image © Objet Geometries Ltd

I heard about this from my supervisor, Dr. Ian Campbell, who recently met with one of Objet’s representatives. Basically the Connex500 machine contains two different materials, one (from what I understand) a rubber-based material, and one a more conventional plastic. This allows printed models to simulate products which would be manufactured by twin-shot moulding processes.

image © Objet Geometries Ltd

However, designers will be able to do much more than create prototypes of overmoulded parts, because the Connex500 comes with 21 so-called Digital Materials – preset blends of the two materials with specific Shore A (hardness) values. The designer can therefore match (or get close to) the mechanical properties of the manufactured part, which should allow more accurate testing.

image © Objet Geometries Ltd

At the moment the colour range seems limited – I guess multiple materials in any colour is too much to hope for right now. This probably restricts the value of these kind of models as visual prototypes, especially because the multiple materials will also make painting more difficult. But it’s a definite step forward in terms of thinking of the production of final parts which are acceptable to consumers, or of parts which consumers might design themselves. Designing rubber keys (for example) which are part of a plastic cover, rather than as two discrete parts, might help eliminate problems of tolerance stack-up, which would improve both the visual qualities and the tactility of the keys. Print resolution is quoted as 600 dpi in x- and y-axes, and 16 microns in high quality mode in the z-axis.

image © Objet Geometries Ltd