In automated warehouse bumper assemblies, the Rigur rubber-like PolyJet material set is produced on a Stratasys Connex3 platform by jetting TangoBlackPlus FLX980 or TangoPlus FLX930 as the primary energy-absorbing elastomer and Digital ABS Plus Ivory as the rigid secondary component. The rubber phase has a published Shore hardness of 26–28 Shore A per ASTM D2240, tensile strength 0.8–1.5 MPa per ASTM D412, elongation at break 170–220% per ASTM D412, and die C tear resistance 2.4–4.5 kg/cm per ASTM D624. The rubber-like layer is deposited at 16 µm or 30 µm layer height, while the Digital ABS Plus Ivory backer forms the rigid side of the same digital build. Because material jetting produces anisotropic tensile and tear properties, the bumper pad is oriented so that impact load acts normal to the layer plane; tear strength measured across layer interfaces falls below the datasheet range and must not be used for the primary energy path. The Digital ABS Plus Ivory carrier is printed with a 2.0 mm minimum wall and is bolted to the AGV frame through machined holes; thread-forming screws are inserted with low-speed torque control to avoid delamination along the layer plane. After support removal, the TangoBlackPlus pad is cleaned according to the prescribed PolyJet support removal process; prolonged immersion in heated alkaline solution softens the elastomer surface, so dwell time is limited to the shortest interval specified for the support grade. In service, the assembly is used as a low-rate impact damper for pallet shuttle stops. Published impact-energy absorption data for the TangoBlackPlus–Digital ABS Plus sandwich configuration is limited; replacement of a solid polyurethane bumper must be validated on an instrumented load-cell impact fixture that records force-time response at the expected AGV closing speed.

What limits the sealing performance of a TangoBlackPlus gasket printed directly onto a Digital ABS Plus Ivory connector shell?

The limiting variables are compression-set behaviour of TangoBlackPlus FLX980 and tear resistance at the digital-material interface. In automotive wiring-harness firewall pass-through prototypes, the sealing bead is printed from TangoBlackPlus FLX980 and the snap-fit shell from Digital ABS Plus Ivory in a single Connex build. The bead is designed for 20–30% compressive strain at installed stack height; under room-temperature conditions the material returns to near-original thickness after short-term unloading, but at elevated service temperatures the rubber network exhibits time-dependent compression set, so additional initial compression or a harder digital blend is required when continuous temperature exceeds the manufacturer’s room-temperature datasheet conditions. The sealing bead is printed at 16 µm layer thickness to reduce staircase roughness on the sealing surface; roughness after support removal is low enough for dust-bath testing, but the material alone carries no IP rating because sealing is a system-level result of bead geometry, panel flatness, and closure force. The digital interface must not be located at the seal corner where repeated insertion of the connector body starts a tear; the interface is moved into the rigid shell by at least 1.0 mm. Digital ABS Plus Ivory is used for snap-fit retention features with a minimum root radius of 0.5 mm; sharper internal notches reduce the snap-fit travel before fracture because the layer interface acts as a notch-sensitive plane. The digital-material assignment in Objet Studio replaces a two-component liquid silicone overmoulding operation but does not match the high-temperature compression set of a post-cured silicone elastomer.

Robotic soft-jaw pads for glass vial handling are printed with TangoPlus FLX930 as the compliant contact face and Digital ABS Plus Ivory as the locating and mounting base. The soft pad is divided into a grid of 2.0 mm circular posts separated by 1.5 mm gaps, increasing local compliance without raising overall pad thickness beyond 4.0 mm. TangoPlus FLX930 has Shore hardness 26–28 Shore A per ASTM D2240 and tensile elongation 170–220% per ASTM D412; the posts conform to glass surfaces under low clamping pressure and reduce surface marking. The Digital ABS Plus Ivory base is machined on a three-axis CNC mill after printing to achieve parallelism across the jaw mounting face; a two-flute carbide cutter at low feed is used because the material edges chip when tool exit occurs at the layer interface. The soft pad is replaced after an initial run determined by in-line inspection because published fatigue-life data for TangoPlus FLX930 under shear-dominant cyclic loading is limited. TangoPlus FLX930 is not recommended for continuous contact with hot aqueous cleaning agents above room-temperature operating limits; in pharmaceutical packaging areas, cleaning validation is performed under the site-specific clean-in-place regime before deployment. The digital transition is kept at least 1.0 mm behind the pad perimeter so that free-edge compression does not peel the soft layer from the rigid base. The resulting end-of-arm tooling replaces custom-moulded silicone jaws for short-run cosmetics and pharmaceutical bottling formats.

