Stratasys has announced that it is advancing its manufacturing strategy with a new open tier of third-party materials for FDM® 3D printers via an annual Open Material License. The company is already providing open material availability on Neo stereolithography 3D printers, as well as the recently announced Stratasys Origin® One and Stratasys H350™ 3D printers. By extending this materials ecosystem approach to FDM technology, Stratasys will enable manufacturing customers to address new applications with demanding requirements while also having dual sources for materials.
Stratasys has been rapidly expanding its materials ecosystem this year across P3™, SAF™, and stereolithography 3D printing systems, giving customers a range of material offerings. For example, in September, the company introduced an Open Material License for the P3-based Origin One along with two new materials from Loctite by Henkel. Stratasys is now bringing accelerated material innovation to the most popular and reliable FDM systems in the industry.
“Innovative materials are the fuel powering additive manufacturing,” said Hugo da Silva, Vice President Additive Manufacturing at Covestro, a leading supplier of premium polymers. “That means we need more variety in materials to address as many manufacturing applications as possible. At the same time, we want to ensure customers have the utmost confidence in the performance of those materials. Stratasys’ new program is an important milestone for our industry, and we look forward to being a significant FDM filament provider.”
Manufacturing Senior Vice President Dick Anderson said this new material ecosystem reflects the increasingly central role of additive manufacturing for Stratasys customers. “Our customers urgently need the benefits of additive manufacturing at scale in their organizations – addressing sustainability, cost competitiveness, agility, and customization requirements,” he said. “Our three-tiered material ecosystem will help bring material innovation to our customers faster so we can continue to ensure the most trusted and reliable additive manufacturing platform is a substantial and essential part of the global manufacturing economy.”
The Stratasys Material Ecosystem includes:
- Stratasys Preferred: Preferred by Stratasys for its customers for the highest performance applications. These materials are engineered to provide the best combination of material and printer performance and are developed either by Stratasys or third-party material partners.
- Stratasys Validated: Materials validated by Stratasys with basic reliability testing to accelerate the expansion of material options available in the marketplace.
- Open: Unvalidated materials accessed via an Open Material License (OML). These materials may offer unique attributes and the potential to address new applications but they have not received validation testing or optimization relative to performance and functionality on a Stratasys printer.
Stratasys-Validated materials are expected to be available to customers of FDM 3D printers during the second half of 2022, starting with the Fortus 450mc.
Stratasys now provides a progressively managed open-material ecosystem for the industry’s most comprehensive polymer additive technologies, delivering the broadest range of optimized and validated materials. Through GrabCAD Print™ software, customers will now have access to system print parameters to refine material capabilities as needed, optimizing part performance. All Stratasys Preferred materials and Validated materials for Stratasys systems are available for purchase through Stratasys and reseller partner channels.
Stratasys is leading the global shift to additive manufacturing with innovative 3D printing solutions for industries such as aerospace, automotive, consumer products and healthcare. Through smart and connected 3D printers, polymer materials, a software ecosystem, and parts on demand, Stratasys solutions deliver competitive advantages at every stage in the product value chain. The world’s leading organizations turn to Stratasys to transform product design, bring agility to manufacturing and supply chains, and improve patient care.
