Rapid 2019: FluidForm 3D Prints Silicones, Urethanes, Epoxies & Liquid metals

May 23, 2019 by Bridget O'Neal 3D Printing 3D Printing Materials

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As hundreds of exhibitors take over the Cobo Center in Detroit for the RAPID+TCT show from May 20-23, visitors are able to see a wide range of different 3D printing hardware, software, and materials, along with countless examples of impressively fabricated prototypes and products.

FluidForm is in attendance at the Medical Manufacturing Innovation Collaboration Center (Hall B), offering a comprehensive exhibit with live demonstrations and videos also that inform the crowds of their abilities within the 3D printing industry.

3D printing without supports.

FluidForm will also be displaying a 3D printed brain model, something that is certain to garner plenty of attention at the massive show. This medical model is meant to educate eventgoers on the latest medical applications being impacted by 3D printing technology, with the FRESH human brain created via MRIs, and ‘demonstrates the ability to guide personalized manufacturing of tissue scaffolds for future applications in repair and regeneration.’

FluidForm realizes that most 3D printing has been relegated to materials like metals, ceramics, and plastics, while softer materials like silicone have been ignored due to their inability to solidify or flow suitably. The FluidForm team points out that that soft materials ‘are more challenging and cannot be effectively 3D printed.’

In typical fashion of 3D printing users, however, as soon as one points out major challenges with a facet of the technology, it immediately becomes a challenge; for example, this led FluidForm to use their patented Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH™), printing within a support gel ‘rather than in the air.’ According to FluidForm, this new system leads to access of many new types of materials for 3D printing, along with design strategies and new applications.

3D printed materials created by FluidForm not only for ‘unlimited geometries’ to be created, they also support numerous materials embedded into one single print.

“FluidForm’s FRESH multi-material technology enables printing of silicones, urethanes, epoxies, liquid metals, biologic materials and much more, serving as the manufacturing platform to revolutionize diverse fields, from aerospace to wearable sensors to regenerative medicine,” states the company in their latest press release.

3D printing in the medical realm around the world is vast today, mainly after heavily infiltrating the mainstream in the past few years and catching the attention of so many researchers and medical professionals, whether in the university, lab, clinical, or hospital setting. Nearly every facet of medicine is being affected today, whether in the development of diagnostic devices for developing countries, offering for much better self-sustainability in health care, or robotic prosthetics for children in need, or a growing world library of 3D printed models and devices. Find out more FluidForm and their hardware and other products here, or email info@fluidform3D.com for more information.

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