Desktop Metal Launches 316L Stainless Steel
Shop System Binder Jetting Enables Cost-Effective Batch Production of High-Quality 316L Stainless Steel Parts Via Additive Manufacturing Desktop Metal recently announced it has qualified the use of 316L stainless steel for the Shop System™, the world’s first metal binder jetting system designed for machine shops. With an expanded materials portfolio, users can now leverage affordable, high-quality binder jetting technology to print end-use parts in 316L stainless steel with throughput, print quality, and productivity unattainable via legacy additive manufacturing processes. Known for its corrosion resistance, high ductility, and excellent mechanical properties at extreme temperatures, 316L is an austenitic stainless steel well-suited for demanding environments and applications, such as parts exposed to marine, pharmaceutical, or petrochemical processing, food preparation equipment, medical devices, surgical tooling, and consumer products such as jewelry. “The launch of 316L for the Shop System is a part of an aggressive and extensive materials roadmap to broaden our AM 2.0 portfolio and address a rapidly expanding set of use cases for our print platforms,” said Jonah Myerberg, co-founder and CTO of Desktop Metal. “We are fully focused on developing opportunities for our customers to produce parts competitively with conventional manufacturing, and we are excited to be able to extend our binder jetting [...]
Metrology Minute – Choosing a Scanner for Metrology
Choosing a scanner for metrology is a topic that comes up often when companies look to deploy non-contact inspection and question what criteria they should use when choosing a scanner for their company. We have covered this topic in detail at some recent Cimquest events but have had several customers ask more questions. Here are some of the highlights of these presentations. Accuracy vs Resolution Accuracy is the accuracy of the points acquired on the surface being scanned for inspection. An accuracy of +/-.001” would indicate that the maximum distance of the acquired (scanned) points is less than or equal to +/-.001”. Resolution is the scanner’s ability to capture fine detail. Please note that resolution is often referred to as ‘Point Spacing’ or Point cloud density. By definition, resolution is the shortest distance between any two points in the scan file. So if the very best resolution of a scanner is .010” that means the shortest distance between any two points in a scan can not be less than .010”. Keep in mind that ultimately small triangles are formed by connecting up three of these points to create a mesh. So another similar definition for resolution would be that no triangle leg in the [...]
3D Printing – No-Tooling and Faster to Market
What’s New in Tooling-Free Manufacturing? What could it mean to your business if you no longer needed to build jigs, fixtures, and molds? It means your engineers could design and produce end-use parts in as little as one day! If you need to print multiple versions of a part or make unique iterations binding jetting is the answer. By using binder jetting for metal 3D printing you will have the speed and accessibility to design and produce dozens of iterations in as little as a week. Once part designs are finalized, binder jetting technology makes it easy to go from printing a prototype or low volume bridge runs to produce thousands or even millions of parts. When there is no need for tooling or complex set-ups manufacturers can produce a part on one day and switch to a new part the next day with no delay in production. What are the Benefits? 3D Printing gives you the freedom to “design-for-additive-manufacturing” and eliminates the time and cost of hard tooling. DfAM provides you with the ability to make lightweight parts without sacrificing strength. And 3D printing also eases the burden on your shop floor. Engineers and designers no longer have to restrict part designs [...]
Mastercam Multiaxis Concepts You Need to Know
Mastercam Multiaxis add-on is designed to provide practical multiaxis machining strategies for simultaneous 4- and simultaneous 5-axis machining. It’s available for add-on for Mastercam Mill 3D, Mastercam Router 3D, Mastercam Mill-Turn, and Mastercam for SOLIDWORKS. Its interface is intuitive, but savvy users can maximize their multiaxis proficiency by diving into these five concepts. 1. 3 + 2 Machining 3 + 2 machining is not necessarily a standard multiaxis technique; it’s more of a stepping stone into simultaneous 5-axis machining. In 5-axis machining, the tool can meet the material at an angle around the X-, Y-, and Z-axes and can adjust this angle as machining progresses. With 3 + 2 machining, a 3-axis program is run on a 5-axis machine so that the tool can be held at a fixed angle that isn’t necessarily 90°, but this angle cannot be changed during machining. Luckily, this technique is supported by basic Mastercam Mill, so any Mill user can experiment with multiaxis techniques. Starting with 3 + 2 machining allows users to exercise their creativity over toolpaths and sequences of orientations. 2. Part Placement, Fixture Design, and Machine Simulation For most parts machined on a 3-axis machine, a machinist will start the decision-making process by selecting [...]
Mastercam Joining the Sandvik Group – What does it mean?
Mastercam Joining the Sandvik Group - What does it mean? You may have heard the news that CNC Software (Mastercam) has been acquired by Sandvik. Having been tightly coupled with Mastercam for over 34 years – 31 years with Cimquest and for almost 3 years prior with another reseller – you can imagine my concern with the news. I purposely held off on sending out my own personal message around this news so that I could adequately absorb and understand the impact of this change to both Cimquest and our customer base. As challenging as it can be I always attempt to be as honest and transparent as possible and feel that has served me very well over the course of my lifetime. Those who do not really know me well may think that because Cimquest is highly vested with CNC Software that I will be tempted to spin this news so that it does not reflect the true reality of the situation. So if you are skeptical of my honesty and transparency, you can stop reading now…. Great! You are still with me! CNC Software has been owned and operated by the Summers family for almost 40 years. They have created a [...]
The Problem with the 3D Printing Industry
For the last 25 years, my company, Cimquest, has been representing 3D printers so it may be a bit surprising that you will find me pointing out what I feel is a very pressing issue in the industry. Not to get too political but many industries have been warped by the easy money policies of our government & Federal Reserve System. Under normal monetary conditions, startups would have to work very hard convincing investors to provide early capital to help jump-start their businesses. However, between the aggressive flow of money/credit into our financial markets and the overzealous hype in the 3D Printing space, it is too easy to attract big money too early. In an undistorted economy, most entrepreneurs (by definition) would have to take on greater than normal financial risks in order to organize and operate a business. However, with unprecedented quantitative easing in full swing, money flows to these innovators too easily and too fast, greatly reducing the upfront risks to the founders of the startups. I have watched with fascination as innovators figure out a slight improvement in an existing 3D printing technology only to make it their mission to create an entirely new company with all of the trimmings. [...]