Advanced Digital Design and Fabrication (ADDFab)

Announcements

ADDFab’s newest printer, the Profluidics 285D! Watch the Replay: Manmeet Buttar, Cadworks 3D–"3D Print Microfluidic Devices, No Molds Required."

strong and accurate plastic and metal parts

3D Printing Services

Choose from a variety of strong and flexible plastic materials, color options, and metal alloys. Typical delivery in less than one week for plastic parts and less than two weeks for metal parts. Email addfab@umass.edu to learn more. See details on materials and equipment below.

Request a Quote

 

Participate

Workshops & Training

We offer hands-on workshops for both our polymer and metal printers. Participants spend one to three days on the complete process, from part preparation in software, to printer setup, to printer cleanup and post processing. Everyone goes home with real parts that they made! Classes are no larger than three students, and scheduled when it’s convenient for you. Contact addfab@umass.edu to sign up.

 

We can help

Research

We can help print your most complicated, advanced geometries, in all different materials. We also can help you experiment with new materials, new metal alloys, and new laser sintering strategies.

 

Most Popular Plastic PA2200 (nylon-12) is our workhorse material, delivering high resolution, strong, and resilient parts.  The material is white and can be dyed a variety of colors (red, blue, green, orange, yellow, pink, and black).  The best part about this material is that it works with the selective laser sintering (SLS) process, which does not require support structures and allows you to print just about any geometry you can imagine.  We print PA2200 on our EOS P110 printer. (Technical datasheet)

Most Popular Metal “15-5” Stainless Steel is our most popular metal material - an iron alloy with 15% chromium and 5% nickel. It is a corrosion resistant stainless steel that can be polished to a mirror finish and heat treated to increase its strength and hardness. We print 15-5 on our EOS M290 printer. (Technical datasheet)

Multi-material “Digital Materials” are a blend of UV curable resins (acrylate chemistry) that can produce parts that are rigid or flexible, or somewhere in-between.  The base materials are called VeroWhite (rigid) and TangoBlack (flexible).  They can be combined in the same part, and blended to make shades of gray, or parts with rigid and flexible sections combined.  We print Digital Materials on our Stratasys Objet Connex350. (Technical datasheet)

Carbon Fiber We have two options for super-strong polymer parts with embedded carbon fiber.  “Onyx” is a nylon material with chopped carbon fiber mixed in, and “Continuous Carbon Fiber” is nylon with an a carbon fiber thread embedded inside.  Both produce incredibly strong plastic parts.  (Technical datasheet)

  • Coming Soon (January 2024): Farsoon HT252P

    This is a second SLS type printer for ADDFab.  It is a fully open platform that allows us to use different powdered polymer materials in the SLS process.  We have control over all of the printing parameters, so we can set them to match different polymer powder types, or customize them for powder research, or for optimizing printing quality.  The build volume of 25x25x32cm is larger than the EOS P110 (20x25x33cm) allowing us to print even larger parts.  While the P110 prints in nylon-11 and nylon-12, the new HT252P will print in nylons, TPUs (flexible), and polypropylenes.

    • Materials: Nylons, TPUs, Polypropylenes
    • Build Volume: 250 x 250 x 320 mm
    • Layer Resolution: 0.08-0.150 mm 

    farsoon-gl.com

  • EOS M290 Metal 3D Printer

    The M290 uses a laser to sinter a bed of metal powder, allowing layer by layer creation of geometrically complex, high quality metal parts. Using the M290 fully functional parts can be designed to be lighter, more complex, and better integrated into an assembly.

    • Materials: Metals, including stainless steel, nickel, and others
    • Build Volume: 250 x 250 x 325 mm
    • Laser: 100 micron focus diameter

    eos.info

  • EOS Formiga P110 3D Printer

    The Formiga P110 uses a laser to sinter a bed of plastic powder. The process facilitates the creation of batches of parts and allows complex geometries and quality builds from high strength plastic materials.

