East Midlands-based Rutland Plastics, an injection moulding specialist, has discovered the resilience of one of the toughest 3-D printing materials on the market — and says that it has already become a critical part of the manufacturing process.

The company (www.rutlandplastics.co.uk), which produces parts for sectors including medical, consumer goods and utilities, has recently sourced a Stratasys Fortus 380mc Carbon Fiber Edition 3-D printer from SYS Systems (www.sys-uk.com), which is a UK partner of Stratasys.

Rutland Plastics has had an in-house 3-D printing capability since 2012, but this latest upgrade is allowing it to break new ground in collaborative robotics.

Carbon fibre is a light but incredibly tough engineering-grade thermoplastic, giving unparalleled strength for dependable functional prototyping, end-use parts and rugged tooling (often replacing low-volume metal parts).

Simon Grainger, Rutland Plastics’ design and project engineering manager, said: “The Fortus 380mc can print 30% carbon-filled nylon, which is excellent for producing end-of-arm tooling, as it is strong and durable.

“It is also lightweight, so our robots can run faster and we can maximise payload. 3-D printing gives us greater design flexibility, as it allows us to design end-of-arm tooling plus jigs and fixtures for their specific purpose, and complexity doesn’t increase the cost.”

Without the cost normally associated with a high-end printer, the Fortus 380 guarantees accurate, reliable and optimum-strength parts using ASA and FDM Nylon 12 Carbon Fiber — a material with the highest stiffness-to-weight ratio of any FDM option.

Stratasys carbon fibre material contains 35% chopped carbon fibres, compared with the 15% figure of its nearest rival, and it achieves 30-50% higher density on finished parts.