Introducing Fine Silica Fillers to Improve Performance and Reduce Cost of 3D Printing Resins

EXTON, Pa., February 4, 2021 – To enhance the properties and performance of 3D printing resins, AGC Chemicals Americas introduces the SOLESPHERE™ family of fine silica gels. SOLESPHERE products help to improve product quality, increase performance properties and improve processing efficiencies for all three major 3D printing processes – photopolymerization, material extrusion and powder bed fusion. Using SOLESPHERE fine silica gels as fillers can reduce the cost of 3D printing build resins. They can also add desirable performance characteristics like dimensional stability, temperature properties and tensile strength.

Spherical SOLESPHERE silica gels have a smooth surface, large particle size and low surface area, all of which help to lower the viscosity in the final resin formulations. With purity over 99%, SOLESPHERE fine silica gels do not alter the physical properties or chemical interactions in the polymer matrix of the resin. Their low particle size distribution provides consistent results for each batch of material, and their active chemical surface enables good chemical bonding and interactions with resins and other fillers.

SOLESPHERE silica gels also impart high tensile strength, increased stiffness/flexural strength, improved dimensional stability, easy dispersion in a polymer matrix, thermal resistance and improved heat deflection temperature. They also help to mitigate phase separation and delay the settling process during storage.

SOLESPHERE silica gels have particle sizes from 3 to 20 μm, pore diameters up to 120 Å and surface areas from 40 to 800 m²/g.

AGC offers four lines of SOLESPHERE silica gels:

• Multi-porous H-Series: High Specific Surface Area
• Multi-porous H-Series: High Oil Absorption Capacity
• Multi-porous L-Series: Low Specific Surface Area
• Nonporous NP-Series

For more details, visit the SOLESPHERE silica gels for 3D printing resins webpage.