Quantica has struck an interesting arrangement with ImageXpert to develop advanced 3D printing resins.
A refresher on Quantica: they have developed an advanced jetting solution (NovoJet) that is able to handle far more viscous resins than other jetting systems. Their system heats resins up to 60C, while at the same time generating vastly higher pressures. This enables their injket printheads to print with viscous resins.
That’s important because the engineering properties of resins are largely determined by the additives within them. Typical resin setups are able to handle additive particles with diameters of up to 0.004mm, but Quantica’s system is able to handle up to 0.050mm particles.
This capability opens up all manner of possibilities for unusual resins that have never been 3D printed previously.
But what are they?
Having the capability is one thing, having a suite of advanced resins is another.
To that end, Quantica’s arrangement with ImageXpert should greatly assist in the development of said resins.
ImageXpert produces “world-class machine vision systems to accelerate R&D and refine manufacturing”. Quantica explains:
“The integration of Quantica’s JetPack and ImageXpert’s JetXpert systems is the first step in this transformation. The JetPack serves as a specialized tool for validating and optimizing the use of novel materials with the NovoJet printheads, guided by live analysis of drop shape, volume, and velocity with the JetXpert Dropwatcher. This integration provides researchers and material developers with the ability to test, characterize, and validate new materials for jetting, thus enabling the exploration of new possibilities in inkjet applications.”
In other words, NovoJet systems will be able to perform rapid optical testing of print samples with this arrangement. This is ideal for companies using Quantica equipment to develop their own unusual viscous resins.
Quantica said the integrated system will be shipping in the latter half of 2024 to the first customers.
What can we expect from this development? Quantica lists some of the possibilities they are currently looking at:
“Quantica is actively exploring various applications in the electronics industry, spanning conductive tracks, insulation layers, solder resists, solder pastes, heat sinks, component connectors, encapsulations, wafer coatings, and more. This underscores the broad spectrum of applications that stand to benefit from Quantica’s unique inkjet printhead.”
And that’s probably just the beginning.
Via Quantica and ImageXpert
