Ä¢¹½tv

The new reference material is a photoactive liquid resin that can be used to improve reliability of additive manufacturing processes

The difficulty in obtaining reproducible and reliable parts from additive manufacturing remains a challenge to its widespread commercialization. Now, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has released its first reference material for additive manufacturing, helping to improve production in high-precision vat polymerization applications, like medical devices and dental implants.

facilitates uniform reporting of a resin's working curve, which defines the cure depth and light exposure relationship that controls the photopolymerization process. With a standard resin for testing, the photopolymer additive manufacturing industry has a new way to ensure reproducibility across sites and verify that equipment is operating within specification. 

Ä¢¹½tv's Tom Kolibaba, Ph.D., helped develop this material while he was at NIST.

"The interlaboratory study I led while at NIST produced the first reference material for the photopolymer industry. Now that it's been released, I'm eager to see how it's used to validate working curve measurements and light engine characteristics like irradiance and spectral bandwidth. I'm also part of an ongoing effort to develop a documentary standard for this measurement."

The scope of RM 8047

RM 8047 is a photoactive liquid resin that can be used to validate a working curve apparatus developed in accordance with NIST's latest . The working curve measurement is used throughout the UV-curables industry to determine resin properties like printable resolution and throughput. It can be used to validate equipment across sites, and the working curve measurement can be used as part of acceptance criteria for new batches of printing resin and photocurable coating feedstock materials.

Additionally, RM 8047 can be used to calibrate equipment like spectrophotometers and radiometers, saving the time and cost of sending equipment back to the manufacturer for calibration services. Companies that use UV-curable coatings, such as automotive, packaging, and wood products manufacturers, can also use this reference material to confirm that their processes use high-quality, consistent light sources.