3D Printing Equipment Manufacturer Introduces Modular Powder Supply

3D printing equipment manufacturer Volkmann USA, Bristol, PA, has introduced a Modular Powder Supply (MPS). The MPS is developed to help additive manufacturers safely manage metal powder storage as production rates and volumes increase.

This new Modular Powder Supply provides an inline holding container that may be installed between the printing, sieving and/or depowdering processes to quickly collect unused metal powder from a build box and allow the printer to begin its next part without waiting for manual extraction, among other applications. Once collected, the recovered metal powders may be screened and reintroduced to the printing process or stored for future reuse.

Offered as a stand-alone unit or integrated with the company's automated PowTReX metal powder sieving station and/or depowdering station, the Modular Powder Supply features a Volkmann pneumatic vacuum conveyor with a stainless steel hopper and touch-screen controls, all set within a dust-tight housing. The powder hopper holds 120 liters as standard and may be custom-designed to store other capacities.

The metal powder storage system may be operated with tungsten, cobalt, silver powder, iron, stainless steel, alumina, nickel chrome, copper, titanium, and other metallic powders in both normal air environments and under inert conditions.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.