A Pitch for Plastic
When a major truck manufacturer starts using ABS plastic to make jigs and fixtures, it’s time for an attitude adjustment about using plastics in additive manufacturing for fabricating tasks.
April 2015
Simplifying Hard-To-Reach Plasma Cutting and Gouging Operations
Listening and learning customer’s needs were pivotal in developing a new plasma cutting technology.
Measuring Bending Angles
Springback is the bane of air bending, and it gets worse as workpiece materials become stronger. Here’s an update on how major press brake builders are coping with it.
Metals You Can and Can’t 3D Print
There’s a growing list of metals that can be melted and “3D printed.” But where are the tool steels? There is a pattern here, and it has consequences.
Printing Features You Can’t Machine
Linear Mold & Engineering (Livonia, MI) builds sophisticated injection molds and other tools using additive manufacturing (AM). They’re using direct laser melting with nine different metals, but their big one for high-performance tools is maraging steel. “It’s a good steel for making tools,” says Lou Young, “It can be hardened similarly to H13 or S7,… Continued
