DMLS Stainless Steel 316L

Stainless Steel 316L

A robust metal with a rough, pitted surface. Steel is available in a variety of polished and matte finishes, and good for a wide range of applications including jewelry, functional parts, and small sculptures.

Min. Order Value $66

Est. Lead Time 7 days

Max Build Size

250 x 250 x 325 mm

Min Build Size

3 × 3 × 3 mm

Default Layer Height

0.04 mm

Optional Layer Heights

0.05 mm

Tolerance

± 3% of any dimension (and one layer thickness of 0.1mm)

Heat Endurance

N/A

Smooth ★★★

Detail ★★★★

Accuracy ★★★★

Rigidity ★★★★★

Flexibility ★★

Available Colors

Metal

Available Post Process

Polish

Sandblast

Electroplate

Gallery

Farsoon-Metal-Solutions-Metal-Materials-1.pdf

Suitable For

Functional prototypes and end products,
Cases, holders, adapters,
Form and fit testing,
Functional prototyping and testing,
Jewelry, art

Not Suitable For

Fine-detail models with smooth surfaces,
Large models,
Cavities within design (unless making use of escape holes)

Additional Info

About Stainless Steel 316L
316L Stainless Steel printing is very accurate because of the fine coating resolution (30-40 µm) and the laser’s accuracy. Unlike polymer powder sintering, stainless steel printing through DMLS requires adding base structures in order to attach the part to the board and to strengthen distinctive geometries like overhangs. The bases themselves are made from the same powder as the piece and will be taken off afterwards.

With no particular finishing, the material gives off a granular and coarse appearance, though suiting most applications. Smooth and shiny surfaces can be acquired after printing through finishing steps. Pieces can be machined, drilled, welded, electro-eroded, granulated, polished, and coated.

Benefits and Main Uses
Stainless Steel 3D printing is produced by fusion or laser sintering. Two possible technologies exist for this material: DMLS and SLM. At Sculpteo, we use DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering) technology, a laser sintering technique on a EOS M290 machine to print stainless steel. The laser beam brings the metal powder close to its fusion point layer after layer in order to produce your object.

Since the stainless steel is melded at a very high temperature, the additive metallic production process requires vast technical mastery for initial studying of thermal and mechanical effects before 3D printing. It also requires excellent knowledge of finishing techniques for the object’s completion.

To ensure successful production of your piece, having to modify your initial design is commonplace. Even if we must be repetitive, we prefer to warn you: if you wish to create a stainless steel piece just for curiosity, you risk being disappointed when confronting the necessary effort and cost of undertaking the project!

316L Stainless Steel is good material for printing both functional and spare parts in 3D. The material is easy to maintain because it attracts little dirt and the presence of chrome gives it the added benefit of never rusting.

316L Stainless Steel is used to offer solid pieces and essential hygienics in several industries such as the medical, aeronautical, automobile, and domestic products industries.

Min Supported Wall Thickness A supported wall is one connected to other walls on two or more sides.	1 mm
Min Unsupported Wall Thickness An unsupported wall is one connected to other walls on less than two sides.	1 mm
Min Supported Wires A wire is a feature whose length is greater than five times its width. A supported wire is connected to walls on both sides.	1 mm
Min Unsupported Wires A wire is a feature whose length is greater than five times its width. An unsupported wire is connected to walls on less than two sides.	1 mm
Min Hole Diameter The accuracy of a hole not only depends on the diameter of the hole, but also on the thickness of the wall through which the hole is printed. The thicker the wall section, the less accurate the hole becomes. Through holes must also allow for line-of-sight clearance to ensure all material is cleared during post-processing.	1 mm
Min Embossed Detail A detail is a feature whose length is less than twice its width. The minimum detail is determined by the printer’s resolution.When detail dimensions are below the minimum, the printer may not be able to accurately replicate them. Details that are too small can also be smoothed over in the polishing process. To ensure details come out clearly, make them larger than the indicated minimum. We may refrain from printing products with details smaller than the minimum, since the final product will not be true to your design. If your product has details smaller than the minimum, try making them larger, removing them, or considering a material with finer detail.	1 mm
Min Engraved Detail A detail is a feature whose length is less than twice its width. Engraved or debossed details go into a surface.	1 mm
Min Clearance Clearance is the space between any two parts, walls or wires. To ensure a successful product, make the clearance between parts, walls, and wires greater than the indicated minimum. If your clearance is too small, try making the gap bigger, or consider fusing the parts or features if their independence is unnecessary. You can also try a material with a smaller minimum clearance.	3 mm
Min Escape Holes Escape holes allow unbuilt material inside hollow products to be removed. Normally you don’t need to consider this, our technician will add escape holes before printing. When products contain hollow cavities, they are often filled with powder/liquid even after they are removed from the build tray. If escape holes are not large enough, or the geometry of the product makes it difficult to shake or blast the powder out, we cannot successfully clean it.	0 mm
Interlocking/moving or enclosed parts? Sometimes the interlocking/moving parts can’t be printed, since the supports inside the cross section can’t be removed.
Require Support Material? Because each layer needs to build off the last, for some material, angles of more than 45 degrees generally require supports to be printed along with the design. Supports are not inherently detrimental for your design, but they do add complexity to the printing process and lead to less smooth finish on overhanging parts.	Yes

Feature

Watertight	Foodsafe	Glueable	Recycleable

Biocompatible	Biodegradable	Flame Retardant	Conductive
Untested	Untested

3D Printer

ZRapid-SLM280, EOS-M290, Conceptlaser-M2

Material Spec Sheet

DMLS Stainless Steel 316L is 3D printed using SLM/DMLS (Selective Laser Melting) technology.

Selective Laser Melting creates objects from thin layers of powdered material by selectively melting it using a high power laser. The process takes place in a low oxygen environment in order to reduce thermal stresses and to prevent warping.

Industrial metals are best used for high-tech, low-volume use cases from prototyping to creating end-use parts. Metal 3D prints are comparable to traditionally manufactured parts in terms of chemical composition, mechanical properties (static and fatigue) as well as microstructure.

Once the printing is done, the extra powder that was not bound, and is not part of your design, is removed. Your part is now solid metal, and after the flutes are manually removed, it is tumbled and polished to produce a smooth finish.

How is SLM/DMLS 3D Printing Working?

DMLS Stainless Steel 316L