SLM 3D Printing

SLM printing is a process where a powdered metal is deposited in thin layers in a build volume before being melted together with a high powered laser. This process results in parts with a very slightly rough texture that is similar to sand blasted parts.

We work with a number of metal alloys that provide different properties, strengths, and weaknesses for our customers.

SLM 3D printed replacement gear

  • 316L Stainless steel is one of the most popular materials for SLM 3D printing, as it is corrosion resistant, strong, has good dimensional stability, and is affordable. This material is ideal for parts that need to be highly durable without extreme weight concerns; such as tooling, injection mold blanks, machine parts, and more.

    Properties

    • Tensile Strength: 45MPa

    • Tensile Modulus: 2GPa

    • Elongation at Break: 18%

    • HDT (0.45MPa): 145C

  • AlSi10 is an alloy of aluminum commonly used for metal casting, as the silicon content makes for a material that melts and flows much more smoothly. This allows for high quality and consistent SLM printing. Aluminum is ideal for parts that need to be metal but significantly lighter than Stainless Steel. Things like robot components, mass sensitive automotive or aerospace components, or even 3D printer parts are great applications of this material.

    Properties

    • Tensile Strength: 45MPa

    • Tensile Modulus: 2GPa

    • Elongation at Break: 18%

    • HDT (0.45MPa): 145C

  • Inconel 718 is a nickel alloy designed for extreme temperature applications. While the strength and toughness of Inconel may not be special at room temperature, there are few other materials that can withstand temperatures of 700C without any major loss in strength, softening, or oxidization. Inconel is able to take these temperatures and continue operating as expected, making it an instrumental metal for aerospace and high performance engine applications.

    Inconel may not be cheap, but if your temperatures are extreme there are few other options that can deliver the results you need.

  • Grade 5 titanium (6Al-4V) is one of the most common structural titanium alloys available on the market. This alloy is designed to provide an excellent balance of strength, stiffness, toughness, temperature resistance, and mass. One of the most popular applications for this alloy is aerospace, but with the extremely low thermal conductivity it can also be used to produce thermal insulators for automotive and manufacturing components to help control heat flow.

FAQ’s

  • Our maximum SLM part size (at the moment) is a 200×200mm cylinder, however this will be increasing soon! We are also working on adding new materials to our lineup.

  • It depends, but small parts will start at a few dollars each in a moderate quantity order.

    SLM is a process where the un-sintered powder cannot be reused indefinitely, so it is essential for us to fill as much of the build volume during each print as possible to reduce waste. Because of this, urgent production of a small batch of components that does not fill the build volume will have a higher per-part price than non-urgent production where we can place other customers items into the same print. Additionally, geometries that are primarily hollow will waste additional powder, so even if the parts are lower mass they may not see a massive price reduction. Overall part footprint makes the biggest difference in price with SLM components.

  • Our pricing is calculated by a few factors.

    1. Part footprint volume, which determines the amount of parts that can fit in a given build volume at a time. We work hard to optimize nesting to improve efficiency and reduce cost for our customers.

    2. Engineering Time, which covers the wages needed to prepare parts for 3D printing, que files to the machines, and post process prints after they have been removed from the machines.

    3. Urgency, making parts faster than normal requires late hours and re-working of production schedules, which adds to the cost of production. Especially with SLM, this can also result in unfilled prints, which wastes additional powder.

    4. Quantity, larger orders of parts will cost less per part than a smaller order. This is because we are able to continue production seamlessly instead of having to switch over to new materials, files, and post processing steps which saves time for each part. Savings will vary, but in general the price will always go down as the quantity of an identical part increases.

  • Of course! We understand that most of our customers are not well acquainted with all of the various materials available for SLM 3D printing, so we are happy to provide advice and help select the best material for your use case.

    Our goal is to fit you with the right material for the job, so we make a point to not upsell you on a material you don’t need and will point you in a more cost effective direction whenever possible.

    We also inspect and provide free DFM feedback and limited design services for our customers to help optimize your parts for every process we offer. That way, we can ensure that your parts can be made as reliably, quickly, and cheaply as possible; especially for larger production runs.

  • Not with our SLM machines.

    SLM is a process that depends extremely heavily on good feed material to function properly. This means an extremely fine and consistent powder that is free of moisture and contamination is required, and any contamination or other issues with the material may result in failures and damage to our machines. As a result, we only work with materials designed intentionally for SLM from reputable suppliers that we trust.