3D Printing/Rapid Prototyping & ManufacturingThere’s a common misconception that SL materials lose their physical properties and become brittle and break over time. That may have been true for the first generations of materials, but not for the new generation of SL resins from Somos®. Somos® R&D invests considerable time and money to develop the best SL materials available today.
| Somos® Stands the Test of Time |
| Somos® is paving the way in Stereolithography (SL) for end-use applications. Until recently, long term stability of SL materials was relatively unknown. At Somos®, we have begun testing selected products and monitoring property change over time.
“Understanding and being able to predict the aging characteristics of various materials opens the door for moving into real end-use applications,” says Kevin Zaras, Application Development Manager.
We just passed the one year mark for testing on Somos® NeXt and Somos® WaterShed XC 11122. The great news is that we saw no major changes in physical properties, which compared as well as competing technologies such as FDM and LS. We will continue adding to this data with other products and other test conditions such as UV and Environmental aging. |
Characterizing the long term stability of these materials is becoming critical in qualifying them for production environments. Somos® NeXt Aging Data Materials that can go the distance The results of Somos® NeXt are in Somos® compared general physical properties of Somos® NeXt with a LS PA and a FDM ABS over the course of one year. Even after one year, Somos® NeXt was comparable to FDM and LS with little overall change in tensile properties. Now, engineers considering 3D printing their production parts can think outside the box and use Somos® NeXt and stereolithography’s fine feature detail, high accuracy and smooth surface quality for their applications. Perfect for noncritical components like harnesses, spacers, jigs and fixtures, Somos® NeXt takes SL to the next level.
