UK high-performance polymers producer Victrex (Thornton-Cleveleys; www.victrex.com) launched “Victrex AM 200”, a polyaryletherketone (PAEK) filament specifically developed and optimised for additive manufacturing. The company named 3D printing equipment manufacturer Intamsys (Shanghai / China; www.intamsys.com) as its first distribution partner. Victrex AM 200 filament is designed for demanding additive manufacturing applications having high wear-, temperature-, fatigue- or corrosion-resistance requirements.

Conventional grades of PAEK and PEEK materials designed for machining or injection moulding and repurposed in some additive manufacturing applications have typically resulted in weak parts because of poor interlaying bonding in printing. The Victrex AM 200 filament material is designed to address this weakness, said Charles Han, founder and CEO at Intamsys, whose firm conducted physical and mechanical performance tests of the material on its “Funmat Pro” line of industrial 3D printers. “Compared with unfilled PEEK it is designed with slower crystallisation, lower melt temperature and a viscosity fine-tuned to the filament process, such as easier flow in the build chamber after leaving the nozzle. Higher flow in open air also promotes interlayer bonding and stability during printing,” said Han.