polyamide Archives - Perfect 3D Printing Filament

DSM’s Hugo da Silva “I Don’t Think That Anyone Should Own the Ecosystem”

Hugo da Silva has been running DSM’s 3D printing unit now for over two and a half years. During that time the firm has shown itself a determined force in the market. DSM has been active in 3D printing materials for over 26 years and over the past two has redoubled its efforts. Beginning as a standalone SLA resin supplier the firm has evolved. The company has focussed deeply on verticals such as automotive, construction and manufacturing.

As well as these efforts the Dutch chemical, plastics, and food additive giant has partnered with end-users, service companies and startups extensively. Along with BASF it is DSM that has moved into the 3D printing space the most aggressively. BASF seems however to want control and end to end solutions all offered by the firm while DSM is more partner ecosystem minded.

I’ve been fascinated by how these large materials companies all approach our market very differently and we’ve been following them closely. DSM has been 3D printing passenger bridges, lead a round in Additive Manufacturing Technologies, worked with Twikit on developing solutions for automotive, offered a new fire retardant material, invested in Inkbit, headed up a group for flexible materials and worked with BAC to put parts on their car. At the center of all that activity stands Hugo who is a surprisingly serene, calm, cool and collected voice amidst the flurry of initiatives his company has deployed.

Hugo da Silva

He feels that “they’ve really made the move towards real manufacturing” and have had “good focus” on “bringing together” all of the disparate elements needed for that. The company, “filled its pipeline with real manufacturing projects, partnerships, commercial deals and venturing” that “make manufacturing happen.” DSM has made “quite some investments in the last few months” and this and it’s business development efforts have focussed on “real manufacturing of components” and “real manufacturing projects” with “a customer behind them.” His vision sees the firm “address manufacturing challenges through an ecosystem” where “DSM does not want to do it all.” In bringing about “the digital tools needed to enable manufacturing to happen” the I AM Tomorrow challenge, for example, they chose 6 startups out of 75 to together create the digital supply chain. In terms of the “digital workflow, things like prediction, manufacturing profiles, inspection” it is the combination of “all the companies in the ecosystem” that will make the “other pillars sustainable.”

A DSM automotive part with predictive failure through Digimat

Hugo states that there is a fundamental difference between DSM’s approach and where other companies are headed. “I don’t want parts and pieces.” Instead “I want to help OEMs and customers understand how to optimize parts.” “We have a fundamentally different approach to partnering”…”I don’t think that anyone should own the ecosystem.” “If we draw a parallel to the Apple App store the one making the app owns the app” and “yes, the future is digital” but the way for “us to drive adoption for ourselves and others by sharing and enabling companies to work together.” Through this path, “everyone will make money” and this is why they are “heavy on venturing, not heavy on M&A.“

DSM Arnite material is a GF pet granulate made for large scale printing of things such as pedestrian bridges.

He believes that currently in 3D printing “in the digital era, the center of gravity, is on materials” and “materials companies have leverage because of the properties that they provide.” But, parts have to work, “if we print it a 100 times, test it a 100 times“.. in the “millions of combinations of settings” the parts have to function. He points to things such as the Twikit partnership on prosthetics, and CEAD’s 3D printing of recyclable polymer bridges using Arnite as “projects with real applications.”

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AM POLYMERS GmbH: New Polypropylene ROLASERIT PP03O for Laser Sintering with 200 % Elongation at Break and Other New Materials

AM POLYMERS GmbH expands its powder portfolio for laser sintering with a new polypropylene powder. In contrast to most of the materials on the market, the material has exceptionally high elongation at break of more than 200 %. At the same time, the material has excellent processing conditions on common machine systems.

AM POLYMERS GmbH presents its fourth series material from the ROLASERIT® family at FORMNEXT 2019 in Frankfurt and starts the BETA phase for the newly developed ROLASERIT® PP03O. This extends the material range for laser sintering to include a material with outstanding ductility and injection moulding properties. For the first time, a lower elongation at break has not to be accepted, as is generally the case in additive manufacturing.

With an elongation at break of more than 200 %, the material is a pioneering role in the field of materials for laser sintering. Most materials only have elongations at break in the range of less than 50 %. The processing of the material has already been tested successfully and without problems on common laser sintering systems. In accordance with the company philosophy of selling only plug-and-play materials, only short running-in times on the machines are necessary. Thus, the production of customer parts is possible within a few days. The application spectrum of manufactured components is diverse and ranges from simple housings to function-integrated parts with film hinges. Based on its high ductility, the ROLASERIT® PP03O is also ideally suited for series production.

Visit us at FORMNEXT 2019 booth 11.1 A79 to learn more about ROLASERIT® PP03O.

In addition to polypropylene PP01, polyethylene PEGR01 and TPU PB01, PP03O now forms the fourth thermoplastic powder available as series material, which AM POLYMERS has developed for laser sintering or for powder bed fusion and sells under the brand name ROLASERIT®.

AM POLYMERS GmbH will also be presenting other powder materials at FORMNEXT 2019. The newly developed ROLASERIT® PP04 is designed to offer a polypropylene with increased stiffness and strength requirements compared to PP01 and PP03. The ROLASERIT® PA FLEX01 is intended for applications with a requirement profile with low stiffness and simultaneously high ductility in laser sintering. The polyamide material has been specifically optimized for this special application.

AM POLYMERS GmbH with a headquarters in Willich was founded in 2014. The company is specialized in the development, production and distribution of laser sintering materials. The company’s team can look back on many years of experience in the field of additive manufacturing. The founders, Dr.-Ing. Andreas Wegner and Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Gerd Witt have twelve and more than twenty years of experience in laser sintering of plastics. Timur Ünlü, a specialist of many years experience in the field of powder production, joined the company in 2018. Since 2019 a new production and development site for the production of plastic powders has been established in Willich.
In addition to the commercialized products, other important standard thermoplastics such as PA6 or PBT are developed for laser sintering. The current state of development already shows promising properties of these future products.

