Sintavia has taken delivery of the first metal 3D printer equipped with nLIGHT AFX beam shaping fiber laser technology in North America.
The additive manufacturing company, which specialises in metal 3D printing for customers in the aerospace sector, has commissioned the AMCM M290-2 metal powder bed fusion system with a pair of 1.2kW nLight lasers at its Florida facility, which will allow its operators to modulate beam spot size and shape and deliver what Sintavia describes as a ‘step-function in laser productivity’.
Brian Neff, Sintavia’s Founder and CEO said, “Over the coming years as we develop and apply this new technology, we expect to be able to print our components at layer thicknesses of 150µm or more without losing any material properties, thus greatly increasing the output of our installed printers. The best part of the nLIGHT system, once it is fully tested, is that it can be retrofitted on other existing EOS and AMCM printers with minimal new equipment.”
It’s another North American first for AMCM and Sintavia, which was also the first North American user of AMCM’s M 8K metal 3D printer. Last year Sintavia announced a $25 million investment in its in Florida facility for more large-format 3D printers, large-format post-processing systems, and component testing equipment.
“We can think of no better home for the first dual nLIGHT system in the U.S. than Sintavia,” said Martin Bullemer, Managing Director of AMCM, GmbH. “With their vertically integrated additive manufacturing capabilities, including extensive testing labs, they are well-suited to help develop and expand the capabilities of the nLIGHT laser beam shaping technology.”
Beam shaping allows for fully dense material to be melted at a diameter over three times greater than standard laser systems, meaning that standard layer thicknesses, typically between 30-45µm, can be doubled or tripled without any loss of material performance. It is also said to help overcome challenges with condensate, which Sintavia notes as ‘the most problematic byproduct of the PBF process’, with studies showing that nLIGHT beam shaping lasers can help reduce this waste stream by up to 70%. The ability to fully melt thicker build layers without losing density is also said to increase grain size in the z-direction and deliver improved material performance.
EOS, of which AMCM is a group company, announced last June it would be making nLight beam shaping lasers available on its metal 3D printing platforms as part of a collaboration to make beam shaping and light engine optimisation capabilities available digitally and deliver higher productivity printing. At the time, AMCM had already made the programmable AFX laser available in its systems. In November, nLIGHT announced the official production launch of its Corona AFX-2000 laser following validation by a user operating across the aerospace, defence, and automotive end markets, resulting in print speeds reportedly up to three times faster when compared to what nLIGHT categorises as ‘today’s leading large-format printers.’
