If you have kept your ear to the ground on the 3D printing front, you were bound to have heard the rumblings that Stratasys was planning to launch several new technologies this year. That rumbling turned into full quake at Stratasys’s Manufacturing Event, at the end of April, where they introduced three new platforms – effectively doubling Stratasys’s 3D printing technology offering.

Regardless if you were seeing feeds on social media or attending the virtual launch event, the impact of this announcement will be felt across the 3D printing industry. I wanted to take a few minutes to help you understand the significance of these new technologies, as this announcement is a major leap forward in TriMech’s polymer-based 3D printing portfolio. We will review these new offerings, why they matter, and who they matter to.

First, we’re going to take a quick look at what was announced and the technology behind it. However, there is simply too much to cover to get into the individual details of each machine in this article. We’re going to focus on the “what” and “why” and follow-up with the “how” in subsequent deep-dives.

• Stratasys Origin One (P3™ Technology)
  Brings Production Scale 3D Printing for Detailed and Intricate Parts
• H350 3D Printer (SAF™ Technology)
  The First 3D Printer in Stratasys’ new H Series™ Production Platform
• F770 3D Printer (FDM® Technology)
  Making Easy Work of Big Parts with the Longest Heated Chamber on the Market

Stratasys has said that they have made the strategic choice to release these 3D printers specifically to deliver disruptive speed, cost savings and productivity to manufacturing operations. If you are interested in the full details, the virtual launch event, including the breakout sessions, will be available to view for a limited time.

>> Access the April 28, 2021 Stratasys launch event materials (limited time availability)

Stratasys Origin One

Stratasys has recently expanded their polymeric 3D printing capabilities into SLA and DLP technologies with acquisitions of companies such as Origin and RPS. Using a similar technology to DLP, dubbed “P3”, the Origin One is capable of printing difficult geometries without supports, fine features, and solid cross-sections, with excellent surface quality comparable to injection molding.

Origin One’s process is within the vat photopolymerization category. If you’re familiar with Stereolithography (SLA) or Digital Light Processing (DLP) printers, many of the same design principles will apply to Origin One’s Programmable PhotoPolymerization (P3) process.

>> Learn more from Stratasys with their Origin One design guide

The process used in the Origin One, delivers exceptional accuracy, consistency and isotropy. Print details, less than 50 microns in size, with high-accuracy materials and without needing secondary finishing, sanding, painting or additional processing.

Stratasys H Series

The Stratasys H350 3D printer, which is the first in a new line of printers according to Stratasys, is built for high-volume, short-run production, and gives you better control of your materials, workflow, production and costs, while delivering still consistent and durable parts.

SAF (Selective Absorption Fusion) is the 3D printing technology behind the new H Series production platform. SAF is one category of powder bed fusion 3D printing processes, and uses an infrared-absorbing fluid to help fuse the polymer powder.

>> Learn more about SAF Technology and how you print with it

This technology will allow users to “nest” parts in the build volume on a geometry independent basis, enabling the operator to leverage the entire build volume in the x, y, and z directions for multiple parts, jobs, or iterative designs all at once.

Stratasys F770

The F770 delivers spacious build capacity in an easy-to-use platform, with the reliability and consistency of Stratasys FDM technology. Print large parts up to a meter long, with an affordable, large-format 3D printer.

This is probably the easiest to explain if you are familiar with Stratasys products, and is something that customers have been requesting for a while. This is the latest installment in the popular F-series (previously known as Fortus).

>> See more entries in the popular Stratasys F-Series

Get accurate print results, along with the repeatability and reliability that FDM Technology™ is known for. The Stratasys FDM build chamber design is time-tested, ensuring precise thermal management across the build platen. With the longest fully-heated build chamber on the market, the F770 gives you consistent, successful print results, whether parts are big or small.

Why are these new releases important?

Now that we reviewed the new solutions that are going to be available, the next question is – why does it matter? As a 3D technology partner, we’re really excited because we have more tools to help our customers solve their manufacturing problems, whether that means they want to leverage the technology directly or have us do it for them. Simply put, the more ways TriMech can help solve our customer’s problems, the more customer problems we can help solve.

• This now means offering our customers the ability to produce massively large FDM parts in-house, with the F770, at a price point never previously dreamed of.
• The Stratasys H350 SAF printer’s ability to produce high volumes of strong and durable Nylon11 parts, with an economy of scale that encroaches on existing mass production processes in both strength and cost.
• Lastly, with Origin One and P3 Technology, we can finally answer the request for companies to have the strength and mechanical properties of FDM parts, but the surface finish of PolyJet – P3 offers this at a build speed and scalable nature that will make it a viable solution for both prototyping and low volume end-use parts.

This leaves me to answer the last question of who does this matter to? The answer is you, the consumer of both 3D printed products and equipment. The introduction of these new products, all within the TriMech ecosystem, mean we can offer a wider range of solutions to help you clear your business’s engineering hurdles. I am a firm believer that applications need to drive the selection of a 3D printing solution, and now with adding these three new platforms to TriMech’s portfolio, we can all benefit from the expanded capabilities to collectively solve more engineering problems.