Velo3D’s new aluminum material is taking hold in their customer base.
The company produces high-end industrial metal 3D printers that have a unique feature: an advanced powder recoater that dramatically reduces the need for support structures. That’s critically important for metal 3D printing, as it enables the printing of very complex parts that would otherwise have great difficulty in removing the supports.
One application the company has been pushing recently is printing manufacturing molds with complex embedded cooling channels. These parts allow injection molding to take place at a faster rate by keeping the mold at a lower temperature.
Some of these parts are made with aluminum, a popular metal for many operators. In the past year Velo3D announced a new aluminum material option, Aheadd CP1 from Constellium.
It’s an aluminum, iron and zirconium alloy that was specifically designed for additive manufacturing, and that is evident in the properties of this material.
What’s the difference? It’s all in the post processing, which is actually quite a significant portion of the work required to produce a part.
After printing many metal parts require precise thermal treatments to finalize their internal structure. This makes the parts achieve their intended strength, and for most aluminum 3D printed parts requires a three step thermal process to complete.
The difference with CP1 is that only one thermal step is required, simplifying the process.
According to a representative from Velo3D:
“All our customers are switching to CP1.”
This is very good news for operators, as it means aluminum 3D prints will cost less, and that might ultimately be reflected through to customers.
As CP1 is produced by Constellium, it can theoretically be used on other LPBF 3D printers. However, Velo3D seems to be the very first metal 3D printer manufacturer that has certified CP1.
Certainly CP1 will show up on other manufacturers’ equipment, but for now, Velo3D is where you need to go.
Via Velo3D
