Press Release - New Epoxy Resin - Cubital

From: Loren Werner (azpr@home.com)
Date: Thu Oct 30 1997 - 11:28:11 EET


AUTOFACT '97 PRESS RELEASE

Agency Loren Werner Company Christine Bingert
Contact 602/706-8356 Contact 248/585-7880

CUBITAL’S NEW EPOXY RESIN MAKES HARDER, TOUGHER PROTOTYPES WITHOUT
POST-PRODUCTION UV- OR HEAT-CURING OPERATIONS

Epoxy Resin Allows Better Prototype Mechanical Properties and Accuracy
Than Acrylate Resins

Troy, MI – Cubital America, Inc., supplier of the industry’s fastest
rapid prototyping machines, will introduce a new modeling material, a
photosensitive epoxy resin, dubbed Z9501 at the Autofact '97 show in
November. The new epoxy resin provides users of Cubital rapid
prototyping equipment with a highly durable new modeling material with
superior strength, toughness, good creep resistance and low moisture
sensitivity. The low shrinkage associated with the new epoxy resin also
provides enhanced model accuracy over Cubital’s existing photopolymer
acrylate resins. Unlike other epoxy resins used in rapid prototyping
applications, Cubital’s new Z9501 requires no post-fabrication curing
using either heat or UV energy sources.

 "Cubital has introduced the new epoxy resin in response to universal
customer demand," explains Cubital Ltd. President and CEO, Yehudah
Baron. "Our customers, especially those who use prototypes in
environmentally-demanding industrial applications, wanted tough,
moisture-resistant epoxy models. Our new resin gives them that, and
unlike epoxy resins that are used with the stereolithography process,
our epoxy resin doesn’t impose a time penalty or risk distortion of
dimensional accuracy caused by post-production UV- or heat-curing.

"Our epoxy resin avoids these problems typically associated with
stereolithography epoxy resins for two reasons. One, Cubital’s Solid
Ground Curing process delivers sufficient UV energy to cure the epoxy
resin layer by layer. This means far less internal stresses accumulate
with Solid Ground Curing than is possible when heat-curing a completed
stereolithography epoxy resin part. Two, Cubital went to considerable
lengths in our R&D process to develop an epoxy resin formula optimized
to achieve good mechanical properties without post-fabrication curing."

 As shown in Table 1, which summarizes a comparison of the material
properties of the new Z9501 epoxy resin and the company’s leading
acrylate resin, XA7501, Cubital’s epoxy resin provides superior model
stability, strength and dimensional accuracy. The epoxy is 1.6 times
stronger than the acrylate resin. Another advantage of the epoxy resin
over the acrylate is the enhanced user-friendliness of the epoxy formula
which reduces skin irritation associated with handling the resin.
Comparison testing results show the epoxy resin provides a higher
elastic modulus than the acrylate, as well as greater tensile strength,
improved impact strength, a dramatic reduction in linear shrinkage,
reduced creep, and much lower moisture sensitivity.

Table 1 - Comparison of Cubital Epoxy and Acrylate Resins

Epoxy Acrylate

Z9501 XA7501
Elastic Modulus @ 25 degrees C (77 F),
                                     50% RH, MPa
1150 700
Tensile Strength, MPa
50 31
Elongation at break, %
15 20
Impact Strength (Notch Isod), J/m
34 30
Linear Shrinkage, %
0.02 0.10
Moisture sensitivity, elastic modulus, MPa
840 540
  after 1 week in water @ 25 degrees C (77 F)

 Like the latest epoxy resins now available for SLA machines, Cubital’s
epoxy resin is free from the dramatic water sensitivity problem
associated with earlier epoxy resin formulations used with
stereolithography. Additionally, Cubital’s Z9501 demonstrates
significantly reduced creep compared with these earlier
stereolithography epoxy resin formulations.

 For more information about Cubital, its products and marketplace,
contact Christine Bingert at 248/585-7880, and visit Cubital’s worldwide
web site on the Internet (http://www.cubital.com/cubital). For
editorial liaison, contact Loren Werner, A-Z PR, 602/706-8356, e-mail:
azpr@home.com



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