Stratasys Ltd., a manufacturer of 3D printers and materials for personal use, prototyping and production, introduced FDM Nylon 12, the first nylon material specifically engineered for the company's line of Fortus 3D Production Systems.

Stratasys believes that with FDM Nylon 12, its Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology creates tougher, more flexible unfilled nylon parts than other additive manufacturing technologies can. FDM Nylon 12 offers up to five times greater resistance to breaking and better impact strength compared to even the strongest FDM materials. The new material's elongation-at-break specification surpasses that of other 3D printed nylon 12 material by up to 100 percent based on published specifications. This can create new opportunities for manufacturers in aerospace, automotive, home appliance and consumer electronics to more easily create durable parts that can stand up to high vibration, repetitive stress or fatigue. Examples include end-use parts, like interior panels, covers, environmental control ducting and vibration-resistant components, as well as tools, manufacturing aids, and jigs and fixtures used in the manufacturing process.

"Nylon is one of the most widely used materials in today's plastic products, and among FDM users it has been one of the top requested materials," said Fred Fischer, Stratasys materials product director. "It is also the first semi-crystalline material and the toughest material Stratasys has ever offered. We expect it to be used for applications requiring repetitive snap fits, high fatigue endurance, strong chemical resistance, high impact strength or press-fit inserts. This material offers users a clean, simple way to produce nylon parts with an additive process."

FDM Nylon 12 is available for the Fortus 360, 400 and 900 systems. FDM Nylon 12 is initially offered in black, and is paired with SR110, a new soluble support material optimized for FDM Nylon 12. Support removal requires virtually no labor and is conveniently washed away in the same cleaning agent as other FDM soluble supports.

Interested customers should contact their local Stratasys reseller to inquire about special promotional pricing.

Xtend 184 high capacity material canisters deliver increased unattended operation; allow weekend builds.

In other Stratasys news, today the company also introduced Xtend 184 double-capacity canisters for three popular Fortus materials: ABS-M30, Polycarbonate, and UltemTM 9085. Xtend 184 canisters have twice the material capacity in the same size container as current Fortus material canisters. Xtend canisters reduce downtime for canister swapping by enabling up to 100 hours of unattended run-time, which allows weekend builds for extra-large parts.