3D Systems Helps Customers Ease Path to Production, Speed Time to First Part with Advanced Figure 4 Materials Testing

3D Systems (NYSE: DDD) announced it has completed comprehensive testing for its newest Figure 4^® materials against both ASTM and ISO standards. Materials are at the core of 3D Systems’ digital manufacturing solutions, and in late 2019, the company introduced a host of production-grade materials for its Figure 4 Platform – opening the door to new applications. With the release of its advanced Figure 4 material test data, the company continues to build on its “customer-first” approach to innovation and is the first in the industry to provide this level of transparency - saving customers time, reducing cost, and speeding their time to first part.

“Until this point, materials testing data provided by the industry has been incomplete for production applications and of little value to engineers accustomed to data that accompanies injection molded plastics,” said Marty Johnson, technical fellow, 3D Systems. “If an engineer is going to use any material for true production applications, they need a comprehensive set of data which meets industry standards in order to evaluate its efficacy. 3D Systems recognizes how these standards help improve product quality, enhance safety, facilitate market access and trade, and build consumer confidence. Testing to both ASTM and ISO standards allows us to address a broad set of manufacturers worldwide and usher in the use of additive for true production.”

Arming manufacturers with a complete data set to properly screen a material’s appropriateness for their application enables them to immediately proceed to longer term application testing such as life testing of parts/components or higher biocompatibility ratings. As an example, electrical life testing can take anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 hours (approximately three – 12 months) to complete including time on the testing equipment, operator time, and time to market. Before a company makes such a significant investment, they want to have assurance that the selected material is appropriate for the application. Having the knowledge of a material’s dielectric properties per industry standards beforehand saves engineers needing to conduct several rounds of testing – at approximately two weeks per material - to find a candidate to pass initial dielectric properties before going into long term life testing.

3D Systems has completed testing for its newest Figure 4 materials designed for production applications: Figure 4 PRO-BLK 10, Figure 4 EGGSHELL-AMB 10, Figure 4 HI TEMP 300-AMB, Figure 4 FLEX-BLK 20, Figure 4 RUBBER-BLK 10, Figure 4 TOUGH-BLK 20, Figure 4 MED-AMB 10, and Figure 4 MED-WHT 10. The company has tested against an extensive set of properties which includes: long-term environmental stability, electrical data, UL94 flammability, biocompatibility, ISO mechanical properties, isotropic mechanical property tolerances, and compatibility with automotive fluids and chemical reagents. Test data for all materials will be made available March 23 on both the company’s website, as well as in its booth (D8) at AMUG 2020 (Chicago, March 22-26).

These materials have unique and compelling properties that represent significant improvements in first-time print yield, heat deflection, UV stability, durability, flexibility and impact strength, while also enabling new biocompatible and direct digital production workflows. These breakthrough materials complement the company’s entire portfolio, which when combined with 3D Systems’ 3D printing technology, software and services enabled its customers to create nearly 200 million production parts in 2019 alone.

3D Systems’ Marty Johnson will address the importance of comprehensive materials test data along with Patrick Dunne, vice president, advanced applications development, in a 2020 AMUG Conference (Chicago) session titled “The Industrialization of AM: High Speed Direct Production with Advanced Polymers” on Wednesday, March 25 at 1:30PM. Other presentations from 3D Systems’ experts include:

• “Software as an Enabler for Optimized Manufacturing Workflows” - Radhika Krishnan, executive vice president, software, healthcare & digitization, March 23 at 3:00PM
• David Lindemann, applications engineer, will host two sessions addressing 3DXpert^® on Tuesday, March 24 - “Lattice Structures: Bridging the Gap between Cool Geometry and Physical Structures” and “Optimizing Serial Production with AM Software”
• “AM Production of Large Scale, High Precision Investment Casting Patterns for Metal Parts”, Evan Kuester, applications engineer, March 26

Additionally, Romain Dubreil, product line manager, metal AM, GF Machining Solutions will deliver a session on March 26 detailing the metal AM workflow made possible through a combination of 3D Systems’ and GF Machining Solutions’ products. 3D Systems will also showcase application-specific digital manufacturing solutions for the Aerospace and Automotive industries alongside GF Machining Solutions in booth D8. For more information, please visit the company’s website.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements made in this release that are not statements of historical or current facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from historical results or from any future results or projections expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In many cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as "believes" "belief" "expects" "may" "will" "estimates" "intends" "anticipates" or "plans" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are based upon management’s beliefs, assumptions, and current expectations and may include comments as to the company’s beliefs and expectations as to future events and trends affecting its business and are necessarily subject to uncertainties, many of which are outside the control of the company. The factors described under the headings "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Risk Factors" in the company’s periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as other factors, could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected or predicted in forward-looking statements. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not, and should not be relied upon as a guarantee of future performance or results, nor will they necessarily prove to be accurate indications of the times at which such performance or results will be achieved. The forward-looking statements included are made only as of the date of the statement. 3D Systems undertakes no obligation to update or review any forward-looking statements made by management or on its behalf, whether as a result of future developments, subsequent events or circumstances or otherwise. 

About 3D Systems

More than 30 years ago, 3D Systems brought the innovation of 3D printing to the manufacturing industry. Today, as the leading digital manufacturing solutions company, it empowers manufacturers to create products and business models never before possible through transformed workflows. This is achieved with the Company’s best-of-breed digital manufacturing ecosystem - comprised of plastic and metal 3D printers, print materials, on-demand manufacturing services and a portfolio of end-to-end manufacturing software. Each solution is powered by the expertise of the company’s application engineers who collaborate with customers to transform manufacturing environments. 3D Systems’ solutions address a variety of advanced applications for prototyping through production in markets such as aerospace, automotive, medical, dental and consumer goods. More information on the company is available at www.3dsystems.com.