ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING is the magazine devoted to industrial applications of 3D printing and digital layering technology. We cover the promise and the challenges of this technology for making functional tooling and end-use production parts.
Issue link: https://am.epubxp.com/i/894355
AM / Material Advantage additivemanufacturing.media 57 The Knob Problem The Colorado-based startup developed the aluminum MMC on an EOS M 290 direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) machine. The material will be made available through EOS, Nuechterlein says, and that coming commercialization represents an important success for his company. It will be the first completion of a material-development process the firm will perform for customers as its core service and its contribution to additive manufacturing's advance. The company is already working with customers on several new additive metals (all the open projects right now involve metals, not MMCs) in various stages of development. In Nuechterlein's view, this work pursues the most meaningful potential value of AM. He says the too-little-appreciated aspect of the design freedom of additive manufacturing is its material freedom—the freedom to make the part from a material that has been custom-designed for that part's needs. Applying his background in material science, specifically powder metals, he started the company to help manufacturers explore this aspect of designing for AM. But first they have to realize they have this freedom. The realization is not yet widespread. To date, he says, AM users have tended to remain "stuck within the box of the eight or ten standard metals currently proven for a given additive system." Development is finished for the metal matrix composite, which will soon be available commercially. The build seen below includes test specimens simply to further validate performance for a potential user. In the leftover space in the build, the Elementum 3D team included some sample parts. The piston illustrates the promise the new material might hold for realizing lighter car engines. The sample parts below show possibilities of the new aluminum metal matrix composite. Here the material is seen TIG welded with commercially available filler wire, ground to a smooth finish, and built into a lattice form for light weight. The company says this last possibility in particular catches the interest of potential users, because this is a type of part geometry not previously possible with a metal matrix composite These samples serve to quantify the com- posite's weight savings. The steel rook seen above is 36.5 grams. The Inconel 625 rook is 38.0 grams. A rook made as part of the firm's development of tungsten, not shown, was 86.9 grams. But the metal matrix composite rook, at far right, is just 13.4 grams. In fact, additive ought to vastly multiply the range of material options. It ought to open the way to use metals and other ma- terials not currently being applied in conventional processes. For now, the small firm (currently nine employees) is limited to developing materials for the EOS platform. This is the system it has and the system it is experienced with. For manufacturers who themselves use EOS equipment, the case the company makes for taking on their material development for them is