The new investment of more than £100K is in customised, precision selective laser sintering (SLS) dyeing and texturing technologies, and further broadens the firm’s range of services at its specialist 3D Printing and rapid prototyping facility in Royston.
“Our latest new machines give us a unique SLS precision dyeing capability in the UK” said Justin Pringle, Managing Director of Prototype Projects. “We can now dye SLS parts to virtually any required colour on a consistent and repeatable basis.
“Demand for our SLS services has grown dramatically in the last two years, and the new finishing capabilities mean we now offer product designers a unique way to produce multiple SLS parts dyed in virtually any colour consistently and repeatably”.
The parts can also be textured using a graining process, for example giving them the look of leather or other natural materials, offering a significant cost-saving over other techniques such as injection moulding and making the process even more appealing for additive manufacturing purposes.
The unique repeatable dyeing technology was sourced from Munich-based German specialists DyeMansion who developed the techniques to provide precision colouring and finish to exact specifications on a consistent and repeatable basis.
Felix Ewald, CEO of DyeMansion said: “We are delighted to have supplied our unique DyeMansion ’Print-to-Product’ workflow for finishing powder bed technologies to Prototype Projetcs. Our industrial end-to-end solution offers Prototype Projects customers the finish touch and a valuable option to have their SLS parts coloured to their exact, specified requirements. We are excited to be working with Prototype Projects as one of the UK’s first adopters of our technologies and look forward to a fruitful relationship.“
In September 2018, Prototype Projects will be discussing its SLS dyeing and graining services at both the Engineering Materials Live event on Thursday 20th September at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, Cambridge and the TCT Show which runs 25 - 27 September at the NEC.