Kao Corporation

Takuma Kimura

Tadanori Yoshimura

Jouji Hirai

Hiroki Sawada

The soluble material for three-dimensional modeling of the present invention is a soluble material for three-dimensional modeling that is used as a material of a support material that supports a three-dimensional object when manufacturing the three-dimensional object with a fused deposition modeling type 3D printer. The soluble material for three-dimensional modeling contains at least one polymer and at least one filler. In the soluble material for three-dimensional modeling, the filler is a fibrous filler having a fiber length of 0.02 &#x3bc;m to 1,000 &#x3bc;m and a fiber diameter of 0.0001 &#x3bc;m to 20 &#x3bc;m and/or a flat filler having a particle size of 0.1 &#x3bc;m to 20 &#x3bc;m and a thickness of 0.01 &#x3bc;m to 10 &#x3bc;m. The content of the filler is 0.01 part by mass to 200 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the polymer. According to the present invention, foaming and a decrease of the accuracy of a three-dimensional object can be suppressed even when the soluble material for three-dimensional modeling is used in manufacture of the three-dimensional object with a 3D printer after being exposed to high humidity.

Soluble material for three-dimensional molding

The soluble material for three-dimensional modeling that is used as a material of a support material that supports a three-dimensional object when manufacturing the three-dimensional object with a fused deposition modeling type 3D printer. The soluble material for three-dimensional modeling includes at least one copolymer comprising a specific hydrophilic monomer unit and a specific hydrophobic monomer unit. The present invention has a glass transition temperature suitable for the FDM system, has a high dissolution rate in an alkaline aqueous solution, can be quickly removed from a precursor of a three-dimensional object, and makes it possible to suppress or reduce damage to a three-dimensional object.

A soluble material for three-dimensional modeling, which is used as a raw material of a support material for supporting a three-dimensional object when the three-dimensional object is produced, using a 3D printer of a FDM system, includes a polyester resin including one or more aromatic dicarboxylic acid monomer units A with a sulfonate group, one or more dicarboxylic acid monomer units B without a sulfonate group, and one or more diol monomer units. The proportion of the aromatic dicarboxylic acid monomer unit(s) A in the total of all dicarboxylic acid monomer units is from 10 to 70 mol %. The soluble material has hygroscopicity resistance while the material is large in dissolution rate into any neutral water and removable speedily from a precursor of the three-dimensional object without using any aqueous strong alkaline solution.

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Tokyo, Japan

Takuma Kimura