Commissioned by IMAL, the sensor housing box was entirely created via professional 3D printing by CRP Technology and then CNC machined by CRP Meccanica combining additive and subtractive manufacturing techniques.

Since 1970 IMAL is word-wide leading company in machinery for the production of wood particle, plywood, MDF, OSB.

For an important customer, IMAL has created a quality control system to be placed at the end of the production cycle, based on TeraHertz / millimeter wave (T-ray) technology.

IMAL turned to CRP Technology for the manufacturing of the functional sensor housing box using their 3D printed service with laser sintering process and composite material.

For the first time IMAL didn’t use mass-produced sensor housing boxes, as they would not have met the quality criteria of the company. "We turned to CRP Technology – IMAL commented - as we knew they would support us during the entire creation process, advising us on the best choice to get the product we wanted, and to manufacture it in the shortest time: the application had to be created in a short time, and to combine high mechanical characteristics (resistance to acceleration, stress and heat) whilst maintaining high level aesthetic standards.”

CRP Technology has been able to assist IMAL in choosing the best Laser Sintering material to guarantee the success of the project: Carbon-composite Windform® XT 2.0, from the Windform® TOP-LINE family of composite materials for LS technology (invented by CRP Technology itself). The choice proved to be particularly appropriate: the sensor housing box turned out to be electromagnetically shielded thanks to the Carbon filled Windform® XT 2.0 composite material. An added unexpected bonus considered very important by IMAL.

CRP Technology created the functional 3D printed sensor housing box in two shells. To obtain higher feature tolerances, the sensor housing box has been CNC-machined on a 5-axis machining center on specialized jigging.

This was possible through the characteristics of Windform® composite materials: not only Windform® XT 2.0, but all the materials in the Windform® TOP-LINE range of composite material can be CNC-machined.

CRP Meccanica, a leader in high-precision CNC machining for over 50 years, processed the sensor housing box via Subtractive technology

The finished part was checked by CRP Meccanica’s Quality department and delivered to IMAL - “This is our first experience with professional 3D printing – they said - and we are very satisfied. Working with CRP Technology we had collaboration, high quality, competence and an open and constructive approach towards us. "

Crptechnology.com

Windform.com