Orlando, Florida-based nScrypt is a manufacturer of micro-dispensing and 3D printing systems, and it has just announced the release of its new Factory in a Tool (FiT) for Direct Digital Manufacturing. Factory in a Tool is an integrated system that can digitally fabricate anything from 2D and 3D printed circuits to biological structures, and can be used almost anywhere on the digital manufacturing floor.
The FiT is offered in three base models of different sizes, as well as multiple configurations: two base models for solder, vias, and adhesives, and three for Direct Digital Manufacturing. There are two basic hardware configurations: the 3Dn-Tabletop, which is based on a precision ball screw motion system and the 3Dn-300 or 3Dn-500, which are linear gantry systems. The 3Dn-300 has 300 millimeters of travel in the XY axis and the 3Dn-500 has 500 millimeters of travel in the XY axis. If two or more systems are lined up, it creates what nScrypt calls a Factory in a Line.
The 3Dn-300 and 3Dn-500 run five tool heads for Direct Digital Manufacturing without tool changes. The tools and configurations all share a user-friendly and customizable graphical user interface (GUI), z-tracking/High sensing, precision motion control, and common software and electronic controllers, which simplify operation, maintenance, servicing, training and reconfiguration.
The Factory in a Tool uses multiple tool heads, including the nFD for material extrusion, the SmartPump for Micro-Dispensing, the nMill for micro-milling, and the nPnP 360 for pick and place of electronic components and subassemblies. These tools operate in series or parallel on a fast, precise linear motion gantry, alongside multiple cameras for automated inspection and computer vision routines, a point laser height sensor for mapping surfaces for conformal printing, an automated PulseForge 1300 photonic curing system and a femtosecond laser for cutting or sintering materials.
The SmartPump has pico-liter volumetric control that eliminates dripping and can work with the widest range of materials available for any Micro-Dispensing system – more than 10,000 commercially available materials, in fact. It can print everything from thin materials like water to thick material like peanut butter or thicker.
The nTip, which is used on the SmartPump tool head, has the smallest commercially available pen tip diameter at 10 microns, one-tenth the diameter of a human hair. The smallest competitive pen tips, according to nScrypt, are 100 microns.
The nFD extruder tool offers the widest range of thermoplastics and can also print composites and continuous carbon fiber. If a material is not available in a filament format, the nFDh unique hopper option is capable of loading thermoplastic and composite injection molding pellets.
nScrypt has been around for longer than a decade and in 2003 won the R&D 100 Award for producing the first commercially available bioprinter. Next year, its zero gravity bioprinter will travel to the International Space Station.
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[Images: nScrypt]
