Parts printed in Aluminium F357 on VELO3D's Sapphire system.
Parts printed in Aluminium F357 on VELO3D's Sapphire system.
VELO3D has announced the commercial release of an aluminium F357 material designed for use on its Sapphire metal 3D printing system.
The announcement follows VELO3D’s latest funding round and the launch of a next-generation Sapphire platform and means the company’s metal 3D printing technology is now capable of processing three materials, with the others being Titanium 64 and Inconel alloy 718.
In developing the F357 material, VELO3D collaborated with PWR, a supplier of advanced cooling solutions to motor racing sectors like Formula 1 and NASCAR, as well as other components to the automotive, military and aerospace industries. VELO3D and PWR believe the introduction of Aluminium F357 will open its customers up to a host of new applications in these fields, including those which would typically be manufactured using casting processes, since it can be anodised and shares many characteristics with A356, a widely-used casting alloy.
“We chose Aluminium F357 due to its ideal material properties to suit thermal performance, machining and weldability,” offered Matthew Bryson, General Manager for PWR. “Our ability to print free-form and lightweight structures for heat transfer applications with our Sapphire system from VELO3D will further enhance performance and packaging optimisation opportunities for our product range and provide significant value to our customers.”
“Aluminium F357 has already been certified for mission-critical applications – unlike some exotic alloys – so it was a logical addition to our materials portfolio,” added Benny Buller, founder and CEO of VELO3D. “We will continue to add more compatible materials that enable customers to print parts they couldn’t before, yet with even better material properties than traditional manufacturing.”
