3D Printing News Briefs, July 13, 2024: Metal 3D Printer, AFWERX Award, & More

In 3D Printing News Briefs today, Stratasys announced multiple material and technology updates, and EOS introduced its latest metal 3D printer. Dyndrite received an AFWERX Award, and researchers at the University of Manchester and TU Delft developed a spatial 3D printing method for fabrication of continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites (CFRTPCs).

Stratasys Announces Expanded Materials & Technology Updates

HVAC duct 3D printed with new VICTREX AM 200 material for FDM

Updates have been announced by Stratasys for several of its Industrial and Healthcare Business Unit products, as well as Stratasys Direct. The goal is to accelerate the speed of bringing products to market for its customers, and open more AM functionalities and opportunities. First, the company is making its OpenAM software application available for the F900 3D printer, so users can modify machine controls to get results beyond the standard print settings. Next, a high-strength, high-performance PEEK-based material, VICTREX AM 200, is now available for the Fortus 450mc and the F900, and Somos NeXt resin has been validated for the NEO 3D printers. The Carbon Fiber Visual Print Option is a new 5-slice layer height for FDM ABS-CF10 across the F-123 Series, and six new ASA colors have been added for the F770 printer. Finally, Stratasys introduced the Parts on Demand by GrabCAD integration, which will synchronize the company’s software platform with Stratasys Direct’s 3D printer fleet.

“In making these upgrades and enhancements, we are taking and applying feedback from our customers to help them better meet their additive manufacturing needs. Additive manufacturing is on the cusp of a new era, where it works side-by-side with traditional means of manufacturing. Bringing new products and updates, increases our ability to become part of the manufacturing ecosystem,” said Rich Garrity, Chief Industrial Business Officer, Stratasys.

EOS Introduces New M 290-2 400W Metal 3D Printer

EOS recently launched the latest member of its EOS M 290 family—the EOS M 290-2 400W metal 3D printer, which brings the line to a total of three systems. Developed through the company’s AMCM group, it’s based on the EOS M 290, and will be offered alongside this, in addition to the new EOS M 290 1kW. With two 400 watt lasers offering full-field overlap, the dual-head printer is compatible with the existing EOS M 290 process parameter sets and features a 250 x 250 x 325 mm build volume; a digital scanner with active cooling up to 7.0 m/s; optimized laminar gas flow; and a material library and process quality comparable to the EOS M 290 single field. Available for purchase through EOS and its authorized partners, the company claims its new EOS M 290-2 400W will set a new quality and productivity standard for metal serial production.

“While not always discussed publicly, many of the biggest and most widely known production applications in the history of metal AM have been underpinned by the EOS M 290. The heritage of the EOS M 290 family of systems dates back two decades with nearly 2,000 M 290s installed globally, which speaks to the popularity of the system and makes this line of AM technology perhaps the most adopted system in the world,” explained Monica Smith, EOS metal product line manager. “The new EOS M 290-2 has a lot to live up to, and we are both proud and confident about the next generation of metal AM production stories that will be written using this system.”

Dyndrite Gets Award from AFWERX for USAF Metal AM Challenges

Dyndrite announced that it was chosen by AFWERX, the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force (DAF) powered by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), for an AFVentures Open Topic 24.D Phase I cohort award. The company, which provides a GPU-accelerated computation engine used to create next-generation digital manufacturing hardware and software, will work to define and commercialize a Software Defined Process Qualification (SDP Qual) Process for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) 3D printing, in order to address the DAF’s top metal AM challenges. In order to ensure that all quality and safety standards related to metal AM are consistently met, a strong qualification process is necessary. Dyndrite will support this by integrating scriptable workflows into qualification and requalification to automate the entire build layout process, including manual tasks like part positioning, toolpath and laser parameters, labeling, and more. With its SDP Qual approach, the USAF can improve its agility and adaptability.

“We are proud of the recognition by AFRL of the value of Dyndrite’s modern approach to additive manufacturing qualification. Our agile software-based process is a core ingredient to making AM a reliable, repeatable and cost effective serial production process,” said Steve Walton, Head of Product for Dyndrite.

Spatial 3D Printing with Continuous Fiber-Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites

Finally, a team of researchers from the University of Manchester and TU Delft developed a spatial 3D printing method that enables the fabrication of continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites, or CFRTPCs, with excellent mechanical performance. They found that multi-axis additive manufacturing (MAAM) can control the orientation of continuous fibers in 3D printed composites better than typical planar-layer based fiber placement, as MAAC often doesn’t provide enough reinforcement because orientations are constrained to planes. As detailed in their research paper, “Exceptional Mechanical Performance by Spatial Printing with Continuous Fiber,” their computational approach uses a dual robotic arm setup to generate 3D fiber toolpaths that follow maximal stress directions in critical regions, and connect multiple load-bearing regions by continuous fibers.

“When comparing to planar-layer based printing results in tension, up to 644% breaking forces and 240% stiffness are observed on shapes fabricated by our spatial printing method (with same amount of material usage). Material characterization of the breaking regions shown that the material failure has changed from the delamination between fiber and matrix material (up) into the fiber fracture (bottom) with fiber reinforcement printed with spatial toolpath. We demonstrate the versatility of our approach through various complex load cases which demonstrate their successful implementation of continuous fiber printing in various 3D models,” the researchers explained.