New AM Materials Round Up, November 12, 2021

Several new AM materials were announced in the past week.

We often receive notes from manufacturers that have developed new and unique materials, but most times the news value is relatively low and these do not warrant a story on their own. However, we thought we might bundle together several material announcements into one post, this one, for your review.

ALM’s Carbon Neutral Polymers

ALM — a subsidiary of EOS — announced a line of carbon neutral polymers, including PA 820 MF CN (mineral filled), and PA 802 CF CN (carbon fiber reinforced). These are believed to be the first fully certified carbon neutral additive manufacturing materials on the market. The certification covered the entire production lifecycle used to produce these materials. ALM describes them as “bio-circular”, indicating their recyclability and bio-based nature. ALM partnered with Arkema to develop these production materials.

Sakata White Wood

Sakata, maker of many different types of 3D printer filament, announced “White Wood”, a wood-based filament that has a light color. This contrasts with its siblings, “Oak Wood” and “Maple Wood”, which are darker.

voxeljet Ceramics

voxeljet partnered with AGC Ceramics to optimize a ceramic material suitable for use in their massive VX1000 3D printer. The material has been tested for use as cores for investment casting, but apparently they are also investigating additional potential applications.

Solvay & 9T Labs Collaboration

Polymer specialist Solvay has partnered with startup 9T Labs to develop advanced carbon fiber-reinforced PEEK material for use in the company’s unusual 3D printing process. Previously, 9T Labs was able to demonstrate 3D printed parts that had the highest achievable ratio of carbon fiber, but by using PEEK and other advanced materials, they can bring these strong parts to high temperature applications.

FABULOUS New innovative powder materials

French polymer maker FABULOUS announced an unusual material, a magnetic polymer powder that could be highly useful in healthcare applications. They also announced the availability of dedicated color batches, including blue, navy blue (used for the magnetic “DETECT” material), red, green, orange, yellow and grey. Finally, the company announced their BLUE CARE PA11 material will apparently receive US FDA certification before the end of 2021.

BCN3D Metal

BCN3D released a “metal pack” for their Epsilon line of professional 3D printers. This is actually a system using the popular BASF Ultrafuse materials, which have a high ratio of metal particles. Specifically, 316L and 17-4 PH metals can now be 3D printed on the BCN3D equipment. I’ll have more details on this announcement in a future story.

ALTANA Partners with dp polar

Specialty chemical producer ALTANA is supplying dp polar with new “Cubic Ink” materials for use in that company’s highly unusual rotating 3D printer. The materials include two high-performance materials with one offering high thermal resistance; three prototyping materials, including flexible, tough and clear options; two support materials, standard and fast-dissolving.