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www.us- tech.com Production


Are you getting to the bottom of your via?


Will Additive Manufacturing


Replace Injection Molding? By Preston Souza, 3D Printing Product Specialist, igus, Inc.


A


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dditive manufacturing refers to a process by which digital 3D design data is used to build up a part in layers by depositing material. It has many advantages over conventional “subtractive” manufacturing. Ac-


cording to Paul Gomer, additive manufacturing development engineer, igus, the advantages are obvious. “I can produce customer-specific components in a short time, without any tool molds or changeover costs,” says Gomer. The customer benefits immensely from this, because they receive their


specific part quickly and at a lower price, which is why igus has significantly increased capacities in additive manufacturing. In addition to the FDM and SLA printers, the majority of the 3D-printed special solutions are now pro- duced on SLS printers with two available tribo materials. Injection molding still allows for significantly higher throughput and


lower costs. “It always depends, so I only need one or two parts, a small or medium series or do I go into mass production?” says Gomer. “Depending on the answer, as a customer I choose the manufacturing process that suits me and keeps costs down.” Wear resistance when manufacturing special parts is igus’ focus. Com-


parative tests in the company’s laboratory have shown that the wear resist- ance of additively manufactured parts is comparable to that of corresponding injection-molded parts. However, the material selection in 3D printing is still much less than in injection molding. For example, injection molding can still create reinforced materials that cannot currently be processed by 3D printing.


New Materials As far as the development of new materials for 3D printing, Gomer says,


“In principle, many materials can already be processed using 3D printing, for example, ceramics, metals, standard, technical plastics, and high-perform- ance polymers.” The industry is also seeing well-known materials suppliers begin to be


involved in the field. Now there are materials that are specifically adapted for 3D printing — materials that were previously considered impossible — such as those for filament printing. This also makes the materials easier to process and the parts much more resilient, allowing the use of 3D printing in demand- ing areas and industries. “An exciting question is the economical (series) production of multi-materi-


al components for the introduction of even more targeted material properties,” says Gomer. In individual cases, hard-soft combinations can already be imple- mented, but further technological developments are still required for scalability. The FDM process is currently more suitable than SLS, as the technolo-


gy is less demanding, but more flexible. Due to the higher productivity of the SLS process, the handling of multi-materials must be developed further. The challenge remains for the user and the designer to offer an estab-


lished and broader selection of materials with reliable and traceable material properties. One part of the challenge is to improve the orientation-dependent and process-specific anisotropic property differences. Another aspect is com- pliance with quality assurance standards, which are required for many indus- tries, such as automotive and aerospace. The company recently developed its lubricant-free material iglide J350 into


a tribo filament. “To do this, we required a new, high-temperature printer that could process the filmant,” says Gomer. “In the new 3D printer, we rely on igus standard components that work reliably even at high installation space temper- atures. We use a nozzle that functions at temperatures of up to 752°F (400°C).” The filament can melt. With iglide J350, igus was able to develop a new


filament for high-temperature environments and test it extensively. The high- performance plastic is characterized by its extremely high wear resistance and low coefficients of friction on steel. The endurance runner is particularly suitable for rotations and has a high dimensional stability at temperatures of up to 356°F (180°C). Medium-to-high loads are no problem for iglide J350. “When developing a new material, we respond to specific customer re-


quests that result from a wide range of applications,” says Gomer. At the same time, materials must meet industry-specific requirements and be easy to process.


3D Printing Service In igus’ 3D printing service, the customer can upload the STEP file of


their desired component, after which they have the option to choose the right material for the application. This also determines the manufacturing process. For example, if the customer would like to produce a part ready for se-


ries production from an iglide material that the company cannot process using 3D printing, the Print2Mould process is excellent. “Here we manufacture an injection-molding tool in 3D printing, which is


inserted into the injection molding machine. The customer can also have their part manufactured using the SLS process with our two laser sintering mate- rials iglide I3 and iglide I6, or use 3D printing of their part with the FDM process and one of our seven tribologically optimized FDM materials,” says Gomer. “The customer always has a wide selection of materials, as well as a transparent cost overview, and can easily order their desired part online at


any time.” Contact: igus, Inc., P.O. Box 14349, East Providence, RI 02914 % 800-521-2747 E-mail: cdennen@igus.com Web: www.igus.com r


May, 2020


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