The Digital Manufacturing Centre (DMC) will be the first service provider in the UK to take delivery of DyeMansion’s Powerfuse S – a state-of-the-art, eco-friendly industrial vapour polishing system. Integral to the DMC’s polymer part finishing, the system was acquired through Laser Lines, DyeMansion’s UK reseller.

With its capabilities, the Powerfuse S will significantly improve the DMC’s polymer surface finishing, delivering sealed and washable parts with injection moulding-like surfaces. As one of the first facilities to adopt this system, DMC engineers will be working closely with DyeMansion to maximise its potential and investigate new materials and applications.

DyeMansion’s VaporFuse Surfacing (VFS) minimises surface roughness by flooding the machine’s entire vacuum chamber with vapour. The result is a highly reproducible process that works for complex geometries and internal surfaces on all common plastics.

The system uses DyeMansion’s bespoke VaporFuse Eco Fluid – an environmentally-friendly solvent – to process plastics in accordance with food contact regulation (EU) 10/2011. Circulated continuously and recovered by the system, the fluid allows the Powerfuse S to operate in a closed loop as a contact-free process without chemical waste or the requirement for users to wear protective equipment.

Aligning closely with the DMC’s vision of a connected, Industry 4.0-ready AM production facility, the Powerfuse S offers fully automatic loading, connectivity and batch tracking. Specialised programs have been developed and validated for all common materials to make the Powerfuse S ‘plug and play’, while all process parameters can be tailored to suit additional materials.

With the addition of the Powerfuse S, the DMC has also become the first AM production facility to utilise DyeMansion’s complete reference architecture.

For further information
www.digitalmanufacturingcentre.com