Roboze continues to focus on manufacturing 3D printers while placing a strong emphasis on materials science too—allowing them to offer superior digital fabrication tools to industrial users around the world. With headquarters in Bari, Italy, Roboze was founded by CEO Alessio Lorusso and his team in 2013.
Known for their line of Roboze Argo Production 3D printing solutions, they have just announced the release of an amorphous thermoplastic polyimide filament: SABIC’s EXTEM AMHH811F, a transparent material developed for stability and heat resistance. EXTEM is an example of a class of PEEK/PAEK alternative materials that are polyimides and polyamide-imides. Tolon, PEI, and Kapton are similar materials. Many of these materials are referred to as PAI’s or PAI even though this should only refer to the polyamide-imide family specifically.
Meant to accompany Roboze’s Argo 3D printing solutions, the new materials were created in collaboration with the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-headquartered SABIC. The two companies have been working on an exclusive partnership for the research and marketing of EXTEM™ AMHH811F, meant to offer superior performance in parts for industrial users engaged in FDM (FFF, Material Extrusion) 3D printing.
“Having a partner like SABIC creates an important opportunity for our customers,” says Alessio Lorusso, Roboze CEO& Founder. “We share values like innovation and constant investment in research, development, new materials and technologies. EXTEM™ AMHH811F filament is a first demonstration of this and gives the chance to explore new horizons with the high performing amorphous polymer on FFF systems.
“We’re proud of these great achievements and also of the growing trust we have received from SABIC. With Roboze ARGO Production 3D Printers and the new EXTEM™ AMHH811F filament, we can increase the opportunities for Metal Replacement. I’m definitely sure that all this will guarantee great advantages in terms of speed and productivity for the users.”
The material provides temperature resistance, with a heat deflection up to 230°C. Not only that, EXTEM AMHH811F has one of the highest glass transition temperatures of current polymer 3D printing materials, at 247°C. Typically EXTEM also has very high continuous service temperatures. The material is also inherently flame-retardant without the addition of additional nasty materials and has low off-gassing, high strength, high chemical resistance, and high creep resistance. This makes it a potentially very interesting material, specifically for aerospace applications, especially if it were easier to print than PEEK (most probably) and has better performance and cost fit than PEI (would depend on the application). This is a material that in many applications could give PEEK and PEKK grades a run for their money or outperform them.
This filament also offers:
- Ignition resistance
- Mechanical strength at high temperatures
- RoHS compliance
“To enable customers to print high quality parts for a range of demanding high heat applications, SABIC and Roboze have worked closely together to optimize print parameters and secure UL recognition for EXTEM™ parts printed on Roboze solutions,” said Keith Cox, SABIC’s senior business manager for Additive Manufacturing.
The new filament has also been awarded UL Blue Card recognition with V0-075 certification on samples printed by ROBOZE ARGO Production 3D printers with a thickness of 0.75 mm—placing EXTEM™ AMHH811F at the same certification level as injection molded parts of the same material at the same thickness.
Both Roboze and SABIC created EXTEM™ AMHH811F to offer high performance in the following industries:
- Motorsports
- Electronics
- Medical
- Aerospace
“It’s been exciting to collaborate with Roboze to become the exclusive supplier of EXTEM™ AMHH811F filament for use on the ARGO platform. Our companies share the same enthusiasm to grow the AM market by making new high-performance materials available to customers whose applications require the performance that can only be delivered by EXTEM™ filament on the new ARGO 3D printer. We hope that this is the first of many such exclusive collaborations with Roboze,” continues Cox.
If you are attending formnext 2019 in Frankfurt (from November 19-22), check out the first 3D printed parts fabricated with EXTEM™ filament, presented in a worldwide premiere at Roboze booth 121-C61.
From offering extreme 3D printing services to helping transportation companies become more productive, Roboze continues to be a dynamic force—with their CEO, Alessio Lorusso named as a ‘Forbes 30 under 30’ in 2018.
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