The Selective Laser Melting manufacturing technique
One of the new technologies that is specifically product related is the SLM
We preserve our heritage by continuously investing in technology and product development. It is our philosophy that even a traditional products can benefit greatly from new technology and industrial competences. New technology can take various forms.
One of the new technologies that is specifically product related is the SLM manufacturing technique
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At the end of 2008 Ortofon introduced a completely new product that was designed in cooperation with the Danish Technological Institute.
The SPU 90th Anniversary phono cartridge was thought as a celebration of a significant milestone in the Ortofon history and was the result of a research that incorporated the technological heritage of Ortofon with the new manufacturing technology called Rapid Manufacturing (RM).
The cooperation with the Danish Technological Institute originally began with experiments with the production of plastic items for cartridges in the Selective Laser Melting machine using the new RM technology. RM allows manufacure parts in different materials directly from 3D file. The RM technology has given us a bigger creative designing space, because we are no longer limited by a particular geometric shape. We do not produce tools, which means that the production process is reduced to a few weeks where it before took between 4 to 6 months. The time factor means that we can now try out our ideas, and it gives us an SPU 90th Anniversaryenormous amount of freedom.
What makes the SPU 90th Anniversary and its successors the MC A90 , Xpression and the newest highest echelon MC Anna phono cartridges unique is that thier bodies are a precision-made one piece frame, designed to allow a more perfect physical connection between the various subparts. The microparticles are laser-welded together and create a structure of great rigidity and immunity to unwanted vibrations.
In the November 2009 issue of Stereophile, Michael Fremer, the reviewer, recalled the first time he had seen a demonstration of the damping characteristics of the SLM manufacturing:
“After letting me marvel at and handle the gleaming aluminum shape of the MC A90, Leif Johannsen (Ortofon CO of Acoustics and Technology) took me to a secluded area of the hall where the flooring was made of hard linoleum. He held the body out in front of him and let it drop. With a ping, it bounced about two feet up in the air. Then he took a second cartridge body out of his pocket. This one was layered like a cross section of stratified rock, but more neatly and uniformly. From chest height, he dropped the second body. Instead of bouncing with a distinct ping, it hit the floor with a nonresonant tick and stopped dead, without bouncing back so much an inch. Now that was major.”