Metal 3D Printing

Metal 3D printing process encompasses a wide range of technologies such as laser powder bed fusion (PBF), metal binder jetting, fused filament deposition (FDM), and laser cladding.

There are two ways that lasers create metal parts from metal powder, either by sintering or melting. The most popular powder bed fusion metal printing technology is selective laser melting (SLM), which fuses metal layers into parts with high-power lasers that fully melt each layer of metal powder. SLM can be used with a wider spectrum of materials – aluminum, titanium, iron, nickel, cobalt, copper-based alloys, and their composites – than you can use with sintering methods.

Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) involves a laser that slowly and steadily sinters layer by layer of metal powder, which means that the particles inside the metal are fused together, even though the metal is not heated enough to melt completely. The major advantage of DMLS is that it produces objects free from the residual stresses and internal defects that can plague traditionally manufactured metal components and SLM parts due to the melting.