Airedale Springs invests in 3D Printing Technology

Airedale Springs has installed a 3D printer for the production of plastic components, checking gauges and spare machine parts. Fused deposition modelling falls within the general term of Additive Manufacturing although regardless of the process it is normally referred to as 3D modelling. 3D printable components are created with a computer aided design (CAD) programme. The design is then converted by a special programme called a “slicer” which converts into a series of thin layers and produces a set of instructions that the printer will understand called a G-Code file. The 3D printer follows the G-code instructions to lay down successive layers of liquid, plastic to build the component from a series of cross sections. These layers, which correspond to the virtual cross sections from the CAD design, are automatically fused to create the final shape.