Covestro partners with Carbon on 3D printing resin

German polymer company Covestro has announced a partnership with 3D printing firm Carbon to provide resin for its printing process.

The resin is used in Carbon’s Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) technology, which, similar to stereolithography, cures 3D parts out of the polyurethane liquid substance. The process, however, can be up to 100 times faster than stereolithography.

Covestro is bringing its expertise to scale up high-volume production of the resin, investing to enable production in commercial quantities.

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"Our biggest challenge in the upscaling of additive manufacturing until series production lies in the supply of suitable materials in the required quality and quantity," said Patrick Rosso, global head of additive manufacturing at Covestro. "By partnering with companies like Carbon, we are pushing existing scale boundaries and supporting various industries along the value chain on their way to digital mass production.”

Covestro placed the work as part of its wider research into materials appropriate for industrial use. The company is currently upgrading its laboratories in Leverkusen, Germany; Pittsburgh, US and Shanghai, China, where its solutions are developed and tested.