Huntsman will officially introduce its range of IROPRINT™ additive manufacturing resins, powders and filaments to the global plastics market at K 2019 this week. During K, visitors to Huntsman’s stand will be able to watch IROPRINT 3D printing materials in action – with an IROPRINT™ F filament product printed at the booth, on an Ultimaker S5 machine. There will also be a number of 3D printed items for visitors to see and touch, demonstrating the elasticity of IROPRINT™ additive manufacturing materials, which are soft and flexible, yet tough and strong.
Huntsman’s IROPRINT™ additive manufacturing platform contains three different kinds of urethane-based materials:
- IROPRINT™ F filaments are a range of high performance TPU materials, with a consistent diameter, designed for use with fused filament fabrication (FFF) and other extrusion-based printing methods
- IROPRINT™ R resins are soft, durable, one-component liquid resin systems for 3D printed via stereolithography (SLA), digital light processing (DLP) and other radiation-curing methods
- IROPRINT™ P powders are high performance, thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), powder-based materials for high speed sintering (HSS) and selective laser sintering (SLS) forms of printing.
The IROPRINT™ material that will be printed at the show is IROPRINT™ F 80213 filament – a soft thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) with a shore hardness of A85. Typically, soft TPU filaments are not easy to print, but IROPRINT™ F 80213 is different – delivering less friction in filament guiding tubes. Unique in the range of IROPRINT™ additives, IROPRINT™ F 80213 filament is a polyether-based TPU, which makes it hydrolysis resistant. Crucially, it is one of the softest and the only polyether-based TPU material qualified to work with the Ultimaker S5 – an easy-to-use desktop 3D printer.
Bart van As, Product Manager Materials at Ultimaker, said: “We see a great deal of customer interest in flexible materials. I am very happy to see that Huntsman’s new TPU filament prints so well on Ultimaker printers. It is a great addition to the Ultimaker Marketplace and opens up many new applications for our customers.”
Commenting, Stephane Peysson, Global Business Development Manager, at Huntsman, said: “Since unveiling our IROPRINT™ additive manufacturing platform at the K preview in July, we’ve been busy dealing with enquiries from companies that are interested in using the materials. This includes printer companies that want to know more about what the range has to offer – as well as product designers in the footwear industry and beyond. We have some really exciting projects in the pipeline and are looking forward to having further interesting discussions at K with key decision makers from the materials world.”
Huntsman’s IROPRINT™ additive manufacturing materials were designed with the needs of the footwear industry in mind. However, many other applications exist for this innovative platform of products, which delivers soft, flexible and durable properties. Additional application examples include objects that need to possess rubber-like characteristics such as seals and gaskets, consumer wearables, grips, flexible ducts, grommets, bushings and vibration dampening components.
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