Successful Formnext 2023

Since autumn 2023 a freeformer 750-3X has been available in a high-temperature version, the build chamber of which can be tempered to 200 degrees Celsius; with plastification of the plastic granules taking place at up to 450 degrees Celsius. The manufacture of geometrically intricate ventilation ducts for aerospace manufactured from original Ultem 9085 was demonstrated as a typical application. Another new development that the ARBURG Plastic Freeforming team is currently working on is the processing of fibre-glass reinforced thermoplastics. As an example, initial first results were introduced using technical parts made from PA with 25 per cent fibre-glass.

Equally interesting were personalised multi-material shoe insoles made from flexible TPE and a hard area made from PP, on a standard freeformer 750-3X. This extra soft ARBURG Plastic Freeforming product was manufactured by a freeformer 200-3X from TPE with a sponge structure. At Formnext, 15 small and highly popular hearts, were manufactured in around 90 minutes build time. In the specific customer application, this material is used for personalised breast prostheses.

Also of interest was an application made from liquid silicone: A 3D printer LiQ 5 processed the certified standard-LSR KEG-2003H-50A/B by Shin-Etsu for the first time, which for instance can be used to manufacture individual orthopaedic accessories or products for the food and drinks industry. InnovatiQ has also developed a new slicer software LAM technology (Liquid Additive Manufacturing) specially for this.

The filament printer TiQ 5 Pro offers new features such as an integrated material dryer, active build chamber tempering and software-optimised material discharge meaning that polycarbonate can now also be processed reliably and reproducibly for instance. A sophisticated example of a part was a high-speed water scooter board made of individual carbon-fibre reinforced elements that had been laminated and combined to create a finished board and proved a real attraction. By way of contrast there was also the filament printer TiQ 2, which enables economical entry into additive manufacturing, for instance for the manufacture of robot grippers and operating resources.