Among the multitude of Rapid + TCT announcements, Stratasys showed off the impressive capabilities of its upgraded J750 PolyJet 3D printer alongside the brand new J735. Both can print over 500,000 color combinations in addition to textures and transparent parts — all in the same print.

It’s May now, but we still want to talk about April’s Rapid + TCT show. Such is the indelible mark the event leaves on the 3D printing industry, with big names making bigger announcements.

One such big fish is Stratasys, which took the opportunity to show off its upgraded J750 3D printer. Using PolyJet 3D printing tech, the machine is positioned as the company’s top-spec multi-material, multi-color production 3D printer.

Via a new color pack offering for the printer, Stratasys allows for what it claims is highly accurate color matching. In short, the ability to take photo realistic models and render them virtually perfectly in physical form from over 500,000 colors.

This is possible due the to software and printer’s control of the print at the voxel level. Granting control of a print (volumetric) pixel by pixel, advanced results that leverage 6 materials when printing means nigh product worthy prototypes (within a single print) are a reality.

Thanks to the company’s GrabCAD Print software (which has also gotten some love lately, with operability with the Connex3 printer added), this advancement expands further to improving and simplifying the design-to-print workflow.

Statasys Ups Its Game for Realistic Prototypes

Coinciding with this betterment of the J750 printer, Stratasys also announced an all new machine in the J735. The new J735 is fundamentally the same as the J750, but offers a narrowing of the build size, at 350 x 350 x 200mm compared to the J750’s 490 x 390 x 200mm.

That, and two new materials offering better representations of yellow to red colors, including tinted translucency such as one might find on car light housings, were revealed. This is especially pertinent for the automotive industry, one increasingly looking to AM for parts and models during the design process.

In a release from Stratasys, Reinhard Schiechel & Dr. Tim Spiering of Audi’s Model shop and 3D printing center said “we are able to produce prototypes with incredible realism, such as the transparent multi-color covers for our tail lights. This can offer the texture and color-matching requirements to meet our design approval process,“.

Rich Garrity, President Americas of Stratasys continues in the same release: “Some of the biggest challenges designers and manufacturers face are 3D printed prototypes that fail to deliver the realism necessary to make them actionable.“. In the upgraded J750 and new J735, the company hopes it offers the solution.