3D printing - Materials

Nexa3D and Henkel announced commercial availability of xMED412, a polypropylene-like material that is ideal for manufacturing a variety of biocompatible, medical and wearable devices.

In the 3D printing industry, tradition ties companies to the technology they have always used, to the best practices defined decades ago and to the design practices tuned for legacy manufacturing processes.

Metal additive manufacturing has been on the rise for many years. Predominantly led by the adoption in high value applications like aerospace & defence and medical. The majority of printer processes use a powder feedstock. This is mainly for powder bed fusion but material jetting and binder jetting are also gaining traction (each with different material requirements and economics).

Researchers have set a new world record: they 3D printed complex objects with higher cellulose content than that of any other additively manufactured cellulose-​based parts. To achieve this, they used a clever trick.

Researchers have produced a gel from cellulose fibres and biodegradable nanoparticles that liquifies when pressed through the nozzle of a 3D printer, but then quickly returns to its original shape. Their invention paves the way for personalised biomaterial implants.

Multi-metal printing gives designers and engineers the ultimate degree of freedom to make better parts. Multi-metal Laser Powder Bed Fusion creates a range of new use cases and applications.

Researchers have, for the first time, turned waste cooking oil - from the deep fryers of a local McDonald's - into a high-resolution, biodegradable 3D printing resin.

Albright has added a 3D printing capability and developed a special 3D silicone molding process for relatively low cost rapid turnaround prototyping. Customers that need a small number of parts for initial testing but are not ready for metal tooling can benefit from working with a silicone molder that is able to provide LSR molding with 3D printed tooling.

Researchers have used sound vibrations to shake metal alloy grains into tighter formation during 3D printing.