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resin dispensing unit, UV lamp, and curing oven. The new Part Washer costs $10,000/yr (3-yr minimum) plus a $5000 installation fee. Carbon3D has also expanded its range of liquid resins to include three grades of rigid urethanes, a flexible PUR, an elastomeric PUR, a cyanate ester with high heat resistance (HDT up to 219 C/426 F), an epoxy with properties resembling 20% glass- filled PBT (HDT of 140 C/284 F), a urethane methacrylate for making jigs and fixtures (properties similar to SLA resins), and a dental grade. Also new this past spring is the first commercial application of CLIP technology, Futurecraft 4D running shoes from adidas. Using AM to make the lattice-design midsole allows personaliza- tion of each pair of shoes. More than 5000 pairs will be offered for retail this fall and winter, and more than 100,000 pairs are expected to be sold by the end of next year. Shortly after the adidas announcement, Carbon3D reported that Oracle Labs, the R&D; arm of computer technology firm Oracle, commissioned printing of 10,000 server mounts (brackets for circuit boards) of Carbon's rigid PUR. Injection molding was rejected as unable to provide the parts in a timely manner, while conventional 3D printing did not satisfy Oracle Labs' performance requirements. One of Carbon's first service-bureau partners, Sculpteo (locations in Paris and San Francisco; sculpteo.com), produced the brackets in days rather than months. Instead of printing the parts one at a time, Sculpteo produced a large cube of interconnected brackets. Also at the NYC show was one of Carbon's newest service bureaus, Dinsmore Inc., Irvine, Calif. (dinsmoreinc.com). Dinsmore recently added M1 and M2 CLIP printers to its roster of rapid-prototyping technologies—SLA, SLS, FDM, PolyJet, DMLS (direct metal laser sintering), plastic casting, and CNC milling. It also offers injec- tion molding services though an outside partner. Another new CLIP service bureau is Midwest Prototyping, Blue Mounds, Wis. (midwestproto.com). This firm also offers SLA, SLS, FDM, PolyJet, binder jetting, PUR casting, and CNC machining. LASER SINTERING UPGRADE At the NYC show, EOS of North America, Inc., Novi, Mich. (eos-na.com), discussed its new EOS P 770 laser-sin- tering machine for thermoplastics like nylon 12, PEEK, and PEBA elastomer (a TPU is in the works). This high- capacity, dual-laser system is 20% more productive than its P 760 prede- cessor. Its large build volume (27.6 × 15 × 22.9 in. or 700 × 380 × 580 mm) allows production of parts up to 1 meter long. QUICK-TURN SPECIALIST ADDS NEW PROCESS Proto Labs, Maple Plain, Minn. (protolabs.com), a specialist in quick-turn prototyping and short-run manufacturing, announced at the show a new addition to its stable of proto- typing technologies. Proto Labs announced it is now offering the Multi Jet Fusion process of HP Inc., Palo Alto, Calif. (hp.com), for production of fully functional plastic prototypes and production parts. Proto Labs already offers SLA, SLS, PolyJet, and direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), as well as CNC machining and injection molding. The firm served as a beta tester for the Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) process, which was first unveiled by HP in 2014 and became commer- cially available this May. The process builds up a part layer by layer. It involves inkjet spraying a digital pattern of droplets of fusing and "detailing" agents onto a bed of nylon 12 powder, followed by thermal fusion of the printed area. HP says MJF is up to 10 times faster than SLS and FDM processes. It deposits up to 30 million droplets per second per inch of working area, and it fuses the entire working layer at once, unlike most other processes. Proto Labs applications engineer Joe Cretella agrees that MJF is faster than other nylon-powder based 3D printing technologies and it also produces finer details, more isotropic properties, tighter tolerances, and smoother surfaces. As a result, MJF reportedly could compete with injection molding in some cases for volumes in the range of thousands of parts. QUESTIONS ABOUT 3D PRINTING? Visit the Additive Manufacturing Zone. Novel continuous 3D printing process is now available with a larger build volume, achieves first commercial use. The CLIP process from Carbon3D pulls a part continuously upward from a photopolymer resin bath, while a UV curing lamp illuminates the growing part from below. Here the part is a midsole for an adidas individualized running shoe. HP's new Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing process made this chain-link demo part. Proto Labs is a new adopter of this process for functional prototypes and production parts. 24 SEPTEMBER 2017 Plastics Technology PTonline.com A D D I T I V E M A N U F A C T U R I N G Close -Up On Technolog y