BASF offers 3D printing products on its 1688.com online flagship store
- More than 20 products for 3D printing including plastic filaments and UV-curable photopolymers are available now
- Online channel may further complement conventional distribution channels to support customers in different segments including small and micro businesses in the local market
Shanghai, China – Nov 30, 2020 – Now, for the first time, BASF starts offering a portfolio of 3D printing products on its flagship store at 1688.com, Alibaba’s B2B online shopping platform. It enables BASF to better serve small and medium enterprises in a more flexible and timely manner, while it also aims to better understand the needs of local customer by interacting directly with them online.
“The Chinese market is highly digitized. We adapt one-stop e-commerce solutions for all business units. With our new offerings of advanced 3D printing materials and solutions, we can provide more diversity of our product portfolio online while unlock new business opportunities to reach out to a broader group of potential customers out there”, said Dr. Zheng Daqing, BASF’s Senior Vice President, Business and Market Development Greater China.
“China is an important market for us. Making our 3D printing products available on our 1688.com flagship store is an important move to expand our online presence and diversify our conventional sales and service channels. It not only makes our offerings more visible and accessible to small to medium enterprises, but also helps us engage deeper with our existing customers”, said François Minec, Managing Director BASF 3D Printing Solutions GmbH.
Initially, there are more than 20 products for 3D printing available on the flagship store ranges from Ultrafuse® series of filaments for Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), to Ultracur3D® series of photopolymers for Stereolithography (SLA) and Digital Light Processing (DLP). These products are developed to match specific requirements in various applications from industries including automotive, aerospace, consumer goods, as well as dental areas. For example, customers can easily find high-performance materials including:
· Ultrafuse® PLA family with three grades: Ultrafuse® PLA BASIC, Ultrafuse® PLA and Ultrafuse® PLA PRO1. As a bio-based and bio-degradable (subject to certain conditions) polymer, polylactic acid (PLA) is the most widely used material for FFF 3D-printing. Ultrafuse® PLA BASIC is targeting at users that are looking for easy-to-print, reliable and affordable filaments to print 3D objects, while Ultrafuse® PLA further offers outstanding printing quality and consistence, as well as a wide range of colour choices. Additionally, Ultrafuse® PLA PRO1 is a premium PLA filament with superior toughness, enabling fast printing of high-performance parts such as tools, jigs and fixtures.
· Ultrafuse® rPET, a filament made from recycled PET material, is a serious alternative to filaments made from virgin raw materials. The “r” stands for recycled, which shows BASF’s commitment to combine high performance with sustainability. YUYO, an innovative French company, developed a new kind of eco-designed surfboards, which have a 3D-printed internal structure made of the sustainable Ultrafuse® rPET filament.
· Ultracur3D® ST 45B, which is a photopolymer product that can fulfil the requirements of functional applications regarding high accuracy and mechanical strength, where existing photopolymer materials often show limitations.
More 3D printing products including metal filaments for FFF and plastic powders for Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) will be rolled out on this platform in the near future.
As one of the first chemical companies to open online shops on Alibaba e-commerce platform 1688.com, BASF offers the largest chemical product portfolio in China, with more than 350 products from 10 business units and continuously optimize its operation to tap into growth opportunities on the online marketplace. With a fully automated ordering system launched on 1688.com early this year, it shortens the order-to-ship time from several days to two or three hours.
1688.com is home to more than ten million enterprises with 12 million daily visitors, and it has become a go-to place for business-to-business transactions.
About BASF 3D Printing Solutions
BASF 3D Printing Solutions GmbH, headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, is a 100% subsidiary of BASF New Business GmbH. It focuses on establishing and expanding the business under the Forward AM brand with advanced materials, system solutions, components and services in the field of 3D printing. BASF 3D Printing Solutions is organized into startup-like structures to serve customers in the dynamic 3D printing market. It cooperates closely with the global research platforms and application technologies of various departments at BASF and with research institutes, universities, startups and industrial partners. Potential customers are primarily companies that intend to use 3D printing for industrial manufacturing. Typical industries include automotive, aerospace and consumer goods. For further information please visit: www.forward-am.com.
About BASF in Greater China
BASF has been a committed partner to Greater China since 1885. With large production sites in Shanghai, Nanjing and Chongqing, BASF is a major foreign investor in the country’s chemical industry, and operates the Innovation Campus Shanghai, a global and regional research and development hub. BASF posted sales of more than €7.3 billion in 2019 to customers in Greater China and employed 9,230 people as of the end of the year. For further information, please visit www.basf.com/cn/en.
About BASF
At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. More than 117,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care and Agricultural Solutions. BASF generated sales of €59 billion in 2019. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchange in Frankfurt (BAS) and as American Depositary Receipts (BASFY) in the U.S. Further information at www.basf.com.
