3D Printing: Enabling a New Manufacturing Landscape

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Holden: Are some of these materials flexibles?

Schwarz: Yes, we do have materials that are flexible in both sides of the technology. Traditionally, our PolyJet materials were the ones that have been flexible. On the PolyJet side, we use a type of printing style that allows multiple materials within the same build. We can take what they call rubber-like materials and rigid materials and blend them in a physical model, where I can have a rigid component with a rubber overmold around the outside of it. On the FDM side, we are getting into actual elastomeric materials that will be extruded through our FDM process.

Holden: I was watching your demonstration, and the machine was switching to a material that was soluble. Later, I guess it would be moveable or freed up from other parts that were printed?

Schwarz: That’s correct. On both our FDM and PolyJet technology, our secondary support structure not only adds as scaffolding to our part for any areas that go beyond a 45-degree angle, but it also works as a material to separate moveable components in an assembly. Because were growing the part from the ground up and introducing that support structure mid-build, we can wash that component away from the actual model and have a full working assembly without having to assemble it after the fact.

Holden: With all of this, where do you see this technology heading? I think it’s probably just in its infancy right now.

Schwarz: Well, ironically, the technology has been around for 30 years. Stratasys just celebrated their 30th anniversary of its inception by Scott Crump, in 1988. All the applications have been customer-driven, so we’ve seen it blossom on the customer side more so than our side. Where we do see it is with the advancements of materials getting stronger and higher temp. We’re getting into higher-end advanced applications than we have ever thought possible. We’ve broken into the aerospace industry for end use parts. Ultimately, the goal for 3D printing is to one day be able to produce production parts from 3D printing. We’re seeing that on the medical side, we’re seeing that on the aerospace side, and we’re seeing that in the racing industry. We’ll take a little while to get there on the automotive side and the consumer good side, but I think it’s right around the corner.

Holden: What other information or viewpoints would you like to leave for customers?

Schwarz: I would say a lot of people are reluctant to break status quo in a lot of industries, especially when we talk to the supplier groups in automotive. It’s hard for them to take something that they’ve always done out of metal and reconfigure their mindset to take on and try a plastic component, especially something that might have no reason to be a metal part. What we like to do is we like to go in and evaluate, start at the bottom, and then work our way up with our customers. We want to start out with the stuff we know will work, the easy stuff, prove it out, and then we want to push the limits to see how far we can take it. We will come to the facility and we will go through a thorough evaluation of how it’s traditionally done, how we see it could be done, where that savings is, and how far we can push it. That’s the actual trial process.

Holden: Have you ever started with a printed circuit board or flexible circuit and then 3D printed that where it became an integral part of the finished 3D printed part?

Schwarz: We have done a little bit with that. We have a material called ABS-ESD7. That’s an electrostatic dissipative material. It’s essentially an ABS material with nanoparticles of carbon in it, so it’s static dissipative. We did partner with a company primarily to print circuit boards into the 3D printed ABS components; however, it was still only good from a prototyping level just because our ESD7 wasn’t certified to go into production for automotive components at that level yet. I still say that from a material standpoint we’re in our infancy, but as we grow, and these materials grow, we get closer and closer to that production level of our materials. You’ll see those types of applications come back through as materials advance, and we’ll see wiring removed from your automotive components and more electrical lines being physically printed into the 3D printed parts and going into vehicles.

To read the full article, which appeared in the August 2018 issue of SMT007 Magazine, click here.

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