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UNIQUE BUSINESS TRIPLES SALES USING DSM SOMOS® 9120 PROTOFUNCTIONAL® MATERIAL
08 July 2001 - DSM Somos
| Using DSM Somos® 9120 contributed quickly to the goals established by the newly formed Advanced Manufacturing Research Collaboration Centre (AMRCC). This research centre is a consortium of seven Iowa based businesses created to share advanced technologies used in rapid prototyping, moulding, tooling, and pattern casting.
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Maytag Corporation operates the consortium’s SLA-5000 stereolithography machine. In October of 2000, Maytag switched the stereolithography resin operating in their SLA-5000 over to Somos® 9120. Kevin Shipley, AMRCC SLA, explains that the AMRCC could not be happier with the performance of the 9120 resin. “Our customers are very pleased,” he said. In fact, business has more than tripled since Somos® 9120 has been offered.
Customers are pleased with 9120’s innovative physical properties. Somos® 9120’s combination of flexibility and toughness has been ideal for the majority of AMRCC’s customers who often use polypropylene based products featuring performance functions such as snaps or living hinges. “Somos® 9120 enables us to give prototypes to our customers with the performance properties they require,” said Shipley. “With the introduction of 9120, we were finally able to find a resin that approximated the functional attributes of polypropylene material from which production grade products are moulded.”
The intrinsic properties of Somos® 9120 offer many processing advantages over other resins. A huge advantage is that 9120 is not brittle and therefore does not shatter easily. “The last thing anyone in our business wants to see is $4,000 worth of plastic dropped and shattered on the floor,” points out Shipley. It also sounds like 9120 has livened the AMRCC lab up a little. “We’ve had engineers successfully stress test Somos® 9120 by setting a prototype on the ground and physically jumping up and down on it!” reports Shipley.
The fast photospeed, which directly translates into shorter build times, is another reason why AMRCC is having such success with the 9120 resin. “Our customers cannot believe they can place an order on Monday and have their prototype on Wednesday,” said Shipley. “The shorter turn around time can be explained by the fact that a part that used to require six hours to build can now be produced in only four.”
http://www.dsmsomos.com
About: DSM Somos
DSM Somos is an unincorporated division of DSM Desotech—a world leader in the development of UV-curable materials—and a member of the global DSM family.
DSM Somos is currently the world's second largest materials supplier to the rapid prototyping industry, providing stereolithography liquids and
selective laser sintering powders used for the creation of three dimensional models and prototypes directly from digital data. Somos' patented ProtoFunctional materials are used by a variety of industries, including automotive, aerospace, medical and telecommunications. DSM Somos has developed a full line of rapid prototyping materials that replicate the performance parameters of production materials, saving both time and money in new product development. From thermoplastic elastomers to polyethylene and polypropylene, DSM Somos has stereolithography and selective laser sintering technologies. The Somos business has been actively involved in the development of rapid prototyping materials since the late 1980s, from the introduction of the first commercial Somos stereolithography resin in 1992. DSM Somos is part of DSM Desotech, a leading innovative formulator and manufacturer of high quality ultraviolet and electron beam (UV/EB) curable materials. DSM Desotech is a business unit of DSM - an international chemicals and materials group headquartered in The Netherlands, with annual sales of EUR 8.1 billion and a work force of approximately 22,000 employees at more than 200 sites worldwide. DSM is active worldwide in life science and nutritional products, performance materials and industrial chemicals. The company specializes in innovative products and services that help improve the quality of life and DSM products are currently used in a wide range of end markets and applications such as human and animal nutrition and health, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, automotive and transport, coatings, housing and electrics & electronics (E&E). The group has annual sales (pro forma including the recent acquisition - renamed DSM Nutritional Products) of approximately EUR 8 billion and employs about 26,000 people around the world. Ranking among the global leaders in many of its fields, DSM is headquartered in the Netherlands, with locations in Europe, Asia and the Americas. |
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