This week at the trade fair Industry From Needs to Solutions, in the framework of Barcelona Industry Week, the Eurecat technological centre (a member of Tecnio) presents an innovative 3D printing technology that allows the combination of silicone and thermoplastic filament material for the manufacture of complex and personalised items.
This technology opens the door to 3D printing with silicone and thermoplastics for the prototype industry and for the manufacture of anatomic models and prosthetics that are used to plan and rehearse operations in the health sector. It also has applications in the development of moulds and in the textile industry.
In the words of the Director of the Advanced Manufacturing Systems Unit at Eurecat, Raffaele Caminati, the additive manufacturing machine “allows for the use of any type of silicone along with thermoplastics”. These materials, “like electrical and magnetic conductors, among others, can be used to manufacture support structures, which can be removed later, for very complex geometries”.
The innovation developed by Eurecat “enables the manufacture of prototypes easily and efficiently by means of additive manufacture”, in the context of the new advances that Industry 4.0 demands, explains the Director of Industrial Technologies at Eurecat, Xavier Plantà.
