Empire Group and Fortify Announce Strategic Partnership
Empire Group, a leading full-service product development and advanced digital manufacturer and Fortify, the leading provider of DLP Composite 3D Printers, are formally announcing their strategic partnership. Bringing Fortify’s advanced technology together with Empire Group’s leading hands-on manufacturing experience delivers precision parts for mission-critical applications.
Fortify’s patented Digital Composite Manufacturing platform is in production use at Empire Group and allows their team to develop and deliver parts that are stronger, tougher and more wear-resistant than any other 3D-printed photopolymers. Fortify’s FluxprintTM fiber alignment introduces and aligns fiber and particle additives into the base materials to dial in specific functional capabilities.
Depending on the specific type and alignment of the additives introduced, the resulting parts can have increased strength, wear resistance, dielectric constant, conductivity, toughness and/or heat deflection temperature. In addition, the technology delivers industry-leading surface finish and tolerances.
“Working closely with the team at Fortify has been an excellent collaboration for Empire Group,” said Jason Enos, Founder & CEO of Empire Group. “Our medical device and consumer products customers are extremely demanding and our ability to rapidly shoot and iterate parts in end-use engineered materials like Ultem and glass-reinforced nylon has been a game-changer for them in terms of surface finish, product quality and turnaround time.”
The breadth of capabilities delivered by Fortify’s printers, materials and software allows the Empire Group team to work with their clients to design and develop uniquely complex, precision parts including:
Highly Engineered End-Use Parts – Fortify’s composite-reinforced polymers and z-axis reinforcement deliver performance that exceeds any other 3D printed parts.
Rapid Injection Molded Parts – Fortify printed injection mold tooling allows Empire Group to go from design to mold to shooting parts in days rather than weeks or months – perfect for rapid iterations and low- to mid-volume production applications, even with difficult-to-use resins.
Complex Parts for RF Applications – filling low-loss polymers with dielectric ceramic additives delivers ground-breaking performance for RF communication systems.
ESD Parts – fiber alignment and material selection can custom tailor parts for specific antistatic, dissipative or conductive applications such as jigs and fixtures for electronics manufacturing.
“Our partnership with Empire Group has pushed our thinking on both rapid injection mold tooling and complex end-use parts” said Josh Martin, Founder & CEO of Fortify. “Receiving real-time end customer feedback gives us powerful data to improve our printer and material designs. We look forward to expanding our relationship with Empire Group down the road.”
Empire Group is currently accepting orders for printed end-use and rapid injection molded parts leveraging the Fortify DCM platform.
About Fortify:
Fortify is transforming the 3D printing industry with its patented DCM (Digital Composite Manufacturing) platform. DCM delivers new levels of additively manufactured part performance by introducing functional additives to photopolymers. By combining a deep understanding of material science with high-performance mixing, magnetics, and polymer physics, Fortify is able to produce custom microstructures in high-resolution 3D printed parts. The company is currently focused on applications ranging from injection mold tooling to high-performance end-use parts with unique mechanical and electromagnetic properties. Founded in 2016 and based in Boston, Fortify technology enables material properties and components unattainable using other additive or traditional manufacturing processes. For more information, visit www.3dfortify.com.
About Empire Group:
Empire Group is a full-service product development and advanced manufacturing company located in Attleboro, MA. For over 20 years, we have provided customized and advanced solutions to manufacturers on the East Coast, and across the US, within the consumer goods, defense, medical device, aerospace/aviation, automotive, juvenile and toy industries. For more information, visit www.empiregroupusa.com.