Midas has manufactured the powder tray containers for an innovative 3D printer produced in Denmark. Featuring complex geometry, the large trays offered the customer a cost-effective, low risk solution in a short lead-time. In total, around 240 trays have been produced by Midas’ polyurethane MRIM™ moulding process.
The Blueprinter story began in 2008 when Frederik Tjellesen and Anders Hartmann, two mechanical engineers that had previously been using 3D printed parts in their work, were inspired to develop an easy-to-use, professional 3D printer which would be affordable even for very small businesses. The idea of using a low cost thermal print head to produce nylon parts instead of a traditional expensive laser, quickly proved to be a viable solution.
Very few companies can justify, or even afford, paying upwards of €150,000 for the capability of printing 3D prototypes, neither can they afford to use expensive bureaus and so Torben Lange, Chief Technical Officer at Blueprinter wanted to make this technology widely accessible to manufacturers, architects, engineers and educational institutions everywhere. The success of the initial Blueprinter units soon led to the creation of a second generation series and after encountering Midas at a trade show, the two companies began to work together on the new design of powder tray. Blueprinter uses proprietary Selective Heat Sintering™ technology that deploys a thermal print-head as opposed to a laser in SLS machines. The thermal print-head applies heat on layers of thermoplastic powder taken from the container trays – there are two in every printer.
The Blueprinter featured a much larger powder tray, around the size of a shoebox, with advanced geometry to aid powder feed. It was too large to 3D print each one and machining was not a viable option either due to the volume of material that would need to be removed. With these factors in mind, the Midas MRIM™ process was particularly attractive. The Midas MRIM™ composite resin system is used to produce high quality polyurethane mouldings. Guaranteed for up to 5000 parts, the most complex of mould tools can be produced, including square faces, undercuts, metal inserts and collapsible cores. MRIM™ can produce both thick and thin sections and, importantly for Blueprinter, is suitable for parts measuring up to 2.5 x 1.0 x 0.5m.
“We received fixed tooling and moulding costs from Midas and they were able to meet our short lead-time of three weeks for the first parts, which is obviously much quicker than using hard tooling,” says Mr Lange. “Furthermore, in my opinion, the quality is equal to that of injection moulded parts.”
Blueprinter created a 3D model for the powder container, which was sent to Midas for review. According to Mr Lange, Midas provided advice on factors such as mould release angles, wall thicknesses, the positioning of stiffening ribs, tolerances and painting.
“We received a small quantity of fully functional parts for testing, after which we implemented some minor design iterations,” he says. “Once we had updated the 3D model, we asked Midas to produce the first 100-off, which they also painted white.”
In the recently launched third generation units, Blueprinter changed to hard-tooled injection moulded parts due the volumes involved.
“Midas proved to be a very experienced partner throughout our second generation product, they offered a great service and this project was a good example of how MRIM™ can be used as a low cost, low risk bridge solution. It also shows how traditional services can integrate well with fast moving rapid technologies".