As HP envisaged a programme akin to the Apple App Store to accelerate the development of 3D printing materials for its Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) system, one which would transform manufacturing, it required a group of ambitious chemical experts to make it a reality.
One of the partners enjoying the freedom of HP’s Open Applications and Materials Lab is Evonik. The company was officially founded in 2007, a spin-out of the RAG Foundation, a mining and technology group that underwent a restructuring. Including its operation prior to the transition ten years ago, Evonik has been developing plastic powders for additive manufacturing for nearly 20 years.
It leaves the company standing as a leader in the sector, and one who ‘has been making preparations for the hype beyond the hype.’ It has moved as the 3D printing industry has, further developing its material products for the manufacture of prototypes, and also series production. The company believes it is operating in one of the most important spaces in additive manufacturing: if AM is to become as competitive as the industry hopes, and a cost-effective solution for manufacturers, then the standards and reproducibility of properties will be paramount.
Evonik is committed to the cause. It has declared the AM sector a core strategic growth area and is set to expand its capacities with a new production line to increase the annual capacity for its special VESTOSINT brand of powder by 50%.
“Materials, which enable tailored functionality for sustainable solutions – and which are suitable for mass production – are a promising growth driver for our business,” explains Sylvia Monsheimer, head of the ‘new 3D printing technologies’ market segment at Evonik. “The demand for technical substances, which require the highest level of performance and are therefore resource efficient, is very high. This is immediately evident when we look at the market for our innovative synthetic materials for 3D printing.”
Evonik’s first material to result from the HP Open Applications and Materials Lab falls in line with HP’s Materials Roadmap: a customised, high reusability PA12 suited to the MJF system. The company’s High Performance Polymers Business Line oversaw the development of the PA12, amid an expected surge in the development of AM technologies in the large-scale production of 3D printed parts. Evonik expects the automotive and aircraft industries in particular to benefit from the output of the Open Applications and Materials Lab, and so intends to launch special powder materials for HP’s MJF platform.
“Evonik is developing new materials leveraging the HP Multi Jet Fusion Open Materials Platform,” said Dr Matthias Kottenkahn, head of Evonik’s Performance Polymers Business Line. “Evonik believes HP’s Open Materials program provides a unique opportunity to expand the adoption of 3D printing and creates a new platform to drive materials innovation through development of materials specifically suited for this process. HP’s new MJF technology has the capabilities to create new applications for the 3D printing market by allowing us to develop new materials for the future.”
Speaking to TCT earlier this summer, Global Head of 3D Materials and Advanced Applications, HP, Tim Weber stressed a need for an influx of workable materials for additive manufacturing, in the way that more traditional manufacturing methods do. It’s also why HP sought out the likes of Evonik. “There’s no way we have the resources to do that,” Weber said. “Materials companies have been doing that for years and years on their own, and we got to the point where we want to have an open materials platform, [and] let materials companies do what they’ve done for years and years, which is tailor materials for their specific applications.”
The materials strategy of HP is key to its ambition to make its mark on the $12trn manufacturing market, while Evonik recognises the importance of the productivity and affordability of the 3D printing machinery. It’s why the two companies came to partner, and why, with the assistance of the other material developers, both are confident of making an impact in the additive hype beyond the hype.
