Stratasys Introduces New Flexible and Rigid 3D Printable Materials

The materials market for 3D printing is said to be just as important as the technology behind the printers themselves. In the last year or two, we have begun to see a vast array of new 3D printable materials. As R&D dollars of the larger corporations within the space are pumped into the material science behind it all, we will continue to see brand new 3D printing applications emerge, due to a wider range of material options.

Back in January of this year, Stratasys unveiled their flagship machine, the Objet500 Connex3 Color Multi-material 3D printer. What made this machine so special, was the fact that it could print in hundreds of different composite materials, by mixing a few different materials in varying amounts. It also featured a wide array of color options which also resulted in the mixing of different colors, as well as varying degrees of opaqueness.

Today Stratasys has announced several additions to their available material options for the Objet500 Connex3 Color Multi-material 3D printer. These new options include six new flexible material palettes. The new palettes add over 200 additional colors to Stratasys’ lineup. In addition, they have also unveiled four new rigid gray and color palettes. These include 135 colors of rigid gray and 45 colors of hue gray. The rigid black-white clear palettes can be used to print objects with sleek, reflective, sheen-like properties to them.  These are great for consumer electronic parts, while the colored black-white palettes are awesome for medical devices, and automotive product housings, according to the company.

“The Objet500 Connex3, already the most versatile 3D printer on the market, can now leverage over 1,000 color options and virtually unlimited combinations of flexible, rigid and translucent-to-opaque colors in a single print run,” remarked Boaz Jacobi, Product Marketing Manager, Stratasys. “This provides true final product realism and versatility in end-to-end applications. The wide variety of material combinations enables manufacturers to create parts that actually look, feel and function like future products rather than only looking like them. This allows the production of complete products without manual assembly and means product designers can now validate designs earlier in the product development cycle, accelerating time-to-market.”

Certainly Stratasys understands the importance of adding new materials to the 3D printing space. The more materials they make available, the more practical uses their printers will provide to clients. With these new colors, the Objet500 Connex3 printer is capable of producing objects for just about every industry out there. Check out the video below, showing off some of the new colors and the objects printed with them. Discuss these new color palletes and materials in the “New Stratasys Material‘ forum thread at 3DPB.com