Dyndrite materials consortium - 1
Dyndrite has teamed with three metal 3D printing materials providers to establish an industry-led ‘Materials Consortium’ for additive manufacturing.
Together, Dyndrite, Constellium, Elementum 3D, and Sandvik will make laser powder bed fusion powder parameters and related testing data for common materials freely available to the public. This, they believe, will allow end users to increase knowledge share, improve outcomes, and adopt materials faster.
As users of additive manufacturing continue to push for more choice and flexibility when it comes to materials, the four partners have acknowledged that the industry requires more knowledge sharing and standardisation. Their consortium, then, will work to increase the accessibility of tested parameter sets by improving the public’s access to their most common and frequently used material parameters and testing data.
The formation of this consortium follows Dyndrite’s launch of the laser powder bed fusion software toolkit, which has been designed to give users more power and control over geometries, toolpaths and parameters. On introducing this toolkit at last year’s Formnext, Dyndrite suggested that the industry previously did not have the software need to properly explore the opportunities provided by laser powder bed fusion. This year, the company has aligned with three metal materials experts to address another of the industry’s issues, with the partners set to produce materials, test them and publish their parameters.
“Materials are a key pillar of additive manufacturing," commented Harshil Goel, CEO, Dyndrite. “Unfortunately, maximising the capabilities of a material, especially as it relates to the geometry being printed, is a black art within our industry. If additive is to become a mainstream manufacturing process, users require transparency and standardisation. Public access to a set of trusted, democratised parameters shines a light on the path of adoption.”
“We look forward to working with Dyndrite, Constellium, and Elementum 3D to increase users' access to the knowledge that unlocks the full potential of AM materials,” offered Andrew Coleman, Head of Additive Manufacturing, Sandvik. “A rising tide lifts all boats, and we are excited to be a founding member of a group determined to help users, machine vendors, and material suppliers.”
“This [consortium] will help accelerate adoption of aluminium AM across multiple LPBF platforms to produce higher performance components at lower qualification cost and lower production cost,” added Ravi Shahani, Chief Engineer, Constellium Additive Manufacturing.
“We applaud Dyndrite for their foresight in bringing materials suppliers together in support of the designers and manufacturers. This effort is designed to grow our industry by giving innovators a solid head start for realising their innovations,” said Dr. Jeremy Iten, Chief Technology Officer, Elementum 3D.
The consortium has also received support from SLM Solutions. The company’s VP of Sales for the Americas Garett Purdon said: “The business case for being an open architecture metal 3D solution provider is at its core about making our customers more successful. It’s about creating choices for our customers and acknowledging that we can go further, together.”
