Aluminium powder from Equispheres is now able to be processed on 3D Systems' DMP Flex 350 and DMP Factory 350 systems.
The two announced a supplier agreement at Formnext, with users now able to 'take advantage of Equispheres' high-performance aluminium powder with 3D Systems’ printing parameters.'
According to the companies, the use of Equispheres materials on the 3D Systems platforms has showed productivity gains of up to 50% and an average density of 99.8% during testing. The partners have also reported a build rate of 49.7cc/hr at 60µm layer thickness on the DMP Flex 350.
3D Systems expects the Equispheres aluminium materials to be of interest to users in automotive and aerospace, with brackets, heat exchangers, and passive RF hardware cited as potential applications.
"We are very excited about this supplier agreement with a partner that has such deep knowledge of 3D printing. Our materials print significantly faster than traditional aluminium powders, which dramatically lowers part production time and per-part costs," said Evan Butler-Jones, Vice-President Product & Strategy for Equispheres. “When combined with 3D Systems’ expertise in applications and its DMP Flex 350 and DMP Factory 350 printers, customers can expect to push past previous limitations related to speed and repeatability.”
“We are pleased to enter this supplier agreement with a North American company such as Equispheres,” added Marty Johnson, Vice President, Product & Technical Fellow at 3D Systems. “As a leading additive manufacturing solutions provider, we value the opportunity to work with up-and-coming companies. Equispheres has developed an interesting material that enables 3D Systems’ customers to produce high quality parts when used with our DMP Flex 350 and DMP Factory 350 printers. We look forward to seeing how this can help push the boundaries for production applications.”
Equispheres also announced this week that Rob Acton, former Global Director of Strategic Partnerships at Carpenter Additive, has joined the company as Vice-President, Sales – North America.
