Much of the external client work I am part of in the Hudson Valley Additive Manufacturing Center is covered under NDA and because of that limitation, I do not document much of the work. Here are a few selections of work that covers the breadth of projects I have the privilege of engaging in.
CoreGroup – 2021
Consultation, design, and fabrication of injection mold parts for a large scale test of the viability of polymer printed plastic injection molding tools for short production runs. Polymer molds are quicker to manufacture than traditional injection molding tools and allow for the testing of mold geometries and are suitable for short runs of less than a thousand parts.
Sono-Tek – 2021
Consultation on design and fabrication for metal 3D printed nozzles for coating. The nozzles are printed in 17-4 PH stainless steel and then subjected to material testing of fatigue initiation and propagation based on geometry and print properties.
JBT – 2020
Optimization of part design and print parameters to address an inconsistency in the expansion rates of 17-4 PH stainless steel model, support, and ceramic interface materials during sintering operations. Specific required geometries in an end use parts installed on equipment manufactured by JBT required a reexamination of manufacturing parameter to decrease the number of unusable parts that were being distorted or cracked during the sintering step. Areas of the part were thickened and changes to the number of ceramic interface layers and print parameters increased production throughput.
Usheco – 2020
Disposable face shield design that was optimized for 3D printing needed to be refactored to allow for greater scape production using injection molding. Features that increased throughput on 3D printers needed to be removed and correct draft was added along with the correct injection, vent, and ejector pin points were added. Final file was sent to Usheco and IBM for mold cutting and injection molded versions delivered to area first responders during the shortage of PPE during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Spectra Vista – 2019
Custom housings made for Specra Vista were originally designed for CNC manufacture. Switching to additive revealed issues with the design that could cause cracking of the housing during the removal of necessary 3D printing support material. Consultation with Spectra Vista resulted in a redesign of the housing to mitigate these issues. The new design resulted in fewer rejected housing and an increase in manufacturing throughput.
Hudson River Maritime Museum – 2019
A topography of the confluence of the Rondout and Hudson Rivers was created in CAD from GIS sources. This model was sliced into sections and milled in MDF on a Shopbot panel router. The slices were assembled and hand finished to create a 3D topography for a projection mapping display in the museum
Lamothermic – 2017
Consultation and design for 3D printed positives and mold cores for industrial scale ceramic shell casting