Metal 3D printers from ExOne now binder jet 21 total materials.
Additive manufacturing company ExOne has announced the addition of 15 new metal, ceramic and composite materials to its portfolio of qualified 3D printing materials.
The binder jet leader now offers a total of 21 materials for use on its metal 3D printers including 10 single-alloy metals, six ceramics and five composites, which were recently qualified in partnership with Global Tungsten & Powders, H.C. Starck Solutions, NASA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), SGL Carbon, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of Energy, the University of Texas at El Paso, and Virginia Tech. In a press release, the company also stated more than 24 additional powders have been passed the first phase of qualification for 3D printing in controlled research environments including aluminium and Inconel 718.
“ExOne continues to make aggressive and outstanding progress in qualifying new materials for 3D printing on our machines,” said ExOne CEO John Hartner. “Qualifying a new material for binder jet 3D printing is complex work that involves optimising how materials, machines and processes work together. We would like to thank our customers and partners for their assistance in accelerating this important work, which is enabling more sustainable manufacturing and part designs.”
The company has shared the three qualifications levels it uses to signify material readiness including third-party qualified materials, customer-qualified materials, and R&D qualified materials.
Materials qualified at the highest level, categorised as third-party, undergo a rigorous testing process to prove they are capable of producing standardised, repeatable results, and are certified by a third party. Today, ExOne has announced the qualification of M2 Tool Steel amongst six other single-alloy metals and metal composites at this level.
The next tier, R&D qualified, represents those materials that have passed preliminary qualification by ExOne and are deemed printable but undergoing continued development. ExOne has shared just how stringent they are being in qualifying new materials, explaining how Inconel 718, a material routinely use in ExOne research labs, has been placed in the R&D category pending further optimisation. To date, there are 26 materials which have passed this initial qualification phase.
The final tier is designed to recognise the material development being undertaken by ExOne users to meet their own sets of standards. Materials labelled as customer-certified are those being successfully printed by users of ExOne machines. For example, Virginia Tech have been printing on ExOne machines in copper since 2015, while ORNL is working with boron carbide infiltrated with aluminium,
In a statement, Hartner added: "We felt this was necessary to let the market know all the materials that are printable, so others might take advantage of the sustainability and design benefits of binder jet 3D printing for their parts and products."
The expansion of ExOne's materials portfolio is set to be boosted by the impending launch of a new clean-burning metal binder which is said to enable the binder jet printing of materials like titanium and aluminium.
The full list of materials can be viewed here.
