3D printing design challenge to integrate and accelerate today’s industrial manufacturing processes

Brussels, BELGIUM June 24, 2021

Solvay is partnering with L’Oréal, the world’s beauty leader, and Ultimaker, the global leader in professional 3D printing, to launch the third edition of its international Additive Manufacturing (AM) Cup competition. The contest gives students, engineers and manufacturers from around the world  the chance to demonstrate their aptitude for 3D printing and create an innovative design for a 3D-printed real application.

Solvay has taken a lead in the rapidly evolving AM market and offers a growing range of specialty polymer filaments for applications in today’s most challenging industries.

“Solvay’s AM Cup was introduced to showcase Solvay’s array of AM ready filaments and their potential for diverse complex industrial uses,” explained Brian Alexander, AM Global Product & Application Manager at Solvay. “We are pleased to collaborate with L’Oréal who offer a tangible and challenging industrial application and partner with Ultimaker to 3D print our candidates’ designs for assessment. Solvay continues to build a robust and diversified AM ecosystem encompassing key partnerships in the value chain to offer our customers high-performance 3D printable polymers and meet the rapid developments of a once niche-technology.”

Ultimaker S5 with the Air Manager, offering reliable dual extrusion, predefined print-settings, advanced active leveling, filament flow sensors and a seamless integration between hardware, software, and materials. Photo: Ultimaker

This partnership aims to develop a real-word industrial application, revolutionizing production line agility, and further accentuates the importance of optimizing materials, hardware and processes together when designing a successful 3D printing project. 

“L’Oréal has a long history of encouraging innovation and engineering excellence. With this competition, we are proud to continue this tradition, offering the possibility to tackle a real-world industrial problem using 3D printing to accelerate agility,” said Matthew Forrester, Head of Material Transformation & Recycling Science at L’Oréal.

The disruptive solutions offered by 3D printing technology enable complex geometric forms that cannot be made using conventional manufacturing technologies such as injection molding or machining, thereby accelerating the integration of 3D printing to greatly facilitate the manufacturing process.

“We are proud to support the Solvay AM Cup by offering our expertise and 3D printing facilities to help the young engineers turn their ideas into physical applications,” said Miguel Calvo, CTO at Ultimaker. “It is a fantastic initiative that enables young professionals and engineers to leverage the full Ultimaker ecosystem to design an application for L’Oréal that increases their productivity, and at the same time creates flexibility in their production line. Solvay's high-performance AM-ready materials meet the needs of our customers' most challenging applications.”

The material to be used has been specifically chosen from Solvay’s portfolio of high-performance filaments and powders for 3D printing comprising Solef® polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), KetaSpire® polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and Radel® polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) filaments, which include medical and carbon fiber filled grades.

Candidates are invited to consult the competition details and register their interest in participating on Solvay ’s AM Cup portal by Sept. 30, 2021 the latest.

The competition will start on Sept. 1, 2021 and run through to mid-November.

The winner will be announced in January 2022 and will receive a 5,000 EUR prize from Solvay to be reinvested in academic, societal or entrepreneurial activities, an Ultimaker 2+ Connect printer and a high-profile tour of L’Oréal’s production facilities.

^® Solef, KetaSpire, Radel are registered trademarks of Solvay.

About Solvay

Solvay is a science company whose technologies bring benefits to many aspects of daily life. With more than 23,000 employees in 64 countries, Solvay bonds people, ideas and elements to reinvent progress. The Group seeks to create sustainable shared value for all, notably through its Solvay One Planet plan crafted around three pillars: protecting the climate, preserving resources and fostering better life. The Group’s innovative solutions contribute to safer, cleaner, and more sustainable products found in homes, food and consumer goods, planes, cars, batteries, smart devices, health care applications, water and air purification systems. Founded in 1863, Solvay today ranks among the world’s top three companies for the vast majority of its activities and delivered net sales of €9 billion in 2020. Solvay is listed on Euronext Brussels (SOLB) and Paris and in the United States, where its shares (SOLVY) are traded through a Level I ADR program. Learn more at www.solvay.com.

About L'Oréal

L’Oréal has devoted itself to beauty for over 100 years. With its unique international portfolio of 35 diverse and complementary brands, the Group generated sales amounting to 27.99 billion euros in 2020 and employs 85,400 people worldwide. As the world’s leading beauty company, L’Oréal is present across all distribution networks: mass market, department stores, pharmacies and drugstores, hair salons, travel retail, branded retail and e-commerce. Research and innovation, and a dedicated research team of 4,000 people, are at the core of L’Oréal’s strategy, working to meet beauty aspirations all over the world. L’Oréal sets out ambitious sustainable development goals across the Group for 2030 and aims to empower its ecosystem for a more inclusive and sustainable society.

About Ultimaker

Established in 2011, Ultimaker is on a mission to accelerate the world’s transformation to flexible, empowering and sustainable solutions. 380 employees collaborate globally to deliver a platform that enables customers to take full advantage of the unique Ultimaker Ecosystem that offers the largest diversity of 3D printing products and services in the industry. Ultimaker provides a seamless integration of hardware, software and materials that simply works.

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Enrico Zanini
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Solvay’s range of AM ready materials comprises (from left to right): KetaSpire® PEEK AM Filament â–ª Solef ® PVDF AM Filament â–ª KetaSpire® PEEK AM Filament CF10 â–ª Radel® PPSU AM Filament

Photo: Solvay

Agile manufacturing used for lipstick manufacture within one of L’Oréal’s production facilities.

Photo: L’Oréal

Ultimaker S5 with the Air Manager, offering reliable dual extrusion, predefined print-settings, advanced active leveling, filament flow sensors and a seamless integration between hardware, software, and materials.

Photo: Ultimaker