Metal powder can be used for 3D printing

Titanium alloy, aluminum alloy, stainless steel, there are a lot of metal powder materials that can be used for 3D printing.

There are four kinds of printing consumables widely used in 3D printing: liquid photosensitive resin material, thin material, low melting point silk material and powder material. In terms of composition, it almost covers all kinds of materials in current production and life, including plastic, resin, wax and other polymer materials, metal and alloy materials, ceramic materials, etc. Among them, metal powder 3D printing is undoubtedly the most cutting-edge and the most potential. According to the prediction of SmarTech, a consulting company,  By 2024, the global market scale for metal powder additive manufacturing will reach 11 billion US dollars.  

3D metal printing powder for 3D printing

Currently, metal powder materials for 3D printing include stainless steel, die steel, nickel alloy, titanium alloy, cobalt-chromium alloy, aluminum alloy and bronze alloy.  

1. Iron base alloy is the most important, the dosage of the largest engineering metal materials, for more complex structure of the forming, such as 3 d printing stainless steel, compared with the traditional casting forging technology, it has high strength, excellent high temperature resistance, wear resistance and corrosion resistance and other physical, chemical and mechanical properties, and has high dimensional precision and material utilization, It is widely used in aerospace, automobile, shipbuilding, machinery manufacturing and other industries.  

2. Titanium alloys have excellent strength and toughness, combined with corrosion resistance, low specific gravity and biocompatibility, making them ideal for many high-performance engineering applications in aerospace and automotive racing, as well as for the production of biomedical implants with high strength, low modulus and high fatigue resistance.  

3. Cobalt-chromium alloys are commonly used in surgical implants such as alloy artificial joints, knees and hips due to their high wear resistance, good biocompatibility and nickel free (nickel content <0.1%), as well as in engine parts, wind turbines and many other industrial components.  

4. Aluminum alloy is one of the most widely used non-ferrous metal structural materials in industry, its low density, high specific strength, close to or more than high quality steel, good plasticity. Research shows that aluminum alloy used for 3D printing can achieve compact parts, small structure, mechanical properties comparable to casting or even better than casting molding parts, and compared with traditional process parts, the mass can be reduced by 22%, but the cost can be reduced by 30%.  

5. Copper alloys have excellent thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity. Copper with excellent thermal conductivity in thermal management applications can combine design degrees of freedom to produce complex internal structures and conformal cooling channels.