Covestro and voxeljet announce partnership to advance additive manufacture in series production

After jointly developing and qualifying a Thermoplastic Polyorethane (TPU) powder for HSS, the two companies are taking their collaboration to the next level by bringing customers a seamless material-process solution for volume manufacturing of their specific applications.

“Typically, material and processing technology work separately in the value chain, with customers having to figure out how to make them work,” said Geoff Gardner, Innovation Director Additive Manufacturing at Covestro. “Together with voxeljet, we want to remove what we believe is still a barrier for adopting AM on the production floor. Thanks to its size and speed, coupled with the constant layer time, HSS offers manufacturers an economic solution for series production.”

voxeljet will contribute its knowledge with its large format VX1000 HSS printer platformVX1000 HSS, and Covestro its expertise in designing functional materials, to develop a seamlessly working material-process solution that can be deployed for large scale manufacturing.

James Reeves, Global Director of Polymer Sintering (HSS) at voxeljet added: “This is a match of two companies strongly believing in really close collaboration across the additive ecosystem. The potential of HSS to process specialty powder materials is tremendous. By offering customers material choices, we accelerate their access to pioneering products.”

Material possibilities that the companies are considering are TPUs, which are suited well for footwear and cushioning applications, as well as thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and polpropylene (PP). The collaboration with voxeljet involves scaling new materials on the large-format, industrial manufacturing machine – VX1000HSS, currently accessible via voxeljet’s Early Access Beta Program.

If you are interested in collaborating in this program, please reach out – both companies will showcase their polymer powder materials and printers at Formnext 2021, Nov. 16th-19th in Frankfurt, Germany, in hall 12.1; Covestro at booth C11 and voxeljet at booth C129.

About Covestro:
With 2020 sales of EUR 10.7 billion, Covestro is among the world’s leading polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative, sustainable solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. In doing so, Covestro is fully committed to the circular economy. The main industries served are the automotive and transportation industries, construction, furniture and wood processing, as well as electrical, electronics, and household appliances industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health and the chemical industry itself. At the end of 2020, Covestro has 33 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 16,500 people (calculated as full-time equivalents).

Learn more about legacy-DSM additive manufacturing on am.covestro.com and Covestro on www.covestro.com

Forward-looking statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Covestro AG. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Covestro’s public reports which are available at www.covestro.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.