Multi Jet Fusion enables the efficient production of end-use nylon parts using additive technologies. Here’s a checklist for design teams.

Introduction

What is Multi Jet Fusion?

Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) is an industrial form of 3D printing that can be used to produce functional nylon prototypes to higher volume production parts with exceptional design freedom and mechanical properties. The MJF process works by using inkjet nozzles to selectively distribute fusing and detailing agents across a bed layered with nylon powder. Unlike selective laser sintering, which uses lasers to fuse the powder into solid material, the MJF printer uses a continuous sweeping motion to distribute agents and apply heat across the print bed layer by layer until the part is finished, MJF can produce high-quality parts at high speeds.

This manufacturing process also does not require support structures to produce parts, making it possible to create complex geometries like internal channels or co-printed assemblies. MJF parts have mechanical properties comparable to injection-molded ones, but without the need for expensive tooling.

Designing for manufacturability will go a long way in ensuring optimal part quality and yield, minimizing post-processing needs, and driving cost reductions. Here’s a quick checklist to help your team ensure that you’re following MJF design best practices.

1. Is MJF a suitable process for my project?

Before diving into design changes, it is important to ensure that the MJF process will meet all product requirements. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

Do any of the material offerings meet my product requirements?

While MJF has many strengths, it has a limited list of approved materials. PA12 and its glass bead counterpart are fairly versatile for rigid plastic applications. TPU, a flexible polyamide, can find use where an elastomeric material is required. If the available materials do not meet a specific requirement, you may need to consider a different process.

Does my part fit in the build volume?

One key limiting factor is the machine’s build volume, which is 380 x 380 x 284mm for the Jet Fusion 4200. In some cases, large parts can be printed as smaller subcomponents and assembled using adhesive or mechanical joints. In this case, design features such as dovetail joints may facilitate alignment and adhesion.

Do I have any tight tolerances I need to hit?

While the gap between additive and injection molding tolerances is narrowing, it is important to make sure that MJF’s tolerances are sufficient within the context of your assembly.

2. Are there areas where I can use less material?

In most cases, MJF defects are caused by thermal gradients that develop during the build. If the material cools unevenly, the piece may warp or develop sinks. Parts that are long and thin, have abrupt changes in cross-sections, or have thin curved surfaces are especially prone to shrink-induced warp.

Removing material from part designs wherever possible through the use of pockets, shelling, lattices, and topology optimization is key to mitigating and preventing these defects. Avoiding large changes in cross-sections is another way to limit warp. Ensure that chamfers and fillets are incorporated where needed throughout the part design to make the transitions between different features more gradual.

3. Are my features above the minimum threshold size?

In general, the wall thickness of MJF-printed parts should be a minimum of 1.5mm. Small design features should also be no smaller than 1.5mm, though some features such as slits, embossing, engraving, or the diameters of holes and shafts can be as small as 0.5mm. For embossed or debossed text, the font should be no smaller than 6pt (approximately 2mm) and should be a minimum of 0.3mm deep.

If a part includes screw threads, they should be M6 or larger. Where smaller, more precise, or more durable threads are needed, consider using threaded inserts. Beyond feature resolution, you should also consider how small, slender features might break off in post-processing.

4. Have I taken assembly tolerances into account?

Even with the greater geometric flexibility provided by the MJF process, some applications may still require a part to be assembled from multiple components. In general, mating faces should have 0.4 – 0.6mm of clearance to ensure that the components can properly fit.

If your project involves co-printing assemblies, the components printed together should have at least 0.5mm of clearance, but may require more, particularly when there are thick cross sections or there is a significant contact surface area.

5. Is my part design optimized for post-processing?

If your part requires post-processing, there are a few things to double-check in your design to help make secondary operations more effective.

1. Ensure that there are no unvented or trapped volumes in the design.
2. Avoid blind holes whenever possible — these are hard to clean, which can quickly drive up costs.
3. Add fillets to corners where the powder can cake and become difficult to remove through standard tumbling and bead blasting.

6. Have I seized every opportunity to lower part costs?

Besides improving part quality, intelligent DFM changes can drive cost savings. Lightweighting your part, for example, reduces the risk of defects and lowers the material cost per part. The other main consideration when designing for MJF and cost is optimizing nestability in a build. Adding draft or altering the position of printed assemblies may increase the number of parts that can fit per build and distribute fixed costs over more parts, lowering the overall part cost.

In addition to optimizing designs for manufacturability, additional factors to consider include your part’s cosmetics, surface finish, and ease of storage and transportation. MJF parts are naturally grey, but can be dyed black easily. If painting, priming, or other processes are not essential to the part’s function, they can be foregone to reduce expenses. Most MJF-printed parts will have a 125-250 microinches RA finish — if a smoother surface is needed, the part can undergo a variety of surface treatments, including sanding, tumbling, or vapor smoothing. Texturing can be an effective design technique to improve part aesthetics without additional post-processing.

Getting Started With a DFM Expert

Adhering to DFM principles is key to the success of manufacturing processes for a number of reasons. It helps to keep your operating expenses as low as possible, allows you to detect and address design issues early, and improves your overall part quality. This checklist is a valuable resource for making sure your MJF parts are optimized and refined before production begins.

The added advantage of partnering with SyBridge is that your team gains access to the latest in digital design technologies and expert advice. Our team is standing by to help guide each project from design and prototyping through to fulfillment, ensuring that you receive superior-quality parts on time and at the right price. Contact us today to get started.

The post HP Multi Jet Fusion Design Guidelines appeared first on SyBridge Technologies.

by Charlie Wood, Ph.D.
VP of Innovation, Research & Development

As a part of the SyBridge team, I’ve witnessed the remarkable evolution of design and engineering tools over the past decade. These digital advancements have revolutionized our approach to manufacturing, allowing for more data-driven processes and insights. But it can be difficult to know where to start, or even to understand where there are opportunities to implement.

At the heart of our approach lies the concept of the “Digital Thread,” a framework that interconnects data across the entire lifecycle. This concept enables us to leverage the wealth of design and operational data across our data lake that is generated in the manufacturing process, from CAD designs to inspection results. While the industry is still moving towards seamless integration, we’ve made significant strides in creating workflows that prioritize data-driven decision-making.

Streamlining Injection Mold Design Workflows

One key area where data is contributing to efficiencies within manufacturing is that of injection mold tooling design. By utilizing virtual component libraries for mold designs, we’ve been able to streamline the complex process of coordinating and collaborating on intricate assemblies for mold making. In these libraries, we have standard blocks, system approaches and components stored in a way that allows us to quickly identify and digitally pull components. This approach offers lots of flexibility when it comes to customer requests and needs, all while keeping standard practices built right into our tools. Over the course of many years, we’ve built software-driven processes to design new builds based off of these standard components, allowing us to quickly handle new requests from customers and build a learning feedback loop to avoid costly mistakes.

