Video: In Additive Manufacturing, Material Engineering Is Also Needed for Supports
The sacrificial material affects the quality of 3D printing and the efficiency of the process. That's why material developers direct attention toward the material that gets thrown away.
When we think of material engineering in additive manufacturing (AM), we think of the material of the final part. However, another important area of material engineering relates to the support material that gets sacrificed after the build. Here I discuss that point as it relates to Sabic's new support material for use with Ultem 9085.
The video was filmed at the recent Formnext show. It's one of several short videos Additive Manufacturing filmed at the show. Here are a few others:
- 3D-printed milling cutter
- FDM machine for parallel production
- Self-contained system for safe metal AM
- SLS and temperature-controlled polymer printing
Transcript:
Pete: It’s Pete Zelinski with Additive Manufacturing at Formnext in Frankfurt. I think of materials engineering and you think of the functionality of the final part, but engineering goes into the support material, as well. So, this support material for Sabic’s 9085 Ultem materials. The key to engineering support materials is just the right compromise between adhesion to the part, separation of the part, engineering ductility for easy separation, easy breaking away, the chance to manually, cleanly remove support material from this part saves on hand finishing. One of the early users of this material is reporting savings of 20 minutes per part because of easy separation of the supports, meaning no hand finishing, no use of tools, no working the part to try to get it clean.
