Formlabs
Printed in Formlabs' Draft Resin.
Printed in Formlabs' Draft Resin.
Formlabs has announced the release of two new materials for its stereolithography 3D printing platforms.
The Rigid 10K resin is considered to be the stiffest material in the entire Formlabs material portfolio, while the Draft Resin facilitates the printing of parts up to four times faster than currently available resins. Formlabs believes the former meets the demand for stiffer, more heat and chemically resistant materials from its engineering and manufacturing customers, while the latter is said to maintain the ‘highest degree of accuracy’ despite its ability to be processed at quick speeds. Both, the company says, complement the natural progression of product development, ‘supporting customers from quick initial designs through high-performance parts.’
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Per Formlabs, Rigid 10K boasts similar stiffness to glass or fiber-filled thermoplastics, enables smooth matte surface finish and can withstand intense pressures and significant loads without bending. It is said to be ideal for short run injection mould masters and inserts; aerodynamic test models; and heat resistant and fluid exposed components, jigs and fixtures. Engineering and consulting company Novus Applications has applied the material for short runs of injection moulds and cores, reducing costs and manufacturing time, and suggesting it has performed at a level they had not seen previously with the traditional Rigid 4000 material.
Formlabs
Parts printed in both Formlabs' Rigid 10K & Draft Resin materials.
Meanwhile, the Draft Resin is being pitched as an initial prototyping, rapid iteration material because of its ability to print at high speeds and with minimal support removal, wash and cure times. Formlabs believes it could also be suitable for the dental and orthodontic fields because of its capacity to print aligner and retainer models in under 20 minutes. This, Formlabs suggests, could enable chair-side or same-day delivery of products in those fields. Internal tests have seen Draft Resin enable 95 models per day on a Form 3BL machine, printing eight models per 90 minutes, compared to eight models in nearly ten hours with Formlabs Grey Resin.
“One of the most powerful advantages of stereolithography 3D printing is the wide range of printing materials. Our customers don’t just need parts with the right geometry, they also need the right material properties,” commented Formlabs CEO and co-founder Max Lobovsky. “With our expansive library of resins, our users can make anything from surgical tools to retainers to jigs and fixtures and everything in between.”
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