The show offers the chance to take a good look into the products and services on offer in the field of additive manufacturing.
Additive-X represents numerous machine manufacturers and will take the opportunity to promote some of the latest products from Formlabs, Markforged and 3DGence. The company also sells equipment from about half a dozen other OEMs and is well placed to advise visitors on the optimal process to maximise their productivity and commercial returns.
CREAT3D also has multiple solution partners, such as Nexa30, Markforged, Formlabs, Ultimaker, MakerBot, ColorFabb and BASF Forward AM. The firm will be on hand to give insider tips on how to integrate additive manufacturing (AM) into a business and will give examples of engineering and manufacturing companies that have done so. On the stand will be innovative 3D printing technology as well as the latest standard, flexible and high-temperature materials including nylons, composites and fibre reinforcements.
Matsuura is taking a separate stand to promote Additive by Matsuura, the industrial 3D printing side of its business. Its message will be that irrespective of the type of component, material, productivity requirements and budget, an optimum additive manufacturing solution can be found. The company is an authorised reseller of HP Multi-Jet Fusion 3D Printers, Desktop Metal, Roboze and DyeMansion 3D post-processing systems.
TLM Laser provides equipment for a variety of laser applications including cutting, marking, plastic welding and cleaning, but it also supplies 3D metal printing machines, the AL3D-METAL from Alpha Laser, said to be ideal for producing fine, complex geometries. Features of the machine are low consumption of energy, gas and materials, and an intelligent powder cartridge arrangement that allows uncomplicated exchange.
There will be firms offering subcontract AM services, rather than equipment. One is plastics specialist IPFL, which uses 3D printing as well as conventional CNC machining to produce anything from prototypes to volume production quantities, in particular for the automotive and medical sectors. Its Boston Micro Fabrication 3D printer enables precise micro-parts to be built. Visitors will see examples of what is possible using the technology, as well as with high-resolution stereolithography, durable nylon multi-jet fusion, specialist fused deposition modelling materials, and multi-material jetting photopolymer 3D printing (Polyjet).
Central Scanning principally offers subcontract scanning, inspection and reverse engineering services across the UK and Ireland, either at the customer's location or in its facility in the Midlands. It says that parts ranging from a few millimetres to aircraft, trains and automobiles can be scanned with high accuracy and relative ease. It also provides full-colour, multi-polymer 3D printing services based on the data it collects or from a CAD file supplied by the customer. Prints can be vapour smoothed to enhance surface finish.