Promising to revolutionize the way the industry deals with 3D printing, 3DEO's metal 3D printing system, Intelligent Layering, offers to churn out parts for industrial customers around the world. They want to get rid of the low-volume, high-cost trap that manufacturers keep getting stuck in.
Using their own custom-designed 3D metal printers, they will manufacture high-volume, high-value metal parts for a variety of applications and industries and deliver them to wherever they are needed. 3DEO vows to only deal with large orders to show the difference that can be made.
The machines used are "stripped down CNCs" with a non-inkjet-based spray system, pieced together into a system that changes pretty much everything known about either component.
3DEO's six-step process:
- They spread a thin layer of fine metal powder over the build area
- A binder is then applied to the entire layer being built
- A cutter then shapes the perimeter of the part layer by layer
- A second layer of powder is spread to continue building
- The completed part is put into a high-throughput furnace for sintering
- Lastly, depending on the application, a finishing process may be applied
Traditional binder jetting systems use retrofitted inkjet print heads to lay precise 2D layers of liquid binder on powdered metal—an extremely slow and meticulous operation. 3DEO’s system binds the entire layer of powder in one quick pass and then cuts the part away with its CNC. Its “Intelligent Layering” system also allows the machine to cut, shape, and contour several layers at once to save time and increase efficiency during the build. This technique helps decrease 3DEO’s final part cost by up to 80% compared to other metal printing systems.
