On November 19, 2019, FORMNEXT, the world's largest professional 3D printing exhibition, was held in Frankfurt, Germany. There were more than 800 3D printing manufacturers in the world and over 70 Chinese exhibitors.
At the exhibition site, as the local German company of this exhibition, SLM Solutions' booth was very atmospheric. At this exhibition, the metal additive manufacturing equipment SLM®500 equipped with four lasers was displayed, and the future development of metal 3D printing was shared on the site. Directions and trends, and more industrial laser selection melting application cases.
Next-generation ultra-large SLM molding technology
At the exhibition site, SLM Solutions showed its next-generation metal SLM 3D printing molding technology, and actually showed two large-scale metal 3D printed parts formed by this technology, the size reached an amazing 600 × 600 mm, but the site did not The molding equipment using this technology is not shown. It is said that the technology will have a subversive change, but the specific technical details will not be disclosed on site.
Super large SLM metal 3D printed sample, the size reaches 600 × 600 mm (compressor case)
Super large metal 3D printed sample formed by array SLM (case of front upper control arm)
The new SLM®500 series
At the site, SLM Solutions also launched the SLM®500 four-laser printer. The new SLM®500 series is equipped with an industry-leading gas path system, a durable filtration module, and an automated powder processing system.
SLM®500 Four Laser Metal 3D Printer
SLM®500 is a metal additive manufacturing equipment equipped with four lasers. In addition to the feature of assembling up to four lasers, its multi-laser accuracy and professional technology have always been leading the market. The equipment is equipped with four 700W lasers. And equipped with industry-leading gas circuit system, on the premise of ensuring high-precision and high-efficiency equipment performance, further optimize the quality of parts forming, long-term operation stability and the degree of automation of the additive system.
The new durable filter module extends the continuous running time of the equipment, avoids replacing the filter element and reduces the long-term cost of use. While ensuring the cleanliness of the molding chamber, it also ensures the best molding quality, which is crucial for the production of large-scale parts with high mechanical performance requirements.
Automated PSV powder supply system can realize closed-loop powder processing, reduce operator direct contact with metal powder as much as possible, no longer need to manually fill powder with powder bottle, and its equipped 90L powder cylinder can also meet the maximum height of parts production . PSV integrates an ultrasonic powder screening system. The powder is screened in the PSV before being supplied to the SLM® equipment to prevent large particles and inclusions in the powder from affecting the final print quality. The inert gas will be used to protect the metal powder throughout the enclosed environment to ensure the integrity and consistency of the material.
3D printed metal prototypes with different parameters
The optimized gas path system can effectively remove smoke and dust from the molding chamber, ensuring excellent molding conditions. The enhanced inert airflow passes through the wind wall of the molding cabin to ensure that the molding surface is always in a stable production environment, and to prevent the laser incident glass from being polluted by smoke and dust and hindering the laser work. Effective inert gas circulation will also greatly reduce gas consumption, which will also be a considerable production cost in long-term production.
The use of the newly introduced metal brush scraper will be more suitable for long-term continuous work. With the powder spreading quality monitoring system, it can maintain the best powder spreading quality during thousands of powder spreading processes to ensure that the parts from layer to layer Overall molding quality.
Establish a partnership with Divergent
On the day before the exhibition, SLM Solutions and Divergent (3D printing sports car company) signed a letter of intent to purchase next-generation additive manufacturing equipment, and further deepened the strategic partnership. In order to accelerate the development and time to market of next-generation equipment, Divergent will Purchased 5 pre-production equipment and put it into use in the integrated display factory in Los Angeles, California, for the production work of its bulletproof series products.
Mr. Meddah Hadjar, CEO of SLM Solutions, said: "This partnership promotes the balance of cost and productivity of next-generation equipment, which will push metal additive manufacturing into wider mass production."
Metal 3D printed car
Kevin Czinger, founder and CEO of Divergent, said that the cooperation between the two companies in equipment, software and materials will help the two companies take an important step from an independent additive manufacturing industry to a fully integrated smart factory.
The first quarter of a metal 3D printed supercar
The first quarter of the "Different" super sports car with comprehensive performance and excellent anti-collision performance was exhibited on the spot, which more intuitively displayed its revolutionary 3D printed chassis structure. In addition, the lightweight suspension and chassis components that were genetically engineered and finally verified were also on-site.
Front lower control arm assembly case
Filter case
Single printing Y-shaped connecting tube (150 pieces in total)