Posted to News on 20th Nov 2015, 17:52
KWSP boosts 3D printing capacity with £100,000 investment
KW Special Projects (KWSP) has invested over 100,000 in state-of-the-art equipment that will increase capacity and expand the range of additive manufacturing services offered by the company. This investment comes as part of KWSP's ambitious five-year growth strategy and in the light of the increasing demand for additive manufacturing (AM) technology.
The equipment includes a Stratasys Fortus 400 MC FDM machine, an advanced 3D printing machine that will enable KWSP to rapidly manufacture soluble mandrels, low-volume end user parts, prototypes, jigs or fixtures, and one-off or low-volume tools. These products can be produced using a wide range of materials to suit all needs, including ABS-M30, ABS-M30i, Ultem 9085, PC and PC-ABS, as well as soluble SR30 and SR100. The company also continues to offer a variety of post-processing options and in-house developed services.
In addition to the 3D printing technology, KWSP has also invested in a HandySCAN 300 scanner and Geomagic Control 3D Software. This will enable the company to provide additional inspection and quality control of manufactured parts, as well as the capability to digitally scan, measure and re-engineer products. KWSP can also now reverse engineer either components or complete products that can then be used for simulation.
The equipment has already been put to great use, with KWSP completing the entire design process on a recent project, from the original scanning of a legacy part with no CAD data, through to design and manufacture of a prototype, optimisation of design, final manufacture and scanning for inspection. The process was able to mitigate errors, improve accuracy and reduce lead times.
Stuart Banyard, head of advanced manufacturing at KWSP, says: "The opportunities and benefits this increase in capability will offer our customers are substantial. With a background in motorsport and high-performance engineering, we have extensive relevant experience, which enables our clients to gain the optimum benefits of all aspects of digital fabrication, including additive manufacturing and scanning.
"We are looking forward to putting our increased capabilities and capacity to good use in the very near future, building up a quicker response time and rapid results for clients across a wide range of industry sectors."
For more information on KWSP and its additive manufacturing services go to www.kwspecialprojects.com.
