Desktop Metal has launched its most affordable sand 3D printer ever - the ExOne S-Max Flex - an all new robotic sand 3D printing system that the company believes will transform the foundry market worldwide, especially smaller, vulnerable foundries who make up the majority of the market.
Making its debut at CastExpo in Columbus, Ohio, the S-Max Flex pairs an affordable industrial robot with an end effector featuring an all-new 16-module printhead design.
Much like ExOne’s premium, market- leading S-Max models, this new system also binder jets sand moulds and cores for metalcasting. A key difference with this model is its affordability, driven by a streamlined printing strategy featuring a conventional robot arm for motion control.
This new, designed-from-the-ground-up printer is a quick result of ExOne’s late 2021 acquisition by Desktop Metal, which also previously acquired an early proof of concept of the robotic printer in a separate transaction. The introduction of the S-Max Flex reflects Desktop Metal’s core strategy to aggressively drive widespread adoption of 'Additive Manufacturing 2.0' through accessible, area-wide 3D printing technologies, such as binder jetting, integrated with select, high-performance materials and targeted applications.
The S-Max Flex pairs an industrial robot with an end effector featuring anew printhead that uses Desktop Metal Single Pass Jetting technology
The S-Max Flex also leverages Desktop Metal’s advanced Single-Pass Jetting (SPJ) technology, which prints into an automated telescoping job box that grows with the build. The package is highly refined for its entry-level price point, and Desktop Metal reports it delivers final sandcasting dimensional accuracy of +/- 0.5mm.
A foundry market in need of innovation
The S-Max Flex enters a market that appears primed for adoption. The upper end of the foundry market has been benefiting from additive manufacturing for two decades, using sand 3D printers to create moulds and cores for metalcastings that slash lead times and enable complex, consolidated geometries without traditional tooling.
However, the technology has remained largely out of reach for most of the market. According to the American Foundry Society, 75% of metalcasting operations in the United States are small businesses. Many operate on the margins of survival– facing stiff global competition, industry consolidation, a shift away from traditional powertrains, and increasing labor shortages. Their need to remain flexible and ready for a more digital future has never been stronger.
The affordable S-Max Flex is designed to help these smaller foundries both survive and thrive into the future. “In order to revolutionise manufacturing with additive manufacturing, we need to make it accessible,” said Ric Fulop, Founder and CEO of Desktop Metal. “Our mission as a company is to drive Additive Manufacturing 2.0 across all materials, and S-Max Flex is another example of how we’re going to deliver on this goal.”
Better metal through more accessible sand printing technology
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Behind Desktop Metal’s mission is a desire to help more manufacturers benefit from AM 2.0’s improved time to market, increased design flexibility, reduced waste, and greater financial savings while de-risking supply chains.
3D printing sand moulds and cores straight from CAD files enables foundries to eliminate the months-long lead times and high costs of traditional patterns and core boxes. The design freedom of AM also allows designers to innovate parts made with the reliable casting process – creating complex, consolidated geometries that enable lightweighting and optimised part performance not possible with traditional processes.
Complex core shapes that create the interior geometry of a vapor recovery fuel nozzleprinted as one monolithic part by Alpha Foundry Company in Missouri
“We developed the system to provide a faster payback for foundries to produce castings of any volume without the wait and cost of traditional tooling,” said Joe Phillips, Chief Engineer of the S-Max Flex and VPof Engineering at Desktop Metal, where he previously led development of the Production System P-1 metal binder jet printer.
“Our goal is to enhance ROI and improve ease-of-use,” Philips emphasised. Aside from easy-swap printheads, the S-Max Flex will soon be compatible with Desktop Metal’s Fabricate MFG software, streamlining build preparation and making the 3D printing process even easier to adopt.
3D printing increased sustainability in the foundry
By delivering an accessible sand 3D printing solution suitable for just about every foundry, Desktop Metal and ExOne aim to bring extensive efficiency gains to the market.
In the foundry today, manual assembly is required to glue multiple traditionally formed cores into a final shape for casting. This intricate process requires skilled labor, a resource that is increasingly hard to find. Moreover, assembly typically leads to increased scrap resulting from human error in core misalignment while core-glue off-gassing during molten metal pouring also introduces porosity, compromising final part quality.
3D printing a core design as a single complex, consolidated geometry eliminates the need for assembly and all the labor, scrap, and complications that come with it. This design freedom is leading to iterative and optimised cast metal parts more akin to their directly 3D printed metal counterparts.
The final aluminum casting benefits from precision interior passages and small cross sections that could not be produced with conventional methods
S-MAX Flex has ambitions outside the foundry
While Desktop Metal has big goals for the S-Max Flex, the company’s vision for this product doesn’t stop at sand or foundries. Indeed, this scalable binder jetting solution also holds the potential to support printing with a variety of materials for a range of large-scale applications.
Already, S-Max systems print sand for resin infiltration to produce durable, rapid tooling for plastic thermoforming, composite layup, and sacrificial tooling applications. Similar techniques, where forms are printed in powder and then infiltrated, are already being used for architectural restoration or design elements. Forust, another brand in the Desktop Metal portfolio, plans to use the S-Max Flex’s large form factor to upcycle byproducts from traditional wood waste streams into upscale designs like automotive interiors or guitars. Meanwhile, Carnegie Mellon University has used binder jetting technology to print reclaimed powdered concrete into urban furniture in research of more sustainable architectural design.
“To achieve Desktop Metal’s vision of Additive Manufacturing 2.0 we need to make 3D printing practical in terms of speed, cost, and material availability for a broad range of applications,” Fulop said. “The binder jetting technology of the S-Max Flex helps foundries stay competitive while also opening the door to new material innovations as we move toward a more additive future.”
