ALTANA & dp polar unveil engineering-grade Cubic Ink jetting materials
The companies are introducing three Cubic Ink material families for multi-material jetting AM: High Performance, Prototyping and Support
Specialty chemicals group ALTANA and German 3D printer manufacturer dp polar have unveiled three new 3D printing material families under the Cubic Ink brand at Formnext 2021. The three families, designed for multi-material printing, are High Performance, Prototyping and Support Material. There are seven new materials in total across the three families.
The new materials are designed for continuous multi-material jetting, an AM process seen in dp polar 3D printers. In fact, dp polar machines are “expressly designed” to work with Cubic Ink materials. Uniquely, these machines utilize a static printhead and a rotating print bed, offering a large build volume and continuous printing. The latest of these machines, the AMpolar i1, is also on show at this year’s Formnext exhibition.
Three families, seven materials
The most significant of the new Cubic Ink material families is High Performance, of which there are two individual materials. ALTANA and dp polar say the engineering-grade materials offer unprecedented heat resistance for jetting inks. Customers can choose between the 1-series or 4-series High Performance inks. The 1-series provides heat resistance up to 193 °C and is ideal for hot-liquid applications. Meanwhile the 4-series has a heat deflection temperature of 100 °C and an elongation at break of up to 6%.
The second Cubic Ink material family is Prototyping. There are three individual materials in this category: Tough/Rigid, Flexible and Clear, and these prove a range of prototyping possibilities. Tough/Rigid offers good dimensional stability, Flexible provides variable degrees of hardness and adjustable elasticity, while Clear offers high transparency and a variable refractive index.
Support Materials make up the third Cubic Ink material family and comprise Standard and Fast-Dissolving materials. Both types of Support Material are water-soluble and environmentally friendly. Additionally, neither requires a chemical solvent.
Partnership now in fifth year
ALTANA acquired a stake in dp polar in 2017 and has since worked with the company to develop jetting inks. ALTANA also recently acquired metal powder company TLS Technik GmbH & Co Spezialpulver KG of Germany and Aluminium Materials Technologies of the UK, expanding its material portfolio in the process.
“With Cubic Ink we are setting new standards in additive manufacturing and, for the first time, opening up to industrial users an efficient and sustainable perspective for the series production of highly resilient components,” says Dr. Petra Severit, Chief Technology Officer of ALTANA. “As a result, customers benefit directly from our core competence and decades of experience in the development of innovative resilient high-performance materials.”
