Objet500 Connex3

The Objet500 Connex3 is a multi-color printer that can blend rigid and rubber-like materials into a single print. It's based on the Stratasys Connex technology that delivers quality prototypes with as many as 46 colors in a single print. This multi-material 3D printer handles a range of material properties from rubber to rigid, transparent to opaque, neutral to brightly colored and standard to biocompatible. This range of mechanical, optical or thermal properties lets the Objet500 Connex3 produce up to 82 materials in a single build. It is well suited for prototyping consumer goods.

How Does the Objet500 Connex3 Work?

The Objet500 Connex3 produces parts by combining materials inside the 3D printer to create a variety of composite materials. While previous Objet printers have used two materials as their base, the Connex3 system adds a third material that adds color and more material options to the mix.M

With 10 separate color palettes, the Connex3 can combine its Vero (rigid) line of materials with a variety of colors to create vibrant, rigid prints or its Tango (flexible) line of materials to create a range of Shore A values.

Similar to all Objet models, all Connex3 materials are UV curable to prevent adverse crazing and model deformation. All builds can be supported with a non-toxic material that is washed away with a water jet.

To create a print, the Connex3 deposits consecutive layers of UV curable resins onto its print bed. Immediately following the deposit of material, a UV light attached to the machine's print head passes over the material to cure the model. This process is repeated until the desired model is created.

Like all Objet machines, the Connex3 creates very accurate parts with exceptional detail. However, because the system uses a liquid resin, keeping the machines print head clean is an absolute must.

With a large palette of colors the Objet500 Connex3 can bring models to life and allow designers, customers and product managers to accurately see how a finished product will look and feel. The Connex3 can print massive objects without supervision or exchanging material in the middle of a print thanks to its expanded material reservoir. Additionally, although the Objet500 Connex3 does allow for multiple colors to be printed in a single model, adding colors to a print can be a time consuming task. To add multiple colors to a build, users have to divide their model into separate sections with a single color assigned to each segment, though recent software developments are simplifying this process. Once split, the model can be imported into Stratasys' print management software where colors can be assigned to each section.

Even with these additional steps, we expect the Objet500 Connex3 to be at the top of the wish list for consumer product development teams.

The Connex3 System at Trek Bicycle

According to Mike Zeigle, manager of the prototype development group at Trek Bicycle Corporation, "The Connex3 has dramatically reduced the company's lead-time for product prototyping. Trek's engineers used to wait in a two-week long queue for design revisions.” With the new Connex3s and its expanded materials, parts can be printed both day and night.

Additionally, the Connex3's color printing technology has given Trek's engineers the ability to organize design revisions by color. By creating a color-coded revision history engineers can quickly look back through a product's design history to makes sense of even the subtlest changes.

According to Guadalupe Ollarzabal, Trek's engineering technician, ordering replacement materials and scheduling maintenance for the company's Connex3 system is relatively easy given the large number of Stratasys product suppliers.