Additionally, through the use of parametric component libraries, we’ve been able to significantly reduce design complexity and incorporate our own manufacturing intelligence into these components, allowing us to directly check for design issues and integrate manufacturing information into CAD files. This process creates a flow of information from the conceptual stage of the design through manufacturing and approval, extending our Digital Thread from end to end. This information flow can also go backwards, tying quoting, estimation assumptions and specifications directly to tool designs. These advancements in our design approach have not only made the job of a tool designer a bit easier, but have improved quality by creating
more explicit feedback loops in our design processes.

Innovations in Conformal Cooling

As many know, 3D printing has unlocked incredible design freedom for manufacturing engineers around the world. However, what can be overlooked is how impactful it has been for system designers, like toolmakers, who can utilize that design freedom and low cost of complexity to create components that radically improve performance. In the case of toolmaking, 3D printing has unlocked new cooling channel designs simply not possible before.

Although increasing numbers of toolmakers are using these advanced manufacturing techniques today, the new design space is so complex it can be hard to probe. In the past, conformal cooling channels were fairly straight, in-plane paths driven by tool access limitations in machining. With metal 3D printing, the limits are far less restrictive and allow designers to pursue more creative and complicated structures.

Using advanced data-driven methods with virtual design and testing capabilities, we’ve been able to uncover non-obvious opportunity areas in the design space. Through these novel design and
manufacturing workflows, we’re optimizing cooling performance and achieving remarkable improvements in tool performance as measured through cycle time. Through our approach, we’re seeing cycle time reductions as high as 50%. These successes have inspired us to further integrate and enhance these workflows, driving continued innovation.

AI Tools for Manufacturing

The Fast Radius Portal’s AI-powered DFM checks

Looking ahead, we’re enthusiastic about the possibilities that emerging technologies like machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) offer. These novel data modeling approaches have shown incredible potential, and the pace of technological advancement is rapidly accelerating. We’ve been able to use ML models to build data models faster than through simple bottom-up logic, particularly for complex problems that contain many correlating factors.

The critical ingredient in implementing AI for manufacturing are large data sets that provide a source of truth for model training and validation. By leveraging our existing datasets, we aim to predict defects, optimize designs in real-time and ultimately revolutionize quality control processes. These technologies are not a distant vision; they’re an integral part of our current digital platform, with features like instant quoting and DFM checks based on captured manufacturing data. And this is just the beginning of what’s possible.

Unlocking Manufacturing Innovation via the Digital Thread

Our journey in harnessing digital workflows for injection molding design has seen remarkable progress and tangible results. The end-to-end integration of data into the Digital Thread, combined with the power of ML and AI, holds the key to unlocking even greater innovation. As we continue to push boundaries and explore new frontiers, we’re excited about the advancements at the interface between the physical and digital worlds.

Are you ready to harness the power of the Digital Thread for your organization? Contact us today to get started.

The post The Digital Thread: End-to-End Data-Driven Manufacturing appeared first on SyBridge Technologies.

When designing a part, it’s important to understand critical differences between comparable materials. For instance, substituting a thermoplastic instead of a thermoset to create a product that’s meant to withstand high temperatures would have disastrous results. 

The terms “thermoplastic” and “thermoset” appear in many of the same conversations regarding plastic part manufacturing, but they’re not interchangeable. This article breaks down the major differences between thermoplastics and thermosets, as well as key advantages and best applications for each material.

Thermoplastics: What You Need to Know

Mechanical/Chemical Properties

A thermoplastic is any plastic material with a melting point that becomes molten when heated, solid when cooled, and can be re-melted or molded after cooling. The process is completely reversible, and doing so will not significantly compromise the material’s physical integrity. 

Thermoplastics are usually stored as pellets to facilitate easy melting during the injection molding process. Common examples of thermoplastics include acrylic, polyester, nylon, and PVC.

• Nylon: Nylon provides a unique combination of strength and wear resistance that makes this family of materials well-suited for a range of applications.
• TPE and TPU: When product designers and engineers want a part to have certain properties like shock absorption, flex rebound, or high impact strength, they often turn to polymers made out of thermoplastic elastomers. 
• ULTEM (PEI): ULTEM® is one of the only resins approved for use in aerospace settings. It is also among the most versatile plastics on the market. 

Advantages of Thermoplastics

Thermoplastics are strong, shrink-resistant, and relatively easy to use. Their inherent flexibility makes them an excellent choice for manufacturers who require shock-absorbent products that can withstand wear and tear while retaining their shape. 

Thermoplastics are generally more cost-effective than thermosets because they’re easier to process. This is because thermoplastics are made in higher volumes and don’t require post-processing. Plus, thermoplastic molds can be made from affordable materials like aluminum. Thermoplastics are highly compatible with injection molding processes, and are ideal for making repeatable parts in high volumes. 

Additionally, thermoplastics are some of the more environmentally friendly plastics on the market as they are highly recyclable by design. As an added benefit, manufacturing with thermoplastics produces fewer toxic fumes than working with thermosets. 

Common Thermoplastics Applications

Manufacturers often use thermoplastics for prototyping because if the final product doesn’t meet certain standards, they can easily melt the part down and start over without producing a lot of scrap material.

Beyond part prototyping, thermoplastics can be used to create a range of familiar consumer products, as well as medical devices, automotive components, and more.

Thermosets: What You Need to Know

Mechanical/Chemical Properties

In contrast to thermoplastics, a thermoset is any plastic material that hardens once cured by heat and cannot be reshaped after the curing process. During curing, valence bonds in the polymer cross-link together to form three-dimensional chemical bonds that cannot be undone, even under extreme heat. 

Thermosets are usually stored in liquid form in large containers. Common examples of thermosets include epoxy, silicone, and polyurethane.

• Epoxy (EPX 82): An additive material developed by Carbon for its DLS process. This material is ideal for automotive, industrial, and consumer applications. 
• Silicone (SIL 30): SIL 30 is an additive material developed by Carbon® for its digital light synthesis (DLS). Also known as SIL 30, this silicone urethane offers a unique combination of biocompatibility.
• RPU 70: Known for its toughness, strength, and ability to withstand heat, RPU can be used across multiple industries including consumer products, automotive, and industrial. 

Others like Phenolics are available as a granular product.

Advantages of Thermosets

Thermosets offer a wide range of benefits; overall, they are strong, stable, chemical-resistant, and have outstanding electrical properties. They won’t warp, degrade, or break down easily in extreme temperatures. 

Due to their strength and durability, thermosets are often used to reinforce another material’s structural properties. Among the most impact-resistant materials on the market, they are frequently used to seal products to protect them against deformation. 

Common Thermosets Applications

While thermoplastics offer a more diverse range of high and low functionality applications, thermosets can be used to create high-performance products in a wide variety of industries. 

Thermosets are ideal for building anything that comes into contact with extreme temperatures on a regular basis, such as kitchen appliances and electronics components.  

Start Building With Us

The crucial difference between thermoplastics and thermosets boils down to how they react to heat. Thermoplastics can be molded and remolded in the presence of heat without losing structural integrity, while thermosets can be molded only once. Of the two, thermoplastics are better suited for all-purpose products that need to be strong and flexible, while thermosets make better high-performance products. An experienced manufacturing partner can help you decide which material best fits your needs. 

