On 29 November 2016, the Arburg Plastic Freeforming (APF) team welcomed about 40 participants who work with the Freeformer to the third User Day to date in Lossburg. The main focus of the meeting "from experts for experts" was the sharing of experiences regarding additive manufacturing. An important topic was the material qualification with the Freeformer. The successful combination of theory and practice was well received by all participants."There is clearly a great deal of mutual interest in the further development of the Freeformer and Arburg Plastic Freeforming. Let us achieve new advances from all the experience gathered," were the motivating opening remarks from Eberhard Lutz, new Director Freeformer Sales at Arburg, as he welcomed the around 40 participants to the Freeformer User Day 2016 on 29 November.
He emphasised that in cooperation with the Additive Manufacturing managers, international marketing will be further intensified in the new year.
Specialist presentations on Arburg Plastic Freeforming
Martin Neff, technology consultant for Plastic Freeforming, presented at first the improvements to the standard machines, which include for example a homogeneous temperature-controlled build chamber, discharge heads with extended service life and an optimised material feed. Many other measures have also contributed to further improve the process stability.Theoretic fundamentals on data processing were explained by his colleague Christoph Linek from the Technology Development team. He went into detail on how, for example, a desired change in the layer thickness and fill density can be calculated mathematically. "Nine Steps for Material Qualification" was the title of the subsequent specialist presentation by Dr Michael Salinas. The technology consultant for Plastic Freeforming highlighted all details in his presentation - from material preparation to component production.
Implementing theory in practice
During the afternoon, participants had plenty of opportunity to try out what they had learned in practice "live" on three Freeformers and to discuss more in-depth questions with the experts.The topic of material qualification and the combination of theory and practice was evaluated as very positive by all the participants. To round off the successful User Day, Dr Eberhard Duffner, Director Development and Plastic Freeforming, provided a concluding outlook on the innovations that his development team was currently working on in terms of materials and Freeformer technology. Some of this will already be on show at the Arburg Technology Days in March 2017.
