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 [...]
Exploring a New World of 3D Printed Product Realism with Flexible Color Digital Materials
Reprinted from the Stratasys Blog: 9 Jun. 2014 by Galit Beck Today we’re excited to unveil Stratasys’ extended range of flexible and rigid material options for theObjet500 Connex3 Color Multi-material 3D Printer. With these new color palettes, Stratasys is continuing to expand your ability to improve the look, feel and functionality of your 3D printed parts. The new offerings comprise six flexible material palettes, featuring more than 200 vibrant color shades in a wide range of Shore A values and opacities. There are also four new rigid gray and color palettes – three 45-color rigid gray palettes, each combining rigid white (VeroWhite) and black (VeroBlack) with colors, and one 45-hue gray palette with varying levels of translucency. We caught up with Boaz Jacobi, Stratasys Product Marketing Manager, to help illuminate Stratasys’ wonderful world of color and multi-material opportunities. Stratasys Blog: What new possibilities does this extended range of material options bring to additive manufacturing? Jacobi: The Objet500 Connex3, already the most versatile 3D printer on the market, can now leverage over 1,000 color options and virtually unlimited combinations of flexible, rigid and translucent-to-opaque colors in a single print run. This provides true final product realism and versatility in end-to-end applications. Stratasys Blog: What are the [...]
How Stratasys Is Leading The Next Industrial Revolution
Reprinted from http://tcbmag.com/ Ask around about what’s happening with the increasingly talked-about technology called 3-D printing and you’ll hear a barrage of comments that sound like something Isaac Asimov would say: “Did you know you can print canoes?” “They’re printing cars!” “Did you hear about the human heart they made?” “There’s a printer making edible food.” They can sound straight out of sci-fi, but they’re often true. Three-dimensional printing has been around for more than 20 years, but recent advancements have made it easier than ever to use, as inventors look for ways to print more than just the highly durable plastic parts and trinkets in use today. In the near future, food, electrically conductive materials and composites stronger than steel will be able to be printed out in layers, allowing just about anyone anywhere to make a variety of products, ranging from hearing aids and electronic components to a beef tenderloin, medium-rare. A lot of this will be possible thanks to Stratasys, an Eden Prairie company with more than 1,800 employees, considered to be the market leader in 3-D printing. It was one of the first to develop the capacity to print objects back in 1992, to serve primarily industrial clients who required [...]
Additive manufacturing drives production of race-ready parts.
Reprinted from the Stratasys Blog: By Allen Kreemer, Stratasys, Inc. Additive manufacturing (AM) has been crucial in the motor sports world for years. In the race for speed and performance, it has been a lynchpin for design and testing. Now, race teams are revealing that AM parts will go far beyond review and evaluation. They have found that AM is ready to hit the track and endure the rigors of high-speed racing. Motor sports are using AM for direct digital manufacturing (DDM) of production parts. In doing so, teams have demonstrated that additively manufactured parts have the quality and durability to meet the demands of racecars of all types. This trend has been developing for years, but until recently, teams have held DDM as a closely guarded secret that gives them a competitive edge.