Formlabs has announced the latest addition to its 3D printing materials portfolio, Tough 1500 Resin, a new resin designed for stiff and pliable parts that can bend and quickly return to their original shape under cyclic loading.
A member of Formlabs’ family of Tough and Durable stereolithography resins, Tough 1500 is distinguished by its stiffness, elongation and polypropylene-like properties which make it ideal for producing functional prototypes, jigs and fixtures and connectors undergoing temporary deflection; basically to simulate the strength and stiffness of products that will be manufactured out of polypropylene.
Formlabs says the majority of Tough 1500 Resin’s technical properties fall between that of its Tough Resin and Durable Resin cousins. With high resilience and fast springback, it claims to balance elongation and modulus, the latter of which is represented in its "1500" label which details its tensile modulus (in MPa), a naming convention Formlabs says it will be adopting for new materials going forward.
Tough 1500 Resin technical data.
Unplugged Performance, a leader in premium upgrades and customisation for Tesla vehicles, has been using the material to produce sensor mounts for customised car bumpers. Previously, the company would need to remove a total of six sensors mounts from the original bumper and reapply them to the upgrade, which would take just under an hour for each sensor one. Unplugged Performance now prints new sensors mounts in batches of 30 to eliminate the need to remove and reapply the originals. This has improved throughput from just one car every one and half days to three cars per day. Printing with Tough 1500 allows the part to easily clip into and secure the various sensors, while its high impact strength enables safe mounting of the sensors in the car’s bumper as well. Formlabs says the material has opened the company up to new applications in creating visible custom parts which blend into the vehicle’s interior.
Tough 1500 Resin is the first new Engineering Resin to be added to the Form 3 ecosystem featuring Formlabs' new Low Force Stereolithography technology. The company is offering samples to customers of a spring sample which shows the material's resilience and ease-of removal from supports.
