3D Printing Stainless Steel.
3D Printing in Steel. Strong & Durable Service.
3D print your designs in Stainless Steel and Tool Steel. and choose from a range of alloys to suite your application.
Steels are 3D printed using the DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering) or SLM process. A very fine metal powder is melted with a laser to produce your design layer by layer. Once your design is complete any support structures are removed and any finishing completed. Unused powder is recycled for use on the next model.
3D Printing in Stainless or Tool steels can work out more cost effective than traditional 'subtractive' processes, especially where you have complex or intricate designs. Extra complexity does not add to the price of manufacture as it might with traditional manufacture.
Stainless Steel 1.4542 (17-4)
Stainless Steel 1.4542 is our default Stainless material for 3d printing. It has good mechanical properties, including excellent ductility when produced with laser based additive manufacturing.
This metal can accept a wide range of post processing operations including machining and milling.
Applications:
1.4542 is widely used across a range of engineering applications including functional metal prototypes, short run production and 'on demand' spare parts.
Stainless Steel 1.4404, 316L (Default).
1.4404 offers a high resistance to corrosion, gives high strength, and has excellent ductility. Parts made in Stainless 1.4404 may be welded, machined, polished and coated.
316L is our default stainless steel option.
Applications:
General production of components where designs call for high strength and resistance to corrosion.
Stainless Steel 1.4859 - High Temperature.
A new addition to our metals 3d printing service, Stainless steel 1.4859 offers superb temperature resistance, in the region of 1000 deg C. The material is also tough. More information to follow.
Applications:
Manufacture of components where designs call for exposure to very high temperatures. This steel is used in the crude oil and natural gas industries in installations exposed to high temperatures. 1.4859 has extra toughness and is often used for valve casings etc.
Maraging Steel 1.2709 (Alloy Tool Steel with Ni)
Our Tool Steel (1.2709) is a martensite-hardenable, high performance steel for series tools and offers excellent mechanical properties. Additional heat treatment improves hardness and stability.
The typical application is the manufacturing of tooling elements such as cores and inserts of die casting and injection moulding tools. This material is also ideal for functional metal prototypes, small series products, individualized products or spare parts with high tensile strength.
Applications:
Tool steels are typically used to manufacture tooling components including cores, inserts and injection moulding tools. The materials is also used for functional prototypes and short production runs where designs call for high tensile strength.
Supporting information. 3D printing in Steel.
Our metal 3d printing service gives you a build envelope for steels of:
- 250 x 250 x 300mm - Stainless and Tool Steels.
Data sheets.
Stainless Steel 17-4 1.4542 Datasheet.
Stainless Steel High Temperature - 1.4859 Datasheet.
Stainless Steel 316L - 1.4404 - Datasheet.
Maraging Steel 1.2709 Datasheet.
For important technical and ordering information on our 3d printing in metals, please see our general 'Metals' page.
Examples of our work.
A large format Stainless Steel 3D printed design for an experimental application.
The pictured design was developed by a client creating an experiment for a pure research application. They used FEA to help confirm the design prior to printing.
3D Printed heat sinks in stainless steel.
Our additive manufacturing service is ideal for complex geometries which would be difficult to produce using traditional manufacturing techniques. The honeycomb features on the pictured heat sinks are an excellent example. The complexity of the geometry does not impact the price.
3D Printed Tool Steel inserts for a pressing application
Tool inserts for a pressing application. 3D Printing using the DMLS process gives our US client a fast and low cost option for making tool inserts for their manufacturing process.
Maraging Steel 1.2709 tool inserts
Maraging Steel (1.2709) tool inserts 3D printed using the DMLS process for a production line process.
3D Printed Materials
OUR Design Guide
for 3D Printing in metals. Download here.
OUR CLIENTS SAY
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