Contact:
AM POLYMERS GmbH
Dr.-Ing. Andreas Wegner
Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Straße 9e
47877 Duisburg
Germany
tel.: +49 174 2174251
email: info@am-polymers.de
web: https://www.am-polymers.de

The post AM POLYMERS GmbH: New Polypropylene ROLASERIT PP03O for Laser Sintering with 200 % Elongation at Break and Other New Materials appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Combining Over-3D Printing of Continuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composites with Stamp Forming Organo-sheet Substrates

Because continuous carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite materials have such high strength, stiffness, and fatigue resistance, in addition to noise suppression and impact energy absorption qualities, a lot of people are naturally interested in them for multiple applications. But, researchers need to look into ways to address related challenges, such as cost-effective processes to manufacture these materials.

U. Morales, A. Esnaola, M. Iragi, L. Aretxabaleta, and J. Aurrekoetxea with Mondragon Unibertsitatea published a paper, titled “Over-3D printing of continuous carbon fibre composites on organo-sheet substrates,” that looks at combining FFF 3D printing of continuous fiber reinforced composites with organo-sheet thermoplastic composites.

The abstract reads, “Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), or 3D printing, of continuous fibre reinforced composites allows getting advanced materials (steered-fibres, dispersed stacking sequence laminates or functionally graded composites), as well as complex geometries (cellular structures or metamaterials). However, FFF presents several drawbacks, especially when large-projected area or high-fibre content composite parts are required. On the other side, stamp forming of organo-sheet thermoplastic composites is a cost-effective technology, but with severe geometric limitations. Combining both technologies, by over-3D printing on the organo-sheet, can be a promising approach to add the best of each of them. The effect of the organo-sheet temperature on the shear strength of the bonding interface is studied. The results show that strong bonding interface can be achieved when the correct substrate temperature is chosen. In fact, it is largely improved if the interface temperature is higher than the melting temperature of the substrate layer.”

Figure 1. Set up of the over-3D printing.

While stamp forming organo-sheet thermoplastic composites is a cost-effective method, it can’t produce complex geometries on its own, meaning that it requires assembling operations and parts to do so. You can combine stamp forming with over-injection molding, but then the final part’s mechanical properties will be limited. FFF 3D printing can achieve complex geometries and support advanced materials, but it isn’t perfect. So combining over-3D printing on the organo-sheet can offer the best of both worlds.

The team’s manufacturing process is three-fold:

The flat organo-sheet is placed on the 3D printer bed and the complex features are over-printed
The over-printed organo-sheet is picked up and fed to the infrared heating station
The final shape is achieved by stamp forming once the optimum processing temperature is reached

“Establishing strong bonded interfaces between organo-sheet substrate and over-3D printed polymers is essential to the success of the proposed approach, and it is the motivation of this research, where the main objective is to establish the effects of the organo-sheet temperature on the shear strength of the bonding interface,” the researchers explained.

Figure 2. Geometry of the over-3D printed single lap test specimen (all dimensions in mm)

A standard polyamide 6 (PA6) was used for the infill material, while the printed composite material was a continuous carbon fiber reinforced polyamide 6 (CF-PA6); both came from Markforged. The company’s desktop Mark Two 3D printer was used to fabricate the over-3D printed specimen, the geometry of which consisted of a 2 x 30 x 90 mm3 organo-sheet substrate and a 4 x 15 x 45 mm3 prismatic over-3D printed part.

“To prevent delamination stress in the overprinted zone and assure a pure shear loading at the bonding interface, 2 mm of height tap has designed and glued to the specimen end. Therefore, it has been assumed that the first failure mode of the single lap specimen will occurred due to shearing at the bonding interface and that the tensile failure load of substrate is 10 time higher,” the researchers explained.

“An over-3D printed part has been manufactured layer by layer according to the printer parameter shown in the Table 3. The printed part is assembled by a stacking a sequence of 32 layers: the first 16 PA6 layers are placed to fill the gap of organo-sheet thickness (2 mm), the next two PA6 layers define an interface of 0.25 mm (flexible bed) and the last 14 CF-PA6 layers are devoted to withstand the test load. Therefore, printed carbon fibres are aligned with the loading direction (0º) and extrusion path of PA6 layers are driven in 0/90º direction.”

The team carried out quasi-static shear tests, studied failure modes by using an optical microscopy to analyze the over-printed fracture zones, and conducted differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) on the samples, which weighed between 5.5 and 6 mg.

After all of the experiments had been completed, the researchers felt that their work fully demonstrated a feasible new process that combined stamp forming of carbon fiber reinforced PA12 organo-sheet and over-3D printing of continuous carbon fiber reinforced PA6.

Figure 4. Interface pictures of three different over-3D printed samples; a) original over-3D printed interface, b) fracture surface of the sample with Ti 157.5 ºC and c) fracture surface of the sample with Ti 177.5 ºC.

“The substrate temperature, the only parameter that can be modified in the printer, is critical to get a strong bonding. Increasing the temperature increases the shear strength, and once the interface temperature exceeds the melting peak temperature of the substrate, the shear strength does not increase anymore. Therefore, it can be concluded that an optimum temperature can be found for balancing mechanical performances and cost-effectiveness of the process,” the researchers wrote. “Anyway, another processing parameter (printing temperature or pressure) or surface treatments (texturing or adding hot-melt) must be explored to improve even more the adhesion between the substrate and the over-3D printed features.”

Discuss this research and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

The post Combining Over-3D Printing of Continuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composites with Stamp Forming Organo-sheet Substrates appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

3D Printing News Briefs: December 30, 2018

In this week’s abbreviated 3D Printing News Briefs, we’ve got a story on a new type of 3D printing that makes it easy to 3D print small objects, and a distinguished professor gives a TEDx talk about the importance of interdisciplinary research. Wrapping things up, we’ve got a video about an amazing 3D printed 1/6 scale vehicle model.

Shrinking 3D Printer

A schematic of the Alice in Wonderland image that was etched and shrunk in the 3D shrinking printer. [Image: Ed Boyden et al.]

