Sustainable 3D Printed Sunglasses Launch with Zero Waste
Indian Cements and Tvasta to Collaborate on 3D Printed Housing
NASCAR and Toyota Select Stratasys to 3D Print Race Car Parts
Metals Market Data: Q4 & Annual 2021
Polymers Market Data: Q4 & Annual 2021
Market for Bound Metal Additive Manufacturing 2022
Market for Bound Metal Additive Manufacturing 2022
The Market for Additive Manufactured Polymer Automotive Parts: Europe and North America Regions
DED and Large-Format Additive Manufacturing Markets: 2021-2030
3D Printed Metals: A Patent Landscape Analysis 2019
3d Printed Polymers: A Patent Landscape Analysis – 2016
3d-printed Metals: A Patent Landscape Analysis – 2016
Metal Parts Produced 2021: Additive Manufacturing Applications Market Analysis
Additive Manufacturing with Metal Powders 2020
Copper Additive Manufacturing 2020–Market Database and Outlook
Surface Finish Study by Fraunhofer IAPT
Additive Monitoring Study by Fraunhofer IAPT
Additive Fatigue Study by Fraunhofer IAPT
A curated collection of industry and product deep-dives.
Videos, podcasts, product reviews and free downloadable resources.
Powerful search with product databases and business directories.
Dig Deeper, Search Our Message Board 3dprintboard.com
Lead Materials and Processing Engineer
Feature Your Job Posting Here
Sustainable 3D Printed Sunglasses Launch with Zero Waste
Indian Cements and Tvasta to Collaborate on 3D Printed Housing
NASCAR and Toyota Select Stratasys to 3D Print Race Car Parts
Sustainable 3D Printed Sunglasses Launch with Zero Waste
Indian Cements and Tvasta to Collaborate on 3D Printed Housing
NASCAR and Toyota Select Stratasys to 3D Print Race Car Parts
Printing with flexible filament can open up countless possibilities and opportunities for creative and functional manufacturing. Harnessing these capabilities does not come without effort.
However, MakeShaper, a filament manufacturer in Sanford, North Carolina, has cracked the code for a premium, FDA-compliant, flexible filament that is also easy to use.
“We were approached by a business experiencing problems implementing flexible 3D printing into their product development environment that was also FDA-compliant for a wearable device,” said Erica Edwards, the company’s sales manager. “They had specific needs and were not able to meet product expectations. They were experienced with FDM manufacturing and were already set up with their printers of choice. However, they were unsatisfied with the results they were achieving while testing the current offering of flexible filaments.”
Flexible filament has proven to be a tricky material for many. It is prone to issues related to feeding the filament through the printer. Even printer designs that overcome feed issues can oftentimes produce stringy, unusable prints depending on the specific properties of the filament in use.
The MakeShaper team got to work to develop a solution that could meet the needs of the client, focused around a newly formulated TPU flexible filament. Up until that point, MakeShaper was best known for being the only manufacturer to offer alternative cartridges for Cube2, CubePro and CubeX printers, along with their line of premium ABS and PLA filaments.
MakeShaper is a subsidiary of Static Control Components, the largest supplier and manufacturer for the 2D printing aftermarket industry. This connection gives the MakeShaper team a deep history of working within a market to develop timely solutions as well as access to Static Control’s expansive research and development facilities. MakeShaper engineers were eager to create a new, premium flexible filament.
“We assessed the situation and the market as a whole,” said Edwards. “We fine-tuned the material properties of our filament formulation and in the process, also upgraded the capabilities of the printers being used.”
“After it passed our quality standards, we knew we had something that should be shared with others who have struggled with flexible printing,” she said. “We want to bring what we have developed to a wider audience and are releasing TPU 85A flexible filaments.”
MakeShaper’s flexible filament offers some unique qualities unseen in other offerings. The filament is FDA-compliant for direct food contact, along with having Pantone-matched color selections. The colorants are UV-stable and colorfast, meaning the color will not fade from the end product over time.
The Shore Hardness of the filament is 85A – roughly the flexibility of shoe soles. The rubbery filament exhibits a slight sheen, meets exacting standards for consistent diameter/ovality and builds prints that are true to design.
Edwards also noted that the holistic approach to engineering a solution led to them developing a printer adaptor to help select printers to better utilize flexible filaments.
“We noticed that some printer manufacturers do not recommend using flexible filament because of the material buckling when the filament is pushed through a hot extruder,” said Edwards. “The adaptor modifies the filament feed mechanism and allows printers to easily use flexible filaments with no problems.”
After the adaptor was prototyped, MakeShaper reached out to numerous 3D printer manufacturers to discuss the opportunities an adaptor could provide. With the positive response, a wave of solutions will be released soon for multiple printers.
“This adaptor makes it easier to work with flexible filament and also works with the more common harder plastic filaments, such as ABS and PLA,” said Stephen Daniels, an engineer with MakeShaper. “Before the adaptor, threading flexible filament was like trying to push a rope up a hill in a pipe with no kinks. Not an easy task!”
The adaptor for Fusion F306 printers is currently available and adaptors for MakerBot Replicator/Replicator 2, Zortrax M200, Ultimaker 2+ and Cube2 will be released soon.
And as for the business that sparked the move into flexible filament?
“Ultimately, the business was able to use our flexible filament and get the quality builds they had initially expected,” said a pleased Edwards.
Flexible filament is available on 220g, 650g and 1kg spools in black and natural. Other colors will be released throughout the summer. Larger spools up to 30kg are available by special order.
“We are always open to working with a client to provide market solutions,” Edwards noted. “If you are seeking a filament manufacturing partner or just need some great filament – contact MakeShaper.”
Discuss your thoughts on this new material over in the MakeShaper Flexible 3D Printing Filament forum at 3DPB.com.
Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and recieve information and offers from thrid party vendors.
Sustainable 3D Printed Sunglasses Launch with Zero Waste
Indian Cements and Tvasta to Collaborate on 3D Printed Housing
As additive manufacturing (AM) has matured, the technology is now primed for widespread adoption in the automotive sector. Already multiple vehicle manufacturers, including Volkswagen and Ford, have announced plans to...
COBOD, the Danish additive construction (AC) firm, is known not only for its consistency and precision, but equally so for the innovative projects that its technology allows its customers to...
Jabil (NYSE: JBL) has long been in the 3D printing space. In fact, it’s probably been in additive manufacturing (AM) longer than many of us even know. That’s because, as...
Perhaps more than any other segment within the broader 3D printing industry these days, additive construction (AC) falls victim to too much hype. There are obvious reasons for this. For...
Upload your 3D Models and get them printed quickly and efficiently.
Xometry Professional 3D Printing Service Where Big Ideas Are Built
Networking & Intelligence Summit, February 7-9, 2023
3D Printing jobs around the world.
Subscribe to Our Email Newsletter
© 2016 - 2022 3DR HOLDINGS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Register to view and download proprietary industry data from SmarTech and 3DPrint.com Questions? Contact [email protected]