Dimension manufacturing centre makes things fast

DIMENSION WAS AT Semicon West showing off their Dimension sst1200 Fused Deposition Modeling(FDM) machine. Imagine a big box that takes a CAD file in one end and puts out a model of that file on the other, that is the sst1200.

It may look like a mid-sized refrigerator with a set of inkjet head whizzing around inside, but it really is more of a rapid manufacturing center, you make solid plastic ABS parts with it. The heads take ABS plastic tubing, below, and melt it down. They then carefully place it down to form an solid object, and can make about a cubic inch an hour, give or take depending on complexity.

The sst1200 is called 'office friendly' for several reasons. It is virtually silent, the heads moving had no discernible noise, at least none that I noticed, and there was no plasticky smell, even when the door was open. The more remarkable thing is that the machine will operate on 120v household current, so you need no special wiring.

The sst1200 is really simple, but you can get complex working parts out of it, the gears you see here are a good example. If you need parts in a hurry, you just buy one, $18,900, take it home, plug it in and feed it a CAD file. Out comes your new toy. µ