AddUp and Uniformity Labs have announced a partnership that is focused on maximising the productivity of the latter’s Ti64 Grade 23 titanium alloy for the former’s FormUp350 3D printing system.
The goal of the partnership is to jointly market Uniformity Ti64 Grade 23 as an advanced material option on the FormUp350, with regulated healthcare and aerospace production applications targeted, before qualifying additional materials on the metal powder bed fusion system.
Uniformity Ti64 Grade 23 was developed by Uniformity Labs’ in-house materials scientists. It is said to exhibit ‘best-in-class’ mechanical performance, surface roughness and greatly improved throughput, helping to increase part production by as much as 100%, according to Uniformity Labs.
AddUp’s FormUp 350 machine was launched in 2021 and is equipped with four 500W lasers, a bidirectional coating system with 40% faster powder spreading and 160+ accessible parameters. The platform includes an autonomous powder module, powder storage, machine feeding and unfused powder recovering and sieving to facilitate zero contact with powder, while the company’s roller technology achieves a 20% higher density of the powder bed to ensure improved surface finish, fine feature resolution and unsupported overhangs.
The announcement of this partnership follows Uniformity Labs making available its ultra-low porosity 316L and 17-4 PH stainless steel powders available for laser powder bed fusion users. Uniformity Labs was founded back in 2014 off the back of research work carried out at Princeton University’s Torquato Lab, and came to prominence after announcing an aluminium 6061 powder in an exclusive partnership with Desktop Metal. As it continues to establish itself on the market and get its materials in the hands of additive manufacturing users, the company has now aligned with AddUp.
“We’re excited about the potential of this collaboration,” commented Uniformity Labs CEO Adam Hopkins. “The advanced features of the FormUp 350 and the optimised material properties of our ultra-low porosity Ti64 Grade 23 powder produce the highest quality printed alloy ideal for medical and other high-performance applications such as aerospace and energy. Ti64 is the starting point as we will look to verify other materials on the FormUp350 platform with AddUp.”
“Uniformity Lab’s metal powders combined with AddUp’s unique roller demonstrate the ability to unlock applications where demanding surface finish and mechanical requirements combined with high levels of productivity are critical,” added AddUp CEO Rush LaSelle. “Initial testing of Ti64 Grade 23 on the FormUp 350 exhibited increased machine productivity, helping our customers to justify applications which to date may have been out of reach. Our engineering teams continue to collaborate in qualifying Ti64 Grade 23 medical applications and have already begun planning for additional materials to more broadly serve AddUp customers in healthcare and other high-value markets.”
Both companies will be exhibiting at the upcoming RAPID + TCT event in Detroit, with AddUp based on Booth #2625 and Uniformity Labs based on #1942.
