Page 10 - 3D Metal Printing Spring 2018

3D TECH UPDATE
Kallista Debuts 3D-Printed Faucet
Kallista, a designer and provider of luxury kitchen and bath products and subsidiary of Kohler Co., unveiled the Grid sink faucet, pro- duced by 3rd Dimension using 3D Systems’ 3D- printing materials and technology.
Kallista’s
design team,
seeking to create
a faucet in a
unique geometry,
decided to pro-
duce the Grid via
3D printing,
allowing design-
ers to design
without limita-
tions to create an
open form and
discreet interior
channels that allow water to flow easily through the base.
“Designers usually need to consider a manufacturing process and they have to design around that process,” says Bill McKeone, design studio manager at Kallista. “By choosing to produce this faucet via 3D printing, we opened ourselves to limitless design possibilities. 3D Systems’ breadth of materials and technologies allowed us the freedom to create a unique, functional faucet which would not have been possible with a traditional manufacturing process.”
The faucets were produced by metal 3D-printing specialist 3rd Dimension, Indi- anapolis, IN, which employed 3D Systems’ ProX DMP 320 metal additive-manufactur- ing (AM) system. To avoid rust and corrosion, the faucets are printed with 3D Systems’ LaserForm 316L, a Type 316 stainless-steel powder.
As this was the first AM product for Kaliista, 3rd Dimension led the faucet-design team through a program to develop the concept for AM. Utilizing 3D printing enabled Kallista to avoid the weeks or months typically required to develop and build produc- tion tooling. Due to the efficiencies and repeatability afforded by 3D printing, faucet parts were produced within hours.
“This is just one example of the value 3D printing brings to a production environ- ment,” says David Cullen, director of applications engineering for 3D Systems. “Through the combination of materials, print technology, software and services, Kallista was able to bring its visionary design to market.”
3D Systems: www.3dsystems.com 3rd Dimension: www.print3d4u.com
Cloud-Based Orientation and Support-Structure Software for DMLS Printers
Atlas 3D’s new Sunata software, designed to work seamlessly with direct-metal-laser-sintering (DMLS) printers, automatically chooses the best orientation for a part and gener- ates the necessary support structures for a successful build, eliminating what can be an expensive and time-consum- ing simulation process, according to company officials. Sunata users down- load designs directly into the cloud- based program and automatically receive the optimal orientation and associated support structures. The soft- ware requires no servers to install and configure, and no IT support is need- ed. Also, it works with many metal feedstocks.
The software’s patent-pending Ther- mal Circuit Network (TCN) scientifically parses the print design into thermally similar layers, which then are divided into thermally similar segments. The TCN applies its thermal-modeling algo- rithm to arrive at the optimal orientation and support structure for that design after running it through 100 different orientations.
Sunata gives users the ability to scale requirements from next-to-zero distor- tion with longer print times, to more tol- erable distortion with shorter print times. And, because the software optimally ori- ents and supports the part for printing, it can accurately provide the total print time and amount of sintered material the design requires, thereby providing accu- rate cost-to-print data, according to company officials.
The technology group at Indiana Technology and Manufacturing Co., looking to print viable components via AM and not merely prototypes, worked with Atlas 3D developers to create the software.
Atlas 3D: www.atlas3d.xyz
8 | 3D METAL PRINTING • SPRING 2018
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