Michigan Archives - Perfect 3D Printing Filament

3D Printing Design for Automotive to Be Supported by Lehvoss & FENA

3D printing materials provider Lehvoss North America, part of the LEHVOSS Group of chemical companies operating under parent company Lehmann&Voss&Co., announced that it is partnering up with Forward Engineering North America (FENA), a new division of global engineering and consulting firm Forward Engineering. This collaboration between the two is for the purposes of supporting the automotive industry through Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM), helping to translate the performance characteristics of both 3D printed and injection molded components.

(Image courtesy of Forward Engineering)

Forward Engineering’s particular specialty is helping to include cost-effective parts, made out of fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials, in serial mass-produced automotive structures. As Lehvoss is something of a materials expert, it makes sense for FENA to partner with the group in order to teach how DfAM can positively benefit automotive components.

“Local support and bringing expertise around 3D printing together will create a hub for the 3DP value chain further strengthening the region and accelerating the deployment of additive manufactured components at automotive OEMs and tier suppliers,” stated Martin Popella, Sales & Business Development Manager at Lehvoss North America.

Germany-headquartered Forward Engineering has long supported clients in North America, which is why it opened the division in Royal Oak, Michigan. FENA, which offers production-based design and engineering services to meet the growing demand for cost-effective and automated solutions, works with technology partners in the area to speed up the adoption of “composite intensive mixed material solutions.”

We’ve definitely seen AM used for automotive applications, but materials that offer the same high-performance properties and characteristics as filled structural and semi-structural injection molding grade resin components can be difficult to find. But Lehvoss has expanded its reach, and is now offering its materials, such as Luvosint and Luvocom 3F, in North America.

3D printed automotive structural component (Image courtesy of Lehvoss North America)

Lehvoss materials have many application-specific properties, such as flame retardance, and can be custom compounded to fit specific requirements from customers, so that they can meet any necessary industry standards and requirements. One of its lines of high-performance compounds, available for FFF and powder bed fusion technologies in filament, pellet, and powder formats, definitely meet the criteria needed for automotive OEM applications.

Forward Engineering is helping OEMs and automotive tier suppliers translate specific product requirements so they can 3D print functional, structural 3F parts that mimic how the injection molded twin part performs. The 3F Twin Process that the firm developed will help engineers quickly develop and validate their concepts, and then interpret them for production parts.

“Automotive OEMs and suppliers want to accelerate product development through the production of functional structural prototypes with Additive Manufacturing (AM),” Popella explained. “3F Printing offers a relatively fast and cost-effective means to produce these functional structural prototype parts that meet demanding performance requirements. However, the right materials and process parameters must be selected to deliver quality parts that meet targeted requirements including quality, consistency and repeatability.”

(Image courtesy of Lehvoss)

As a result of their partnership, FENA and Lehvoss have set up a joint additive manufacturing lab, also in Royal Oak, Michigan, that will offer support to product development and automotive manufacturing engineers. These engineers can work directly with the Lehvoss/Forward Engineering team to determine the processes and materials that will best suit automotive applications, and even help them create functional prototypes on site.

“Successful product development requires the right mix of design, material and process,” said Adam Halsband, Forward Engineering North America’s Managing Director. “The Lehvoss/Forward Engineering collaboration and establishment of the AM lab in the center of the North American automotive product development region brings these resources together in a responsive package that is accessible to the engineers that need them.”

(Source: JEC Group)

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3D Printing News Briefs: January 19, 2019

Welcome to the first edition of 3D Printing News Briefs in 2019! We took a brief hiatus at the beginning of the new year, and now we’re back, bringing you the latest business, medical, and metal 3D printing news. First up, Sigma Labs has been awarded a new Test and Evaluation Program Contract, and Laser Lines is now a certified UK Stratasys training provider. Michigan’s Grand Valley State University, and a few of its partners, will be using Carbon 3D printing to make production-grade parts for medical devices. Cooksongold is launching new precious metal parameters for the EOS M 100 3D printer, and VBN Components has introduced a new metal 3D printing material.

Sigma Labs Receives Test and Evaluation Program Contract

This week, Sigma Labs, which develops and provides quality assurance software under the PrintRite3D brand, announced that it had been awarded a Test and Evaluation Program contract with a top additive manufacturing materials and service provider. This will be the company’s fifth customer to conduct testing and evaluations of its technology since September 2018, and Sigma Labs will install several PrintRite3D INSPECT 4.0 in-process quality assurance systems in the customer’s US and German facilities under the program. It will also support its customer in the program by providing engineering, hardware, metallurgical consulting and support services, software, and training.