When you partner with SyBridge, you partner with a dedicated team of engineers and manufacturing experts who will help you take your project to the next level. We’ll match your vision with optimal materials, manufacturing processes, and post-production services to ensure that you end up with a product of unmatched quality. Contact us today for a quote.

The post Thermoplastics vs. Thermosets: What’s the Difference? appeared first on SyBridge Technologies.

To provide NFL and D1 players with enhanced protection with greater comfort, VICIS collaborated with the advanced manufacturing team at SyBridge, 3D printer/materials manufacturer Carbon and the digital customization experts at Toolkit3D to create player-specific 3D printed pads for ZERO2 MATRIX football helmets.

SNAPSHOT

Challenge

The team at VICIS was seeking a way to manufacture football helmet pads that offer greater comfort, safety and durability to provide players with improved protection against head injuries.

Solution

Drawing upon the expertise of the teams at SyBridge and Carbon, VICIS 3D printed these advanced new helmet pads with Digital Light Synthesis™ (DLS) technology, utilizing lattice structures made from a new energy-damping, strain-rate-sensitive elastomer (EPU 45). To achieve a truly custom fit, VICIS turned to sports body equipment customization specialists Toolkit3D to perform 3D head scans of individual players. With SyBridge’s digital manufacturing capabilities and expertise in 3D printing, VICIS was able to create pads that conform to each player’s unique head shape, providing custom-fit comfort, enhanced protection and greater durability.

Outcome

Worn by some of the world’s best football players, VICIS helmets featuring these individually-customized 3D printed pads are now the top rated helmets for safety according to the NFL and NFLPA.*

*Data and rankings as of April 2023

“Just as in football, precision, speed and agility were key components when selecting a manufacturing partner for the 3D printed pads used in the Zero2 Matrix helmet. With SyBridge’s engineering expertise and advanced manufacturing technologies like Carbon® DLS™ and the Fast Radius Portal, we were able to incorporate feedback from the field to develop this helmet with player-specific customization in mind, bringing next-level design, protection and performance to the D1 and professional players of this sport we love.”

— Cord Santiago, Senior Design Engineer, VICIS

In the world of professional football, player safety is of utmost importance. With a growing concern about head injuries and the long-term effects they can have on athletes, leading helmet manufacturer VICIS set out to create an improved football helmet that would reduce impact force during head collisions.

To make this possible, the team at VICIS turned to SyBridge and Carbon in order to design and manufacture protective helmet pads, leveraging the digitization and customization expertise of Toolkit3D to achieve a custom fit for each player’s unique head shape.

The Challenge

REPLACING FOAM AROUND THE DOME

With traditional football helmets, including many of those used by professional and D1 athletes, foam is used as the primary material for padding and impact absorption. However, there are several key issues with foam pads that prevent them from being ideal for this application.

Foam pads:

• Offer little ability to fine-tune for specific impacts, limiting performance and safety
• Lack durability and require frequent reconditioning
• Cannot be customized without machining or other labor or material-intensive processes
• Trap heat and moisture

Recognizing the limitations of traditional foam pads, VICIS aimed to create helmet pads that not only remain structurally intact over time but also prioritize player comfort and offer unparalleled safety against head impacts. This required an innovative manufacturing approach, along with expertise in material science and engineering, leading VICIS to the advanced manufacturing experts at SyBridge and Carbon, and the sports body equipment customization specialists at Toolkit3D.

About EPU 45

EPU 45 is a new energy-damping elastomer developed by the material science engineers at Carbon. It prints four times faster than traditional elastomeric polyurethanes and is a strain-rate sensitive material that stiffens to absorb energy at higher impact rates, enabling the design of highly breathable lattice structures tuned for comfort at low-impact speeds and energy absorption at high-impact speeds.

Advantages of Lattice Structures

In addition to enhanced breathability, the lattice structures of the 3D printed helmet pads allow for optimal energy distribution upon impact. Combining this structural design with the unique properties of EPU 45 makes these advanced helmet pads a superior alternative to foam padding traditionally used in football helmets, as they offer greater durability with superior impact absorption.

The Solution

CRAFTING A NEW PLAYBOOK FOR IMPROVED CRANIAL PROTECTION

Working closely with the designers and materials scientists at Carbon and manufacturing engineers at SyBridge, VICIS determined that Digital Light Synthesis™ (DLS) was the right technology to manufacture these advanced helmet pads due to material compatibility and a focus on customization. With a lattice-structure design consisting of the new EPU 45 material, the 3D printed helmet pads would offer an ideal combination of enhanced protection and greater durability.

To create a truly custom fit for each player, VICIS leaned on the expertise of Toolkit3D, specialists in digitizing and automating the customization of high-performance medical and sports body equipment, to create a digital model of each player’s unique head shape. Then, collaborating with the engineers at SyBridge and Carbon, VICIS was able to optimize each pad’s design for manufacturability and cost-effectively 3D print the custom elastomeric helmet padding.
For additional customization and traceability, each pad is printed with the player’s name, pad set, print date and serialization, ensuring that players use the correct pads for their specific cranial geometries.

In the event a replacement pad is needed, utilizing the design flexibility that 3D printing provides combined with the on-demand digital manufacturing capabilities of SyBridge’s Fast Radius Portal, players can receive new pads that match their original head scans in as fast as 2 days, ideal for reconditioning equipment during bye weeks.

The Outcome

LEADING THE LEAGUE IN HELMET SAFETY

The agility of digital manufacturing and the rapid production times that 3D printing offers have allowed VICIS to manufacture these new pads for their Zero2 Matrix helmets with mass customization in mind. When it comes to comfort, one size doesn’t fit all, and sacrificing safety for an improved fit should never be a consideration.

Worn by some of the world’s best football players, VICIS helmets featuring these individually-customized 3D printed pads are now the top rated helmets for safety according to the NFL and NFLPA.*

With these helmets, players get enhanced safety without the impediment of additional size or weight, and a truly customized fit for improved security and performance.

*Data and rankings as of April 2023

The NFL in collaboration with the NFLPA, through their respective appointed biomechanical experts, annually coordinate extensive laboratory research to evaluate which helmets best reduce head impact severity. The results of those tests, which are supported by on-field performance, are set forth on this poster.

The helmet models are listed in order of their performance, with a shorter bar representing better performance. The rankings are based exclusively on the ability of the helmet to reduce head impact severity measures in laboratory testing. Performance variation related to helmet fit, retention, temperature-dependence, and long-term durability are not addressed in these rankings.

All helmets in green are recommended for use by NFL players. Based on a statistical grouping analysis, helmets in the Top-Performing group have been further distinguished into two green categories. The darker green group represents those that performed similarly to this year’s top-ranked helmets, while the light green group performed similarly to the lowest ranked dark green helmet. Helmets with poorer laboratory performance were placed in the yellow or prohibited groups. Yellow and newly prohibited red helmets are not permitted for new players and players who did not wear them during the 2022 NFL season. Newly prohibited helmets will be prohibited for all players in 2024.

