Dec 6, 2016 | By Benedict
Additive Elements, a German specialist in binder jetting 3D printing, has unveiled a new material system suitable for the ‘extremely economical production of functional plastic parts.’ The acrylic-based AE12 system was developed for Voxeljet 3D printers, but can also be used on others.
Functional plastic parts 3D printed with AE12
Although formnext 2016 allowed 3D printing companies from all across the globe to showcase their wares and services, the massive 3D printing event perhaps benefited German additive specialists the most. Making the short journey from Munich to Frankfurt in the middle of November was Additive Elements, Bavaria’s premier binder jetting 3D printing expert, who used the (fairly) local trade show to present a new material system for binder jetting additive technology.
The new 3D printing material system, named AE12, is an attempt to solve one of binder jetting’s more limiting features. At present, the additive manufacturing method allows users build porous parts in gypsum or molding forms in sand, before post-processing with epoxy or simply destroying the part after casting. With AE12, 3D printer users will now be able to use binder jetting technology for an entirely new purpose: affordable 3D printing of functional plastic parts.
“It will finally be possible to use the Binder Jetting technology for direct additive manufacturing of high quality parts,” said Additive Elements development manager Johannes Günther, whose team worked hard to alter the physical structure of the 3D printing material to suit the purpose of the printed parts: “The biggest challenge was to reduce the porosity of the built parts to a minimum,” he added.
More functional plastic parts 3D printed with AE12
The Additive Elements AE12 3D printing material system is based on Poly(methyl methacrylate), also known as PMMA or acrylic. To make the material as dense as possible—reducing the porosity that can make parts brittle and unsuitable for important applications—the binder is mixed with additives that polymerize (effectively “closing” the part) after the building process.
According to Additive Elements, there are further advantages to AE12 besides its ability to create dense 3D printed objects. One interesting feature, for example, is that all unprinted powder can be rescued and reused following a print job, helping users of binder jetting 3D printing systems to massively reduce waste, minimizing the cost of 3D printing in the process. The material is also scalable, and can be used in large 3D printers to produce large 3D printed objects up to a few meters in size.
Although Additive Elements is not expecting parts 3D printed with its new AE12 3D printing material system to be used in extreme mechanical use cases, it certainly believes that its less porous material system represents a massive step up in the end-use functionality of parts made using binder jetting technology.
The AE12 binder jetting 3D printing material can be used with Voxeljet 3D printers
“We want our process to let additive manufacturing take the next step in direction of serial production,” said Additive Elements founder Thilo Kramer. “Plastic parts will be producible at a fraction of costs of the established 3D printing technologies. For a lot of industries, this is the major criteria for adapting additive manufacturing.”
While the AE12 material system was developed for Voxeljet 3D printers, the 3D printing material will also be usable on other 3D printers. Beta customers will be testing the material until mid-2017, by which time it will have been parametrized for use on a range of larger machines and diverse binder jetting systems. The material will be available for public purchase once beta testing is complete.
Posted in 3D Printing Materials
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