China's Guangdong Yizumi Precision Machinery Co. Ltd. is bringing a 3D printing technology to K 2019 that it says is ready for small and medium production runs, not just the prototyping that additive manufacturing has historically targeted.
The Foshan, China-based firm is one of that country's largest makers of injection molding machines, but it's been branching into 3D printing and making other investments in technology, like starting construction on a new innovation center in China this month.
Yizumi said its 3D printing system, which it calls SpaceA, uses as its base the melt deposition modeling technology originally developed by the Institute for Polymer Processing/IKV (Hall 14/C16) in Aachen, Germany.
SpaceA is based in Aachen, and the head of the Yizumi subsidiary, Nicolai Lammert, is a former IKV research engineer who developed the technology. The company is exhibiting a SpaceA machine at the IKV booth.
Yizumi Chief Strategy Officer Hans Wobbe said the system uses standard polymers and filled and fiber-reinforced plastics such as nylon with 30 percent carbon fiber, which helps to speed up the additive manufacturing process.
"Our machine can process more or less standard grades of polymers," Wobbe said.