    • Material: Polyamide
    • Build Volume: 200 mm x 250 mm x 330 mm
    • Layer Resolution: 0.100 mm

    eos.info

  • CADworks 3D Profluidics Printer

    This printer was specifically designed for microfluidics research. It is a SLA DLP type printer, which projects UV light from below, to cure UV sensitive resin. It has a relatively small print volume (11x6x12cm), but very high resolution. Individual pixels can be controlled to 28.5 microns, and layers can be as thin as 30 microns. It can print in two different materials.  MasterMold is designed to print very detailed molds for molding PDMS material. The clear microfluidics resin can print internal channels as small as 80 microns and allow you to see the flow inside the device.

    • Materials: MasterMold (green), Clear Microfluidics (clear)
    • Build Volume: 110 x 60 x 120 mm

    cadworks3d.com

  • Prusa XL Printer

    The largest print volume of any printer at ADDFab, capable of printing parts up to 35x35x35cm  It is also fast and inexpensive, making it great for prototyping.  This is an “FDM” style printer that extrudes plastic filament, which is available in a wide range of materials.  The most common and least expensive is PLA, which is available many colors and styles.  We can also print in PET-G and TPU.  Printers like this one are able to print in ABS, but we do not use that material due to the hazardous fumes it generates.

    • Materials: PLAs, TPUs, PETGs
    • Build Volume: 350 x 350 x 350 mm
    • Layer thickness: 0.150-0.300 mm

    prusa3d.com

  • Stratasys Objet Connex350

    The Objet Connex350 allows the creation of parts with multiple materials. Materials can be printed separately or in specified ratios, offering a range of mechanical properties. Parts can be any blend of rigid and flexible materials, creating prototypes with different hardness durometers, or even soft overlays on rigid materials.

    • Materials: multiple proprietary plastic and rubber-like materials
    • Build Volume: 342 x 342 x 200 mm
    • Layer Resolution: 16 microns
    • Print Accuracy : 20—85 microns

    stratasys.com

  • Markforged Mark Two Printer

    The Mark Two printer switches between two nozzles to create carbon fiber, Kevlar, or fiberglass. The resulting parts have high strength to weight ratios that can be used for tooling, fixtures, and prototyping.

    • Materials: Nylon with carbon fiber, Kevlar, fiberglass
    • Build Volume: 320 x 132 x 154 mm

    markforged.com

  • GCC LaserPro Spirit GLS

    The Spirit GLS allows rapid laser cutting and 256-level grayscale engraving. In addition to cutting potentially complex geometries in materials like wood and acrylic, it can engrave aluminum.

    • Materials: Cuts acrylic and wood; engraves aluminum
    • Build Volume: 36” x 24” x 7”
    • Thickness: Up to 3/8” Acrylic

    gccworld.com

 

Internal (UMass)

External

Printing Services
SLS - EOS P110 (nylon-12) $0.09/cc $0.16/cc
FFF - Markforged Onyx and Continuous Fiber 2.5x Mat'l Cost 3.5x Mat'l Cost
Objet - Connex350 Multi-material 2.5x Mat'l Cost 3.5x Mat'l Cost
Metal - Steels & Nickel Alloys Contact us for price quote
 
Hourly Equipment
Laser Cutter (Spirit GLS 80W) $12/hour $20/hour
Wire EDM $13/hour $20/hour
 
Daily Equipment
EOS M290 (Metal DMLS) $360/day $550/day
Optomec LENS 450 (Metal DED) $250/day $400/day
 
Material Testing Equipment
Instron Electropuls E10000 $100/day $175/day
 
Engineering/Design & Lab Services
Lab Technician $50/hour $80/hour
Design Engineering (Junior) $50/hour $80/hour
Design Engineering (Senior) $135/hour $200/hour

Notes:

