At Silicate Systems, our goal is to offer the lightest night vision devices on the market without compromising their robustness, enabling our customers to use them in the most extreme conditions.
In this context, Multi-Jet Fusion (MJF) additive printing has quickly established itself as a production method. This relatively new printing method is an improved version of Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). Widely used in industry (aeronautics, automotive, etc.), it allows the creation of parts with complex geometries, which other methods such as molding or CNC machining cannot achieve.
The materials available for MJF printing are numerous, and nylon PA11 has emerged as the ideal solution. Thanks to its unique crystalline structure, PA11 offers superior mechanical properties to those of PA12, its petroleum-based counterpart. It particularly stands out for its better ductility, increased resistance to shocks and impacts, abrasion, and fatigue, over a wide temperature range. These advantages make it the material of choice for manufacturing parts intended for production. PA11 MJF printed parts are beginning to replace molded plastic parts in various advanced industries, both for their superior mechanical characteristics and for their lightness.
Some parts are inevitably metallic, if only the screws of our devices. We have selected metals suitable for the most chemically aggressive environments, particularly marine climates. All of the screws are made of A4 (316) stainless steel. All of our connectors are gold-plated.
Silicate Systems remains attentive to the technological developments of materials and manufacturing processes, regularly testing new processes and materials in order to increase the already excellent quality of its products.
