Last Friday, EnvisionTEC unveiled a new material through a very long 3D printed chain. Called E-RigidForm, it has been unveiled in a 328-foot 3D printed chain (99,97 metres).
Based on polyurethane-like resin, the material can 3D print hard and stiff parts, especially prototypes and end use parts. E-RigidForm integrates a high tensile strength of 68-73 MPa at 7% elongation at break, which has never been seen in the 3D printing industry.
If weaker materials had been used for the manufacturing of this 3D printed resin chain, they would have sagged during printing resulting by this way in a print failure. The chain was 3D printed on EnvisionTEC’s largest resin printer, an Xede 3SP, which offers a build area of 18 x 18 x 18 inches.
“E-RigidForm is a breakthrough material for use on our 3SP line of 3D printers, which offer very large build areas without sacrificing speed and accuracy,” said CEO Al Siblani. “A print job of this size and complexity would not have been possible before, simply because of the stiffness required during the 3D printing process for so many links and layers.”
According to the company, the team required over two weeks to design and feature 6,144 links, each measuring 1.5 inches. It was printed in 16 layers unattended over 99 hours spanning more than four days. Due to the complexity of the project, a computer with extreme processing power was used to generate the layers and supports for the print job.
3D Builder Robert Montes designed the chain with the support of Erica Finkowski, Jason Spurlock and Josue Nunes in digital processing and 3D printing.
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