Product category:
Fast prototyping equipment, pattern-making and services
News Release from: EOS Electro Optical Systems | Subject: Rapid prototyping - laser sintering
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 12 October 2001
Rapid prototyping goes into production
too
Laser-sintering saves time and money for prototyping during product development, but can now also be used in production too. EOS will show how at the K 2001 show in Duesseldorf, Germany.
Laser-sintering saves time and money for prototyping during product development In recent times, however, this technique is more and more used for the economical production of small series for plastic and metal parts, which are also used as final products
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 5 Mar 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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The technical innovations which are expanding the use of laser-sinter-technologies into every phase of the product life cycle possible and, importantly, making this more profitable, include on the one hand new and more productive systems and on the other hand improved materials, which lead to better part quality and shorter processing times.
At this year's K 2001, from October 25-November 1, EOS is showing among other things the process chain from CAD to finished injection moulded parts and plastics parts.
Sizes can be up to 700mm x 380mm x 580mm and manufactured in one piece directly on the new EOSINT P 700 double-laser system.
Further reading
Laser very fine grain metal powders to make moulds
TransCAT took only 16h using very fine-grained metal powders in a laser-sintering system to build the core and cavity of a plastics injection mould for producing thin-walled fan wheels.
Laser sintering offers flexible plastics parts
Recent developments in laser sintering of plastics and metallic parts include flexible, thin-wall plastics products and a plastics injection mould made from layers of 20 micron steel powder.
Products produced directly from electronic data
'e-Manufacturing' describes the fast, flexible and economical production of products, moulds/tooling or patterns for all phases of the product life cycle, directly from electronic data.
Parts can be built from the new steel-based material DirectSteel 20.
DirectSteel 20 ups parts density for laser sintering of steel powder.
The steel-based powder DirectSteel 20 is a further development of the proven metal powders for Direct Metal Laser-Sintering (DMLS), which are optimised for the particular applications.
DirectSteel 20 makes layer thicknesses of only 20 micron possible and by this an optimal detail resolution.
The surface quality of the resulting parts is sufficient for use in injection moulding in many cases without polishing, after only a short and simple micro-shot-peening.
The shot-peened surface is similar to the textured surfaces which are manufactured conventionally by eroding and etching, frequently used for plastic injection moulded parts.
Wherever a polished surface is demanded for technical or aesthetic reasons, this can be achieved without any problem.
In comparison with former powders, the significantly improved surface quality leads to considerably shorter finishing times.
The high density, together with the compressing effect of micro-shot-peening, makes it possible to polish even up to a mirror-like finish.
Also the mechanical properties have been improved, e g, the tensile strength of 600 N/mm2 lies significantly higher than for typical aluminium alloys used for tooling.
This allows the use also in heavy-duty applications.
For example, in a die-casting project more than 500 aluminium parts were manufactured in one tool from DirectSteel 20.
And, the new material has already been proved in several projects for building metallic prototypes, an application called DirectPart, which is becoming more and more significant.
With the new DirectSteel 20, four bronze- and steel-based materials are now available with different particle sizes, optimised for particular applications.
Series tooling is sintered directly by laser.
Rapid Product Innovations in Rusko of Finland a company of the Alphaform Group and service bureau for prototyping and product development, received the order to produce a plastic housing for a new modem device.
The customer needed a first series of 10,000 parts, which consisted of a cover and a bottom part, within a few weeks.
Rapid Product Innovations built the tooling inserts from the new 20 micron steel-based powder DirectSteel 20 using the DirectTool application of Direct Metal Laser-Sintering (DMLS) on their EOSINT M 250 Xtended system.
These DirectTool core inserts were used together with machined cavities to manufacture this first series of 10.000 covers and bottoms of the housing by injection moulding under standard parameters.
After the positive acceptance of these pre-series parts in the market the customer ordered the production tooling from a toolmaker.
Unfortunately, the production tooling was not ready in time so that the DirectTool tooling was used for producing a further series of several thousand high-quality plastic parts.
Thus, series production started with the ,prototype tooling".
