Seminars

Vista Technologies has presented seminars at national meetings of the SME and the FMA. We have also given presentations for the local chapters of the SPE in the Twin Cities and southeastern Minnesota.

The presentations have ranged from broad scope presentations on the whole topic of Rapid Prototyping, to specific topics such as Vista's latest R&D on SLA molding or SLA developments for sheet metal applications.

One of the most exciting developments is our participation in in-house seminars. The in-house presentations are rewarding because of the real world questions and applications. The participants enjoy the chance to see the many hands-on samples and demonstrations.

If you would like Vista to participate in a seminar for your company, association or school, please contact us. We will tailor the presentation to your needs and requirements.

Vista's Sales People

Vista Technologies is happy to announce the addition of two company direct sales people, Brian Westhoff and Dan Mishek.

Brian Westhoff (to the right) started with Vista Technologies in February of '98. He comes to us with sixteen years of experience in sales and service. Originally from South Minneapolis, he started his college days at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and then finished at the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis. Brian now resides in Shoreview with his wife and two children.

Dan Mishek, age 23 (below), is the oldest son of Jim and Lorinda Mishek. He graduated last May from Mount Mercy College in Iowa with a double major in Marketing and Public Relations. He moved back to Minnesota and bought a house in the Como Lake/St.Paul Area. He has three years of combined retail and industrial selling in the Midwest. Dan enjoys hunting, fishing, golfing and karaoke. Dan truly enjoys sales because of all the different people and businesses he encounters.

Brian and Dan have finished their initial training. The pictures show some of the "hands on" aspects of their training. Brian will be handling the North territory, which is north of Hwy 394 in Plymouth, the Hennepin and Larpenteur areas in the Twin Cities, and Hwy 94 in Woodbury. Dan will be taking the territories south of these borders. They would like to set up a time to meet you and help you with your rapid prototyping needs and applications.

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Rapid Manufacturing Notes:
Molding from SLA Molds

It was just a year ago that the idea of injection molding engineering plastics into molds made on the SLA machines was introduced. This crazy idea of shooting plastics at temperatures up to 570^o F (300^o C) into SLA mold faces that only have a glass transition temperature of 158^o F (70^o C) seemed too far fetched to even try. The craziest part is that it worked!

This style of tooling has come to be known as Bridge Tooling. It is the bridge from the SLA model and cast urethane models to short or long run tooling. Bridge Tooling is used when a person needs a small number of spec resin parts quickly. The number of parts produced ranges, but 20 seems to be an average.

Vista Technologies has been one of the industry leaders in developing Bridge Tooling technology. With our partners Spectrum Mold, Imperial Custom Mold and Donnelly Custom Manufacturing, we have done extensive testing of various styles of molds, different materials, different design parameters, cooling rates, etc. We have just scratched the surface as to fully understanding the parameters, but one thing is clear-IT DOES WORK!

We have successfully molded several parts with different dimensions and design characteristics out of different materials (see picture below). To date, the most cost effective design mold is the SLA shell mold.

The SLA shell mold is a core and cavity design that is produced as a shell via the SLA process. A copper water cooling line is inserted behind the mold faces, then the shells are filled with an aluminum-filled epoxy (see pictures on back). (Simple pick outs and additional cores can be designed into the molds.) The epoxy hardens within 24 hours and the molds are then machined to fit into the desired mold set. If all goes well, it is possible to have parts within 7 to 10 days.

The eventual failure of the molds have shown clearly two very important facts: the mold design and the mold face preparation are absolutely paramount.

During mold design it is important to simplify parting lines to assure a good seal. The venting and gating system are important to insure the easiest material flow with the lowest pressure. A properly designed ejector system assures removal of the part without damage to the mold faces.

The preparation of the mold faces cannot be stressed enough. Every mold failure seen to date has always started at a less than perfectly cleaned spot on the mold. If the minute stairstepping that occurs during the SLA build is not totally removed, it can act as a site for the material to adhere to, eventually spalling off that part of the mold face.

SLA shell mold faces	Filling molds with epoxy
Epoxy-filled mold

To date, the materials we have successfully shot are polypropylene, ABS, polycarbonate and polycarbonate blends, glass filled nylon and a monoprene rubber. The tolerancing is also design and material dependent. We have been as good as +/- .002" (.05 mm).

Despite our successes, the process is still experimental. The design characteristics and the materials chosen are major factors as to the ultimate success of the project. If you would like us to evaluate your project, please forward your requirements to us.

For more detailed information concerning our experimentation, please check our web site at www.vistatek.com, then click on "Vista Publications", then again on "SLA Uses in Molding for Rapid Prototyping".

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Rapid Prototyping Notes:
Data Transferring

One of the key elements in producing an SLA part is getting the data from the creator's work station to ours at Vista. Without this important step, the process can never be completed. There are many ways in which that data can be transferred to Vista. Here are six of them and a brief description of each. Listed below are the most used methods of data transfer. The first three are methods of electronic data transfer and the last three are the more conventional methods of transferring data by putting it on removable media.

ELECTRONIC DATA TRANSFER
   FTP site (file transfer protocol)-This is the process of uploading data to the Vista FTP site. It can hold a file size of 2 gigabytes. Once data is sent, instant confirmation is given back to the sender and the receiver. From our customers' feedback, the FTP method seems to be the preferred method of data transfer. Please call for FTP instructions.

   Modem-The fastest modem speed is 56k. This is a direct connection from one site to another. Please call to set up your personalized modem passwords.

   E-mail-Short for electronic mail. This process sends data over the World Wide Web. Data is sent through and off many sights to get to the designated address. Files larger than 1 megabyte have a tendency to get lost or corrupted.

REMOVABLE MEDIA
   Zip disk-This is removable media. It can hold a file of 100 megabytes-not to be confused with zipping a file. To use this format you must have a Zip drive from Iomega.

   3.5 floppy disk-The traditional method of data transfer. It can hold up to 1 megabyte of data per disk.

   4 mm tape drive-This is another conventional way of transferring large files. The 4 mm tape can hold 4 megabytes of information. When using this method it is best to use the tape archive (TAR) format.

In all incidences dealing with transferring data using a Zip disk, a floppy disk, a 4 mm tape or any other method of removable media, a sales representative would be happy to pick up the removable media and deliver it to be downloaded back at Vista. This is just another way Vista is trying to be of better service to you.

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