TheState of Resin 3D Printingseries continues with insights from Jason Rolland, SVP, Materials at碳. Rolland was an early hire for the California-based digital manufacturing company and now has over eight years of experience of leadership in the materials division.
With a Ph.D. in Chemistry, Rolland has been instrumental in advancing the materials palette available for industrial 3D printing with Carbon systems. Headline-grabbing advances such as the adidas Futurecraft 4D and 4DFWD are made possible with Digital Light Synthesis. Elsewhere Carbon is active in sectors including dental, life sciences and automotive – but as Rolland says, “we have only scratched the surface of what our platform is capable of.”
3DPI: How have you seen resin-based 3D printing develop in recent years?
Jason Rolland:There have been advances in what we call “single-cure” resin technology with companies like Adaptive3D, Henkel, BASF, and others pushing the boundaries with new chemistries and improved properties. Even looking back over the last 10 years, UV chemistries have evolved from essentially various shades of the same rigid, brittle materials to a wider scope of properties including rigid, tough resins, and elastomers. The dental space, in particular, has seen some exciting new products including splint products from Keystone and new denture base resins from Dentsply and others. Carbon has engaged with several of these companies to offer these materials on our platform.
双固化树脂技术也有很大的进步。碳继续推进我们的双固定平台，在那里我们将紫外线反应性化学和热反应性化学结合在一起。请注意，这与印刷后的泛滥部分的常见做法大不相同。在这种情况下，您只是将相同的紫外线反应推向更大程度的转换。对于碳的双固化树脂，印刷后的烘烤步骤中会发生完全正交的反应。这使我们能够访问否则无法使用的化学物质。我们继续发布惊人的生产级树脂，使我们的客户能够创建新的零件。去年，我们推出了第二代聚氨酯弹性体，该弹性弹使Adidas的4DFWD产品线。这将3D打印纳入了性能运行类别，这非常令人兴奋。我们还看到了很多增长，我们的吸收能量的弹性体用于诸如带有CCM和其他令人兴奋的产品的曲棍球头盔等产品。 In the rigid space, we recently launched our first flame retardant product, EPX 86FR. This dual-cure resin has an impressive combination of thermal stability and functional toughness while achieving a V0 flame rating. It’s an exciting time for us at Carbon but we have only scratched the surface of what our platform is capable of!
It’s also very interesting to see the progress being made with highly filled materials. Companies like Tethon, Lithoz, and Formlabs are all releasing interesting products in this space. Applications range from ceramic printing to printed crowns in the dental space.
Finally, there are some exciting new players in the medical space with 4DBiomaterials doing interesting new work in the space of bioabsorbable resins and Spectroplast developing new printers and materials capable of generating silicone parts with properties very similar to those made with traditional manufacturing methods.
3DPI:What do you consider the next technology hurdles for photopolymer-based 3D printing to overcome?
Jason Rolland:By far, the biggest challenge developers of photopolymer resins face is the comparison to classically-used injection molded thermoplastics. Many of these products, like glass-filled nylon, are decades old and have been reliably used across a range of industries. Even when you are able to match many of the key properties, it can be difficult to get industries to adopt entirely new materials. This is a challenge for the industry as a whole. That said, if combinations of high-performance materials and new geometries (that can’t be molded) offer improved product performance for the customer, it makes it much easier to take the leap. For example, when Carbon customers combine our world-class elastomer materials with our new lattice generation software tool, Design Engine, they can make amazingly high-performance parts that can outperform foam products.
随着对基于光聚合物的树脂的越来越多的生产机会，成本对于大规模采用的成本变得越来越重要。许多光聚合物组件起源于涂料和墨水喷气工业，它们的价格相应，通常比注射成型中使用的大量热塑性塑料价格昂贵。大量零件的生产有助于降低原材料成本，但是公司通常会谈判“鸡肉和鸡蛋”情况，在这种情况下，必须将部分量锁定在降低材料成本之前。同样，解决方案是创建对最终用户的价值足够高的产品，以使各方面都愿意借此机会使用新技术，以创造可能的最佳产品。
最后，随着行业获得更广泛的采用，可持续性仍然是一个越来越重要的话题。公司需要全面地研究其产品的各个方面 - 从能源使用（包括打印机和原材料生产），有害的废物处理，溶剂用法，包装废物，运输以及使用后的回收印刷零件的能力。
3DPI: What applications of vat photopolymerization do you see as under-developed by the market, and why?
Jason Rolland:在短期内，我认为在弹性体晶格市场中仍有许多应用程序来取代高端泡沫。弹性晶格比泡沫具有相当大的优势，在热管理，抗冲击力，舒适性和可调性方面。它们还用于面向消费者的产品中，客户将为增加性能而付费。
Electrical connectors are another area of great promise for the industry. Connectors require very precise dimensional accuracy, smooth surface finishes, and very demanding material properties. It is also possible to design geometries that can’t be molded that have performance advantages. Furthermore, the connector industry is seeing a large uptick with the increased volumes of electric and autonomous vehicles. All of this seems to be pointing towards a perfect opportunity for additive manufacturing to meet the growing demands of the connector market. Carbon has shown that our dual cure epoxy materials can meet the strict demands of some categories of connectors and we are also working on new products to open up this space even further. The automotive industry is appropriately conservative when applying new technologies to production but again the combination of improved performance with new designs is helping to drive adoption.
3DPI: Where are opportunities for materials development in regards to vat photopolymerization technology?
Jason Rolland:我相信有大量opportunity remaining in the medical sector as well. The dental industry has readily embraced additive manufacturing along with other niche areas like hearing aids and orthotics, but there is much to be done to realize the full potential here. The great thing about medical applications is it’s a perfect area to apply the mass customization advantages inherent to additive manufacturing. For example, printing a custom-shaped stent for a specific artery blockage seems far preferred over picking the nearest fit from a range of predetermined sizes. Additionally, medical devices command high margins so the industry will pay for products with distinct performance advantages that benefit patients. I think the missing pieces here are materials and the regulatory landscape. Medical-grade photopolymers that can survive multiple sterilization processes, in some cases after hundreds of cycles, are needed to truly adopt the technology. Bioabsorbable materials with a range of mechanical properties are also needed. There are massive opportunities for implantable materials that meet both the regulatory and product requirements of this sector.
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Featured image shows concept art of Adidas’ STRUNG 3D printed trainer. Image via Adidas.
