BURLINGTON, Mass., USA - Z Corporation today released a new high-performance composite material that introduces the world's easiest, safest and greenest post-processing option for finishing monochrome 3D printed models - a quick mist with tap water. Monochrome parts made with zp®140 require no further treatment or equipment to reach their finished strength. The process is quick, perfectly safe, and virtually cost-free.
In addition to the water curing capability, zp140 delivers the brightest whites (180 percent whiter than before), fastest production and lowest cost per finished part. It hardens in less than half of the time of previous materials, enabling users to print detailed parts faster and show them off sooner.
While other prototyping technologies require caustic baths or razor knives to finish, Z Corp. is driving 3D printing further into the mainstream, making it more office- and classroom-friendly for product designers, educators, students, architects, engineers, health-care professionals, military personnel and entertainment companies. Those who need even stronger parts for applications like fit and functional testing, and those who wish to print in color, can finish zp140-based parts with Z Corp.'s existing infiltrants.
zp140's unique water curing capability is just one of many improvements that Z Corp. is bringing to its entire materials line to make 3D printed parts tougher, brighter, more detailed and longer-lasting. Z Corp., still the only maker of multicolor 3D printers, is also making its unique multicolor printing capability even better, providing whiter whites, blacker blacks and more vibrant colors with all of its new materials.
Z Corp.'s new zp®131 material, also released today, makes parts that, when infiltrated with Z-Bond, are 50 percent stronger than when printed with zp130, the material's predecessor. These stronger parts are ideal for fit and functional testing. In addition, parts are 115 percent whiter, more uniform in color across a wider range of hues (particularly light tones), and faster to harden, enabling the printing of finer details.
"We're bringing to our materials the same easy, clean and green initiative that characterized our recently announced ZPrinter® 450," said Kevin Lach, Z Corp.'s vice president of marketing. "Better materials make better parts and inject new value into printers in use by all of our customers. Water curing in particular is a breakthrough that embodies the 3D printing mainstream revolution, as well as Z Corp.'s leadership in that revolution."
The new materials are available today through Z Corp.'s worldwide reseller network. zp140 and zp131 are available for ZPrinter® 310 series and the Spectrum Z™510. Z Corp. plans to make the new materials available for the ZPrinter 450 by mid-2007.
About Z Corporation
Z Corporation makes products that enable users to capture, edit, and print 3D data with unprecedented speed, ease, versatility and affordability. These products include the world's fastest high-definition 3D printers — machines that produce physical 3D models from digital data in full color - and uniquely portable 3D scanners - handheld machines that digitize 3D surfaces in real time. Z Corp. technology is enabling a wide range of applications in manufacturing, architecture, civil engineering, reverse engineering, geographic information systems (GIS), medicine and entertainment.
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