Above: Desktop Metal and Uniformity Lab develop a fully dense and sinterable Aluminium 6061 powder for Binder Jetting Technology/Image Source: Desktop Metal
Desktop Metal, Inc., a leader in mass production and turnkey additive manufacturing (AM) solutions, and Uniformity Labs, a leading additive manufacturing company, announced a breakthrough achievement in developing Aluminium 6061 powder that enables sintering for binder jetting technology.
This new Aluminium 6061 powder marks the culmination of a multi-year collaboration between the companies to develop a low-cost, raw material yielding fully dense, sinterable 6061 aluminium with greater than ten percent (10%) elongation and improved yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) versus wrought 6061 aluminium with comparable heat treatment.
Speaking about the breakthrough Aluminium 6061 powder, Ric Fulop, CEO and co-founder of Desktop Metal said, “This breakthrough represents a major milestone in the development of aluminium for binder jetting and a significant step forward for the AM industry as it is one of the most sought-after materials for use in automotive, aerospace and consumer electronics. The global aluminium castings market is more than $50 billion per year, and it is ripe for disruption with binder jetting AM solutions. These are the best reported properties we are aware of for a sintered 6061 aluminium powder, and we are excited to make this material available exclusively to Desktop Metal customers as part of our ongoing partnership with Uniformity Labs.”
Above: Desktop Metal Production System/Image Source: Desktop Metal
Once fully qualified, Uniformity 6061 aluminium will be available for use with the Desktop Metal Production System™ platform, which is the only metal binder jetting solution offered by Desktop Metal.
Adam Hopkins, founder and CEO of Uniformity Labs commented, “The introduction of lightweight metals to binder jetting opens the door to a wide variety of thermal and structural applications across industries. This innovation is a key step towards the adoption of mass-produced printed aluminium parts.”
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This new Aluminium 6061 powder enables the sintering of unadulterated 6061 aluminium and represents a significant improvement over prior techniques used to sinter aluminium, which required coating powder particles, mixing sintering aids into powder, using binders containing expensive nanoparticles, or adding metals such as lead, tin and magnesium. Critically, the powder also enables compatibility with water-based binders and has a higher minimum ignition energy (MIE) relative to other commercially available 6061 aluminium powders, resulting in an improved safety profile.
Desktop Metal and Uniformity Labs plan to continue to work together over the coming year to qualify the aluminium 6061 powder and scale production for commercial release.
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