“As the cutting tool industry starts 2019, the review of 2018 shows a good growth of 13%. The reasonable question for all is, will 2019 continue to show the economic strength or will the forecasts come true with an end of year slowing? The cutting tool industry has done well in spite of material cost increases, labor shortages and global trade unrest and we are poised to continue,” says Brad Lawton, chairman of AMT’s Cutting Tool Product Group.
According to Eli Lustgarten, president of ESL Consultants, “Cutting tool consumption continued at high levels in January 2019 rising 13.4% Y/Y, in line with the 12.5% reported for calendar 2018. Demand is consistent with recent Institute of Supply Management’s Purchasing Managers Index of 56.6 and 54.2 in January and February which suggests a moderating but firm manufacturing sector in the first half of 2019. However, storm clouds continue to be visible with automotive and housing demand slowing, volatile energy and commodity prices, ongoing trade tensions and the unfolding global economic slowdown particularly in China and the EU. Comparisons will get tougher as the year progresses with orders likely to trail shipments. This sets the stage for a slower second half of 2019 into 2020 without some positive economic stimulation.”
From left: Mark Lashinske, NTMA Chairman of the Board, Doug DeRose, NTMA Vice President; Chris Kaiser, President/CEO of Big Kaiser and Bill Padnos, Workforce Development Manager
Photo courtesy of Big Kaiser
Big Kaiser presents third annual donation to NRL
Donation of $6,675 was an increase of more than 27% over the prior year.
At the first general session of NTMA’s annual meeting in Tucson, Arizona, Chris Kaiser, president/CEO of Big Kaiser, presented a donation for $6,675 to benefit the NTMA’s National Robotics League (NRL). This was an increase of more than 27% over the prior year.
The donation was the result of a year-end promotion by Big Kaiser, giving back to the association a percentage of every order by an NTMA or AMT member company. Manufacturers placed orders for cutting tools, tool holders, workholding and tool measurement systems, earning funds for the NRL at the same time.
“We all know it is critical for us to engage the next generation in manufacturing at the company, community and national levels,” Kaiser explains. “This year-end promotion is one way for Big Kaiser to show support for the NTMA and to promote workforce development and STEM programs.”
“The NRL is all about the community collaborating together to engage manufacturing's next generation. We truly appreciate Big Kaiser's generous contribution and their continued leadership in supporting initiatives to close the manufacturing skills gap,” says Bill Padnos, NTMA workforce development manager. “We are also grateful to all of the NTMA members who participated in this program.”
The National Robotics League (NRL) is a manufacturing workforce development program of the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) where students design and build remote controlled robots (Bots) to face-off in a gladiator-style competition. Through the manufacturing process of Bot building, students’ imaginations are captured as they design, build and compete with their own robotic creations. Through this hands-on effort along with industry partnerships, students gain practical knowledge of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) – all essential skills for manufacturing.
Medical device design, manufacture weekly news recap
Here's a recap of some of the recent articles and news from Today's Medical Developments.
It's officially spring, which may mean spring break and you're off on a family trip so you may have missed some of the latest news in the medical device design and manufacture sector. But don't worry, here's a recap of some of the recent articles and news from Today's Medical Developments. Happy spring and happy reading!
Digital design in life sciences Dr. Mahesh Kailasam, vice president and Cupertino, California, office director of Thornton Tomasetti’s Weidlinger Applied Science practice, offers insight into medical device design developments, challenges.
Best practices in mid-market medtech M&A If you are thinking about M&A in 2019 or in the coming years, it’s not too early to begin developing your exit strategy.
Design treatment of advanced metals New process targets improvements for orthopedic components, medical instruments, military equipment, and vehicles.
A micro-gear made from ABS used in an inkjet wide-format industrial 2D printer. Part size 1.3mm x 1.3mm x 0.4mm, print time 35 minutes, and print layer 2 microns.
Nanofabrica
Additive manufacturing (AM) for micro-manufacturing
AM is a key enabling technology catering toward shorter product life cycles and mass customization at the micro level.
Nanofabrica has developed a micron-level resolution additive manufacturing (AM) platform, providing an end-to-end custom solution to manufacturers requiring micron and sub-micron levels of resolution and surface finish.
