Formation Engineering Services Ltd.
A move from Sileby to Gloucester saw a new dawn for 3D Printing as Formation pioneered the use of new resins and leading edge 3D CAD technology, Jan a founding member of the company and technical expert within Formation pushed the technology into new market sectors. The Zimmer knee joint (Medical) and Ferrero Rocher, chocolate sweets designs from their Kinder circus animal project.
For complex surface modelling Matra Datavision, Euclid was used and for conversions of 2D drawings into to 3D CAD models, Pro Engineer was used. In November 1994 Jan moved on and several months later the direction of FES (Formation Engineering Services) altered so much with a move from Glouster docks to Quedgeley and growing rapid tooling operations, which failed and it went into receivership, eventually taken over by Arrk Europe Ltd.
Formation - at the leading edge of Rapid Prototyping!
Flexible resin and Impact resin were expertly characterised to enable the best possible applications to benefit many clients. Formations reputation for quality and speed of delivery quickly grew their user base.
People who can help to complete this part of history would come from
companies like Matra Datavision, Delcam (spider), Zimmer (Knee joint),
Ferrero Rocher (Kinder), Hycalog (Deep bore, Oil Drill Head).
Also from members of the team: 3D CAD - Dean Meridith, Nigel Bethell & Finishers.
News Clipping from:
Financial Times 11th February 1992
Promotional Material:
Original flyer and 2 subsequent flyers, inFormation news updates, Engineering Computing Aritcle & Letters.
The impact resin photo was used in Mashall Burns 1993 book called Automated Fabrication.
