Picture Colm Mahady / Fennells – Copyright© Fennell Photography 2018.
In a bid to accelerate the industrial usage of 3D printing, the German chemical and consumer goods company Henkel announced that it will be offering tailor-made materials and equipment know-how for 3D printing solutions to its customers.
Henkel, through its Adhesive Technologies business unit is supplying its customers a host of high-performance materials that include light cure acrylic, silicone, epoxy, and polyurethane adhesives. The business unit of Henkel is responsible for developing custom products and services to a variety of industry segments. Based on its expertise, it has now developed novel materials which are customised for various 3D printing processes and technologies.
Speaking about Henkel’s aim of accelerating the use of additive manufacturing for industrial usage, Philipp Loosen, Head of 3D Printing at Henkel Adhesive Technologies, said in the official statement, “We believe that the full potential of additive manufacturing will come by identifying the right customer application and focusing the right materials, with the right printing process and leveraging the right software.”
“We have therefore partnered with strong technology leaders such as Carbon and HP, which already have developed exciting technologies for 3D Printing solutions. These collaborations enable us to leverage our broad materials know-how and customer access to develop new solutions for the industrial manufacturing,” Loosen added.
Also Read: NanoDiamond-enhanced Filaments for 3D Printing lead to 100% Increase in Tensile Strength
To drive adoption of the technology beyond prototyping to final parts production Henkel has already built strategic partnerships with leaders in additive manufacturing such as Carbon3D and HP.
For instance, Henkel, along with Carbon has been working on developing specialised dispensing equipment for polymerization-based 3D Printing technologies. In fact, the two companies have already developed a meter mix and dispense device (MMD) – a resin dispensing system and accessory to Carbon’s SpeedCell manufacturing system.
Carbon’s SpeedCell manufacturing system is Carbon’s system of connected manufacturing unit operations consisting of its M Series printers and automated Smart Part Washer that allows repeatable production of end-use parts at any scale. It also allows proper dispensing of materials especially in bulk quantities.
In addition with Carbon, Henkel is also working in HP’s open materials community with an aim to develop materials for HP’s powder fusion based Multi-Jet Fusion Technology and has also become the global reseller of HP’s Jet Fusion 3D printing solutions.
The introduction of new materials has only strengthened Henkel’s already existing additive manufacturing ecosystem and the company’s growing portfolio of services and equipment that the company offers such as curing, impregnation and surface treatment in post-processing.
