Reinforced Filament represents a new category of filament products. Our MVP is StellaFortis. Latin for “Strong Star”, it helps additive manufacturing (AM) engineers and plastic component manufacturers who want to use Additive Manufactured parts in load-bearing applications by combining the agility of 3D printing with the strength of injection molding. Unlike other filament manufacturers, we utilize a patented dual material design that enables tough and strong 3D printed solids.
“Conventional polymer filaments for 3D printing are made up of a single polymer,” Eric Wetzel (Co-inventor, ARL) said. “Our innovation is that we’ve combined two different polymers into a single filament, providing a unique combination of characteristics useful for printing and building strength.”
The dual-polymer filament combines acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, or ABS, with polycarbonate, or PC. A critical design feature of the filament is that the ABS and PC phases are not simply mixed together, a common approach for creating blended polymers. Instead, a special die-less thermal drawing process developed by ARL is used to create an ABS filament with a star-shaped PC core. Once coupled, the filament is used as feedstock in a desktop fused-filament fabrication (FFF) printer to create 3D prints with a heavy-duty ABS/PC meso‐structure.
Dr. Wetzel is the Team Leader for Multifunctional Materials, and Research Area Leader for Soldier Materials, at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Aberdeen, MD. His research interests span a range of topics, including ballistic textiles, multifunctional composite materials, additive manufacturing, and two-dimensional materials. Dr. Wetzel has co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed journal publications and book chapters, and holds 23 patents.
Stella Fortis requires an FFF extruder capable of printing above 240 ℃.
We had success at printing at 240 ℃ and 280 ℃, with higher temperatures shortening annealing time. In FFF 3D printers with heated enclosures, there is a high probability that annealing is occurring during printing.
Yes, the optimal print settings are included in every spool and downloadable for CURA. Simplify3D profiles will also be available on our website.
For more information about our technology, please see the Reinforced Filament Team page on FedTech’s National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) Defense Innovation Accelerator (DIA) 2021.
Dr. Kevin Hart is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Milwaukee School of Engineering in Milwaukee, WI. His research interests lie in additive manufacturing and advanced, multi-functional materials. Dr Hart is co-inventor of the technology.
Ed Wyrwas is a serial entrepreneur and inventor working full time for NASA GSFC in EEEE parts assurance, leads the executive team of Prepared for Flight, a venture studio and think tank, and provides STEM mentoring to several academic programs. Ed is on two working groups for additive manufacturing of non-metallic polymers and is a sponsoring founding member of Nation of Makers. His background spans electrical and computer engineering, electronics reliability and failure analyses, cybersecurity, full stack development, and rapid prototyping. Simply put, Ed is a hacker and maker.
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