3D Systems unveils a new production-grade acrylate resin for its SLA 3D printing technology. Named Accura® AMX™ Rigid Black, the tough material would producelarge-scale additively manufactured parts that can withstand the rigors of long-term mechanical use.
The announcement follows the release of Accura Composite PIV, a material that has been co-developed with Alpine F1 Team for Industrial SLA 3D printing.
The development of 3D Systems’ new material has been inspired in part by the advanced production application requirements of TOYOTA Gazoo Racing (TGR). TGR and 3D Systems have been working together since 2019 to enhance automotive design and production. Their shared vision for a CNC fixture that would be larger than the build size of the Figure 4 printers, played a key role in this development.
Designed to enable long-lasting mechanical performance and stability in any environment, the Accura® AMX™ Rigid Black has been tested for up to eight years of indoor and one and a half years of outdoor mechanical performance, enabling significantly improved part performance and stability.
“Accura AMX Rigid Black allows us to deliver larger, complex SLA production parts, including full-scale manufacturing aids,” said Alexander Liebold, group leader, production engineering & future technologies, TGR. “We recently used the material to develop 3D printed fixtures for stabilizing larger automotive components for CNC milling. Using Accura AMX Rigid Black we achieved 90% time savings and 60% cost savings in comparison to the previous handwork process for a batch of 40 parts. Unlike other additive production technologies, parts in Accura AMX Rigid Black provide very smooth sidewalls and superior isotropic strength, critical for accurate jigs and fixtures that are in constant use. Now we can turn around any large-scale part and be confident it will perform as required, for as long as we need. This is a real game-changer for production manufacturing.”
3D Systems said in a press communication that the superior surface quality it delivers, rivals that of injection-molded parts and exhibits similar stress/strain toughness performance of standard thermoplastics. Additionally, Accura AMX Rigid Black’s high isotropic properties enable greater part repeatability and accuracy.
Accura® AMX™ Rigid Black completes a range of 3D Systems additive manufacturing solution – that comprises the company’s SLA 3D printing technology, 3D Sprint®, and application engineering services. It would enable production applications across industries such as automotive & motorsports, and consumer goods. In the consumer goods industry, OEMs that are interested in injection molding or soft tooling processes, could use this material for manufacturing aids and jigs and fixtures. Service bureaus could produce large, structural load-bearing functional prototypes and end-use production parts. Other production parts include custom load-bearing parts such as levers, arms, couplings, cranks, jigs, and fixtures.
“We’re excited to bring this game-changing material to market,” said Dr. Edwin Hortelano, senior vice president, materials engineering & development, 3D Systems. “As part of our strategy to invest in and continue to add innovative products to our SLA material portfolio, the introduction of Accura AMX Rigid Black is poised to address a variety of new production applications with additive manufacturing. For example, we are seeing a larger percentage of work that service bureaus are undertaking is focused on the manufacture of end-use parts. Accura AMX Rigid Black in combination with our SLA 3D printing technology will allow service bureaus to more efficiently, and cost-effectively meet their customers’ needs – helping to fuel the growth of their businesses and their customers’ innovation. This is just the first of many planned breakthrough additions to 3D Systems’ portfolio of production-grade industrial SLA resins.”
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