Product category:
Rapid Prototyping
News Release from: EOS Electro Optical Systems (UK) | Subject: Laser-sintering systems
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 08 September 2005
Laser-sintering moves to e-manufacturing
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.
At EOS, world-leader for laser-sintering systems, everything revolves around e-manufacturing, the fast, flexible and cost-effective production directly from electronic data Dr Hans J
Langer, CEO and EOS founder, confirms a growing acceptance of e-manufacturing over the last 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", states Langer.
For direct metal laser-sintering, several interesting customer projects have been performed recently.
In one 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 1300C.
More than 40 glass parts, in this case candle holders, have already been produced from one such laser-sintered mould.
In another project, a long-standing 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.
For DMLS, EOS puts a strong development focus on materials and software.
The new process software PSW V3.2 contains several new features which mainly increase building speed, part quality and ease of use.
Currently EOS is also developing several new metal materials in order to open up more e-manufacturing applications.
These development projects are supported by customers and co-operation partners from the relevant industries, including aerospace and medical applications.
Cobalt-chrome alloys, titanium alloys and stainless steel are all currently under development for the Eosint M 270, a system for DMLS.
Co-operation partners from different industries have analysed test parts and confirmed very promising results and a high potential.
Also for the plastic laser-sintering technology more and more customers confirm the suitability of laser-sintered parts in the series production process.
By using e-manufacturing with laser-sintering, users benefit from so far completely unknown advantages such as freedom in design, short procurement times and low production costs.
A number of product innovations are making plastic laser-sintering fit for series production, among them the new system Eosint P 385.
Together with the new version of the process software PSW V3.2, the system offers increased productivity and part quality as well as more ease of use.
Detail resolution is improved especially for very small parts and features.
In the field of materials, EOS has two significant new product developments.
The recently released material PrimePart offers reduced costs per part.
Beta customers have confirmed up to 40% reduced powder consumption which further paves the way to successful e-manufacturing.
EOS has also developed the first flame retardant material world-wide for laser-sintering.
The polyamide material complies to the relevant aerospace regulations such as JAR/FAR 25, Appendix F, Part 1 for flammability and Part 5 for smoke density as well as ABD0031/AITM 3.0005(2) (Airbus) and BSS 7239 (Boeing) for smoke toxicity with wall thicknesses down to 2mm.
Moreover the classification V0 according to the UL94 specification is certified.
The material is therefore qualified for end product applications in aircraft.
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