Desktop Metal, a leader in mass production and turn-key additive manufacturing (AM) solutions, has announced that its Shop System — the ‘world’s first metal binder jetting system designed for machine shops’ — is being manufactured in volume and shipped to customers around the world.
Installations are underway throughout North America, EMEA and APAC; users currently include Jade Creaction LDA (Portugal), Wall Colmonoy Ltd (the UK), Alpha Precision Group (the USA), EAC (France), and Hong Kong Productivity Council (Hong Kong).
Unveiled last November at the 2019
Formnext trade conference in Frankfurt, Germany, the Shop System is designed to bring metal additive manufacturing to machine shops and job shops with an affordable, turn-key solution that achieves ‘exceptional surface finish parts with rich feature detail at speeds up to 10-times those of legacy powder bed fusion AM technologies’.
With the Shop System, users can print end-use metal parts for use in a variety of industries, ranging from automotive and oil and gas to consumer products and electronics.
Ric Fulop, CEO and co-founder of Desktop Metal, said: “The Shop System offers the most cost-effective, highest resolution mid-volume production solutions in the industry. Its high-speed single-pass print engine introduces high-quality binder jetting to an entirely new market of machine shops, casting foundries and powder metal component suppliers.
“With the Shop System, engineers and plant operators can now eliminate many of the constraints previously imposed by traditional manufacturing methods, like CNC machining, and achieve affordable, reliable, and flexible batch production of complex parts.”
Carmine Donisi, CEO of the Italian Shop System user Cosmind, said: “Cosmind is highly focused on technological innovations. Throughout the years, we have constantly introduced the latest production technologies, and we strongly believe that binder jetting 3-D printing technology is the natural evolution of the manufacturing sector.
“In Desktop Metal, we have found all the characteristics of quality and innovation that will certainly allow us to diversify our production.”
The Shop System is a complete end-to-end solution that includes a single-pass binder jetting printer; a drying oven for hardening green parts prior to de-powdering; a powder station for de-powdering parts with built-in powder recycling; Desktop Metal’s furnace designed for accessible, industrial-strength sintering; and integrated powder handling accessories and workflow.
Moreover, with speeds up to 800cm
3/hr at 75µm layer thickness, batches of tens or hundreds of complex printed parts can be produced in as little as 5hr.