“Sigma Labs is deeply committed to our In-Process Quality Assurance tools, supporting and moving forward with them,” said John Rice, the CEO of Sigma Labs. “I am confident that this initiative, which marks our fifth customer signed from diverse industries in the past four months, will validate our PrintRite3D technology in commercial-industrial serial manufacturing settings. We believe that going forward, AM technology will play an increasingly prominent role in the aerospace, medical, power generation/energy, automotive and tooling/general industries, all areas which are served by this customer.”

Laser Lines Announces New Stratasys Training Courses

Through its new 3D Printing Academy, UK-based total 3D printing solutions provider Laser Lines is now a certified provider of Stratasys training courses. The custom courses at the Academy for FDM and Polyjet systems are well-suited for new users, people in need of a refresher, or more experienced users, and include tips and tricks that the company’s certified trainers have personally developed. One-day and two-day courses are available at customer sites, or at the Laser Lines facility in Oxfordshire.

“The training courses are an extension of the advice and education we have been providing to customers for the past 20 years. With our experienced team able to share their knowledge and experience on both the FDM and Polyjet systems and materials, customers who are trained by us will get the value of some real life application examples,” said Richard Hoy, Business Development at Laser Lines.

“We want to ensure that our customers get what they need from our training so before booking, our Stratasys academy certified trainers can discuss exact requirements and advise both content and a suitable duration for the training course so that it meets their needs entirely.”

Exploring Applications in Medical Device Manufacturing

Enabled by Michigan state legislation, the Grand Rapids SmartZone Local Development Finance Authority has awarded a half-million-dollar grant that will be used to fund a 2.5-year collaborative program centered around cost and time barriers for medical devices entering the market. Together, Grand Valley State University and its study partners – certified contract manufacturer MediSurge and the university’s applied Medical Device Institute (aMDI) – will be using 3D printing from Carbon to create production-grade parts, out of medical-grade materials and tolerances, in an effort to accelerate medical device development, along with the component manufacturing cycle. A Carbon 3D printer has been installed in aMDI’s incubator space, where the team and over a dozen students and faculty from the university’s Seymour and Esther Padnos College of Engineering and Computing will work to determine the “tipping point” where 3D printing can become the top method, in terms of part number and complexity, to help lower startup costs and time to market, which could majorly disrupt existing manufacturing practices for medical devices.

“We are thrilled to be the first university in the Midwest to provide students with direct access to this type of innovative technology on campus. This novel 3D additive manufacturing technology, targeting medical grade materials, will soon be the new standard, and this study will be a launch pad for course content that is used in curriculum throughout the university,” said Brent M. Nowak, PhD, the Executive Director of aMDI.

New Precious Metal 3D Printing Parameters at Cooksongold

At this week’s Vicenzaoro jewelry show, Cooksongold, a precious metal expert and the UK’s largest one-stop shop for jewelry and watch makers, announced that it is continuing its partnership with EOS for industrial 3D printing, and will be launching new precious metal parameters for the EOS M 100 3D printer, which is replacing the system that was formerly called the PRECIOUS M 080. The EOS M 100 builds on the powder management process and qualities of the PRECIOUS M 080, and the new parameters make it possible for users to create beautiful designs, with cost-effective production, that are optimized for use on the new 3D printer.

“We are proud to continue our successful partnership with Cooksongold, which was already established 2012,” said Markus Brotsack, Partner Manager at EOS. “The EOS M 100 system increases productivity and ensure high-quality end parts as we know them. Based on our technology, EOS together with Cooksongold plans to develop processes for industrial precious metals applications too.”

VBN Components Introducing New Cemented Carbide

Drill bits in Vibenite 480; collaboration with Epiroc.

In 2017, Swedish company VBN Components introduced the world’s hardest steel, capable of 3D printing, in its Vibenite family. Now it’s launching a new 3D printing material: the patented hard metal Vibenite 480, which is a new type of cemented carbide. The alloy, which has a carbide content of ~65%, is heat, wear, and corrosion resistant, and based on metal powder produced through large scale industrial gas atomization, which lowers both the cost and environmental impact. What’s more, VBN Components believes that it is the only company in the world that is able to 3D print cemented carbides without using binder jetting. Because this new group of materials is a combination of the heat resistance of cemented carbides and the toughness of powder metallurgy high speed steels (PM-HSS), it’s been dubbed hybrid carbides.

