HP 3D Printing for Machinery and Production Lines
Let’s take a closer look at the HP 3D printing and their Multi Jet Fusion for machinery and production line components. Factories utilize machines of all shapes and sizes. These machines are highly specialized and consist of custom components made in small volumes. As industries strive to add more value to their customers, manufacturers are under pressure to reduce costs associated with machinery. HP Multi Jet Fusion offers a solution for producing optimized machine components, and at greater speeds and lower costs than conventional methods. Through greater speed with HP’s platform, production line downtime is reduced. In-house, on-demand production of multiple designs in parallel can also increase production line flexibility. Complex geometries made possible through 3D printing will enable lighter parts with enhanced performance. This is thanks to lattice structures and generative design. Moreover, HP plastic parts are lighter than aluminum or steel, providing a myriad of benefits. These unique, non-standard parts allow for customized setups adapted to each machine and floor plan dimension. The benefits of speed and design freedom all affect the ultimate cost. 3D printing can help reduce inventory and transportation costs through just-in-time production. The reduction in material and minimized downtime of operations contribute greatly to these savings. As you [...]
Techni-Grip Product Review
Today we are going to do a quick review of Techni-Grip Work Holding’s 5-axis 6” round top fixture. Techni-grip Work Holding was borne directly from their manufacturing floor to solve many challenges like repeatability, standardization, simple setup and increased access to all sides of the workpiece. The patented design is easy to clean between part changes and the simple dovetail clamping hardware allows for fast setups since there are no jaws, parallels or spreaders to adjust or set. It requires only a .125” stock to hold workpieces. The first step is to prepare the dovetail and the location holes. Next, you need to align the part onto the fixture locating pins and tighten the dovetail clamps. You only need 15-20 ft/lbs of torque to secure the part. We have found the fixture very repeatable - after 10 cycles of removing and re-clamping the same part, it was consistently repeating within .0003” The fixture bodies are made of hard anodize 6061-T651 Aluminum. The clamp bodies heat treated 15-5 stainless steel and the locating pins are non-heat treated 15-5 stainless steel all giving long life and rigidity. In the photo below, we are mounted in a Hurco VM10Ui 5-axis mill using Mastercam Opti-Rough toolpaths [...]
Exploring the New Formlabs Elastic Resin
Formlabs recently announced their latest material – Elastic Resin and this article will take a closer look at it. Soft silicone and urethane parts are typically produced through moldmaking. These materials must be both highly elastic and strong. 3D printing them was once only possible on expensive industrial machine, but with Elastic Resin, companies can now simulate molded silicone, making it possible to print soft, resilient prototypes right on the desktop. Elastic resin is Formlabs' most pliable material with a shore durometer of 50A and an Elongation of 160%. Due to its high elongation excellent tear strength, parts printed with Elastic resin will bend, stretch, compress, and hold up to repeated cycles without tearing. Some key applications include wearables and consumer goods, robotics, and special effects props. It is also translucent, making it ideal for medical visual simulation and internal channels. With the addition of this material, engineers now have a larger range of durometer options. Elastic is great for softer parts that need to stretch over something or will be deformed repeatedly. While Formlabs' Flexible Resin can also be used for harder parts that won't undergo repeated loading, for example grips, handles, and overmolds. Wearables and robotics companies are using Elastic to [...]
What’s New in Netfabb 2019
Netfabb® 2019 brings updates to two of the most powerful Netfabb features, simulation and latticing, in addition to cloud storage, new machine workspaces and new support actions. Multi-scale cloud simulation Small scale and part scale metal powder bed process simulation with the compute power of the cloud. Latticing Access to Netfabb manual latticing is now available at the premium tier with a new interface fully focused on ease of use. My machines workspace Setup and save your machine catalog and print settings. Replay support actions Automatic support adjustments to accommodate model geometry changes. For more information on Autodesk Netfabb, please click the button below. More Info
Moving into the New Year
A letter from our CEO As we reset the business year and pick ourselves off of the floor I reflect on the year gone by. Cimquest went thru a very challenging but necessary transition over the past 17 months which still, in part, continues today. We embarked on a journey leaving the safety of Stratasys and the valued business relationships with both our customers and vendor. This transition meant losing more than half of our revenue. However, in the process, we acquired additional valued customers utilizing the Mastercam CNC programming software. While the net of this changed still left us with over a 30% revenue shortfall, myself and our team really believed in our long-term strategy and continued to make significant time and money investments in our endeavor. In the past 8 months we have added 7 new people to our team in brand new positions and will be looking to add another 4 over the next several months. And, we will be soon opening our new Cincinnati Ohio office with a grand opening celebration in February. The good news is that our investments have paid off and Cimquest has just completed its best year and we are proud to announce that thanks [...]
Cimquest Receives 1st HP 580 Series 3D Printer in New England
We are excited to be the first company in New England to receive our new HP 580 Series 3D Printer! The machine is fully installed, and we have started to build parts. Tailored for small/medium-sized development teams, design firms, and universities, HP’s new printer is a compact solution for producing injection mold quality parts. This automated system integrates material mixing and loading, printing, and reclaiming material in one machine. Teams can accelerate their design cycle by producing prototype iterations or functional parts without tooling, at a faster pace compared with traditional 3D printing technologies. Learn more about this machine here.