To date, key AM platform developers struggle to get resolution under 50 microns, and the few companies that have strived to provide a micro-manufacturing AM solution are either extremely expensive, extremely slow, or can only print parts very restricted in size.
Nanofabrica has identified a series of applications in the area of optics, semi-conductors, micro-electronics, MEMS, micro-fluidics, and life sciences, ideal for AM micro-manufacturing. Products such as casing for micro-electronics, micro-springs, micro-actuators, and micro-sensors, and numerous medical applications such as micro-valves, micro-syringes, and micro-implantable or surgical devices.
How the process works The first breakthrough of Nanofabrica’s technology enables high precision at a cost required for industrial manufacturing. Nanofabrica’s AM process is based on a technology that is well known in the AM world – a Digital Light Processor (DLP) engine – but to achieve repeatable micron levels of resolution combines DLP with the use of adaptive optics. This tool, in conjunction with an array of sensors, allows for a closed feedback loop; the core element enabling Nanofabrica’s product to reach very high accuracy while remaining cost-effective as a manufacturing solution. Where all other AM platform developers in this space achieve precision through great hardware, Nanofabrica tackles this issue with software where solutions are easier, more robust, and less expensive. Adaptive optics have been used in other areas of technology, but this is the first time that they have been applied to an AM technology.
Above: A diamond shaped lattice in ABS, a shape that is only possible to manufacture using additive manufacturing (AM), and impossible using CNC machining or injection molding. The structure has ultra-high surface area and is therefore useful in heat dissipators. Part size 0.3mm x 0.3mm x 1mm, print time 45 minutes, and print layer 3 microns.
Another aspect of Nanofabrica’s AM platform is the ability to achieve micron resolution over centimeter-sized parts. To enable this, a number of technologies have been combined.
Specifically, the company has taken its innovative use of adaptive optics and enhanced this imaging unit with technology and know-how used in the semiconductor industry. By working at the intersection of semiconductors and AM, Nanofabrica can build large macro parts with intricate micro details. It can also do this at speed by introducing a multi-resolution strategy; parts where fine details are required are printed relatively slowly, but in the areas where the details aren’t so exacting, the part is printed at a speeds 10x to 100x faster, making the entire printing speed 5x to 100x faster than other micro AM platforms.
In addition, for OEMs requiring small parts, thousands of parts can be printed in a single build on the Nanofabrica platform, making it a true mass manufacturing technology for micro-product or component manufacturers.
The multi-resolution capability is possible through hardware that enables a tradeoff between speed and resolution, and software algorithms which prepare the part and printing path by defining and sectioning it into low- and high-resolution areas, which are fed into the printer path and machine parameters. There are not only two resolutions but a spectrum of resolutions that allow speed to be optimized while maintaining satisfactory results throughout the part.
The final algorithm family focuses on file preparation, optimizing parameters such as print angle build plate, supports, etc., which ensure a precise, optimized, and reliable print process.
Nanofabrica has also developed its own proprietary materials (based on the most commonly used industry polymers) which enable ultra-high resolution in parts built.
A micro-honeycomb structure in PP, with wall thicknesses of ~20 microns over a height of a few millimeters. The part is made for a company that specializes in micro-batteries. The ultra-high surface area is used to increase battery storage with minimal footprint. Part size 1.6mm x 1.8mm x 2.3 mm, print time 80 minutes, and print layer 2 microns.
What does this mean for manufacturers? The Nanofabrica AM technology brings AM into new markets and enables new applications, especially for manufacturers requiring micron and sub-micron level accuracy and resolution. Since AM is relatively agnostic to part complexity, it is possible to design and manufacture unique geometries and the Nanofabrica technology has become an enabling technology.
AM also requires no set up costs. The tooling required for traditional manufacturing processes not only has a negative impact on time to market, but also makes such processes uneconomic for small or medium sized production runs. For AM technologies, small and medium sized runs are cost-effective, and today, represents the sweet spot for the technology.
Add into the mix that AM allows for mass customization, personalization, and the ability to use the same manufacturing platform for prototyping, small batches, and mass manufacturing, and you begin to see the myriad of possibilities that now exist for micro manufacturers.
