Powder Metal 3d Printing

We were surprised to see at least 50 companies working on metal 3d printing each pursuing their own technology.

Powder metal 3d printing.

There are also some resin based metal 3d printers and metal sheet lamination 3d printers but they are harder to come by. The metal x is designed to be safe to use and accessible for all fabricators. There is a drive to reduce the cost of metal powders in order to open up the technology to a larger portion of the manufacturing industry. 3d printing metal technologies like powder bed fusion metal binder jetting and directed energy deposition have grown at an explosive pace.

The typical build size of a metal 3d printing system is 250 x 150 x 150 mm but larger machines are also available up to 500 x 280 x 360 mm. Metal powder bed fusion 3d printing sls slm dmp directed energy deposition ded metal filament extrusion fff fdm material jetting and binder jetting. Powder and binder metal 3d printing. 3d printing with metal powders.

In last week s article on digital alloys we looked at a fast low cost method of 3d printing metals called joule printing. This results in a part that has a single melting temperature something not produced with an alloy. 3dpi guest author alban leandri discusses the processes involved to make metal powder for metal 3d printing and the ideal powder characteristics. There is a wide range of powder materials that could be used in 3d printing and that depends on the desired properties of the end product and the method of printing employed.

Instead of plastic being extruded however metal powder is deposited or rolled on in thin layers and a glue like binding substance is ejected from. It costs 5 10 times less than dmls metal 3d printing systems and requires no dedicated operator no powder management system and minimal ppe. There are numerous metal printing technologies available and the vast majority make use of metal powder. The former produces parts from metal alloys while the latter form single.

Metal binder jetting 3d printing with metal starts out like any other printing process with an awesome 3d design and a slicer that tells the printer where the print head should deposit material. Some of the common metal powders utilised in am include alloys of nickel steel cobalt and titanium. The layer height used in metal 3d printing varies between 20 to 50 microns and depends on the properties of the metal powder flowability particle size distribution shape etc. The four main types of 3d metal printing technologies are.