News from DN Solutions, Farsoon, Grenzebach, and Omni3D.
The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) is back this week, dominating McCormick Place and filling the Windy City with even more hot air than usual. My colleague, Jim Anderton, has compared the event to drinking from a firehose, and for good reason. With so many attendees, exhibitors, and announcements, it’s easy to become overwhelmed.
That’s why I want to devote this article to some of the lesser-known names in the additive manufacturing (AM) industry—companies that might not have the biggest booths on the floor, but are nonetheless worth mentioning. Here are a few that caught my eye.
DN Solutions emphasizes hybrid manufacturing
South Korea’s DN Solutions is probably best known as a machine tool manufacturer, or as a subsidiary of DN Automotive (formerly DTR Automotive). But DN Solutions is using IMTS to highlight a new hybrid manufacturing solution: the AM2CNC platform.
As the name implies, the AM2CNC platform is designed to integrate AM and CNC machining into one workflow: from additive preform to qualified part. The idea is to reduce the friction caused by part handoffs between separate machines and vendors during manufacturing. According to a company press release, “Because no two preforms leave the build chamber identical, AM2CNC measures each one directly in the machine and fits the finishing program to where that specific part actually sits…”
DN Solutions is demonstrating AM2CNC using its DLX 450 laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) machine to build the preforms and the DVF 5000 5-axis mill to do the finishing and tapping.
Check out the company’s booth 338919 in the South Building to learn more.
Farsoon Technologies highlights humanoid application
Humanoid robots seem to be all the rage these days. (Don’t believe me? Just take a look at the homepage for our sister publication, The Robot Report.) China-based metal AM supplier Farsoon Technologies is jumping on the bandwagon, showing off a case study involving metal hand components manufactured on its L-PBF systems.
According to the company, the finger joints were created on a machine operating with a 20-µm layer thickness, resulting in dimensional accuracy of ±0.05 mm and vertical surface roughness of less than Ra 3.2 µm. At first blush, this sounds like a great application for L-PBF. Moreover, if the apparent demand for humanoid robots is as high as it appears to be, this could be an enormous opportunity for the AM industry. Unfortunately, this looks to be more proof-of-concept than real customer application, similar to Farsoon’s high-volume demonstration with Stark Future.
Still, it’s always heartening to see new applications of AM, so if you’re interested in checking out the humanoid hand components for yourself, be sure to visit booth 338465 in the South Building.
Grenzebach Additive Solutions pushes automation
A first-time exhibitor at IMTS, Grenzebach Additive Solutions—recently spun out from the Grenzebach Group—is showcasing its vision of an automated production environment that integrates AM capabilities in addition to connecting other machines and processes across manufacturers. While the company has already developed automation solutions for powder-based metal and polymer printing, the new offering is intended to be more comprehensive, including loading and unloading, transport, depowdering, buffer and storage, and support removal.
“We understand the challenges that arise when additive manufacturing moves from individual print jobs to industrial production,” said Dimitrios Livadas, Grenzebach Additive Solutions CEO, in a press release. “Our experience shows that the performance of individual machines alone is not what matters. What is decisive is how reliably the entire production environment works together. That is why we are combining our automation and integration expertise into a manufacturer-independent end-to-end offering and taking responsibility for the overall project.”
In other words, the company is taking a manufacturer-agnostic approach, contributing its own machines and automation solutions for post-processing along with the integration work of connecting them to existing equipment from other manufacturers. Grenzebach Additive Solutions is demonstrating what that might look like in the South Building, booth 338364.
Omni3D touts defense applications
Another IMTS newcomer, Poland-based Omni3D just announced the establishment of its U.S. headquarters in Alexandria, VA along with a new distribution agreement with Building Momentum which offers services for hardware integration, field support, material validation, and defense procurement compliance. Focusing primarily on manufacturing support applications, Omni3D builds metal and polymer AM systems, the latter of which can extrude CF-PA12, PEKK-A, PEI 9085, and other high-temperature formulations.
Omni3D and Building Momentum are showing off their industrial hardware this week, with live operational demonstrations of the OmniPro HT, which includes an actively heated 220 °C chamber, dual directional extruders and closed-loop motion control. Attendees can also see demonstrations of field-deployable additive logistics, including a 20-foot containerized Tactical Fabrication Unit, the OmniM150 and OmniM280 metal L-PBF platforms, and “combat-tested” 3D printed UAVs.
Visit the Omni3D booth 338591 in the South Building to learn more.
