3D Printing at Injection Molding Speed
with STEP Technology

High-Quality Thermoplastic Parts – Fast // Instead of waiting several months for tooling to be made, you can have your parts made in a week or two using the STEP technology – without tooling. This can help you accelerate your new product development efforts.

Print Multiple Parts in a Single Build // The STEP technology enables parts to be tightly nested in a single build space, enabling you to produce multiple parts at the same time without compromising print speed.

Accelerate New Product Development // Because parts can be produced quickly using the STEP technology without tooling, it can help you bring new products to market faster and expand your company’s competitive edge.

Excellent Surface Quality // The STEP technology produces parts with a smooth surface finish that doesn’t require post-processing.

Flexible Post-Processing // If it is required, parts produced using the STEP technology can be post-processed the same as any thermoplastic parts.

Fine Features // The STEP technology enables you to print part designs with fine features, small holes and complex geometries. It can accommodate thin walls without warping, which is sometimes a problem for other additive technologies.

Tight Tolerances // The STEP technology can achieve tolerances that are comparable to CNC machining – tighter than additive technologies or injection molding.

All of the Toughness of Thermoplastics // Parts produced using the STEP technology have good dimensional stability for use in hot, humid environments. They also have excellent chemical resistance to acids, bases, water and alcohol (commonly found in hand sanitizers), just like injection-molded thermoplastics.

Produce Production Parts with the Same Materials as Prototypes // STEP enables customers to go from prototype to production parts quickly and easily.

Minimal Design Restrictions // Many additive technologies require designers to convert thick wall designs to lattices to reduce print time and material use. STEP has no such restriction. It prints and deposits layers every 6 seconds, regardless of their complexity. STEP can handle sharp corners, thin-to-thick wall transitions and no draft – design features that tend to be problematic for injection molded parts.

Support Removal // When printing is complete, parts are completely encased in a soluble support material. It’s easily cleaned from open surfaces, but it may be hard to remove from cavities, blind holes and trapped areas.

Build Size // The maximum build envelope for parts produced using the STEP technology is currently 24 x 12 x 4 inches, not as large as some other additive technologies. Evolve is working on expanding the build size.

Limited Materials // The STEP technology currently only produces parts from ABS. A high-performance grade of Nylon will be offered soon.

Like any thermoplastic parts, parts produced using the STEP technology can be attached or bonded to other components. Inserts can be added to parts after they are processed.

Talk to an expert at Fathom today to discuss your STEP post-processing needs.

Vapor Smoothing

Fathom offers AMT’s PostPro3D technology, a smart and automated post-processing solution for smoothing STEP printed parts. PostPro3D can achieve a high-quality surface finish that matches injection molding techniques when using 3D printing processes.