It must have always bothered 3D printer maker Desktop Metal that they spend so much R&D on the optimal machines, materials, and software, only to have customers put their 3D printed parts into commercial injection-molding furnaces for the final step in the process.
Metal binder jetting and metal extrusion technologies both produce parts that then need to be sintered (heat-treated). It’s in the sintering oven where the parts are made fully dense and their mechanical properties heightened.
“Most sintering furnaces today are grossly contaminated,” Desktop Metal says. “Residue from debinding bound parts collects and embeds itself in the insulation of traditional cold walls, which are usually cooled with water. This highly visible contamination causes a devil of undesirable chemical reactions in the furnace — reactions that have challenged sinter-based manufacturing industries since their inception.”
But now, Desktop Metal has released the PureSinter enabling more fine-tuning of settings and overall more predictable results, the company says. “PureSinter delivers improved density and, depending on material, improved properties compared to premium, third-party vacuum furnaces that require much more energy to operate.”
Desktop Metal already offered a sintering furnace, the Studio System 2 furnace. It first debinds parts, then ramps up the temperature to sinter them in an office-friendly package, but it was a version of standard sintering technology, whereas the PureSinter, the company says, is a new take on sintering furnaces altogether.
Desktop Metal emphasizes that it didn’t just slap its logo on a commercial furnace or tweak existing furnace technology to launch the PureSinter. The “all-new design was rethought from the ground up,” the company says.
In traditional vacuum furnace design, the vacuum chamber contains all the insulation, heating elements, and retort components. You’ll see this design approach on Desktop Metal’s original furnace launched in 2017. “Since then, we’ve learned a lot to make us rethink that approach,” the company says.
For PureSinter, the heating elements and insulation are outside the vacuum retort so that trace elements of oxygen, water vapor, and binder cannot contaminate the retort environment. Because PureSinter uses rapid air cooling instead of the traditional water-cooled walls and recirculating blowers, no incoming water line is required.
There are 15-pages of tech-specs and detail that Desktop Metal provides in its brochure, which boils down to metal parts with far less contamination that you’ll get from most commercial furnaces and predictable mechanical properties. If you’re familiar with the sintering process, you’ll recognize the differences, and if you’re new to metal part sintering, Desktop Metal says the PureSinter furnace was designed for ease-of-use to make sintering successful for a variety of users and applications.
Compatible With All Metal 3D Printing
PureSinter is not only compatible with all Desktop Metal technologies but also parts 3D printed with any extruded metal filament, such as BASF UltraFuse or Markforged, metal binder jet, as well as traditional metal injection molding (MIM) or press and sinter (PM) manufacturing methods.
As for price, Desktop Metal says the PureSinter is affordable compared to commercial furnaces but isn’t releasing a price publicly.
At Rapid + TCT, Desktop Metal will have the PureSinter Furnace in action at their booth 2139. For full coverage of everything new at Rapid + TCT, visit All3DP’s Special Coverage area.
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