3-D printing seeks commercial markets

Abstract

Companies that make three-dimensional printers are coming out with new products that they hope will jumpstart demand from the manufacturing sector. Although sales of consumer and desktop versions grew briskly last year, the same was not true for pricier machines geared to industry. At last week’s Additive Manufacturing Users Group conference, held in Chicago, start-up Carbon introduced the M2, which the firm says is a robust, industrial-grade machine with a higher capacity than its first model. Multiple M2 printers can be strung together and linked to a component that automatically washes and finishes the objects. Similarly, a new, larger printer from 3D Systems can produce plastic parts at 50 times the rate of its current systems, according to the company. It also includes a part-washing unit. 3D Systems was the first company to commercialize the popular stereolithography method of 3-D printing, which uses ultraviolet light to cure photosensitive polymers. The