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In-Depth Information
Metals
Metal processing requires much higher temperatures than plastics, therefore the equipment
is generally more expensive and the processing is mainly done in professional industry.
Otherwise the potential for direct manufacturing is more promising in metals than in
plastics. Industrial giants like General Electric are investing millions in 3D printing since
they see the huge potential for saving on costs and time.
In theory, there does not seem to be any limitations on the different kinds of metals that can
be used in 3D printing, although copper and aluminum are rarely used in practice. Metals can
be processed by Binder Jetting, Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), Selective Laser Melt-
ing (SLM), Electron Beam Melting, Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS), Direct Metal
Tooling (DMT) or CLAD. All these processes use metal powder as base material. The met-
al powder is usually manufactured through a process called “gas atomization”, other pro-
cesses are “water atomization” and “centrifugal atomization”. In the gas atomization process
melted metal is poured into a gas nozzle where the melt stream is disintegrated by the force
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of a high pressure inert gas stream and turned into a fine powder
.
Trumpf's Laser Deposition Welding (LDW) technology uses metal powder for automated
welding and metal wire for manual welding. DM3D's Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) tech-
nique uses powder, while Norsk Titanium's DMD uses wire. Sciaky's Electron Beam Weld-
ing process also uses metal wire as base material.
Atomized metal powder for 3D printing is relatively expensive compared to material used in
traditional manufacturing. Wire-based metal 3D printing has higher deposition rates, lower
part cost and are more suitable for printing of large structures according to Norsk Titani-
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um
.
Metals that the main companies in metal 3D printing currently offer include: Tool steel,
Stainless steel, Cobalt Chrome alloys, Nickel alloys, Titanium, Titanium alloys, Bronze, Sil-
ver, Gold etc.
