Challenges led to opportunities.
Years ago, Uju Industry received a peculiar order — build an apartment house model for fish in the shape of a dome with holes all over it. However, a model with this complexity and irregularity was impossible to build manually. As a result, Yu Ju-yeong, CEO of Uju Industry, started to consider new technologies for this task — eventually deciding on 3D printing.
Uju Industry had experimented with 3D printing in the early 2010s, but the Digital Light Projector (DLP) systems that they first used came with many post-processing challenges. The surfaces of models made with DLP printers had many layers, and the technicians needed to spend a lot of time polishing them with putty and sandpaper. For models with large surfaces, this was troublesome but doable. But for smaller models with complex and irregular shapes, post-processing was unimaginable.
Because many of the models that Uju Industry produced had fine and elaborate details, Yu Ju-yeong felt the need to find a new 3D printing technology that could keep the lamination thickness below 0.3 mm, allowing technicians to simply spray paint the surface and eliminate labourious post-processing.
After considering a variety of alternatives, Yu Ju-yeong decided on the Stratasys® Objet30 Pro™. This high-end printer — compact enough to fit on top of a desk — can create realistic models with specialized properties. It prints as many as eight different materials including clear (VeroClear), high-temperature (RGD525™) and simulated polypropylene (RGD450™ and RGD430™) and yields smooth surfaces with impeccable accuracy on even the smallest moving parts. With a roomy size (294 x 192 x 148.6 mm), it can print the large models that Uju Industry often needs to create and provides a layer size as low as 16 microns. It is perfect for Uju Industry’s challenges.