Lehmann&Voss&Co., renowned as a producer of tailor-made high-performance compounds, is expanding its product portfolio to include thermoplastic materials in powder form, which are used as materials for coatings and laser sintering among other applications. The new product group LUVOCOM® P is managed by Dr Marcus Rechberger. From his previous work as a scientist with the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Mr Rechberger has built up the powder business as part of an independent spin-off of Solid Composites GmbH. Since its foundation, LuV has been one of the company's key partners and suppliers. For a number of years, LuV has thus been supplying LUVOCOM® P 80-7858-B, which is used as a lubricating layer on safety belt deflectors for manufacturers such as BMW and Daimler. On 15 July, LuV took over the business of Solid Composites.
The powder materials are applied as a thin layer on metal parts using conventional electrostatic coating systems. The strength of the metal components combined with the outstanding tribological properties of the powder compounds opens up an entirely new range of applications. Compared with conventional duroplastic antifriction lacquers, wear resistance is increased by a factor of 10. The deep black surface produces a special appearance and is therefore also suitable for visible parts. LUVOCOM® P 80-7858-B is the first product already being used in series.
Lehmann&Voss&Co. now has laser sintering materials in its range as a second product line. Selective laser sintering is a generative production process with which plastic components are built up layer by layer without tools from a powder bed. During the process, a laser selectively melts the thermoplastics. The process draws the necessary data directly from the component drawing file. As a result, components with a complex geometry are literally created overnight. Lehmann&Voss&Co. produces and sells a laser sintering material under licence, which is based on thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) with the name DESMOSINT® X92A-1. The components sintered from this are characterized by a combination of tensile strength, elasticity and wear resistance hitherto unachieved in laser sintering materials.
In future, customized laser sintering materials will also be developed and sold for the consumer sector, electronics, automotive industry and many other industries to customer order and based particularly on high-performance polymers. In cooperation with technology partners, work is additionally taking place on adapting laser sintering technology to the new materials.