Desktop Metal has announced that Wisconsin-based DSB Technologies, a leader in metal part production with sinter-based technologies such as powder metallurgy and metal injection moulding, has now adopted the complete X-Series metal binder jetting product lineup, including Live Sinter software, from Desktop Metal.
DSB is now developing and delivering parts with the InnoventX, X25 Pro, and X160Pro from Desktop Metal. The company is using a range of metals on the machines, including 316L and 17-4PH stainless steels, 4140 and M2 Tool Steel. DSB says it also plans to adopt Desktop Metal binder jetting for aluminium in the future.
“Binder jetting really is a forming technology that gives us unlimited design potential,” said Paul Hauck, Chief Operating Officer for DSB Technologies. “We can do from a very simple shape to very complex things you can’t produce in hard tooling, taking complexity beyond what’s possible with metal injection moulding. Binder jetting creates applications never produced before, and we want to be a leader in that.”
Based in Janesville, Wisconsin, DSB is home to over 30 high-temperature continuous sintering furnaces, believed to be North America’s largest installed capacity according to the company. The company also owns post processing technology to support volume production in metal binder jetting.
Of the eight million pounds of metal powder processed by DSB annually, around 90% are grades of stainless steel. DSB currently serves the aerospace, automotive, defence, electronics, industrial, medical, and sports equipment markets.
“The exciting part about binder jetting is the path from concept to part is all digital,” Hauck added. “You’re not sending a CAD file over to a tool shop that then creates a reverse image. So, you’re taking as few as eight weeks, and maybe as many as 16 or 20 weeks, out of that process.”
DSB has been phasing in Desktop Metal’s binder jetting technology over recent years. First installed in 2021m the InnoventX lab-sized printer is used for material development and testing initial sintering parameters.
The X25Pro, installed in 2022, allows the team to scale those successful tests up to application development in a mid-size machine that is also capable of bridge production. The X160Pro, installed in 2023, offers the largest build volume to take applications to serial production.
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Desktop Metal/DSB Technologies
A vent application from DSB. The part at the top shows a “green” 17-4PH stainless steel part out of the printer, and the middle part shows the same part immediately after sintering in a furnace. The final part is shown polished.
