Additive Manufacturing Studio
The state of the art Additive Manufacturing Studio allows TDI to support the manufacturing industry with building 3D prototype models from a variety of materials and new scanning capabilities.
K-State Technology Development Institute was awarded a retooling grant as part of the CARES Act Recovery Assistance program through the U.S. Department of Commerce. As part of this grant, TDI was able to purchase a variety of additive manufacturing equipment to enhance and expand our capabilities:
 | Stratasys J850 Process: Polyjet | This printer works similarly to a standard color ink jet printer by blending various colors and types of UV cured resins (rather than inks) during the printing process to creates parts with full color, clear, and even flexible, rubber-like features. The parts are printed with a water soluble support that allow the parts to come out of the printer with the surface finish of plastic injection molded parts. Therefore, this printer is best suited for final prototype models that will be used for display and marketing functions. | |||
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Stratasys F170
Process: FDM
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These machines are similar to the hobbyist machines that many people have in their homes and schools where a spool of plastic filament is melted and deposited onto a build platform in layers. Our machines have the ability to print with PLA, ABS, and many other common printing filaments and are most useful for making cost effective prototypes and jigs to check overall size, fit, and function. The F170 and Pro2 Plus machines have standard build volumes of 10 x 10 x 10 inches and 12 x 12 x 24 inches respectively, while the BIG Meter can print an entire cubic meter! | |
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| Markforged Mark Two Process: FDM with continuous fiber |
| The Mark Two functions just like a standard FDM printer where it melts a plastic filament and deposits it down in layers onto a build platform. The unique thing about this printer though is that is can also lay continuous fibers within each layer to reinforce the part. The fiber materials include carbon fiber, fiberglass, Kevlar, and more! Parts printed with the continuous fibers can achieve properties close to or equal to parts machined out of aluminum making this printer useful for end use parts such as robot grippers, fixtures, custom work holding, and more. |
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| Formlabs Form 3 and Form 3BL Process: SLA | These printers use a laser to cure UV cured resin layer by layer. The precision of the laser and the small layer height achieved by the printer produce parts that have the surface finish of plastic injection molded parts. Depending on whether you need a parts to be tough, flexible, clear, heat resistant, or rigid, Formlabs offers a wide range of resins that produce functional parts that have these desired characteristics. The 3BL is a large format SLA printer that has an approximate build volume of 13 x 8 x 12 inches! | |
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| Formlabs Fuse 1 Process: SLS | This printer uses a laser to melt a plastic powder layer by layer to make a part that at the end of the print will be pulled from a vat of the unfused loose powder. Since the parts is constantly being supported by this loose powder, the parts do not need any support material allowing for an even surface finish without much post processing. It also allows full moving assemblies to be printed as they are, fully assembled. | |
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| Hexagon Absolute Arm 8525 | This is a 7-axis arm with a 2.5m reach that is used to precisely measure objects for quality inspection and reverse engineering. If minimal dimensions/data is needed from an object, a simple ruby ball probe can be attached to the end of the arm and touched on different features of the object to gather single point measurements. If the object is more complex, a laser scanner can be attached and used to gather millions of points as the laser it swept across the object. The points gathered from touching or scanning the object are then processed in specialized software that can then create a 3D CAD file of the object, compare the data to an original CAD file for inspection, and much more. |
