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Manufacturing conferences and exhibitions
News Release from: EOS Electro Optical Systems
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 23 May 2005
Paving the way towards e-manufacturing
EOS' International User Meeting focussed particularly on e-manufacturing, the fast, flexible and cost-effective production of plastics, glass and metal components directly from electronic data.
This year's EOS International User Meeting took place from April 25th to 27th Following the tradition from previous years, EOS offered a guided tour through its headquarters in Krailling near Munich, Germany, on the first day
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 12 Oct 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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The tour included a demonstration of the latest generation of EOSINT machines for plastics laser-sintering, Direct Metal Laser-Sintering (DMLS) and sand laser-sintering; followed by stops in the Development department, the Metrology room and in Production.
Software demonstrations rounded off the programme.
The first day also gave EOS customers the opportunity to exchange ideas and meet other users of laser-sintering technology as well as EOS personnel.
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In the early evening, the participants were brought to the conference hotel in Bad Reichenhall near the German--ustrian border.
And as last year, EOS again set a new participant record: 122 participants from 21 countries joined the conference.
The following two days of the IUM offered a broad mix of presentations from guest speakers and EOS employees as well as technology workshops, in which the most recent EOS developments were presented and discussed, along with application trends and customer wishes.
The particular focus of the event was on e-Manufacturing, the fast, flexible and cost-effective production directly from electronic data.
Dr Hans J Langer, CEO and EOS founder, gave a review on the development and growing acceptance of e-Manufacturing over the last three years.
More and more application cases show that laser-sintering is not only suited for building prototypes or tooling, but that the technology is also being embraced as manufacturing technology.
"e-Manufacturing solutions perfectly meet current market requirements such as product individualisation, shortened product life cycles or one-off manufacturing," stated Langer.
* Plastics laser-sintering: User experience and product news - different users of the plastics laser-sintering technology held impressive and interesting guest speeches at the IUM.
The suitability of laser-sintered parts in series production processes was confirmed by several customers.
The participants of the event were able to experience how plastics laser-sintering is already integrated successfully in production processes today.
By using e-Manufacturing with laser-sintering, users of the technology gain completely new benefits such as high freedom of creation, short procurement times and low production costs.
Plastics laser-sintering also offers convincing solutions for casting applications: an EOS user presented in an impressive manner how he was able to produce end-use cast parts in as little as 10-15 days on the basis of laser-sintered polystyrene investment patterns.
The benefits of e-Manufacturing, such as no investment in tooling, were also recognized by other companies.
One user is investigating several ways to maximise the quality of laser-sintered parts.
One of the projects confirmed that coatings increase the functionality of laser-sintered parts considerably, thus making new Rapid Manufacturing applications feasible - an exemplary method for paying the way towards e-Manufacturing.
EOS also presented various product news at the IUM.
Among them were the new machine for plastics laser-sintering, the EOSINT P 385.
Together with the new version of the process software PSW V3.2, this system offers increased system productivity and part quality as well as more ease of use.
It has a new X-axis for higher accuracy and part quality.
The improved laser control produces a better detail resolution, especially for tiny parts and features.
The EOSINT P 385 also builds with even thinner layers: 0.1mm compared to previously 0.15mm.
And the new material PrimePart has now been released as series product.
The material offers reduced costs per part.
Beta customers have confirmed up to 40% reduced powder consumption which further paves the way to successful e-Manufacturing.
* Direct Metal Laser-Sintering (DMLS) workshops and presentations - the workshops for Direct Metal Laser-Sintering (DMLS) enjoyed a very good attendance.
There was big interest in the technology and applications as well as lively discussions between the presentations and during breaks.
Several guest talks were also offered for DMLS.
In a customer project, DMLS has been integrated for the first time in a glass squeeze forging process.
The process requires that the DMLS mould is subjected to temperatures of up to 1300 degr C.
More than 40 glass parts, in this case candle holders, have already been produced from one such laser-sintered mould.
In another project, a longstanding customer performed a comparison of four different tooling technologies, one of them being DMLS.
The result was once again a success for EOS - best results for DMLS among all technologies.
Decisive factors were dimensional accuracy and surface quality.
The main focus with regards to product news were on software and on new developments in materials.
The new process software PSW V3.2 will also be available for EOSINT M systems as of summer 2005.
It contains several new features which mainly increase building speed, part quality and ease of use.
EOS is also developing several new metal materials at the moment.
Stainless steel, cobalt chrome alloys and titanium are promising materials for a variety of industries, e.g medical devices or aerospace applications, as was demonstrated in the IUM workshops.
* About EOS - EOS was founded in 1989 and is today the world leading manufacturer of laser-sintering systems.
Laser-sintering is the key technology for e-Manufacturing, the fast, flexible and cost-effective production of products, patterns or tools for every phase of the product life cycle directly from electronic data.
Innovative companies from different sectors are using laser-sintering systems to accelerate their product development and to optimize their production processes.
EOS completed its last business year with revenues of more than EUR 43 million, an increase of more than 16% compared to the previous year.
In total EOS counts more than 250 customers in 32 countries.
Currently, growth is especially strong in North America.
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