Solvay is partnering with L’Oréal, the world’s beauty leader, and Ultimaker, the global leader in professional 3D printing, to launch the third edition of its international Additive Manufacturing (AM) Cup competition. The contest gives students, engineers and manufacturers from around the world the chance to demonstrate their aptitude for 3D printing and create an innovative design for a 3D-printed real application.
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Solvay’s range of AM ready materials comprises (from left to right): KetaSpire® PEEK AM Filament; Solef ® PVDF AM Filament; KetaSpire® PEEK AM Filament CF10; Radel® PPSU AM Filament. |
Solvay has taken a lead in the rapidly evolving AM market and offers a growing range of specialty polymer filaments for applications in today’s most challenging industries.
“Solvay’s AM Cup was introduced to showcase Solvay’s array of AM ready filaments and their potential for diverse complex industrial uses,” explained Brian Alexander, AM Global Product & Application Manager at Solvay. “We are pleased to collaborate with L’Oréal who offer a tangible and challenging industrial application and partner with Ultimaker to 3D print our candidates’ designs for assessment. Solvay continues to build a robust and diversified AM ecosystem encompassing key partnerships in the value chain to offer our customers high-performance 3D printable polymers and meet the rapid developments of a once niche-technology.”
This partnership aims to develop a real-world industrial application, revolutionizing production line agility, and further accentuates the importance of optimizing materials, hardware and processes together when designing a successful 3D printing project.
“L’Oréal has a long history of encouraging innovation and engineering excellence. With this competition, we are proud to continue this tradition, offering the possibility to tackle a real-world industrial problem using 3D printing to accelerate agility,” said Matthew Forrester, Head of Material Transformation & Recycling Science at L’Oréal.
The disruptive solutions offered by 3D printing technology enable complex geometric forms that cannot be made using conventional manufacturing technologies such as injection molding or machining, thereby accelerating the integration of 3D printing to greatly facilitate the manufacturing process.
“We are proud to support the Solvay AM Cup by offering our expertise and 3D printing facilities to help the young engineers turn their ideas into physical applications,” said Miguel Calvo, CTO at Ultimaker. “It is a fantastic initiative that enables young professionals and engineers to leverage the full Ultimaker ecosystem to design an application for L’Oréal that increases their productivity, and at the same time creates flexibility in their production line. Solvay's high performance AM-ready materials meet the needs of our customers' most challenging applications.”
The material to be used has been specifically chosen from Solvay’s portfolio of high-performance filaments and powders for 3D printing comprising Solef® polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), KetaSpire® polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and Radel® polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) filaments, which include medical and carbon fiber filled grades.
Candidates are invited to consult the competition details and register their interest in participating on Solvay’s AM Cup portal by Sept. 30, 2021 the latest.
The competition will start on Sept. 1, 2021 and run through to mid-November.
The winner will be announced in January 2022 and will receive a 5,000 EUR prize from Solvay to be reinvested in academic, societal or entrepreneurial activities, an Ultimaker 2+ Connect printer and a high-profile tour of L’Oréal’s production facilities.
® Solef, KetaSpire, Radel are registered trademarks of Solvay.
