3D Printing Materials Page 4

3D printing processes are easy to implement and offer a wide variety of materials to support a part’s requirements while eliminating cost, lead time and design barriers for adopting manufacturing aids on the shop floor. 3D printed composites are an exciting new trend. Whether it is chopped carbon fiber filled into a thermoplastic or continuously laid inside of a 3D print geometry, the benefits of the strength-to-weight ratio are far superior to traditional 3D printed materials. In this blog post, we’ll compare continuous fiber, chopped fiber filled nylon and Stratasys Nylon 12CF and when it’s best to use them while 3D printing parts or prototypes.

The VeroFlex and VeroFlexVivid family of materials are an unbelievably unique set of new materials available on Stratasys J Series 3D printers, which are capable of producing parts that have improved strength and flexibility while retaining great shape memory. Similar to how our simulated rubber-like Agilus material works, parts produced in either VeroFlex or VeroFlexVivid do not need to be handled as gently as other material parts and will hold up with little fear of them breaking. However, unlike Agilus, this material produces parts that are rigid and will snap right back to their original shape after being flexed in any direction. This makes them a great material to print high-quality full-color parts that are thin, like eyewear and small action figures, so today we’re going to show these new materials in action as we make some incredible Fourth of July sunglasses!

Stratasys ABS thermoplastic materials have been used primarily to create durable parts and prototypes. Specialty ABS materials take prototypes to a whole new level by making them functional. The increased strength, transparency and ability to be bio-compatible set these specialty ABS materials apart and allow prints to be closer to the final product. They are changing the game for many industries. 

Printing amazing full-color, real to the touch textures using the Stratasys J735 or J750 printer and Agilus30 White simulated rubberlike material is truly amazing. Previously, we discussed some ways to create colored 3D texture files for printing through the use of wood and stone 2D image files. In this article, I’m going to show you some tips and tricks when creating your full-color 3D models in Adobe Photoshop to create a leather texture. Additionally, I’ll share some things to look out for when you are creating your models to avoid not-so-appealing final models, and what you can do to fix these issues.

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is a 3D printing technology that uses production-grade thermoplastics to create prototypes, end-use products, replacement parts and much more. These thermoplastic materials are strong and resistant to high temperatures. If your parts will be tested through an arduous process, FDM may be the best choice. There are several ways in which FDM can help improve the flow of product development in different parts of the process.

This week's Product Story showcases Milwaukee School of Engineering and their use of Stratasys F123 series printers and Stratasys materials.

Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) offers an innovative partnership between business and education in its Additive Manufacturing Lab. Students have the opportunity to work with businesses as they address unique challenges that arise when developing new products. The engineering students partner with Additive Lab consortium members to find a solution for these challenges.

TriMech’s solution partner, Stratasys, has recently signed an agreement with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Don Schumacher Racing. This agreement allows the automotive teams to leverage the Fortus and F123 series of 3D printers as part of their additive manufacturing process to stay ahead of the competition by accelerating component prototyping, proof-of-concept and finished ultralight usable components. 

ABS is the most widely used polymer for Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printing. Take a walk down any aisle in a store and you are bound to see ABS in items that contain plastic. Consumer goods and automotive are the first industries that come to mind. Although, many industries have taken advantage of the unique combination of UV resistance, vivid colors and glossy finish that set this material apart. 

In our last article, “How Do I Print Wood", we learned how to 3D print a texture in full-color using the Agilus30 White material on the Stratasys J750. We discussed how to use new SOLIDWORKS 2019 features to create physical 3D displacement models using a 2D bump mapping pattern and then apply the color texture to the model in Adobe Photoshop CC.

In this article, I’m going to show you another method to accomplish nearly the same end product, this time using a stone texture and only Adobe Photoshop CC. What’s more, we’ll go into how 3D displacement using bump maps in Photoshop works, showing you a quick and easy method to manually alter those bump maps to make smoother or coarser physical textures.

TriMech has had the complete Desktop Metal Studio System for over five months now, and we’ve had the opportunity to create some incredible parts with it during that time. One of our favorite parts so far is a heatsink, which utilizes the Studio System’s Bound Metal Deposition (BMD) printing technology to its advantage, in order to print a captured hollow cavity that requires absolutely no support or post-processing, which can’t be machined and is impossible for other metal printing technologies on the market to create.

Stratasys' GrabCAD Print is a sophisticated 3D printing app that allows designers and engineers to prepare, schedule and monitor 3D printing jobs. Since its release, GrabCAD has continued to make exciting updates to this software; and we will be updating you every other month on its new features. In this set of release notes, we will be looking at versions 1.26, 1.27, and the just released 1.28.

The ultimate goal of 3D printing prototype models is to create a part as close to the final product or part as possible. Ideally, you would be able to test the part for functionality and/or appearance to determine if your design is the correct one. That said, most of the time designers create their prototypes with overall part dimensions in mind and ignore the final physical surface textures and aesthetics because they are either too difficult to design or dismissed as just a “nice-to-have” but non-essential feature for this early phase of the project cycle. But what if you could include that level of detail?

Now, with the new software tools in SOLIDWORKS 2019 update and Adobe Photoshop CC, along with the new Agilus30 White material on the Stratasys J750, it’s easy to create these textures in full color that mimic what your final production material will be.