Sintavia has taken supply of the primary steel 3D printer geared up 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 can enable its operators to modulate beam spot dimension 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 count on to have the ability to print our parts at layer thicknesses of 150µm or extra with out shedding any materials properties, thus significantly rising the output of our put in printers. One of the best a part of the nLIGHT system, as soon as it’s absolutely examined, is that it may be retrofitted on different current EOS and AMCM printers with minimal new tools.”
It is one other North American first for AMCM and Sintavia, which was additionally the first North American person of AMCM’s M 8K steel 3D printer. Final yr Sintavia introduced a $25 million funding in its in Florida facility for extra large-format 3D printers, large-format post-processing techniques, and element testing tools.
“We are able to consider no higher house 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 broaden the capabilities of the nLIGHT laser beam shaping expertise.”
Beam shaping permits for absolutely dense materials to be melted at a diameter over thrice better than commonplace laser techniques, that means that commonplace layer thicknesses, usually between 30-45µm, may 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 exhibiting that nLIGHT beam shaping lasers can assist cut back this waste stream by as much as 70%. The power to completely soften thicker construct layers with out shedding density can be mentioned to extend grain dimension within the z-direction and ship improved materials efficiency.
EOS, of which AMCM is a bunch firm, introduced final June it could be making nLight beam shaping lasers accessible on its steel 3D printing platforms as a part of a collaboration to make beam shaping and light-weight engine optimisation capabilities accessible digitally and ship increased productiveness printing. On the time, AMCM had already made the programmable AFX laser accessible in its techniques. In November, nLIGHT introduced the official manufacturing launch of its Corona AFX-2000 laser following validation by a person working throughout the aerospace, defence, and automotive finish markets, leading to print speeds reportedly as much as thrice quicker when in comparison with what nLIGHT categorises as ‘right this moment’s main large-format printers.’
