I had a discussion with Axtra3D and learned about a couple of new materials from the company.
Axtra3D produces 3D printers that use their proprietary HPS resin 3D printing process. HPS is a combination of SLA and DLP processes, which provides high-quality surfaces at high print speeds.
The company already has certified a number of materials and appears to be growing rapidly. However, there are two new materials that seem to be opening up new application areas for the North Carolina-based company.
One material is Silicone. Their TrueSil-X50 not only results in 100% pure silicone parts but also is biocompatible.
Axtra3D did not develop this material themselves but instead obtained it from Spectroplast, a Swiss company. Spectroplast has been around for quite a while and developed a method of using a special additive to “any” regular silicone to make it printable. In theory, their technology allows any silicone material to be used in their 3D printers.
Spectroplast has designed its own 3D printer, but as far as I can tell, they operate as a service, providing silicone 3D printing to the world.
Apparently, Axtra3D negotiated an exclusive arrangement with Spectroplast to use a variant of their TrueSil XL series resin, TrueSil-X50.
The ability to print in pure silicone — and biocompatible at that — will be of great interest to many operations and should boost Axtra3D’s sales as they now have a new market to pursue.
The other material of interest is Axtra3D’s mold-making materials, including their Ultracur3D RG3280. That resin is a highly rigid ceramic-filled resin. Prints made with this material are extremely stiff, resistant to high temperatures, and high resolution, making it ideal for producing injection molds.
Axtra3D has found many of their customers making use of these materials to produce “micro molds”, which dramatically shrink the workflow. Rather than taking weeks to design, manufacture, and begin injecting, their customers are able to get injection-molded parts in only a couple of days: design, print, and inject.
We’re told these 3D-printed molds are able to take between 1000-2000 injection mold shots, which is quite a bit more than typical 3D-printed molds. Apparently, one customer produces 8000-10000 parts per month using this method.
Axtra3D’s strategy here is to unlock applications through the use of new materials. By combining their ability to quickly print high-resolution parts with these materials, they have a combination that is compatible with new applications.
But there’s one more thing that seems to be attracting customers to Axtra3D: reliability. We were told that at one point, they went 107 days without a single service call from any customer. That’s quite impressive.
But they eventually did get a call from someone having problems, and it turned out that the customer had mistakenly attempted to print on a plate that hadn’t been cleared for the next job.
You can make a great machine, but you can’t control what customers do with them.
Via Axtra3D