Arburg will be presenting a new concept at the leading trade fair for additive manufacturing, the formnext in Frankfurt (Germany), to be held from November 14 to 17, 2017: More than 40 examples of functional components will be on view, impressively demonstrating the industrial capabilities of Arburg Plastic Freeforming (APF). At four interactive stations, visitors to the trade fair will be able to "evaluate" the quality of selected parts produced using the APF process for themselves. A Freeformer exhibit will also process standard PP (Moplen), as well as the specially developed Armat 12 support material "live" to produce cable clips. Arburg experts will use a second Freeformer to explain the functionalities and wide range of applications of the open system.
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At the formnext 2017, a Freeformer will use standard PP (Moplen). |
"Our aim at this leading trade fair is to demonstrate to existing and prospective customers in practice that the Freeformer and the APF process are not only suitable for prototyping, but also for industrial additive manufacturing," explains Eberhard Lutz, Director Freeformer Sales at Arburg. "That's why in addition to two Freeformer exhibits, we've also set up four interactive stations where visitors will be able to pick up a total of twelve parts, enabling them to evaluate their functionality and quality for themselves "hands on".
Products made from standard PP, as well as functional components from further original materials will be shown in the areas of medical technology and aviation."
Freeformer now also processes semi-crystalline materials
"By qualifying standard PP and the new support material Armat 12, we have achieved a significant breakthrough in extending the range of materials suitable for industrial additive manufacturing," says Dr Eberhard Duffner, Divisional Manager Development and Plastic Freeforming at Arburg. "The trend in this sector is quite clearly towards even faster and higher-quality production of genuine functional parts."
At the formnext 2017, a Freeformer will use PP (Moplen) and the new Armat 12 support material, which is subsequently dissolved in a water bath, to produce fully functional cable clips. The delicate yet durable structures have the click effect typically found in injection moulding.
Wide range of support materials
During the development of new support materials for the Freeformer, Arburg collaborates with universities and established material partners, etc. The new water-soluble support material Armat 12 has been specially designed for processing PP. The water-soluble support material Armat 11 has also been significantly improved upon. Moreover, Armat 21, an alkaline-soluble alternative, has been available since early 2017.
Open system
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Since early 2017, six Freeformers have been used to produce samples for prospective customers at the Arburg Prototyping Center. |
One great advantage of APF is that the process can be adapted to the requirements at hand and not the other way round. In addition to amorphous standard granulates such as ABS, PA and PC, the material range includes many other materials. These include, for example, elastic TPE, the high-temperature plastic PEI, medical PLA, PC approved for the aviation industry, and now also semi-crystalline PP.
The open system affords users independence: Freeformer customers can qualify their own original material and optimise the freely programmable process parameters specifically to the relevant application - starting from the settings for the geometrical slicing and temperature, through to discharge. All of this process data can be saved and analysed, and designs can be optimised quickly in order to produce prototypes and functional parts quickly and cost-effectively with the Freeformer.
The better the process is configured, the better the quality of the part produced. Mechanical stress tests show that component densities of up to 95 percent and tensile strengths of up to 97 percent can be achieved control compared to injection moulding by means of adapted process.
About Arburg
A German family-owned company, Arburg is one of the leading global manufacturers of plastic processing machines. The product portfolio encompasses Allrounder injection moulding machines with clamping forces of between 125 and 6,500 kN, the Freeformer for industrial additive manufacturing and robotic systems, customer and industry-specific turnkey solutions and further peripheral equipment.
The company places the topic of production efficiency at the centre of all its activities, taking into account the entire value-added chain. The objective is to enable ARBURG customers to manufacture their plastic products, whether as one-off parts or in high-volume production, with optimal quality and at minimum unit costs – e.g. for the automotive and packaging industries, communication and entertainment electronics, medical technology or the white goods sector.
An international sales and service network guarantees first-class, local customer support. Arburg is represented by its own organisations at 33 locations in 25 countries and by trading partners in more than 50 countries. The machines are produced exclusively at the parent company in Lossburg, Germany. Of a total of around 2,800 employees, about 2,300 work in Germany. About 500 further employees work in Arburg's organisations around the world. In 2012, Arburg became one of the first companies to gain triple certification: to ISO 9001 (Quality), ISO 14001 (Environment) and ISO 50001 (Energy).
