Airtech is expanding its additive manufacturing portfolio with two strategic moves aimed at transitioning programs from early prototyping to full-scale production. The company is introducing five Dahltram® pellet grades for functional, end-use parts in large-format additive manufacturing (LFAM) and is formally launching the Kimya® by Airtech filament line for fused filament fabrication on both benchtop and industrial platforms. The combined offering is designed to enable engineering teams to standardize on a single supplier across pellets and filaments, simplify qualification, and increase confidence in the performance of printed parts in service.

Gregory Haye, Director of Additive Manufacturing at Airtech, framed the update around a shift in customer requirements as additive moves into production environments. “The market is maturing, and manufacturers are now printing parts that are going into real environments, not just models or prototypes,” said Haye. “We’re focused on materials that perform predictably, are easier to qualify, and give customers more choice, including sustainable and cost-effective alternatives where they fit.” Airtech is exhibiting the portfolio at Formnext in Frankfurt, where the new pellets, Kimya by Airtech filaments, and printed demonstrators are on display in Hall 12.1, Booth C78.

LFAM pellets for application-driven performance

At the center of the LFAM expansion are five new Dahltram pellet grades, each tuned for specific practical engineering goals. These include heat resistance near power and process equipment, flexibility for compliant features, mechanical strength for load-bearing structures, and a durable visual finish for housings and customer-facing components. “These materials are very application-driven,” Haye said. “We’re giving engineers and designers more choice so they can pick the right balance of strength, temperature performance, sustainability, and aesthetics.”

Large-format extrusion introduces variables—high bead mass, steep thermal gradients, and interlayer bonding demands—that can compromise throughput if a polymer is not formulated for deposition stability. Airtech’s development path for the new grades prioritizes reliable bead laydown and consistent crystallization alongside in-service properties, to reduce tuning cycles and scrap on gantry and robotic systems. The materials target tooling and structural applications where near-net-shape printing compresses lead times and secondary machining, including composite fixtures that tolerate autoclave exposure, protective guards and covers exposed to ultraviolet light, and transport components that require flame retardancy and dimensional control.

Process documentation is positioned as part of the product. Airtech is aligning datasheets, recommended print windows, and testing across its sites to help customers lock in parameters and transfer them between machines, shifts, and plants. Sustainability is addressed through controlled use of recycled content where it does not compromise performance, validation of recycled streams through mechanical testing and melt-flow analysis, and emerging closed-loop pathways to recover purge and scrap from customer sites for reprocessing.

Airtech’s Print-Tech services complement the pellets by supporting large-format and robotic multi-axis systems capable of parts up to 12 meters in length. That capability allows teams to refine bead orientation, thermal management, and toolpaths for oversized tools and structures, with lessons feeding back into materials guidance to narrow the gap between catalog specifications and factory behavior.

Kimya by Airtech, from benchtop to industrial scaling

Running alongside Dahltram, the Kimya by Airtech filament line offers a mirrored set of choices across recycled and economical materials, engineering polymers, and ultra polymers for demanding environments. The intent is continuity: design validation on a small printer can progress to LFAM production without shifting to unrelated chemistries. “Many customers now run both pellet and filament systems side-by-side,” Haye said. “Having consistent materials across those platforms simplifies qualification and increases confidence in the parts produced.”

Airtech is preserving established Kimya chemistries while bringing them under its process controls, including melt filtration to remove contaminants, moisture management for hygroscopic polymers, and post-extrusion conditioning to limit residual stress and dimensional drift. The range includes fiber-reinforced grades for enhanced stiffness and dimensional stability, as well as ESD-safe and flame-retardant variants suitable for electronics and transportation. Additionally, it features transparent and flexible formulations for machine guards and seals, and autoclave-compatible polymers for composite tooling. UV-stabilized options support outdoor equipment and infrastructure where color and properties must withstand the test of time.

Demonstrations at Formnext highlight how designs transition from filament prototypes to pellet-printed, full-scale components utilizing chemistries with matched mechanical properties. Airtech is showcasing printed parts developed in collaboration with machine, automation, and tooling partners to reflect real production conditions, rather than concept pieces. This underscores the interplay among material selection, bead orientation, and post-processing in meeting performance and compliance targets.

Certified manufacturing in a unified pipeline

The launch builds on an integration effort that brings Kimya’s filament assets—formulations, intellectual property, and production equipment—into Airtech’s materials operation. Those assets are being transferred to the company’s headquarters in Differdange, Luxembourg, which has been retooled for traceable, high-volume output under shared quality protocols with Airtech’s U.S. facility in Springfield, Tennessee. The transatlantic network is organized around unified documentation, change control, and process monitoring so a filament or pellet qualified in one region behaves consistently when sourced from the other.

Product development is aligned to maintain mechanical compatibility between selected filaments and their pellet counterparts, reducing friction when programs scale from small-format prints to large-format production. While process settings differ between formats, consistent base chemistries and documented process windows provide stable starting points for qualification under quality management systems. Airtech’s approach emphasizes repeatability, certification, and supply security, positioning the combined Dahltram pellets and Kimya by Airtech filaments as a single-supplier route from design validation to serial output.