By Liz Nickels
The new laser sintering technology will be available to its customers in aerospace, defense, and scientific industries. Metal Technology will initially be focusing on building geometries from 17-4 stainless steel, titanium, Inconel, and molybdenum, while future plans include testing of other alloy powders including tantalum, niobium, and tungsten.
The ProX 300 direct metal sintering (DMS) production 3D printer, supplied by 3D Systems, melts metal powder with a 500 watt laser to geometry dictated by 3D CAD models. Parts are built in an argon environment at elevated temperatures resulting in parts with material properties the company claims are better than cast and comparable to wrought material.
"We intend to leverage our experience working with exotic reactive and refractory metals for over forty years to create additive manufacturing parameters that will allow us to offer significant cost, weight, and time savings for a number of our customer projects,” said Gary Cosmer, CEO of Metal Technology.