An array of parts made in various materials including 3 grades of ABS, 3 different grades of PP, as well as ceramic loaded parts.
Customized solutions As designer engineers and manufacturers assess the possibilities that exist for the use of AM to replace or, more likely, sit alongside traditional manufacturing processes, there needs to be a quantum shift in the way that they approach the entire design to manufacturing process.
This begins with re-evaluating product design, and the subject of design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) has become a fertile area for discussion and debate today.
While AM users are beginning to take advantage of DfAM for macro AM platforms, there is little to no understanding of the DfAM issues when using AM for micro applications. Addressing this, Nanofabrica promotes a collaborative relationship with its customers to locate the opportunities and avoid traps that exist when adopting – or considering adopting – AM for production purposes in the micro-manufacturing arena.
Existing at the interface of AM for production and the industry-wide drive towards miniaturization, Nanofabrica’s micro AM technology lifts the lid for designers and manufacturers in their quest to embrace the inherent advantage of AM, and at last to be able to exploit the ability that exists with AM to build complex parts in small, medium, and high volumes in a timely and cost-effective fashion.
Screw extrusion additive manufacturing (SEAM) can accelerate the additive manufacture of plastic components eightfold over conventional processes. The process achieves this ultra-fast production speed by combining 3D printing with the motion system of a machine tool.
Photo credit: Fraunhofer IWU
8x faster 3D printing high-performance plastics
Changing the time-consuming undertaking of additive manufacture large-volume plastic components.
3D printers that build small souvenirs layer by layer from melted plastic are often used at tradeshows. It can take up to an hour to produce a pocket-sized souvenir. This process is far too slow for the mass-production of components, as required by the automotive industry, for instance. A system from the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU in Chemnitz is now taking 3D printing to a new level: The system’s high-speed technology takes only 18 minutes to produce a plastic component that is 30cm high. A team of researchers at the Fraunhofer IWU has developed this technology for the additive manufacture of large-volume resilient plastic components. Tool manufacturers as well a range of industries benefit from the innovative 3D printer that achieves 8x the process speed. This printer uses the screw extrusion additive manufacturing (SEAM) – a process developed at the Chemnitz Institute.
How does SEAM achieve these high process speeds? “By combining machine tool technology with 3D printing,” says Dr. Martin Kausch, a scientist at Fraunhofer IWU. To process the plastic, the researchers use a specially designed unit that melts the raw material and ejects it at a high output rate. This unit is installed above a construction platform that can be swiveled in six axes by using the motion system of a machine tool. “So far, this combination is unique,” says Dr. Kausch.
The hot plastic is deposited in layers on the construction platform. The motion system of the machine ensures that the construction panel slides along under the nozzle in such a way that the previously programmed component shape is produced. The table can be moved at a speed of one meter per second in the X-, Y- and Z-axes and can also be tilted by up to 45°.
“This enables us to print eight times faster than conventional processes, enormously reducing the production times for plastic components,” says Dr. Kausch
This experimental component is a hybrid of CFRP sheet metal and 3D printed structures – screw extrusion additive manufacturing (SEAM) makes it possible to print on injection-molded components or sheet metal for the first time.
The 3D printer processes cost-effective basic material Every hour, up to seven kilograms of plastic are pressed through the hot nozzle with a diameter of one millimeter. Comparable 3D printing processes, such as fused deposition modeling (FDM) or fused filament modeling (FLM), usually achieve only 50 grams of plastic per hour. A unique feature is that, instead of expensive FLM filament, SEAM processes free-flowing, cost-effective standard plastic granulate into resilient, fiber-reinforced components that are several meters in size. This method allows material costs to be reduced by a factor of two hundred.
SEAM allows researchers to implement complex geometries without supporting structures. The highlight is that the new system even makes it possible to print on existing injection-molded components.
“As our construction platform can be swiveled, we are able to print on curved structures with a separately moving Z-axis,” Kausch says. “In tests, we were able to process a wide variety of plastics. They ranged from thermoplastic elastomers to high-performance plastics with a 50 percent content of carbon fiber. These plastics are materials that are particularly relevant to industry and cannot be processed with traditional 3D printers.”
Posted by Elizabeth Engler Modic
