Burloak investing $11.5m in additive systems

20 Aug 2014

Ontario-based developer of engineering solutions establishing Canada’s first laser additive manufacturing center.

Burloak Engineered Solutions, Ontario, Canada, which delivers diverse engineering solutions to multiple industrial and consumer product sectors, has announced a new five-year strategic plan which will see the company invest $11.5m to establish what it is calling “Canada’s first full production additive manufacturing and advanced manufacturing center”.

The facility will feature the first production direct metal laser sintering system in Canada along with SLS (plastic processing) and subtractive manufacturing systems. To support this business plan the company concluded a private equity investment in July.

Burloak has begun commissioning the first round of laser additive manufacturing machines, which is made up of equipment from EOS, including its SLS and DMLS 3D printers; and Elliott Matsuura, including its 5-, 4- and 3-axis machining and CMM systems. Burloak said it expects to begin production with the systems immediately.

As part of its strategy, the company is rebranding under the corporate name Burloak Technologies with two wholly-owned subsidiary companies, Burloak Advanced Manufacturing and Burloak Engineered Solutions. The Advanced Manufacturing operation will provide the additive and advanced subtractive services while Engineered Solutions will provide metrology, onsite inspection, alignment, 3D scanning, reverse engineering, CAD and tooling services.

Furthermore Burloak announced that it has opened a new facility in Dundas, Ontario which will become its corporate and primary manufacturing headquarters.

EOS, Plasmo develop online monitoring method

Melt Pool Monitoring: online observation cuts risks, costs.

With its Melt Pool Monitoring concept, EOS has announced that is co-developing a high-performance online monitoring solution with Vienna, Austria-based Plasmo Industrietechnik, a supplier of automated quality assurance systems. At the end of 2013, the two companies confirmed their collaboration in the form of a cooperation contract. The aim of this close cooperation is to advance development of the online process monitoring for DMLS.

Dr. Tobias Abeln, Technical Director at EOS, said, "We have been working successfully with Plasmo for some time now. They are accompanying us as an expert partner in manufacturing and process monitoring on our road towards additive series manufacturing. The key to successful process monitoring is the intelligence of the system. Understanding and evaluating the data appropriately offers added value. Our goal is to set new benchmarks in this field and in Plasmo we have found the optimum partner for this."

Dr. Adrian Keppler, Sales and Marketing Director at EOS, added, “With modular online process monitoring we are extending quality assurance with a further module and ensuring greater transparency during our complex building process. We are making a tool available, which customers can use to develop their own quality assurance concept.”

Dr. Thomas Grünberger, CTO at Plasmo said, “Process know-how from EOS coupled with our expertise in optical quality control systems results in solutions which fulfill the requirements of Additive Manufacturing perfectly. Our monitoring system Fastprocessobserver used in connection with its underlying powerful algorithms is ideally suited for the high process dynamics of Additive Manufacturing.”

EOS to host North American User Day

Aerospace industry titans Boeing, GE Aviation, and Honeywell Aerospace are among those documenting the strong case for end-use production with laser sintering, an industrial 3D-printing technology from EOS. By speaking during the North American User Day on September 10, 2014 they, along with other customers and partners, will chronicle their successes applying AM for product manufacturing.

The NAUD takes place during the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) held the week of September 8, 2014, at McCormick Place in Chicago, Ill. This is the first time the NAUD is being held at IMTS—and the first time the full-day event is open to all show attendees.

About the Author

Matthew Peach is a contributing editor tooptics.org.