“We have learned an enormous amount on how to 3D-print alloys with high carbide content and we see that there’s so much more to do within this area,” said Martin Nilsson, the CEO of VBN Components. “We have opened a new window of opportunity where a number of new materials can be invented.”

Early adopters who want to be among the first to try this new material will be invited by VBN Components to a web conference at a later date. If you’re interested in participating, email info@vbncomponents.com.

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Michigan Tech Researchers Recycle Wood Furniture Waste into Composite 3D Printing Material

A) PLA during mechanical mixing with wood-waste powder, B) PLA and wood-waste powder-based WPC after mixing and cooling to room temperature, C) chipped WPC, and D) homogeneous WPC material after first pass through recyclebot.

From artwork, instruments, and boats to gear shift knobs, cell phone accessories, and even 3D printers, wood has been used often as a 3D printing material. It’s a valuable renewable resource that stores carbon and is easily recycled, so why wouldn’t we think to use it in 3D printing projects?

A trio of researchers from Michigan Technological University recently published a paper, titled “Wood Furniture Waste-Based Recycled 3-D Printing Filament,” that looks to see how viable a solution it is to use wood furniture waste, upcycled into a wood polymer composite (WPC) material, as a 3D printing feedstock for building furniture.

The abstract reads, “The Michigan furniture industry produces >150 tons/day of wood-based waste, which can be upcycled into a wood polymer composite (WPC). This study investigates the viability of using furniture waste as a feedstock for 3-D printer filament to produce furniture components. The process involves: grinding/milling board scraps made of both LDF/MDF/LDF and melamine/particleboard/paper impregnated with phenolic resins; pre-mixing wood-based powder with the biopolymer poly lactic acid (PLA), extruding twice through open-source recyclebots to fabricate homogeneous 3-D printable WPC filament, and printing with open source FFF-based 3-D printers. The results indicate there is a significant opportunity for waste-based composite WPCs to be used as 3-D printing filament.”

While a lot of wood is wasted by burning it, it may be better to upcycle it into WPCs, which contain a wood component in particle form inside a polymer matrix. These materials can help lower costs and environmental impact, as well as offer a greater performance.

A) 0.15 mm layer height drawer knob being 3D printed with a screw hole for attachment. B) Completed drawer knob fully attached on left of wood block with example pre-printed hole on right of block, 30wt% wood furniture waste.

“There is a wide range of modification techniques for wood either involving active modifications such as thermal or chemical treatments, or passive modification, which changes the physical properties but not the biochemical structure,” the researchers wrote. “However, WPCs still have limitations due to production methods, such as producing waste material or orientation reliant fabrication, which may be alleviated with alternative manufacturing techniques such as additive manufacturing.”

While lots of PLA composite manufacturers are already in the market to make virgin, wood-based 3D printing filaments, the Michigan Tech study investigated using wood furniture waste as a 3D printing feedstock for WPC filament, which could then be used to make new furniture components.

“The process uses grinding and milling of two furniture waste materials – boards scraps made of both LDF/MDF/LDF (where LDF is light density fill and MDF is medium density fill) and melamine/particleboard/paper impregnated with phenolic resins. A pre-mixing process is used for the resultant wood-based powder with PLA pellets,” the researchers wrote. “This material is extruded twice through an open source recyclebot to fabricate homogeneous 3-D printable filament in volume fractions of wood:PLA from 10:100 to 40:100. The filament is tested in an open source FFF-based industrial 3-D printer. The results are presented and discussed to analyze the opportunity for waste based composite filament production.”

Surface contours of a personalized drawer handle with the Herman Miller emblem. A coloration change from the outside to the center is shown due to induced temperature changes during printing to provide a tree ring.

The team received wood-based waste material, in both sawdust and bulk form, from several furniture manufacturing companies, and completed some important steps to turn the wood waste into WPCs for 3D printing filament:

Size reduction from macro- and meso-scale to micro-scale
Mix fine wood-based filler material with matrix polymer
Extrude feed material into filament of homogeneous thickness and density

Then, the material was loaded into a delta RepRap 3D printer, as well as an open source Re:3D Gigabot 3D printer, to make a high-resolution drawer knob that was “attached to a printed wood block using a wood screw threaded through a pre-printed hole.”

