Prima Additive
Copper printing on Prima Additive metal additive manufacturing system
The University of Birmingham is set to install a Prima Additive metal additive manufacturing (AM) system at its Advanced Materials & Processing Laboratory (AMPLab) at the School of Metallurgy and Materials.
The Print Genius 150 Double Wavelength is a laser powder bed fusion system which features a unique dual laser configuration, a 300W infrared laser and a 200W green laser, which can work alternately on the same 150 x 160 mm cylindrical build area. The University of Birmingham plans to use the system for research into novel materials including functionally graded materials, copper, precious materials, and refractory metals.
Professor Moataz Attallah, AMPLab’s director, said: “The Print Genius 150 Double Wavelength is an exciting addition to AMPLab’s research facilities. The planned research activities will connect the research and innovation landscape, and through commercial work will promote collaboration with innovative manufacturing companies in the UK and beyond. The system is unique in its ability to deliver both infrared and green lasers, which will enable a significant amount of fundamental science to be explored, alongside novel applications.”
The machine’s red and green lasers can process a range of materials including steel, aluminium, nickel, titanium, and cobalt chrome alloys, and more challenging highly reflective materials such as pure copper or precious materials. Prima Additive says the machine’s special configuration 30μm spot size beam can also process precious metals such as gold with high accuracy.
Paolo Calefati, Prima Additive's CEO, added: “We are thrilled to be suppliers and partners of a prestigious institution like the University of Birmingham: for us, collaboration with universities has always been crucial as it allows us to bring important developments to our products. Universities are often the gateway through which companies decide to approach additive manufacturing. For this reason, the Birmingham area is particularly strategic thanks to the presence of many leading companies, and we are happy that one of our machines can be available for university research and to support innovative companies in the area.”
The machine was purchased with the help of a Strategic Equipment Grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and will serve as a national facility for academic and industrial users across the UK.
In December, the university was also awarded nearly 1.5 million GPB by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to research technology for fusion energy as part of the FATHOM2 project (FAbrication of Tungsten using HOt isostatic pressing and Additive Manufacturing), which focuses on scaling up 3D printing and powder HIPping technologies to produce complex, cooled tungsten components for plasma-facing components in nuclear fusion reactors.
