Ultimaker 3D Printing Materials Promotion
From now until the end of October 2022 Ultimaker is running special promotions on their spools of filament. The more you spend, the more you save . . . Spend: Receive: $2,500 Purchase HW + 6 spools of filament and get 50% off the filament. $5,000 Purchase HW + 12 spools of filament and get 50% off the filament $10,000 Purchase HW + 30 spools of filament and get 50% off the filament. $20,000 Purchase HW + 66 spools of filament and get 50% off the filament. You can pick your own filament, or you can choose from the Pre-built filament packs below. Please contact us for more information. Contact Us Today
JawsTec Purchases XYZ Printing SLS Machines for High-Speed Sustainable Part Production
JawsTec, a premier US-based printing service that offers custom rapid manufacturing for every industry, adds four XYZ MfgPro230xS SLS machines to its fleet of MJF, EOS, AMT, Dyemansion, and CNC machines. JawsTec CEO, Oscar Klassen, pointed out that the open platform XYZ SLS machines offer something other SLS manufacturers do not, the ability to use end-of-life powder from EOS and HP MJF, for high-quality printed SLS parts. On top of this, the functional sustainability of the powder, and the smaller build of the 230 allows for JawsTec to run 22-hour full build cycles followed by a 2-hour cooling cycle with zero negative effect on part accuracy, surface quality or the powder. "The adoption of the smaller platform for high daily throughput is a game-changer. We have a 4–5-day turn-around on most printing with options for an expedited 2 business day turn-around on 3D Printing Service, these machines allow us to print more of the expedited jobs for our customers." XYZ Printing Director for the America’s Industrial Printers, John Calhoun makes the point that JawsTec spent 2 months testing the reliability, accuracy, quality of parts, software, and workflow integration. The result of this test made the expansion to 4 units an easy choice. "XYZ [...]
Design X Essentials – New Light Version of Design X
Design X is a remarkable product that enables the creation of a fully-featured CAD model from a scan or point cloud from any device that can produce one of these files. It can return planes, sketches with constraints, dimensions, features, and can generally build completely native, history-based CAD models for a variety of the most common CAD systems including Solidworks, Solid Edge, Inventor, Pro-e, Creo, and NX. Today, the requirements for a fully native CAD model with history are somewhat less important than they were many years ago when most CAD systems were only history-based. CAD systems that were formally history-based now offer “Direct Modeling” tools or have released new versions of the product that support both Direct as well as history-based Modeling. This makes neutral and Kernel file formats such as Step, VDA, Parasolid, and ACIS just as productive for these modelers as history-based models. Introducing Design X Essentials Design X Essentials is half the price of Design X but still includes the vast majority of modeling tools that make Design X such an incredible system. While the transfer of a fully native, history-based model into a product like Solidworks isn’t part of Design X Essentials, it could still create Step or [...]
Metrology Minute – Fitting Deviation
Fitting Deviation is a settable option in the GD&T family of tools available with Control X. When checking for a GD&T value, such as Flatness, this option enables you to not only see what the fit deviation is but also shows you the results in a clear unambiguous color map display. This lets you see the exact conditions of the surface and not just whether it is in or out of tolerance. For example, the Flatness GD&T callout shown below on the model lets you know that the entire flat surface is within the general model nominal tolerance allowed. If you turn on the Fitting Deviation tool, a localized color map, you will see precisely what the machined surface really is with regards to Flatness. From the image above, you can see that the center portions of the flat surface are somewhat ‘concave’ (light blue) or slightly undersized as the edges are slightly full (yellow) from the nominal CAD model, providing a slightly ‘dished’ result after machining. This could be an indication that the toolpath chosen to mill the face might need to change or perhaps the fixturing didn’t hold the part securely. This next example really shows off the power of Deviation [...]
Desktop Metal Shop System Reduces Costs and Increases Revenue
The world’s first metal binder jetting system designed for machine shops, the Shop System is capable of printing complex metal parts with the benefits that standards machine shops expect: unparalleled productivity with superior print quality while maintaining high levels of accessibility throughout the entire process. In addition to process and product innovations, exceptional productivity, print quality, and reliability, the Shop System delivers another key benefit - the ability to both reduce costs and increase revenue. The Shop System’s unparalleled productivity - as much 70 kg of metal parts can be printed in a single day - allows it to deliver per-part costs that are competitive with traditional manufacturing methods like casting and forging, making the system a viable option to produce end-use metal parts across a wide range of industries and applications. Reduced Cost The tooling-free nature of metal 3D printing means manufacturers do not need to factor tool amortization into part costs. For many quantities of parts, this leads to significant per-part savings, since tooling costs often add up to tens of thousands of dollars. While machining can sometimes be done with a significantly smaller investment in tooling, 3D printing still produces cost saving by reducing wear on cutting tools, and the [...]
Ultimaker Announces Metal 3D Printing Capability
Reprinted from Fabbaloo Metal parts made on an Ultimaker S5 3D printer [Source: Ultimaker] Ultimaker announced the “Ultimaker Metal Expansion Kit”, which enables metal 3D printing on their S5 model. Metal 3D printing is usually a rather costly affair, involving specialized equipment, metal powder, complex HVAC environments, expensive post-processing equipment, sophisticated thermal simulation software, and a squad of engineers. As a result, it can be extraordinarily expensive to undertake and is applicable to only industries where parts are traditionally expensive, like aerospace and certain healthcare applications. But there are other approaches for 3D printing metal objects. Alternative processes can be less expensive and arduous by using “cold” metal 3D printing processes or unusual FFF methods. The latter is now being officially implemented by Ultimaker. The new Ultimaker Metal Expansion Kit can transform an Ultimaker S5 3D printer into a metal printer, and it’s actually quite straightforward. The new Ultimaker Metal Expansion Kit [Source: Ultimaker] Ultimaker has partnered with BASF Forward AM to use their Ultrafuse 17-4 Stainless Steel filament. This is a specialized filament that is a mix of a binding polymer and stainless steel powder. The process used to produce metal objects is very similar to 3D printing polymer [...]