A group of industrial 3D printing firms Zymergen, Hexagon, 3D4Makers, and AON3D have performed an experiment on the new 3D printing polymer, Z2 Polyimide.
The novel, easy-to-3D print formulation of Polyimide offered impressive findings in experiments assisted by The Royal Netherlands Navy‘s Expertise Centre Additive Manufacturing (ECAM): a high-strength, highly isotropic AM polymer part that, despite its minimal cross-section (2 cm wide), survived 432 kg of load before failure. Hexagon’s Digimat AM software was used to perform predictive modeling and simulation on a tie-down bracket for military cargo planes, a tool that assists engineers decrease overall lead times and simulate end-part performance. The part was then mechanically tested after being 3D printed in Z2 Polyimide with 100% infill on the AON M2+ High-Temperature Industrial 3D Printer.
