CONTRACT MANUFACTURING PROFILE
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“I was fascinated by the notion that you could ... refl ect the elegance of mathematics in a physical form,” he said during an interview with Manufacturing Engineering in his Northbrook, IL, manufacturing facility. More than that, he was excited by the notion “that you could also produce objects that were not feasible by any other technique.” But when he sought to learn more about the process, he was disappointed. He found it expensive, slow and the parts to be inferior, or not as good as they could be. “And so I became obsessed with it and started thinking about it and trying to fi gure out if maybe there was a better way of doing it,” he said.
METAL FINISHING CAN BE A TALL ORDER
Rosler’s line of roller conveyor shot blast systems are perfect for paint preperation and general cleaning of structural steel and sheet metal.
3D CBAM parts (left to right): Small aircraft rear stabilizer mount, aerospace clevis strut, automotive air foil.
And that’s how Impossible Objects was born.
In 2009, Swartz began developing what he calls CBAM—a composite-based additive manufacturing process unlike anything else in the industry. The company he founded, Impossible Objects, says CBAM is unique in that it creates functional parts using high-strength materials such as carbon fi ber, fi berglass and Kevlar. Industry, in turn, is taking notice: Impossible Objects won SME’s RAPID 2015 Outstanding Innovation Award in May, an impressive feat for a fi rst-year exhibitor.
finding a better way... Rosler Metal Finishing USA is the
leader in mass finishing, shot blasting, automated processes and media - made in the USA. Visit
www.rosler.us or call 269-441-3000 for more information.
Understanding CBAM So how does it work? The process starts with a CAD model sliced into layers and converted into a digital bitmap. That bitmap is printed onto sheets of composite material using an aqueous solution and thermal inkjet technology. Polymer powder is applied to the sheet of material, clinging to the solution in the shape of the bitmap. The layers are stacked, then placed into an oven and heated to the melting point of the powder in order to consolidate the part to its designed height. After the part cools, the excess, uncoated material is removed by abrasive blasting (in the case of carbon fi ber or fi berglass) or a chemical process (in the case of Kevlar).
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AdvancedManufacturing.org | October 2015
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