High quality materials in liquid additive manufacturing

Well suited for use in automotive and microelectronic applications, these light-curing epoxy resins have been optimized specifically for industrial 3D printing applications. Tailor-made liquid materials can be made available, based on a broad product portfolio and desired properties, including flexibility, transparency, or conductivity.

The functional high-performance materials share a similar chemical basis, and therefore exhibit good adhesion and perfect combinability, making them ideal for material mix. Hard and flexible materials, for example, can be used in one printing process by installing several dispensing heads in a printer, then applying the respective liquid materials according to defined parameters. Depending on the dispensing equipment, structures with wall thicknesses of less than 500 µm are possible using the DELO material. For complex structures with overhangs or undercuts, users can rely on a water-soluble support material.

Since the functional materials are dispensed at room temperature, no heating of the material or installation space is required. Using UV light allows curing until final strength to take place within a few seconds. This simplifies the process and helps to save energy.

Different dispensing heads and curing lamps can be integrated into existing production lines. This allows the printing process to be combined with other manufacturing processes.

The properties of the cured DELO materials are comparable to those of high-performance plastics, like polyamide or PEEK, as indicated by the materials' high temperature and media resistances. In addition, the materials show isotropic strengths in all printing directions.