The use of additive manufacturing processes is becoming more important in production. Italian packaging machinery manufacturer Marchesini (Bologna; www.marchesini.com) has started to 3D print components for its cartoning machines. For this purpose, the group has created a new department equipped with 10 Stratasys (Eden Prairie, Minnesota / USA; www.stratasys.com) 3D printers. Stratasys disclosed that Marchesini is using the technology to produce tailor-made components for its machines, most of which are custom-built.

Because the 3D-printed components are made of plastic instead of metal, they are considerably lighter and yield improved kinetic values for the machines’ moving parts. Lighter masses are easier to accelerate and decelerate – a factor that influences the parts’ speed and thus the overall performance of packaging robots and other machines.

For particularly large parts, the Italian machinery manufacturer uses the “Fortus 900mc” with a build envelope of 914.4 mm × 609.6 mm × 914.4 mm. As with the smaller “Fortus 450mc”, this is a fused deposition modelling (FDM) printer that melts thermoplastic filaments and constructs objects layer by layer. The range of plastics goes from standard materials such as UV-resistant copolymer acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA) to high-performance thermoplastics such as carbon fibre-reinforced polyamide.

Marchesini also operates five “Stratasys F270” printers with a build envelope of 305 mm × 254 mm × 305 mm, which can produce flexible components made of polyurethane (TPU 92A). These printers can manufacture combinations of fixed and flexible parts in one component and in one pass.