- Intended for the production of hollow parts, typical of mandrel or clamshell molding
NORTH HUNTINGDON, Pa., July 1, 2015 – The ExOne Company (Nasdaq:XONE) (“ExOne” or “the Company”), a global provider of three-dimensional (“3D”) printing machines and 3D printed and other products to industrial customers, announced today the qualification of a new application for its additive manufacturing process, Water Wash-out Tooling, designed to aid in the development of manufacturing and composite tooling.
ExOne’s Materials Applications Laboratory (ExMAL) identified the limitations of traditional manufacturing techniques for tooling production in water soluble materials and developed the new application to meet the challenges presented by the varying designs of composite parts. Using ExOne’s printers, the Company created 3D printed cores that can simply be washed out of a part after manufacturing. To fully realize the capabilities of the application, ExMAL developed a new surface coating process that is applied to the printed core and eliminates the porousness of printed media and provides extremely smooth surface finishes.
Rick Lucas, ExOne’s Chief Technology Officer, commented, “As ExOne continues to qualify applications and materials for industrial 3D printing, developing systems that allow our customers to directly print not only parts but the tooling required to make parts was the logical evolution. This new Water Wash-out Tooling process is unique when compared with traditional methods in that all of the print material can be recovered and reused for future print cycles. Accordingly, it reduces inventory requirements and removes molding steps to help speed up development time.”
Intended for the production of hollow parts, typical of mandrel or clamshell molding, ExOne’s Water Wash-out Tooling process involves the 3D printing of a core in sand, ceramics, or carbon applying a composite lay-up and curing. The final core is then washed out with only the structural composite part remaining.
The dimensionally stable process provides manufacturers with easy prototyping for part evaluation, and can be used with Polyester, Vinyl Ester or Epoxy resins. The system is fully capable of autoclave pressures to 125 psi and can withstand process temperatures up to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. The process has a short lead time requiring no machining, and the print media can be chosen to optimize Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE), thermal connectivity, and density.
Water Wash-out Tooling is ideal for printing mandrels for filament winding, tape placement or hand lay-up; plugs and source tools; styling and design models; hollow or trapped shape fabrication; and one-off parts for part validation.
For more information regarding 3D printing applications, visit ExOne’s website at www.exone.com.
About ExOne
ExOne is a global provider of 3D printing machines and 3D printed and other products, materials and services to industrial customers. ExOne’s business primarily consists of manufacturing and selling 3D printing machines and printing products to specification for its customers using its in-house 3D printing machines. ExOne offers pre-production collaboration and print products for customers through its eight PSCs, which are located in the United States, Germany, Italy and Japan. ExOne builds 3D printing machines at its facilities in the United States and Germany. ExOne also supplies the associated materials, including consumables and replacement parts, and other services, including training and technical support, necessary for purchasers of its machines to print products.
Safe Harbor Regarding Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are identified by words such as “expects,” “estimates,” “projects,” “typically,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “appears,” “could,” “plan,” and other similar words. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning future revenue and earnings, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by such statements, which include our ability to qualify more materials in which we can print; the availability of skilled personnel; the impact of increased operating expenses and expenses relating to proposed acquisitions, investments and alliances; our strategy, including the expansion and growth of our operations; the impact of loss of key management; our plans regarding increased international operations in additional international locations; sufficiency of funds for required capital expenditures, working capital, and debt service; the adequacy of sources of liquidity; expectations regarding demand for our industrial products, operating revenues, operating and maintenance expenses, insurance expenses and deductibles, interest expenses, debt levels, and other matters with regard to outlook; demand for aerospace, automotive, heavy equipment, energy/oil/gas and other industrial products; the scope, nature or impact of acquisitions, alliances and strategic investments and our ability to integrate acquisitions and strategic investments; liabilities under laws and regulations protecting the environment; the impact of governmental laws and regulations including the related challenges of conducting business in international locations such as Russia; operating hazards, war, terrorism and cancellation or unavailability of insurance coverage; the effect of litigation and contingencies; the impact of disruption of our manufacturing facilities or PSCs; the adequacy of our protection of our intellectual property; material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and other factors disclosed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and other periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Because they are forward-looking, these statements should be evaluated in light of important risk factors and uncertainties.
Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of ExOne’s underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those currently anticipated. The Company disclaims any obligation to update or publicly announce any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements contained in this news release.
For more information, contact:
Media:
Justin Falce
Burson-Marsteller
(412) 394-6698
justin.falce@bm.com
Investors:
Brian Smith
ExOne Chief Financial Officer
(724) 765-1350
brian.smith@exone.com
Deborah K. Pawlowski / Karen L. Howard
Kei Advisors LLC
(716) 843-3908 / (716) 843-3942
dpawlowski@keiadvisors.com / khoward@keiadvisors.com
