Desktop Metal Expands Partnership with Henkel

Desktop Metal is expanding its partnership with Henkel on photopolymer material development, beginning with the qualification of Henkel’s Loctite 3D IND405 Black and Loctite 3D 3843 for use on the Xtreme 8K, a large DLP printer for high-volume production of end-use parts.

Popular engineering materials in the 3D printing industry, Loctite 3D IND405 Black and Loctite 3D 3843 are stiff and durable—made for a range of end-use manufacturing parts and consumer goods. Parts produced in IND405 have impact resistance and can be machined, tapped and polished.

Loctite 3D IND405 and 3843 are already offered in the ETEC Envision One desktop DLP printer, along with high-temperature photopolymers (Loctite 3955 HDT 280 FST, IND 147, and IND 406), elastomers (Loctite 475 and IND 402), and Loctite Med 413, a biocompatible plastic ideal for medical devices and equipment, according to the companies.

Now, customers will be able to print Loctite 3D IND405 and 3843 on the Xtreme 8K, which features a build area of 450x371x399 mm (17.72x14.61x15.71 in). This new combination of a popular material on a large printing platform will enable users to deliver new sizes and throughput of parts without tooling.

“Our team is delighted to partner with Henkel and offer their Loctite materials on our truly differentiated DLP printing systems,” says Ric Fulop, founder and CEO, Desktop Metal. “By printing Loctite 3D IND405 HDT50 High Elongation and Loctite 3D 3843 HDT60 High Toughness on the ETEC Xtreme 8K, manufacturers will be able to produce on-demand end-use parts in all-new sizes and at higher throughputs that help drive down the per-part cost.”

“A while back, I saw the Xtreme 8K before its release and knew it would excite the industrial additive space with the large build volume. I am pleased with our teams' work to bring Loctite resins to the platform with initial workflow validations," adds Sam Bail, head of Business Development Management and Partnerships for Loctite 3D Printing at Henkel.

The ETEC Xtreme 8K, which is used today to manufacture end-use parts for consumer goods, is a commercially available top-down DLP printer, with two overhead industrial video projectors. The approach allows extremely heavy parts to be 3D printed on a tray in a vat with thicker viscosity materials. This simplifies throughput workflows, as parts do not require mechanical removal from the build plate.

This approach allows the light or energy from the projector to directly penetrate the photopolymer, eliminating the barrier of a tray that exists in bottom-up DLP printing. This allows processing of different types of materials, which can deliver new properties.

In addition to Loctite IND405 and 3843, the Xtreme 8K prints a new category of durable, resilient DuraChain photopolymers that deliver two-part material strength in a single pot, such as FreeFoam, Elastic ToughRubber and Soft ToughRubber. DuraChain materials are available exclusively on ETEC printers.

To learn more about the ETEC Xtreme 8K, Loctite 3D IND405, and Loctite IND 3843 and other available materials, click here. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.