Additive Manufacturing

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Additive Manufacturing (aka 3D printing) is a process by which products are constructed layer by layer using 3D-printable materials such as photopolymers.

Previously, companies using Additive Manufacturing for their products were unable to access its full potential due to the limited mechanical performance of the materials used. The most common challenge was that product groups must be able to additively manufacture parts that have the high strain, high strength, and feel of rubber.

THE PROBLEM

3D-printed parts used to have poor material properties (toughness of less than 20 MJ/m³) caused by high cure stresses that cause weakness between layers, and they couldn’t be manufactured at sufficient throughput rates (less than 1 part per day) due to oxygen sensitivity that forced batch production. In order to overcome these limitations, 3D-printable materials must have toughness greater than 40 MJ/m³ to match the least of traditional polymers and enable high throughput production of specialized parts through open-air manufacturing.

Companies that produce products using Additive Manufacturing were also limited by injection molding and other plastic processing technologies because they couldn’t make parts with complex internal geometry. Additionally, it was prohibitively expensive to make specialized low-lot number parts. This forced them to make millions of the same low-functionality parts that restricted the differentiation of their products and limited the capabilities of their materials.

In what may well be called the next industrial revolution, more and more companies turned to Additive Manufacturing to produce large-scale parts. However, Additive Manufacturing missed the mark and failed to deliver on its full potential due to these material limitations… until now.

THE SOLUTION

A new plastic processing technology was needed that could enable geometric freedom while enabling low-cost customized plastic parts and products. In a mission to overcome these limitations, Adaptive3D successfully produced the world’s highest-straining photopolymer: Damping ToughRubber™.

This photopolymer resin boasts of being the toughest highest-performance DLP 3D-printable polymer in the world, delivering advanced mechanical properties that enable extremely tough functional products and parts.

Damping ToughRubber™ has the following properties that make it best-in-class:

Holds the highest strain in the world: 405%
High Strength: 17.3 MPa
Yield Stress: 3MPa
Toughness: 19.29 MJ/m3
Feels and performs like EVA rubber

THE FUTURE

Additive Manufacturing promises to deliver unlimited differentiated products and unprecedented part performance through precise internal geometries and economical customized parts. Our products can fulfill that promise with the highest quality materials built from pioneering technologies by world-class, talented professionals who strive for the unified goal of delivering the toughest materials for any kind of Additive Manufacturing. At Adaptive3D, we promise to deliver exactly what you need, using the toughest materials in the world, designed to perfection for your satisfaction.