July 19, 2014
Metal printing has developed further in the past 10 years, and more and more investors and analyst have shown interests in metal 3D printing. 3D printing for direct metal part manufacturing could lead to cost saving and better performing components and benefit all industries.
Unfortunately, the price of commercial metal 3D printers are so expensive and it remained out of reach of most people. That could be set to change with a team from San Francisco building a low cost 3D metal printer.
MatterFab, founded by Mathew Burris and Dave Warren, wants to build a platform that can replace traditional manufacturing and surpass it.
MatterFab is developing the first US based powder bed fusion metal 3D printer. Basically the printer lays down a thin layer of metal powder onto a build plate and then uses a high power laser melt that metal powder onto the layer beneath it.
MatterFab CEO Matt Burris told Ryan Lawler of Techcrunch that he grew up around his father's CNC machine shop where they make parts for the aerospace industry. But about three years ago, they noticed that GE started to 3D print some of the parts that the shop used to make. Since then, he has seen that 3D metal printing has started to take over traditional manufacturing techniques and that let Burris to start developing his own metal 3D printer to lead this technology into the machine shops of tomorrow.
Burris met his co-founder Dave Warren two years ago and the duo wanted to build a metal 3D printer that will be accessible for everybody.
Burris told Lawler the price drop of high precision sensors, computational power and many core components for metal 3D printer allowed the company to build the machine at a much lower price. Additionally MatterFab's team is experienced in lasers, optics, and industrial systems and their partnership with the experts of additive manufacturing at the University of Louisville allow them to pull a dozen engineering disciplines together to create a low cost metal 3D printer. Burris said that they are going to start shipping the first test units to more test partners early next year.
MatterFab's 3D metal printer is an order of magnitude cheaper and has the same quality as million dollar metal 3D printers. This means that every industry can take advantage of the strengths and freedom of metal 3D printing, notes the company.
Check out the video below that Lawler gets a hand on look at Matterfab's new 3D metal printer and talks with co-founder Matthew Burris.
Thanks to RWeekley for the tip!
Posted in 3D Printers
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"The big barrier with metal 3D printing isn't the price--it's the speed. I can't see this overtaking machines like the EOS M280 or Arcam without getting rid of that Cartesian arm." We are looking at an open source arc-welding type process that should yeald speeds approaching 30x those of laser based processes. The cost is also orders of magnitude cheaper. Take a look: http://www.metalbot.org/
dave wrote at 2/20/2015 11:32:13 PM:
kickstarter already!
kertch wrote at 8/2/2014 1:37:20 AM:
A price range for the product would have been nice.
Dave T wrote at 7/22/2014 6:13:44 PM:
The powders used in these systems are more complex than simply powdered metal. There is a specific particle size distribution that is required to get good spreading. The particle size distribution is directly tied to the power of the laser (a small laser can't sinter big particles in a short time frame). The volumes of materials being used is still relatively small (a highly productive EOS M280 used 300kg per year) and the manufacturers atomizing the powder are not doing large volumes.
Tyler Benster wrote at 7/22/2014 11:55:58 AM:
The big barrier with metal 3D printing isn't the price--it's the speed. I can't see this overtaking machines like the EOS M280 or Arcam without getting rid of that Cartesian arm.
len Nol wrote at 7/21/2014 4:21:47 PM:
Like Gillette and Hewlette Packard, the model is based on high profits of the materials.
len Nol wrote at 7/21/2014 2:54:00 AM:
Like Gillette and Hewlette Packard, the model is based on high profits of the materials.
Ron Hollis wrote at 7/19/2014 3:51:02 PM:
How is this statement true? MatterFab is developing the first US based powder bed fusion metal 3D printer.
alidan wrote at 7/19/2014 10:09:26 AM:
1 kilo of stainless steal is that much... why...
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