Rock Hill, South Carolina – 3D Systems officials announced that it has expanded its PlasticJet Printing materials to include a new Nylon for the company's flagship CubePro 3D printers. This engineering-grade performance material was developed for CubePro, bringing strength, flexibility, and durability to desktop production of functional parts for design, testing, and small-scale manufacturing. Engineered with a blend that includes Nylon 6 and compatible with Infinity Rinse-Away water-soluble support material, Nylon for CubePro saves valuable design and process time and enables 3D printing of complex, articulated and fully assembled end-use parts.
Nylon for Cube Pro is delivered in a new Smart Cartridge that is equipped with a hydroscopic seal extending the material's shelf life for up to 12 months. Nylon cartridges are priced at $149 each, and are available immediately on Cubify and through select distributors. Combining Nylon with Infinity Rinse-Away support inside the CubePro's climate controlled chamber delivers the highest quality professional desktop 3D printing output every time.
Watch the Nylon Material Testing Grounds video to see the engineering-grade properties of this material put to the test.
"When prototyping my custom-built, visual effects robot I knew ABS would be strong enough for some fit testing; but when it got to doing the real work, the functional testing and ongoing use, I needed the strength and endurance that Nylon delivers," says Luke Schantz, technologist at SoftLayer. "I've used a lot of desktop 3D printers and a mix of materials on the market, but CubePro with Nylon is a product-material combination that is unmatched in performance."
Beyond functional prototyping and test parts, Nylon's strength and durability, combined with its smooth surface finish, allows CubePro owners to transform their desktop 3D printer into an economic tool for low-volume, high-value direct-manufacturing. For example, small businesses can readily produce several hundred precision parts to satisfy their monthly sales requirements using a bank of CubePro printers as an affordable flexible-manufacturing cell.
"We are thrilled to offer this long-awaited material to our core, desktop user base, empowering engineers, small businesses and start-ups alike with the most durable and high performing material for PlasticJet Printing," said Peter Theran, vice president, Global Consumer Products, 3DS. "Nylon for CubePro takes desktop 3D printing where it's never gone before: into direct-manufacturing and end-use part production."
Nylon for CubePro:
- Tensile strength: 4,785psi, with flexibility of a dog bone-like shape of 1/8" thick, 1/2" wide
- Elongation at break value: 22 %, meaning 1" can stretch to 1.22"
- Strength-to-weight ratio: 174psi, for light and strong parts with honeycomb infill structure
- Tensile modulus: 248,005psi
- Flexural strength: 8,270psi
- Hardness, shore D: 75 via needle penetration, meaning Nylon is as hard as a hardhat
- Quality: Nylon's strength and durability gives prints a smooth surface finish, ideal for parts requiring load bearing, base strength
- Material memory: Tough as nails with flexibility enables Nylon prints to snap back to original form, adding both form and function to 3D prints with Nylon.
Source: 3D Systems