The South Carolina-based global AM company 3D Systems has completed comprehensive testing of its newest Figure 4 materials against both ASTM and ISO standards.

Materials are at the core of the company’s digital manufacturing solutions; in late 2019, it introduced a large number of production-grade materials for its ‘Figure 4 Platform’, opening the door to new applications.

With the release of its Figure 4 material test data, it claims to be ‘the first in the industry to provide this level of transparency — saving customers time, reducing cost, and speeding their time to first part’.

Marty Johnson, technical fellow at 3D Systems, said: “Until this point, materials-testing data provided by the industry has been incomplete for production applications — and of little value to engineers accustomed to data that accompanies injection-moulded plastics.

"If an engineer is going to use any material for true production applications, they need a comprehensive set of data that meets industry standards in order to evaluate its efficacy.

“3D Systems recognises how these standards help improve product quality, enhance safety, facilitate market access and trade, and build consumer confidence. Testing to both ASTM and ISO standards allows us to address a broad set of manufacturers world-wide and usher in the use of additive for true production.”

3D Systems has tested its materials against an extensive set of properties that include: long-term environmental stability, electrical data, UL94 flammability, bio-compatibility, ISO mechanical properties, isotropic mechanical property tolerances, and compatibility with automotive fluids and chemical reagents.

Test data for all materials was made available on 23 March on the company’s Web site (www.3dsystems.com).