German polymer manufacturerCovestrohas completed its acquisition ofDSM’sResins & Functional Materials unit, including its 3D printing offering, and the ex-DSM team is working to “bring the benefits of SLA to DLP” with a new line of Somos resins.
According to what was DSM, and is now Covestro, the adoption of DLP/LCD 3D printing is growing rapidly thanks to the technology’s high throughput capabilities, but existing materials are proving to be a barrier to scalability. To prevent the distortion that’s often seen in prints from larger 8K machines, the firm is now working on a new range of ‘hybrid resins’ with an SLA-like chemistry, that could yield parts with significantly reduced shrinkage.
“What we’re seeing in the DLP world is that these printers were very small, but they’re getting much larger now,” explained Andrew Graves, Equipment Partnership Manager at former-DSM-now-Covestro. “DLP is getting to 4K and 8K, and the LCD printers are kind of unlimited about how big they can get.”
“As printers get larger, you’re going to get distortion and a lot of curling using current materials,” he added. “So we are looking at bringing our expertise in SLA hybrid materials into the DLP and LCD world for end-use, and specifically, for larger parts that need to be accurate and conform to an engineering drawing.”
“我们将工程聚合物领域的专业知识带入DLP和LCD打印机。”
An expanded polymeric portfolio
Based in the Dutch city of Geleen, DSM’s former 3D printing materials division wasacquired by Covestro在去年宣布的一项交易中，并于2021年4月1日正式吸收其更广泛的业务。在收购之前，该子公司建立了广泛的材料投资组合，购买了一部分克拉伦的细丝和颗粒范围in June last year, that will now serve to supplement Covestro’s burgeoning product line-up.
EX-DSM部门的范围已经迎合了广泛的印刷技术教堂，并包括从FDM适合细丝到SLS就绪粉末。在过去的两年中，团队发展了玻璃填充3 d印刷颗粒as well as new sustainable materials, debuting itsbio-based EcoPaXX AM4001 GFpolymer in November 2020.
Elsewhere, leveraging its growing大型印刷方面的专业知识，前DSM团队为许多环保基础设施项目做出了贡献，包括Dutch 3D printed footbridgebuilt entirely from recycled materials. Moving forwards, the team continues to encourage more sustainable production, and is currently developing a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool for assessing the green merits of its upcoming products.
Levelling-Up DLP打印
该团队未来材料策略的另一个核心组成部分在于其对DLP和LCD 3D打印段中趋势的分析。据该公司称，轻型机器的增长越来越大，以至于现在对树脂的需求减少了，但是没有任何材料在市场上提供类似SLA的稳定性。
“All SLA materials that are available today from either Covestro (formerly DSM) or other companies, consist of a hybrid chemistry which is an epoxy acrylate combination with two materials and two photo-initiators,” explained Graves. “It gives you tough materials with very low shrinkage, which is important when you’re building large parts.”
因此，通过推出具有独特的丙烯酸酯/环氧化学化学的DLP树脂，EX-DSM团队的目标是为DLP/LCD优化的混合动力材料带来市场利基市场。在DSM的领导下，该公司此前凭借非杂种Somos Quickgen 500的推出，这是一种专用的DLP聚合物，其灵活性增强，并打算补充这种投资组合的前进。
In terms of speed, the resin is reportedly capable of printing twice as quickly as other similar polymers, making it better-suited to functional prototyping applications. Later this year, Covestro (formerly DSM) also plans to launch the Somos PerFORM HW, a new hybrid material that could take DLP to the next level by bringing true SLA functionality to market.
Previewing the PerFORM
The former DSM team has worked closely with various 3D printer manufacturers to optimize the performance of Somos执行HW。在初始测试中，据报道，该材料在80 MPa后固结后表现出SLA状的拉伸强度，此外，对高达260°C的温度极高的耐热性。
在成功根据合作伙伴机器上的测试印刷品获得的反馈来成功调整了其新材料的制定，该团队正在为其第一个真正的Hybrid DLP聚合物排列第二Q2 2021。
“据我们所知,没有什么喜欢它,“浓缩的luded Graves. “If you look at the PerFORM HW, there are competitive versions of PerFORM for the SLA, and there are similar materials in the DLP world, but there’s nothing that is based on this hybrid chemistry, which offers the same low shrinkage and high accuracy in the DLP world.”
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特色图片显示了代表DSM和Covestro的两个拼图作品。通过Covestro图像。
