Development of the machines and materials for rapid prototyping & tooling technologies and 3D measurement in Huazhong University of Science and Technology Available to Purchase

Rapid prototyping & tooling (RP&T) are the technologies for quickly fabricating components and tooling inserts directly from CAD data by selectively adding material layer by layer, and have been widely used in many fields. The latest development of the machines and materials for RP&T and 3D measurement technologies in the rapid manufacturing center of Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST) in China were introduced in this paper. Selective laser sintering (SLS) and selective laser melting (SLM) are the powder-based RP processes. A series of SLS and SLM equipment and materials developed independently have been successfully commercialized and used by more than 200 customers at home and abroad. Especially, we have the largest SLS equipment in dimensions of 1000mm (long) ï,´1000mm (width) ï,´ 600mm (height). The HRPL machines and photo-curable resins of Stereolithography (SLA), HRLM machines and paper sheet materials of Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) and HRE-I-type line-scanning laser and HRE-II-type structured light measurement systems were also independently developed and commercialized in the rapid manufacturing center of HUST.