Highly Innovative System Solutions
The up-and-coming 3D printer manufacturer
dp polar, in which ALTANA has
held a stake since 2017, used ACTEGA’s
knowhow in materials development to
launch a 3D printing solution that offers
customers from a wide range of sectors,
including the automotive, aerospace, and
medical technology industries, complete-
ly new possibilities for manufacturing their
products.
AMpolar® i2 is the world’s first 3D
printing system with a continuously rotating
print platform. In contrast to previ-
ous processes, it is not the print head that
moves, but the area on which printing
takes place. This enables high-precision
components to be produced up to 20
times faster. In addition, components with
different degrees of hardness can be
printed simultaneously, for example orthopedic
prostheses.
In the field of 2D printing, ALTANA has a
share in the Israeli technology company
Landa Digital Printing as part of a strategic
partnership. The nanography technology
developed by Landa opens up possibilities
in digital printing that were
previously either technically impossible to
implement or so expensive that the solution
would not have made it beyond the
niche. BYK delivers high performance
additives – an important prerequisite for
formulating the special printing inks
needed for the technology.
Maximum Added Value for Customers
ALTANA’s internal start-up ACTEGA Metal
Print, in turn, is launching a method for
packaging metallization that requires considerably
less material, costs, and pro-
duction time than the processes commonly
used previously. A separate printer is
not required for this purpose; instead, the
Looking to the Future 29
technology is mounted as an attachment
on existing machines. Both ECKART and
BYK contribute specialist knowledge in the
field of pigment development and sta-
bilization or provide additives for these
developments.
With its digital “Direct to Shape” highspeed
printing, Velox, in which ALTANA
has a stake, also brings disruptive technolo-
gies to the ALTANA Group. “Velox also
requires special inks, the further development
of which is our core competence,”
says Dr. Severit.
Creating system solutions that generate
maximum added value for custom-
ers – how does that work? Dr. Severit has
the answer: “The diversity of our com-
petencies drives innovation along the entire
value chain.”
New technologies are tested in the ALTANA Group’s digital printing competence
center in Lehrte.
ACTEGA experts align inks with the different printing systems.