Desktop Metal and Uniformity Labs Reach Breakthrough in Aluminum Sintering

Desktop Metal, Inc. and Uniformity Labs, an additive manufacturing company, debut a breakthrough powder that enables aluminum sintering for binder jetting AM technology. This new powder is the result of a multi-year collaboration between the companies to develop a low-cost, raw material yielding fully dense, sinterable 6061 aluminum with greater than 10% elongation and improved yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) versus wrought 6061 aluminum with comparable heat treatment.

“This breakthrough represents a major milestone in the development of aluminum for binder jetting and a significant step forward for the AM industry as it is one of the most sought-after materials for use in automotive, aerospace and consumer electronics,” says Ric Fulop, CEO and co-founder of Desktop Metal.

“The global aluminum castings market is more than $50 billion per year, and it is ripe for disruption with binder jetting AM solutions," Fulop says. "These are the best reported properties we are aware of for a sintered 6061 aluminum powder, and we are excited to make this material available exclusively to Desktop Metal customers as part of our ongoing partnership with Uniformity Labs.”

“The introduction of lightweight metals to binder jetting opens the door to a wide variety of thermal and structural applications across industries,” says Adam Hopkins, founder and CEO of Uniformity Labs. “This innovation is a key step towards the adoption of mass-produced printed aluminum parts.”

This new powder enables the sintering of unadulterated 6061 aluminum and represents an improvement over prior techniques used to sinter aluminum, which required coating powder particles, mixing sintering aids into powder, using binders containing expensive nanoparticles or adding metals such as lead, tin and magnesium. The powder also enables compatibility with water-based binders and has a higher minimum ignition energy (MIE) relative to other commercially available 6061 aluminum powders, resulting in an improved safety profile.

Desktop Metal and Uniformity Labs plan to continue to work together over the coming year to qualify the powder and scale production for commercial release. Once fully qualified, Uniformity 6061 aluminum will be available for use with the Desktop Metal Production System platform, which is reportedly the only metal binder jetting solution with an inert, chemically inactive processing environment across the printer and auxiliary powder processing equipment, enabling customers to achieve consistent, high-quality material properties across volumes of end-use parts with reactive materials, such as aluminum.

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