Swedish speciality chemicals company Perstorp (Perstorp; www.perstorp.com) and 3D4Makers (Haarlem / The Netherlands; www.3d4makers.com) have formed a joint venture called ElogioAM to advance their “Facilan” range of high-performance 3D printing filaments. The companies announced late last year that they had developed the fifth-generation filaments to enable applications previously not possible with existing 3D printing materials – see Plasteurope.com of 22.11.2017.

The partners said ElogioAM will enable the “true deployment” of 3D printing – or additive manufacturing – in the medical, fashion, orthotics, advanced prototyping and modelling segments, among others. Based in Haarlem, ElogioAM is currently awaiting approval from authorities before being officially incorporated.

Marie Grönborg, Perstorp’s executive vice president innovation, said the venture is “the next step in unlocking potentials for unmet needs in high quality filaments for additive manufacturing.” The co-founder of 3D4Makers, Jan-Peter Wille, added, “Better tolerance materials and higher performance parts is what really will put 3D printing on the factory floor and in the most cutting-edge applications.”

Facilan filaments have been designed to outperform rival materials. For instance, Facilan C8 3D-printed parts, which are based on compostable raw materials, are said to have higher impact and tensile strength than ABS filaments. The parts are also soft to touch and are claimed to be smoother than those made with PLA or ABS.

Perstorp said further work is continuing with orthotics and insoles researchers to develop new 3D printing solutions. In addition, researchers are using Facilan PCL 100, a pure polycaprolactone filament, in artificial muscles, drug-loaded implants, scaffolds and smart materials.