Metal 3D Printing

Learn more about Metal 3D printing

Online learning courses and other resources related to metal 3D printing

Additive Manufacturing Training Metal

The successful implementation of Metal 3D printing requires a wide range of different skills. We have summarized the most important resources related to Metal Additive Manufacturing on this page – including online courses, design guidelines and success stories.

Metal 3D printing Online Learning Courses

Metal Technologies - ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING ONLINE LEARNING

Dive deeper into metal technologies

The course METAL TECHNOLOGIES allows you to dive deeper into the different metal technologies. Besides maturity of all common metal technologies, it covers the working principle, technical characteristics, application examples and supplier landscape of the following processes:

  • Laser Powder Bed Fusion
  • Electron Powder Bed Fusion
  • Metal Binder Jetting
  • Powder Laser Deposition
  • Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing
  • Metal Material Extrusion

This course will enable you to select the right metal process for your applications.

Go to the METAL TECHNOLOGIES course
Additive Manufacturing Online Learning Cost Calculation Metal
Metal Technology Landscape
Binder Jetting properties
Machine Principle Laser Powder Bed Fusion
Advantages vs. Disadvantages
Metal Binder Jetting Application Example
Technology Overview
Maturity of Metal Technologies
Materials
Melting vs. Sintering Processes
Design Guidelines
Additive Manufacturing Online Learning Cost Calculation Metal
AM Supplier Landscape
Productivity of L-PBF
Typical hourly rate of metal AM machines
Material Extrusion cost per cm3
Cost per volume comparison
Cost drivers along the value chain
Typical feedstock cost

Cost Calculation Metal- ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING ONLINE LEARNING

Quickly estimate costs for metal applications

The Additive Manufacturing online learning course COST CALCULATION METAL enables you to deeply understand the cost drivers for the most common AM technologies. It covers the fundamentals of AM cost calculation and at the same time provides general values for inhouse and external manufacturing costs for the following metal technologies:

  • Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF)
  • Electron Powder Bed Fusion (EPBF)
  • Metal Binder Jetting
  • Metal FDM
  • Laser Metal Deposition (LMD)
  • Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM)

This course is specifically targeted towards designers and professionals that need to calculate costs for metal AM. 

Go to the COST CALCULATION METAL course

Metal Laser Powder Bed Fusion Deep-dive

Get the most out of L-PBF

The Additive Manufacturing online learning course METAL L-PBF DEEP-DIVE enables you to fully understand the most mature metal technology. It covers key topics such as technology and process chain, material availability and properties as well as design guidelines and applications. This course is specifically targeted towards designers and other professionals that are working with L-PBF.

Go to the Metal L-PBF Deep-Dive course
Additive Manfacturing Online Learning L-PBF Course Page
Machine Technology
Data Preparation Workflow
Machine Set-up Workflow
Process videos
Process Deep Dive
Part Characteristics
Mechanical Properties
Design Guidelines
The AM Design process
Application Examples
SBAM Course Structure
Supply Chain Sinter-Based AM
Sinter-based Printing technologies
Part Characteristics Sinter-based AM
Metal Binder Jetting Deep-dive
Material overview Sinter-based AM
Fundamentals of Sinter-based AM Design
Design checklist Sinter-based AM
Debinding and sintering
Applications of sinter-based AM
Quiz

Sinter-based Additive Manufacturing Deep-dive

Dive deeper into the world of sinter-based Additive Manufacturing

The Additive Manufacturing online learning course Sinter-based Additive Manufacturing deep-dive enables you to fully understand technologies such as Metal Binder Jetting and Metal Material Extrusion. It covers key topics such as technology and process chain, material availability and properties as well as design guidelines and applications. This course is specifically targeted towards designers and other professionals that are working with sinter-based AM technologies.

Go to the Sinter-Based AM Deep-Dive course

Design for AM metal guide

Design for AM Metal

How to design for metal technologies

Unlock the full potential of metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) with our comprehensive Design for AM Metal guide. Tailored for industrial users, this essential resource emphasizes the critical role of design in maximizing the efficiency and capabilities of metal AM. Learn how to optimize your designs for different processes, resulting in stronger, lighter, and more reliable components. Our guide addresses key design considerations specific to metal AM, including support structures, accuracy and surface roughness. This guide can both be applied when designing new parts from scratch or when you consider to use AM for a part that has previously been manufactured with a different technology. Besides giving guidelines on how to properly design for a certain technology, the guide can also be used to select the right metal process for your application.

Enhance your understanding and skills in metal AM by downloading our detailed guide, available below.

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You can access the first course Additive Manufacturing Fundamentals for free after subscribing to the AMPOWER Academy newsletter.

Additive Manufacturing Training AM Fundamentals

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Understand the most important topics to get started with Additive Manufacturing

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Sinter-based AM technologies and process chain

Sinter-based AM - a technology overview

Many different printing technologies - one sintering process

The sinter-based AM (SBAM) technologies have, as the name suggests, the sintering process in common. In this process, the printed green part is consolidated into a dense part and receives its final properties. The green part can be printed in advance using different technologies.They all have in common that metal powder is bound to the desired shape by a binder. The best-known printing technologies include Binder Jetting and Filament Material Extrusion.

In this section, you learn everything about the sinter-based AM  process chain and get an overview of the different printing technologies.

