At this year’s EuroMold show, EOS is presenting its Part Property Management concept, which will guarantee standard and comparable building processes and results based on Part Property Profiles (PPP).
Said Dr. Hans Langer, CEO and founder of EOS: “Part Property Profiles offer advantages for decision-making and manufacturing processes. Designers will have access to standard property profiles and corresponding material values. Those responsible for purchasing and quoting will profit from clearly defined specifications that will make the preparation of quotes more efficient and transparent.
“With increasingly automated data preparation and more flexible production planning, PPPs can increase the efficiency of e-manufacturing, reduce costs, and assure transparent quality.”
PPPs will expand e-Manufacturing for laser-sintering for series production, ensuring that laser-sintering becomes a competitive and cost-effective manufacturing process for plastic and metal parts.
The Part Property Management concept is based on standard parameter sets that produce defined part properties—Part Property Profiles (PPPs)—in combination with similarly standard and quality assured machines and materials. It delivers uniform and reliable data.
The underlying definitions of the PPPs are the typical requirements regarding, for example, surface quality, mechanical properties, accuracy and detail resolution. In addition, quality and cost targets exist that are normally in competition with one another, and which generally complicate attaining an optimal part-oriented trade-off. The five PPPs for plastic laser-sintering systems, which correspond to five parameter sets, therefore focus upon the individual requirements with regard to costs, quality aspects, or carefully balanced compromises.
TopSpeed, 180 µm layer thickness: Very economical parameter set for parts with medium to high quality requirements. In comparison with 120 µm layer thickness (EOSINT P730) the production costs are reduced typically by 15 – 20%.
Speed, 150 µm layer thickness: This parameter set offers slightly higher surface quality than TopSpeed. Production costs are reduced by typically by 10 – 15% in comparison with 120 µm layer thickness (see Balance, below).
Balance, 120 µm layer thickness: The advantage of this parameter set is its economic equilibrium. The layer thickness of 120 µm offers a perfect balance between production costs, mechanics, surface quality and accuracy.
Performance, 100 µm layer thickness: Performance parts are characterized by the highest degree of isotropic strength and stiffness.
TopQuality, 60 µm layer thickness: This parameter set is designated for very small to medium-sized parts with detailed, delicate geometries or geometric elements and the strictest requirements in surface quality.
The PPPs Balance, Performance and Top Quality are available for all EOSINT P and FORMIGA systems; TopSpeed and Speed are available for the EOSINT P760 and EOSINT P395. They contain values for, among others, tensile strength, elongation at break and Young’s modulus for the horizontal, parallel-to-layer X/Y-directions. Values for the vertical, orthogonal-to-layer Z-direction are now also standard. The Part Property Management concept will be introduced for EOSINT M systems in a similar way.
Starting in January 2010, EOS will provide access to the attributes of the Part Property Profiles for plastics through the Material Data Centre, a public database established by the plastics industry.
EOS
www.eos.info
::Design World::
Filed Under: Factory automation, Digital manufacturing, Software
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