Additive manufacturing allows us to make parts and the tooling necessary to make them, but production materials like metal powders are at the core of the process.

In the video above we examine emerging materials for additive manufacturing with Andrew Graves, equipment partnership manager at Somos Materials by DSM.

“One of the materials we’re using a lot now in the tooling industry is called Somos PerFORM,” Graves explained. “It’s a very highly filled material and very stiff. We’re pushing the applications for limited run tooling in engineering polymers like ABS and glass-filled nylon.”

The Somos PerFORM material has a high heat deflection temperature (HDT) of up to 500° F, but does not conduct heat as well metal. This means the material has longer cycle times and needs to cool down between shots.

Somos is also releasing new materials for part production in the automotive industry, as well as aerospace. Somos Taurus is a high temperature, general purpose material.

“High temperature stereolithography materials have been around for a long time, but they are very brittle, with an elongation of break of around two to three percent,” Graves explained. “After post-curing, these materials go through a thermal post-cure to raise their HDT. The HDT of Somos Taurus after thermal curing goes up to 203° F (95 C), but still has toughness and an elongation of break of around 15 percent, so it’s very useable in real life applications.”

Investment casting is particularly important to the aerospace industry and is used in a wide variety of applications. The challenge is the requirement for a material to hold a form to create the cast, before burning it out with a molten metal filling.

“Somos Element is an antimony-free investment casting resin. When you use exotic metals like Inconel when casting, you can’t have antimony anywhere in the mold. It also has a very low viscosity, so for very thin turbine blades, it drains very easily and you get a very lightweight pattern. Slurries take around the pattern as in traditional wax casting and the stereolithography part is burnt out. You can cast parts with any castable metal.”

For more information, visit the Somos Materials website.