Ultimaker
Ultimaker has announced the launch of its Metal Expansion Kit in partnership with BASF to facilitate the 3D printing of metal materials on its S5 platform.
The Metal Expansion Kit comes with materials that are automatically recognised by the printer through NFC and, per Ultimaker, enables users to efficiently switch between printing plastics and metals on one machine. Ultimaker believes the new product offering will make metal 3D printing more accessible, with users now able to produce applications capable of high mechanical stress and thermal resistance.
Set to be available in North America, China, the EU and the UK from July 2022, the Metal Expansion Kit includes access to post-processing services, materials and a set of dedicated print cores to support BASF’s Ultrafuse 17-4PH metal filament and Ultrafuse Support Layer. Ultimaker has developed a new highly wear-resistant Print Core DD 0.4 to print the abrasive support material and assures users that no permanent hardware modifications are needed as print cores and materials can be replaced like any other print core or filament. The debinding and sintering services are being provides by BASF’s Debinding and Sintering Order Management Portal, while Ultimaker has also worked with BASF to deliver exclusive educational and training content via its Ultimaker 3D Printing Academy.
“The Ultimaker Metal Expansion Kit is especially suitable for printing non-off-the-shelf parts such as tools, jigs and fixtures, replacement parts, functional prototypes and auxiliary components,” commented Andrea Gasperini, Product Manager at Ultimaker. “The Kit provides access to a complete and validated 3D printing workflow on an open platform that offer competitive quality and lead times normally only accessible with full in-house metal fused filament fabrication (MFFF) solutions at a much higher cost of ownership. Thanks to the low total cost of ownership and savings up to 90% over small series of not-standard auxiliary components and tools, our early adopters are already realising return-on-investment in less than a year.”
Ultimaker
To deliver this metal 3D printing capability to its S5 benchtop machine, Ultimaker has aligned with BASF, who first launched its Ultrafuse metal filament offering in 2019 with the Ultrafuse 316L. It later launched the Ultrafuse 17-4 PH stainless steel filament, and has since partnered with both BCN3D and MakerBot (who merged with Ultimaker in May) to provide its metal filaments on their respective Epsilon and METHOD platforms. By partnering with Ultimaker, BASF believes it has reinforced its commitment to providing easier access to metal 3D printing.
“This unique all-in-one bundle by Ultimaker unlocks the metal 3D printing on open desktop platforms like Ultimaker S5 [and] makes MFFF more accessible and affordable,” said Firat Hizal, Head of Metal Systems at BASF Forward AM. “With all the necessary components and accessories in the Kit, it facilitates for users switching between printing plastics and metal parts back-to-back, and helps them throughout the process step by step from A to Z. We are happy to complement this kit with our Ultrafuse filaments and to offer a simplified post-processing step at a competitive price through our debinding & sintering partners located in different regions.”
Content of the Metals Expansion Kit vary by country, with the BASF Forward AM Ultrafuse Support Layer and Ultimaker Print Core DD 0.4 currently only available in the EU and UK.
