Uniformity Labs makes available stainless steel UniJet SS17-4PH powder for Desktop Metal Production System
Uniformity Labs has announced the availability of its ultra-low porosity stainless steel UniJet SS17-4PH Performance powder for the Desktop Metal Production System.
The company that manufactures engineered materials claims UniJet SS17-4PH delivers double the strength of stainless-steel in powder form over the entire building envelope.
During the qualification on Desktop Metal’s Production System, the UniJet 17-4PH’s physical and mechanical properties were extensively evaluated, with the highly uniform powder bed layering of UniJet 17-4PH delivers ‘an average of 20% less shrinkage than other stainless-steel powders qualified for use with Desktop Metal’s Production System,’ according to Uniformity Labs. According to Uniformity Labs, these factors will result in better sintered parts with greater geometric accuracy. They also claim that green and brown parts are less likely to break during the depowdering process and handling after printing.
The material has exceptional apparent and tapped density, resulting in green parts that have many more contact points. It also shrinks less in XYZ compared to other jetting binder powders, regardless of layer thickness. Uniformity claims that the powder can also deliver between 99-100% of final part density and can produce parts with a standard deviation three times less in green density. The company claims that this translates to three times better geometric tolerance for sintered parts.
Uniformity also states that the highly flowable powder allows repeatable fast layering at thicker layers, with 20% reduced shrinkage at 75µm layer thickness. At 65µm layer thickness, the throughput improvement is 80%+.
“The application of Uniformity UniJet 17-4PH stainless steel for BJT delivers mechanical and process excellence for our customers who require materials that perform to the highest standards across each step of the production process,” commented Uniformity Labs founder and CEO Adam Hopkins. “Our powders deliver superior mechanical properties, printing yield, and process stability, delivering repeatable production scale binder jetting.”
“Desktop Metal is delighted to offer this highly advanced 17-4PH stainless steel powder from Uniformity Labs for our Production System platform,” added Desktop Metal founder and CEO Ric Fulop. “This latest addition to our material portfolio allows us to binder jet 17-4 PH stainless steel materials critical to producing complex designs. Binder jetting powders produced with Uniformity Labs’ technology can provide unmatched mechanical properties, and improve the economics for printing. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with the Uniformity team.”
Uniformity Labs has previously worked with Desktop Metal to provide an aluminium 6061 powder exclusive to the Production System, and make its ultra-low porosity 17-4PH stainless steel powder available for the Desktop Metal Shop Pro Binder Jetting platform.
Desktop Metal announced recently that it has reached an agreement with Stratasys to merge. The deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year.