Sintavia has taken supply of the primary steel 3D printer outfitted with nLIGHT AFX beam shaping fiber laser expertise in North America.
The additive manufacturing firm, which specialises in steel 3D printing for purchasers within the aerospace sector, has commissioned the AMCM M290-2 steel powder mattress fusion system with a pair of 1.2kW nLight lasers at its Florida facility, which is able to permit its operators to modulate beam spot measurement and form and ship what Sintavia describes as a ‘step-function in laser productiveness’.
Brian Neff, Sintavia’s Founder and CEO mentioned, “Over the approaching years as we develop and apply this new expertise, we anticipate to have the ability to print our elements at layer thicknesses of 150µm or extra with out shedding any materials properties, thus significantly growing the output of our put in printers. The most effective a part of the nLIGHT system, as soon as it’s absolutely examined, is that it may be retrofitted on different present EOS and AMCM printers with minimal new gear.”
It is one other North American first for AMCM and Sintavia, which was additionally the first North American consumer of AMCM’s M 8K steel 3D printer. Final 12 months Sintavia introduced a $25 million funding in its in Florida facility for extra large-format 3D printers, large-format post-processing programs, and part testing gear.
“We will consider no higher dwelling for the primary twin nLIGHT system within the U.S. than Sintavia,” mentioned Martin Bullemer, Managing Director of AMCM, GmbH. “With their vertically built-in additive manufacturing capabilities, together with intensive testing labs, they’re well-suited to assist develop and increase the capabilities of the nLIGHT laser beam shaping expertise.”
Beam shaping permits for absolutely dense materials to be melted at a diameter over thrice higher than commonplace laser programs, which means that commonplace layer thicknesses, usually between 30-45µm, might be doubled or tripled with none lack of materials efficiency. Additionally it is mentioned to assist overcome challenges with condensate, which Sintavia notes as ‘probably the most problematic byproduct of the PBF course of’, with research displaying that nLIGHT beam shaping lasers can assist scale back this waste stream by as much as 70%. The flexibility to completely soften thicker construct layers with out shedding density can be mentioned to extend grain measurement within the z-direction and ship improved materials efficiency.
EOS, of which AMCM is a bunch firm, introduced final June it will be making nLight beam shaping lasers obtainable on its steel 3D printing platforms as a part of a collaboration to make beam shaping and lightweight engine optimisation capabilities obtainable digitally and ship larger productiveness printing. On the time, AMCM had already made the programmable AFX laser obtainable in its programs. In November, nLIGHT introduced the official manufacturing launch of its Corona AFX-2000 laser following validation by a consumer working throughout the aerospace, defence, and automotive finish markets, leading to print speeds reportedly as much as thrice sooner when in comparison with what nLIGHT categorises as ‘as we speak’s main large-format printers.’
