Optomec’s LENS (Laser Engineering Net Shaping) process is one of America’s favourite 3D printing technologies, it seems. The Albuquerque (NM) metal and electronics industrial manufacturing specialist was selected last February by America Makes, one of the leading US associations for promoting 3D printing and 3D printing education, for two programs to speed the adoption of its technologies. Now it is going to enter an agreement with Technology Education Concepts (TEC) to bring metal 3D printing to universities and technical institutions throughout the United States. At the moment, these university courses teach students about everything from the manufacturing process, product lifecycles, industrial tags that need to be added to products, laser cutting, the material supply chain, and much more so adding 3D printing to this course will be of great benefit to the students. 3D printing is increasing in the manufacturing process, after all.
LENS uses a high power laser (500W to 400W) to fuse powdered metals into fully dense 3 dimensional structures in a hermetically sealed chamber with oxygen and moisture levels below 10 parts per million to ensure excellent material properties. Its systems can be used to produce parts or to enhance existing parts produced with conventional methods and work with a wide range of metals, including titanium, stainless steel, nickel, cobalt and other engineering alloys. The technology used is also fully compatible with these machines, lathes, and several other types of tools and metal-cutting equipment.
“We are very excited by our new partnership with TEC, a company passionate about providing secondary and post-secondary schools with 3D solutions used to teach today’s young people about the fields of engineering, design, manufacturing and architecture”, said Ken Vartanian, Marketing Vice President at Optomec. “Our partnership will help accelerate the creation of a new generation of engineers and technicians trained in production grade additive manufacturing technology and ready to assume roles in industry.”
Full article at 3dprintingindustry.com