The world of toy making has come a long way since the early days of hand-carved wooden soldiers and china dolls with hand-painted faces. Now, DSM is bringing back some of this hand-crafted approach to toy manufacturing by introducing a new stereolithography material — Somos® Imagine 8000, a material that can be used to create toy prototypes one layer at a time.

Somos® Imagine 8000 offers the $85 billion dollar toy market the perfect prototyping solution. Parts made with this material are durable, accurate and have excellent resistance to water and humidity. Somos® Imagine 8000’s low viscosity makes processing and finishing simple, while leaving smooth, white finishes that are easy to paint or dye to develop colorful prototypes—ideal for play, collecting or educational purposes.

Kelly Hawkinson, Global Marketing Manager Somos® Materials by DSM, says, “Somos® Imagine 8000 creates durable and accurate parts with dimensional stability that are ideal for the toy market.  The toy market is all about imagination and creativity, and we are excited to see all the new ideas and products that will be stimulated with this material — from action figures, toy trucks and building blocks to space ships and beyond.”

Toy Boat Additively Manufactured from Somos® Imagine 8000 (Photo Courtesy of DSM)

DSM is working together with rapid prototyping and tooling company Shanghai Union Technology to offer this new product to the toy market in China.

“We are excited to offer the Somos® Imagine 8000 as the toy market is a key market for us. It is very important to have a high quality, durable material that our customers can trust,” says Mr. Jason Ma, VP of Shanghai Union Technology Co., Ltd.

Somos® Imagine 8000 will push the imaginations of toy designers for years to come.

DSM – Bright Science. Brighter Living.™
Royal DSM is a global science-based company active in health, nutrition and materials. By connecting its unique competences in Life Sciences and Materials Sciences DSM is driving economic prosperity, environmental progress and social advances to create sustainable value for all stakeholders. DSM delivers innovative solutions that nourish, protect and improve performance in global markets such as food and dietary supplements, personal care, feed, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, automotive, paints, electrical and electronics, life protection, alternative energy and bio-based materials.

DSM’s 23,500 employees deliver annual net sales of around € 9 billion. The company is listed on NYSE Euronext. More information can be found at www.dsm.com.

Somos^® Stereolithography Materials by DSM
In the area of Additive Manufacturing, DSM is a leading innovator of high-performance Somos^® materials for stereolithography—a distinct and unique subset of the additive manufacturing process. More information about these products can be found at www.dsm.com/somos.

Shanghai Union Technology Co., Ltd.
Shanghai Union Technology Co., Ltd, also known as Shanghai Union-tech is one of the largest and leading rapid prototyping systems providers in mainland China focused on the continual research and development of cutting edge SL machines.  They currently offer multiple SL machines including the RS3500, RS4500, RS6000 and RS8000.  Their main focus is on sales to service bureaus and OEMs in the region, as well as application development for rapid prototyping and tooling technology.  They continue to experience year on year growth in this market and have currently sold over 100 SL machines.  They have also expanded sales of equipment outside mainland China.  They currently have partnerships with Somos® Materials for SL resins and Materialise for software.

For more information:
DSM Functional Materials
Heather Natal
Senior Communications Specialist
Tel. +1-847-214-3838
[email protected]

Somos^® is a trademark of DSM.  Use of these trademarks is strictly prohibited unless authorized.

Forward-looking statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements with respect to DSM’s future (financial) performance and position.  Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections of DSM and information currently available to the company.  DSM cautions readers that such statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict and therefore it should be understood that many factors can cause actual performance and position to differ materially from these statements.  DSM has no obligation to update the statements contained this press release, unless require by law.