Norman Noble (Highland Heights, Ohio) recently announced that it now has additive manufacturing capabilities that could help with product designs that can’t necessarily be manufactured using standard methods.
New additive manufactured and 3D printed parts from the company can be made of metallic based alloys like titanium, stainless and cobalt chrome with the ability to use magnesium and nitinol currently in development.
The new technology can be used for shape-setting fixtures for nitinol-based rapid prototypes, prototype-to-production manufacturing for medical implant designs and manufacturing aerospace and commercial parts. Norman Noble offers the ability to create a conceptual product using its 3D printer while being able to X-Ray the product and email the customer a virtual part within minutes of it being printed.
“Given our long history of developing internal laser cutting and laser welding systems, I strongly believe we have the laser experience and expertise that can be leveraged and applied to the metallic laser sintering printing process,” said Chris Noble, VP and chief operating officer at Norman Noble. “We plan to take the current 3D printing capabilities to another level – including finer finishes, finer feature detail, and new materials not currently commercially available. Combined with our new CT scanner that instantly provides complete external and internal metrology data of our 3D printed products to our customers, we are going to work hard to provide a service that will surpass our competition.”
Norman Noble has also purchased a computerized tomography inspection system to support the company’s new additive 3D printing capabilities. The system allows for a complete dimensional analysis of internal and external part features while offering a dimensional inspection of very complex geometries.