FDM technology

Offering the rare treat of a smart choice that’s also super easy, our Dimension team has bundled its popular 3D printers with the materials and accessories that every user needs anyway. The option is called a Dimension 3D Print Pack, and it boasts a nice price incentive versus buying the items separately.

When engineers and designers decide to adopt FDM technology, it’s often because they need time and money savings. The last thing they want to deal with at that stage is surprise costs. Besides...

The Lamborghini Aventador was the Top Gear Car of the Year for 2011. It accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds and boasts a top speed of about 230 mph. It’s 9 percent more powerful, 20 percent more fuel efficient and 6 percent lighter than the previous generation Murciélago. The key to the Aventador’s extreme performance is its light weight carbon-fiber reinforced composite (CFRC) monocoque, the core of its integrated body-chassis.

The component is the result of research involving 3D...

An iconic name in aviation, Piper Aircraft creates single- and twin-engine planes for businesses and individuals. Hydroforming — placing sheet metal against a form and applying pressurized fluid — helps create hundreds of aluminum components from frame to skin.

In the past, Piper used a CNC machine to make aluminum forms. But complex geometries were expensive, lead time could be weeks, and material waste was considerable.

So Piper’s Fred Jones, lead tool designer, worked out a quicker, less...

National Center for Manufacturing Sciences Senior VP Rebecca Taylor recently wrote about how FDM Technology mended a heartache. Her beautiful Corvette convertible, otherwise running great, was stranded for lack of one stupidly simple part: the tray that holds the engine computer.

With spring fast approaching, Taylor issued a distress call to the manufacturing community. Here's her account of how Stratasys Application Engineer Noah Zehringer delivered the joy that is a functioning convertible in...

Don’t miss the uPrint SE 3D Printer in a cameo role on the spring premier of Fox TV’s "Bones." Airing at 8 p.m. Eastern (7 p.m. Central) next Monday, April 2, the show follows a forensic anthropologist, Dr. Temperance Brennan, as she uses her highly developed intelligence (and a few high-tech tools) to help law enforcement solve murder cases.

In Monday’s episode, "Prisoner in the Pipe,” the remains of a body are found in a sewer. According to the script pages we received, Brennan’s team uses...

RedEye On Demand, Stratasys’ digital manufacturing service business, has received AS9100C certification. Achieving this standard in the aerospace industry recognizes that RedEye meets the quality management standards required to provide 3D-printed production parts for aerospace manufacturers, following a rigorous audit process that began in March 2011. The AS9100C standard ensures that a dedicated process is set aside for the way in which manufacturers handle production parts. Interior parts...

This week, I had the pleasure of visiting a designer who uses FDM technology to build devices, test, redesign, check, try, and test again in a highly iterative process. His workshop is full of first-tries, concept models and experimental side projects -- physical evidence of the progress he's made. (You'll hear much more about this customer's heroic successes in the months to come.)

What about you? If you're an engineer or designer, do you work iteratively? I'm especially wondering whether you...

This is the first of many posts in a regular series from Stratasys application engineers, who’ll offer technical advice, new ideas and experienced reflections on Fused Deposition Modeling from an engineering perspective.

One thing that’s true of rapid-prototyping machines across the board is that some post-build processes must be done before a 3D printed or rapid-prototyped part is ready to be used. The parts have been built, but support removal and/or some additional post processing is required.

W...

Advanced Composite Structures (ACS) repairs components for planes and helicopters, and manufactures low-volume composite parts for the aerospace industry. A typical job might include repairing a helicopter blade or building an aircraft camera fairing. Tooling is often a big portion of a job's cost, including layup tools to create composite parts and fixtures for drilling. 

In the past, CNC machining weighed down ACS with heavy costs and lead times. The typical tool cost around $2,000 to make...

An article in MIT’s Technology Review, “ Why 3D Printing Will Go the Way of Virtual Reality,” speaks to the hype surrounding 3D printers today.

