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Scalability of 3D printing in an industrial context requires a few hurdles to overcome, one of the foremost being printing speeds. Most current generation metal printers have printing times that can’t compete with common injection molding or CNC products, not to mention the time required for post-processing and more. Initially, the metal printing industry was focusing on different features to drive the growth of the sector, specifically material choice, precision and reliability. Now, companies like Seurat Technologies, Velo3D and Spee3D are poised to satisfy the demand to put 3D printers in the factory floor for good. As with FDM tech, SLS patents are expiring and opening the dam for new companies to be born. It’s only a matter of time before 3D printing is going to be competitive from a time standpoint with other traditional manufacturing technologies.
Is Velo3D secretly working to revolutionize 3D metal printing for robotics?
As you might recall, plastic 3D printing really took off back in 2009 when a key patent on deposition technology expired, opening the way for 3D printing technology to significantly drop in price. Metal 3D printing, by and large, relies on the far more expensive selective laser sintering technology, for which the patent expired in 2014. This was, as Silicon Valley expert Tekla Perry reminds the world, just before Velo3D was founded. All metal 3D printing experts, however, believe that the metal breakthrough is to come from the material side (rather than the SLS side), and Perry suggests that Velo3D could be working on that breakthrough.
Find out more about Velo3D here.
Seurat Technologies, a Silicon Valley-based startup, announces it has raised $13.5 million in a Series A funding round. The significant investment will reportedly be put towards funding and accelerating the company’s much-hyped metal additive manufacturing technology.
Read more about it here.
SPEE3D announces global launch of ‘Supersonic Metal 3D Printing’
SPEE3D, Melbourne, Australia, has announced the company’s official global launch and availability of its industrial metal Additive Manufacturing systems. Designed for scalable, just in time production, SPEE3D is said to be the world’s first metal 3D printer leveraging supersonic 3D deposition (SP3D) technology to deliver manufacturing grade printing at production speeds.
Rather than using heat to melt metal powders, SPEE3D’s patented technology uses supersonic deposition in which a rocket nozzle accelerates air up to three times the speed of sound to deliver manufacturing grade metal and high-density parts.
Read more about it here.
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