Digital Foam can solve many variables or problems that customers may encounter, and quickly convert customers’ ideas into actual products.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Antarctic Bear 3D Printing” (ID: dddyin), author Antarctic Bear 3D printing, the original title “elastic foam 3D printing technology, Germany EOS launched Digital Foam technology”, slightly cut.
There has been little innovation in the field of elastic foam for nearly 80 years. The emergence of 3D printing technology has revived the industry to produce products that are more comfortable, safer, lighter and customizable. EOS North America (EOS) and its Additive Minds application engineering team pioneered the Digital FoamTM program, reducing the difficulty of bringing 3D printed elastic foam to market and enabling CAD, materials, parts validation and Organic integration of additive manufacturing (3D printing) and many other aspects.
Bicycle Helmets Customized with EOS PA 1101 Material
In this program, Digital Foam addresses many of the variables or issues customers may encounter and quickly translates their ideas into actual products. It gives customers a shortcut to quickly produce 3D printed protective helmets, personalized orthoses, high-performance footwear and a wide range of other applications.
3D Printing Elastic Foam uses a highly flexible polymer material such as TPU or PEBA to fine-tune each voxel (volume pixel) for superior comfort, safety and functionality. With traditional processes, this process is extremely cumbersome, requiring complex engineering and long production cycles to produce a product that meets the requirements, and is easier to implement with Digital Foam 3D printing technology.
EOS foam-1 Bicycle helmet customized with EOS PA 1101 material/Photo source: HEXR
“For example, the production of a safer football helmet requires a lot of work, but for the end user, the benefits are directly proportional to it,” said Dr. Greg Hayes, senior vice president of application engineering at EOS North America. The Foam program is designed to help companies become simple and efficient in product innovation.”
Digital Foam is powered by a powerful engineering software and nTopology in New York, which is dedicated to simplifying engineering. Analysis and preparation process. Bradley Rothenberg, CEO of nTopology commented: “Digital Foam accelerates the market application of 3D printing technology, making full use of highly plastic materials such as elastic foam. The products not only meet basic applications, but also better, such as manufacturing. The helmet is not only safer, but also lighter and more comfortable.”
Customized 3D printed orthopedic insoles/pictures using Digital FoamSource: Aetrex
Aetrex is a company that has adopted Digital Foam, a global leader in foot scanning technology, orthotics and comfort footwear. In partnership with EOS, Aetrex uses the Digital Foam method to analyze the customer’s foot and identify foot pressure points through its proprietary Albert scanning system to produce customized 3D printed orthopaedic insoles. In this way, companies can create personalized orthopaedic insoles that are reasonably priced, lightweight and perfectly fit each foot through a mass customization solution.
“Aetrex has done a perfect interpretation of how Digital Foam has made 3D printing flexible foam applications mainstream in the digital manufacturing arena,” Hayes added. “We created a highly complex but easy to useThe solution is to build a bridge between many links in the value chain to help companies quickly bring quality products to market. “
EOS and its partner companies are submitting their Digital Foam products to the NFL Helmet Challenge as an entry to design and develop a football helmet that surpasses existing models. The NFL Helmet Challenge The winner will be announced in May 2021