Silicon Valley-based, additive manufacturing company, Carbon, has announced a 40% price reduction for its polymer resins in a new bulk packaging program that will make 3D printing more economical for for high-volume production manufacturers.
The first material on offer will be RPU (rigid polyurethane) 70, a versatile and tough material comparable to ABS, which Carbon will initially sell for $150/litre, down from the current price of $250/litre. Carbon plans to reduce that to less than $100/litre within the next year.
“This production volume materials approach will allow us to ensure that our partners like adidas, which will be printing thousands or millions of parts, can do so economically compared to other manufacturing methods such as injection moulding,” said Carbon CEO and Co-founder Dr. Joseph M. DeSimone. “No other 3D printing company has offered this because they do not have the combination of a complete system for 3D manufacturing combined with first class materials that enable additive manufacturing at scale. Carbon now does offer that complete package.”
Building on its recent SpeedCell manufacturing system launch, Carbon has teamed with Henkel Adhesive Technologies, a global leader for high-impact solutions in adhesives, sealants and functional coatings to develop a key component to the program, a dispensing instrument called an MMD (metre mix and dispense) for proper dispensing the material in bulk quantities.
Carbon MMD
Philipp Loosen, Global Head of 3D Printing, Henkel Adhesive Technologies, commented: “We’re delighted to work with such a promising company to develop hardware and materials solutions to bring pioneering technologies like 3D printing to traditional manufacturing and support the expansion of these capabilities to a variety of markets and applications. This is the future.”
Big names like Ford and adidas, who have already been working with Carbon’s CLIP technology for some time, are among the first companies lined up to take advantage of these new production offerings. In particular, the footwear giant, has committed to using Carbon materials at a scale of hundreds of thousands of litres, as it gears up to mass produce midsoles for the Futurecraft 4D athletic footwear, launched with Carbon earlier this year.
“Ford shares Carbon’s vision of 3D manufacturing and is actively working with Carbon to accelerate the implementation for automotive applications,” said Dr. Ken Washington, Vice President, Research and Advanced Engineering and Chief Technology Officer, Ford Motor Company.
Continuing its global expansion, Carbon has recently bolstered its reach into Europe by teaming up with new production partners Citim, a member of the Oerlikon Group, Oechsler in Germany, and Fast Radius and Paragon in the UK.
Carbon is on site at TCT Show in Birmingham this week (26-28th September). Visitors can meet the Carbon team and learn more on stand C38. Register here for you free ticket.
