Quick review Materials Day, Terhulpen Brussels

Materials Day: About 150 industrial decision makers from all over Europe have met at Brussels to talk about innovations in Materials, Applications and Processes. During the plenary session, Melotte's General Manager (picture right) highlighted the importance of low carbon processes and the impact new processes have on the BREW Metrics. BREW stands for Business Resources Efficiency and Waste Management.

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Melotte aims at being a Low Carbon Footprint Company.

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During Melotte's presentation a large project has been explained into detail. Layered Manufacturing and advanced Magnesium Molding Technologies have been combined into a Lightweight Innovative Product Solution. This approach allows the production of very precise magnesium components by using injection molding technologies. The part accuracy (after injection and prior to finishing) is below 0.02 mm. Melotte's project approach results in weight saving up to 50% and generates a positive effect on the component price.

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Do not hesitate to ask for a copy of Melotte's presentation at www.melotte.be or by phone +32 11 53.99.40
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Melotte will further continue to develop Near-To-Net-Shape Manufacturing Technologies.

At the Materials Day it became clear that the interest in NTNM of large industrial groups is getting more substantial and this will certainly speed-up Market Development. Melotte’s process R&D and advanced molding expertise will be of great benefit for all users in the NTNM Market. At the closing session, Alain Hubert, the founder of the Polar Foundation, presented the Zero Emission Research Station in Antarctica. The Princess Elisabeth Station is running completely on renewable energy.

Melotte develops technologies to prevent Global Warming and will further invest in order to save the environment! Economics, Business Processes and Environment, hand in hand!

Do not hesitate to ask for more information at info@Melotte.be

Lightweight device for Leading OEM'er

Market Release: Laser welded tubes are commonly used in the market. A customer active in high-speed air jet applications asked for re-engineering an assembled part into a single part geometry by using Direct Digital Manufacturing in Titanium. Now we are grateful to our customer allowing us to present the case on the weblog.

The original process was highly influenced by the difficulties related to micro welding of thin-walled small tubes using Electron Beam Welding. The wall thickness is 0.2 mm (see picture).Besides the geometrical freedom another challenge was the surface finish of the parts as well as contact wear resistance.

In process the part swivels over an angle of 160° at 1500 sequences/minute. Through forward engineering and FEM analyses we came to an unique geometry. The part weight is about 2 gram and the TCO is reduced by 42%. At present 400 parts are made and since 6 months running in production.

Given the nature of Direct Manufacturing the customer decided to make the contact angle variable. This results in batch productions with freedom to change the part geometry upon the contact material. This part fits perfectly within the basic principles of mass customization

Thx Hildi!

Breaking news

Today we managed to produce Titanium parts with very small internal channels. The channel diameter is 0.4 mm, and combines 3 difficult parts in one unique feature. Next monday we will come with pictures of the finished part and a transparant 3D model. This is perfect news to step into the weekend! This sunday the Melotte running team will be competing at "Dwars door Hasselt"! We cross our fingers! We're confident! Do not hesitate to comment on the different topics! We're happy to see our business growing and we greet our new co-workers in Bangalore (India). Hello to the University of Stavanger, our new customer in medical implants! We welcome Mr. Britsen, Melotte's Technology Interface Manager in the US. We thank our new interested blog readers! Do not hesitate to comment on our postings. We really apreciate the phone calls but insist to put your questions & answers on the blog! This will help all Layered Manufacturing users to move forward! Cheers! Mario

1.4404 (316L) Static Mixer

Market Release: For a customer active in the Polymer Processing & Analysis Industry we’ve produced a Static Mixer out of 1.4404 (316L, Stainless Steel). The original OEM solution is an assembly of three main components; a cylindrical body, a gas sprayer device (two gases) and a freeform Helix. Combining these parts in one unique assembly creates a very innovative Static Mixer device with an enhanced operational window. The cylindrical shape can be replaced by a curved one and fitted into a free form assembly environment. In the outer shell we might add extra thermal and monitoring devices. Static mixers are mainly used in liquid, gas, powder and low liquid emulsion transport. We will now further develop free form mixers and add these to our product portfolio. Free from manufacturing allows us to step out the conventional paradigm by replacing the cylindrical helix by free form and/or rectangular shaped transport Helixes. Clockwise and counterclockwise devices can be merged into one without difficult reshaping. The Helix surface finish requirements are mirror polish, in the coming weeks we will inform you more about our developments in finishing technologies. Feel free to comment on this development!