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Engel Establishes New Unit for Project Planning of Composites Systems Engel Austria (U.S. office in York, Pa.) has created a new sub-division to support customers in project planning and commercial launch of production systems for fiber-reinforced plastic composites. Previously, this activity was part of an Engel R&D; unit, the Center for Lightweight Composite Tech- nologies. But the increasing demand for integrated lightweight construction solutions requires a separation of the actual project business from develop- ment work, states Dr. Christoph Steger, chief officer of the Engel Group. The new Engel Composite Systems sub-division is located in St. Valentin, Austria, as is the Center for Light- weight Composite Technologies. Engel Composite Systems will be an interface for customers between the composites R&D; center, the business units, and the automation division. Engel is exploring a wide variety of composites technolo- gies, including HP-RTM, SMC, injection overmolding of thermoplastic fabric and tapes, and in-situ polymerization of nylon from Caprolactam (T-RTM). 717-764-6818 • engelglobal.com 3D Printing Achieves 'Break-Even' Point Versus Injection Molding at 110,000 Parts A new milestone on the path to volume manufacturing with 3D printing: HP Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., claims to have raised the limit at which its Multi Jet Fusion process is cost competitive with injec- tion molding now to 110,000 parts. HP claims to have "unlocked economies of scale" with its new Jet Fusion 3D 4210 machine for its modified inkjet-style process (see Sept. '17 Close-Up). It raises the economic break-even point from 50,000 parts for the previous model 4200. The model 4210 employs vari- ous hardware and software upgrades (retrofittable to 4200 models) to improve productivity and reduce piece cost— notably the ability to feed materials from bulk packaging (e.g., 1000 liters). HP claims "the industry's lowest cost- per-part—up to 65% less than other 3D printing methods." HP also claims its Jet Fusion system is up to 10 times faster than other methods. By continuing to drive down piece costs, HP aims for a break-even point of 1 million parts. Essential to that goal is driving down the cost of thermoplas- tic powder raw materials, which HP is pursuing through an expanding range of partnerships with materials companies. HP's Open Materials Platform already includes Arkema, BASF, Evonik, Henkel, Lehmann & Voss, and Sinopec Yanshan Petrochemical Co. of China. HP recently added two new partners: One is Lubrizol, which will bring TPU elastomers as the next major addition to HP's Jet Fusion materials line. The second is Dressler Group, a specialist in grinding and refin- ing chemical products. It will offer HP's materials partners preferred access to its toll grinding capabilities, helping to reduce one of the main barriers to mate- rials development, HP says. HP also announced three additions to its "high-reusability" materials range, referring to the ability to reuse up to 80% of leftover powder. Added to the original nylon 12 powder, there's now also a nylon 11 for parts requiring ductility and flexibility; nylon 12 with 40% glass beads for parts requiring high stiffness; and PP (available by midyear), for parts requiring low cost, light weight, and good chemical resistance. In future, HP is aiming to add more nylon materials, more varieties of filled grades, and additional high-perfor- mance materials. HP says it is working with more than 50 materials companies, including Dow and DSM, which are still at the development stage. 877-468-8369 • hp.com Solvay Starts Up Nylon Production In Mexico Solvay Performance Polyamides (U.S. office in Alpharetta, Ga.) has begun production of the Technyl range of nylons in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The 22-million-lb/yr facility will service the company's regional customers in automotive and consumer goods. Solvay acquired the Technyl line with the acquisition of Rhodia in 2011. 800-621-4557 • solvay.com Automotive Composites Get a Boost From New Predictive Engineering Tools Adoption of weight-saving polymer composites in auto body structures will be made easier with new predictive engineering software. The development effort behind it was led by researchers at the U.S. Dept. of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., along with industry and academia. Other key players were PlastiComp, Winona, Minn., a specialty compounder of long-fiber thermoplas- tics (LFT); Toyota; modeling software supplier Autodesk; tier one molder Magna; and university researchers from Univ. of Illinois, Purdue, and Virginia Tech. PlasticComp (plasticomp.com) provided 30% long-carbon-fiber PP and nylon 66 materials and molded sample plaques that were used to evaluate fiber orientation and length attrition during injection molding. Also, some of the algorithms used by Autodesk's software (autodesk.com) were updated to better model long-carbon-fiber orientation in computer-aided analysis of design concepts to predict performance properties. Fiber-orientation map (left) and resulting flexural properties (right). (a) Scale (300mm) (b) 0.8887 0.6784 0.4680 0.2577 0.0473 10 JANUARY 2018 Plastics Technology PTonline.com T E C H N O L O G Y A N D I N D U S T R Y N E W S St ar t ing Up