3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) today at RAPID + TCT 2017 announced new products, materials and capabilities to accelerate its leadership in plastic additive manufacturing.
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Among the company's announcements is the launch of the new ProJet®MJP 5600, offering print speeds up to two times faster, a larger build volume, and part costs that are up to 40 percent less than competing multi-material 3D printers.1 The ProJet MJP 5600 also features the new 3D Sprint(TM) 2.5 software, contributing to productivity by providing improved estimates of build time and material use.
The ProJet MJP 5600 features best-in-class jetting technology to deliver high-definition parts used for prototyping, functional testing and medical modeling. The system's multi-material capabilities enable customers to digitally blend rigid and elastomeric materials at the voxel level to achieve superior mechanical properties for a wide range of applications, including assemblies, rubber-like components, jigs and fixtures, and dies. Coupled with 3D Sprint software, the ProJet MJP 5600 also allows customers to assign different material blends to separate shells within a single part.
The company also announced VisiJet® CR-BK, a new rigid black plastic material for the ProJet MJP 5600 that opens new opportunities to produce parts with enhanced mechanical performance to meet the most demanding product designs and models.
With its 64-bit OS, larger 10-inch display and on-board capabilities to slice multiple builds simultaneously, the ProJet MJP 5600 delivers a superior user experience and faster job processing speed over the ProJet MJP 5500X, which it replaces.
The company plans to offer an upgrade program for current owners of the ProJet MJP 5500X to protect their investment and achieve the full functionality of the ProJet MJP 5600. The ProJet MJP 5600 is expected to be fully available in June, with the upgrade program planned for July.
"Today's announcement extends our leadership position in 3D multi-material plastics printing by delivering solutions that enable customers to produce better parts faster at a much lower cost," said Jim Ruder, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Plastics at 3D Systems.
New SLA Materials Expand Market Opportunities
The company also announced the immediate availability of two new Stereolithography (SLA) materials:
"Our innovation relies on the ability to produce and test high performance wind tunnel models in large volumes," said Patrick Warner, Manager of Additive Manufacturing, Renault Sport Formula One Team. "Accura HPC gives us reliable results in aerodynamic tests, and the high production speeds possible with the material allow us to go through hundreds of parts a week to advance the performance of our car."
New 3D Sprint 2.5 Delivers Breakthrough Productivity
To deliver dramatic productivity gains, improved part quality and cost savings to its users, 3D Systems announced 3D Sprint 2.5 software. Along with the ProJet MJP 5600, the new release supports the company's current line of SLA as well as MJP and CJP printers.2
3D Sprint for SLA printers saves users time and money, while delivering superior part quality. The Smart Support technology of 3D Sprint 2.5 produces highly efficient SLA supports for easier removal, improved surface finish and material savings. Further productivity and part quality gains result from major improvements to the software's slicing algorithms. A more intuitive interface results in a total solution that enables streamlined and cost-effective operations, delivering overall lower total cost per print.
Early customer feedback for 3D Sprint 2.5 cites time savings of more than 75 percent in support generation and print slicing, compared to other part preparation software.
"3D Sprint is a significant improvement to the existing software," said Brad Philip, Senior Design Engineer, Amcor Rigid Plastic. "In some cases it is 60 times faster when slicing the build, as well as being much more intuitive when it comes to build creation and manipulation."
The company plans to make 3D Sprint 2.5 available this week, with licenses available to current SLA, MJP, and CJP customers at no charge. Licenses for 3D Sprint 2.5 will be bundled with each supported new printer, with additional licenses available for purchase.
Geomagic Freeform 2017 Hybrid Design Software
3D Systems also announced Geomagic® Freeform® 2017, the industry's most comprehensive, 3D hybrid design software aimed at helping customers solve complex design and manufacturing challenges in a single platform.
One area where Geomagic Freeform excels is in design for mass customization of parts, typically for production through additive manufacturing. While design for personalized solutions can be tedious, Geomagic Freeform 2017 includes production workflows to speed repeated processes for personalized variations of a design. New features include the ability to create 3D text labels or new design components that exactly fit or offset the surface of an existing model, which is useful when designing parts that must mold fit to another object. Production workflows will see efficiency and usability gains from this new release. Geomagic Freeform 2017 is expected to be available beginning in June.
3D Systems is showing the ProJet MJP 5600, new SLA materials, 3D Sprint 2.5, Geomagic Freeform 2017 and its entire range of end-to-end manufacturing solutions for aerospace, automotive, healthcare, dental, durable goods and entertainment at the RAPID + TCT 2017 trade show in Pittsburgh, PA, May 9-11, booth 2525. Visitors to the show can also see 3D Systems' disruptive new Figure 4 production platform for scalable, fully-integrated additive manufacturing.
More information on these solutions can be found at www.3dsystems.com.
Forward-Looking StatementsCertain 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 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.
1. Compared to Stratasys' Objet350 Connex3(TM) and Objet500 Connex3(TM)2. 3D Sprint now supports all current SLA printers (ProJet 6000, ProJet 7000, ProX 800, ProX 950) and virtual support for SLA iPro 8000 and iPro 9000.