  1. Equipment use requires completion of safety training through UMass EH&S and paid training with ADDFab staff
  2. Support for untrained users is available at lab technician rates
  3. Please contact Dave Follette follette@umass.edu with any questions
  4. Prices effective July 1, 2023. Rates through June 30, 2024-FY24 Specialized Service Center Approved Fees

Advanced Digital Design and Fabrication (ADDFab): Printing services, research, and training in multiple advanced additive manufacturing technologies. For metal printing,the facility includes the EOS M290 for direct metal laser sintering and the Optomec LENS 450 for directed energy deposition. Materials include stainless steels, nickel alloys, cobalt-chrome alloys and other experimental metal powders. For polymer printing, the facility includes an EOS P110 selective laser sintering printer (material: PA2200, nylon-12), a Stratasys Objet Connex350 material jetting printer (VeroWhite, VeroClear, TangoBlack, UV curable materials), a MarkForged Onyx One (nylon with chopped carbon fiber) and a MarkForged Mark Two (nylon with continuous carbon fiber strands). In addition, we have a media blaster, powder unpacking station, water blaster and media tumbler for post-processing polymer parts. For software, we use Solidworks for 3D CAD modeling and Materialise Magics for STL manipulation and repair.

  • Training is available for every printer and tool in the lab. We also offer hands-on workshops for industry professionals and workforce development, in design of parts for additive manufacturing, and operation of laser-based 3D printers.

FY24 Specialized Service Center Approved Fees

Updated July 2023

The Advanced Digital Design and Fabrication Lab (ADDFab) is available for use by academic institutions, industry, and the local community.

ADDFab has an array of cutting-edge, industrial-grade, 3D printers.

ADDFab has three primary goals in serving this diverse customer base: (1) Engineer and print great parts in metals and polymers, (2) support academic research, and (3) provide training and educational opportunities.

1. Engineer and Print Great Parts

M290

Two metal printers utilize fine metal powders to build parts as large as 25x25x30cm with detail as fine as 250um. The EOS M290 is a powder bed system that uses direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) to build parts layer by layer while the LENS 450 is a directed energy deposition (DED) system which deposits lines of metal and can produce parts from custom metal alloys.

Three polymer printers span three different printing technologies. The EOS P110 is a powder bed nylon printer that uses selective laser sintering (SLS) to produce parts. It has a build area of 23x20x30cm and can produce detail as fine as 250um. The primary advantage of the SLS process is that it does not require support structures for overhanging parts, so it can print extremely complex and delicate geometries with ease. EOS-P110The Connex350 is a multi-material printer that can print both flexible and rigid materials in one part, and even mix the materials to adjust material properties and colors. The Markforged printers extrude nylon filament in a fused filament fabrication (FFF) process and can print in nylon infused with chopped carbon fiber (Onyx), or embed a continuous strand of fiberglass, Kevlar, or carbon fiber into each layer.

For customers who need engineering or design support to get parts (or ideas!) ready for printing, we offer engineering consulting on an hourly basis with either undergraduate students or experienced engineers.

2. Support Academic Research

The ADDFab facilities are available for use as-a-service where our staff does all of the printing, but also for dedicated use on a daily or weekly basis. Training is available where students and faculty can learn to use the equipment and then use it to conduct their own research on additive manufacturing.

We also provide printing services and engineering support for faculty in all academic departments.

3. Training and Educational Opportunities

ADDFab supports undergraduate and graduate courses in additive manufacturing by printing parts, providing tours, and training students on how to use the equipment. We are actively partnering with student groups and secondary schools as well.

For industry and the local community, ADDFab hosts a series of workshops on additive manufacturing. These are intended to broaden the understanding of how 3D printing will affect the manufacturing industry and to provide hands-on skills using industrial-grade 3D printing technology. Both types of courses are offered throughout the year.

If you have questions regarding how to work with ADDFab on a future project, please contact us at addfab@umass.edu. We look forward to working together!