Our smart helmet is now 3D printed using Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) technology. Thank you UPTIVE.

Following our “Born, Not Built” adaptive engineering philosophy at Numorpho Cybernetic Systems (NUMO), we are investigating small batch manufacturing of our smart helmets using SLS and Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) technologies who our partners Würth Additive Group and Uptive recommend for initial low production runs. It will also validate our designs for impact testing and meeting regulations before we go full out with mass manufacturing.

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is an additive manufacturing process that belongs to the powder bed fusion family. In SLS 3D printing, a laser selectively sinters the particles of a polymer powder, fusing them together and building a part, layer by layer. The materials used in SLS are thermoplastic polymers that come in a granular form.

MJF and SLS are two types of 3D printing technologies that use polymer powder to create solid parts. The main difference is that SLS uses a laser to melt the powder, while MJF uses a fusing agent and infrared light.

SLS is a versatile solution, especially if you want to hold off on injection molding and its exorbitant startup costs. It’s definitely more cost-efficient for producing high-quality components in reasonable amounts to test how well your product or technology fares before making expensive molds and tools.

Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) is HP’s proprietary 3D printing process that speedily produces accurate and finely detailed complex parts with powdered thermoplastics. As it can consistently and quickly deliver parts with high tensile strength, fine feature resolution, and well-defined mechanical properties, MJF 3D printing services have rapidly become the go-to additive manufacturing (AM) solution for industrial applications. It’s commonly used to manufacture functional prototypes and end-use parts, parts that need consistent isotropic mechanical properties, and geometries that are organic and complex.

We would also like to thank our Experts in Residence (EIRs) at mHUB , Karthik Chandramouli and Bob Daniel-Wayman (DFMEA), and Balakrishnen Varadarajan for their advice on design for manufacturability principles both for contract manufacturing sourcing and the rigor for testing. As we incorporate generative AI into our processes, their advice will be invaluable in instituting a strong basis to our methodologies using sound engineering principles and data analytics.

The helmet depicted below was created mostly by reusing Nylon PA12 from prior runs to have parts that are equivalently strong but also adhere to our sustainability and recycling principles.

NITIN UCHIL – Founder, CEO & Technical Evangelist
nitin.uchil@numorpho.com