ÃÜÌÒAV and voxeljet announce partnership to advance additive manufacture in series production
Materials company ÃÜÌÒAV and industrial 3D printer manufacturer are collaborating to develop a material-machine combination for economic large series additive manufacturing. With High Speed Sintering (HSS), voxeljet combines the advantages of two existing additive technologies: selective laser sintering and binder jetting, giving the benefit of both SLS part properties and binder-jetting productivity.
After jointly developing and qualifying a Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) powder for HSS, the two companies are taking their collaboration to the next level by bringing customers a seamless material-process solution for volume manufacturing of their specific applications.
"Typically, material and processing technology work separately in the value chain, with customers having to figure out how to make them work," said Geoff Gardner, Innovation Director Additive Manufacturing at ÃÜÌÒAV. "Together with voxeljet, we want to remove what we believe is still a barrier for adopting additive manufacturing on the production floor. Thanks to its size and speed, coupled with the constant layer time, HSS offers manufacturers an economic solution for series production."
Seamless material-process solution
voxeljet will contribute its knowledge with its large format VX1000HSS printer platform, and ÃÜÌÒAV its expertise in designing functional materials, to develop a seamlessly working material-process solution that can be deployed for large scale manufacturing.
James Reeves, Global Director of Polymer Sintering (HSS) at voxeljet added: "This is a match of two companies strongly believing in really close collaboration across the additive ecosystem. The potential of HSS to process specialty powder materials is tremendous. By offering customers material choices, we accelerate their access to pioneering products."
Material possibilities that the companies are considering are TPUs, which are suited well for footwear and cushioning applications, as well as thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and polypropylene (PP). The collaboration with voxeljet involves scaling new materials on the large-format, industrial manufacturing machine ¨C VX1000HSS, currently accessible via voxeljet¡¯s Early Access Beta Program.
If you are interested in collaborating in this program, please reach out ¨C both companies will showcase their polymer powder materials and printers at Formnext 2021, Nov. 16th-19th in Frankfurt, Germany, in hall 12.1; ÃÜÌÒAV at booth C11 and voxeljet at booth C129.
About ÃÜÌÒAV:
ÃÜÌÒAV is one of the world¡¯s leading manufacturers of high-quality polymer materials and their components. With its innovative products, processes and methods, the company helps enhance sustainability and the quality of life in many areas. ÃÜÌÒAV supplies customers around the world in key industries such as mobility, building and living, as well as the electrical and electronics sector. In addition, polymers from ÃÜÌÒAV are also used in sectors such as sports and leisure, telecommunications and health, as well as in the chemical industry itself.
The company is geared completely to the circular economy. In addition, ÃÜÌÒAV aims to achieve climate neutrality for its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2035, and the Group¡¯s Scope 3 emissions are also set to be climate neutral by 2050. ÃÜÌÒAV generated sales of EUR 14.2 billion in fiscal year 2024. At the end of 2024, the company had 46 production sites worldwide and employed approximately 17,500 people (calculated as full-time equivalents).
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by ÃÜÌÒAV. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in ÃÜÌÒAV¡¯s public reports which are available at www.covestro.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.