The high cost of metal 3D printing has always been a major problem restricting its popularity. The main reasons for the high cost include expensive equipment, expensive materials and low efficiency. If breakthroughs can be made in these aspects, and the price of metal 3D printing can be reduced, it will inevitably promote its popularization.
According to foreign media reports, Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced materials IFAM have developed a new type of iron powder and have successfully carried out processing tests. It is reported that the price of iron powder produced by the new method is only about 10% of the cost of the gas atomization process. Once mass-produced, it solves one of the cost problems of materials in metal additive manufacturing and opens up new possibilities.
At present, the most commonly used metal spherical powder materials for selective laser melting (SLM) and selective electron beam melting (SEBM) processes are produced by aerosol technology, but the powder materials produced by this technology are expensive.
By adopting the new production method, the iron powder price is only about 10% of the current cost. There are also cheap alternatives for other materials such as titanium powder.
Fraunhofer IFAM has already conducted 3D printing tests using this low-cost iron powder material. The equipment in SEBM technology proved its feasibility, and it is possible to produce dimensionally stable components with this iron powder. Although this low-cost particle is more irregular in shape and expected to have less fluidity than a gas-atomized powder, this iron powder is a true low-cost alternative.
In addition, it has been demonstrated that the SEBM process can print powders with poor fluidity very robustly, and the addition of various powder mixtures as well as the processing of various alloys have been successfully tested, and the respective alloy behavior is currently being studied in detail.
Thus, Fraunhofer IFAM not only creates a cheap alternative for the additive manufacturing of steel, it is also ideal for other materials.
Xi'an Guosheng Laser Technology Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise specializing in R&D, manufacturing and sales of automatic laser cladding machine, high-speed laser cladding machine, laser quenching machine, laser welding machine and laser 3D printing equipment. Our products are cost-effective and sold domestically and abroad. If you're interested in our products, please contact us at bob@gshenglaser.com.