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POM (Polyoxymethylene) is an engineering thermoplastic, that is recognized for its mechanical properties: it is particularly resistant and has excellent dimensional stability. POM is sometimes called Acetal or Delrin.
At Sculpteo, we use rectangle sheets of a copolymer, a derived version of the original material that preserves its characteristics and allows us to propose the material at better prices.
This material has a smooth glass-like shiny surface with a moderately opaque white color. It is not designed for aspect, but for technical properties (for example, for internal technical parts). To learn more, refer to our paragraph about uses and maintenance for the POM material.
Please take a note that laser cuts the thermoplastic under a slight angle which may be visible on thicker parts.
POM is a material that has several benefits, both on its ease of use and on its durability. The technical properties of POM can vary depending on the thickness but it’s always very resistant and has incredible geometrical stability.
When it comes to shrinkage and tolerance. Our POM material can light up when exposed to LED lights, and is very resistant to crazing and cracking.
All of these characteristics make it ideal for technical parts, in particular, parts that will have to endure large amounts of strain and friction. All our POM is impact-resistant and half the weight of glass, it is also very easy to work with and can be sawed, drilled, routed, silk-screened, and formed. Our POM is a great material for internal parts for your projects and industry tooling and spare parts. This makes it very different from our other polymeric material for laser cutting, acrylic, which is a lot less resistant.
However, POM is not ideal for aspect products as its surface is not covered by a plastic foil during laser cutting and engraving, which means that some fine scratches and some burn marks can appear on its surface. We recommend to use it as an internal part of your project.
Technical POM is used for thousands of products due to its high quality, exceptional resistance, ease in processing and design flexibility. From automotive spare parts to gears, hinges, locks and dozens of other applications. The fact that it is waterproof means that POM can be used in kitchens, bathrooms and for parts that need to be bathed in oil for long periods of time (typically, some motor parts).
The price of manufacturing your POM design is calculated automatically at the moment your order is placed online. As you modify your object and utilize our optimization tools, you will note that the price changes automatically. The pricing is based on a series of factors, including: quantity of material used, labor required, and machine manufacturing time – to name a few.
Laser cutting has a quicker manufacturing time when compared to laser engraving. Your object is estimated to arrive in 2 business days. Engraving and particularly large objects can extend the processing time by 1-2 days on average. The estimated shipping time is also calculated automatically as the object is uploaded. An additional delay can ensue depending on availability. More information can be found in the section about colors and sizing.
Delivery time should be added to the processing time and depends on the delivery option you choose.
Laser Cutting is a digital subtractive fabrication technique that consists of cutting or engraving a material by means of a laser. Laser Cutting can be used on a number of materials such as plastic, wood, cardboard, etc. The process involves cutting material using a powerful and highly accurate laser that focuses on a small area of the material. The high power density results in rapid heating, melting and partial or complete vaporizing of the material. Usually, a computer directs the high-power laser at the material and traces the path.
Laser Engraving (or Laser Etching) is a subtractive manufacturing method, that uses a laser beam to change the surface of an object. This process is mostly used to create images on the material that may be seen at eye level. To do so, the laser creates high heat that will vaporize the matter, thus exposing cavities that will form the final image. This method is quick, as the material is removed with each pulse of the laser. It can be used on almost any kind of metal, plastic, wood, leather or glass surface. As a special note for our transparent Acrylic, when engraving your parts, you must be sure to mirror the image so that when looking at your part head-on, the image appears correctly.
POM is a material that lends itself to different types of operations but it cannot be painted or glued easily. Surface must be prepared and sanded in order to let the paint or glue stick to the slippy surface of the POM.
It can however be sawed, drilled, routed, decorated, silk-screened, and formed.
Laser cuts and engraves material by burning its surface, therefore, leaving a kerf. When burning the surface, the laser also leaves a kerf of a width that can vary, depending on the type of material and the thickness chosen.
When designing your project, you need to take this kerf into account and plan for a surplus of material accordingly.
This table shows you the value of the kerf for each thickness:
In our catalog:
| Thickness of POM (mm) | 2 | 3 | 5 | |||
| Width of the kerf (mm) | 0.13 – 0.23 | 0.1 – 0.26 | 0.29 – 0,56 |
In our European catalog:
| Minimum dimension (mm) | 15 x 15 |
| Maximum dimension (mm) | 940 x 590 |
In our American catalog:
| Minimum dimension (in) | 0.59 x 0.59 |
| Maximum dimension (in) | 32 x 18 |
In our European catalog:
| Thickness of POM (mm) | 1 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 10 |
| Minimum distance between two paths (mm) | 1 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 10 |
In our American catalog:
| Thickness of POM (in) | 0.039 | 0.118 | 0.196 | 0.314 | 0.393 |
| Minimum distance between two paths (in) | 0.039 | 0.118 | 0.196 | 0.314 | 0.393 |
For laser engraving, the laser will contour each letter, which will “bolden” the font. Therefore, when you conceive your vector file, you need to:
For laser cutting, it is key to take the kerf into account when designing your text. The texts must be treated like shapes: they must be vectorized and respect the same rules as every other shape.
