| 3D Systems Corporation (Rock Hill, SC), a provider of rapid prototyping and manufacturing solutions, announced the launch of the ProJet CPX 3000 digital printing system, a new high-definition 3D printer designed for creating high-volume, finely detailed wax patterns from digital data. The ProJet CPX 3000 is one of six new 3D printers to be introduced formally at the 3D Systems World Conference from October 20-23 in Charlotte, NC. The ProJet CPX 3000 was built for office environments and has a 29 in. x 49.5 in. footprint, works with 3D Systems’ patented Multi-Jet Modeling (MJM) technology, and uses two new materials, both of which are wax. The new VisiJet CPX200 is the wax build material and new VisiJet S200 is its wax support material. There are two build modes: a high-definition (HD) mode for high-speed, detailed production of small to large parts with excellent surface finish that prints 40-micron layers, and an “extreme” high-definition (XHD) mode that prints 16-micron layers for production parts with the more detailed features common in many micro-casting applications. Accuracy detail is said to range from between 0.001 to 0.002 in. per inch of part dimension. According to 3D Systems, the ProJet CPX 3000 was designed for volume production and provides for part nesting and stacking to make use of the entire build volume for long-run unattended operation. It is the first all-wax 3D printer with stacking capabilities and its proprietary single-pass print-head design facilitates the building of multiple parts at the same time without sacrificing build time. In HD mode the total build volume is 298 x 185 x 203mm (11.75 x 7.3 x 8 in.) and in XHD mode it is 127 x 178 x 152mm (5 x 7 x 6 in.). Once the build process is complete, the non-toxic dark-blue build material and its supporting VisiLet S200 wax support material can be safely handled and transferred to a basin where the support material can be dissolved using isopropyl alcohol. While the wax build material and wax support material are environmentally friendly and do not need special disposal, the dissolve solution must be disposed of according to local requirements. It is said that dissolving the support wax is the only postprocessing needed as the surfaces of the remaining 100 percent RealWax pattern are smooth and do not require finishing. The patterns will perform like injected wax patterns in lost-wax casting processes and can be used for direct investment casting applications using standard investment materials and casting procedures. According to 3D Systems, the ProJet CPX 3000 system is the only currently available additive fabrication system capable of producing such detailed 100 percent wax patterns at the speeds it reaches. It is expected that the new system will appeal to designers and manufacturers of wax patterns for highly complex geometric shapes, jewelry, apparel, medical instruments and devices, mechanical parts, and collectibles. The ProJet CPX 3000 digital printer is Windows XP Professional compatible and supports both STL and SLC file formats. For more information, please visit 3D Systems. Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.
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