In many industrial 3D printing applications, manual handling and loading of materials are still common practice. The companies plan to develop improved automation and printing processes which they say could improve efficiency and secure a safer working environment.
For example, Piab makes piFLOW vacuum conveyors which can be used in multiple applications during the printing process, including filling the 3D printer with the new or reclaimed metal powder, filling the sieve or hopper, or reclaiming the excess metal powder for reuse, Höganäs said.
“Through this partnership, we can offer our customers better, more sustainable ways to work with their metal powders,” says Kennet Almkvist, president of customization technologies Höganäs. “It’s also a big step forward in the industrialisation of these processes, as it removes elements of manual handling while optimising the amount of powder that’s utilised in the printing.”
The conveyors can be used with powder bed fusion, binder jetting and laser sintering AM, according to the company.
