Newer technologies and materials facilitate new applications

July 2, 2022 10:40 am

Talking about the company’s strengths, Nitin Chaudhari, Partner, Shree Rapid Technologies, told OEM update that Shree Rapid’s strength lies in application know-how, engineering and local after sales support.

Having started in 2007 we are representing leading global additive manufacturing brands such as 3D systems, Formlabs, BCN3D, BMF, 3D Ceram Dye Mansion to name a few. To promote 3D Printing and help our customers experience the technologies first hand, SRT has set up a world class Customer Innovation Centre (CIC) in Mumbai which houses most of our 3D Printers, 3D scanners and post processing technologies, giving our clients and potential clients a glimpse of all our offerings. At our CIC we offer benchmarking services to our clients and furthermore it’s a place where the machines can be seen in action.

What are the unique features of your technologies?

 When it comes to our offerings, we have a wide range of 3D printing technologies to choose from – starting from the entry level Desktop 3D printers to the large scale industrial 3D Printers. Off these we have the 3D Systems Figure 4 Technology. A unique DLP technology that offers a non-contact membrane 3D printing with injection moulded like part quality. And we have close to 20 to 25 materials available with this technology with many more in the testing phase with 3D Systems. 

We also represent Formlabs, the pioneers in desktop 3D Printing Technologies. They are one of the most wellknown names in the desktop 3D Printing category with their unique Low Force Stereolithography technology as their offering. Having reached the masses with their desktop SLA 3D Printers, Formlabs have recently launched their latest desktop SLS 3D Printer Fuse 1 which is installed at our CIC in Mumbai for our clients to benchmark their parts.And then, we have the Spanish BCN3D, the providers of the desktop FDM printers powered by the IDEX technology. The IDEX technology is one of a kind independent Dual Extruder system that allows you to print two different materials simultaneously, or you can duplicate, copy, or mirror the part. It has a primarily big build envelope and can handle nearly 15-20 different types of plastic materials. Shree Rapid is innovating new applications, and Shree Rapid’s strength is application know-how, application engineering, expert application personnel, and local after sales support. As a result, we are looking for newer technologies and materials that can enable new applications.

How do you perceive the innovations and developments in digital manufacturing? 

3D printing is an essential component of digital manufacturing because we are transitioning from CAD design to digital format. As a result, there is no intermediary fixture, tool, cavity or die. A large number of people are undoubtedly using this technology. And, I see a lot of designers creating products that are only suitable for 3D printing. Designers can make use of this technology. As a result of the utterly free-form manufacturing, they have no design constraints. They don’t have to worry about undercut, sliders, where to put a runner, where to put the risers and all of that. So that is one of the unique features of 3D Printing technologies, and we can do custom manufacturing with digital and additive manufacturing. With this technology, you can make small components, maybe 50-100 pieces. So, before additive or digital manufacturing, it was impossible because you needed a die or mould.In future, all factories will be converted from conventional to digital manufacturing. We call them digital factories. So, digital factories are additive manufacturing plants.

How do you sense the growth of metrology? 

The instruments are changing with time. Physical inspection will soon become obsolete with laser scanners entering the market. The white light and blue light scanners are already there in the market. So, the CMM contact measurement technique will be slowly going out, and people will take the scan and superimpose it on the CAD data. Nowadays, a lot of artificial intelligence is built into the software. We can now correct designs in the software. Many people have started working with scanners, where they use the scanners to collect data and make corrections to the final parts to be manufactured. Scanners, I believe, will eventually replace contact measurement techniques.