Carbon M2 3D printer
Met-L-Flo Inc has installed an M2 Series to supplement a range of other additive and subtractive manufacturing technologies.
Carbon and Met-L-Flo Inc., a 3D printing and rapid prototyping service bureau, have announced their production partnership following the 2018 AMUG Conference.
Effective immediately, Met-L-Flo, based in Illinois, has installed Carbon’s M2 Series machine, which will supplement its already wide range of additive manufacturing and rapid prototyping technologies. Met-L-Flo boasts Stereolithography (SLA), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), and Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) platforms, as well as a range of machining and injection moulding equipment, and serves customers working in the automotive, aerospace, medical and consumer goods industries.
The company has been in operation since 1991 and has remained a champion and applier of 3D printing technologies, initially for rapid prototyping services, and gradually for manufacturing too. It has now moved to adopt a 3D printing process which continues to attract manufacturers in a variety of vertical markets, most notably sportswear brand, Adidas. Met-L-Flo was enticed to purchase an M2 machine for its ability to produce parts with ‘exceptional mechanical properties, resolution, and surface finish’, and thus offer its customers isotropic parts it hasn’t previously been able to.
“Being a production partner with Carbon 3D is going to open up offerings that you can’t create with a traditional machine base,” said Bill Braune, production manager at Met-L-Flo, who was involved in the beta testing of Carbon’s M1 machine. “It’s definitely going to be a game changer for both parties.”
“We are pleased to bring on the Carbon technology and look forward to innovatively working with the versatile technology,” added Carl Dekker, President of Met-L-Flo. “Carbon opens up a whole new area for additive manufacturing applications.”
The companies first made public their partnership as the AMUG Conference, in which Carbon was 1 of 14 Diamond Sponsors, came to a close. As part of its sponsorship, Carbon exhibited some of the applications enabled by its Digital Light Synthesis technology, and put on a host of presentations, which included a keynote session. This keynote presentation was delivered by Joseph DeSimone, Carbon’s Co-Founder and CEO, and focused on how collaboration was the key to making digital ‘factories of the future’ a reality. Other talks looked at a host of customer case studies; revealed the extensive education and certification program users of its technology must undertake; and how additive manufacturing may represent a post-injection moulding era.