A team of researchers from MIT, Harvard, and the Pfizer Internal Medicine Research Unit in Cambridge, Massachusetts recently published a paper, titled “3D nanofabrication by volumetric deposition and controlled shrinkage of patterned scaffolds,” in the Science journal about their innovative new method of shrinking 3D printing, which makes it easy to 3D print very small objects. A technique called implosion fabrication 3D prints an object, then shrinks it down to the required size. The shrinking 3D printer can work with different materials, such as quantum dots, metals, and DNA, and can also fabricate complicated shapes like microscopic linked chains as well.

MIT researcher Ed Boyden, one of the co-authors of the paper, developed the shrinking 3D printing method by thinking of reversing a process where brain tissue is expanded so it’s possible to see its finer structure. The team found that they could shrink a structure by about 8,000 times in multiple tests, and proved its viability by etching a structure of Alice in Wonderland and shrinking it down to 50 nanometers from 1 cubic millimeter. The research team believes that their shrinking 3D printers could be used to make small, high resolution optical lenses for driving cars, though the possibilities for this technology are practically endless.

TEDx on Interdisciplinary Research

Distinguished Professor Dietmar W. Hutmacher, the director of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine and the Australian Research Council Training Centre in Additive Biomanufacturing at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), is an inventor, educator, biomedical engineer, and intellectual property creator, and has been responsible for multiple breakthroughs in bioprinting. He recently gave a talk at a TEDx event about the importance of interdisciplinary research as it applies to regenerative medicine, which works to help patients with damaged tissues due to disease or accident. Prof Hutmacher himself has converted a bone tissue engineering concept all the way from the lab to clinical application involving in vitro experiments, preclinical studies, and clinical trials, and in the TEDx talk discussed how “one walks the talk to orchestrate an interdisciplinary team” where everyone can share knowledge and naturally learn the important required competencies. He presented a patient case of a young father’s long bone defect, where his interdisciplinary research team was made up of clinicians, engineers, material scientists, molecular and cell biologists, polymer chemists, and veterinary surgeons.

“In regenerative medicine there is a great move to introduce interdisciplinarity in the research programs, as well as in the scholarships,” DProf Hutmacher said in the YouTube video. “However, most of the teams are rather doing multidisciplinary research, which does not lead to what we have done in the past moving a bone tissue engineering concept into the clinic.”

To see the rest of DProf Hutmacher’s TEDx talk, check out the video below:

1/6 Scale Model of 1961 Dodge D100

Over the years, we’ve seen some pretty cool 3D printed vehicle models that have been both scaled up and scaled down, but I think this one takes the cake: a highly detailed, 1/6 scale model of a 1961 Dodge D100 truck, created by maker Konstantin Bogdanov. Including filming, the project took him a year to complete, and Bogdanov writes that the YouTube video he created is more of a project diary, though it can also be used as a tutorial.

Using a blueprint of the Dodge, Bogdanov modeled the cab of the truck in Blender and 3D printed it out of polyamide; additional materials used to build the model include aluminum foil, Styrene rods, plywood, artificial leather, and acrylic paint. His 44 minute YouTube video shows some of the modeling work, and then moves on to the nitty gritty details of building all the separate pieces of the truck model, from the doors and fenders to the chassis and grille, and finally assembling everything before painting and weathering the model. Plus, at about the 2:06 minute mark, Bogdanov’s adorable cat makes its first of multiple appearances in the video! If you’re interested in making your own 1/6 scale model of the 1961 Dodge D100 truck, you can download the STL files for both the four motor mount and the tractor wheels. Check out the video for more details.

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Interview with Scott Schiller Global Head of Market Development at HP 3D Printing About Manufacturing Using 3D Printing

Scott Schiller is the Global Head of Market Development at HP. He’s also brilliant and has a long history of building HP businesses in Inkjet and digital press. HP is, of course, a huge company with an incredible degree of technical prowess which they’re bringing to bear on 3D printing. But, in our industry, in terms of installed base, they’re a startup. They have to be agile and bring new strategies to win in our market. If they stick it out and keep pouring on their research capacity then I think we can all agree that HP will stay a major player in our market. But, large corporations can be capricious and visions like dreams can change. So for HP, were always looking to see how permanent HP’s commitment to 3D printing is. A good sign of this is HP eating its own dogfood. If the company truly internally uses 3D printing widely then the technology will permeate the entire organization and hopefully make them more competitive and cost-efficient in many fields. The 3D printing idea is that it will speed up time to market and make organizations more agile. So every time a large company engages with the technology we would expect for them to use it internally as well to consolidate parts, make more niche products, save weight and do all the things the technology is supposed to do. That’s, why it is extremely good news that HP is using over 140 3D printed parts on its 300 and 500 series 3D Printers. The company truly is eating its own dog food and using 3D printing to save money and be more competitive. We interviewed Scott about this and also learned that they have 80% powder reusability and are speeding up time to market in various products. Scott is also the first person to go on the record to claim that “The question isn’t if 3D printing will be the new platform for global mass-production, it’s when.”

A PA 12 Part

What material are you using?

“Our Multi Jet Fusion printers use thermoplastic materials — PA12 and PA11 — which can also be recycled, both as a powder and as a printed part. HP’s 3D High Reusability PA12, which is developed to allow reuse of surplus powder batch after batch, delivers consistent performance while achieving 80 percent surplus powder reusability. In addition, our PA11 material is a 100 percent bio-based content polymer derived from the oil of the castor bean.”

What kinds of parts do you print?

“One of my favourite examples is the 140-plus parts in our 300/500 series which we printed on our very own Multi Jet Fusion.

“Some other examples include spare parts we’ve produced for our Large Format Printing business, HP inkjet printheads, and a part for the HP Z 3D Camera in which we were able to reduce the design cycle by six weeks.

“Another great example is how our team based in Israel used Multi Jet Fusion to come up with unthinkable new design possibilities for our large format printers with cost savings of up to 90 percent per part.”

An HP PA 11 part

Why do you do this?

