Owens Corning: Creating the perfect materials for customer solutions

Owens Corning, a global powerhouse in fiberglass composites, roofing, and insulation, has joined forces with Ultimaker to enhance the 3D printing experience for users. By developing specialized material profiles for Ultimaker Cura, they’ve unlocked a host of advantages not just for their customers but for the company itself.

Operating with a robust workforce of over 19,000 employees across the globe, Owens Corning has established advanced 3D printing labs in Ohio, USA, and Chambéry, France. Among their standout innovations is the XSTRAND™ line of composite materials, a game–changer in industrial applications. Designed for precision and durability, XSTRAND™ offers exceptional thermal and mechanical performance and is fully compatible with Ultimaker S5. These materials empower users to craft highly specialized items tailored for diverse needs, spanning tools, appliances, electronics, and more.

XSTRAND™ is an engineered material that contains 30% glass fiber and now we are combining it with a 3D printable filament. It is designed to be used indoors, outdoors and for many types of applications.

Refinement of profiles

To help customers get the most out of the XSTRAND™ range, Owens Corning has worked with Ultimaker engineers to create optimized material profiles that are now available in Ultimaker Cura. These profiles have been customized specifically for the XSTRAND™ range so users can simply select the material they are printing with without having to manually configure multiple settings.

This eliminates the hassle of finding the right filament setting, allowing Owens Corning customers to save time and print what they want right from the start.

It’s very simple. Simply upload your design, select the material you will use – for example XSTRAND™ from the available list – and it will automatically fill in all the settings for you.

As a result of this close collaboration with Ultimaker, Owens Corning customers can now achieve the best possible quality for their prints, making prototyping and end-use products faster and easier.

Additive manufacturing as an in-house solution

According to Adam Davis, Front End Innovation additive engineer at Owens Corning, one of the company’s biggest challenges is creating its own custom tools and devices for use across the company.

Long lead times from external manufacturers and high costs slow down the production process. When parts arrive, they are often not fit for purpose, so they need to be reworked, quickly and cheaply.

The company is currently using 3D printing to solve many of its needs. Last year logged more than 17,000 hours of printing, with printers typically running 24/7. They use the Ultimaker S5 because they need a printer that can reliably handle composite printing and other high demands.

An example of an item printed in-house is a custom protector in the roofing factory, as traditional in-line manufacturing was not possible. This must protect a sensitive component in a very hot, high-speed, harsh manufacturing environment. A material was needed that provided mechanical strength, chemical resistance and temperature resistance. Using XSTRAND™ and an Ultimaker S5, the company was able to produce and iterate the part at a fraction of the cost and time it would have taken if it had been outsourced.

Leadership through collaboration

Both Owens Corning and Ultimaker are committed to solving real-world problems and addressing industry-specific needs. The ability to accurately and reliably print prototypes and final parts plays an important role in this. Taking the guesswork out of media settings makes this easier and gives customers a complete printing ecosystem that they know will work right out of the box.

When customers realize that they have this Ultimaker S5 dedicated to the industrial environment, for people like me who want to use a materials printer like the XSTRAND™, I think that’s great. It’s no longer just for the classroom; it’s for factories, it’s for development work.

For Owens Corning, 3D printing has revolutionized not only how they work, but also the services they can offer their customers. Working alongside Ultimaker has resulted in a comprehensive service offering that would never have been possible using traditional thinking.

Being open and enthusiastic about collaborating in innovative ways means that both companies are now able to offer specific solutions to real customer concerns.