Engineer's Toolbox:
Laser-sintered titanium parts in hours



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Laser-sintered titanium bike brake.

Engineers for aerospace and medical applications may have something else to look forward to this summer besides warm weather and the Fourth of July. Morris Technologies Inc. (Krailling, MI: MTI) will soon debut its ability to create laser-sintered titanium parts with a cutting-edge system.

MTI is the first and only North American rapid prototyping company to purchase an EOSINT M 270 Direct metal laser-sintering (DMLS) machine that will run in Xtended mode. The new machine from e-manufacturing specialist EOS includes features that greatly improve the performance for producing titanium parts, enabling these to be built much faster and in enhanced quality compared to the first-generation titanium process launched in 2007

As a beta site for EOS, Morris Technologies is on the forefront of new developments and applications for the newest DMLS materials and super alloys.

The EOSINT M 270 system uses laser-sintering to additively manufacture parts layer by layer. The technology fuses metal powder into a solid part by melting it locally using a focussed laser beam. The build speed for titanium in the new system is 4mm3/sec, so it can do some parts in hours. Effective building volume for the machine is 9.85 x 9.85 x 8.5 in. (250 x 250 x 215 mm).

A range of metal materials is available, including steels, cobalt- and nickel-based superalloys, and titanium alloys. EOS Titanium Ti64 is a pre-alloyed Ti6AL4V alloy with excellent mechanical properties and corrosion resistance, low specific weight, and biocompatibility. Parts built from this alloy can be machined, spark-eroded, welded, micro shot-peened, polished, and coated as needed. Typical uses include dental, orthopedic, and airframe applications. Parts built in EOS Titanium Ti64 fulfill the requirements of ASTM F1472 (for Ti-6Al-4V) and ASTM F136 (for Ti-6Al-4V ELI) regarding maximum concentration of impurities.


“Our addition of the titanium version of the EOSINT M 270 System will allow us to further serve the aerospace and medical industries by fabricating parts with complex internal and external geometries and a high strength-to-weight ratio,” says Greg Morris, CEO/COO of Morris Technologies. “We expect to begin production of Ti-6Al-4V/ELI parts in late summer.”

MTI already has eight DMLS systems (the most of any lab or manufacturer in the world) that turn designs into production-quality metal parts in hours. Key advantages of DMLS are that it eliminates tooling, makes parts with complex internal and external geometries in a single operation, and produces multiple parts at the same time.

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