Industrial Printer with nLIGHT Delivered to Sintavia

Sintavia, LLC, has commissioned a multi-laser industrial 3D printer in North America equipped with nLIGHT AFX beam-shaping fiber laser systems. The twin 1.2 kW lasers, installed on an AMCM M290-2, allow for operators of industrial 3D printers to modulate beam spot size and shape without loss of power and material density, SIntavia reports.

"The best part of the nLIGHT system, once it is fully tested, is that it can be retrofitted on other existing EOS and AMCM printers with minimal new equipment," says Brian Neff, Sintavia’s founder and CEO.

“We can think of no better home for the first dual nLIGHT system in the U.S. than Sintavia,” says Martin Bullemer, managing director of AMCM, GmbH. “With their vertically integrated additive manufacturing capabilities, including extensive testing labs, they are well-suited to help develop and expand the capabilities of the nLIGHT laser beam shaping technology."

Beam shaping allows for fully dense material to be melted at a diameter that is reportedly greater than standard laser systems, meaning that standard layer thicknesses currently used by the industry (typically 30-45µm) can be doubled or tripled without any loss of material performance, according to Sintavia. At the same time, since a part can now be printed using fewer layers, less condensate (the metal vapor jet generated during the PBF process) is produced. Finally, by fully melting thicker build layers without losing density, grain size in the z-direction is increased, Sintavia adds.

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