Solid State Sintered 3-D Printing Component by Using Inkjet (Binder) Method

Additive manufacturing of metal components is commonly performed by laser or electron beam melting for direct consolidation of powders, but there are also other techniques available, e.g. the ink-jet on powder bed used by Digital Metal super( registered ). Hoganaes Digital Metal has been involved in additive manufacturing since 2010, with a technology that utilizes separate forming and consolidation processes. Precision inkjet on powder bed is used for production of green components, and these components are then sintered to obtain final density and strength. The technique is successfully used to produce components in 316L stainless steel, but basically all types of metals or alloys, available as powders with suitable morphology and particle size can be used to print components. The following sintering process then can be optimized for each individual alloy, making processing of a wide selection of alloys possible. In this study, possibilities and challenges with different alloys are discussed.