ExOne Announces Exerial Industrial Additive Manufacturing System

Slowly but surely, additive manufacturing (AM) moves toward larger volume production. As build envelopes increase and speed improves, AM becomes more and more valuable. Some companies are already betting on AM as the best tool for manufacturing jobs, even when those jobs involve large quantities.

ExOne is helping push the boundaries of AM with its metal and sand casting lines, and its contributions to AM research. The company’s newest offering expands the possibilities of AM even further. The forthcoming Exerial 3D printing system represents, according to the company, ExOne’s largest and fastest AM system to date.

ExOne’s newest AM system is large enough to offer industrial productivity. Courtesy of ExOne.

“ExOne’s industrial customers are pressing for latter stage technology to address their production needs with a 3D printing system that supports higher volumes and automation for the industrial production environment,” said S. Kent Rockwell, chairman and CEO ExOne. “When the Exerial system rolls out this year, ExOne will have addressed the industrial-level solution, further separating binder-jetting as a more cost effective technology than other 3D printing solutions.”

Rather than operating within a single job box, The Exerial utilizes two boxes, potentially allowing continuous production and simultaneous processing. More space means more prints, which increases the production volume offered by the system. ExOne’s newest offering also offers a new recoater system and multiple print heads.

While exact technical specs have yet to be released, according to ExOne the Exerial’s two job boxes are “… each 1.5 times larger than the single job box in ExOne’s next largest model, the S-Max. Notably, the Exerial system offers a total build platform of 3,168 liters and is expected to be capable of printing output rates nearly four times faster than the S-Max.”

ExOne expects to deliver the first beta system and three additional systems by fall of this year, with the Exerial becoming generally available Q4 2015 or early 2016.

Below you’ll find a video about ExOne’s metal printing process.

Source: ExOne