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News
Events
Items from previous Update issues:
CRDM Ltd are pleased to announce the latest addition to our
extensive range of RP materials, the new Alumide® aluminium filled SLS material. Alumide® lends itself perfectly to the manufacture of extremely rigid parts with a metallic appearance and high temperature resistance. Uses range from and include Wind-tunnel test models, aluminium-like appearance models, tooling, jigs and fixtures. Surfaces can easily be hand or machine finished to obtain a polished metallic look. Alumide® can also be readily machined, turned, drilled and tapped. Other SLS (Selective Laser Sintering)
prototyping materials available from CRDM include the new Carbon Strand filled material Windform XT™, and the familiar Duraform PA, and Duraform GF Nylon 12 based materials. Due to their composition, the Alumide® and Windform XT™ material cannot be reused; therefore components are priced on a ‘Block-Build’ costing structure, based on the highest point in the ‘Z’ direction. This ‘Block’ of powder can be used to build one off, or multiples of the same, or indeed as many different parts that will fit in the build envelope, thus amortizing the ‘Block’ cost over many parts. Specification sheets of all our materials can be found on www.crdm.co.uk
20μm powder + new software = Excellent metal components!
A major advancement in the building of metal components has been the release of the new ‘EOSTYLE’ software from the system manufacturer EOS.
The new generation software now allows the construction of very
complicated part geometry, including undercuts and enclosed volumes, with minimal support structure interference. This development now makes the prototyping, and low volume manufacture of metal components, a real alternative to metal casting or machining, and much faster. The two materials available from CRDM are the DM20 (Nickel-Bronze) and the DS20 (Steel), as illustrated by the cylinder head image.
The EOS Xtended system is regularly used by CRDM’s Aerospace and F1 customers for wind-tunnel testing due to the materials rigidity and associated weight characteristics.
Functional prototypes for the medical and automotive sectors,
and even low-volume production components for the nuclear industry, have all benefited from the inherent strength of this material. CRDM have upgraded their popular Vantico 7580 SLA resin to the new Somos 14120 ABS mimic. With new improved
strength and cleaner build characteristics, coupled with easier finishing, the new 14120 resin will give our users even
greater performance, and maintain the ABS mimic as one of our most popular choices. The new resin now joins our current list of resins including:-
- Somos 14120- ABS mimic
- Somos 9120- PP mimic
- 9120s - PE mimic
- Somos 11120 ‘Watershed’- Waterproof/water clear (after polishing)
Data sheets for all of our SLA resins can be found on our web site
www.crdm.co.uk
Houghton-Parkhouse of Milnthorpe, Cumbria, have recently trialled their new patented hydraulic timing and valve lifting system with the help of CRDM Ltd. The prototype cam-less cylinder head has around 9kg less mass, around 85mm lower height, and negates the need for pressure lubrication. It also has positive opening and closing of the valves, which can be positioned optimally with no compromise caused by cam shaft positioning or oil feed and scavenging. CRDM delivered the 16 fully machined aluminium investment cast valve actuators ahead of schedule, affording Houghton-Parkhouse added bonus time to their development programme.
Houghton-Parkhouse promises eventually to be able to vary both the valve lift and timing simultaneously for both inlet and exhaust valves. This revolutionary system should also allow greatly elevated RPM levels.
Two New Mikron Machining Centres arrive at CRDM
Still reeling from the success of Medical Device Technology 2006 exhibition at the NEC in February, CRDM has three more dates for your diary where you can come meet us and see examples of our services. They are:- North West Manufacturing 2006 – 7th - 8th June 2006, Reebok Stadium, Bolton TCT 2006 – 19th - 20th September 2006, Heritage Motor Museum, Gaydon Euromold – 29th Nov - 2nd Dec 2006, Frankfurt, Germany Houghton Parkhouse of Milnthorpe, Cumbria, have recently trialled their new patented hydraulic timing and valve lifting system with the help of CRDM Ltd. The prototype cam-less cylinder head has around 9kg less mass, around 85mm lower height, and negates the need for pressure lubrication. It also has positive opening and closing of the valves, which can be positioned optimally with no compromise
caused by cam shaft positioning or oil feed and scavenging. CRDM delivered the 16 fully machined aluminium investment cast valve actuators ahead of schedule, affording Houghton-Parkhouse added bonus time to their development programme. Houghton-Parkhouse promises eventually to be able to vary both the valve lift and timing
simultaneously for both inlet and exhaust valves. This revolutionary system should also allow greatly elevated RPM levels.
