Additive manufacturing and post processing

The Concept Laser Mlab 200R is a type of laser metal additive manufacturing machine. It is designed for use in various research, manufacturing and production environments and offers high accuracy and fast printing speeds. It supports a range of metal powder materials and is compatible with a range of software platforms for file preparation and control.

The Concept Laser M2 Dual Laser is a high-performance industrial-grade 3D printer. It is designed for the production of complex metal parts and components using the process of laser powderbed fusion. The machine features a pair of high-precision lasers, a variety of recoater types, an optionally heated build plate and advanced software that allows for customizable layer thickness and optimized material usage. It is widely used in aerospace, automotive, and medical device industries for the production of functional prototypes and end-use parts. 

The Arcam Electron Beam Melting A2X machine is a manufacturing process used to produce high-quality metal parts. This process uses an electron beam to melt and fuse metal powders in a heated chamber high vacuum environment. The electron beam heats the metal powder to a high temperature, causing it to melt and fuse together. This process can be used to produce parts with very good chemistry, accuracy and consistency. It is often used in aerospace and medical industries to produce complex and critical components.

The Arcam Electron Beam Melting Spectra H is a manufacturing process used to produce high-quality metal parts. This process uses an electron beam to melt and fuse metal powders in a heated chamber high vacuum environment. The electron beam heats the metal powder to a high temperature, causing it to melt and fuse together. This technology is used for applications in aerospace, defence, and medical industries as it provides high quality and consistency in the end product. This process can be used to produce parts with very good chemistry, accuracy and consistency. It is often used in aerospace and medical industries to produce complex and critical components.

The Lithoz CeraFab 7500 is a high-precision digital ceramic 3D printer. It has a wide range of applications including biomedical implants, opto-electronics, and in high-tech industries for the production of parts with exceptional accuracy, strength, and surface finish.

The DeltaWASP 40100 Clay is a large format ceramic 3D printer. It is accurate and reliable, and is used for Prototyping and small- scale manufacturing of clay, concrete, earthenware, porcelain, and refractory materials.

The 3D Platform 200 Series Workbench Classic is a large format filament 3D printer, capable of handling significantly larger parts than standard desktop 3D printers. It has a durable construction to meet the demands of industrial applications, and is equipped with dual extruders with individual temperature controls.

The Prusa i3 MK3S is a desktop filament 3D printer. It is typically used for small jobs and the production of prototype parts.

The AON M2+ is a high temperature filament 3D printer for the production of strong, high- performance parts with high crystallinity and reduced porosity in materials such as PEEK, PEKK, and ULTEM. It is equipped with independent dual extruders, and process controls such as water- cooled hot ends and an actively heated build chamber.

The Intamsys Funmat HT is a high temperature filament 3D printer for the production of strong, high- performance parts in materials such as PEEK, PEKK, and ULTEM.

The Phrozen Sonic Mini 8K is an ultra- high resolution LCD resin 3D printer. With an 8K LCD resulting in 22 μm lateral resolution, it is useful when a very high level of detail is required for intricate parts.

The Phrozen Sonic Mega 8K is an ultra- high resolution LCD resin 3D printer. With an 8K LCD resulting in 43 μm lateral resolution, it is useful when a very high level of detail is required for large parts.

The Formlabs Form 3+ is optimised for biocompatible resins. It uses a system of lenses and mirrors to achieve accurate and reliable parts, with high detail and smooth surface finish.

The Stirweld Friction Stir Welding (FSW) head is an attachment that allows existing 3, 4, or 5-axis CNC machine tools to perform friction stir welds. 

It uses a spring-loaded tool holder that protects the spindle against loads and vibrations.  When the head is brought a set distance from the workpieces, the springs are compressed and the resultant forging force pushes the rotating tool into the material, generating the friction, heat, and compression required to make successful welds.

The TURBULA T 2 GE 3D Shaker Mixer is used for blending powders and granular materials of different specific weights and particle sizes to produce homogeneous mixtures.

It features a programmable 3D motion, infinitely variable speed regulation, and timer function, to allow for standardised processes with reproducible results.

The Noztek Pro extruder is used for manufacturing custom filament from pellets as either pure polymer or blended polymer mixtures.

It has a maximum temperature of 300°C, Ø1.75 and Ø2.85mm dies, and is capable of extruding 2.5m per minute.

The Noztek fusionX extruder is a single screw hot melt extruder used for exotic material manufacturing.

It has interchangeable blending blades to help refine the mixing process, three independent temperature sensors, and the ability to connect to a computer for accurate real- time monitoring. It has a maximum temperature of 450°C.

Materialise Magics is a file editing and build preparation application.

It is used for converting files, repairing and optimising
models, generating supports, slicing builds, and outputting build geometry to a format that can be understood by the 3D printers.

FLOW-3D is a simulation application used to study the flow of liquid or gas through complex structures using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).

It can also be used to understand how the melting and layering processes work in various additive manufacturing technologies.

SolidWorks is an industry-standard application for the designing and engineering of parts and assemblies.

It is capable of solid and surface modelling of highly complex parts, and because of its parametric modelling approach these parts are also highly modifiable.

It is used for creating parts for additive manufacturing.

Rhino is an application that uses Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) in the modelling of complex surfaces.

Its modelling ability, point cloud support, and compatibility with a large range of file formats, makes Rhino a powerful and versatile tool for designing parts and editing meshes for additive manufacturing.

Simplify3D is a build preparation application.

It is used for generating infills and supports, slicing builds, and outputting build geometry to g- code that can be understood by the 3D printers.

Ansys is an extremely powerful simulator and solver application.

It is used for conducting Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), and quickly and accurately analysing alternate design scenarios to establish a preferred design solution.

Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) uses an elevated temperature and high isostatic gas pressure to eliminate internal defects and achieve as close to a fully dense material as possible.

Metal AM parts could contain internal defects such as shrinkage and gas porosity, lack of fusion between layers and residual porosity after sintering. These internal defects could act as stress concentration and crack initiation sites in the material which in turn could negatively affect the material properties and performance of the parts.

This HIP system is capable of Ultra Rapid Quenching (URQ) and Ultra Rapid Cooling (URC), a capability not found on most other HIP systems. For certain alloys, this allows HIP and solution heat treatment to be consolidated into a single step.

The Electrical Discharge Machine (EDM) uses a controlled electrical discharge to perform non-contact, high precision machining of a workpiece immersed in dielectric fluid by a wire electrode.

It is primarily used for removing metal AM parts from build plates, and profiling tensile bars for mechanical testing.

We have two blasting cabinets, one with glass beads and the other with garnet media, for the surface finishing of parts.

The ceramic mass-finisher is a vibratory machine for the surface finishing of parts, it has three grades of aggregate - coarse, medium, and fine.

The lapidary tumbler is a rotary machine for the surface finishing of parts, it tumbles the parts in an aggregate of the same material (usually supports from printing the parts that have been removed).