POLYMER manufacturer, igus, is launching a new food safe SLS printing material for 3D printers to assist manufacturers of machines and systems to develop parts more quickly and reduce reliance on classic manufacturing technologies like turning and milling.
As a result more designers want to make use of the blue printing material. The food-safe laser sintering material iglidur i6 is approved by the FDA and EU 10/2011 and is now available in blue and thus also ensures the required optical detectability in applications in the food and beverage industry.
Thanks to the highly visible colour blue, the powdery iglidur i6-BLUE is easy to detect which in turn increases machine hygiene. If a 3D-printed component breaks, blue fragments in the product can be recognized by detectors and the eye. The only problem with the blue printing materials, that are both robust and food-safe, are still scarce on the market for the selective laser sintering (SLS) manufacturing process.
Machine hygiene
The new material is also FDA and EU 10/2011- compliant, thus increasing the safety of machines and systems in the food and beverage industry. The iglidur i6-BLUE is in no way inferior to the proven iglidur i6 in terms of strength and good gliding properties and is particularly suitable for the 3D printing of worm wheels, gear wheels and snap connections.
“In order to meet the high demand, we have now developed iglidur i6-BLUE, a blue-colored printing powder which is compatible with all common SLS printers” says Ian Hewat managing director for igus. The material is resistant to temperatures between -40°C and +80°C. “Tests conducted inside our laboratory have also shown 3D-printed gears made of iglidur i6-BLUE have a much longer service life than wheels made of polyoxymethylene (POM) and are at least 9 times more abrasion-resistant than PA12 (SLS)”, says Ian.
Due to the high elongation at break, the SLS printing material is also suitable for the additive manufacturing of snap connections. Microscopically small solid lubricants are integrated into the SLS printing material, which are automatically released during movement and enable low-friction dry running. Lubricants, which attract dust and dirt and, in the worst case, become a risk of contamination, are therefore superfluous.
Printing service
Machine builders who do not have their own 3D printer can use the 3D printing service from igus -without a minimum order quantity. All that is required is to submit a 3D model of a component. The SLS printer then produces it in layers from the new iglidur i6-BLUE printing material – much faster than is possible with classic production technologies such as turning or milling.
“For special components, prototypes and series of up to 10 000 pieces, we can reduce the delivery time from several weeks to five days, which is an offer that more and more customers are gratefully accepting in view of supply chains that are faltering worldwide.”
igus South Africa, Ian Hewat, managing director, Tel: (011) 312 1848, Fax: (011) 312 1594, Email: ihewat@igus.net, Web: www.igus.co.za
