In January of last year the deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg led the formal unveiling of a £2.5m campaign encouraging UK motorists to adopt Ultra Low Emission Vehicles – or ULEVs, for short. The Government’s aim is for these environmentally friendly vehicles to account for every new vehicle on the road by 2040. The campaign was labelled ‘Go Ultra Low’ with BMW, Nissan, Renault, Toyota and Vauxhall all acting as joint partners.
For the past month or so the loss of the Malaysian Airlines flight, MH370, has dominated the headlines on every news channel around the world. Where is it, how did it get there and why is it taking so long to establish it’s whereabouts are the unanswered questions.
Helping with the search has been a state of the art unmanned submarine which has been probing the bed of the Southern Indian Ocean. Armed with some of the latest underwater imaging and navigation systems, experts believe the Torpedo shaped vessel represents the best chance of finding the missing plane.
If you talk to most engineering experts, they will tell you that 3D printing represents one of the most significant developments ever seen in the manufacturing industry.
For those who are still unsure about 3D printing or as it’s more professionally called, additive manufacturing, the following quote, perhaps, provides the best possible explanation.
“3D printing moves us away from the Henry Ford era mass production line and will bring us to a new reality of customizable, one-off production.”
New Rapid Prototyping Development will Cut Costs and Lead Times
A new rapid prototyping development has been announced that could make the so called “rapid prototyping” process even faster. The new methodology revolves around making prototypes using vacuum forming technology. Vacuum forming is a way of thermoforming plastic. It involves manufacturing a tool, around which a heated sheet of plastic is draped. A vacuum is then created between the mould tool and the draped, preheated plastic. This vacuum sucks the heated plastic forcibly onto the tool, and holds in place whilst it is rapidly cooled by engaging the fans built into the vacuum forming machine. As it cools, the plastic conforms to the exact shape of the mould tool.
Recent Comments