Fabric Group Successfully Commercializing Micro Additive Manufacturing & DRST
Fabrica Group (formerly Nanofabrica) has just returned from a highly successful time at the RAPID + TCT event in Chicago, IL, USA, where it was for the first time able to discuss its Micro AM technology with manufacturers face-to-face as COVID-19 travel restrictions are relaxed.
Talking with Avi Cohen, Executive Vice President for Sales at Fabrica Group, we have learn that the company is at an exciting point in its development, and is now successfully selling its technology to companies that are responding to the growing demand for miniaturisation of parts and components — whether this has been driven by cost saving requirements, the need for increased functionality within smaller footprint products, or to help with such issues as light-weighting. Before the introduction of the Fabrica 2.0 Micro AM System, the inability of traditional AM processes to attain micron level tolerances repeatably meant that manufacturers had to rely on conventional production processes for miniature parts.
Traditional micro molding is ideally suited to extremely high volume runs, due in no small part to the requirement for extremely costly and time-consuming micro tools. The expense associated with micro tooling means that only when parts are mass produced in the millions will it be cost-effective. OEMs requiring prototype, small, or medium volume runs are left with limited options but can now use the Fabrica 2.0 to manufacture smaller numbers of parts cost-effectively.
AM requires no tooling, and therefore provides an agile and attractive alternative to legacy production processes when it comes to lower volume runs. In addition, AM is agnostic to geometric complexity, which means that it stimulates innovation as it opens up the production of parts and components impossible via traditional manufacturing technologies.
Beyond direct manufacturing per se, Fabrica Group has devoted significant time and resource to the production of direct rapid soft tooling (DRST). Until now, AM produced DRST has been regarded as sub-optimal when viewed through the prism of surface finish, precision, accuracy, and repeatability and also in terms of the limited number of materials that can be processed. Fabrica Group’s AM process reaches micron-level resolution which means high surface finish, and the requirements of tooling can be achieved without the time-consuming and costly need to cut steel. Today, Fabrica Group is well positioned to lead the market in the production of DRST for micro injection.
Fabrica Group has achieved ground-breaking successes shooting towards 1000 parts off a single DRST made using its technology. Moulds typically take about an hour to manufacture, cost in the order of $20, and have been used successfully on a traditional 35-ton injection moulding machine using pressures of 400 bar at 230oC. Multiple soft tools can also be made together.
The ability to now really think of volume production without the necessity to fabricate timely and expensive hard steel tools for injection molding is tantalising for many industry players. The creation of multiple, inexpensive, and rapid to create DRSTs means that true mass manufacturing is within grasp via Fabrica Group’s micro AM technology.
Avi Cohen, Executive Vice President for Sales at Fabrica Group also added that it is clear that the future roadmap for Fabrica Group and Micro AM is booming, and means the ability to create geometrically complex and innovative products with micron tolerances in a timely fashion and cost-effectively in volumes of 1 to 1 million plus. This is truly ground-breaking and disruptive for any companies that are manufacturing at the micro level.
For more information please visit: www.nano-fabrica.com