“HP is one of the world’s largest and most advanced technology companies: a $50 billion global business that produces over 100 million products per year in 170 countries via one of the biggest and most sophisticated design, engineering, and supply chains ever created. HP’s use of Multi Jet Fusion illustrates how 3D printing technology is digitally transforming large enterprises and reinventing the global manufacturing industry. We believe strongly in our innovations and could think of no better way to reinvent our own company than by digitally transforming our design, manufacturing, and supply chain operations across all business units using our own Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing technology.

“Most importantly, we’re using our 3D printing technology to reinvent our own models because it makes economic sense. Since using our 3D printing technology, we’ve already seen efficiencies in the time it takes to get products to market, we’ve seen performance increase and economic advantages, and 3D printing allows us to do more in the way of personalization.

“Finally, all of these benefits are underscored by something that is near and dear to us at HP, which is sustainability. By weaving 3D printing into our supply chain operations, we can lower our impact on the environment by producing components locally (which reduces the carbon footprint), reducing production time (which means less energy is spent creating products and parts), and sleep easy knowing the recyclability and reusability of the materials we use is industry-leading.”

What would you advise a company that wants to explore manufacturing with 3D printing?

“3D printing technology can have a major impact on industries from automotive to healthcare to heavy industry, and huge global brands are beginning to reinvent their businesses for the digital manufacturing future. The question isn’t if 3D printing will be the new platform for global mass-production, it’s when. And production is just one piece of it. A huge component of 3D printing adoption is mastering digital workflows. On a base level, the similarities between industrial 2D printing and 3D printing are really striking – digital production all comes down to providing unique value as a function of better supply and demand management. With respect to capital, the basic cost structures between industrial 2D and 3D look similar, but the physics of 3D printing are obviously much different and should not be underestimated when considering long-term value. In terms of timing, it’s still early enough in the broad adoption of 3D printing that there’s plenty of time for learning, and plenty of competitive advantages for organizations that want to transform their business with digital manufacturing.”

Is this also a useful technology for tens of thousands of identical parts?

“3D printing is absolutely a solution for mass production. We recently announced HP Metal Jet, a ground breaking, voxel-level binder jetting 3D printing technology designed to withstand high volume printing.

“One of the key benefits of HP Metal Jet is the increase in productivity, providing up to 50 times more productivity than other 3D printing methods.”

Does it make your development more agile?

“Absolutely, one of my favorite examples of this program helping our engineering teams respond more quickly to required redesign during manufacturing was a physical subsystem for the Jet Fusion 3D printer. Minimized tooling reduced the development time of a new subsystem by half and allowed the team to stay on the production cycle.”

Do you have any parts where you reduced part count as well?

“One example is a recreated tool used in the HP printheads manufacturing line – called a ‘drill extraction shoe’ – using Multi Jet Fusion. We were able to consolidate the original tool from 7 parts to just 1. Additionally, we saw a 95 percent cost reduction, 90 percent weight reduction, and can now produce the part in 1-2 days versus 3-5 days.”

What were some of the stumbling blocks to adopting 3D printing internally?

“When it comes to rethinking the way you approach design and manufacturing, there’s a massive cultural shift that needs to happen at an organizational level. For example, historically design engineering and manufacturing engineering teams worked separately. However, when it comes to rethinking parts, these two groups need to work together from start to finish. There’s a lot to be said about the organizational behavior changes that need to occur for companies to be successful in truly reinventing their manufacturing.”

Roboze to Debut Xtreme 3D Printer Series and New High Performance 3D Printing Materials at formnext

Roboze, a leader in functional 3D printed prototypes produced in industrial materials like PEEK, CarbonPA, and ULTEM AM9085F, manufactures 3D printers that can handle high-performance, high temperature polymers, such as SABIC’s LEXAN EXL AMHI240F. Now, the company is getting extreme with FFF 3D printing, with an announcement about the new desktop production 3D printing series it will debut at next week’s formnext in Frankfurt.

“The new Xtreme solutions, is the result of intense work by the entire Roboze team, that has allowed us today to create a new line of systems capable of meeting the most extreme needs of our customers, offering greater versatility in the materials and accuracy of the prints as well as better performance,” said Alessio Lorusso, CEO & Founder of Roboze. “We have rewritten the history of 3D printing and the Formnext 2018 represents the best showcase to tell the story.”

The new Xtreme 3D printer series, made up of the Roboze One Xtreme and Roboze One + 400 Xtreme, will strengthen the company’s PEEK and CARBON PEEK solutions for FFF 3D printing, bringing users closer to true additive production.

Roboze has become a major manufacturing player thanks to its innovative technology, like the Beltless System that allows operators from around the world to 3D print both finished parts and prototypes with 25-micron mechanical tolerances, which all but guarantees repeatability and, as the company puts it, “immediate economic advantages.”

But this new Xtreme series launch is an even bigger deal for the company, as it sets up a point of contact between the production ARGO 500 3D printer and its desktop One and One + 400 systems.

Rocco Maggialetti, head of the mechanical design of Roboze, explained, “The strong collaboration between all the members of Roboze’s R & D team has allowed us to design this new system that improves the previous one, guaranteeing longer useful life of the machine.”

The newly designed covers for the Xtreme 3D printers are made of sheet metal, and designed to lower maintenance on the machines while also improving their robustness. In addition to providing a more elegant aesthetic, this new feature also makes the Roboze Xtreme series extremely quiet.

The Roboze One Xtreme and Roboze One + 400 Xtreme 3D printers were built by Roboze engineers who changed up the status quo in order to offer extremely versatile and accurate 3D printing solutions. The series feature a new, advanced sensor system, which includes an endstop aimed at leveling the semi-automatic plan, WiFi and USB connections, motor encoders for closed loop control that monitor the printing process, and optical endstop/touchless, which promises less maintenance because it decreases typical issues.

The Beltless System on this new 3D printer series has also evolved from the original, and features racks machined with chemical nickel plating. This lowers the contact friction between the rack and pinion for faster print speed, and also increases the resistance to wear and corrosion.

