There has been a lot of buzz about the 3D printing metals like bronze and steel- that how does it work? 3D printing with the help of a metal has a plethora of applications in some of the famous industries like medical, dental, jewelry and manufacturing. Although most of these applications are more focused on corporate use cases, there are many companies who are working on making it possible for consumers to 3D print with metal on their system. Here are the complete ways that how the technology behind the 3D printing metal works:
Top 3 Methods For 3D Printing Metal
1.Metal binder jetting
3D printing with metal starts out like any other process of printing with an awesome 3D design and slicer that know the printer where to deposit the print head material. The alternating layer of powder and binder fuse together and begin to build upwards to create the object.
Some of the printers have the overhead heater fitted with it that further allows the layers to dry and the binding solution to melt the powder in the areas where it is being deposited. This process of deposited is repeated again and again until all the layers of the object are complete from bottom up. This process can take few hours to finish.
- Powder bed fusion
This process continues until the entire model is complete and the Powder bed fusion can be performed with the help of a one of a number of different techniques which includes selective laser melting, direct metal laser sintering, electron beam melting and selective layer sintering.
- Directed energy deposition
This processes used two different type of material that is a metal wire or metal powder. A nozzle that moves in the multiple directions of 3-4 axis extrudes metal powder or wire material layer by layer. Once the material is deposited, it is melted with the help of a laser or electron beam. This process continues till the object built layer by layer accordingly.
What are the benefits of 3D printing metals?
With the help of a 3D printer metals, it has the ability to create cheaper and only more complex moulds become more possible.
There are wide benefits of using the 3D printer:
Greater range of designs and shapes both are possible. The complexities which are also possible with the 3D printing could not be even achieved with the help of any other methods or factors.
It is one of the cost effective method. For low volumes of manufacturing, it provides a feasible option which can be used to meet requirements.
Robust and strong finishing: 3D printing provides the design as it is created as a continuous piece rather having the multiple joins and welds.
Lightweight: the ability to work at a time means designs can be created which are super thinner and thus reducing the weight of a product.
Fast: Moreover, a mould take a few days to print, this is extremely a rapid process which is mixed in comparison with other methods.
Easy to tweak: if you need to change the design, the process is really simple and just only requires few of the buttons to be pressed apart from that expensive and lengthy re designing.
No need to stock expensive designs: With the help of a 3D printing, you have the prescribed material to run the machine, there is no any reason for any item to be out of stock. In this, all you need is the .stl file and you can print the product whatever you want to print.