The laboratory test conditions were intended to represent potentially concussive head impacts in the NFL. The results of this study should not be extrapolated to collegiate, high school, or youth football.

The post Tackling Football Head Injuries With Manufacturing Innovation appeared first on SyBridge Technologies.

Today, 3D printing technologies continue to improve and engineers are constantly discovering new applications where additive manufacturing is more practical than producing parts via traditional technologies. In fact, additive manufacturing has evolved well beyond technologies principally suitable for prototyping to include production-grade technologies like Carbon® Digital Light Synthesis™ (DLS) and HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF), which are capable of generating quality, functional end-use parts suitable for the most demanding applications. As the industry grows and gains further popularity, more companies will innovate and push the bounds of what additive manufacturing is capable of. With these advancements, new ideas will come to light and open up even more possibilities for industrial-grade 3D printing.

The Rise of Additive Manufacturing

In the early 2010s, 3D printing slid into the mainstream and has since truly taken off. Much of the recent growth can be attributed to the fact that automotive, consumer goods, aerospace, and medical device companies have opened their eyes to the many benefits of additive manufacturing. Not only can companies use additive technologies to quickly create prototypes, but they can also produce everything from aircraft maintenance tools to accurate surgical models and functional automotive parts.

With constantly improving material selections and advancements in print speed and accuracy, additive manufacturing has become a feasible production method for volume in the tens of thousands of parts. Companies are now able to cost-effectively produce custom products, such as helmets, hearing aids, prosthetics, and surgical guides on a mass scale. Manufacturers can make adjustments directly to a 3D CAD file and start production on a new part revision immediately, oftentimes weeks or months faster than it can take to manually adjust tooling for injection molding, the common alternative to 3D printing. Since there’s no need for expensive tooling, companies can keep production costs low, even as they change their design.

Bridge to Scalable Production

Regardless of the advantages of additive manufacturing, injection molding is still the gold standard for volume production of plastic parts, as it’s a tried and true scalable production method with a vast array of available materials. However, additive manufacturing has established its place alongside and in conjunction with injection molding as a bridge to production, allowing companies to receive their initial run of parts while the final injection mold tooling is being created. Through leveraging both the speed of additive manufacturing and the scalability of injection molding, companies are able to shorten product development timelines and gain a competitive advantage by getting to market quickly.

Along these lines, some companies have even started 3D printing injection mold tooling, as it’s a fraction of the cost of machined aluminum or steel tooling. Additionally, 3D printed tooling can be made quickly — it takes just two to three days to create tooling via additive manufacturing, while CNC machined steel tooling can take up to five months. Though 3D printed tooling is not nearly as durable as aluminum or steel tooling, it’s far more affordable for low-volume production runs if a desired material isn’t available to use with additive technologies.

But why do traditional injection molds take so long to manufacture? Machined molds will often have to go through additional post-processing steps using wire electrical-discharge machining (EDM) to achieve small details like sharp corners that are not achievable via CNC machining directly. However, these complex features can be printed directly with additive manufacturing, which can save time and money in the long run and makes 3D printing an ideal way to get a part into production quickly, even if steel or aluminum tooling is better-suited at scale.

With Supply Chain Woes, Additive Grows

Though additive manufacturing was already on the rise in the lead-up to 2020, it became increasingly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the lockdowns and supply chain issues, companies could produce parts using conventional methods like injection molding and CNC machining in factories around the world before shipping them to warehouses and distribution centers. But suddenly, manufacturing techniques that had worked for decades weren’t quite cutting it in the midst of supply chain chaos. As a result, many companies turned to additive manufacturing to solve their supply chain woes.

Through distributed manufacturing networks, a rise in on-demand manufacturing services, and advancements in additive technologies and materials, more businesses turned to 3D printing instead of traditional technologies to produce small- and mid-sized production runs. And instead of shipping parts around the world, companies began to realize the ease and advantages of uploading CAD files to network-connected 3D printers that would then produce the parts closer to where they were needed. In addition to the increased design agility this afforded, along with reductions in logistics timelines and expenses, manufacturers were able to meet the booming demand for parts and products throughout the pandemic, including for essential products like medical equipment, face shields, and respirator components that were suffering extreme supply shortages.

The Future of Additive Manufacturing

As 2020, 2021, and 2022 have proven, 3D printing is a suitable manufacturing method for any industry looking for a rapid, adaptable production solution, no matter where they are in the world.

While supply chain issues have begun to ease, many companies have integrated 3D printing into their design and production processes, and are seeing it as the new normal when it comes to manufacturing geometrically-complex parts or even simpler parts at low to mid-size production volumes. And as a result of businesses’ continued reliance on additive manufacturing, new processes with greater speed, precision, and reliability coupled with robust and expansive material choices will continue to be developed in the coming years. These new additive manufacturing trends and developments will help 3D printing gain an even stronger foothold in the manufacturing world.

Adoption of Additive Manufacturing in Electric Vehicle Production

One area specifically where 3D printing will likely continue to carve out its niche is in the electric vehicle (EV) industry. Over the past few years, EVs have hit the mainstream, and they’re only continuing to grow in popularity. General Motors will phase out gas-powered cars by 2035 and President Biden plans to replace the federal fleet with EVs, so it’s clear that electric vehicles are here to stay. As manufacturers try to make EVs increasingly affordable and high-performing, they’ll look for cheaper, lighter, and more easily sourced parts, which will pave the way for more widespread adoption of additive manufacturing processes across the mobility industry. As quicker, more efficient product development cycles push the limits of traditional manufacturing technologies, this will create a whitespace for additive manufacturing due to the speed and design flexibility it affords.

Decentralized 3D Printing of Customizable Parts at Scale

While mass customization is already amongst the most popular additive manufacturing trends, it will likely truly take off in the coming years as more businesses figure out how to integrate additive manufacturing into their digital workflows. As companies seek to reduce production and supply chain waste, 3D printing will arise as a natural fit for many industries due to its inherent efficiency. Likewise, additive manufacturing will continue to expand its role in the supply chain. Eventually, 3D printing may help drive a shift toward digital manufacturing and encourage the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies, resulting in a more decentralized, resilient, and eco-friendly supply chain.

Advancements in 3D Printer Technologies

Over the next few years, 3D printers themselves will continue to evolve, becoming larger, faster, more capable, and more affordable. These newer machines will be able to handle more technical capabilities, enabling advancements such as co-printing materials and colors and even embedding electronic components directly into parts. Despite the relatively high cost of 3D printers, their growing utility across a wide range of applications — including making parts that are impossible to produce using traditional technologies — will make additive manufacturing more popular among large manufacturers. As adoption increases, in order to meet commercial demand, so too will printing speeds, ultimately reducing production times even further and lowering per-part costs.

