Metal Technology Inc., Albany, Ore., has purchased a ProX 300 Direct Metal Sintering production 3D printer to build precision functional metal parts layer by layer with metal powder. The powder is melted by a powerful 500-watt laser to exact geometry dictated by 3D CAD models. Parts are built in an argon environment at elevated temperatures, resulting in high-purity stress-relieved components with material properties better than cast and comparable to those of wrought material.
The company will initially focus on building geometries from 17-4 stainless steel, titanium, Inconel, and molybdenum, and their future plans include testing of other alloy powders including tantalum, niobium, and tungsten
“The ProX 300 is a complementary technology to our existing deep draw and precision machining capability and will allow us to offer an even broader range of unique solutions to our customers,” says Gary Cosmer, CEO of Metal Technology. “We intend to leverage our experience working with exotic reactive and refractory metals for over forty years to create additive manufacturing parameters that will allow us to offer significant savings in cost, weight, and time for a number of our customer projects.”
