DyeMansion 3D Print Processing Now FDA Compliant, New Finishing Options

German depowdering and finishing firm DyeMansion announced that its VaporFuse resurfacing technology is compliant with FDA food contact regulations. Customers can now use the resurfacing technology in food contact applications in the food and beverage industries. The firm also has announced that it has sold over 600 systems and has moved into its Austin, Texas site. The company can now support customers from there, host them there, and ship consumables and spares from the U.S.

DyeMansion CEO Felix Ewald said, “We are currently seeing strong market growth in North America and are very pleased that we can now serve our American customers even better with our fully operational US office. With eleven people in our US team, our increasing number of sales & production partners and our new partnership with Stratasys we are well on our way to creating a colorful future. We are also very pleased to have Stratasys Direct Manufacturing as a workflow customer now and look forward to handling demanding high-volume projects together”

Two U.S.-based Stratasys resellers, Advanced Tech and CATi, will now offer DyeMansion products in Illinois. Expanding on their previous partnership, Stratasys itself will take on more DyeMansion equipment for use in its Stratasys Direct Manufacturing site in Texas, as well.

“We produce thousands of powder bed fusion parts per month, and our current DyeMansion equipment has become invaluable to processing components efficiently. Adding more DyeMansion capabilities to further enhance our capabilities was an easy decision. We look forward to introducing these improved finishes to our customers,” said Greg Reynolds, Vice President of Operations for Stratasys Direct.

For its Powerfuse S customers, the company now offers three Levels of Smoothing strengths. These presets give customers access to Light, Balanced and Strong smoothing depending on their requirements. This feature has been dialled in an enabled for the EOS PA 2200, EOS TPU 1301, HP 3D HR PA 11, HP 3D 12 and HP BASF Ultrasint TPU 01 materials.

On VapourSmoothing, the company has announced that it will be offering smoothing for polypropylene (PP). PP is a growing material in powder bed fusion applications and allows customers to print rather inexpensively with a soft, smooth material that is ideal for sporting goods, braces, mass-customized goods and, of course, for the very many companies already using PP.

PP is relatively new to 3D printing, but is growing quickly. PP parts have hereto been very difficult to finish with abrasive means, tumbling, and other technologies because the smooth squishiness we all love in PP makes it difficult to finish. So, this new material should be welcome to large users of PP.

The finishing process has been dialed in for Ricoh PP, HP Ultrasint PP, ALM PP400, VoxeljetPP, AM Polymers PP03, Ultimaker PP, EOS PP1101 and DSM ARNILENE AM6002. Please note that, in addition to EOS materials, we’re seeing a DSM PP and Ricoh material here as well. The ALM PP400 is based on Braskem feedstock and, hopefully, we’ll be seeing more involvement by that firm. And its good to see a HSS material for Voxeljet’s high throughput HSS technology. And, then, a rather unexpected one with PP from Ultimaker for Material Extrusion. DyeMansion is almost completely focused on powder bed fusion, but it is good that people are looking at high volume use of desktop material extrusion printers and parts. I really think that this will grow significantly going forward as people turn to clusters of flexible desktop machines to manufacture.

All in all, the firm is on the move. But, the most exciting announcement is the FDA approval for VaporFuse. Having a bio-based and biodegradable solvent that is now approved for food contact could really expand the company’s customer base. In mass customization applications, food packaging, jigs and fixtures for food, food production lines, food molds, we’re seeing a lot of interest in 3D printing applications.

These firms need food contact approved materials to safely function and this could make many more of them consider DyeMansion. A lot of food factories are looking at 3D printing as a way to improve their lines, improve production and print things such as poka yoke tooling. At the same time, the VF47 Eco Fluid represents a nice eco-friendly claim to make for the firm and this should especially help large corporates adopt the technology. DyeMansion is at RAPID+TCT and you can meet them at booth: E8207.