Uniformity Labs has announced the availability of its ultra-low porosity stainless steel UniJet SS17-4PH Performance powder for the Desktop Metal Production System.
The engineered materials company claims the UniJet SS17-4PH Performance delivers double the green strength of existing stainless-steel powders over the entire build envelope.
During the qualification on Desktop Metal’s Production System, the UniJet 17-4PH’s physical and mechanical properties were extensively evaluated, with the highly uniform powder bed layering of UniJet 17-4PH delivers ‘an average of 20% less shrinkage than other stainless-steel powders qualified for use with Desktop Metal’s Production System,’ according to Uniformity Labs. Factors such as these are said to yield better-sintered part geometric accuracy and less breakage of green and brown parts during post-print handling and depowdering.
Among the key capabilities of the material are exceptional apparent and tapped densities, which results in green parts with many more contact points between particles, and between 19-25% less shrinkage in XYZ than other binder jetting powder across all layer thicknesses. Uniformity says that the powder also delivers between 99-100% final part density, and can yield parts with an average of three times lower standard deviation in green density. This, the company claims, translates into three times better absolute geometric tolerance in sintered parts.
Uniformity also states that the highly flowable powder allows repeatable fast layering at thicker layers, with 20% reduced shrinkage at 75µm layer thickness. At 65µm layer thickness, the throughput improvement is 80%+.
“The application of Uniformity UniJet 17-4PH stainless steel for BJT delivers mechanical and process excellence for our customers who require materials that perform to the highest standards across each step of the production process,” commented Uniformity Labs founder and CEO Adam Hopkins. “Our powders deliver superior mechanical properties, printing yield, and process stability, delivering repeatable production scale binder jetting.”
“Desktop Metal is delighted to offer this highly advanced 17-4PH stainless steel powder from Uniformity Labs for our Production System platform,” added Desktop Metal founder and CEO Ric Fulop. “This latest addition to our material portfolio allows us to binder jet 17-4 PH stainless steel materials critical to producing complex designs. Binder jetting powders processed with Uniformity Labs technology enables unmatched mechanical properties and can further improve the economics of printing. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with the Uniformity team.”
Uniformity Labs has previously worked with Desktop Metal to provide an aluminium 6061 powder exclusive to the Production System, and make its ultra-low porosity 17-4PH stainless steel powder available for the Desktop Metal Shop Pro Binder Jetting platform.
Desktop Metal recently announced an agreement to merge with Stratasys, with the deal expected to close in Q4 of this year.
