Manufacturing high-quality pilot moulds through additive technology is becoming more and more accessible. Thanks also to Stratasys that has refined its range introducing 3D printers that, at a very competitive price, produce identical results to those attainable with high-end models, standing out especially for the output and a higher number of usable materials.
With the Object30 Prime and the Rigur material, we can 3D-manufacture moulds for the injection moulding of small batches of about 20/50 units.
The history of Stratasys coincides with the 3D printing one. Better, of “manufacturing systems with additive technology”, as it would be perhaps more opportune to call them to distinguish them from low-cost printers that have exponentially spread over the last few years. The fact that Scott Crump, founder of Stratasys, invented the FDM, or fused deposition modelling technique, by mixing wax and plastic in the kitchen of his home, witnesses that the history of this manufacturing technique is intimately connected with the American company’s. Precisely that technology that nowadays, almost three decades later, is at the base of consumer printers after the expiry of the original patent. In the meantime, Stratasys has not stopped and, besides the industrial manufacturing systems based on this technology (nothing to do with consumer machines in terms of precision, speed and materials), has contemporaneously developed other technologies and other printing systems with the company Objet (which in 2008 presented the first multi-material printer in the world), taken over in 2013 and owner of the other big technological branch of Stratasys: the method of PolyJet advanced additive manufacturing that allows implementing prototypes, parts and tools with smooth surfaces and accurate details. With a layer resolution of 16 microns and a precision level up to 0.1 mm, thanks to this technology it is possible to produce thin walls and complex geometries using a broad range of materials.
Objet30 Prime is ideal for the prototyping of consumer goods and electronics, medical devices, moulds and so on.
Range flexibility
Stratasys has followed this course for years, proposing both suitable production systems for the needs of medium and big companies, released for the first time in 2012, and additive manufacturing systems characterized by such a competitive price as to be appealing for small enterprises, too. In terms of final result, however, they equal the more performing high-end systems. Stratasys has grouped its printers into various families: Idea, Design, Production and Dental. We can give an idea of Stratasys’s offer flexibility analysing for instance two different systems, Object30 Prime and Objet260 Connex 2, both suitable for Italian manufacturing firms since they can produce pilot moulds with the same final quality even if the first costs about one fourth of the second. Certainly, Objet260 Connex 2 has an edge concerning the manufacturing speed and the possibility of using over 140 different materials but Object30 Prime for those not needing highly performing materials and production speed – in other words, the majority of small Italian companies, which might benefit from the introduction of the additive manufacturing into their productive flow -, is certainly a solution that is worth considering. Not fortuitously, while during the last edition of Mecspe, the Italian reference exhibition for the manufacturing industry, Stratasys showcased, among the other machines, the Objet260 Connex 2, this year at Mecspe (17th – 19th March 2016, Parma fairgrounds) in the demo area “Manufacturing with 3D printing”, where we will see in operation an industrial process that starts from the design of a gadget and ends with the injection printing, the mould implementation process (whose accomplishment will be visible to all) will be entrusted to an Object30 Prime.
High-quality moulds with Stratasys Objet30 Prime
«A big number of our customers – states Nadav Sella, Director, Manufacturing Tools of Stratasys – use with full satisfaction the Object30 Prime and the Rigur material to produce in 3D moulds for the injection moulding of small batches of around 20/50 units. Among the other materials, our moulds work with PP, PC, ABS, ASA and TPE». Therefore, we are examining here more in detail this additive printing system and also the Rigur material, mentioned by Sella. Concerning Object30 Prime, it is a machine that couples the accuracy and the versatility of high-end rapid prototyping machines with the minimal overall dimensions of a 3D printer. Based on the PolyJet technology, it offers eight different materials for 3D printing, including transparent materials, resistant to high temperatures and simulated polypropylene, and it is characterized by a high printing resolution, permitting to obtain smooth surfaces, mobile components with small sizes and thin walls. Thanks to the spacious tray of 300 x 200 x 150 mm (11.81 x 7.87 x 5.9 inches), Objet30 Prime is ideal for the prototyping of consumer goods and electronics, medical devices, moulds and so on. With this printer, it is possible to use the rigid opaque materials of Vero family, all designed for the simulation of plastics that faithfully mirror the final product. The available colours are white, black, blue and grey. They are joined by specialized materials like the transparent VeroClear (to simulate optically a transparent thermoplastic like polymethylmethacrylate), the material for high temperature Rigur RGD525 (suitable for moulds, advanced functional tests and flows of hot air and water) and simulated polypropylene materials, Rigur RGD450 and Rigur RDG430, to create parts with uniform surfaces, with mobile hinges, flexible closures and pressurized parts. Finally, Object 30 Prime can also use 2 rubber-like materials and the bio-compatible material Med 610.
The optimized workflow of Objet260 Connex 2 allows notably decreasing the TCO of this printing system, especially thanks to the automated removal of the support and the replacement of materials with the system in operation.
Beyond the limits with Objet260 Connex 2
If the features of Objet30 Prime have already reached a level deserving rightfully the definition of professional additive manufacturing, with Objet260 Connex 2 we can go even further. Its optimized workflow allows notably decreasing the TCO of this printing system, especially thanks to the automated removal of the support and the replacement of materials with the system in operation. The available materials are more numerous, too. Combining two of them in specific concentrations and microstructures, it is possible to produce a range of digital materials with different degrees of translucency, ductility and thermal resistance. A prototype can contain up to 27 materials, without needing assembly, or in a selection of different models all implemented in a single printing process. Moreover: with Objet260 Connex2, it is possible to construct prototypes made of digital, sturdy and bi-component ABS material and to complete the project with a third base materials, for instance the TangoBlack, for the superimposed injection moulding, or a transparent material for the light transmission. In the ambit of propylene-like ambit, it is possible to choose among single sturdy materials able to resist the stress of integrated hinges, flexible pressurized closures or to combine it with a rubber-like material to attain a range of grey tones and Shore A hardness values. In other words, we have just to choose among them, weighing the required investment and the expected applications. Knowing, in any case, that the printed product will be analogous, in the ambit of the same used materials.
