Plasma Arc Additive Manufacturing

The best balance between efficiency, high performance and affordability.

Print for Space

Although it’s not rocket science it has the potential to make things easier in the thermosphere and above. The talk is about Plasma Metal Deposition (PMD) for space applications. With its near-net-shape manufacturing style, titanium parts can be made with much less material than traditional machining methods like milling or lathing, resulting in a more economic production process with more than 50% improvement in buy-to-fly ratio.

Photocredit ATHENA X-RAY Teleskop R. Syrovatka

M3DP - System for Additive Manufacturing

The plasma arc burns between a non-melting electrode and the workpiece. As a result, arc energy and wire supply are decoupled and independent of each other. Due to these properties, the plasma arc can be optimally coordinated with material and temperature management. In addition, the decoupling allows preheating of the workpiece or substrate as a process option to process temperature-sensitive materials such as nickel-based alloys. The printing process is continuously monitored, the range of materials processed includes mild steel, nickel-base alloys, copper, aluminium and titanium.

Specifications

Deposition rate: 0.5–10 kg/h
Processable materials: Titanium, Aluminum, Steel, Invar, Nickel-base alloys, Copper
Build volume: up to 2000x600x600mm (X-Y-Z)
Layer height: 0.7– 3 mm
Min. layer width: 3mm
Machine dimensions: 4500x2500x3500mm (X-Y-Z)

M3DP Advantages

processes wire and powder
various materials approved
portal or robotic system available
R&D model with small footprint
customized material developments possible
up to 10kg/h deposition rate
airtight roof construction for sensitive materials (titanium)
two or more wires can be fed into the melting pool

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Ready to dive into the world of Plasma Arc Additive Manufacturing?

Learn more about our patented Plasma Metal Deposition technology and how it can benefit your production processes. Let’s have a 30 minutes technical briefing plus a virtual machine demo with one of our application engineers.

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