Objet Ltd Sets 100-Material 3D Printing Record

A new, significant milestone has been reached in the world of 3D printing. You may know 3D printing as a neat, novelty kind of technological advancement that allows people to print their own mugs, earrings, etc. Or you may know it as a significant achievement in medical research. Or you may know it as something else. But there's one thing that every application of 3D printing relies on – available printing material. That's where Objet comes into place.

Objet, French for "Object," of course, entered into a 3D printing merger with Stratasys earlier this year. That has boosted the company's ability to rapidly expand its research and development to the point where, recently, it announced that it now has the technology to use 107 different materials in 3D printing applications. Most low-level commercial 3D printers only focus on one kind of plastic or similar substance.

But for industrial-grade purposes, there needs to be a lot more flexibility. Objet allows printing of flexible and rigid materials, opaque and transparent, and all manner of colors and shades. "Objet has become the first 3D printing company to break the 100 materials barrier. Considering that we had half this number just a few short years ago, this growth in material choice confirms our commitment to consistently deliver new and enhanced material properties to our customer," the company said in a statement.

[via Online TMD]