Sabic at Formnext

Sabic featured its newest filaments for fused deposition modelling, including a tough filament


Sabic, a global leader in the chemical industry, has reaffirmed, through a multi-faceted exhibition at Formnext 2018, its determination to further the evolution of additive manufacturing technology and promote application innovation.

By leveraging its unique, high-performance resin technologies and process capabilities to develop differentiated material solutions for various additive manufacturing processes, Sabic is creating significant value for customers and the industry as a whole.

Among its exhibit highlights, Sabic featured its newest filaments for fused deposition modelling, including a tough filament made from its high impact EXL resin.

Addressing industry needs for greater choice, Sabic also demonstrated the use of its filaments in open architecture printers from a range of equipment manufacturers.

Another focus area at the show was large format additive manufacturing (LFAM): Sabic highlighted various tooling applications, as well as parts printed from its LNP Thermocomp AM portfolio of speciality compounds. The company also highlighted recent breakthroughs in the use of its amorphous resins with standard selective laser sintering (SLS) equipment to provide a range of sinterable materials that extends beyond currently available semi-crystalline powders.

"Today, additive manufacturing delivers unique value to customers through its ability to produce personalised, complex parts without the need for traditional production tooling," said Keith Cox, senior business manager, Additive Manufacturing, Sabic. "Expanding additive manufacturing beyond its current capabilities requires advancements in material technologies.

Sabic is contributing to this effort by developing differentiated products, innovating to increase production efficiency and supporting design optimisation with robust material performance data. Through our proactive engagement across the value chain, we are helping the industry realise the full potential of additive manufacturing."

Differentiated resin capabilities, a broad portfolio and deep expertise empower Sabic to offer material solutions such as high heat Ultem resins, specialty copolymers and reinforced compounds to customers throughout the additive manufacturing value chain. Additionally, Sabic is able to provide materials in printable form when this brings value to the industry.

For example, at Formnext, Sabic is highlighting its award-winning EXL AMHI240F filament, a high impact material now available in white, as well as black. Its formulation, which includes a proprietary composition coupled with optimised colourant technology, provides up to four times the impact strength of standard polycarbonate (PC) and a more ductile failure mode in printed parts, as confirmed by Sabic’s material performance validation partner, RP+M.

Sabic showed several printed parts that demonstrate the versatility of EXL AMHI240F filament.

Sabic is involved in the research and development of new materials to help address the evolving needs of the industry. Featured at the stand are several developmental solutions that can provide improved performance versus options currently available in the market today.

Sabic’s FST filament offers ease of processing along with low smoke and toxicity properties, and is capable of meeting OSU 55/55 requirements for aerospace applications. A second concept material featured at the stand was Extem filament for potential applications requiring higher-temperature performance than Ultem filament.

Sabic is also developing an advanced breakaway support material to complement its aerospace grade Ultem AM9085F filament. The new support filament offers faster removal of the scaffold structure from parts with complex geometries, and can help reduce the cost of post-processing operations.

Also on display were several parts printed with Sabic’s high-performance filaments