German speciality chemicals and engineering plastics producer Evonik (Essen; www.evonik.com) has opened a new technology centre for 3D printing in the US. Its new “Center for Structured Polymers Technology” based in Austin, Texas, will play a key role within Evonik’s global innovation network in the development of new, ready-to-use materials for powder bed fusion.

The new centre comprises an application technology laboratory with 3D printers and a processing area, an R&D lab, production rooms, meeting rooms and office areas. New 3D printing materials will be manufactured using a technology developed by Structured Polymers (Austin, Texas; www.structuredpolymers.com), which was acquired by Evonik in January 2019 (see Plasteurope.com of 24.01.2019). The Structured Polymers technology converts polymer resin to a fine powder through various steps, making it possible to produce polymer powders with controlled particle sizes ranging between 0.1- 400 microns in diameter.

Thomas Große-Puppendahl, head of the Additive Manufacturing innovation growth field at Evonik, said the Structured Polymers technology allows “virtually any semi-crystalline thermoplastic, such as polybutylene terephthalate, polyether ketone, polyamide 6 or polymer powders with specialised properties like colour, conductivity or flame protection to be produced for common powder-based 3D printing processes such as selective laser sintering, high-speed sintering or multi-jet fusion.” Evonik anticipates the Structured Polymers technology can be scaled up easily and economically.

In late 2019, following the acquisition of Structured Polymers, Evonik introduced its first ready-to-use powder materials, in this case two TPEs based on copolyesters for powder-based 3D printing technologies. The materials exhibit high elasticity and flexibility combined with good resilience and remains tough and flexible after the printing process without compromising surface quality. Evonik also formed a partnership last year with US start-up NXT Factory (Ventura, California; www.nxtfactory.com) to process the German company’s materials on NXT Factory’s “QLS 350” 3D technology platform (see Plasteurope.com of 19.11.2019).