Goal and structure of this course

This course is aimed at engineers, designers and other professionals that are working closely with sinter-based AM technologies. The goal is to cover the most important aspects that will enable engineers and designers to fully grasp the capabilities and technical limitations of the printing technologies and the sintering process to succeed in technology selection and part design. Besides going through the course from the beginning until the end, this course can also act as a constant source of knowledge while working on AM projects. 

The course is structured into the following sections.

This section will start with an overview of the sinter-based AM process chain and its printing technologies, followed by a technology deep dive into the most important aspects of the BJT technology, followed by a closer look at the debinding and sintering step also including sintering simulation .

The second section will provide an overview of the different materials that are available as well as part characteristics that can be achieved with the BJT process and typical methods for quality assurance. Finally, several common defects in the BJT process are presented. 

The last section will act as a guideline for designers. Besides generally describing the process when designing for Additive Manufacturing, actionable restrictions and guidelines for the BJT process are provided. The final section will present several design examples from different industries. 

What you will find in this section

Sinter-based AM process chain

From digital model to finished part

Data preparation

Simulation to compensate the deformation during the sintering step, nesting of parts and definition of printing parameters

Printing

Through various printing processes, different feedstocks such as metal powders, filaments, pellets or dispersions are processed into green parts

Unpacking

Unpacking of fragile green parts needs to be done carefully and is typically a manual process.

Debinding

Debinding describes the process of removing the binder which results in a brown part

Sintering

To reach the structural integrity of a metal part, a sinter process is required. The powder particles fuse together to a coherent, solid structure via a mass transport that occurs at the atomic scale driven via diffusional forces.

The brown part shrinks ~13-21 % in each direction.

The process chain of sinter-based technologies differs from other AM Technologies. Especially the post-printing processes (debinding and sintering) are crucial to achieve the intended mechanical properties.

Technology principle

How does Binder Jetting work?

Binder Jetting is a powder based Additive Manufacturing technology in which a liquid polymer binder is selectively deposited onto the powder bed binding the metal particles and forming a green body.

The metal powder is applied to a build platform in a typical layer thickness of 40 µm to 100 µm. Subsequently a modified 2D print head apply a binder selectively onto the powder bed. Depending on machine technology a hardening or curing process of the binder is performed in parallel for each layer and/or at the end of the whole build. During the in-situ curing process a heat source is used to solidify the binder and form a solid polymer – metal powder composite.

Working Principle of Binder Jetting

Afterwards the build platform moves downward by the amount of one layer thickness and a new layer of powder is applied. Again, the liquid binder is deposited and hardened in the required regions of the next layer to form the green body. This process is repeated until the complete part is printed. After the complete printing process is finished the parts have to be removed from the “powder cake” meaning the surrounding loose but densified powder. To improve the removal of the excess powder from the green body often brushes or a blasting gun with air pressure are used.

To create a dense metal part the 3D printed green body has to be post-processed in a debinding and sintering process. Similar to the metal injection molding process BJT parts are placed in a high temperature furnace, where the binder is burnt out and the remaining metal particles are sintered together. The sintering results in densification of the 3D printed green body to a metal part with high densities of 97 % to 99,5%, dependent of the material.

Printing Technologies

Metal Binder Jetting

Binder Jetting is a powder based Additive Manufacturing technology in which a liquid polymer binder is selectively deposited onto the powder bed binding the metal particles and forming a green body.

The metal powder is applied to a build platform in a typical layer thickness of 40 µm to 100 µm. Subsequently a modified 2D print head apply a binder selectively onto the powder bed. Depending on machine technology a hardening or curing process of the binder is performed in parallel for each layer and/or at the end of the whole build. During the in-situ curing process a heat source is used to solidify the binder and form a solid polymer – metal powder composite.

Working Principle of Binder Jetting

Material Extrusion

Binder Jetting is a powder based Additive Manufacturing technology in which a liquid polymer binder is selectively deposited onto the powder bed binding the metal particles and forming a green body.

The metal powder is applied to a build platform in a typical layer thickness of 40 µm to 100 µm. Subsequently a modified 2D print head apply a binder selectively onto the powder bed. Depending on machine technology a hardening or curing process of the binder is performed in parallel for each layer and/or at the end of the whole build. During the in-situ curing process a heat source is used to solidify the binder and form a solid polymer – metal powder composite.

Working Principle of Binder Jetting

Mold Slurry Deposition

Binder Jetting is a powder based Additive Manufacturing technology in which a liquid polymer binder is selectively deposited onto the powder bed binding the metal particles and forming a green body.

The metal powder is applied to a build platform in a typical layer thickness of 40 µm to 100 µm. Subsequently a modified 2D print head apply a binder selectively onto the powder bed. Depending on machine technology a hardening or curing process of the binder is performed in parallel for each layer and/or at the end of the whole build. During the in-situ curing process a heat source is used to solidify the binder and form a solid polymer – metal powder composite.

Working Principle of Binder Jetting

Metal Selective Laser Sintering

Binder Jetting is a powder based Additive Manufacturing technology in which a liquid polymer binder is selectively deposited onto the powder bed binding the metal particles and forming a green body.

The metal powder is applied to a build platform in a typical layer thickness of 40 µm to 100 µm. Subsequently a modified 2D print head apply a binder selectively onto the powder bed. Depending on machine technology a hardening or curing process of the binder is performed in parallel for each layer and/or at the end of the whole build. During the in-situ curing process a heat source is used to solidify the binder and form a solid polymer – metal powder composite.

Working Principle of Binder Jetting