Fortify has announced a partnership with Tethon 3D that will focus on the development of ceramic materials for 3D printed end-use parts.

The companies believe by combining their respective advanced 3D printing technology and expertise in formulating high-performance technical ceramics, they can enable ‘high throughput production of heavily loaded technical ceramics for end use part production.’

Fortify has so far concentrated much of its focus on the development of photopolymer materials for its Flux Series of 3D printers, but has aligned with Tethon to accelerate its ceramics efforts. Tethon 3D made its name as a developer of ceramics materials, before also launching its own 3D printing hardware in 2019.  

As part of the collaboration, Tethon 3D installed Fortify’s Flux Core 3D printer and the Flux Developer software in its development facility in mid-June and has already developed two materials. These materials – Fortify High Purity Alumina (99.8%) and Low Shrink Aluminum Silicate – are said to have the lowest shrink rate of any similar materials on the market and will be debuted at RAPID+TCT next month.

“Expanding our platform to the technical ceramics market is a natural evolution for Fortify,” commented Fortify co-founder and CEO Josh Martin. “Pushing the envelope with these materials requires processing of highly-loaded, abrasive and viscous materials. These are the same capabilities that drive our success across various technical photopolymers. Tethon 3D is an ideal partner for us based on their ability to quickly formulate materials. We’re excited with what they have been able to accomplish with our technology in-house in just six weeks.”

The partners are confident the two materials will ‘enable new geometries for customers across industries’, with Fortify foreseeing application of additively manufactured ceramics in ‘extreme temperature environments, high wear requirements and broad chemical compatibility.’ There are also opportunities to be pursued within Tethon’s existing customer base, where there is a demand for some of the characteristics exhibited by the High Purity Alumina and Low Shrink Aluminum Silicate materials.

“Working with Fortify to drive new material formulations has been a pleasure,” offered Tethon 3D CTO Greg Pugh. “The overall robustness of the Flux Core system and the capabilities of Flux Developer to quickly validate multiple variables simultaneously has really shortened our lead time on new materials. The key demands from our customers are highly purity materials, low shrink rates and faster processing through print and sintering. The Fortify partnership advances our technology on each of these metrics.”

“We are excited to partner with Fortify as the ceramics market grows,” added Tethon 3D CEO Trent Allen. “We have clear demand from our customer base for more production-oriented solutions. Fortify Flux printers are a natural complement to our Bison 1000 DLP printer customers as they look to scale their operations.”

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