SL rapid tooling provides ideal system approach
A
DSM Somos product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Aug 18, 2008
A leading French service bureau has used NanoTool to make production tools for the injection moulding of pill dispensers for the medical industry.
NanoTool from DSM Somos gives the high precision physical properties and surface qualities required for a wide range of rapid tooling and rapid prototyping applications generating significant savings in both lead times and costs.
Working together with the moulding company, Pichot, leading French service bureau, Axis, has used NanoTool to make production tools for the injection moulding of pill dispensers for the medical industry.
Conventional metal tools would have taken 4-6 weeks to produce but by using stereolithography (SL), the complete process from CAD drawing to fitted injection moulds took just eight working days.
As a result, costs and time to market were substantially reduced.
Axis also believes that tooling produced on SL systems offers a number of key technical advantages, as Technical Manager Ludovic Martin explains: "SL offers more opportunities than conventional routes to build complex geometries and tight tolerances".
"In the case of rapid tooling, this is significant for the design of the part as well as for the technical aspects of the mould".
"For example, with SL we can really optimise the design of the cooling channels allowing them, if necessary, to follow the contours of the part".
"This helps to optimise quality and productivity".
Over 1000 parts in both ABS and POM (polyoxymethylene) have so far been produced and the mould is still working perfectly.
Ludovic Martin considers SL rapid tooling with NanoTool to be the ideal system approach: "Especially for applications where low series, small parts and precise tolerances are required".
For Axis, the pill dispenser project with Pichot represented a milestone in their development of rapid tooling".
Axis also uses NanoTool for rapid prototyping applications.
"NanoTool is the best material for higher temperature prototypes such as automotive lamp assemblies including a base for metal coating - a process developed together with Thierry Fleurence, Prototype Manager at Valeo Lighting Systems, Signal Lamp Europe Division in Sens", says Ludovic Martin.
"The surface quality of the NanoTool parts we produce on our SLA 250 is so good that there are absolutely no visible build lines".
"For any one who knows RP processes, this is truly amazing".
"We also have SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) processes in-house but prefer NanoTool for complex shapes, particularly where accuracy, detail and surface quality are critical".
Axis keeps a wide range of Somos materials in-house.
As well as NanoTool the company also uses the new high-impact material DMX-SL100.
With these new materials Axis is able to offer a full service from design concept to finished part, selecting from a palette of the most advanced SL polymers.
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