AM technologies’ provider, ExOne has opened a Metal 3D Printing Adoption Center at its European headquarters in Gersthofen, Germany.
The mission of ExOne’s Adoption Centers, which have locations in the U.S., Germany, and Japan, is to allow customers to try binder jet 3D printing for their designs before they decide to buy an ExOne 3D printing system for their own production.
The investment announced today represents an expansion of ExOne’s longtime Adoption Center in Europe, which 3D prints sand molds and cores for metalcasting customers. ExOne’s Metal Adoption Center now offers manufacturers end-to-end engineering services for direct-metal binder jet 3D printing, including benchmarks, design support, and materials, process, and work cell development.
“Now, manufacturers throughout Europe can benefit from locally produced binder jetted metal designs and benchmarks, along with world-class engineering consultation and support,” said John Hartner, ExOne’s CEO. “We encourage manufacturers to take advantage of the high speed, low cost, and industry-leading quality that our patented binder jetting technology can deliver for even the most complex designs.”
High-Quality Metal Parts Key Focus of New Center
Binder jetting is a high-speed method of 3D printing in which an industrial inkjet printhead selectively deposits a binder into a bed of powder particles creating a solid part one thin layer at a time. When printing metals, the final part must be sintered in a furnace to fuse the particles together into a high-density solid object.
All new ExOne metal printers, such as the X1 160Pro manufactured on-site in Gersthofen, are now offered with the company’s patented Triple Advanced Compaction Technology (ACT), which delivers industry-leading accuracy, density, and repeatability in binder jet printing.
ExOne has now qualified more than 20 metal, ceramic, and composite materials for its binder jetting process. More than half of those materials are single-alloy metals, such as 17-4PH, 316L, 304L, M2 Tool Steel, Inconel 718, and more. Most recently, ExOne announced that 6061 aluminum is now a Customer-Qualified material, and titanium is now fast-tracked for qualification in partnership with a global medical device firm.
“Our centralized location outside of Munich gives manufacturers the opportunity to see metal binder jetting in action and work closely with our expanded metal team on precision metal parts projects,” said Eric Bader, Managing Director, ExOne GmbH. “This expansion is supported by increased interest in metal binder jetting in Europe as the technology matures.”
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