The Xtreme series also includes a Cabinet Support System (SSC), which is meant for unloading machine vibrations and controlling material temperatures, as well as storing coils so they’re not exposed to atmospheric agents. Just like with the ARGO 500 and the Roboze One + 400, these new 3D printers also house a Vacuum Box for vacuum generation, which provides greater first-layer flatness and print surface adhesion for faster 3D printing.

Roboze 3D printers are certainly impressive, thanks in large part to the versatility of materials they can handle. Many of these were developed specifically to add enhancements to parts with properties not dissimilar from metals. In addition to its Xtreme desktop production 3D printer series, Roboze is also introducing several new materials at formnext 2018.

Carbon PP is the first, and is good for use in automotive applications, because it promises the same high performance of PP (polypropylene), combined with the advantages of carbon fiber.

“Carbon PP’s carbon fiber provides a 25% resistance increase level compared to PP. The addition of specially selected carbon fibers improves the mechanical properties of the material and increases its HDT maintaining its properties even at a higher temperature than that of PEEK,” said Maria Luisa Geramo , PhD, Head of Applications – Roboze R&D Material Engineer.

According to Roboze, its new PP has excellent electrical insulating properties and high resistance against abrasion, chemical agents, and shock, and “represents the most commodities polymer primarily used in applications for objects of common use and automotive components,” while its new Glass PA – a polyamide loaded with glass spheres – is a good electrical insulator, and ensures high dimensional stability because it has lower moisture absorption and increased mechanical properties when compared to standard polyamide.

Carbon PEEK, which has excellent mechanical properties and thermal stability, is already used with the company’s ARGO 500 production 3D printer, and is the only new material that’s available for use solely on the Roboze One + 400 Xtreme.

Come see all of Roboze’s new 3D printing materials and solutions at next week’s formnext – visit the company at booth C78 in Hall 3.1.

Discuss this news and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

German Designer Debuts 3D Printed Christmas Ornament Collection Inspired by the Motion of Dance

Halloween ended just a few days ago, which means that it’s time, at least in the US, to start focusing on the next major autumn holiday – Thanksgiving. But, for many people (not me!), the minute the jack-o’-lanterns and skeletons come down, they tend to bypass putting out the turkey decorations and move right along into setting up the Christmas tree, hanging the stockings by the chimney with care, and dreaming of sugar plums.

I personally don’t start getting in the Christmas spirit until the day after Thanksgiving; I like to think that turkey and pumpkin pie deserve their day in the sun, after all. But no matter what your favorite holiday is, and when you start celebrating it, you can be sure that 3D printing will help make the season bright…or patriotic, romantic, spooky, in a galaxy far far away, and what have you.

One thing we start to hear a lot about come November and December are 3D printed Christmas ornaments, be they traditional, nerdy, inspirational, medical, or even your own face. Designer David Münscher from Germany, who has used 3D printing in the past to make a collection of lampshades, reached out to 3DPrint.com with news of his latest collection: modern 3D printed Christmas ornaments.

“I just released a series of 3d printed Christmas ornaments, that might be of interest to you and your readers. It is inspired by strobe photography of dancers. Since these ornaments capture imprinted motion over time and it is this season of the year I called them “Snowangels,” Münscher told us.

The weightless Snowangels ornament collection takes its simple beauty from what Münscher refers to as “the fluent motion of classic dance moves and dance photography.”

The delicate, white ornaments were inspired by the fluid motion of dance, and were created using an algorithmic design approach that freezes an object’s motion – in this case a dancer – over time into a static sculpture.

Münscher took physical photographs of the angels’ abstract wings during their course of movement, and then traced the motion into a continuous form. While still images, like the ones above, do offer a good idea of how the sculptures change appearance in different perspectives, you really need to see the dynamic forms in motion to best appreciate them.

There are two different Snowangels ornaments available, in two sizes. The first set measures 50 mm, while the second one is 70 mm. 3D printed on demand by Shapeways, the ornaments are made out of a strong polyamide material, which makes them quite durable, even though they appear very delicate.

“Although originally intended as Christmas ornaments the snowangel`s resulting resemblance of abstract butterflies, will make for an interesting home decoration all year around,” Münscher wrote in a release.

Depending on the size, prices for the 3D printed Snowangels ornaments range from $18-30; just visit Oxique to buy yours today. To see these beautiful ornaments as they’re meant to be viewed – in motion – check out the video below.

What do you think? Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

Caracol Factory Using Roboze Technology and Materials to Deliver Finished 3D Printed Parts

Italian 3D printer manufacturer Roboze, which expanded into the United Arab Emirates and opened a new headquarters in Bari in the last few months, is well known for its 3D printers’ abilities to print with high-performance materials.

In this same vein, the company is pleased to announced that Caracol Factory, a department of Italian production service Caracol Studio that offers manufacturing and prototyping, has chosen Roboze and its 3D printing solutions to help it respond to the ever-growing demand for 3D printed, finished parts made out of high-performance materials for more extreme applications.

In a press release, Paolo Cassis, a designer at and the co-founder of Caracol Studio, said the company selected Roboze due to its “indepth knowledge of the treatment of highly performing polymers and technopolymers.”

“Among all 3D printing technologies, Roboze was the only one to rely on for the realization of such unique components,” Cassis said.

The two companies have already completed one part for a project that needed a material with high mechanical performance – a custom flange.

The decision was made to use Carbon PA – carbon fiber reinforced polyamide – for the specific soft material-handling application. By using this material, Caracol Factory was able to save on costs, and provide its customer with a fully functioning, more lightweight 3D printed piece, created specifically for its necessary non-standard processing, with an attractive and contemporary design.

Caracol Studio digitally designed the flange for the application, which included a pneumatic gripping system and a 6-axis robotic system. In order to fulfill its customer’s needs, the component was manufactured on the Roboze One 3D printer, which offers freedom of mechanical properties and design and helps lower both cost and production time.