“The wood screw was easily twisted through both objects with a Phillips screwdriver and the resulting connection withstood normal forces expected in everyday use. Additionally due to the flexibility of 3-D printing orientations a unique or personalized surfaces may be printed onto objects,” the researchers wrote.

“This is shown through the particular geometries or print directions which may be modified directly by altering gcode, or more conveniently by changing parameters in slicer programs. This enables mass-scale personalization of not only furniture components with wood, but any 3D printed part using recycled waste-based plastic composites.”

Once an optimized 3D printing profile was obtained, the recycled wood furniture waste-based WPC filament was able to produce parts without too many errors. However, there was a greater frequency of filament blockages and nozzle clogging with this material, when compared to pure PLA.

Five desk cable feedthrough parts 3D printed consecutively, 30wt% wood furniture-based waste.

“This study has demonstrated a technically viable methodology of upcycling furniture wood waste into usable 3-D printable parts for the furniture industry,” the researchers concluded. “By mixing PLA pellets and recycled wood waste material filament was produced with a diameter size of 1.65±0.10 mm and used to print a small variety of test parts. This method while developed in the lab may be scaled up to meet industry needs as the process steps are uncomplicated. Small batches of 40wt% wood were created, but showed reduced repeatability, while batches of 30wt% wood showed the most promise with ease of use.”

The researchers wrote that further work on creating waste-based WPC filament should include quantifying the material’s mechanical properties after the first cycle, and then comparing it to other materials, such as pure PLA and modified wood fiber powder. Additionally, industrial equipment and grouped 3D printing nozzles should be evaluated in terms of scaling up the process.

Co-authors of the paper are Adam M. Pringle, Mark Rudnicki, and Joshua Pearce.

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ACEO Expands to United States with New Silicone 3D Printing Lab in Ann Arbor

WACKER, a global materials and technology manufacturer based in Munich, announced in 2016 that it had developed the first-ever industrial 3D printer for silicone materials. Around the same time, the company launched its new ACEO brand, which would be dedicated to the 3D printing of silicone rubbers. The brand is based out of its ACEO Campus in Burghausen, Germany, but is now expanding to the US. WACKER will be opening a 3D printing lab at its R&D center for silicones in Ann Arbor, Michigan; the lab will be its first regional 3D printing lab outside of Germany.

The new lab will start off with two 3D printers, which will each be able to print with a wide range of silicone rubber materials with different Shore A hardnesses and in different colors, including special media resistant FVMQ grades.

“In general, North America is the largest and most dynamic market for 3D printing,” said Bernd Pachaly, Head of the ACEO 3D printing project at WACKER. “With our new lab, prospective partners will obtain local access to the compelling possibilities of 3D printing with liquid silicone rubber.”

ACEO will continue to 3D print and deliver silicone components from its facility in Burghausen, but the new lab in Ann Arbor will provide technical service and advice to customers in North America, allowing them to get hands-on experience with silicone 3D printing technology.

“Right from the start, we will be engaged in projects involving medical devices and components needed for health care, transportation, aerospace and electronics, all of which are key industry segments, particularly for silicone-based products,” continued Pachaly. “Establishing a regional lab will support expansion of ACEO’s footprint in the US and furthers WACKER’s global service network for silicone rubber 3D printing solutions.”

ACEO’s drop-on-demand 3D printing technology allows for a great deal of design freedom and the printing of complex, functional components. Silicone rubber is a valuable 3D printing material, offering properties such as temperature and radiation resistance as well as biocompatibility. These properties make it a popular material for a range of industries including medicine, aerospace, automotive, equipment and mechanical engineering.

Since its inception, ACEO has expanded and further developed its technology, introducing multi-material 3D printing and functional materials. As the first company to introduce industrial silicone 3D printing, WACKER and its ACEO brand are exploring uncharted territory. Other companies have arisen with silicone 3D printing technology, but WACKER remains among the pioneers.

Locating the new ACEO 3D printing lab at the R&D facility in Ann Arbor is part of the company’s strategic business model for being close to its customers and serving regional business trends, according to Ian Moore, Vice President WACKER SILICONES at Wacker Chemical Corporation in Adrian, Michigan.

“Our Innovation Center is focused on developing advanced and forward-looking solutions that support regional trends which can be quickly brought to market,” Moore said. “Our team of scientists and highly specialized experts in the field of silicones and 3D printing will be able to offer our business partners valuable technical cooperation and services.”

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[Images: ACEO]