Enabling successful solutions with additive manufacturing materials

This increased spending indicates how the competitive landscape within additive manufacturing continues to intensify and demand from customers continues to grow. Here, Zehavit Reisin, Vice President of the Rapid Prototyping Unit at Stratasys, explores how material developments are key to meeting specific industry challenges and integral to supporting the growth of additive manufacturing. 

As well as innovative hardware, advanced software and strong strategic partnerships, the area of material development is crucial to the adoption of additive manufacturing. In the past, vendors focused their efforts on rapid prototyping, the initial mainstay of this technology. The demands here were simple, often only requiring verification and testing. But in recent years, as the demands for realism, fit, functionality and colour grew, so did the application potential. Now, users are harnessing the technology for the manufacture of complex and tough production tools, factory floor production aids, and even robust, final end-use parts. In many ways, additive manufacturing materials are the enablers to this, allowing us to solve the pain points of designers, engineers and manufacturers with specific solutions. 

Read the full article in the August issue of DPA