10 Reasons Why Multi-Material 3D Printing is Better for Your Product Design & Development

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

Product design is a lot like cooking. Good cooks can forage in the fridge, pick something and then combine flavors into a great dinner. Good designers know how to take the materials at hand and combine them to create unique solutions and exceptional designs. So imagine if you had a wide choice of materials to combine when you prototyped a design. Wouldn't that be cool?

Cool is what the white paper at the other side of today's Check it Out link is really all about. “10 Reasons Why Multi-Material 3D Printing is Better for Your Product Design & Development,” written by Stratasys, is loaded with details that can help you cook up better designs.

The secret sauce here is Objet Connex 3D printing technology. It has two key ingredients: mechanics and materials. The paper goes into the granular details of the actual additive manufacturing mechanics. For now, just know that the mechanics offer dual ink-jetting technology. The printing materials are based on proprietary acrylic-based photopolymer resins rather than ink. You can print two materials simultaneously, and parts emerge exhibiting smooth, glossy surfaces and fine details. Complex post-processing is unnecessary.

The materials are fascinating and, like the mechanics, you'll find deeper details in the paper. What serves for now is that Objet Connex 3D technology lets you mix different materials in a single 3D print run. The materials can be colored, rigid, flexible, transparent and opaque. You can even combine materials to create new composites that have different attributes than the original materials. This means your prototypes can have mechanical properties, appearance and material combinations close to your intended production part. This can mean cool design features like over-molding or a part that combines both ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) and rubber-like materials.

Objet Connex 3D printing technology can handle more than 120 materials, including transparent ones. Image courtesy of Stratasys.

OK, fine. But the question is how and why would you use Objet Connex 3D printing technology in your product design and development? “10 Reasons Why Multi-Material 3D Printing is Better for Your Product Design & Development” goes into that. But I'll give you two it doesn't: imagination and innovation.

See, 3D rapid prototyping has always been about letting your imagination come into the physical world by freeing you to innovate on designs that could not be done traditionally. Objet Connex 3D printing technology seems to kick that attribute up a few notches, and “10 Reasons Why Multi-Material 3D Printing is Better for Your Product Design & Development” is a darn good argument that it does. Hit today's Check it Out link and see for yourself.

Thanks, Pal. – Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood

Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering