Greater Strength, Higher Performance: Ultimaker Releases Four New Professional 3D Printing Materials

Ultimaker is one of those rare, well rounded companies that’s offering just about everything their makers could possibly want from the desktop with a simple, high-quality menu of hardware, materials, and compatible software and apps.

Historically, the 3D printer manufacturer, famed for their Ultimaker 2 series, has offered both ABS and PLA filaments of their own, already allowing for their users to create functional prototypes as well as complex end-use parts on all ends of the spectrum as far as expertise level. Now, however, the Netherlands-headquartered company has announced the release of four new materials meant to complement their Ultimaker 2 lineup for professional work.

The four new optimized materials up until now have only been available at more premium prices. With the availability of these materials directly from Ultimaker, users will be rewarded with qualities such as greater strength and chemical resistance, leading to higher performance with parts.

Offering more versatility and even higher quality for those printing on Ultimaker 2 products, the new materials are as follows:

• Ultimaker CPE+ (co-polyester) – this material is tolerant to temperatures as high as 100 ºC, offers chemical resistance, toughness, and dimensionally stability.
• Ultimaker PC (polycarbonate) – PC allows for superior print quality, heat resistance up to 110 ºC, mechanical strength and toughness.
• Ultimaker Nylon (polyamide) – this nylon material offers strength and abrasion-resistance, is durable and engineered to offer low moisture sensitivity.
• Ultimaker TPU 95A (thermoplastic polyurethane) – TPU features a Shore-A hardness of 95 and an elongation of up to 580% at break. It’s best for applications that require slight flexibility, wear and tear, and chemical resistance.

“As we continue to revolutionize Ultimaker’s offerings, both with the physical printer capabilities and printing materials, our enterprise customers remain at the center of our reasoning,” said Siert Wijnia, Founder and CTO at Ultimaker. “The four new materials are just the beginning of enhancements we will introduce throughout the remainder of 2016 and we look forward to moving the 3D printing industry forward with impressive innovations.”

This new offering allows for Ultimaker users to expand further forward in the world of innovation with more than just great hardware, but also the resources to create models, objects, and parts that will fulfill project requirements more than sufficiently.

Ultimaker also, of course, offers several popular printers that are famous not only for high resolution but also reliability, and great portability—recently exemplified with that cool backpack travel case that you might have been envying. We’ve followed a number of different unique projects makers have led using their Ultimakers and in seeing the hardiness of these printers from the research lab making 3D printed medical models to recycling plastic and making cool objects in the outback, it’s to be expected that all of their materials will follow suit in excellence as well. If you are interested in ordering any of these new printing materials, they now retail from $59.95 to $69.95 and are available at Ultimaker. Discuss further in the New Ultimaker Materials forum over at 3DPB.com.