Product category:
Rapid Prototyping
News Release from: Martello | Subject: ThinRim polyurethane resins
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 06 October 2005
Resins enable production quality
pieceparts
In October 2004, Martello was approached by Absolute Product Design regarding an optical scanner project it was designing which needed production quality pieceparts.
Rapid Prototyping technologies such as stereolithography (SLA) have developed significantly in the last few years to provide accurate master parts for design verification and soft tooling prior to injection moulding Technologies such as vacuum casting can be used to manufacture production quality pieceparts from low cost silicone rubber tooling generated from the SLA masters
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 3 Dec 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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In October 2004, Martello was approached by Absolute Product Design regarding an optical scanner project it was designing which needed production quality pieceparts for working systems to be used in field trials across Europe.
Their customer had commissioned the design to replace a large collection of metal parts with a small number of complex plastic mouldings.
Absolute Product Design is a product development and realisation consultancy specialising in the design of creative solutions and the engineering of them to enable efficient manufacture.
Absolute knew of Martello and its specialist ThinRim polyurethane resins including the UV stable system.
The company felt this technology was ideal for producing production quality pieceparts, accurate and robust enough to be used in field trials.
The project was complex in detail and accuracy was paramount.
Lead times were critical with over 100 sets being required in a matter of weeks.
Martello built the SLA masters in house using watershed resin and cast the parts using vacuum casting technology.
Minor modifications to the design were readily incorporated into the process to ensure the highest possible quality in the end product.
The production schedule was tight and the parts complex to produce.
However, Martello achieved the target date and as Mark Brown, Purchasing Manager for the scanner manufacturer, comments, "Martello gave us excellent service and we are very happy with the work they did".
"The SLAs and vacuum castings from Martello proved invaluable".
"The parts proved out a complex design prior to injection moulding and enabled us to supply production quality field trial units to customers in a short space of time".
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