Noblesville, IN – INDEX Corporation named Mark Saalmuller North America Sales Manager. Saalmuller has held key sales and marketing assignments in the machine tool industry, most recently with FASTEMS, West Chester, OH, and until 2007 was the National Sales & Marketing Manager with Tornos Technologies U.S. Corp. in Brookfield, CT.

In his new post, Saalmuller will be responsible for directing the sales of INDEX and TRAUB machines in the United, States, Canada, and Mexico, managing direct and dealer sales activities with a view to increasing INDEX Corp. sales, said Jeffrey Reinert, INDEX president in making the announcement.

“Mark has demonstrated solid leadership skills to build close working relationships with a sales team backed by technical and manufacturing knowledge gained from success as a CNC machinist and programmer as well as applications engineer,” Reinert said.

Source: INDEX Corp.

Chicago – Make plans to attend the IMTS 2014 Conferences to learn about New Research on Mass Finishing for 3D Printed Parts.

DATE: Tuesday, September 9 from 2:15 PM - 3:10 PM   ROOM: W-192B

SPEAKER: John Oney, Application Engineer, Stratasys

Mass finishing has been used in many industries for more than a hundred years to improve surface finish. John Oney, the leading researcher on mass finishing for Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) Technology, will introduce technical concepts such as deformation, amplitude and energy, and discuss what happens when you use mass finishing on an FDM part, compared with parts made through other 3D printing technologies. Oney will also offer CAD guidelines to design the best possible final product through mass finishing. 

You will learn:

• An overview of automated post-processes such as mass finishing, which is a smoothing process normally used for preparing a part for paint or application needs
• The importance of processing a file, including looking for voids in the part that can be corrected by picking proper contour widths or multiple contours, as well raster direction and thickness of both within Insight software for Fortus 3D Production Systems
• The difference in time between traditional manufacturing and additive manufacturing with automated finishing
• Several examples will be offered throughout, showing the effects of mass finishing and how it works with various thermoplastic and photopolymer materials, from standard ABS to high-performance ULTEM 9085 resin. 
• Oney will also preview other automated finishing processes that he is examining for additive manufacturing, showing complete automation of additive manufacturing and how it has benefited many industries. This will include conventional systems from support removal to mass finishing to finished product. 
• The presentation will have an open forum feel, with questions addressed throughout. Time permitting; some hands-on activities will be available.

Discussion topics:

• Current post-processing methods in additive manufacturing compared with those in mainstream manufacturing
• Conventional automation technologies that can be used today alongside additive manufacturing 
• The future convergence of additive manufacturing and automated post-processing

The educational and informative conferences run Sept. 8-11, 2014 in the West Building, Level 1. To register for this or any session, visit www.imts.com/education/imtsconference.html.

Source: IMTS

Take a look back at "This Day in History"

Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Royal Philips officials announced the introduction of NeuroSuite, a new integrated solution designed to support and enhance minimally invasive image-guided neurological interventions, a fast growing market with a compound annual growth rate of around 9%. Philips’ new interventional X-ray solution offers more effective device guidance and placement in every neuroradiology procedure.

The first NeuroSuite system was recently installed at Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. This hospital is one of the world´s leading medical universities and a center of excellence for stroke treatment.

Neuroradiology is a branch of radiology that involves the diagnosis and minimally invasive treatment of the brain, head, neck, and spine. These treatments require the insertion of a catheter, which must be navigated through a very narrow (with vessels less than 2mm wide) and tortuous vasculature to the treatment site with the aid of live image guidance. New devices (e.g. stents and flow diverters) offer new treatments for ischemic stroke or large neck aneurism, but their increasingly smaller designs make the devices more difficult to see with X-ray imaging. This can present additional challenges for placement and treatment assessment.

To cope with these challenges Philips’ NeuroSuite consists of a bi-plane interventional X-ray system with a unique combination of two new detectors: Philips’ frontal FD20 detector delivers live 2D and 3D imaging to provide live navigation and immediate therapy feedback. The smaller, lateral FD15 detector can be positioned beyond the shoulders and very close to the head. This shorter distance and unique combination of detectors provides sharp, full brain imaging at lower X-ray dose and 3D imaging optimized for neuro and spine interventions.

“In image-guided interventions the ultimate goal is to see clearly and navigate effectively, while managing X-ray dose for patients, staff and clinicians,” says Ronald Tabaksblat, general manager Interventional X-ray at Philips Healthcare. “Developed in collaboration with clinical partners around the world, Philips NeuroSuite has been designed for that purpose and underpins Philips’ global leadership position in live-image guidance technologies.”

“In interventional neuroradiology the performance of the angiographic system is crucial to patient safety,” says Dr. Michael Söderman, associate professor and chief of neuroangiography and stereotaxy, Department of Neuroradiology, Karolinska University Hospital. “Philips’ latest innovation is NeuroSuite with a new 20" detector on the frontal plane, providing superb 3D-images and big enough for spine imaging. On the lateral plane, the new 15" detector brings visualization of the complete cerebral vasculature, with reduced collision risks and enhanced projection freedom.”

At the heart of NeuroSuite is Philips AlluraClarity, lowering radiation dose by as much as 73% without compromising image quality: and VasoCT that visualizes intracranial devices in vessel context and vessel morphology down to perforator vessels.

“Over the last years a lot of progress was made on high resolution device visualization,” says Professor Jacques Moret of the faculty of medicine Bichat-Beaujon at the University of Paris, France. “The next step in our collaboration with Philips is the NeuroSuite bringing enhanced vessel and device visualization and full head coverage. The new detector combination could be especially useful for stroke treatment.”

Source: Royal Philips