Fortify has announced the launch of two new 3D printing systems and a new software platform to enable more end-use applications.
The company introduced the Flux One printer last year and has now added the Flux Core and Flux 3D to the portfolio, with funds from its latest equity round set to facilitate the scale up of its manufacturing operations.
Powered by the patented Continuous Kinetic Mixing technology that blends resin and additives to achieve consistent material properties, each of Fortify’s 3D printing systems is capable of processing heavily filled photopolymers while maintaining homogeneity. The Flux One system is suitable for the printing of robust mould tooling, jigs and fixtures, thanks to its Fluxprint Z magnetic field in the Z axis, which helps the system to overcome the challenges of Z-axis anisotropy in 3D printing. Meanwhile, the new Flux 3D system leans on another configuration of Fortify’s Fluxprint magnetic alignment technology called Fluxprint 3D. Fluxprint 3D is a 3-axis magnetic field, which is said to provide users with ‘unprecedented levels of control’ to align fibre in any axis throughout parts as they are printed. Applications for the Flux 3D include heat sinks, heat exchangers and high-performance industrial connectors. Flux Core is described as the company’s baseline 3D printer and is said to be ideal for processing viscous particle filled resins where magnetic alignment is not required. Applications include RF devices and electronic applications.
“The novel technologies built into the Flux One printer can be leveraged for a variety of use cases,” commented Fortify CEO Josh Martin. “While there is room for growth in the tools and fixtures market, an area that Fortify is currently providing value in with our reinforced materials, there is an order of magnitude greater market potential for end use part applications. By providing versions of our FLUX printers tailored for specific use cases, we are giving users the power to go after these markets.”
Supplementing this suite of hardware is the new Flux Developer software which has been designed to enable users to access all processing parameters and ‘push the limits’ of material properties. Users of Foritfy’s 3D printing technology can now control variables like exposure time and intensity, material flow, resin temperature, resin viscosity and build plate mechanics. This, Fortify says, will help users to develop, optimise and onboard new materials. Currently, the company has made available half a dozen materials designed for mechanical and electrical performance, but has added the Flux Developer software to its offering in order to help users accelerate their application development.
“With growing excitement around our capability to process filled photopolymers, we are seeing demand from customers who want to explore materials beyond our current offerings,” added Fortify’s VP of Business Development Ben Arnold. “Flux Developer is the toolkit they need to test and optimise new materials for their targeted applications.”
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