Otsuka Chemical introduces Poticon potassium titanate fiber reinforced filament
Developed in collaboration with Japanese printer manufacturer Gutenberg, the material targets functional part production in robotics and industrial applications
Otsuka Chemical, a Japanese specialty chemicals manufacturer, developed Poticon—a filament for material extrusion 3D printing based on a composite of thermoplastic resin reinforced with ultra-fine potassium titanate fibers. The material targets users who need to produce functional parts directly on desktop MEX machines, moving beyond prototypes and jigs into end-use components such as gears, bearings, and process transfer trays.
The filament was developed in collaboration with Gutenberg, a Japanese 3D printer manufacturer, and characterized using Gutenberg’s G-ZERO machine with a 0.4mm nozzle. The combination positions Poticon as a validated system rather than a generic filament, with published mechanical data tied to a specific hardware platform.
Four variants for industrial uses
Otsuka offers Poticon in four variants. The NTL34M and NTL34MB grades (white and black respectively) share a density of 1.27 g/cm³ and a glass transition temperature of 60°C, with in-plane (X-Y) tensile strength of 114–115 MPa and flexural modulus of 6.7–7.0 GPa. The NTL36 grade increases fiber loading to reach a density of 1.40 g/cm³, with X-Y tensile strength of 145 MPa and flexural modulus of 9.7 GPa. The RT4 grade is the highest-performance variant, with a density of 1.51 g/cm³, glass transition temperature of 89°C, and a heat deflection temperature of 231.9°C at 1.80 MPa — a figure that places it in a different performance bracket from standard engineering filaments and opens it to applications requiring thermal stability.
The Gutenberg connection
Otsuka validated Poticon in two robotics applications developed with Japanese university partners. A quadruped robot with functional mechanical parts and gears was produced in cooperation with Endo Laboratory at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and a drink-serving robot with fully 3D printed reduction gears was built with Irie Laboratory at Nihon University’s Department of Precision Engineering. Both robots operated under load, providing functional rather than cosmetic validation of the material’s mechanical performance.
Gutenberg remains a relatively rare example of a domestically developed Japanese desktop 3D printer manufacturer. Its G-ZERO machine served as the reference platform for all Poticon characterization data, making the two companies’ collaboration central to how the material is positioned and validated in the market.
