Current Pulse

Shorten Time-to-Market, Reduce Part Development Costs
Graphicast Inc. offers design and rapid prototyping services to assist engineers in designing parts as castings from the start, maximizing as-cast features to shorten time-to-market and reduce the costs of development, machining, and production.

With Graphicast’s assistance, engineers can design for production from the start. Graphicast specialists will work with the customer to develop the most cost-effective casting solution for a part, incorporating draft, radii, cast surfaces, and near-net-shape geometry to take full advantage of the casting process and eliminate or reduce secondary machining.

Involving Graphicast in a part’s design from the start, customers frequently find that an SLA prototype is sufficient for all form, fit, and function checks. In cases where a metal prototype is required to test specific properties, or to test assembly fit or other mechanical specifications, Graphicast can produce a CNC-machined prototype from durable ZA-12, the same alloy from which production parts will later be cast. www.graphicast.com

Igniting a Revolution in Manufacturing
In many manufacturing facilities around the world, the production environment has not changed for generations. Stack lights still proclaim when equipment is malfunctioning, and shop owners, as well as plant operators, have very little insight into what is really happening on the shop floor. However, predicting a change in this is Dave Edstrom, author of “MTConnect: To Measure is to Know.” Manufacturing will undergo a revolution that obliterates these stagnant trends, Edstrom states, if machine shop owners and plant operators embrace the open mindset of the computer industry and apply the open standards that make it easier for IT equipment to interoperate.

A computer industry veteran who spent more than two decades as a leader at Sun Microsystems, Edstrom says the best resource machine shop owners can use to start this revolution is MTConnect, noting that a strong shift in thinking is required by most manufacturers. Through his book, Edstrom explains how thinking like an IT industry leader will help ensure successful use of MTConnect. https://www.amazon.com/MTConnect-Measure-Know-Dave-Edstrom/dp/098907420X

Collaboration in the Digital Orthodontics Market
Stratasys Ltd. is collaborating with Scheu Dental GmbH in order to offer orthodontic labs a complete digital solution. Digital orthodontics is rapidly becoming the industry standard because of its many business advantages, including the ability to significantly shorten delivery times, increase production capacity, and eliminate bulky model storage. The collaboration with Scheu Dental GmbH is expected to expand digital orthodontic sales globally.

“This represents yet another leap towards the age of the full digital orthodontic lab,” comments Christian Scheu, CEO of Scheu Dental GmbH. “The knowledge learned through the successful cooperation of both companies in the orthodontic market has certainly allowed a faster and a more successful collaboration of the digital orthodontics highway for all orthodontic labs worldwide, bringing mass customization to small and mid-sized labs alike.” https://www.stratasys.com/en/industries-and-applications/3d-printing-industries/dental/

Interactive Adhesive Selector Guide
Designed to make it easier for design engineers to access technical information to help with critical decision-making is the Interactive Loctite Medical Device Adhesive Selector Guide. It is an online resource providing direct links to 48 Loctite medical device adhesives and supporting technical documents, such as materials safety and technical data sheets.

The guide provides at-a-glance product information including product name, appearance, performance features, cure method, viscosity, temperature ranges, shore hardness, modulus, elongation, tensile, cure depth, and appropriate bonding substrates. All adhesives listed on the selector guide are ISO-10993 compliant.

To get the Interactive Loctite Medical Device Adhesive Selector Guide, go to “additional resources” at www.henkelna.com/medicaladhesives.