Advancements in 3D Printing Materials

Regarding additive materials, manufacturers can expect more sustainable options to hit the market in 2023 and beyond. After all, sustainability has become a significant focus for many companies. Not only are regulations surrounding sustainability becoming more strict, but using sustainable practices and materials can also help companies build customer loyalty, protect brand reputation, and even attract new customers, making it easier to gain a competitive advantage. As a result, more and more companies are dedicating their time and money to developing new recyclable, reusable, and/or biodegradable 3D printing materials.

In addition to more sustainable materials, additive materials that allow end-use parts to surpass the strength and durability of traditionally-manufactured parts are continuing to be developed. Even at present, production grade additive manufacturing equipment is already capable of creating nearly perfectly isotropic parts, having the same mechanical properties in all directions that rival injection molded and machined parts. With further advancements in additive materials, companies will be able to innovate at a faster pace and create products that push the limits of performance — and do so in record time.

Preparing For The Future Of 3D Printing With SyBridge Technologies

3D printing has already significantly advanced since it hit the market in the 1980s, and progress isn’t slowing down anytime soon. In the coming years, additive manufacturing will only become increasingly accessible, reliable, and precise, opening the door for even more companies to use the technology to produce everything from custom shoes to automotive mounting brackets. But to truly take advantage of additive manufacturing and all that it can do, working with a seasoned manufacturing partner is vital to stay ahead of the competition.

At SyBridge Technologies, we have extensive experience with 3D printing, are up-to-date on the latest additive manufacturing trends, and have top-of-the-line printers, including production-grade technologies like HP Multi Jet Fusion and Carbon® Digital Light Synthesis™. In addition to being a leader in additive manufacturing, we offer end-to-end solutions for the entire product development process — from design to post-production support — across multiple technologies, including injection molding, urethane casting, and CNC machining. When you partner with us, we’ll help you leverage the right technology for your application to create quality parts with the exact specs you require on the timeline you need. Whether you’re prototyping a new design or are ready to scale production, we have the engineering knowledge, capabilities, and dedication to bring your vision to life.

Want to learn more about our capabilities in additive manufacturing? Contact us today to speak with an expert.

The post What’s Next for Additive Manufacturing? appeared first on SyBridge Technologies.

Many 3D printed parts aren’t 100% ready straight out of the printer, which is where additive post-processing comes in. Post-processing techniques like sanding and smoothing can improve the look and feel of your part, but other post-processing techniques such as the application of metal inserts, enhance its mechanical properties or geometric accuracy. In some cases, post-processing inserts may need to be added to ensure that a part functions as intended, meets its design specifications, and is ready for customer use.

Additive post-processing inserts serve different purposes, including allowing for printed parts to be fastened to other components, eliminating the need for rivets or adhesives, and helping to streamline the manufacturing process. Since metal is more durable than plastic, certain inserts can even increase part durability, meaning that 3D printed plastic products can be repeatedly assembled and disassembled without damage.

Three are three general types of additive post-processing inserts available: press-fit inserts, heat-staked inserts, and Helicoil inserts. Each insert type is better suited to different 3D printing processes and use-cases: with that in mind, we’re here to help you understand which is the right fit for your project.

Additive Post-Processing Inserts

Press-Fit Inserts

Press-fit is the most common additive post-processing insert type, and is best suited to Carbon Digital Light Synthesis (DLS), HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF), and stereolithography (SLA) parts. While tapping a part or integrating threads into its design may be an option for 3D-printing projects, plastic threads will wear or break down relatively quickly compared to metal press-fit insert threads. With that issue in mind, press-fit inserts are often used in cases that require high load-carrying capabilities and durability, such as 3D-printed plastic housings, casings, consumer electronics, and other parts that need to accept screws for assembly.

To use a press-fit insert, you’ll need to design your part with a hole, or drill one after the print is complete. Adding the insert will be relatively easy once you have your hole: press-fit inserts are tapered, so they will self-align as they are pressed in. Instead of tapping the hole or melting the plastic before installing an insert into a 3D-printed part, you can simply use a hammer or arbor press to set it into place. Since press-fit inserts often have knurled outer surfaces, they will stay in place once inserted.

Heat Staked Inserts

It’s also possible to use heat-staked inserts with additive parts. Best suited for MJF and FDM printing projects, heat staking involves heating the insert to melt the plastic, and pushing it into place as it cools. Raising and cooling the temperature of 3D plastic components will enable the material to re-form around the insert, creating a strong bond with the printed part. You’ll need to pay attention to how much heat and pressure you apply when installing heat-staked inserts in order to achieve the best results. 

Heat staking not only reduces a part’s complexity by eliminating the need for CAD thread design or rivets, but increases its durability and improves cosmetic appearance. Threaded inserts that have been heat-staked (rather than 3D printed or tapped) will also have greater pull-out strength and be able to better resist stripping, pull-out loads, and torque-out loads. As a result, using heat staking to fix metal inserts and fasteners into 3D printed parts is a common practice in many industries, including the automotive, telecom, and appliance industries, and the process is used on everything from electronic enclosures to appliance dials.

Helicoil Inserts

Helicoil inserts are traditionally used in metal parts but can also be used in FDM 3D prints, regardless of whether a part has a 3D printed thread or a traditionally drilled and tapped hole. Also known as helical inserts and screw thread inserts (STI), Helicoil inserts are coiled wire inserts with coils that are wider than the hole into which they are inserted. To install a Helicoil insert, you’ll need to drill and tap, or 3D print, a threaded hole, before screwing the insert onto an installation tool and installing it. The coil will then expand, forming a tight seal against the existing threads.

There are several types of Helicoil inserts available. Stanley Engineering, for example, offers HeliCoil threaded wire inserts that provide internal threads for standard-sized fasteners and screw locking wire inserts that offer permanent conventional screw threads. Stanley Engineering also produces free-running wire inserts with threads that can be used from both ends, and tangless threaded inserts that are wear-resistant and eliminate the need for tang retrieval.

Metal Helicoil inserts are strong, durable, and resistant to heat. They also prevent threaded holes from wearing out, and so can lengthen a 3D printed part’s lifespan. Helicoil inserts are commonly used in the aerospace, defense, automotive, medical, and telecom industries.

Creating Strong, Durable Parts With SyBridge

Press-fit inserts, heat-staked inserts, and Helicoil inserts offer everything from increased part durability to the possibility of a more streamlined manufacturing process. However, since each insert type is best suited to different project requirements, incorrect installation can damage plastic parts and end up increasing production times and costs. Given the importance of inserts to certain projects, and their associated challenges, it makes sense to work with an experienced manufacturer like SyBridge to ensure that you select the right insert for your needs. 

When you work with SyBridge, you won’t need to be a manufacturing expert to add inserts to your 3D-printed parts, or to navigate any aspect of production. Our team of experts will guide you through the manufacturing process, helping you refine your designs to ensure that your parts are optimized for quality and cost at every stage, and meet your expectations on completion. It’s easy to get your project started: simply create an account and upload your design, and we’ll generate an instant quote for your parts. Prior to generating a quote, you’ll be able to adjust part materials and manufacturing methods, and run automated design for manufacturing (DFM) checks to identify issues with your part. To learn more about post-processing inserts, or any of our manufacturing services, contact us today. 

