The Fastest and Most Affordable Sinter Based
Multi-material Additive Manufacturing System
Benefits
Faster sintering - from days to hours
Sinter based additive manufacturing of metal and ceramic materials is composed of two processes, 3D printing and sintering. During sintering, metal or ceramic particles are fused together to create a solid object. The problem is that conventional sintering processes currently available take days to complete.
Our additive manufacturing system uses microwave energy and a granular susceptor material to rapidly and directly convert microwave energy into heat, which instantaneously heats up the entire part, resulting in a significant reduction in sintering time.
Our microwave sintering process is 9 times faster for large parts and 12 times faster for small parts when compared to existing conventional sintering processes.
Open multi-material 3D printing
Our additive manufacturing system uses materials in pellet form. Pelletized materials are the standard in the polymer industry. For plastic and flexible materials, there are thousands of exiting suppliers worldwide that supply these materials providing users of our system with an almost unlimited choice of materials. For metal and ceramic materials, Metallum3D has developed a water/gelation material formulation in pellet form that is cost effective, safe to handle and environmentally friendly. In our system, metal and ceramic 3D printed parts go directly from the 3D printer to the microwave sintering furnace without the need for a debinding step. Our multi-material 3D printing capability delivers an “All-In-One” system.
Affordable System Price
We are focused on providing our customers with exceptional value. Our system provides high performance additive manufacturing at a price point that is approximately two thirds less than competing systems in the market.
How It Works
Pellet Extrusion 3D Printer
To provide an open materials platform with multi-material capabilities, we have developed a patent pending melt pump pellet extruder that accepts material in pellet form. Our extruder combines a zero-compression feed screw with a miniature positive displacement gear pump and three independent heating zones, to precisely control the extrusion and retraction of melted materials flowing through the nozzle. This melt pump extruder allows our system to 3D print parts with plastic and flexible materials and to 3D print and microwave sinter parts with metal and ceramic materials.
Microwave Sintering Furnace
Until now microwave sintering has not been commercially viable due to the limitations of existing multimode resonant microwave heating technology, which is the same technology currently used in domestic microwave ovens. After 4 years of research and development work, we have developed a new, patent pending, non-resonant microwave heating system that eliminates the limitations that have previously prevented the commercial use of microwave energy for sintering. Our microwave heating system uses specially designed non-resonant slotted waveguides and a specially formulated granular susceptor material to evenly distribute microwave energy within the sintering chamber resulting in even heat distributions throughout the sintering volume. The microwave energy distribution of our non-resonant slotted waveguides has been validated using CST Microwave Studio, which is a high- performance electromagnetic simulation software package. The animation below shows a cross section of the microwave energy distribution performance of our slotted waveguides.
To learn more about our non-resonant microwave heating technology download our technical white paper.
Specifications
Pellet Extrusion 3D Printer
Size: 1,000 x 778 x 1,880 mm
Build Volume: 300 x 300 x 300 mm
Heated Bed: Yes
Bed Leveling: Automatic
Extrusion System: Dual independent pellet extruders
Extruder Temperature: Max 300 deg. C
Pellet Size: 1 to 4 mm dia.
Nozzle Sizes: 0.4 to 1.2 mm
Control: Duet Web Control
Slicer: Simplify3D
Electrical: 120V single phase
Microwave Sintering Furnace
Size: 1,356 x 778 x 1,880 mm
Sintering Volume: 300 x 300 x 300 mm
Power: 6 kW
Frequency: 2.45 GHz
Operating Mode: Non-resonant
Sintering Cavity: Stainless Steel
Insulation: Ceramic
Max Temperature: 1,400 Deg. C
Control: Programmable heating and cooling profiles
Sintering Atmosphere: Inert gas
Electrical: 208V three phase
3D Printing Materials
Plastics and Flexibles:
Any plastic or flexible material in pellet form with a maximum extrusion temperature of 300 deg. C
Metals and Ceramics:
- Metallum3D water/gelation binder system
- Stainless Steel 316
- Stainless Steel 17-4 PH
- Inconel 625
- Copper
- Aluminum Oxide Ceramic
- Mullite Ceramic
Purchase
Launching Q4 2021
US $59,990
Invest
Metallum3D is open for investment on StartEngine
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Join us as we pioneer and introduce the first commercially viable microwave sintering process to the additive manufacturing market and expand access to high quality, multi-material 3D printing technology.