Essentium is developing an extrusion-based metal additive manufacturing platform that will be integrated with its High Speed Extrusion (HSE) technology.
The company’s metals capability has been in development since December 2020 and will look to expand from aluminium grades into refractory metals in a bid to open up a broader range of applications. Essentium first revealed its venture into metal 3D printing in line with last week’s announcement that it intends to go public in 2022.
Supported by five patents (with three more pending), Essentium’s metal 3D printing technology is said to be completely powder-free and sinter-free, with the ability to provide energy-efficient deposition, decrease porosity and minimise warpage during a build. The parts produced with this technology, per Essentium, will be comparable to castings and forgings with minimal post-processing required.
The metal 3D printing efforts have been led by EssentiumX, the company’s special project development team, with multiple metallurgists also brought on board. This team is working to develop metal materials in-house, though similar to its approach to polymer materials, Essentium also expects to lean on external expertise too. Commercial availability of the metal offering is currently anticipated for 2023.
“By leveraging our materials-first heritage, we are creating a unique manufacturing method,” commented Elisa Teipel, Ph.D., Chief Development Officer at Essentium. “Our metal AM platform will deliver improved throughput for high part quality, and it will have the potential for broad-scale use in major industrial markets, including automotive, aerospace and defence. We expect our metal AM platform to empower manufacturers to innovate faster and stay ahead despite unprecedented challenges in today’s markets.”
Speaking to TCT, CEO Blake Teipel Ph.D. added: “What Essentium wanted to do, what we always want to do, we look at technology from a first principles perspective and we ask how can we put out technology that’s unique and offers the marketplace something that has been otherwise lacking? That’s what we’re doing on the metals side.”
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