Metal 3D Printing Service Improves and Expands

By on September 18th, 2018 in Service, tour

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 A visit to Precision ADM, a metal 3D print service [Source: Fabbaloo]
A visit to Precision ADM, a metal 3D print service [Source: Fabbaloo]

The Fabbaloo team recently toured Precision ADM, a growing metal 3D print service.

We previously visited the company 18 months ago and were impressed with the operation then. Now they seem to have expanded their scope of operations and added more equipment to meet demands from clients.

The business of metal 3D printing is far more complex than most realize; there are significant challenges to achieve the desired object quality, as is required when the prints are for production use, not prototyping. Precision ADM seems to have a reasonably-large sized squad of engineers and quality assurance personnel to work through the details of each metal 3D print job to ensure it works and achieves the desired quality. Here is a standard test object they frequently use, but the right parameters are often unique to the print job:

 A standard test part for metal 3D printers [Source: Fabbaloo]
A standard test part for metal 3D printers [Source: Fabbaloo]

To that end Precision ADM has obtained certifications, perhaps the most important being ISO 13485, allowing them to produce certain types of medical implant parts.

It seems their enthusiasm about acquiring the certification caused them to print it in metal:

 Precision ADM 3D printed their ISO 13485 certification in metal [Source: Fabbaloo]
Precision ADM 3D printed their ISO 13485 certification in metal [Source: Fabbaloo]

Precision ADM supplies metal parts to a number of clients.

As you might expect, they produce a large number of medically implantable hip cups, such as this one. Note the incredibly complex surface structure. This is done purposely to allow the recipient’s body to “grow into” the part and form a solid joint.

 A 3D printed titanium hip cup [Source: Fabbaloo]
A 3D printed titanium hip cup [Source: Fabbaloo]

Another highly unusual application they’ve been working with recently is the production of parts for use in military exoskeletons.

Here we see some sample parts from the application, which typically involves customizing the part dimensions for the wearer:

 Personalized 3D printed metal parts intended for use in a military exoskeleton [Source: Fabbaloo]
Personalized 3D printed metal parts intended for use in a military exoskeleton [Source: Fabbaloo]

Another interesting application is advanced molds for thermoplastic production.

While these molds may be traditionally made with CNC mills, the advantage of 3D printing is that venting channels can be easily created in any required location and direction. Here we see one such mold with the vent holes visible:

 A 3D printed metal production mold showing venting holes [Source: Fabbaloo]
A 3D printed metal production mold showing venting holes [Source: Fabbaloo]

One critical aspect of producing medical implants is the control over the environment.

Precision ADM allocates one EOS M-290 metal 3D printer specifically and only for titanium production. If they were to occasionally 3D print other metal powders with this machine, it could potentially contaminate medical titanium prints.

 Precision ADM isolates one metal 3D printer environment solely for titanium printing [Source: Fabbaloo]
Precision ADM isolates one metal 3D printer environment solely for titanium printing [Source: Fabbaloo]

Not only do they limit the materials on that machine, but they also keep it in an environmentally sealed room to avoid any contamination.

This is important because approximately 15% of the population is allergic to nickel material, which is 3D printed on neighboring machines.

 Precision ADM’s titanium 3D printer [Source: Fabbaloo]
Precision ADM’s titanium 3D printer [Source: Fabbaloo]

The material isolation goes beyond the machine and room, and must include any tool that comes in contact with the print or material.

 A tool used by Precision ADM - but only for their titanium production environment [Source: Fabbaloo]
A tool used by Precision ADM – but only for their titanium production environment [Source: Fabbaloo]

Metal 3D printing is always exciting to watch, but here you can see one of the challenges of metal 3D printing: spatter.

As the powder is blasted by the laser, small bits are sprayed in all directions. This results in the powder being contaminated with chunks of material that are larger than the normal powder particle size. These must be sieved out after the job completes – and done in a completely airtight fashion to avoid moisture contamination.

 Metal 3D printing in action: note the “splash” of hot metal [Source: Fabbaloo]
Metal 3D printing in action: note the “splash” of hot metal [Source: Fabbaloo]

In fact, the entire printing process occurs in a specialized atmosphere, not only to avoid moisture but to avoid oxygen. Some powders are explosive and mixing an explosive material with high energy from a laser is usually not a good recipe for success.

On the EOS metal 3D printers you can choose either Argon or Nitrogen atmospheres, and Precision ADM happens to be using Argon in this case. They tell us they recently switched to using a liquid source, which apparently has several advantages over conventional bottles.

 Some EOS metal 3D printers allow either Argon or Nitrogen atmospheres [Source: Fabbaloo]
Some EOS metal 3D printers allow either Argon or Nitrogen atmospheres [Source: Fabbaloo]

One interesting add-on they’ve devised is an alert system.

Should the machine fail or power down, this external detector will provide an automated alert to their staff 24×7. When failures do occur, this saves considerable time that could be critical if there is a hard deadline for a job.

 A homemade alert system installed on one of Precision ADM’s metal 3D printers [Source: Fabbaloo]
A homemade alert system installed on one of Precision ADM’s metal 3D printers [Source: Fabbaloo]

Once a job is complete, there is much work yet to do.

The prints are literally fused to the print plate, shown here. As you can see, the plate is quite thick to resist warping when exposed to the tremendous heat of printing.

 An incomplete 3D print in metal showing the size of the print plate [Source: Fabbaloo]
An incomplete 3D print in metal showing the size of the print plate [Source: Fabbaloo]

The prints themselves must be sliced off the plate, and that’s done by a wire EDM machine.

Here we see this machine in operation: the plate is actually submerged and a wire is precision fed to slowly gnaw the parts off the plate.

 A wire EDM machine slicing metal 3D prints off the print plate (under water) [Source: Fabbaloo]
A wire EDM machine slicing metal 3D prints off the print plate (under water) [Source: Fabbaloo]

Sometimes the surface quality of the print is insufficient for the application, and so Precision ADM uses a 5-axis CNC machine to perform any required surface finishing.

 CNC machines are often used to finalize surface finish on metal 3D prints [Source: Fabbaloo]
CNC machines are often used to finalize surface finish on metal 3D prints [Source: Fabbaloo]

Here is one of the unusual things you’ll see in metal 3D printing: these parts have turned blue as the Titanium oxidizes.

In this case it doesn’t corrupt the parts in any way and is easily removed.

 Blue appearance of oxidized titanium 3D prints [Source: Fabbaloo]
Blue appearance of oxidized titanium 3D prints [Source: Fabbaloo]

Precision ADM seems to be doing quite well; so well that they’ve expanded and are now setting up an EOS M400-4, one of the largest metal 3D printers you can buy.

 A partially installed EOS M400-4 at Precision ADM [Source: Fabbaloo]
A partially installed EOS M400-4 at Precision ADM [Source: Fabbaloo]

Interest in metal 3D printing has simply exploded in the past year or two, but most companies who express interest have little understanding of the complexities of achieving quality metal 3D prints. That’s why metal 3D print services are probably the place to start.

Via Precision ADM

By Kerry Stevenson

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has written over 8,000 stories on 3D printing at Fabbaloo since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!