Interpretation of adhesive injection molding technology

Along with GE's acquisition of Arcam and SLM Solutions, the powder bed melt forming process in the 3D printing family has established itself as the darling of the media industry. The powder bed melt forming process has its unique advantages in forming materials of full density structure, especially metal materials. However, in the field of 3D printing, it can be described as a flower on a vine. Today is the adhesive injection molding technology, which can form a variety of materials, different functional devices such as metal, ceramics, sand molds. Next, Xiaobian will take everyone to listen to the doctoral student Baiyun for everyone to professionally interpret all aspects of adhesive injection molding technology.

Adhesive spray forming technology

Binder Jetting, as its name suggests, is an additive manufacturing technique that uses a jet of adhesive to shape a powder. Similar to many laser sintering techniques, BinderJetting also uses a powder bed as the basis; however, the technique uses an inkjet printhead to spray the adhesive into the powder, thereby placing a layer of powder in the selected area. Adhesive, each layer of powder is combined with the previous layer of powder through the penetration of the adhesive, so that layers are stacked to create a three-dimensional structure of the object. BinderJetting can be used in the manufacture of polymer materials, metals, and ceramic materials. When used in metal and ceramic materials, the green part formed by inkjet printing needs to be bonded by high-temperature sintering. The agent removes and realizes the fusion and connection between the powder particles, thereby obtaining a finished product having a certain density and strength.

The invention of Binder Jetting dates back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, mainly thanks to two professors at MIT (EmanuelSachs & Michael Cima). At first, the patent name of this technology was called Three-dimensional Printing. The author speculated that the process of adhesive spraying was very similar to that of ordinary household inkjet printers, except that the printing material changed from paper to powder. . Since the name 3D printing was later widely used in other additive manufacturing technologies, more people chose to use the name customized by the ASTM standard - BinderJetting, but this also led some people to be unfamiliar with the name.

Binder Jetting application

Prototype full color printing

When Binder Jetting's technology was quickly converted into a patent at the MIT lab, it was licensed and commercialized by various companies in the 1990s based on different materials. Among the companies that have acquired non-metallic materials technology, ZCorp is famous for using plastors as the main material, which is formed by the reaction between gypsum and a water-based binder. The biggest highlight of ZCorp's products is full color printing, which became the only technology that can print full colors when companies such as objet have not yet appeared. Like a paper inkjet printer, the adhesive can be colored and colored by a base color mixing (CMYK) to create a model with multiple colors in three dimensions. The models produced in this way are mostly used for models made during rapid prototyping and product design. ZCorp was acquired by 3D Systems in 2012 and was developed into the 3DS colorjet series printer.

Full density metal direct forming

The technology for printing metal using Binder Jetting was commercialized by ExOne (formerly known as ProMetal). When a metal part is manufactured, the metal powder is bonded to a green part by a binder whose main functional component is a thermosetting polymer, and then the green part is taken out from the 3D printer and placed in a furnace to be sintered. Finished metal. Since sintered parts are generally low in density, in order to obtain a high-density finished product, ExOne also infiltrates a low-melting alloy (such as a copper alloy) into the part during the sintering process. Although the products originally manufactured by ExOne were mostly made of stainless steel, many metal materials (such as nickel alloy Inconel) and ceramic materials (such as tungsten carbide) are available for selection and processed by some special post-processing techniques. It can reach a density of 100%.

Exone

Sand casting

Binder Jetting also has an indirect way of making metal – sandcasting. The foundry sand is molded into a mold by Binder Jetting, which can then be used for conventional metal casting. This manufacturing method is characterized by the inheritance of traditional casting features and material options, as well as the characteristics of additive manufacturing (such as the ability to manufacture complex structures). Voxeljet is another European BinderJetting equipment manufacturer specializing in the production of foundry molds, but the company is not involved in direct metal manufacturing.

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