Markforged, creator of the integrated metal and carbon fibre additive manufacturing platform, The Digital Forge, announced the addition of Precise PLA to its portfolio of materials. The new capability allows customers to product design and iterate in a cost-effective manner. The Digital Forge platform is now able to address all stages of product design - from validation, which relies on more affordable materials like Precise PLA, to strong, end-use applications reliant on Markforged's carbon fibre reinforced and metal-printed parts.

Precise PLA is Markforged's specialised version of Polylactic Acid (PLA), one of the most common prototyping materials in the additive manufacturing industry. Markforged will offer Precise PLA in eight colour options - yellow, red, green, blue, orange, black, white, and gray. The Digital Forge has been calibrated, through updates to Eiger software, to print Precise PLA with excellent quality and repeatability.

With the release of Precise PLA, users can now make affordable designs on the same reliable, quality platform used to create mission-critical, end use parts in demanding industries like aerospace, automotive, defense and healthcare. With Precise PLA, Markforged now offers 28 unique materials, from plastics to continuous carbon fibres to metals. Together, these materials offer users unparalleled versatility in capabilities, ranging from high stiffness, impact resistance, temperature resistance, surface finish, and now, affordability. From the initial phases of product development through production and even aftermarket repair, users can now use one simple platform to address their custom part needs.

"An affordable material devoted to design validation was a top request from our customers to deliver a uniform and smooth print on the Digital Forge from the beginning to the end of the product life cycle," said Shai Terem, Markforged President and CEO. "The growth and adoption of the Digital Forge depends upon our ability to address our customers' requests and introduce new capabilities that grow our addressable market. This added dimension of versatility will expand the use cases our customers can address with the Digital Forge, and drive adoption in segments such as education and design services thanks in part to the lower cost of entry."