Dynamic Duo

3-D printer takes next step in rapid prototyping evolution

By Andre Voshart

The Connex500 is the first 3-D printing system that sets multiple model materials simultaneously.

3-D printers have come a long way since the first rapidprototyping techniques became available in the late 1980s. Now, Objet Geometries says it has released what its U.S. executive touts as the next evolutionary advancement in product development and pre-manufacturing.

Objet America president Frank Marangell says the new PolyJet Matrix technology at work in the Israel-based company’s Connex500 3-D printing system is the first of its kind: It can jet two unique materials simultaneously in addition to support material in contrast to the traditional one. He says that using multiple materials simultaneously reduces the time-consuming task of printing part components separately prior to gluing together a final prototype.

The technology also allows the Connex500 to mix the two materials on the fly to create multiple composites, or “digital,” materials, which are composed of microscopic building blocks that determine the material’s mechanical properties.

“From two different materials, you can make an infinite combination of digital materials,” Marangell explains. “When you have two different materials—one is rubber-like and one is a hard material—you can change the combination of those two by the material percentage. So if you have 90 percent hard and 10 percent rubber, then it will be a pretty hard but flexible piece. If you have 90 percent rubber and 10 percent hard, it’s pretty flexible with just a little rigidity in it.”

Along with Objet’s seven acrylic-based photopolymer FullCure materials (which include flexible, rigid, transparent and opaque styles), the company has pre-programmed 21 different digital material combos, each differing in tensile strength, elongation to break, HDT and Shore value, enabling models to meet a range of fit, form, function and feel requirements. The combination of black and white rigid materials also generates a range of grayscales.

“The only reason to limit it to 21 is simplicity for the customer,” Marangell says. “It’s just scratching the surface. So if you come up with a need for more grayscale or something in between the flexibility or Shore value, we will come out with it without a problem.”

The machine creates these blends by funneling both materials to a dedicated liquids system connected to the printing block, which contains eight printing heads. Each material has two designated printing heads, and the remaining four deliver support material. Each head includes 96 50-micron-diameter nozzles, and each nozzle is controlled independently, enabling preset combinations of materials to be jetted according to location and model type.

Both the rubber-like composite (black) and the rigid material (gray) were created on the fly and printed at the same time.

Common to all PolyJet systems is the use of inkjet-like heads to create ultra-thin micron-layers, each of which is cured by ultraviolet light after the jetting stage. This produces fully cured models ready for immediate use without post-curing.

Its total build volume is 20 by 16 by 8 inches, roughly the size of two stacked DVD players, enabling users to print multiple models on a single build tray in three different printing modes. In the “digital material” mode, it can print a 2.5-by-20-inch slice that is 0.5 inches high once per hour using 30 micron-layers. “High quality” takes about double the time by using 16 micron-layers. “High speed” produces one 0.8-inch-thick slice per hour, nearly halving the digital material mode time.

“We think this is quite revolutionary in this industry,” Marangell said, “and since Nov. 15, we’ve seen really great support.”

This great support included winning the Euromold 2007 Innovation Award, “the first time in eight years that a rapid prototyping innovation has won the award,” said Adina Shorr, CEO of Objet worldwide. Euromold, held at the beginning of December in Frankfurt, Germany, is the largest tradeshow for companies involved in product development and pre-manufacturing.

“This [technology] is an industry first,” according to Terry Wohlers of Wohlers Associates Inc. after reviewing the technology. Wohlers Associates is a consulting firm that provides advice on new developments and trends in product development, rapid prototyping, 3-D printing and rapid manufacturing. “This opens up exciting new options that before were impossible with methods of additive fabrication.”

Unlike CNC machines, which are subtractive, additive fabrication systems join together materials to form parts. The Connex500 is particularly well suited to consumer product development, says Marangell, in that users can validate a product at an early stage, including feasibility testing and over-moulding process simulation.

No Canadian companies currently use the PolyJet Matrix technology, but the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology does use Objet in its manufacturing centre.

Marangell anticipates many industries will benefit from the Connex500, especially the shoe industry, which he says Objet pretty much owns because of its rubber-like material and fine detail. Many shoe companies, such as client Adidas-Salomon, “take our parts, paint them, stick a number on them, and that’s what they use for the tradeshows. It is a quickly evolving industry.”

Adidas-Salomon vice-president of product creation technologies Gary Pitman said of the previous incarnation of the PolyJet system, “Our designers and engineers need to hold and feel the model in their hands; it’s always important, and with Objet, it’s almost like having a 3-D fax capability.”

Objet has been growing ever since the introduction of its PolyJet technology in early 2000. They have also witnessed double-digit growth year-on-year for the past three years, nabbing the 2007 Frost & Sullivan Growth Excellence of the Year Award at the beginning of 2008. Coupled with this growth was the company’s decision to set up shop in North America. Objet used to distribute its products to the U.S. and Canada through Minneapolis-based Stratasys Inc. until January 2007, when Objet decided to halt their four-year partnership and assume sole responsibility for North American sales and support, bringing Marangell into the fold.

The Objet exec feels the company is on to something, setting a new standard in 3-D printing, and that they’re just scratching the surface.
www.2objet.com