Tungsten steel tip/tube 3D printed by BLT
Bright Laser Technologies (BLT) will unveil new additive manufacturing (AM) applications in tungsten carbide at TCT Asia 2023 this week.
The China-based metal 3D printing specialist introduced its Tungsten Carbide Additive Manufacturing forming process earlier this year in an effort to overcome challenges around printing parts in tungsten steel. Now BLT is ready to present a range of examples at the Shanghai event, including intricate components for industrial machinery.
Tungsten steel traditionally offers exceptional heat, corrosion, and wear resistance but, depending on the level of tungsten content, can also suffer from brittleness. BLT says it has developed a dedicated AM approach for tungsten carbine that overcomes these issues, which can cause cracking defects, and now offers a viable process for manufacturing intricate structures for parts such as micro drill bits, rotary cutting blades and rocket engine nozzles.
The company says it is focusing its attention on manufacturing tungsten steel nozzles for laser solder ball jet welding equipment. These nozzles feature an intricate interior hollow cone design and a smooth inner wall finish. The nozzles are said to meet stringent requirements for high-temperature and corrosion resistance in laser tin ball jet welding applications and achieve a minimum micro-pore size as small as 200μm.
BLT says its tungsten steel nozzles tips/tubes can also be used in to expand the lifespan of hot runner systems used within injection moulding equipment, thanks to their thermal conductivity, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance. They can also be designed with different cavities, aspect ratios, and tip angles to suit a range of applications.
At TCT Asia this week, BLT says it is on a mission to bring industrial metal 3D printing to the masses. In the last year, the company has launched several machines including its five-laser BLT-A400 and large-format BLT-S1000 with the capacity for up to 12 lasers, and reported its "strongest ever" year to date with machines now sold into over 20 countries.
Register to attend TCT Asia 2023 and visit BLT on booth #H31.