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Prototyping is an essential part of the product development process, but it isn’t just limited to rapidly-produced proof of concept models. Prototyping also comes in handy throughout various phases of a project’s development, including engineering, quality assurance, focus testing, and marketing.

Prior to the introduction of 3D printing, the production, assembly, and presentation of functional prototypes was a long, expensive, and sometimes impossible process. Today, however, a range of 3D printing technologies has made those processes quicker and easier, with both the cost of part production and assembly times reduced significantly. Even with the benefits that 3D printing brings to the prototyping process, it’s still important to understand how it can be optimized during prototyping, so that your project comes together on time, even when you’re facing a critical deadline. 

3D Printing Prototyping Phases Explained

Product Conceptualization

The product conceptualization phase occurs early in the product development life cycle, and involves the relatively swift creation of a model that conveys a design idea. In this phase, speed is a top priority, which makes 3D printing the perfect technology to bring your designs to life.

During production conceptualization, a 3D printer can be used to quickly build one (or several) prototypes to help sell an idea to internal and external stakeholders, and to develop a sales model. These physical mockups will vary in cost depending on materials used and by production requirements. A prototype printed from polylactic acid (PLA), for example, will cost less than one made from ULTEM (PEI). Similarly, while a prototype printed with a taller layer height will be faster and less expensive to produce than one with a shorter layer height, it will look less polished.

Proof of Concept Demonstration

Proof of concept prototypes are essentially working models that demonstrate functionality and prove that your design will fulfill its intended purpose. 

A proof of concept prototype does not need to be produced with the same aesthetic standard as a finished product. During this phase, the emphasis should be on functionality; to save time and money, you may be able to use off-the-shelf components in your proof of concept model, or make the model with a slightly larger layer size than you would for a more advanced prototype. 

While it is possible to use fused deposition modeling (FDM) for proof of concept prototypes, it may be best to use an additive process that offers a little more accuracy, such as Carbon® Digital Light Synthesis™ (DLS) or HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF). For some prototyping projects, it may even make sense to look beyond additive and explore different manufacturing processes during the proof of concept phase. 

Industrial Design Implementation

The industrial design implementation phase is when you evaluate the ergonomics, aesthetics, usability, and scale of your prototype so that it will closely simulate your final product. 

During this phase, it’s important to use a similar material to your final product in order to better understand its overall ease of use, appearance, and ergonomics. For example, you might use FDM to create parts with the same thermoplastic materials that you would use in the injection molding process so that you don’t need to create an expensive and time-consuming mold but can still get a sense of the look and feel of your final product. Similarly, you might opt to use an HP MJF printer to 3D print a nylon part and coat it with nickel as a finishing process, instead of CNC machining an entirely metal prototype.

Functional Testing and Feedback

The functional testing and feedback phase is when you create functional prototypes to see if your product will actually work.

Functional prototypes generally require end-use durability and a higher-quality surface than parts produced in earlier prototyping phases, and can be sent out for stakeholder feedback in order to improve designs for your next iteration. A hybrid of proof of concept and industrial design prototypes, functional prototypes can be used to test everything from thermal performance and aerodynamics to mechanical performance and properties. Since stakeholder feedback often leads to additional design revisions, it’s best to create functional prototypes before investing in costly tooling in order to avoid mistakes and modifications that stretch your budget and project timeline. 

Pre-Manufacturing Research Modeling 

The pre-manufacturing research modeling phase refers to the creation of research prototypes that look and function like the finished product.

Creating research prototypes, enables critical stakeholders and early adopters to experience your product before the final version is released. Pre-manufacturing research prototypes will be more refined than functional prototypes, yet produced in lower volumes than final production runs. Feedback from stakeholders and early adopters during this phase could mean additional design changes.

Pre-manufacturing research prototypes also enable you to assess parts in the context of design for manufacturability (DFM) or assembly, and then optimize your design for high-volume production. Even the slightest change in product design can significantly impact costs, particularly when dealing with high volumes of parts.

The Advantages of Using 3D Printing for Prototyping

3D printing has plenty to offer when it comes to prototyping. Not only can you use 3D printed prototypes to better understand the form and function of your part, and to optimize your design accordingly, but you won’t break the bank creating them since there’s less need for expensive tooling than, for example, injection molding.

Speed is a notable advantage of prototyping via 3D printing. Instead of waiting weeks or months for a part (as you might with CNC machining or injection molding), a 3D printed prototype can be in your hands in days or even hours. The pace of 3D printing prototype production enables designers to swiftly move from iteration to iteration until a final design is perfected. 3D printers can also handle complex geometries: whether you’re creating a part with a hollow interior, holes, or moving elements, 3D printing is typically a reliable way to create functional, dimensionally-accurate prototypes.

3D printing technology also offers access to a wide range of industrial materials, from performance-grade thermoplastics to light-sensitive resins. That versatility can open up design possibilities for your prototypes: you could use 3D printing technology to create multi-material parts, for example, or use water-soluble support materials to achieve even more complex geometries. 

Tackling the Prototyping Phases of 3D Printing With SyBridge

While 3D printing offers clear benefits during the various phases of prototyping, it may not make sense for you to invest in a 3D printer yourself. 3D printing requires a significant investment in equipment and materials, and requires a level of additive manufacturing technical expertise that might be similarly costly to acquire. With those considerations in mind, it’s entirely possible to minimize the financial and technical challenges of 3D printing by working with a manufacturing partner. 

When you work with SyBridge, you’ll have access to cutting-edge 3D printing technology, an array of additive materials, and the skills you’ll need to deliver on your vision. Our team of expert designers and additive manufacturing engineers will guide you through the prototyping process, ensuring that you optimize your project for quality and cost during every phase. And getting your prototyping project started is easy: simply create an account and upload your design to get an instant quote.

Additionally, you’ll be able to explore different materials, run DFM checks, and store iterations of your prototype parts in the cloud. If you’re ready to get started but want to find out more about your 3D printing prototyping options, contact us today to speak with one of our experts to get the assistance you need to make your ideas a reality.

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Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, has become an increasingly popular manufacturing method across many industries, from the automotive industry to the medical industry. Over the last few years, there have been several advancements in 3D printing technology, allowing manufacturers to create increasingly complex and durable components that are on par with those made via CNC machining or injection molding.

Additive manufacturing has also had a significant impact on the food industry, which has strict requirements to ensure that the materials which come in contact with food are safe for people.

Is Additive Manufacturing Food-Safe?

3D printed parts can be food-safe and meet Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations, as long as specific steps and precautions are taken. To ensure your parts are safe for use with food, you’ll want to follow 3-A Sanitary Standards and review your part’s design, your materials, and the additive manufacturing process itself. To help you get started, follow these best practices when it comes to designing 3D printed food-safe products:

Eliminate Crevices and Voids

Make sure that any section of your part or product that can come into contact with food (product contact surfaces) is free of crevices and voids. These features are difficult to clean and can allow bacteria to thrive. If your part requires voids or crevices, ensure that those areas can be easily accessed for cleaning when your product is disassembled.

