Methods of Manufacturing

Injection Moulding
Vacuum Casting
Fibreglass Moulding
CNC Machining
Fused Deposition Modelling
SLS Selective Laser Sintering
Stereo Lithography
3D Printing
Tooling

The Manufacturing Process

Below are some of the manufacturing processes explained in a brief overview, so you can undertsand the terminology when we suggest it.

Once the drawings / CAD files are signed off and we are ready to manufacture, Ambros will choose the best option available in the manufacturing process. There are many different ways in which products can be manufactured and the end costs is usually a direct outcome form the tooling and manufacturing stage.
Tooling can be quite costly and if the product can be done in another method, costs can be considerably reduced. Again this all depends on what the quantities are, materials used and complexity of the job.

CAD - 3D Modelling
Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computer technology for the design of objects.
CAD often involves more than just shapes. As in the manual drafting of technical and engineering drawings, the output of CAD often must convey also symbolic information such as materials, processes, dimensions, and tolerances, according to application-specific conventions.
CAD may be used to design curves and figures in two-dimensional (“2D”) space; or curves, surfaces, or solids in three-dimensional (“3D”) objects.
CAD is an important industrial art extensively used in many applications, including automotive, shipbuilding, and aerospace industries, industrial and architectural design, prosthetics, and many more.

Prototyping
A prototype is a working approximation of the final system or product. The prototype is tested, and then reworked as necessary until an acceptable prototype is finally achieved from which the complete system or product can now be developed. This model works best in scenarios where not all of the project requirements are known in detail ahead of time. It is an iterative, trial-and-error process that takes place between the developers and the users.

Injection Moulding
Injection moulding is a manufacturing process for producing parts from both thermoplastic and thermosetting plastic materials. Material is fed into a heated barrel, mixed, and forced into a mold cavity where it cools and hardens to the configuration of the mold cavity. After a product is designed, usually by an industrial designer or an engineer, molds are made by a moldmaker or toolmaker from metal, usually either steel or aluminium, and precision-machined to form the features of the desired part. Injection molding is widely used for manufacturing a variety of parts, from the smallest component to entire body panels of cars.

Vacuum casting
Vacuum casting is a means of casting small metal parts or jewelry that have fine detail or for casting various plastic materials. A porous or vented mold is used and is placed on a table or container where vacuum is applied. The liquid to be cast will be driven into the mold by atmospheric pressure. Vacuum casting is applied as an alternative to centrifugal casting of metals which is used in similar situations.

Vacuum pressure casting or VPC
Is a recent development in metal casting, whereby vacuum is used in combination with various gases under pressure to improve the quality of the casting and minimize porosity in the metal. Typically VPC casting machines consist of an upper and a lower chamber. The upper chamber or melting chamber housing the crucible, and the lower casting chamber housing the investment mould.

Fibreglass
Fibreglass moulding is a process that starts off with the manufacture of a pattern also known as a plug or buck, this is a model made from Polyurethane foam, or MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard) or another material, this model will replicate the required product exactly, with regards to the dimensions and surface finish, once the pattern has be manufactured and prepared the mould can be manufactured from it, the mould can be male or female depending upon the design of the product.

CNC Machining
Most CNC milling machines (also called machining centers) are computer controlled vertical mills with the ability to move the spindle vertically along the Z-axis. This extra degree of freedom permits their use in diesinking, engraving applications, and 2.5D surfaces such as relief sculptures. When combined with the use of conical tools or a ball nose cutter, it also significantly improves milling precision without impacting speed, providing a cost-efficient alternative to most flat-surface hand-engraving work.
Five-axis machining center with rotating table and computer interface, can produce extremely complicated geometries, even organic geometries such as a human head can be made with relative ease with these machines.

FDM - Fused Deposition Modelling
Fused deposition modeling, which is often referred to by its initials FDM, is a type of additive fabrication or sometimes called rapid prototyping / rapid manufacturing technology commonly used within engineering design.
Like most other additive fabrication processes such as 3D printing and stereolithography FDM works on an “additive” principle by laying down material in layers. A plastic filament or metal wire is unwound from a coil and supplies material to an extrusion nozzle which can turn on and off the flow. The model or part is produced by extruding small beads of thermoplastic material to form layers as the material hardens immediately after extrusion from the nozzle.
Several materials are available with different trade-offs between strength and temperature properties.

SLS Selective Laser Sintering
Selective laser sintering is an additive rapid manufacturing technique that uses a high power LASER to fuse small particles of plastic, metal, ceramic, or glass powders into a mass representing a desired 3-dimensional object. The laser selectively fuses powdered material by scanning cross-sections generated from a 3-D digital description of the part from a CAD file or scan data on the surface of a powder bed. After each cross-section is scanned, the powder bed is lowered by one layer thickness, a new layer of material is applied on top, and the process is repeated until the part is completed.

Compared to other rapid manufacturing methods, SLS can produce parts from a relatively wide range of commercially available powder materials, including polymers, nylons and polystyrene, metals such as steel, titanium, alloy mixtures, and composites, and green sand. Depending on the material, up to 100% density can be achieved with material properties comparable to those from conventional manufacturing methods. In many cases large numbers of parts can be packed within the powder bed, allowing very high productivity.

Stereo Lithography - 3D Printing
Stereolithography has many common names such as: 3D printing, optical fabrication, photo-solidification, solid free-form fabrication, and solid imaging.

Stereolithography is an additive fabrication process utilizing a vat of liquid UV-curable photopolymer “resin” and a UV laser to build parts a layer at a time. On each layer, the laser beam traces a part cross-section pattern on the surface of the liquid resin. Exposure to the UV laser light cures, or, solidifies the pattern traced on the resin and adheres it to the layer below.
A complete 3-D part is formed by this process. After building, parts are cleaned of excess resin by immersion in a chemical bath and then cured in a UV oven.

One of the appealing aspects about SLA is that a functional part can be created within one day which becomes useful when working in a “ time is money” environment. However the amount of time to produce any one part depends on the size and complexity of it and can take anywhere from a few hours to more than a day. Most SLA machines can produce parts with a maximum size of 20” x 20” x 24”. Prototypes made by SLA can be very beneficial as they are strong enough to be machined and can be used as master patterns for injection molding, thermoforming, blow molding, and also in various metal casting processes.

Tooling
Tooling is the process of providing a factory or an industry with the equipment needed for manufacturing.