Jacopo Gervasini, Co-founder and the CEO of Caracol, said, “We have partnered with Roboze for the supply of 3D printers because it is the only one that allows you to work the most sophisticated engineering plastics. This, together with the extraordinary mechanical solidity that characterizes the printer, offer our customers the only valid solution capable of guaranteeing repeatability and complete reliability in the manufacturing of large batches of functional components for the industry.”

According to the release, 3D printing was the only existing manufacturing method was able to complete this component and make it as lightweight as possible. More specifically, the Roboze One was an ideal choice for this particular application, as it was able to use the required material and realize the design of the flange “based on the forces involved.”

The functioning 3D printed flange is now lighter, and able to increase the customer’s overall productivity, as well as the 6-axis robot’s processing speed. This is only the latest example of how 3D printing can be used to design and manufacture custom components for many applications, extreme or not, and replace more conventional, expensive manufacturing methods and obsolete, unsustainable materials.

Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

[Images provided by Roboze]

Interview with Kai Witter Looking at the Business Case for DyeMansion Depowdering and Dyeing Powder Bed Fusion Parts

From file to software to machine to finished part takes a design along a path through many different vendors, formats, processes, and interactions. We as an industry are trying to manufacture, reliably with a disparate set of tools and technologies. In between ones and zeroes and finished product we have many crucial steps that get an idea closer towards becoming a thing. Depowdering in powder bed fusion (SLS, selective laser sintering) and other powder technologies such as Multijet Fusion was once seen as a cost center. An annoying laborious task that had to be done. A block of powder with 3D printed parts in it had to be sieved, hand cleaned for the parts to be sorted, matched and shipped. As much as a third of 3D printed part cost is manual labor. You can appreciate this is you see how this depowdering process works and just how labor intensive it is. Companies have traditionally offered tumblers and other surface treatment solutions to ameliorate this and improve surface finish. A few years ago a company wanted to change this. Rather that seeing depowdering as a cost center they saw it as a part of a series of process steps that elevated a mere polymer shape into a consumer-friendly part. Rather than just selling a machine that performed an operation this team, the DyeMansion team developed three different machines that while working together could depowder, surface treat and dye a part. A process chain with a high degree of automation and tooling meant to work together in a highly optimized way. We covered the company before when they raised a series A of five million, when they launched in the US, when they won an award, when they went to AMUG, when they showed at Formnext in 2016 and when they got investment previously.

The Powershot C parts cleaning machine, step 1.

When I got started dyeing SLS parts was done in those electric soup kettles that you see at catered events. We used Dylon meant for coloring t-shirts and had a person stirring by hand. Parts would dye unevenly becoming dark blue on one side and lighter on the other. It was a mess always and cauldrons full of red and blue dye were everywhere. It didn’t exactly feel like the future of manufacturing rather more the future of witchcraft. And that is precisely where we are now. We’re going from spells, hope, exotic ingredients and promises to ISO, GMP and repeatable production. What do we see? Everyone wants to make or sell 3D printers, lots of people are developing software and many sell materials but only one firm is developing a line of post-processing solutions that in an integrated way depowders, cleans and surfaces parts. The three machines work in tandem and are rather confusingly named the Dyemansion Powershot C, Powershot S and Dimension DM 60. The Powershot C is not a camera but then again there are precedents in the 3D printing industry in having names similar to camera names. The C cleans parts and depowders them using movement and ionization and damaging parts less than alternatives, while the S is a blasting cabinet with a high degree of automation that gives parts a more closed and more uniform surface texture and structure; and the DM 60 is the dyeing unit.

The S, the second step for surfacing.

All in all I’m a huge believer that in a Gold Rush sell picks and shovels and have heard great things about the labor-saving capabilities of these units from friends. We spoke to Kai Witter who after a long 3D printing career became the sales manager at DyeMansion and is helping bring the technology to manufacturers worldwide.

The DM60 Dyeing unit

Kai said that Dyemansion is, “A company that’s evolving from a startup to a global market leader who offers value-adding post-processing solutions for AM plastic parts manufacturing. We are the challenger of the status quo, together with AM printer manufacturers we challenge injection molding industry.”

How much labor does your depowdering station save? If I did 5 full builds a week, how much money or how many hours would I save?

As usual, all this is application dependent. Let’s look at saved hours as cost of conventional manual blasting units and staff costs vary a lot:

The average cleaning time of one batch with PowerShot C is 10 mins

Let’s assume 100 mid-sized mid complex geometry parts (loading volume is a full HP4200 job or 75% of a EOS P3x Job). So we assume 5 Runs/week

Loading and unloading each 2 mins, in total 4 Mins

Powershot C:

4 mins (loading & unloading)

5 runs a week

50 weeks

4 m(ins) x 5 (runs) x 50 (weeks) = 1000 mins or 16,5 hrs

Conventional manual blasting:

3 mins average. cleaning time/part

4 mins (loading & unloading)

5 runs a week

50 weeks

Cleaning: 100 (parts) x 3 (mins) x 5 (runs) x 50 (weeks) = 75.000 mins/1.250hrs

Loading & unloading: 4 (mins) x 5 (runs) x 50 (weeks) = 1.000 mins

76.000 mins or 1267 hrs

16 vs 1267 hrs
Powershot C saves 1251 working hours.

So it is three units that work together? How do they work and how much do they cost?

The three unity combined build an integrated workflow, so called ‘print-2-Product’ workflow to turn 3D printed raw parts into high value products in 3 hours only. Automated, efficient and reproducible.

Powershot C: Cleans parts in 10 mins only, without damaging the surface. Compared to manual cleaning we assure the sensitive surface of 3D printed raw parts is not damaged from too much blasting pressure and broken or worn blasting media.

Powershot S: Refines the surface of the raw parts with a smooth touch, matte-glossy finish and improves scratch and water resistance of the parts in 10 mins only. The PolyShot process prepares the part for homogeneous dye absorption that leads to an even color image over the complete surface of each part and all the parts.

