Collaboration to develop innovative 3D printing technology

3D print­ing solu­tions man­u­fac­tur­er BCN3D Tech­nolo­gies and glob­al leader in adhe­sives, sealants and func­tion­al coat­ings Henkel Adhe­sive Tech­nolo­gies today announced a col­lab­o­ra­tion to devel­op for­mu­la­tions for the recent­ly intro­duced Vis­cous Lith­o­g­ra­phy Man­u­fac­tur­ing (VLM)™ 3D print­ing tech­nol­o­gy. This offi­cial announce­ment is the lat­est step in an alliance between the two teams that has been in place since 2020.

With more than 100 years of expe­ri­ence in cross-indus­try appli­ca­tions, Henkel is more than qual­i­fied to pro­vide end-to-end engi­neer­ing solu­tions for addi­tive man­u­fac­tur­ing (AM), large­ly through its well-known Loc­tite brand. Accord­ing­ly, the com­pa­ny will use the col­lab­o­ra­tion to devel­op new mate­ri­als for print­ing tech­nol­o­gy, advanc­ing its vision of man­u­fac­tur­ing auton­o­my to give man­u­fac­tur­ers full con­trol over every stage of the pro­duc­tion process with AM.

The joint work is expect­ed to lever­age the prop­er­ties to devel­op new solu­tions for high-per­for­mance resins. The tech­nol­o­gy is a patent­ed lith­o­g­ra­phy-based 3D print­ing process that lam­i­nates thin lay­ers of high-vis­cos­i­ty resins onto a trans­par­ent trans­fer film to quick­ly and cost-effec­tive­ly pro­duce high-per­for­mance com­po­nents. What sets the print­ing tech­nol­o­gy apart from oth­er resin tech­nolo­gies on the mar­ket is its abil­i­ty to process resins that are 50 times more vis­cous than the indus­try stan­dard. By elim­i­nat­ing the strict restric­tion of low vis­cos­i­ty, a whole new range of ingre­di­ents and mod­i­fiers can be added to the resin to achieve the desired effect on ther­mal and mechan­i­cal properties.

The mate­ri­als cur­rent­ly being devel­oped by the two com­pa­nies can­not yet be ful­ly dis­closed; how­ev­er, one of the main areas of research is elas­tomer­ic appli­ca­tions — an area that will undoubt­ed­ly ben­e­fit from high-vis­cos­i­ty resins. These mate­ri­als can con­tain a high pro­por­tion of oligomers to pro­vide a loose­ly cross-linked poly­mer net­work: a struc­ture that can flex­i­bly with­stand mechan­i­cal loads, behave like an indus­tri­al­ly mold­ed elas­tomer, and exhib­it improved mechan­i­cal properties.

“BCN3D has intro­duced a break­through tech­nol­o­gy that enables print­ing of high­ly vis­cous resins. Ther­mal and mechan­i­cal prop­er­ties are improved by addi­tives that nor­mal­ly increase the vis­cos­i­ty of resins, which in oth­er cas­es makes them dif­fi­cult to print. The team has devel­oped a nov­el tech­nol­o­gy that removes vis­cos­i­ty lim­i­ta­tions and enables print­ing of a wide range of new mate­ri­als, which we have seen first­hand over the past few years of col­lab­o­ra­tion. We look for­ward to see­ing the tremen­dous impact this tech­nol­o­gy, along with Henkel Indus­tri­al’s new resins, will have on the addi­tive market.”

- Sam Bail, Direc­tor of 3D Print­ing & Partnerships

Henkel’s 3D print­ing resins will be used in the new appli­ca­tion cen­ter where the pro­gram will take place. Par­tic­i­pants, along with renowned com­pa­nies Saint Gob­ain and Pro­drive, will be the first to dis­cov­er the VLM and expe­ri­ence its full poten­tial for them­selves with real 3D-print­ed parts, accom­pa­nied by per­son­al­ized sup­port to meet their exact print­ing needs.

The first offi­cial high­light of this joint ven­ture will take place at Rapid, May 17–19, 2022, at booth 1535, Hunt­ing­ton Place, Detroit, Michi­gan, where both com­pa­nies will explain and illus­trate the ben­e­fits of such col­lab­o­ra­tion while demon­strat­ing 3D-print­ed parts pro­duced with VLM.