Digital Metal
Fraunhofer IAPT has become one of the first users of Digital Metal’s DPS 1000 automated depowdering station for metal binder jetting.
The semi-automatic depowdering system works to safely remove and collect loose powder from printed components to reuse in future print jobs. Through its research and development efforts, Fraunhofer is working to industrialise additive manufacturing technologies to create resource-efficient products.
Using the DPS 1000, Fraunhofer is said to have enjoyed the ability to precisely remove metal powder from ‘most geometries of any parts’, while the added manual cleaning option allows for the team to finish off the trickiest geometries. With these capabilities, Fraunhofer says it can easily test multiple different powders to enhance the print quality and make more precise predictions around shrinkage during the sintering process.
“Metal binder jetting will enhance productivity and precision while at the same time reducing costs of metal additive manufacturing, which opens the door for series production,” commented Dr Phillip Imgrund, Head of AM Processes Department at Fraunhofer. “However, one major technical challenge is depowdering of the green parts and we see a huge potential in working on automation solutions in this context. To date, manual depowdering and cleaning have taken up most of the work hours in the binder jetting process. Automating this step makes the whole AM process cost efficient while ensuring more consistent part quality.”
“A key benefit of the DPS 1000 for Digital Metal customers is that it will free up time, and also bring consistency by removing the human factor from the equation,” added Alexander Sakratidis, Sales and Marketing Manager at Digital Metal.
Want to discuss? Join the conversation on the Additive Manufacturing Global Community Discord.
Get your FREE print subscription to TCT Magazine.
Join us at TCT 3Sixty, the event for 3D printing and additive manufacturing intelligence, on 28-30th September at NEC, Birmingham, UK, to see AM technology in action and learn from experts and end-users in our CPD-certified conference. Register now for free.
