Stratasys Goes All Out, Announces 12 New High-performance 3D Printers and Materials
Reprinted from 3DPrint.com Stratasys, with dual headquarters in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and Rehovot, Israel, has announced 12 new high-performance 3D printers and materials, in a move which should provide investors with renewed confidence in their rapidly growing business. The new products, which will be unveiled at EuroMold 2014, at the end of this month, include upgrades and an expansion in the company’s scope to new areas of the market. “The global design and manufacturing market continues to push toward creating smarter products with greater efficiency. Because we believe in, and support this trend, we have announced today a range of solutions that focus on ‘democratizing design.’ Our customers, whatever their size or industry, can now access a wide spectrum of cutting-edge 3D printing capabilities and deliver competitive advantage,” said Gilad Yron, sr. vice president, Product Management, Stratasys. “We invite every designer and manufacturer at this year’s EuroMold to visit one of our three booths to see how 3D printing is shaping the way we manufacture.” 6 New Industrial PolyJet 3D Printers Included in this expansion are six new PolyJet 3D printers targeting customers who are looking for more affordable, but smaller machines. The new printers include the compact Objet260 Connex1, Objet260 Connex2 and [...]
3D Printing Central to Nike’s Continued Growth According to CEO Parker
Reprinted from 3dprint.com Innovation, innovation, innovation is the manufacturer’s equivalent to the well-known real estate mantra. Top performers like Nike don’t get the luxury of duplicating cookie cutter condos year after year. From moment to moment, the company has to deliver the new with a breakthrough nexus. At a company known for innovation and acute attention to feedback from its customers, Nike president Mike Parker sees innovation in manufacturing as a key component for the continued success of the company. Manufacturing is brand and innovation intensive, and with one of the world’s best known brands, Nike is always on the prowl for the next inventive product. Constantly pushing the envelope of new materials, textures, concepts and design testing keeps the company riding the cutting edge of sportswear development. There is a never-ending winnowing process to get the best ideas and processes for maintaining company growth year after year. Sports equipment and apparel is among the most competitive business sectors, so change is constant. Redirecting its manufacturing processes with innovative initiatives keeps the sports juggernaut focused on new products, how the products are made and what they are made from. “It’s not only a place where we can see some margin opportunity by scaling [...]
FDM and PolyJet 3D Printing: Determining Which Technology is Right for Your Application
There’s recently been a lot of news about FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) and PolyJet 3D printing technologies. So, when entering the market for an additive manufacturing system, it’s beneficial to have a deeper understanding of the differences between the two technologies to select the 3D printer with the right set of capabilities for your business. After all, each technology builds parts its own way and each provides a variety of attractive benefits and capabilities. Say that you can only choose one technology or that you need another 3D printer but are not sure if you need the same technology or an alternative. How do you sort it out? Today’s Check it Out takes you to a complimentary white paper that’s intended to help you research wisely. The elevator speech on “FDM and PolyJet 3D Printing: Determining Which Technology is Right for Your Application” is that it compares FDM and PolyJet technologies using three criteria: operations, part characteristics and materials. It’s richly illustrated with figures, charts, graphs, screenshots and photos. It’s written for anyone with a basic understanding of 3D printing. It’s not an in-depth theoretical presentation. Every bit of it is a hands-on “what’s in it for you” document. This seven-page white paper, [...]
Using the Stratasys uPrint / Dimension vs Fortus
Working at Cimquest you have a few advantages. A distinct one is having over a dozen top of the line 3D Printers at your disposal. Occasionally that means you get a few slightly unnecessary toys sitting around the office… However, our primary goal is in using the printers to educate. And that leads me to my topic today… uPrint / Dimension vs Fortus This entry concerns the FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) line of printers by Stratasys. Digging a little deeper I will be comparing some, but by no means all, aspects between the Dimension / uPrint printers… And the Fortus printers… The uPrint and Dimension lines are, mechanically, almost identical. The major differences within the uPrint and Dimension lines are support material, layer resolution, build envelope and ability to print in color. But as far as the hardware and ability to create models, they all have roughly the same performance. The Fortus line, however, is in a league of its own. For many reasons (hardware accuracy, stability, material choices, layer resolution, reliability, repeatability) it is a much higher performance machine. As such it makes sense you would want a way to take advantage of that [...]
Stratasys Case Study – Instrumentation Laboratory
“FDM helped us achieve a manufacturing cost reduction of 40%. That’s 10% more than the traditional approach would have offered.” — Scott Notaro, Medical Engineering Manager, Instrumentation Laboratory Instrumentation Laboratory is a worldwide manufacturer of in vitro diagnostic instruments, related reagents and controls for use primarily in hospitals and independent clinical laboratories. The company's product lines include critical care systems, hemostasis systems and information management systems. The company developed its Hemostasis testing system, the ACL TOP 500 to offer a lower price point than previous models. In the development process, the company reengineered many components to make them less expensive to manufacture. Like many other companies, Instrumentation Laboratory used a virtual prototyping process before production. "Typically, we develop design concepts in CAD software and discuss them with our manufacturing engineering team and molding suppliers to determine the most cost-efficient manufacturing option," says Scott Notaro, manager of mechanical engineering at Instrumentation Laboratory. "But difficulties in conceptualizing a CAD model can lead to time-consuming revisions. This reduces time in the development schedule and allows for only the most expensive parts to be addressed. This may result in a cost reduction of approximately 30%, but we wanted to achieve a greater reduction on this project." [...]
Tools Without Tooling: How Additive Manufacturing is Changing the Way We Make…Everything
Reprinted from the Stratays Blog. Additive Manufacturing (AM) has been called the Next Industrial Revolution, improving virtually every aspect of the way products are made. Direct Digital Manufacturing (DDM) is a key component of additive manufacturing, which generally describes the process of producing parts directly from digital CAD data. Normally DDM stories tend to focus on end use parts, where additive manufacturing is used to cost-effectively produce the final parts that go into your car, jetliner or coffee maker. Describing its potential impact, the Wohlers Report 2014 states, ”Most indications suggest that we are heading toward a relatively new method of manufacturing and an industry worth tens of billions of dollars.” One area of additive manufacturing that can have an equally significant impact is tools – the molds, patterns, jigs and fixtures that are used throughout the manufacturing and assembly processes. Just think how many products you come in contact with every day that have been produced with injection molding, blow molding, silicone-molding and sand-casting…or assembled using jigs and fixtures. A long-standing method of creating these tools and patterns relies on time-consuming subtractive processes such as CNC tooling using steel or aluminum. But the advent of additive manufacturing and 3D printing means that tools can be [...]