Plastometrex's PLX-Benchtop solution is being offering within Fieldmade's NOMAD micro factory series as the companies partner to 'bring quality assurance to the forefront of metal additive manufacturing.'
The companies believe the combination of their products represents a 'portable, end-to-end metal additive manufacturing solution with built-in mechanical testing capabilities.'
Fieldmade's deployable NOMAD systems are designed for on-site additive manufacturing, while Plastometrex's PLX-Benchtop delivers accurate, non-destructive stress-strain curves through the use of the company's proprietary Profilometry-based Indentation Plastometry (PIP) testing method. With the combined solution, customers will now able to perform quality assurance directly at the point of production to immediately validate the mechanical integrity of 3D printed parts. By leveraging the PLX-Benchtop, the partners say that NOMAD users will eliminate the need for specialised expertise to perform testing and be able to gain confidence in the performance of their parts within minutes.
“Plastometrex’s solutions represent a paradigm shift for in-field testing,” said Fieldmade Head of Quality, Tobias Rønneberg. “Our customers work in remote environments where parts are urgently needed and access to expertise can be limited. The ease of use, the speed of testing and compact size of the PLX-Benchtop, makes it highly suitable for use in expeditionary manufacturing. By integrating Plastometrex’s PLX-Benchtop into our NOMAD systems, our end-users can rapidly assess the quality of the additively manufactured parts on-the-fly, ensuring the safety and performance of critical components.”
Plastometrex CCO Mike Coto added: “This partnership marks an exciting turning point for deployable production. Traditional testing methods are too slow and inflexible for effective use in deployable settings. By integrating the PLX-Benchtop into the NOMAD systems, Fieldmade and Plastometrex are jointly enabling customers to manufacture and test components at the point of need.”