Industry News
Norio Chida Announces Retirement
Norio Chida, Technical Director
Expanded Space + New Printers at ProtoCAM ProtoCAM is expanding! Since
early this year, we’ve been making improvements to increase our space and streamline our workshop design. We opened up a back room area in March of this year to accommodate our new HP Jet Fusion machine and production center. Now, we’re expanding even further;
we’ve just broken through the wall into our new 2000 sq ft space, allowing us many options for creating usable and efficient space in our workshop area and for housing some incoming 3D printers.
Newly Opened Space “There are a couple of things I want to do,” Ron Belknap, ProtoCAM owner, says of the new spaces. “I need a room for our production printers, like the HP Jet Fusion and our fused deposition modeling (FDM) machines, and I need space for our machines that make dirt and dust.” When dirt and dust are created during the finishing process via finishing tools like saws and grinders, these particles can fly through the air and land on newly painted parts. The affected parts would then need to be refinished; thus, an area where the particles can be isolated is ideal. An additional consideration in
utilizing the new space is proper heat cycling. “These machines generate heat,
®
and these rooms can only take so much heat load, so I need to make sure the air conditioning is cycling through these new rooms,” Belknap says. ProtoCAM is considering each possibility throughout this process so as to create the most efficient and productive space. With the new spaces, ProtoCAM is also bringing in some additional printers, including two Fortus FDM machines
and a Fortus Finishing
Touch Smoothing Station, which were acquired from another service provider whose focus has shifted from plastics to producing metals. These printers, along with our current PolyJet machine, will find a home in our workshop area as ProtoCAM begins utilizing the new areas. The newly opened spaces will allow
us to rearrange the back finishing area and printers in a way that is conducive to productivity and allows us to create an open, inviting touring space. We are also looking to establish a learning center area for presenting seminars, and, with the relocation of our PolyJet printer, we hope to create an additional conference room in our office so as to better welcome guests to ProtoCAM. We hope to have made the final arrangements and incorporated all the new printers by the end of 2017.
of Japan High Comm Co., Ltd. has announced his retirement effective at the end of October 2017. Chida is the Technical Director
with Japan High Comm, an engineering and consulting company specializing in manufacturing engineering in various sectors and providing super fast shell drying systems with microwave technology. Chida is responsible for the development of that microwave shell drying system. He has almost 15 years of experience in the microwave technology including food and investment casting.
Chida has authored numerous
technical papers which were presented at ICI Technical Conferences over the years and the World Conference in Investment Casting in Paris, 2016. Prior to his current position,
he spent 25 years in the Technical Research Institute and Production Department at Sumitomo Light Meatal Co., Ltd. He holds M.A. degree in
Mechanical Engineering from Yamagata University. Chida will remain available for
technical assistance in Microwave shell drying for the investment casting industry.
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