While there’s a lot of understandable excitement over 3D printers for consumer use, I have to agree with the author that the vision of the Star Trek-like home replicator, which produces professional-grade consumer products or parts will remain a futuristic dream for some time.

Before we have replicators in our homes, we’ll likely see a step where 3D...

The Department of Defense STARBASE youth program recently placed a large order – roughly $1 million – with Stratasys for another batch of 3D printers. DOD STARBASE locations nationwide now have more than 100 Dimension and uPrint 3D printers being used as classroom technology. 3D printing or rapid prototyping with FDM technoloogy helps the program raise kids’ interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and careers.

The week-long special program engages kids in...

At year-end there are always a ton of “Top 10” and “Best of” lists. At Stratasys, we’ve compiled our “Best of 2011 Webinars” list too. Whether you’re looking for inspiration to maximize your existing additive manufacturing equipment or justification to present your case for securing a rapid prototyping system, grab a cup of coffee and spend a few minutes with a few of Stratasys’ webinars from 2011. We'd love to hear what other webinars you might like to see -- leave your comments below.

7 Ways to...

Until our economy turns around, will you hunker down or invest in technology?

When the economy started to tank, Matt Hlavin, CEO of Thogus Products, a 61-year-old manufacturing company rooted in injection molding and heavily dependent on the automotive industry, chose not to await economic recovery, but to invest in Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology and diversify. His decision has paid off in spades.

With FDM in place, Thogus shifted to small-volume molding and now competes with high-cost...

From the early days of FDM technology, ABS has been the most popular material choice. Today, there is a wider range of FDM materials, and ABS itself has evolved to a number of formulations, each tougher than the original material and offering advantages for specific applications. ABS-M30 (aka ABSplus) is up to 40 percent stronger than standard ABS material and is an ideal material for conceptual prototyping, design verification, and direct digital manufacturing. ABSM30i is even stronger than...

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You’ve heard it before: the advice to innovate to thrive. And in a challenging economy, you may need to innovate just to survive.
 

Nothing gives me a sense of pride more than to hear of a company innovating and thriving with the aid of Stratasys FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) Technology.

An article in the Green Bay Press Gazette profiles Wisconsin Plastics Inc. as a company thriving in a tough economy with some help from FDM. The article refers to the manufacturer’s FDM machine as “the jewel”...

Indian Springs Manufacturing Company, Inc., specializes in CNC machining and manufacturing and also manufactures and distributes hazardous material containment and air cleaner kits. Both sides of the business require quickly produced, high-quality models for testing form, fit and function.

However, working with outside service bureaus and producing models on their own manufacturing machines both proved too costly in terms of time and money.  "When uPrint came out, we jumped at it because we liked...

Deploying a robot in space takes preparation. To help astronauts train to use Robonaut 2 (R2), a humanoid helper, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on its final flight, engineers used RedEye On Demand's rapid prototyping service to create a full-scale, high-fidelity mockup.

Created by high-tech firm Wyle, R2 works alongside astronauts, taking over repetitive and dangerous tasks. So the mockup had to duplicate the geometry of the actual R2, with poseable limbs and an ability to withstand rough...

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology is helping manufacturers get complex products to market more quickly and at less expense than more traditional manufacturing processes. Following are just a few examples of the advantages offered:

Repeatability. Fused Deposition Modeling uses thermoplastic material, which provides for more consistent, finely finished models and parts, speeding your product to market faster.

Digital technology. With only a change to the CAD data, new variations of products...

The University of Minnesota Formula SAE Team found that FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) is a powerful tool and teamed with RedEye's rapid prototyping capibilities to help fine-tune their designs and build their low-volume custom parts.

In total, three complete intake assemblies were built out of FDM ULTEM 9085.  One assembly was used on their dynamometer in the lab.  That one was used to get their manufacturing process sorted out.   

The maroon and gold assembly that is shown on the car was...