Optomec Showcases Mass Production 3D Printing Technology at PE USA Conference

Optomec, a leading global supplier of production grade additive manufacturing systems for 3D printed electronics (Aerosol Jet) and 3D printed metals (LENS), will showcase its solutions at the IDTechEx conference held Nov. 16-17 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Optomec will be in booth F09.
 
Optomec will highlight its Aerosol Jet 3D printing systems used for a wide array printed electronics applications from R&D to high volume manufacturing. Examples of printed electronic devices will be on display in the Optomec booth along with a live demonstration of the Aerosol Jet 200 system for printed electronics, and a video showing Aerosol Jet systems in use at LITE-ON MOBILE printing millions of consumer electronic devices. Additionally, Optomec will highlight fully printed and repaired 3D metal components produced by the company’s LENS customers that illustrate a range of 3D metal additive manufacturing capabilities.
 
Dr. Mike Renn, Optomec CTO, will deliver a presentation at the conference titled “Micron Scale Printing of 3D Printed Structures” at 5:10 pm on Wednesday, Nov. 16. In his talk, Dr. Renn will explain how Aerosol Jet technology can enable 3D polymer and composite structures to be printed at the micron scale with embedded electronics. This breakthrough has significant potential to reduce the cost and size of next-generation products used in the electronics and bio-medical industries. This new capability is enabled by combining Optomec’s production proven Aerosol Jet solution for fine feature printing with a proprietary in-situ curing capability for rapid on-the-fly solidification. Unlike other high resolution 3D printing approaches that deposit material globally (i.e. in a powder bed, and then cure locally to define a pattern), the Optomec method relies on both local deposition and local curing. This makes the process more economical, in terms of material consumption, and is also key to enabling the highest resolution features available.
 
Aerosol Jet 3D micro-structure printing is capable of ultra-high resolutions with lateral features sizes down to 10 microns, and lateral and vertical build resolutions from 1 micron to 100 nanometers respectively. Aspect ratios of more than 100:1 have been achieved. Additionally, such 3D micro-structures can be printed onto existing components and products, such as semiconductor chips, medical devices or industrial parts. Click here to access a white paper on Aerosol Jet 3D micro-structure printing.
 
Dr. Himanshu Sahasrabudhe, LENS senior applications engineer, will give a presentation titled “Powdered Metals – What To Expect When You Build Metal Additively” at 11:40 am on Thursday Nov. 17. Dr. Sahasrabudhe will discuss what to expect when using additive manufacturing technology to build, repair, and coat metal components. His presentation will discuss different processes used to build parts additively from powdered metals, the types of materials available, what properties to expect, and application areas where metal additive manufacturing is used in production today.