We offer two types of laser engraving:
Make sure you incorporate different colors in your vector design, according to whether you want a cut, an engraving line or a surface engraving.
POM is a white shiny surface material and is not very suitable for surface engraving. Our Light Surface Engraving gives rather good results (even if it is not quite visible, it adds texture on your surface material). In contrast, Deep Surface Engraving tends to overflow the desired design so we do not recommend to use this technique on POM material.
| Is it possible to assemble your parts? | Yes |
| Minimum space required for assembly | Depends on the kerf |
If you wish to make POM pieces fit into each other and make sure they’ll stay connected, we recommend that you add in nodes. Nodes are small bumps situated in a piece’s slots or tabs, that allow compensating the thickness variations of the material and the kerf. Nodes get compressed when the pieces are assembled and they concentrate the friction on specific points rather than on the slot’s whole surface. This way, the slots can be larger without coming apart, allowing the pieces to stay together.
On top of the nodes, it is important to adequately treat the end of the slots. Sharp angles are a weak point for POM, and will always fracture at the corner, where efforts get concentrated. A solution to this issue is to add a hole at the corner of each sharp angle. This technique allows for distributing the stress across the whole surface of the hole instead of just one precise point.
| Files with Multiple Objects ? | No |
Sculpteo propose deux options de métallisation, le PVD et la Galvanoplastie. Ces deux traitements de surface appliquent une couche métallique sur votre objet imprimé en 3D. Ils amélioreront la durabilité de vos pièces avec, en fonction du métal choisi, une meilleure résistance à l’abrasion, aux rayures, à l’oxydation, la corrosion, aux acides, etc. Cependant, ces deux options de placage ont chacune leurs particularités et ne servent pas les mêmes fins.
La différence principale entre ces deux options de métallisation est l’épaisseur de la couche métallique appliquée à votre objet: +/-2µ pour le PVD, et +/-150-200μm pour la galvanoplastie.
La technique du PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) applique une couche métallique fine à votre objet. L’avantage de cette technique est qu’elle peut être utilisée sur des pièces flexibles faites de TPU. La finesse de cette couche métallique, jusqu’à 2µ, permet de préserver les détails de votre pièce imprimée en 3D.
Cette technique sera parfaitement adaptée pour :
Les pièces flexibles
Les prototypes
La galvanoplastie est un procédé électrolytique permettant de déposer une couche métallique sur un objet. La couche métallique obtenue est d’une épaisseur d’environ 150-200μm et ne conviendra pas aux objets très fins ou détaillés, bien que le rendu de la surface soit homogène. Cette solution de placage fournira un toucher froid à votre pièce imprimée en 3D.
Cette technique est parfaite pour :
Il s’agit de dépôt physique par phase de vapeur. Ce procédé est réalisé sous pression et transforme la matière solide, le métal source, en vapeur, qui viendra ensuite se condenser sur le substrat, en l’occurrence, notre pièce imprimée en 3D.
Le métal est chauffé jusqu’à son point de fusion afin qu’il s’évapore et entre en contact avec l’élément à recouvrir, qui sera, quant à lui, à une température bien moindre. Cela permet au métal de retourner à son état solide en enveloppant l’objet en question.
Réaliser ce procédé sous pression permet d’obtenir une fine couche, pure et régulière, de métal. Sans impuretés, le risque d’oxydation et d’irrégularités à la surface de l’objet est évité.
Il existe plusieurs manières de procéder avec le PVD, par évaporation, ionisation ou pulvérisation. Le procédé que nous utilisons chez Sculpteo est le processus de pulvérisation.
La galvanoplastie est un procédé électrolytique de déposition qui recouvre un objet d’une couche métallique. Par électrolyse, le métal est transféré d’une anode, la partie contenant le métal couvrant, vers une cathode, la partie contenant la pièce à recouvrir.
Pour le plastique, nous recouvrons la pièce d’une couche conductrice, puis nous l’accrochons ou la dirigeons vers un support métallique connecté à une charge négative. L’ensemble est ensuite trempé dans un bain chimique électrolytique soumis à une charge continue, ce qui entraîne la migration de la matière métallique vers la pièce à recouvrir.
Il est possible d’appliquer plusieurs couches. Afin d’obtenir une surface lisse, la pièce doit être polie entre chaque bain, de manière à homogénéiser la couche déposée.
La faible épaisseur de la couche réhausse l’aspect esthétique de la pièce, tout en lui conférant plus de solidité ainsi qu’une plus grande facilité de nettoyage.
Une couche un peu plus épaisse permettra une résistance encore meilleure à la corrosion et à l’usure. Certains matériaux, tels que le chrome, ne terniront pas.
Le temps de livraison dépend du volume et du nombre de pièces de votre commande.
Cette information vous sera communiquée lors du traitement de votre commande.
Cette option de finition est disponible sur notre plateforme en ligne d’impression 3D.
Vous pourrez obtenir votre devis après avoir téléchargé votre fichier sur notre plateforme.
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