From the course: Additive Manufacturing: Metal 3D Printing

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Lower-cost metal 3D printing overview

Lower-cost metal 3D printing overview

From the course: Additive Manufacturing: Metal 3D Printing

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Lower-cost metal 3D printing overview

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- [Female Instructor] Metal 3D printers typically bind or sinter together finely powdered metals. However, this requires powder with a uniform particle size. This material is expensive to manage because loose metal powder is flammable. Particularly for reactive metals. If you then sinter this powder with a high power laser, you can imagine what the issues are. An inert gas environment is typically required. And extensive safety procedures have to be followed. Some of these concerns can be avoided by spraying a binder over the metal powder rather than directly sintering it. After this printing process, these loosely bound parts can be sintered using techniques based on those used with metal injection molding. - [Male Instructor] To avoid dealing with loose metal powders at all some manufacturers mix metal powder with a plastic binder. Being bound in plastic makes the metal powder safer to handle. This metal filled…

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