German moldmaker adds Direct Metal Laser Sintering to its portfolio of services
Spritzguss & Formenbau Bergmann, an injection molder with mold design and build capabilities, just added Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) to its portfolio of services. The EOSINT M 280 from EOS GmbH is the company's first metal additive manufacturing system, and enables Bergmann to produce high-grade tool inserts such as cores or slides, and prototypes directly from metal.
May 13, 2014
Spritzguss & Formenbau Bergmann, an injection molder with mold design and build capabilities, just added Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) to its portfolio of services. The EOSINT M 280 from EOS GmbH is the company's first metal additive manufacturing system, and enables Bergmann to produce high-grade tool inserts such as cores or slides, and prototypes directly from metal.
"The purchase of the EOSINT M 280 represents the addition of an innovative and forward-looking technology to Bergmann's existing activities," said EOS. "At the same time, Bergmann is to start as a service provider for EOS."
The high productivity and ergonomic peripherals make the system ideal for use in economic, batch-adjusted component production in all phases of the product life cycle, using additive manufacturing, noted EOS. Constant process monitoring ensures maximum reproducible quality of all components. Using the technology in mold manufacturing, it is possible to achieve extremely complex geometries, which can include freeform surfaces, fins and cooling channels, particularly for conformal cooling technology which results in reduced cycle times and optimized quality in the components produced.
The system is flexible and can easily be integrated into existing production environment. The DMLS material most commonly used in tool construction is EOS MaragingSteel MS1.
"Right from the start we were convinced about the benefits of the EOS additive manufacturing process," said Andre' Gerbert, assistant to the senior management at Spritzguss & Formenbau Bergmann. "Not only can we employ the new metal system for tool making on the premises but we can now also perform contract work for our customers, based on this new manufacturing technique. This means that we are already able to achieve considerable reductions of up to 20% in cycle times. Moreover, as additive manufacturing enables conformal cooling of tool cores we can implement a 50% increase in the quality of the tool produced. It should be noted that half of the tool cores that we are now able to produce using the EOS system could previously not even be manufactured using conventional methods."
Spritzguss & Formenbau Bergmann was founded in 1989 and currently has two manufacturing sites with approximately 250 employees, where the company produces high-grade plastic parts. The company operates more than 70 injection molding systems and is equipped with the latest production technology for tool making. It produces a wide range of parts from miniature precision parts to large components weighing up to five kilograms each, for use in individual applications in a variety of industries.
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