Desktop Metal will develop an advanced additive manufacturing (AM) process that can mass-produce cobalt (Co)-free hard metal parts for the US Army. The Boston-based company has received millions of dollars in funding from the US Department of Defense (DOD) to implement the project, which is expected to significantly improve sustainability and provide large-scale production of metals, alloys, cermets and composites. Parts provide an environmentally friendly method with outstanding performance for commercial and DoD applications.
Desktop Metals, a global mass production and turnkey AM solution provider, announced on October 7, 2020 that it has received the first phase of a three-year, US$2.45 million project to fund the development project. This news comes after the U.S. Army obtained a new type of cobalt-free tungsten carbide (WC)-based hard metal patent in January 2020, and then instructed the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) to find the correct process for mass production of parts. .
Relying on its proprietary additive manufacturing technology, Desktop Metal will develop a cost-effective, high-volume additive manufacturing process that can process novel Co-free hard metals into complex, net or Near-net shape parts. The company's production system will be used for the final parts of the project, aiming to 3D print metal parts on a large scale. It uses single-shot jet (SPJ) technology to achieve a printing speed up to 100 times the printing speed of traditional powder bed fusion AM platform, and provides hundreds of thousands or even millions of parts every year at a cost that competes with traditional manufacturing.
"The success of this project will not only provide the cemented carbide community with the cobalt-free cemented carbide solutions that they urgently need, but will also lead to the development of tool-free machining technology that can quickly process such materials into extremely complex shapes. This technology is comparable to most other high-volume manufacturing technologies, thus opening up new horizons in the field of hard metals and their applications." said Animesh Bose, the lead researcher of the three-year project and vice president of desktop metal special projects.
In the next three years, Desktop Metal will try to develop a new Co-free hard metal raw material and adhesive system, using its SPJ process to print at least 200,000 parts a day on one machine, and conduct cost analysis. Expand advanced SPJ adhesive jet manufacturing technology to successfully manufacture at least 500,000 prototype parts.
"The new cobalt-free cemented carbide is expected to produce materials with high strength, high toughness, high hardness and high wear resistance," said Nicholas Ku, materials engineer at the U.S. Army Combat Capability Development Command (CCDC) ARL. "We believe that combining this novel material with Desktop Metal's Single Pass Jetting technology will have a wide range of applications not only in the defense field but also in the commercial field. In addition, we believe that this combined method will greatly improve sustainability. , Reduce the use of conflict minerals, and provide an environmentally friendly process to mass-produce parts with superior performance."
According to the company, this novel process has the potential to change the cemented carbide market. It is expected that the cemented carbide market will grow to US$24 billion by 2024 and can be used for dual purposes, including cutting tools, wear and chemical resistance. Nozzles for the oil and gas industry, off-road transportation and parts for the chemical and textile industries, aerospace and defense sectors, construction, consumer goods, and even tools for the agriculture, mining and steel industries, etc.
This production system is the first metal 3D printing system for mass production of complex metal parts. Image courtesy of Business Wire.
The metal additive manufacturing project was assigned to Desktop Metal by the US Army Contract Command-Aberdeen Research Triangle Park, and was assigned to the National Manufacturing Science Center (NCMS) Advanced Manufacturing, Materials and Process (AMMP) Alliance on behalf of the US Army Research Laboratory. Lisa Strama, CEO of NCMS, described this work as a great way for NCMS and AMMP to connect the cutting-edge technology of non-traditional defense contractors with government agencies to meet existing needs. example.
The Department of Defense has been looking for ways to produce tungsten carbide cermet materials with cobalt-free, harmless binder systems through conventional or innovative methods. In 2019, the U.S. Army issued a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to seek ways to improve ballistic performance by establishing a production technology for WC cermets using patented new cobalt-free binder materials. Obviously, Desktop Metal’s award corresponds to the SBIR program, which plans to use the production technology developed in the first phase to produce "near-net-shaped and net-shaped projectile cores based on WC composition", and then fully integrate it as a solicitation As stated in the description parameter, the projectile is shot into the small-caliber ammunition system.
Many military applications combine tungsten-based composite materials with transition metals such as cobalt. However, although cobalt is a highly strategic material used for defensive capabilities, researchers have been looking for innovative solutions that can replace potentially dangerous carcinogenic cobalt in WC-based hard metal binder systems. Finding eco-friendly hard metals is the key to solving several persistent key issues, including unsustainable radioactive p-items released during cobalt mining.