How To Choose 3D Printing Prototype Materials

With the development over the decades, the material for 3D printing has excellent improvement in features and a wide selection available of its types. It is not just for a model prototype producing, but more and more become the function part or terminal product. These developments affect the use of 3D printing by designers and engineers. Usually, you have to consider the following aspects to choosing a material and design.

Application

Materials have different characteristics in biocompatibility, heat resistance, electrical conductivity, corrosion resistance, food safety, and skin safety. Thus, these features are essential factors for application materials selection. You’d better consider whether a material has the corresponding characteristic to realize the model function. For example, Ultem 1010 has biocompatibility and flame resistance, which has advantages in producing products for the aerospace industry and the healthcare system.

Function requirement

We usually use the 3d printing model for various tests to meet the different functional requirements. In addition to the material performance, the designs are also a vital part of realizing the model function. But if the printing model is just for display, the main element you account for is the surface performance instead of others.

Limitations of geometric designs

Usually, the 3D printing material connects to the printing process. To choose a material means we choose the corresponding process for printing and the limitations of the process to the model, such as precision, thickness, etc. By contrast, if you know the exact size, the minimum details, and the thickness of the wall, you can choose the material according to these factors.

Post-process

The post-process is the way to get a perfect 3d printing model. Each material matches a post-process method to get a better effect. You can use thermal treatment for stainless steel products or apply the second solidity for resin products. Thus, when you have a post-process for the products, you must consider the product material to get the best effect.

How to choose 3d printing material

Even though there are many factors influencing 3D printing, For 3D printing, there are four models available to help users choose suitable materials – exterior, structure, terminal products manufacturing, and others.

Exterior Model Validation:  

It is to verify products’ exterior or directly use the model for display and has a high requirement to surface. It is visual and touchable. It uses a model directly to show the creation of the designer to avoid looking cool in design but poor in actual products. Exterior verification manufacturing is essential in new product design and product exterior modification and improvement.

Based on the exterior requirement, a superior selection of resin materials is available, including SLA and polyresin.

Structure Model Validation

We need the die-made from design to volume manufacturing in the product production process. Sometimes, it is expensive for mold. If there is a wrong or unreasonable structure or other problems, it causes a disastrous loss. You can use a 3d printing model for structure verification to avoid such a problem and reduce the risk of die-made.

 According to requirement, if you have no demands on precision, you can choose the material with high machine performance and a relatively lower price, such as PLA. If you require a material with high-temperature resistance, tension resistance, or the same material as the Terminal products, you can choose engineering plastics, such as ABC, PC, and PSA. Material is vital for products when it is related to functional features verification.

Terminal products usually require low-volume manufacturing or disposable product to meet the demands. It is widely available in the aerospace industry and healthcare system or sometimes a fixture in production. With 3D printing performance improvement, it is more and more for terminal products.

Terminal product materials include nylon with SLS technology. You can get the products with a comprehensive performance in all aspects by burning nylon powder. It is suitable for low volume manufacturing of disposable products manufacturing. Mixing it with glass fiber and aluminum powder can get different performance products. In addition, SLM with metal is in thing for terminal products manufacturing. The performance of the metal is close to or equal to forge piece and is widely used in the field where need to reduce the weight or have a high standard for shape design,

Others

There are some other applications for 3D printing materials, such as jewelry. We can use red wax or blue wax as the material. And when finished with the 3D printing, then use the traditional way of the process.

Our company supplies various materials for different manufacturing methods. If you have any requirements, contact us through email, please.

WKproto is a professional rapid prototyping and low-volume production manufacture specializing in 3D printing, CNC machining, and Vacuum Casting. Our factory and parter factories enable rapid prototyping of designs from our customers and low volume production for market verification.

We have three factories. 3D printing factory meets the demands of most 3D printing services with 100 SLA machines, 10 SLS machines, 10 MJF machines, 10 SLM machines, and 20 FDM machines. CNC machining factories for processing metals, plastic and more materials with more than 200 machines for CNC milling/CNC lathes/EDM / Wire EDM and the Vacuum Casting factory is for low volume production for ABS、PC、PP、PE、PA、POM、PMMA、PVC.