Formlabs equipment can print metal objects? Apparently, so.
Formlabs builds two types of 3D printers these days: SLA-style that can print in photopolymer resins, and SLS-style that can print thermoplastic powder.
The company has an enormous range of resins for their SLA equipment, while their SLS equipment’s materials are six variants of PA11/12, along with a flexible TPU powder.
That’s all good, but what about metal prints? It turns out it is possible to print metal objects using their SLS FUSE 1+ devices. According to a LinkedIn post by Headmade Materials Chief Product Officer, Marcel Strobel, their colleagues at 3D-WERK Black Forest GmbH were able to do so with a special feedstock made from ColdMetalFusion Ti6Al4V.
Strobel explains:
“Our feedstock combines metal particles with a thermoplastic binder. During printing on the Fuse 1+, the binder fuses to create a green part, which is then debound using solvent and sintered in a furnace. The end result? A precise metal component that’s unmatched in cost-efficiency and accuracy.”
This is a similar approach to producing metal parts that has been used elsewhere in the 3D print universe: bind metal powders together, debind, and sinter to form a pure metal part.
Strobel explained they used PA12 print parameters on the FUSE 1+ device, since their binder apparently has similar thermal properties.
I’ve not seen this done using an SLS-style device. Metal powder has indeed been printed SLS-style, but that’s DMLS, where a laser melts the metal particles directly. Here the laser is melting only the thermoplastic binder, leaving the metal particles unsintered.
This is a fascinating experiment, but it’s not clear where this is heading. Strobel said they have the ability to support printing of stainless steel, tool steel, Inconel, or other metals on request.
The binder jet process produces similar parts, which are generally not suitable for many applications because of dimensional issues. When debinding, the polymer disappears, causing the part to shrink slightly. This effect can generate issues in certain part geometries, and is generally not used when producing precision parts. That’s one of the reasons Desktop Metal’s binder jet system really didn’t succeed in the production market.
Would Formlabs support this approach? Would they, for example, offer metal powder materials for sale on their website?
I’m thinking probably not. Formlabs has been greatly focused on print quality and ease of use, which would be difficult to achieve with this type of metal 3D printing. It doesn’t seem to fit in their strategy.
That said, it’s still possible to do this and I’m sure some will take on the process and refine it for the best results.
Via LinkedIn
