News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing (KAM for short), the metal AM service founded by former Team Penske NASCAR race driver Brad Keselowski, is rapidly becoming one of the most productive AM factories in the world. After starting out just a few years ago with only two systems, the service provider has built up a fleet of 21 metal PBF systems, with the newest SLM 280 just introduced bringing the total to three.
The INDEX Group in Esslingen, Germany, a specialist in industrial CNC systems, is extending its business by introducing new additive manufacturing solutions. INDEX acquired a majority interest in TRUMPF’s One Click Metal GmbH. This participation provides One Click Metal with additional know-how and capital to continue its growth trajectory in the very promising entry-level segment for 3D printers. TRUMPF remains involved as an active and strategic partner and will support the company’s future development in collaboration with INDEX.
Michigan-based company DM3D has released a new DMD machine with multiple process heads that can print metal parts up to 10ft in diameter and 10ft in height. The giant system has been designed for processing steel and Inconel alloys that are less prone to oxidation.
PWR Performance Solutions, based in Australia, decided to look into adding metal 3D printing technology to its current workflow, to stay at the forefront of manufacturing capacity. The heat exchanger pictured above was designed by PWR to test the capabilities of different aspects of 3D printing. PWR engineers designed the fin structure and tube array as a benchmark for testing minimum wall thickness, surface finish, and heat transfer efficiency. To produce the parts, PWR chose E-plus 3D as a supplier and ordered an EP-M250Pro MPBF system.
One Click Metal, a German company that made easy to use, affordable metal laser powder bed fusion systems its prerogative, is introducing the new MPRINT+ 3D printer priced at just €76,900, which probably makes it the most affordable such system on the market today.
AUDI AG, a leading manufacturer of premium vehicles, is relying entirely on industrial 3D printing at its Metal 3D Printing Centre in Ingolstadt for the production of selected tool segments. Additive manufacturing (AM) with EOS technology is used for 12 segments of four tools for hot forming. Plans call for significantly more segments to be printed this way. Audi uses the tool segments produced using the EOS M 400 system in its press shop to make body panels for models including the Audi A4. The company plans to do the same for future electric vehicles.
The hottest competition is in metal binder jetting and so it happens that, on the same day, two leaders in this field make a comparable breakthrough announcement: the ability to 3D print aluminum 6061 alloy by binder jetting and, more importantly, to proficiently sinter it. ExOne achieved this aluminum binder jetting breakthrough by working with Ford Motors Company on a new patent-pending process.
Interspectral has entered a new agreement with additive manufacturing company AMEXCI AB and will provide AMEXCI with early access to its software AM Explorer. AM Explorer makes it possible to fuse, explore and analyze design files, simulation data, machine monitoring data and post-build metrology data from the metal additive manufacturing process in 3D.
Xerox appears to be closer to commercially releasing the liquid metal 3D printer it has been working on since it acquired the startup Vader systems. The company released a new video where it also, for the first time, revealed the name of the upcoming system: ElemX. The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) will be the first institution to receive a Xerox ElemX Liquid Metal Printer as part of a collaboration focused on advancing additive manufacturing research
MakerBot qualified the BASF Ultrafuse 316L Stainless Steel material by Forward AM for the MakerBot LABS Experimental Extruder for its METHOD 3D printers. With an open materials platform and a growing portfolio of advanced engineering-grade materials, METHOD is now the only industrial desktop 3D printer in its price-class with a heated chamber that can print polymer, composite, and metal materials.