Cost of 3D Printing Powders

Metal powders are the essential building blocks of 3D printing processes in additive manufacturing (AM). They come in two forms: raw powder metal 3d printing metal powders or bound powder 3d printing metal filament.

Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) and selective laser melting (SLM) both use a specific light source to heat material at high temperatures, curing it into the desired part.

Cost

When purchasing 3d printing powder, there are a number of factors that can influence the price. These include the type of material used, model complexity and size, as well as printing technology used.

Three-D printing commonly utilizes filaments and thermoplastics, which can be reshaped and molded to produce industrial-grade parts.Costly materials, particularly aluminum and alloy steel, can be particularly costly. Not only are these difficult to source but also more costly to keep up with; maintenance costs also add up over time.

These materials may also be susceptible to porosity, where microscopic cavities can form in the material and reduce its density.

Metal Powder Works has devised the DirectPowder process to address these challenges, which turns solid metal bars or other solid materials into powdered forms suitable for additive manufacturing. This highly controlled procedure offers numerous benefits that traditional powders cannot provide.

Printing time

When printing a 3d printer metal powder model with 3d printing powders, the speed required depends on the material. Some inks have an impressive print speed while others require more effort in preparation.

One common way to reduce printing time is using binder jet technology, such as HP's Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) or Stratasys' SAF - binder jetting. With these systems, a special print head places binding agents at specific points and adheres the layers together.

By doing this, you can achieve highly accurate voxel-level control of each point's physical characteristics such as color, stiffness, conductivity and flexibility.

Most 3d printing powders are composed of aluminum, titanium and other metal alloys; however, some companies produce custom-made powders for specific uses. The particle size and morphology of the final powder may vary significantly, which could have an adverse effect on both print quality and cost.

Material

When printing metal parts or polymer ones, the material used is essential. Depending on your process, certain properties may be needed by your machine for optimal performance.

Certain processes necessitate special consideration of the oxygen and nitrogen content of powders. This is especially pertinent to aerospace applications, where titanium alloy powder and stainless steel powder must be strictly monitored for oxidation indexes.

Other powders are available for 3D printing processes that don't involve melting or fusing of the material, such as selective laser sintering (SLS) and electron beam melting (EBM).

Some systems allow for direct printing of materials onto existing parts, enabling repair or modification to existing products to add features or replace worn components.

Post-processing

Once a part is 3D printed, it typically needs several post-processing steps to transform it into something usable or displayable. These could include sanding, clearing away powder residue, surface finishing and coloring.

These steps may take a variety of times, depending on the printing technology and intended use. The aim is to make a 3D printed part cleaner, more appealing, and better functional.

Sanding, for instance, takes care of overhangs that may appear in certain materials like plastic or metal. Additionally, it smoothes out layer lines caused by support structures attached to 3D printed parts when a layering process was employed.

This process is usually carried out manually, but can now be automated with modern systems. These machines use controlled vibrations and motorized axis rotation to thoroughly clean a laser-fused metal part of any residual powder residue.