Carbon’s EPU Pro platform notably improves their ability to 3D print elastomers.
While the company is known as a manufacturer of industrial 3D printers, it has long been focused on materials and software. That’s because you can’t print if you don’t have a design and the correct materials for the job. They want to ensure product manufacturers have easy paths to success by providing all the elements required.
Carbon has provided elastomer materials for some time, but their EPU Pro platform offers some notable advantages. This set of resins differs from most elastomers in that it is a single material. Their prior elastomers were two-part affairs, requiring the operator to mix them. This simplifies operations.
It is still a dual-cure material, but in a single package. However, Carbon said the pot life is quite a bit longer for EPU Pro resins.
The range of hardness in the EPU Pro resins is quite wide, with the softest being only 50A. We were told this material has very significant elongation properties, as well.
Along with increased part strength, the EPU Pro materials can be printed much faster on Carbon equipment. For example, we were told a job that took four hours with earlier resins takes less than two hours with EPU Pro resins.
A unique feature of the EPU Pro resins is a foaming agent. This agent expands during printing and can be tuned with print parameters to achieve a variety of surface effects.
Carbon doesn’t announce new hardware very often, as they focus mostly on the materials. There’s a good reason for this: it’s the materials that unlock applications. By presenting more options to manufacturers, they encourage the development of unique 3D printable products and ultimately grow their business.
Via Carbon
