MATERIALS | 3D PRINTING
Arburg’s Freeformer 300-3X features three discharge units and a two- piece build chamber door. Photo: Arburg
grown AM technology, which it calls APF – Arburg Plastic Freeforming. At Formnext 2018, it premiered the large
Freeformer 300-3X, equipped with three discharge units. “It is the world’s first machine capable of additively manufacturing complex functional parts in a resilient hard/soft combination with support structure,” Arburg says. As is now generally well-known, one advantage of APF is that it works with granulates of the same type as those used in injection moulding. That could be a critical factor for Arburg getting its Freeformers through the doors of injection moulding companies. The designation 300 stands for the available
platform surface area in square centimetres. The build chamber offers space for larger small-volume batches and parts with dimensions of up to 234 x 134 x 230 mm. The Freeformer 300-3X can also be integrated into networked production lines via an automated process. Arburg says the Freeformer 300-3X can make
such parts as movable gripper fingers in a combina- tion of ABS and TPE, together with a support material. Elements become movable once the support material has been removed using an alkaline solvent. No additional assembly effort is required. As with other AM technologies, medical is an
important market for APF, if only because the numbers of identical parts required can often be quite low. Arburg says that soft materials such as an FDA-approved TPE like Teknor Apex’s Medalist MD 12130H (hardness 32 Shore A) can currently only be processed into parts such as respiratory mask components using the APF process. The Freeformer has also been used to make
resorbable implants such as cranial and finger bones made from medical PLA, which do not need to be surgically removed when healing is complete
– as well as permanent implants (for example, for use in the spinal column) in a special type of thermoplastic polyurethane, PCU. The APF process makes it possible to change the filling level of the component in a targeted manner while maintaining the same parameters and thereby vary the mechanical properties. In the case of TPE, for example, this results in different Shore hardnesses. Different material densities can also be realised within a part. A honeycomb test sample demonstrates how such TPE components can be used, for instance, in lightweight construc- tion or for filter elements. “Using the example of a ‘spider membrane’, it could be demonstrated that the component is tear-resistant and leakproof although it is made up of only two layers of TPE,” Arburg says.
Above: The Freeformer 300-3X is currently the only AM machine capable of making resilient functional components in hard/soft combinations. Photo shows a movable gripper finger
38 INJECTION WORLD | June 2019
CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: �
www.dupont.com �
www.evonik.com �
www.tpm3d.com �
https://taulman3d.com �
www.sabic.com �
www.victrex.com �
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www.dsm.com �
www.stratasys.com �
www.origin.io �
www.ceadgroup.com �
https://adaptive3d.com/ �
www.structuredpolymers.com �
www.evolveadditive.com �
www.bond3d.com �
https://aerosint.com �
www.lehvoss.de �
https://corporate.ford.com �
www.carbon3d.com �
www.arburg.com
www.injectionworld.com
PHOTO: ARBURG
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