ROCK HILL, S.C., March 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- 3D
Systems (NYSE:DDD) today announced it has completed
comprehensive testing for its newest Figure 4® materials
against both ASTM and ISO standards. Materials are at the core of
3D Systems' digital manufacturing solutions, and in late 2019, the
company introduced a host of production-grade materials for its
Figure 4 Platform – opening the door to new applications. With the
release of its advanced Figure 4 material test data, the company
continues to build on its "customer-first" approach to innovation
and is the first in the industry to provide this level of
transparency - saving customers time, reducing cost, and speeding
their time to first part.
"Until this point, materials testing data provided by the
industry has been incomplete for production applications and of
little value to engineers accustomed to data that accompanies
injection molded plastics," said Marty
Johnson, technical fellow, 3D Systems. "If an engineer is
going to use any material for true production applications, they
need a comprehensive set of data which meets industry standards in
order to evaluate its efficacy. 3D Systems recognizes how these
standards help improve product quality, enhance safety, facilitate
market access and trade, and build consumer confidence. Testing to
both ASTM and ISO standards allows us to address a broad set of
manufacturers worldwide and usher in the use of additive for true
production."
Arming manufacturers with a complete data set to properly screen
a material's appropriateness for their application enables them to
immediately proceed to longer term application testing such as life
testing of parts/components or higher biocompatibility ratings. As
an example, electrical life testing can take anywhere from 1,000 to
4,000 hours (approximately three – 12 months) to complete including
time on the testing equipment, operator time, and time to market.
Before a company makes such a significant investment, they want to
have assurance that the selected material is appropriate for the
application. Having the knowledge of a material's dielectric
properties per industry standards beforehand saves engineers
needing to conduct several rounds of testing – at approximately two
weeks per material - to find a candidate to pass initial dielectric
properties before going into long term life testing.
3D Systems has completed testing for its newest Figure 4
materials designed for production applications: Figure 4 PRO-BLK
10, Figure 4 EGGSHELL-AMB 10, Figure 4 HI TEMP 300-AMB, Figure 4
FLEX-BLK 20, Figure 4 RUBBER-BLK 10, Figure 4 TOUGH-BLK 20, Figure
4 MED-AMB 10, and Figure 4 MED-WHT 10. The company has tested
against an extensive set of properties which includes: long-term
environmental stability, electrical data, UL94 flammability,
biocompatibility, ISO mechanical properties, isotropic mechanical
property tolerances, and compatibility with automotive fluids and
chemical reagents. Test data for all materials will be made
available March 23 on both the
company's website, as well as in its booth (D8) at AMUG 2020
(Chicago, March 22-26).
These materials have unique and compelling properties that
represent significant improvements in first-time print yield, heat
deflection, UV stability, durability, flexibility and impact
strength, while also enabling new biocompatible and direct digital
production workflows. These breakthrough materials complement the
company's entire portfolio, which when combined with 3D Systems' 3D
printing technology, software and services enabled its customers to
create nearly 200 million production parts in 2019 alone.
3D Systems' Marty Johnson will
address the importance of comprehensive materials test data along
with Patrick Dunne, vice president,
advanced applications development, in a 2020 AMUG Conference
(Chicago) session titled "The
Industrialization of AM: High Speed Direct Production with Advanced
Polymers" on Wednesday, March 25 at
1:30PM. Other presentations from 3D
Systems' experts include:
- "Software as an Enabler for Optimized Manufacturing Workflows"
- Radhika Krishnan, executive vice
president, software, healthcare & digitization, March 23 at 3:00PM
- David Lindemann, applications
engineer, will host two sessions addressing 3DXpert® on
Tuesday, March 24 - "Lattice
Structures: Bridging the Gap between Cool Geometry and Physical
Structures" and "Optimizing Serial Production with AM
Software"
- "AM Production of Large Scale, High Precision Investment
Casting Patterns for Metal Parts", Evan
Kuester, applications engineer, March 26
Additionally, Romain Dubreil,
product line manager, metal AM, GF Machining Solutions will
deliver a session on March 26
detailing the metal AM workflow made possible through a combination
of 3D Systems' and GF Machining Solutions' products. 3D Systems
will also showcase application-specific digital manufacturing
solutions for the Aerospace and Automotive industries alongside GF
Machining Solutions in booth D8. For more information, please
visit the company's website.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements made in
this release that are not statements of historical or current facts
are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking
statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors that may cause the actual results, performance or
achievements of the company to be materially different from
historical results or from any future results or projections
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In many
cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such
as "believes," "belief," "expects," "may," "will," "estimates,"
"intends," "anticipates" or "plans" or the negative of these terms
or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are
based upon management's beliefs, assumptions, and current
expectations and may include comments as to the company's beliefs
and expectations as to future events and trends affecting its
business and are necessarily subject to uncertainties, many of
which are outside the control of the company. The factors described
under the headings "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Risk Factors"
in the company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, as well as other factors, could cause actual results to
differ materially from those reflected or predicted in
forward-looking statements. Although management believes that the
expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are
reasonable, forward-looking statements are not, and should not be
relied upon as a guarantee of future performance or results, nor
will they necessarily prove to be accurate indications of the times
at which such performance or results will be achieved. The
forward-looking statements included are made only as of the date of
the statement. 3D Systems undertakes no obligation to update or
review any forward-looking statements made by management or on its
behalf, whether as a result of future developments, subsequent
events or circumstances or otherwise.
About 3D Systems
More than 30 years ago, 3D Systems
brought the innovation of 3D printing to the manufacturing
industry. Today, as the leading digital manufacturing solutions
company, it empowers manufacturers to create products and business
models never before possible through transformed workflows. This is
achieved with the Company's best-of-breed digital manufacturing
ecosystem - comprised of plastic and metal 3D printers, print
materials, on-demand manufacturing services and a portfolio of
end-to-end manufacturing software. Each solution is powered by the
expertise of the company's application engineers who collaborate
with customers to transform manufacturing environments. 3D Systems'
solutions address a variety of advanced applications for
prototyping through production in markets such as aerospace,
automotive, medical, dental and consumer goods. More information on
the company is available at www.3dsystems.com.
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SOURCE 3D Systems