Make it happen

Our planet is on course to be home to 10 billion people who all deserve health and progress. This is why the United Nations have defined 17 Sustainable Development Goals (the so-called SDGs) which are a call to action by all countries and economic actors to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. As providers of materials and technologies, it is our duty to contribute to the SDGs by developing the advanced technologies that humanity requires to continue thriving.

Over the last few years, new 3D printing technologies have been emerging for the direct printing of fiber composite materials. These innovative techniques give access to a broad new class of printed objects with outstanding properties.

It is important to note that the past few years have seen a notable increase in the use of 3D printing as a manufacturing process for final parts. This now accounts for over 30% of the end-use, compared to less than 10% only five years ago when modelling or prototyping was the main use. It is now clear that 3D printing is coming of age and on its way to becoming a mainstream production process in due course.

Evolution of the 3D Manufacturing Value Chain

The 3D printing value chain has evolved significantly over the last few years. In the early days of prototyping, end customers were just working with equipment companies which offered end-to-end solutions suitable for in-house prototyping applications.

As 3D printing evolved to manufacturing, end customers, while continuing to work with equipment companies, started to influence material solutions providers, software vendors, post-processing technologies to ensure that the “product” met their application requirements. This is the current state of play.

We envision that as 3D printing evolves further into true industrialization, it will lead to democratization of the value chain with all players becoming equally important. End customers would like to work directly with equipment companies, materials solution providers, software vendors etc. This evolution entails value chain participants developing partnerships with companies with complementary expertise.

Overcoming Challenges

Along with its benefits, 3D-printing also has its limitations, which have long been identified: primarily printing speed, material properties limitations, production cost and reliability.

Printing speed is improving steadily through stepwise technological improvements that come with each new generation of printers, accelerated lately by end-to-end workflow automation and the emergence of fully robotized printing farms. A 40% speed increase from one printer generation to the next, is common for industry leaders like HP, Carbon, EOS or Stratasys, with regular breakthroughs from innovative newcomers.

The performance of printed materials, which were often seen as inferior to those obtained by conventional manufacturing, is the area where most progress is being made: new materials are now constantly being developed. The range of available properties is expanding significantly with both metals and polymers. Extreme performance polymers allow the production of parts that can replace metals with similar mechanical performance at a fraction of the weight, generating significant savings, notably in aerospace applications. The latest trend is the emergence of printed composites, which extend even further the range of mechanical properties available.

Material costs will fall when economies of bulk production are achieved. The main economic driver remains the cost effectiveness of the final product – using less material, putting matter only where it is needed, eliminating assembly steps, etc.

Lastly, the question of reliability. Here again the progress is incremental, but is clearly visible through the rate of adoption of 3D printing by the most demanding industries, notably the aerospace and automotive sectors. Up to now, this has only been for non-structural parts. 

A Broad and Growing Product Range

In our mind, the final customer is technology- and material-agnostic. He wants the best solution to his part design and part properties problem. This is why Arkema offers a comprehensive product range adapted to any processing choice. This broad product range fits the needs of 3D manufacturers, regardless of the printing technology they use, and it keeps growing with a stream of innovations, the latest ones being the fully transparent Altuglas PMMA resin, and the new Pebax engineering elastomer for laser sintering.

Arkema’s engagement in the 3D manufacturing market is not limited to our material offer: it is also about bringing a solution to our industrial customers through joint development, support in modelling and simulation to predict the properties of printed parts, and our ability to bring expertise and local support worldwide.

One good example of a smart new engineering material that Arkema introduced recently is the new Pebax elastomer, available as a filament for extrusion printing or as a powder for laser sintering. This elastomer offers incredible resilience and energy restitution compared to conventional TPE. For the same application, you use less material, it provides smarter performance, and has a lower environmental footprint.

Building, Construction, Health… to new playing fields

One of the new areas of expansion is in the field of construction, where we can now print objects as large as a small house, and boost the productivity of construction vs. conventional methods.

Another area for expansion concerns high requirement sectors such as health and pharmaceuticals and aerospace. I will illustrate this expansion to aerospace by updating you on the Hexcel and Arkema collaboration on the development of 3D printing carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastics for aircraft parts. The starting point of this collaboration was actually presented at the World Materials Forum in 2018. Two years on, our joint effort has progressed from small volume military or space projects to supplying parts for passenger liners for Boeing since last year, and for Airbus soon.

As an example of striking innovation in printing technology, the start-up company Continuous Composites, in which Arkema recently took a stake, has been able to combine the strength of carbon fiber and the speed of Arkema’s NextDimension UV resins that we specifically engineered for them, to print carbon fiber structures without the need for mold or autoclave postcure.

These breakthrough technologies and innovative materials will contribute to “make it happen”, in other words to turn 3D printing into mainstream manufacturing, and Arkema intends to be at the heart of the game!