Posted on

3D Printing News Briefs: February 21, 2020

In today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, we’re talking about new products and materials, an industry event, 3D printed electronics, and education. 3Doodler announced a new product, and Essentium will be showcasing two new materials at RAPID + TCT. The 4th annual AM Cluster of Ohio conference is coming up in July, and nScrypt is microdispensing 50um dots for 3D printed electronics. Finally, Penn State University is investing in Roboze technology.

3Doodler Introduces New 3D Build & Play

At the New York Toy Fair, February 22-25 at Manhattan’s Jacob Javits Center, 3Doodler will be showcasing its latest device – the 3D Build & Play, perfect for preschoolers and kindergartners to use. The pen was designed for users as young as four years old, and introduces growing children to 3D printing technology in a way that promotes cognitive and fine motor skills development, hands-on learning, story telling, and three-dimensional thinking. The 3D Build & Play is kid-safe, extruding low-heat, BPA-free, non-toxic, biodegradable plastic, and comes with a story-based Activity Guide so parents and kids can create together. Currently available for pre-order, 3D Build & Play will have an MSRP of $29.99, and major retailers, like Amazon, are also expected to carry the product in Q2 2020. Visit 3Doodler in Booth #2771 at the New York Toy Fair to learn more.

“3D Build & Play brings the creative fun of our Start pen without the learning curve for the youngest users. The system we have developed, that lets kids crank and create in 3D, is a major benefit for parents looking to improve their children’s basic motor skills. The included molds make it easy to create 3D objects by simply filling and popping them out. There’s nothing on the market today that makes 3D creation this simple or fast for young creators,” said 3Doodler’s CEO Daniel Cowen.

Essentium’s New Materials for High-Temperature Applications

At RAPID + TCT 2020 in Anaheim this spring, 3D printing solutions provider Essentium will introduce new ULTEM AM9085F and ABS materials for high-temperature industrial AM applications. These high-performance materials, which will be showcased on the company’s High Speed Extrusion platform at the event, provide high strength and have excellent resistance to heat and chemicals at high temperatures, so they can be used for applications in the aerospace, automotive, industrial, and medical industries.

According to a survey commissioned by Essentium, 51% of executives believe that the high cost of materials is a major obstacle when it comes to adopting 3D printing for large-scale production purposes. The new ULTEM AM9085F and ABS materials were created to give manufacturers a more cost-effective solution when compared to expensive closed-system materials. Learn more at Essentium’s Booth #3400 at RAPID + TCT in Anaheim, CA, April 20-23, 2020.

4th Annual Additive Manufacturing Cluster of Ohio Conference

The Additive Manufacturing Cluster of Ohio, powered by organizations such as America Makes and the Youngstown Business Incubator, has announced that its 4th annual conference will take place this summer in Cleveland. Cluster members work together to create a supply chain of interconnected institutions and businesses to advance regional growth in 3D printing. This conference, to be held on Thursday, July 30, at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Cleveland Rockside, will be the first cluster event of 2020, and will give Ohio manufacturers of multiple business models and sizes perspectives on available opportunities for adopting 3D printing into their process chain over the next five years.

The website states, “The program will look at similarities and differences across several selected manufacturer types and will identify strategies ranging from low to high risk. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies and information about regional resources to help them remain competitive in the evolving manufacturing landscape.”

nScrypt Working with 3D Printed Electronics

Orlando company nScrypt is working with precision microdispensing, an additive method of dispensing pastes, inks, and other fluid materials, to create adhesive dots with volumetric control, in the 50 micron range, for 3D printed electronics and flexible hybrid electronics (FHE). Microdispensing gets much closer to the substrate surface when compared to methods like jetting, and the closer the nozzle is to the surface, the finer the features of the 3D printed parts. The team used the nScrypt SmartPump, a silicone adhesive, a conical pen tip, and Heraeus SAC305-8XM8-D Type IX solder paste, and tested the consistency and repeatability of ~50µm Type IX solder and adhesive dots.

These tests showed a consistent average dot diameter of 51.24 microns, with a 6.42 micron (13%) standard deviation. These results support the fabrication of 3D printed electronics through the use of direct digital manufacturing (DDM), which allows printing to both planar substrates and the non-planar world of Printed Circuit Structures, which prints the housing or structure of an electronic device as well as placing the electronics conformally. In the future, the team plans to conduct a larger solder and adhesive dot study, in order to test required downtime, long-term reliability, and the frequency of clogging.

Penn State University Invests in Roboze Technology 

Penn State, a 3D printing leader through its Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D), has invested in a new FFF solution in order to expand its AM capabilities. The ROBOZE One+400 Xtreme 3D printer, which was designed to create high performing, functional finished parts in advanced composite materials, will help the university increase its development of high performance plastics for 3D printing, and will be housed in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Students will be able to test out new polymers on the system, and develop new formulations to provide 3D printed parts with multi-functionality. These parts will be used to advance research in applications like chemical reactors.

“ROBOZE One+400 Xtreme will be used to examine novel polymers to help to fundamentally understand the 3D printing process and as a tool to enable custom equipment more cost effectively than can be obtained with machining metals while also allowing for designs not possible with traditional manufacture. The ROBOZE One+400 Xtreme will allow Penn State to leverage its expertise in materials science, engineering and characterization to enable new solutions to problems through additive manufacturing,” said Professor Bryan D. Vogt from the Department of Chemical Engineering.

“The ability to use custom filaments and control the print processing was a critical factor in selecting ROBOZE. The flexibility allowed by ROBOZE along with its excellent printing capabilities is well aligned with the discovery-oriented research mission of the university to expand knowledge and its application. Moverover, our prior 3D printer had issues printing high temperature engineering plastics like PEEK with severe deformation of the structure generally observed. After challenges with printing PEEK with standard belt driven systems, the novel direct drive approach with the ROBOZE was an added bonus.”

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

The post 3D Printing News Briefs: February 21, 2020 appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Posted on

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.