Jabil Additive Materials Center Integrates Materials, Processes, Machines

Jabil has introduced Jabil Engineered Materials, an integrated solution for creating, integrating and validating custom engineered materials for additive manufacturing (AM). The availability of Jabil Engineered Materials is expected to promote further adoption of 3D printing to produce functional parts for customer applications.

This initiative includes a recently opened Materials Innovation Center, located in Minnesota, that will deliver the complete 3D printing services including polymer formulations, compound development and ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS) certification. Additive manufacturing engineers, chemists, materials scientists and production experts will consult with customers, leverage Jabil’s materials science technology and oversee each step of making custom powders and filaments.

“Jabil is taking advantage of its history in materials science to advance the additive manufacturing market forward and produce custom materials in weeks—not months,” says John Dulchinos, vice president of digital manufacturing. “Our ability to integrate new engineered materials into our ecosystem of 3D printers and rigorous processes will transform a new generation of additive manufacturing applications, including those for heavily regulated industries, such as aerospace, automotive, industrial and healthcare.”

Jabil will evaluate, qualify and validate materials alongside certified machines and processes as part of an integrated Materials, Processes and Machines (MPM) solution that matches specific part performance with application requirements. This approach is said to reduce time-to-market and cost to produce the highest quality parts.

The rapid iteration and certified production of these engineered materials is expected to provide customers a faster path from prototyping to production than currently available. Value-added attributes include reinforced, flame retardant, conductive, lubricated, electrostatic dissipative (ESD) and other engineered characteristics. A full range of services also are available, including compounding, extrusion and powder creation as well as complete system integration on standard, open source platforms supported by fused filament fabrication (FFF), selective laser sintering (SLS) and high-speed sintering (HSS) equipment.

Jabil Engineered Materials will be available through distribution partners, including Chase Plastics and Channel Prime Alliance. Print profiles for Jabil Engineered Materials also will be available through Ultimaker Cura software with links to Jabil’s distribution partners.