Valencia, CA - May 25, 2000—Solid Concepts Inc. announced today that they have purchased and installed a new Sinterstation 2500plus from DTM Corporation to meet the growing need for functional prototypes. The Sinterstation 2500plus uses a powerful CO2 laser to selectively "sinter" (heat and fuse) a powder material, creating a solid object, one cross-section at a time.
"Our customers include major aerospace manufacturers, industrial design firms, consumer electronics OEMs, and medical device suppliers", said Chuck Alexander, Solid Concepts’ Director of Rapid Prototyping Services. "Their engineers want prototypes that resemble the physical properties of the final product. With the materials available for the Sinterstation 2500plus, we can provide accurate functional prototypes that can withstand high temperatures and chemicals such as alkalines, hydrocarbons, fuels, and solvents. As a result, our customers can evaluate their design in the actual operating environment."
The Sinterstation 2500plus is DTM’s third-generation SLS® system. According to Alexander, the Sinterstation 2500plus offers higher accuracy, better surface finish, and more material options than earlier SLS systems. The enhanced features of the Sinterstation 2500plus will enable Solid Concepts to provide its customers with functional prototypes with a level of quality and accuracy that is not possible with any other rapid prototyping equipment.
In addition to directly creating physical prototypes, the Sinterstation 2500plus can also be used to create investment casting patterns. In investment casting, which is also called "lost wax" casting, a ceramic shell is formed around an expendable wax or plastic pattern. The shell is heated to burn out the pattern and metal is poured into the shell. After the metal cools, the shell is broken away, revealing a metal duplicate of the original wax pattern. Because of the time and cost involved in creating the tooling for the wax patterns, many manufacturers have turned to rapid prototyping as a means for creating the investment casting patterns. "We pioneered many of the techniques used to create rapid investment casting patterns, and with the addition of the Sinterstation 2500plus, we can now offer even more choices for our customers who rely on us for their investment casting patterns", said Alexander.
Normal turnaround time for rapid prototypes is 2-3 working days, depending on size and quantity. Potential users can receive a firm quote by emailing their 3D CAD data to quotes@solidconcepts.com or by speaking with a Solid Concepts project engineer at 1-888-765-4388 or 661-257-9300. Additional information on all of Solid Concepts rapid prototyping and manufacturing services can be found at http://www.solidconcepts.com.
Sinterstation® and SLS® are registered trademarks of DTM Corporation
