Even Stronger: 3D Systems Announces Two New Elastomeric Materials for the ProJet 5500X

Your options are expanding — and getting stronger — as 3D Systems continues to steamroll ahead with new products and services for their 3D printing customer base. 3DS has also just announced that they have strengthened their still relatively new ProJet 5500X with two new materials.

These additional options should accentuate the 3D printing process even further for designers and engineers who are already enjoying the quality and expediency of the ProJet 5500X, which excels in producing large, multi-material parts all in a single build. Allowing for quality and printing of fine details, the ProJet 5500X features speed, volume, and ease for creating parts with plastic and rubber properties.

Now, users of the ProJet 5500X can look forward to two new VisiJet elastomeric materials in :

• Black (VisiJet® CE-BK)
• Natural-translucent (VisiJet® CE-NT)

With an emphasis on ‘flexible versus rigid,’ the new materials present users with extreme flexibility and durability, putting an end to breakage and tearing. Featuring elongation to break of up to 700%, the material can be harshly manipulated through stretching, contorting, and many different configurations under which it is guaranteed to withstand pressure without failing. With the amount of effort and complexity that go into many large scale 3D designs and prints, preventing breakage and failure is a priority, and often a challenge.

Engineers and designers should be impressed with the performance when printing items such as pipes and gaskets, focusing on simplicity, efficiency, and quality. With the overall quality of the printer itself and the addition of the super strong new materials, users are afforded more options combined with the ability to make stronger, quality parts. Productivity is improved, as is the bottom line, with build speeds that are twice as fast with precise, detailed production.

The new materials are a combination of elastomeric materials with 3DS ABS-like plastics (CR-WT or CR-CL) that produce a variety of materials—due to different colors and levels of strength—for the most challenging 3D printing projects.

The ProJet 5500X is meant for:

• Overmolded parts
• Multi-material assemblies
• Rubber-like components
• Long-lasting living hinges
• High-temperature testing

These new materials accentuate the quality of the ProJet 5500X, which is the first multi-material 3D printer combining two bases to create a variety of materials. Users can look forward to 3D printing products that will stand up to even further rigorous testing for a wide range of applications.

While these new materials should certainly be worth getting excited about, 3DS has had us excited on a daily basis, keeping us busy rolling out the headlines from events they have been hosting, to staking their claim at EuroMold 2014 with a powerful range of new products for next year, featuring a list of next generation printers, and quite the list of new materials. Also featured were the Capture Mini Scanner, featuring smaller size with better accuracy, along with the fun 3DMe Photobooth, which should change the idea of photo booths as we know it. The ProJet 5500X, rolled out at EuroMold the previous year, is certainly being kept company in a fine line-up of products we look forward to hearing more about.

Have you been looking for stronger materials for your 3D printing needs? What effect do you think these materials will have in the area of design and engineering? Tell us about it in the ProJet 5500X New Materials forum over at 3DPB.com.