Breakthrough Collaborations Drive Additive Manufacturing Innovation

Close collaboration along the additive manufacturing value chain is critical to push the technology to new levels and to develop new application opportunities for 3D printing. The latest product offerings from Sartomer’s N3xtDimension® radiation-curable liquid resins, part of the 3D Printing Solutions by Arkema platform, are specifically designed to advance the high-performance characteristics of 3D-printed products. These innovations, supported by a comprehensive product portfolio, stem from working closely with customers and partners to address their specific requirements and develop tailored solutions to meet new application and performance demands.

Strengthening the N3xtDimension® offering with photoinitiators, cationic resins and new engineered resins

Sartomer, a business of Arkema, has a well-known portfolio of tailor-made resins, oligomers and monomers designed for radiation-curable 3D printing applications. Sartomer’s acquisition of Lambson in 2019 brings a full range of selected photoinitiators and cationic resins to the N3xtDimension® custom liquid resin systems’ materials family for additive manufacturing. Our customers and partners thereby gain access to a comprehensive range of solutions, strong technical expertise and additional lab capabilities to support the development of tailored solutions to meet the demands of existing and emerging additive manufacturing applications.

At the upcoming Formnext conference, we will be showcasing our full range of solutions and announcing three new products from the N3xtDimension® line of engineered resins, enabling targeted performance:

• New water-soluble resin, designed for 3D printing applications requiring rapid dissolution in water. Its high flexural strength and high modulus are ideal for casting applications, and its low viscosity eases cleanup and post-processing.
• New high-impact-strength resin imparts toughness and excellent impact resistance to 3D-printed materials and enables the manufacturing of functional parts.
• New hybrid resin is capable of delivering engineering-level performance across multiple platforms with custom tuning packages and can be adapted to 355, 385 and 405 nm wavelengths.

These new resins complement the existing range of flexible, tough, castable, high-temperature and prototyping N3xtDimension® engineered resins. To discover our broad offerings in more detail, please register for our webinar on November 12^th at 12pm Paris time.

Our strong portfolio of materials for radiation-curable additive manufacturing is supported by our dedicated R&D team’s innovation in materials research for unique end-use applications. Through our advanced materials research, we will continue to support users of additive manufacturing at the forefront of 3D printing innovation.

Partnerships fostering the advancement of additive manufacturing

Arkema is committed to collaborating with innovative companies and start-ups all along the value chain – from materials to hardware to end users – to enable the adoption of 3D printing in functional uses for mass manufacturing.

Collaborations enabling new material developments

Sartomer’s work with Sirrus enables new fast-curing methacrylate 3D printing resins based on the copolymerization of methylene malonates and methacrylates. This collaboration with an innovative materials start-up is yielding discoveries of new chemistry possibilities and subsequent engineered resins for 3D printing that improve physical properties performance and open new application opportunities.

Arkema also recently led series B investment in Adaptive3D, an American start-up that develops cutting-edge technologies for soft and elastomer end products. This collaboration will create exciting opportunities for new applications in footwear, medical, automotive and electronic appliances, among others.

Arkema partnered with Continuous Composites at the company’s inception, with the joint ambition to accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing by new industries. Through the revolutionary Continuous Fiber 3D Printing (CF3D®) technology, we are accelerating the development of 3D composite manufacturing – a groundbreaking innovation for strong, lightweight structures. We are excited to be associated with Continuous Composites’ newly announced manufacturing facility, designed to accommodate large-scale additive manufacturing of composite materials with build volumes 25 times larger than their original efforts. This new facility is a major step forward in the company’s advancement, research and scalability efforts. Sartomer is playing a key role in bringing CF3D® to commercialization. Through this partnership, Continuous Composites is applying our leading materials, expertise, laboratories and industry experience to CF3D®.

Through such partnerships, we are connecting across the end points of the additive manufacturing ecosystem – from new material development and scaled specialty resin manufacturing to functional end-use parts – to deliver market-leading materials solutions at scale.

Collaborations accelerating 3D printing technology

Arkema also partners with key additive manufacturing technology leaders to push mass manufacturing forward. Arkema’s partnership with Carbon drives innovation in scaling process technology and resin manufacturing to parts made with the Carbon DLSTM process. This collaboration brings production scales to new levels in markets including automotive, industrial, dental and consumer goods.

© Carbon, Inc. Used with permission.

Through our work with Paxis, we are codeveloping custom materials for Paxis’ WAV™ (Wave Applied Voxel) additive manufacturing process technology, a scalable industrial additive manufacturing process designed to solve the limitations of existing liquid-resin-based technologies.

And finally, our collaboration with EnvisionTEC, a global developer of professional-grade 3D printing solutions, led to the development of E-Aquasol, a water-soluble resin that incorporates Sartomer’s N3xtDimension® UV-curable resin technology and is designed for use on EnvisionTEC’s proprietary Envision One cDLM® 3D printing platform. E-Aquasol resin enables EnvisionTEC’s customers to achieve excellent end results thanks to the advanced performance properties of this water-soluble material.

Making connections to advance digital manufacturing

Collaboration among participants along the product development chain is key to effectively addressing the growing demands of the additive manufacturing market and identifying future opportunities. Our experience demonstrates that close partnerships across hardware, software and materials technologies are driving the escalating adoption of 3D printing on a mass manufacturing scale.

If you are interested in discussing the advantages of strategic collaboration or meeting our additive manufacturing experts and our partners Continuous Composites and Adaptive3D, you can register for Formnext Connect using our code. To discover our full program for Formnext, including access to our live webinar on N3xtDimension® liquid resins solutions for radiation curing, and to access our virtual booth, please visit our website.