dpert's M 410 Machine
There's a host of the major 3D printing players showcasing their machines for the first time here at the inaugural TCT Korea, the likes of Trumpf have its TruPrint 1000, Stratasys running the J750, 3D Systems demonstrating Figure 4, EOS and its Precious M 100 but slap bang in the middle is a company showing an incredible range of machinery to the world for the first time.
Dpert is a wholly owned subsidiary of Daeguntech, the Korean company has the biggest stand here at its hometown show and is Silver Sponsor. We've seen Daeugun around before, with a small FDM machine, but dpert is a different beast entirely as the company switches its attention from polymers to metal additive manufacturing beasts.
With a grand total of seven machines here on site (4 of which are for metals), one would be forgiven for presuming this is a Korean company which has been working on the technology in stealth mode for years. Au contraire, incredibly dpert only started developing the metal side two years ago, yet here they are with some superb looking machinery and impressive parts to boot. Assistant Manager of dpert's Global Marketing Team, James SungJin Ahn tells me this is all to do with the work ethic of Koreans.
There are three, what I'm going to call traditional powder-bed fusion machines, the M 135, M 200 and the whopping M 410, the last of which is dual laser system complete with swappable build chamber for continuous processing. These machines are capable of printing with stainless steel, Inconel, aluminium, cobalt chrome, titanium and the material many of its competitor machinery uses. When quizzed on the prices of these machines in comparison to "affordable" is the answer.
Magnesium parts from dpert's Mg80
Having been to TCT Asia in Shanghai, seeing a metal powder-bed fusion machine from an Asian company is nothing new. However, dpert has an ace up its sleeve, namely the Mg80, those of you with even a Breaking Bad level of knowledge of the periodic table will recognise the two letters as magnesium. You'll also know from high-school chemistry lessons that magnesium is particularly explosive, mixing magnesium powder with lasers in a powder-bed fusion machine is asking for trouble, dpert say they have solved the problem thanks to its in-house monitoring and printout inspection system.
Magnesium prints
Furthermore, in the case of an unforeseen hiccup, the Mg80 is housed in an explosion-proof structure. Although the machine wasn't running at the show (for health and safety reasons, all other machinery was running) the parts are incredible, picking them up the lightness is difficult to compute in one's brain.
Magnesium is something of a holy-grail in both the medical world thanks to its biocompatibility and in the aerospace industry for its unparalleled strength to weight ratio. Optomec's LENS technology is capable of manufacturing in magnesium and Fraunhofer ILT has been working on an SLM method of manufacturing but if dpert gets this right it could quickly become a major player in the global additive manufacturing market.
