3D printing and prototyping

Professionals around the world are using functional 3D printing to drastically improve their product development process in various ways. Most of the global leading companies in engineering, the automobile industry, robotics, architecture, and medical care have integrated 3D printing into their workflows to cut lead times and to bring back control of the process in-house. These range from prototyping parts before mass production, to producing functional parts that can demonstrate how a part will work. To help these companies, PF Mold designs and produces a range of professional 3D printing solutions that aim to help our customers achieve results faster and produce the highest quality 3D printed parts.

 

1,3D Printing Processes and Techniques:

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)

FDM is probably the most widely used form of 3D printing. It’s incredibly useful for manufacturing prototypes and models with plastic. The FDM uses the extruded melted filament through a nozzle to build parts layer by layer. It has the advantage of the broad range of material selection makes it ideal for prototyping and end-use production.

Stereolithography (SLA) Technology

SLA is a fast prototyping printing type that is best suited for printing in intricate detail. The printer uses an ultraviolet laser to craft the objects within hours.

The SLA uses light to crosslink monomers and oligomers to form rigid polymers photochemically, this method is suitable for marketing sample, and mock-ups, basically non-functional conceptual samples.

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)

A form of Powder Bed Fusion, SLS fuses small particles of powder together by use of a high-power laser to create a three-dimensional shape. The laser scans each layer on a powder bed and selectively fuses them, then lowering the powder bed by one thickness and repeating the process through completion.

The SLS uses a computer-controlled laser to sinter a powdered material (such as Nylon or polyamide) layer by layer. The process produces accurate, high-quality parts that require minimal post-processing and supports.

2/3D Printing Materials:

There are a variety of different materials that a printer uses in order to recreate an object to the best of its abilities. Here are some examples:

ABS

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene resin is a milky white solid with a certain degree of toughness, with a density of about 1.04~1.06 g/cm3. It has strong corrosion resistance to acids, alkalis, and salts, and it can also tolerate organic solvents to a certain extent. ABS is a resin that has good mechanical toughness, wide temperature range, good dimensional stability, chemical resistance, electrical insulation properties, and it’s easy to manufacturing.

Nylon

Nylon is a kind of man-made material. With the development of science and technology, it has become an important engineering plastic. It has great vitality, Good impact resistance, strength, and toughness. Nylon is also often used to make 3D printed materials for supports. The 3D-printed nylon has a lower density, and the nylon is formed by laser powder.

PETG

PETG is a transparent plastic with good viscosity, transparency, color, chemical resistance, and stress resistance to bleaching. Its products are highly transparent, excellently impact resistance, especially suitable for forming thick wall transparent products, its processing molding performance is excellent, can be designed according to the designer's intention of any shape. It is a commonly 3D printing material.

PLA

PLA is a biodegradable thermoplastic with good mechanical and processability. It's a polymer made from the polymerization of lactic acid, Mainly corn, cassava, and other raw materials. Polylactic acid has good thermal stability, processing temperature of 170 ~ 230℃, good solvent resistance, can be processed in a variety of ways, such as 3D printing, extrusion, spinning, biaxial stretching, injection blow molding.