Round any Sharp Corners

Sharp corners are difficult to clean, and like crevices and voids, can potentially harbor bacteria. With this in mind, you should round any corners within your design, and instead incorporate fillets with large radii when possible.

Ensure Toughness

When you’re manufacturing food-safe products, make sure that your parts are robust enough for their applications. If they crack, corrode, or break down, bacteria can grow, putting users at risk. Additionally, if a part breaks, small pieces may contaminate the food, posing a danger to consumers and often requiring a recall of the product.

Smooth Surface Finishes

A part’s surface finish can be problematic, as rough surfaces have small pockets that enable bacteria to grow. However, creating food-safe 3D printed products with smooth, non-porous surfaces can be challenging, as 3D printers build parts layer by layer, resulting in microscopic crevices. To achieve surface smoothness, you can use:

• Mechanical finishing: Mechanical finishing techniques, such as sanding, bead blasting, and polishing, can help smooth a part’s surface while also improving clarity.
• Vapor smoothing: Compatible with certain plastics, vapor smoothing involves exposing 3D printed plastic parts to vaporized solvent. Your part’s external features and edges will melt and re-seal, creating a smoother, glossier surface without voids or crevices.
• Surface coatings: In situations where mechanical finishing isn’t a viable or cost-effective option, you might be able to use a food-safe coating, such as food-grade epoxy or polyurethane. Make sure your coating is compatible with any cleaning products and other chemicals your part will come into contact with to avoid pitting, delamination, and blistering.

The additive manufacturing process you choose also plays a role in the amount of post-processing you’ll need to do. Technologies like stereolithography (SLA), HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF), and Carbon® Digital Light Synthesis™ (DLS) produce parts with smoother surface finishes than fused deposition modeling (FDM), and typically require less post-processing. However, regardless of technology, even if a part is printed with food-safe materials, it might not be considered food-safe if the printer isn’t itself deemed food-safe. Something as small as an FDM printer’s nozzle containing lubricant can cause the resulting parts to be considered non-food-safe, so every detail counts.

How is Additive Manufacturing Used in the Food Industry?

Additive manufacturing, unlike injection molding, doesn’t involve machining expensive tooling to mold plastic parts. By eliminating the cost and lead time associated with machining injection mold tooling, companies can save a great deal of time and money when making parts and maintenance tools for their factories, such as spacers, grippers, and assembly tools. Additionally, additive manufacturing — particularly when combined with digital part storage and factories with cloud-based manufacturing capabilities — is an ideal process for producing spare parts, keeping equipment up and running and avoiding expensive, unplanned downtime.

What Materials are Used in Food-Safe Additive Manufacturing?

When creating products that will come into contact with food, choosing the right material is essential. You’ll want to choose a non-toxic, non-contaminating, corrosion-resistant base material, and you’ll need to make sure any added coatings or dyes are also food safe.

Specific food-grade plastics that are compatible with the additive manufacturing process include:

• Polyetheretherketone (PEEK): PEEK has high resistance to heat and dimensional stability, so it can be used in the microwave and dishwasher. It’s lightweight yet strong and can be manufactured with colorants, giving it plenty of design flexibility. PEEK can be found in coffee machine nozzles, mixing scrapers, blenders, kneaders, food packaging, and more.
• ULTEM 1010: ULTEM 1010 is a strong, high-performance thermoplastic compatible with the FDM 3D printing process. In addition to being mechanically suitable for many applications, it has been certified to NSF 51, meeting the FDA’s minimum public health and sanitation requirements for materials used in the construction of commercial food equipment.

What are Some Sterilizable Additive Materials That Meet Food Safety Standards?

Manufacturers often use sterilizable additive materials, as the last thing they want is for bacteria to grow unchecked within a product that comes into contact with food. However, it’s important to know that not all sterilizable materials are necessarily food-safe materials.

Creating Food-Safe Products With SyBridge

The introduction of additive manufacturing to the food industry has changed the game. Thanks to 3D printing, companies can create food-safe products from a wide variety of materials quickly, cost-effectively, and on demand. However, creating food-safe products via additive manufacturing isn’t as simple as selecting appropriate materials. You’ll also need to pay attention to your printer, your part’s design, and your part’s surface finish.

There’s a lot to remember when trying to meet regulations and create food-safe products, so using an experienced manufacturing partner can put your mind at ease and ensure your customers aren’t put at risk by unsafe products. When you work with SyBridge, our engineering team can help you choose an FDA-approved plastic that will meet your needs and ensure your design is ready for printing. You can also upload your part files to get an instant DFM analysis of your design, explore material options, and order your parts online — even using a purchase order (PO). Contact us to discuss the requirements for your next food-safe additive manufacturing project.

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Since its development in the mid-20th century, polycarbonate (PC) has been an increasingly popular material in manufacturing. Today, around 2.7 million tons of polycarbonates are produced each year globally. Over the years, various companies have created different formulas for polycarbonate, so there are several industry grades of polycarbonate to choose from. Some forms have more glass fiber reinforcement, while others have additives like ultraviolet stabilizers for protection against long-term sun exposure.

Strong and versatile, this amorphous thermoplastic is resistant to heat, impact, and many chemicals. As such, polycarbonate is ideal for components that need to be tough or repeatedly sterilized and is often used in the automotive and medical industries.

How Polycarbonate is Manufactured

Each company manufactures polycarbonates slightly differently, but polycarbonate materials have traditionally been created via the condensation polymerization of bisphenol A and carbonyl chloride. However, many companies have started to use diphenyl carbonate instead because carbonyl chloride is extremely toxic.

Regardless of whether carbonyl chloride or diphenyl carbonate is used, a bisphenol A solution in sodium hydroxide is required and then mixed with the carbonyl chloride or diphenyl carbonate solution in an organic solvent so polymerization can take place. When the polycarbonate forms, it will initially be in a liquid state. The solution will be evaporated to form granules, or ethanol will need to be introduced to precipitate the solid polymer.

Once created, polycarbonate is often sold in rods, cylinders, or sheets and can be used in various manufacturing processes. Polycarbonate is compatible with thermoforming, extrusion, and blow molding, but it’s most often used with injection molding. After all, as a thermoplastic, polycarbonate can be melted, cooled, and reheated without burning or significant degradation, making it an ideal injection molding material.

During injection molding, polycarbonate needs to be processed at a high temperature and injected into the mold with high pressure because polycarbonate is quite viscous. The melt temperature should be between 280°C and 320°C, and the mold temperature should fall between 80°C and 100°C. However, those numbers can vary depending on the grade of polycarbonate being used. For example, a high-heat polycarbonate will require a melt temperature between 310°C and 340°C and a mold temperature between 100°C and 150°C, whereas a PC-ABS (polycarbonate/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) blend’s melt temperature only needs to be between 240°C and 280°C and its mold temperature can fall as low as 70°C and up to 100°C.