DyeMansion DM60: Is the fully automated Dyeing system to fit out the parts with any color required. The DM60 adds the final value to parts. Launched at tct 2018 we have added 170 standard RAL colors to our out of the box portfolio. Any other color, suiting the material and required finish of the part can be developed at DyeMansion in only 3-4 weeks

So how does it work as an investment?

“If we assume industry standard of 5 years depreciation and the calculation above (saving 1250 hrs pa) customers have a positive impact on their bottom line after the 1^st month of using the Powershot C.”

Why is damage prevention so important?

“Our infiltration Dyeing process does not add a layer to the raw part as we know it from spry painting. They dye connects with the material and avoids another process step to create a nice surface. Further it enables to finish printed textures, eg leather structure alike textures as used for automotive or aerospace interior parts.”

What does the ionization do?

“It removes the static charge of the parts and thus avoids that parts attract loose powder residue in the cabin atmosphere back to the parts. It ensures that parts are really clean.”

Why is a homogenous surface quality important?

“A homogeneous dye absorption is the prerequisite for an even color image of the end use part. We finish the printed part including printed textures without any impact on the geometry. Neither the Powershot C (Step 1), nor Powershot S (Step 2) are abrasive and (Step 3) the dyeing, does not add a layer to the part like spray painting does. Thus, an additional process ta accomplish high quality end-use part surface is not required.”

How does the second step work?

“The PolyShot surfacing is a proprietary surface compression process with plastic media to even out the heterogeneous surface roughness and porosity of 3D Printed plastic parts.”

Why is the feel of the product important?

People are used to comparing parts with what they know, such as Injection molded parts. Rough surfaces don’t create an image of quality, they are scratch and dirt sensitive.

It is all about perception and mind change. The high-quality perception of 3D printed parts on a manufacturing level, even if the visual appearance may not be relevant for the functionality (functional end-use parts or functional protoytypes) is a prerequisite to open up more and more applications that are injection molded today, maybe only because of the feel.

Does it make it feel more luxurious?

I would not call it luxurious. I think it meets injection molded standards, at least. Nevertheless, some of our customers from the life style industry describe our matte-glossy look as more valuable than the typical shiny look & feel known from Injection molded parts.

How long do these steps take?

Step 1 – Powershot Cleaning => 10 mins
Step 2 – Polyshot Surfacing => 10 Mins before the dyeing and optionally a few minutes after the dyeing to increase the matte-glossy look & feel.
Step 3 – Dyeing => 90 to 150 mins

How does the coloring process work?

“We have developed an automated, flexible, geometry independent infiltration process where the parts are constantly moving in a water bath. The cartridge is filled with the recipe (reflecting color, material and finish) to accomplish the required color. Further a RFID chip on the cartridge defines the required process parameters such as temperature curve, holding time and pressure that is required. The dye connects with the part as a chemical reaction.

The recipe and DM60 process together make reproducible, high quality end-use parts. The operator just scans the RFID information, adds parts and Cartridge to the part basket of the DM60 and presses start. After 90 – 150 mins the DM60 process is finished including a cleaning and fixation step. When the DM 60 door opens, parts a free of dye.”

How much are the cartridges and how do they work?

“The cartridge price varies between €40 and €105 depending on the required volume of the dyebath.

The cartridge contains the recipe for the required color and the RFID Chip for the required DM60 process parameters. The cartridge is inserted into a shaft at the bottom of the part basket. The cartridge is opened and the dye mixed with the water when the DM60 has reached the process conditions. After 90-150 minutes the parts are ready just a little moisture (Dye free) from the cleaning a fixation phase remains.”

How many colors can I do?

“We have around 200 Colors of the shelf and have developed more than 400 individual colors for customers, such as corporate colors, creative colors and for special finishes. We can develop almost any color within 3-4 weeks development time.The price is €250 for a defined color from a color system such as Pantone and €750 form a reference part.”

What are some of the interesting things customers are doing with your products?

This is always the toughest questions. There are so many interesting and mind-blowing applications with DyeMansion. But the competitive advantage our customers accomplish prevents them from making it public. Famous parts are automotive and Aerospace interior parts, prothesis and orthoses, medical devices and instruments, Eyewear frames and top-notch sports shoes with 3D Printed and DM finished midsoles.

Stratasys Releases Dedicated Chopped Carbon Fiber Polyamide 3D Printer Fortus 380mc Carbon Fiber Edition

Stratasys/Team Penske Copyright: Scott R LePage

Stratasys today is launching a 3D printer specifically intended for carbon-fiber-filled Nylon 12. The Fortus 380mc Carbon Fiber Edition which we wrote about before will cost $70,000 in the US and is on sale now. Stratasys has offered carbon fiber 3D printing for a number of years now but only on systems priced above $200,000.

Stratasys Senior Vice President of Sales, Pat Carey says of the move,

“They’ve told us they want an affordable solution but in a reliable, industrial-quality system. So we’re now offering a more accessible system that’s based on our Fortus 380mc platform. Because the 380mc CFE is dedicated only to carbon-fiber-filled Nylon 12 and one other material, we’re able to currently offer it at the lowest price for any of our industrial printers.”

Stratasys describes the applications of the material as

“Stratasys expects the quickest adopters of its Fortus 380 CFE 3D Printer to be those making tooling and fixtures and those in industries that include Automotive; Recreational Sporting Equipment; Marine; Orthosis and Prosthesis; Defense; Aerospace; Medical Equipment; Oil and Gas.Similar to a typical injection molded carbon fiber reinforced plastic part, Stratasys Nylon 12CF is 35 percent chopped carbon fiber by weight, and it exhibits the highest stiffness-to-weight ratio of any FDM or FFF 3D printed part.”

“Stratasys Nylon 12CF is up to four times stronger than a competitively priced alternative in the X and Y axis, and it will maintain its mechanical properties at a 40 percent higher temperature. The Fortus 380mc CFE is between two and five times faster than the competitively priced carbon-fiber-based 3D printer.”

