Victrex and Bond Partner on 3D Printing for PAEK Parts

To help customers get to market rapidly with 3D-printed PAEK parts, Victrex commenced a multi-million Euro investment in Bond High Performance 3D Technology. Bond has developed differentiated 3D printing/additive manufacturing machinery and software that can produce high strength parts from existing grades of high performance thermoplastics. In linking this with Victrex´s polyaryletherketone and polyetheretherketone (PAEK and PEEK) polymer materials, the common objective will be to produce strong parts that can maximize performance of components.

“Our investment in Bond´s 3D technology is a logical way to accelerate 3D printed PAEK/PEEK parts to market,” said Jakob Sigurdsson, Victrex CEO. “We need to ensure that all the key elements, including material, process, and hardware are aligned to fulfil our goal of enabling our customers to manufacture 3D printed PAEK components for critical high performance applications. We’re now at a stage where the technology is sufficiently developed to embark on exciting development programs.”

Potential application in spinal devices will be part of the inital focus of the collaboration, using products such as PEEK-OPTIMA™ from Invibio Biomaterial Solutions, Victrex’s medical business.

“We found that the market needs strong functional parts made from high performance polymers that can be used not only for prototyping but for production…we were able to develop a technology to achieve the full strength of existing PAEK and PEEK polymers. This includes the strength in the z-direction, which is the most difficult to achieve with high performance polymers in general and PEEK in particular,” commented Gerald Holtvlüwer, CEO, Bond High Performance 3D Technology.

Bond´s 3D hardware and software are presently in the beta-phase. A development plan is in place to upscale and install additional 3D printing machines later this year. This is expected to mark the next phase and drive the transition from development to first part qualification and early stage production.

Source: Victrex

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