Stratasys breaking traditional manufacturing barriers at IMTS

By Niraj M Wanikar, Chief Editor, CNCTimes.com, 2016-09-08 12:22:00

The future of 3D printing isn’t about making the same parts in another way. It’s about making parts that couldn’t be made before, or parts that couldn’t be made cost-effectively before. At IMTS, Stratasys will be demonstrating how it is able to achieve both of those goals.

If an aircraft OEM, interiors supplier or airline wants to truly differentiate the passenger experience, the future includes highly specialized and customized cabin interiors – typically an expensive prospect. But building on our success using FDM 3D printing for non-loaded or lightly-loaded aircraft interiors, the new Infinite-Build 3D Demonstrator shows what’s possible when size constraints are eliminated and speed and repeatability are increased by an order of magnitude or more.

At IMTS, a customized, 3D printed aircraft interior panel will be on display to help our customers begin to think about the possibilities available with this next generation technology. Boeing and Ford representatives will be sharing how this approach is poised to impact their abilities on the manufacturing floor.

Stratasys Robotic Composite 3D Demonstrator
But the aerospace and automotive industries are looking to do much more than offer customization without the cost, they need to increase performance while reducing weight. Composite materials have been adopted throughout the aerospace and automotive industries specifically for that purpose, but there is significant untapped potential in unlocking composite manufacturing from its current constraints.

Most composite manufacture is highly labor intensive, and designs are constrained by mold geometries or by woven sheet materials. By bringing together the design freedom enabled by FDM 3D printing, the material systems of composite manufacture, and the multi-axis motion control of industrial robotics, we are able to show the industry something new – the Robotic Composite 3D Demonstrator.

The demonstration parts you’ll see 3D printing in the Stratasys booth will directionally align carbon fiber reinforcement with eight degrees of freedom. These are parts that can’t be hand laid-up because of the complex geometry, nor can they be produced with filament winding or other automated technologies. These parts also can’t be 3D printed in the traditional, layer-by-layer approach. What this means for composite manufacture is a whole new generation of parts that can be optimized to a degree never before possible. Aligning reinforcement within complex, organic geometries will result in consolidated assemblies of incredibly lightweight structural parts.

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