| abstract |
Disclosed are high-performance thermoplastic materials used in building a three-dimensional model and its supports, by fused deposition modeling techniques. A modeling material used to build a model (26) is comprised of a thermoplastic resin having a heat deflection temperature of greater than 120°C. An amorphous thermoplastic resin which self-laminates, bonds weakly to the modeling material, has a heat deflection temperature similar to the heat deflection temperature of the modeling material, and has a tensile strength of between 34 MPa [5000 psi] and 83 MPa [12,000 psi] comprises a support material used to build a support structure (28). In a preferred embodiment the thermoplastic resin comprising the support material is selected from the group consisting of a polyphenylene ether and polyolefin blend, a polyphenylsulfone and amorphous polyamide blend and a bolyphenysulfone, polysulfone and amorphous polyamide blend. |