Properties and Mechanical Specifications of Polycarbonate Material

While there are several grades of polycarbonates, each with their own molecular mass, structure, and properties, all polycarbonates have a few things in common.

For one, they are known for their toughness and high impact resistance. As a result, polycarbonate is often used for applications that require reliability and high performance.

Despite their toughness and strength, polycarbonates are light weight, allowing for extensive design possibilities and relatively easy installation when compared to other materials.

Polycarbonates are also very resistant to heat and flames. A polycarbonate can maintain its toughness in temperatures up to 140°C, which means polycarbonate parts can withstand repeated sterilization. Polycarbonates also have light transmittance rates above 90% and good chemical resistance against diluted acids, oils, greases, aliphatic hydrocarbons, and alcohols.

A polycarbonate’s properties depend on its molecular mass and structure, so each material is slightly different. To give you an idea of what you can expect, here are some typical key characteristics and specifications:

• Specific gravity: 1.21
• Melt temperature: 295 – 315°C
• Mold temperature: 70 – 95°C
• Heat deflection temperature: 137°C at 0.45 MPa
• Tensile strength: 61 MPa
• Flexural strength: 90 MPa
• Shrink rate: 0.5 – 0.7%
• Rockwell hardness: 118R

As you can see, polycarbonate manufacturing has plenty to offer. However, there are a few things you’ll want to be aware of before selecting this material for a project. For example, its mechanical properties can degrade after prolonged exposure to water over 60°C. Polycarbonate is also susceptible to scratching, more costly to manufacture than many other materials, and vulnerable to diluted alkalis and aromatic and halogenated hydrocarbons. Additionally, the polycarbonate formulations without UV stabilizers can sometimes yellow over time when exposed to UV rays.

Common Uses of Polycarbonates in Everyday Life

Polycarbonate’s toughness and high impact resistance make it a popular material choice for automotive industry manufacturers, particularly when it comes to parts that must be clear or translucent and are subject to frequent impact, such as headlight and turn signal lenses.

In the medical industry, polycarbonate can be found in everything from incubators to dialysis machine housings. After all, polycarbonate is tough, resistant to heat, dimensionally stable, and able to withstand sterilization via FDA-approved methods including autoclaves and irradiation. Polycarbonate can be used in blood filters, reservoirs, and oxygenators, as well as surgical instruments. Plus, given its transparency, polycarbonate enables doctors to more easily monitor blood and track the administration of fluids.

Polycarbonate is also a material of choice in many household appliances, such as mixers, hair dryers, refrigerators, and electric razors. Other common uses for polycarbonate include exterior lighting fixtures, machinery guards, protective gear, bullet-proof glass, fuse boxes, television housings, roofing, skylights, greenhouses, suitcases, eyeglasses, and beverage containers, such as baby bottles, sippy cups, and refillable water bottles.

Getting Started With Polycarbonate

Polycarbonate is a strong and impact-resistant thermoplastic that’s used across a variety of industries. However, there are several different kinds of polycarbonate on the market, each with its own characteristics. Working with an experienced manufacturing partner like SyBridge can make all the difference for product teams who are unfamiliar with polycarbonate or are looking to manufacture parts and products with materials that may be more suitable for a specific application. Want to see if polycarbonate is the right material for your next project? Create an account and upload your part files or contact us today to get started.

The post Know Your Materials: Polycarbonate (PC) appeared first on SyBridge Technologies.

Additive manufacturing involves more than just sending your design off to the printer. Because 3D-printed parts often have visible layer lines or rough surfaces, post-processing can be used to ensure your parts look and feel finished — especially if you’re creating an end-use product.

In addition to cleaning, fixing, curing, and coloring, smoothing and sanding are two popular additive post-processing options. Both can result in pieces that look and feel smoother, but they aren’t interchangeable. Each process is different and better suited for different situations.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Post-Processing Smoothing

Post-processing smoothing is ideal for cases where aesthetic appearance is a top priority, but it can also improve your part’s mechanical performance when creating a watertight part.

After cleaning off your part to remove any excess resin, you may need to smooth it to achieve your desired surface finish. There are several different smoothing processes that can be used, depending on the process and material you selected, as well as your desired surface finish. Two of the most common smoothing options that achieve the best results are bead blasting and vapor smoothing.

Bead Blasting

Bead blasting involves blasting glass or quartz beads at the surface of a part at high pressure. Propelling the beads at a surface cleans and polishes the surface to the desired finish. Fine glass beads leave a “dull” or “satin” smooth finish that’s a cross between a matte and high-gloss finish. Coarse glass beads yield uniform roughness and mask any imperfections.

Vapor Smoothing

Vapor smoothing, also known as chemical smoothing or chemical vapor smoothing, involves exposing your part to a vaporized solvent that reacts with the part’s outer layer. The vapor will liquefy and redistribute material on your part’s surface, melting away layer lines and sealing small cavities to create a smooth and glossy surface. 

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to control post-processing smoothing completely. It’s all too easy to melt or blast away small features when smoothing your part or to accidentally remove material unevenly, impacting your part’s dimensional accuracy. This means smoothing processes require close observation to achieve an optimal finish while reducing the risk of damage to small features. 

Benefits and Drawbacks of Post-Processing Sanding

Sanding is a post-processing option that removes more material than smoothing. Rough surface finishes are normal in areas where supports are used during the 3D printing process, and prominent layer lines are also relatively common when using fused deposition modeling (FDM). If you have nubs left behind from support structures and need a part that looks and feels smooth, sanding may be the right option to achieve your desired finish.

Much like smoothing, there’s a tradeoff between achieving a smoother surface and an accurate part, and sanding can sometimes remove material unevenly. This can impact your part’s dimensional accuracy. 

Manual post-process sanding is also a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. Parts need to first be sanded with low-grit sandpaper, such as 120 grit, before re-sanding with higher grit sandpaper, such as 240 grit, 800 grit, and even 2,000 grit to achieve a desirable finish. Leaving this step to the professionals may cost more money than attempting to sand parts yourself, but experts with the right tools and skillsets will reduce the risks of damage to your parts and will save you time, as well.

Why Choose Post-Processing in Additive Manufacturing?

Both smoothing and sanding take time, effort, and expertise to achieve quality results and can also be a costly endeavor, especially when done by hand.

While unfinished parts may be acceptable for prototyping and are cheaper and faster to produce, they aren’t usually suitable for end-use products. By engaging in smoothing, sanding, cleaning, curing, fixing, and coloring, you can refine your 3D printed parts, making them stronger (in the case of vapor smoothing FDM parts), smoother, more aesthetically pleasing, and even more functional.

Post-Processing Parts with SyBridge

Post-processing smoothing and sanding can significantly improve the look and feel of your part. However, each process has its drawbacks and the potential to create inconsistencies. To ensure your final part or product is as intended, consider partnering with an experienced manufacturer.

If you work with SyBridge, our team will partner with you to refine your design, print your product, and post-process it when necessary. You can also upload your part files to access design insights, view cost analyses, and get a quote instantly. Create an account today to get started and to begin leveraging the benefits of cloud manufacturing.

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