3D Printing in Metals. DMLS.

3D Printed Metals. Materials.

We currently 3D Print Metals in the following materials:

• Titanium - TiAl16V4
• Aluminium - Alsi10Mg (Default)
• Aluminium - Scalmalloy®RP (AlMgSc) - On Request.
• Stainless steel - 1.4404, 316L  (default)
• Maraging steel  - 1.2709  (Alloy Tool Steel with Ni) 
• Inconel - In718 (Nickel Alloy - High temp metal)
• CobaltChrome - MP1 (conforms to the chemical composition UNS R31538 of high carbon CoCrMo alloy). On Request.
• Gold - 3d printing in Gold 18 KK.
• Silver -  Stirling Silver. Ag + Cu Alloy. 
• Platinum - Pt + Ru Alloy
• Copper - CuNi2SiCr with good thermal and electrical conductivity. Option for CuCP.
• Coming Soon.....  Exciting new additive metals tech coming soon....

3D Printed Metals. Technical.

Our metal 3d printing service gives you an range of build envelopes including Large Format options:

• 500 x 500 x 450mm - Aluminium, Inconel, Titanium (Large format, on request). 
• 500 x 280 x 380mm - NEW Aluminium, Inconel, Steels. 
• 400 x 400 x 360mm - Aluminium, tool and Stainless Steels.
• 250 x 250 x 320mm - Copper
• 300mm dia x 350mm - Titanium Ti6Al4V Gr.5

• 80mm dia x 90mm tall - Gold, Silver, Platinum. 

Accuracy.

The published accuracy of the DMLS process is +/- 0.05mm.  However this depends on the design of your part, it's build orientation and the material. We suggest a 'real life' accuracy estimate of +/- 0.2mm per 100mm.

Layer thickness is typically 40um for Steels and 50um for Aluminium but may vary depending on machine settings and application calibration.

Walls and Features.

Minimum wall thicknesses depends on material and design geometry but a minimum wall or feature detail of 0.5mm* is suggested.  As a general guide round holes and channels may be up to 10mm before they require support structures and changing the shape of internal channels can increase this.

Solid Builds.

Our metal additively manufactured parts are over 99% solid giving your  parts comparable properties to other manufacturing processes. Parts are hermetically sound making them suitable involving vacuum, gas or liquids. 

Vacuum leak test results are available, please call or email.

Surface Finish.

The standard surface finish for DMLS 3d printed metal parts is slightly textured. As an average guide the surface roughness may be around +/- 30 micron, possibly worse where supports have been removed and better on some faces. Additional finishing may be able to give a smoother finish.

Post Build Finishing.

Producing 3d printed parts in metals is much more of an industrial process compared to 3d printing in plastics. Metal parts are subject to a post build heat curing process to relieve internal stresses, wire cut from the build platform, have the metal support structures removed and then subject to final finishing.     

Threads are best added as a secondary, post build process.

Heat Treatment is available as an option as appropriate.

Machining and Turning. We offer a full post build machining service to optimise 3d printed metal parts.  

Build Times.

Due to the thermal properties of individual metals, parts 3d printing say in Aluminium will take a different amount of time to build and finish to parts 3d printed in Titanium.

Multiple copies of the same part on a tray will reduce the overall unit cost as will a lower part height. As a rough guide a full tray of parts may take several days to 3d print before post build finishing can start.

   * Minimum wall or feature detail for harder materials can be reduced to 0.4mm depending on design.

Quotes & Files.

In addition to the usual .stl file(s) please supply either a stp or igs file plus an engineering drawing (pdf). This extra information will allow us to include any specific finishing or post build machining that may be required.

Design Guide.

Designing for 3d printing in metals requires a different thought process for you to maximise the opportunities offered by the technology.  To help, we've published a design guide to give you a head start.

Examples Of Our Work.