“Parts don’t exhibit appreciable warpage or shrinkage and will hold to
a tight tolerance. “

“The Fortus 380 CFE builds parts in 0.010 in. (0.254 mm) layer thickness. The system is also compatible with ASA thermoplastic, for which is can build in either 0.010 or .005 in. (0.127 mm) layer thicknesses. The 3D printer’s build chamber measures 14 x 12 x 12 in. (355 x 305 x 305 mm). It offers water-soluble support material removal, which eliminates the need for manual labor to remove the supports.

Terry Wohlers of Wohlers Associates says,

“For many years, the additive manufacturing industry has seen a need for a diversity of
machines that produce parts in high-strength composite materials, I’m hopeful the newest
machine from Stratasys will help to meet this need by offering strong parts in carbon fiber
and Nylon 12.”

IndyCar and NASCAR Examples

Team Penske, an IndyCar and NASCAR team makes prototypes and end-use parts from carbon-fiber-filled Nylon 12. Lightweight mirrors were made of the material and used in racing. Lightweight 3D printed mirrors is actually a tried and true application that has been tested and used across many racing series. It is also sometimes a bit of a crib since race teams feel comfortable talking about mirrors and their associated geometries. Meanwhile, they usually use the technology for other parts of the car that they are less open about discussing especially the more angelic teams. Racing itself is an exciting area, especially one for showcasing your products. It is also the gateway drug to the automotive industry. Upon reading the press release this was the first thought that came to mind along with, is this the Innovator’s Dilemma again as well as MarkForged must sure be doing well.

Stratasys/Team Penske
Monday 18 December 2017
Copyright: Scott R LePage

MarkForged

MarkForged has a continuous composite 3D printer that should produce strong parts but may tend to be more limited in design freedom. The company has pitched to the car industry from the beginning and is finding clients, growth and customers there. With Porsche on board as an investor, the erstwhile small company’s growth is vexing perhaps to Stratasys. Perhaps the firm is trying to toy with MarkForged’s inertia until its own High-Speed Sintering technology is ready for automotive? Stratasys is also a Desktop Metal investor and that company has sued MarkForged over patents related to metal printing, which MarkForged is also engaged with. Although this would be a tempting conclusion I think that there is much bigger game afoot.

Innovator’s Dilemma

Invented FDM as a technology and commercialized it, this is now used by over 500 or so startups worldwide clamoring for market share and growth. In the long run rather than one venture-backed firm I think that this hardscrabble open ecosystem is what could be a competitive threat to Stratasys. To place obstacles in between oneself’s profit centers and the oncoming hordes seems like a wise decision. The release of the competitively prices 123 systems from Stratasys and below this, the Makerbot printers are a testimony to this. Essentially I believe that Stratasys is trying to delay the competition by at several hereto noncontested price points place interesting propositions for companies willing to industrialize 3D printing for manufacturing. Bizarrely a few years ago there were barely any functional parts capable 3D printers between the price point of $2000 and $5000 and none between $20,000 and $100,000. So Stratasys is filling out its product line up in order to motivate companies to partner with it now for the long run. This is a crucial time in 3D printing because many firms are certifying parts, qualifying parts and going into production for the first time. There is also the Troop of Gorillas. These soft and gentle giants munch on leaf after leaf and just want to make the world a better place through plastics.

Polyamide

Polyamide is a huge market and a material that is used in many industrial applications. The Troop of Gorillas consists of a dozen or so chemicals and polymer companies each doing billions in revenue. A few of these, namely, Evonik, Arkema, DSM, Dow, BASF and Sabic have a lot of polyamide capacity and are active in investing in polyamide high-performance materials. These materials are subject to higher heat deflection, continuous service temperature and strength than existing materials. They also let these companies sell a reformulated version of existing capacity at an elevated price point. These companies would be more than happy to invest in significant revenue for the long term for their materials. PPA’s or high-performance polyamides will be a battleground in many applications in the years to come, a big win in volume for 3D printed automotive would be huge for each of these firms. Indeed, I still believe that BASF’s high interest in 3D printing stems mainly for it to be a source of next-generation PPA’s. So what application and industry will give us the biggest volumes the soonest?

Automotive

Impact, wear, stiffness and overall familiarity that components manufacturers have with the Polyamide (Nylon 12) material is driving adoption of this material in automotive. It has been used for a long time in prototyping and for small production runs. The material has been used in bridge manufacturing by companies such as CRP and the automotive companies have considerable expertise in it. Especially the divergent parts of the Volkswagen group and BWM. PPA’s are high performance enough to be used inside the engine bays, inside the cabin on exterior parts and throughout the supply chain in tooling, jigs, and fixtures. They’re more expensive than bulk and engineering plastics but often cheaper than ultra high-performance materials such as PEEK and PEI. They’re also far easier to use than those materials. So a new high-performance niche which is usable at volume is emerging. And the players in this niche have a fundamental choice between partnering up now to industrialize for the next decades. Its a game of musical chairs.

Fortus 380CF

Musical Chairs

And in the musical chairs game, there is a choice between the future performance of open systems and the current performance of Stratasys systems. Closed Stratasys systems that do not permit you to use any outside materials are more reliable with higher repeatability at this point. Open systems have lower reliability but much lower costs. This machine introduction, therefore, seems aimed squarely at introducing 3D printing in manufacturing for automotive. This is a system that universities can afford so that they can do research on these carbon fiber materials. This system an alternative to high-temperature printers that are emerging around the same price point for PEEK and PEI. These systems will be cheaper to buy but the part cost will be higher than with carbon fiber filled polyamide. Stratasys is, therefore, positioning this as an alternative to MarkForged, high-temperature systems, existing powder bed fusion systems and the promise of open systems in the future. You know us, you trust us, here is something that you can buy today. Vis a vis powder bed fusion FDM has a clear advantage in large singular parts and flat parts while SLS may be better for many thousands of small parts (this is geometry and size dependent). I think that this is a smart move to position this now for production at a lower price point with more acceptible part costs for automotive. In the coming year or two, the game of musical chairs in automotive will be played with partners for materials and production found. And once the music stops, the game will be over.