Our on-line quoting facility has proved a great success with our customers since being introduced last year. As a reward for those currently using the service and to encourage more of you to use it, we are now offering 10% reduction on all SLS, SLA and Envisiontec models quoted for On-Line. If you are a current user of CRDM, but still do not have access, please email crdm@crdm.co.uk for your access codes and enjoy a 10% off your usual prices. The On-line quoting link is found on our home page along with our Rapid - Tooling quotation forms at www.crdm.co.uk
CRDM Ltd proudly took delivery of two new Mikron VCP 600 machining centres at the beginning of March 2006. Both machines are equipped with high speed tool changers storing up to 30 tools per machine. This function now gives CRDM the ability to offer a near 24/7 ‘lights out toolroom’ operation resulting in faster cycle times and reduced manual hours. All these factors have reduced the overall cost of producing machined components and has
increased our competitiveness when seen in comparison with cheaper foreign imports on injection mould tooling. The 600mm(X) x 450mm(Y) x 450mm(Z) working envelope provides the optimum
size to partner our unique rapid tooling operation here at CRDM. The seamless transition from Direct Metal Laser Sintered inserts (DMLS) and CNC machined Aluminium tooling, on to one of our
three in-house moulding machines, has made CRDM the natural choice for fast prototype and low volume production components by
the Aerospace, Automotive, Medical and Consumer Product sectors.
CRDM took delivery of our new, eagerly awaited, ‘EOSINT M 250 Xtended' Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) machine late last year. The system, following commissioning and staff re-training, was fully operational in January 2005. By way of introducing the system during commissioning, we produced our first steel injection mould tool on the new machine for last year's Christmas card (as shown above). Following on from the great success with the 50 micron Nickel-Bronze powder used for the last three years for tooling and components, the progression to 20 micron powder was in response to demands from our customers for better surface finishes and more accurate stand alone metal components.
This new system gives us all that and more. The latest ‘EOSTYLE' component build software has a new support structure configuration which can be positioned remote to the actual component reducing messy surfaces where the support once made contact with the part. This means that very intricate shapes can now be produced, and in a range of layer thicknesses from 20 micron up to 60 micron. In varying the layer thickness during the build in appropriate areas, the most economic utilisation of the machine's time is obtained, and ultimately at the best price for you. The most noticeable difference from this new system and the old one are seen in the excellent surface finish achieved straight from the machine (see Christmas tree tool). Another plus is that we can now produce tooling and components in Steel powder as well as Nickel-Bronze. In tooling terms this means with the 20 micron powder we only have porosity of between 2-5%, so now polished tool surfaces, leave no visible porosity witness on components, even on searching materials like PP and PE .
The Nickel- Bronze (DM20) tooling, benefiting from the higher density, will yield 20-30,000 parts, as it has a greater wear resistance than a hard aluminium tooling stock. The Steel powder (DS20), in tooling terms, results in volumes of up to 100-200,000 components, thus offering a reasonable production tooling solution to a wide range of products. The hardness of the DS20 is very close P20 Steel. This year, experiments are due to begin on the possibility of using the tooling system for Zinc pressure die casting. As soon as we have some results they will be published here. The concept of ‘growing' components and tooling, rather than removing waste material to achieve your desired geometry, opens up endless possibilities of alternative manufacture.
During the building of an injection mould tool for instance, core and cavity, con-formal cooling, gates and feeds, ejector pin holes and fixing details can all be included into one operation. This has a marked effect on cost and lead-time as geometry, once dependant on only being formed by EDM, is now built layer by layer, hence negating the need for electrodes and their additional cost and lead-times. The EOS Xtended system is already being used by Aerospace and F1 companies for wind-tunnel testing due to the materials rigidity and associated weight characteristics. The inherent strength of the material, due to the high density, has leant itself to functional prototypes for the medical and automotive sectors, and low-volume production components for the nuclear industry.
To complement our DMLS Rapid Tooling service we can now offer in house moulding up to 266g shot weight on our stale-of-the art Billion Proxima 80 tonne. Rapid Tooling needs Rapid Moulding 1o be effective. Tool trials and the inevitable tweaking stage are now kept to an absolute 2-3 weeks of moulded parts. Moulding set up charges can be prohibitive on small call-offs, but at CRDM we offer a storage and advantage of a one-off set up charge for your total order. The computer controlled Proxima enables; conditions and relevant data to be stored for the hundreds ot currently active insets we store. This conformity every lime
The simplicity of the CRDM DMLS Rapid Tooling system lightens the cost burden of low-volume production and prototype moulding system. The customer pays only for the tooling inserts themselves, which when removed from the bolster, are stored for future use.If you have
experienced 'Cost over Volume' problems on your
production parts then maybe CRDM has the
answer. Fast Prototype and low volume production
moulding, is our speciality.
