From cutlery and surgical tools to automotive parts and turbine blades, stainless steel is everywhere around us, and that makes sense. It has strong corrosion resistance and heat resistance, and is a lightweight and inexpensive metal, making it an ideal material for 3D printing.
Nowadays, 3D printed stainless steel has been used in various industrial components as well as in design, architecture, and artistic applications. Why is this happening? Because it is usually faster, cheaper, and more efficient than traditional manufacturing methods.
If you are looking for stainless steel spare parts, prototypes, or tools, Magic Monkey Network can provide you with 3D printing services. Let's take a look at the relevant knowledge of 3D printing stainless steel.
1, Why choose 3D printed stainless steel?
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This stainless steel frictionless gear mechanism was developed by CSEM in Switzerland for the European Space Agency and has a bendable blade and interlocking lattice structure that cannot be manufactured without 3D printing (source: ESA)
Manufacturers have a history of over 100 years in stamping, cutting, forming, and welding stainless steel. Although the history of 3D printing metal is only a few decades, it can already rival traditional methods in terms of speed and cost. In addition, 3D printing can also achieve complex designs that cannot be achieved by other manufacturing methods, thereby driving product innovation.
Before we learn how to use stainless steel for 3D printing, let's first learn about "why" through today's company.
Unique tools
Allegheny Electric's mass production plant cannot stop production because its six axis robot requires a new arm end tool for sequence detection. But this tool is unique to the company's needs and is part of a component that must be connected to the other two arm end tools. The initial prototype was 3D printed using carbon reinforced plastic, but this material was not durable enough. Subsequently, Allegheny Electric Company switched to stainless steel (17-4PH) and used the fast and economical adhesive jet 3D printing technology provided by printer manufacturer ExOne (now part of Desktop Metal). But the company did not use 3D printing technology to print identical parts, but instead redesigned the parts using the shape freedom provided by 3D printing technology. Redesigned parts for 3D printing enabled the company to reduce weight by approximately 40% by merging parts and reduce material waste to below 5%. The printing time for the final component (as shown in the figure below) is less than a day, and the cost is approximately $150.
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EOS Customized 3D Printing Stainless Steel Arm End Tool for Allegheny Electric (Source: EOS)
Unique spare parts
To get a famous 1952 race car, the 28th Cummins diesel special racing car, running, a new water pump is needed. The original water pump was designed specifically for race car number 28, which means there are no production spare parts to meet the requirements. Even more complex is that the 28th race car must complete the race within a few weeks, which eliminates the possibility of using traditional sand casting methods to replace parts, as the expected delivery time is 10 weeks.
Cummins engineers have turned to reverse engineering and metal 3D printing technology, using 3D Systems' laser powder bed melting 3D printer. The new water pump (as shown below) is made of 316-L stainless steel material and completed 3D printing in just three days. The entire process took 5 weeks instead of 10 weeks. The shell perfectly matches the other components of the water pump, giving it a completely new performance in six races of the racing car.
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Original # 28 Cummins Diesel Special racing water pump (left) and stainless steel 3D printing supplement for 3D Systems (source: 3D Systems)
The US Navy recently installed a Meltio 3D printer in the tool room of the battleship Bataan and began using stainless steel 3D printing technology. Meltio uses laser to melt metal wires and deposit them layer by layer, and then processes the parts to the final tolerance using a built-in CNC milling machine. The system will operate on 316L stainless steel (a common shipborne material with excellent corrosion resistance) and print maintenance parts for the equipment, including outdated components. This provides the possibility of repairing the system without returning to the dock.
Art and Construction
MX3D, a Dutch company, utilizes Line Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) 3D printing technology to create a fully functional stainless steel bridge spanning one of the oldest and most famous canals in the center of Amsterdam. This novel method enables the company to use metal 3D printing to create sturdy, complex, and beautiful stainless steel structures. This bridge is not only aesthetically unique, but also has sensors installed in the channels of its structure, which can measure the traffic and load conditions on the bridge in real time.
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The stainless steel 3D printed bridge created by MX3D in Amsterdam (photographed by Thea van den Heuvel)
Prototype of complex industrial components
The impeller is an important component of a pump, which controls the pressure of the pump and must be designed for each specific application. Impellers require geometrically complex blades designed specifically for fluid passing through pumps. These customized blades are both expensive and difficult to manufacture, requiring expensive capital equipment and skilled workers.
With the ability to print 316L stainless steel components internally, the design team can now quickly produce functional prototypes for testing using the same metal materials required for the final components. The stainless steel impeller printed using the desktop metal studio system in the following image has a printing cost of approximately $70 per component. Far lower than the cost of CNC machining prototypes, it can greatly save costs when multiple iterations of the prototype are required.
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3D printed stainless steel impeller functional prototype (source: Desktop Metal)
Prototype of medical tool functions
Shukla Medical uses MarkForged 17-4 PH stainless steel for 3D printing prototypes using the same materials as many final products, rather than using CNC machines. Now, they use a MarkForged carbon fiber 3D printer to print the initial prototype, and then use the MarkForged Metal X system to print the final prototype, which is handed over to surgeons for evaluation. The company's product development manager Zack Sweitzer said, "Surgeons can imagine using it in actual incisions and tell us if it feels appropriate in their hands.". Being able to create prototypes more efficiently and push finished products to the market faster will keep us at the forefront of the industry.
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