By the end of May, already 60.000 of each cover and bottom parts were manufactured and Rapid Product Innovations expects to reach the magic figure of 100,000 parts very soon.
This case is not an exception.
Often, the production tooling cannot be delivered in time so that the ,prototype tooling' is used to injection mould the actual series of end products.
Toolmakers have long since recognized the potentials offered by DMLS technology and have integrated it into their range of services.
Used as an alternative for small series production or combined intelligently with other techniques, a lot of time and cost can be saved.
Today already up to about one hundred thousand injection moulded parts can be produced using DirectTool.
From CAD to high-quality injection moulded part within three days.
The project of the English Rapid Manufacturing Consortium under the direction of Prof.
Philip Dickens with the Swedish automobile group Volvo Car Corporation dealt with the manufacturing of a core and a cavity for the injection moulding of an adapter for a car.
The inserts were about 60mm in diameter and 22mm high with internal 90deg angles, which could not be produced by milling but would normally require EDM.
In this case, the inserts were built from the new, extremely fine material DirectSteel 20 in a fully automatic process on an EOSINT M 250 Xtended system.
With the help of a coordinate measuring machine six measurements were taken on each tool insert, which showed an average deviation of only 0.032mm and a maximum deviation of merely 0.068mm.
In this way high-quality injection moulded parts were available within only three days after completion of the 3D CAD data.
Surface finishing of DMLS parts.
In addition to the laser-sintering systems and their accessories, the EOS application-optimised solutions include consultancy about how to integrate these technologies in the respective process chain.
In tool manufacture the touching-up and polishing of the tool inserts is an important part of the process chain and accordingly of the DirectTool process too.
EOS has built up know-how in this field and presented the different methods and devices for the optimised finishing of DMLS parts in a workshop at this year's International User Meeting.
It was shown that micro shot-peening of the parts does not only lead quickly and simply to significantly-improved surfaces but also represents an important preliminary step for creating of a smooth, non-porous surface by grinding and polishing.
It was demonstrated how to achieve nearly any surface quality using ultrasonic devices and diamond pastes, for example.
Functional prototype for an intake module - sintered directly in 30 hours.
The company Mann + Hummel, a leading supplier to the automobile industry situated near Stuttgart, needed a prototype of an intake module with properties as close as possible to the series part for diverse functional tests.
Within 30 hours, Mann + Hummel built all five parts of the complex intake module directly and in one process on its EOSINT P 360 laser-sintering system.
The resulting parts showed excellent properties regarding dimensional stability, density and resonance behaviour, closely simulating a series part.
Biocompatibility of PA 2200.
In order to further increase the suitability of laser-sintering technology for series applications, EOS is gradually getting its laser-sintering materials qualified and certified.
As a first step, the polyamide material PA 2200 has now received the certificate for biocompatibility.
With this, the suitability of the material for use with permanent direct skin contact is officially acknowledged.
Kick-Off of EOSINT P 700.
After the positive experience with their pre-series systems, the service companies and EOS development partners Modellbau Bubeck in Weilimdorf near Stuttgart and FKM Sintertechnik in Biedenkopf-Breidenstein have both decided to purchase a further system of the new EOSINT P 700 type.
Bubeck used the double-laser system for building polystyrene models for the lost-wax casting of metal parts, predominantly for motor racing; FKM builds for example large plastic containers for aggressive fluids in one piece on this system.
Following the example of the P 700 pioneers, the companies CNC Schneidservice in Werther and Toyota Motorsport in Cologne, Germany, have each secured themselves one of the first of these plastic laser-sintering systems with double-laser which "roll from the assembly line" at EOS.
Also the automobile manufacturers DaimlerChrysler and Volvo ordered a systems of the type P 700.
With the new EOSINT P 700 double-laser system, users can build plastics parts up to a size of 700mm x 380mm x 580mm directly in one piece or, depending on part size and geometry, a series of up to around 1000 parts in one process.
K 2001, 25th October - 1st November in Düsseldorf, stand B 33, hall 2.
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