Display bezel gasket and enclosure seal prototypes with TangoBlackPlus FLX980 over a Digital ABS Plus Ivory frame

For consumer electronics design verification, a flexible perimeter gasket is printed in TangoBlackPlus FLX980 directly onto a Digital ABS Plus Ivory housing frame in one Connex build, forming an enclosure seal without secondary adhesive. The gasket is a half-round bead with 0.8 mm compressed height and 1.2 mm width; at 20% compression the contact width broadens enough to cover a moulded housing tolerance of ±0.1 mm. Shore hardness 26–28 Shore A per ASTM D2240 keeps closure force low, but tensile strength 0.8–1.5 MPa per ASTM D412 limits the maximum retained strain in thin lip sections. Lip features thinner than 0.5 mm are avoided because they tear at the base during support removal or first compression. The Digital ABS Plus Ivory frame is selected for its rigid, opaque ivory surface that shows gap conditions during display assembly; screw bosses are oriented vertically in the build to place thread loads across the layer plane rather than along it. The gasket loses a measurable portion of its initial contact force over 72 h at room temperature because of viscoelastic creep; the design pre-compresses the bead an additional 0.2 mm above the static requirement, and the clamped assembly is retorqued after 24 h where hermetic sealing is required. The digital interface is treated as a critical weakness: the gasket root is embedded in a 0.6 mm channel in the frame to convert peel-dominated stress at the free edge into shear-dominated stress across a wider bond area. Enclosure sealing is validated with dust ingress under IEC 60529 test conditions; the material combination alone carries no IP rating. The prototype is a display bezel for a ruggedized handheld terminal in which the black elastomer hides particulate accumulation and the ivory frame simulates the final ABS housing.

Because TangoPlus FLX930 is a low-modulus, high-elongation material, it is used in multi-material PolyJet anatomical models where Digital ABS Plus Ivory represents calcified structures and rigid fixtures. The soft phase is assigned to vascular, subcutaneous, and organ regions that require puncture and suture placement; tensile elongation 170–220% per ASTM D412 permits needle insertion and approximate self-sealing for training, although the self-sealing behaviour of the printed photopolymer is not equivalent to living tissue. Digital ABS Plus Ivory is used for bone segments, rib cages, and fixture bases because it provides a hard stop during instrument contact and prevents the soft-tissue model from sagging under its own weight. The print is prepared with a discrete boundary between TangoPlus FLX930 and Digital ABS Plus Ivory, not a gradient, to preserve tactile contrast between soft tissue and hard tissue. The soft region is printed at 16 µm layer thickness and the rigid base at 30 µm layer thickness; both are cured in the same jetting pass, so no secondary adhesive is required. The model must be evaluated under the clinical simulation centre’s infection-control protocol; glutaraldehyde or alcohol-based disinfectants may alter surface tack and hardness. Needle tracks in TangoPlus FLX930 become tear-initiation sites after repeated insertions; radial suture pads are therefore printed as separate replaceable segments. Instrumentation guides in Digital ABS Plus Ivory are reinforced with metal sleeves where repeated trocar insertion would gouge the rigid material. Published data for cyclic needle-insertion life of TangoPlus FLX930 is limited, so model replacement life is established by visual and tactile inspection during the first training cohort.

When a TangoPlus FLX930 midsole is combined with a Digital ABS Plus Ivory heel counter, what process limits determine the cushioning durability?

When a TangoPlus FLX930 midsole is combined with a Digital ABS Plus Ivory heel counter in a footwear concept model, the process limits are set by the material jetting layer height, the low tensile strength of the Tango phase, and the tear strength at the printed interface. The midsole is built bottom-up with the soft material occupying the lower region and the heel counter printed as a 1.5 mm shell bonded to the posterior face. TangoPlus FLX930 has Shore hardness 26–28 Shore A per ASTM D2240 and tensile strength 0.8–1.5 MPa per ASTM D412; these values limit the midsole’s ability to store high strain energy under repeated drop impact. The midsole geometry is a honeycomb lattice with 6.0 mm cell diameter and 1.2 mm wall thickness, producing structural collapse within the material’s elongation bound rather than through a foam-like void network. Because PolyJet creates solid voxel constructs rather than thermoplastic foam, the printed midsole has a higher density than a compression-moulded ethylene-vinyl acetate foam of the same shore hardness; it is used for geometry validation, last-shape verification, and assembly checking rather than field wear testing. Published cushioning energy-return data under instrumented impact standards is limited for this digital-material combination; a drop-tower force-time history is required for any quantitative comparison to foam midsole data. The interface between the soft midsole and the rigid heel counter is a process risk: during simulated heel strike the soft material folds along the edge of the rigid shell, and interfacial separation initiates if the local tensile stress exceeds the digital transition bond strength. The mitigation is to graduate the interface with a 2.0 mm digital blend zone where the Connex system interpolates between TangoPlus and Digital ABS Plus, distributing the modulus gradient instead of leaving a sharp notch. After support removal, the part is allowed to recover at 23 °C for 72 h before dimensional inspection; no thermal annealing above 40 °C is applied because the Tango phase softens and may distort under its own weight. The resulting prototype is used for flex-line observation and assembly check against the outer upper; it is not a production midsole material.