CRDM are producing sintered metal components, as well as tooling, on the EOSINT M 250 Direct Metal Laser Sintering Station. Demand has increased as more and more people realise that some prototype metal components only have to weigh and feel the same for ergonomic testing and initial trials, rather than being in the target materials, and are available in only 2-3 days. Components have successfully been used for wind tunnel test models, water flow analysis (propeller) and chromed trade fair exhibits,
CRDM Research is actively involved in research initiatives and programmes, and has been successful at the European level by initiating a successful proposal on a "Lights-out" rapid automated tooling system (FASTOOL). As pan of this 3.7 million collaborative project, which brings together tour leading European research organisations, a fully automate machine shop. integrating a high-speed milling and electro-discharge machine, with a gantry system for transporting tools and parts, is being designed and built at CRDM. When this facility is operational, it will be used for training toolmaking personnel as part of the dissemination plan associated with this project.
The new 2.3 litre Rocket III is the latest Motorcycle to be released by Triumph Motorcycles. The & Rocket was first shown at the Milan Motorcycle Exhibition in September 2003. This was followed by a UK debut at the Motorcycle Show in Birmingham in November. As both of these events preceded production by several months, special show bikes were requested for display. These show bikes, one of which is shown below, were produced by Triumph in conjunction with CRDM.
Manufacturing techniques like rubber over-moulding on lo metal substructures and bright vacuum metalised , chrome visual components were some of the technically difficult processes that Triumph Motorcycles required to produce the desired 'production-quality' look and feel. With the first show looming, Triumph knew that they could depend on CRDM lo deliver the prototype components they needed using the comprehensive range of RP services.
This included, SLS, SLA, vacuum casting and thermoplastic injection moulded components using our DMLS rapid tooling system. CRDM also supported Triumph's designers with design intent aluminium and stainless steel components using sand and investment casting techniques from RP patterns. All components were supplied fully machined, heat treated and finished.
If the components you design are very small and have highly detailed surfaces and geometry, and you have experienced problems with the technical level achievable on some RP systems then we have some good news for you.
The Envisiontec Perfactory System has revolutionised the ability to produce very intricate highly accurate prototype models. This unique system, which CRDM are now offering, builds in just 20 micron layers, leaving hardly any Perfactory System evidence of the layer construction, virtually eliminating post finishing. Furthermore, this system works like no other RP system in the fact that it builds 'upside down'. The mode! leaves the resin tank as opposed to submerging into it. This technique reduces the need for the hand removal of obtrusive build support structure (a major problem on very small parts), thus maintaining component accuracy. This system uses light to cure the resin similar to SLA modelling, not via a laser but by a standard light bulb. The Perfactory System uses an array of one million tiny mirrors which are independently controlled by a computer.
When a mirror is positioned in such a way it reflects the light projected by the bulb on the build platform and set in another way it doesn't. In this way the machine generates what is effectively a mask of that particular sti. layer and when the light flashes the whole of the build area can be exposed, resulting in one layer being cured in one go rather than a single laser busily tracing around every aspect of the geometry. This as you can imagine, increases the Z height build time to a staggering 25mm per hour. Details of the resins available will be posted on our web site as soon as we have them, but they range from flexible to rigid, are in a variety of colours, and one particular resin has been designed for use as patterns for investment casting. Industries that have taken to this process so far include miniature models, jewellery and the medical sector but the applications are endless.
To keep our customers as informed as possible and to streamline our despatch operations, CRDM has installed an automatic despatch notification system. When orders are despatched an email is automatically sent to the client notifying them of the parts, including quantity, that have been shipped, the carrier and service that has been used are also shown. This system will shortly be extended in the early summer 2005, to include the carrier tracking number, allowing clients to track and trace their deliveries on the web, or through a direct link in the email. The time and signature for a delivery can then be easily obtained, often speeding up the collection of important parts from a busy goods-in area. This, coupled with our new barcode scanning based internal tracking system of models as they move from department to department, results in a smooth traceable transition from receipt of order to despatch for your model. This can be quickly viewed by your project manager for an instant update of your orders progress. |
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