Look Ahead: 3D printing picks up the pace

One reason additive manufacturing of metal parts isn’t more widespread is that, for many manufacturers, it’s too slow and expensive compared to subtractive methods. Laser sintering, the most-popular AM method, builds a part layer by layer at the pinpoint of a laser beam. It’s a slow process that uses metal powders specially formulated to have a consistent grain size. Those powders are not cheap.

Desktop Metal Inc., a 2-year-old startup, developed a different method of metal 3D printing that it calls an “office-friendly” system for rapid prototyping. The Desktop Metal (DM) Studio system is based on a new approach—Single Pass Jetting (SPJ), which was created by the inventors of the binder-jetting and the single-pass inkjet processes. The company also offers DM Production, a printer for the manufacturing market it claims is 100 times faster than current laser- sintering machines.

The DM Studio System allows rapid prototyping with the same alloys used in production. Image courtesy of Desktop Metal.

In this process, the component is first printed completely and then sintered in a microwave-enhanced furnace. The system relies on Bound Metal Deposition, a proprietary process from DM that’s similar to the widely used fused-deposition modeling additive process for plastics.