometimes conceptually and spatially, it’s difficult looking on a computer screen to establish the exact dimensions of the bone that is available to you for surgery,” said Alistair Morton, a surgeon in the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department at the hospital. “So this is one of the areas where having a 3D [...]
Capturing imaginations through 3-D printing
Reprinted from Business Weekly. By Erin Negley Reading Eagle Watch a video of the 3-D printing process The unusual pieces might look like artful jewelry, but Joceyln Kolb likes to call what she does body adornment, more Princess Leia than Elizabeth Taylor. The forms she creates have a backstory and are inspired by things such as the glow of deep-sea coral. To make these intricate pieces, Kolb traded her metalsmithing tools for a $30,000 3-D printer. This Albright College professor now works on a computer-aided design program to create art that would be nearly impossible to make by hand. Tucked away in a former closet, the printer sprays 32-micron layers of plastic resin, about half the thickness of a human hair. “Builds” take hours and sometimes days, but the finished products are complex pieces with moveable parts. The machine’s expensive and not perfect, but 3-D printing carries huge potential for art and design and business applications. Additive manufacturing technology has taken hold in industries including defense, automotive and manufacturing over the past decade. Similar to a printer that prints two-dimensional files onto paper, a 3-D printer layers material (usually plastic) to create a three-dimensional product. Jay Leno has his own 3-D printer to [...]
Stratasys Presents a 3D Printed Aircraft Interior at EuroMold 2014
Join Fred Fisher, Director of PolyJet and FDM Applications at Stratasys, as he presents a real aircraft interior 3D printed using a unique combination additive manufacturing technologies. The presentation was filmed at Stratasys' aerospace-themed booth at EuroMold 2014 in Frankfurt. [pardot-form id="6642" title="Stratasys info new products"]