Desktop Metal? reports that it has started to ship its new P-1 printer globally.
According to the company, the P-1’s capabilities from process development to full-scale mass production of end-use metal parts. It uses the same patent-pending single pass jetting (SPJ) technology as the larger P-50 printer, allowing materials research and new application development conducted on the P-1 to be transferred directly onto the P-50 to scale to mass production.
Desktop says that the P-1 can print each layer in less than three seconds, including powder deposition, powder compaction, anti-ballistics, binder deposition, and printhead cleaning. It can print low-cost, third-party metal injection molding powders across a variety of materials, making the P-1 suitable for serial production of small and complex parts in addition to smaller scale process development activities. Powder reclaimed during the printing and depowdering process can be recycled for future use.
‘We expect that this new system will serve as an important tool in the development of our future advanced process and alloy implementation, enabling our researchers to investigate additional production opportunities of metal binder jetting at Ford Motor Company,’ said Cynthia Flanigan, Director at Ford Research, which has acquired one of the P-1 printers. ‘Our early collaboration with Desktop Metal highlighted the need for a lab scale system that is aligned with the functionality of the production scale system so we can further develop expertise around this process.’
This story uses material from Desktop Metal, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
