With locations in Detroit, Michigan, and Ontario, Canada, Jesse Garant and Associates Metrology Center (JG&A) sees NPE3D as “a great opportunity to educate the plastic market on what industrial CT scanning is and how our services can benefit most companies in the plastic industry,” notes marketing manager Spiro Spiliadis. “As parts and assemblies continue to become more and more complex, we will exhibit our industrial CT scanning services as a value-added method for inspecting and validating molded and 3-D-printed parts and/or assemblies.”

JG&A says it will demonstrate how its scanning services are “a viable NDT [non-destructive testing] method” to perform validation of internal and complex geometries for molded and printed parts. This includes the inspection of internal voids, analysis for short and long glass-fiber orientation in molded parts, reverse engineering of internal geometries, and quick first-article inspection of complex plastic parts, analyzing internal voids or fiber orientation.

Burteck, of Windsor, Connecticut, is exhibiting at NPE3D “because of the excitement surrounding [3-D printing] technology,” says John Eastham, program manager for the company. The company will show potential customers what it can offer “from a production tooling standpoint when their products mature and/or commercialize and require Class 101 tooling.” The company will have a Wittmann Battenfeld micromolding machine running at its booth with a Burteck-built mold. 

While the hype around additive manufacturing/3-D printing grows exponentially, Eastham feels the technology “is not a threat to true production tooling. However, it is a disruptive technology, and those that are building short-run prototype tools need to take this seriously and make sure they are adapting by possibly using 3-D-printed mold inserts to augment their product offerings.”

Other North American companies scheduled to be on hand include:

• Global Precision Industries, based in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin; the company’s website says its “rapid prototyping capabilities allow us to provide three-dimensional samples and finished goods to speed your product concept to market [with] high accuracy, versatility, and speed.”
• Interpro of Deep River, Connecticut, which says it “delivers plastic 3-D printing, metal 3-D printing, custom model making, and low-volume production services to companies that research, develop, and manufacture new products.”
• Mold Hotrunner Solutions from Georgetown, Ontario, which specializes in molds, dies and tooling, and, according to its website, offers “optimized part quality, faster cycle times, comprehensive processing solutions, and complete development support.”