A few years ago, 3D printing from metals was only for industrial use. Metal 3D printing can now be done on desktop FDM 3D printers and more specialized machines to produce high-quality parts at a cheaper price. Let’s take a look at 3D printing metal parts technology, which method you should choose to print metal parts.

Metal 3D printed parts case

Currently, there are about 10 ways to 3D print metal parts on the market. These methods are roughly divided according to the type of raw material used and the energy source, such as wire, metal powder or wire. Some even use metal resins, rods and particles as raw materials, each of which produces parts with different properties.

The small steel nozzle on top is a wire printed part. Parts like this are perfectly suited to using wire filaments and can be quickly 3D printed on-site on a shop floor or in an office, using an affordable FDM 3D printer, and then handed over to a third party for post-processing. Overall, the process may only take a few days. Using other manufacturing methods, it would be expensive and slow to make this part.

These hip and knee implant samples (above) were printed using electron beam melting (EBM). They are intricately constructed, made of expensive titanium, and manufactured to extremely high material quality and tolerances to meet medical implant standards. The vacuum environment of the EBM 3D printer ensures clean and controlled printing conditions, while the high-power electron beam enables the printer to produce multiple parts in each build for high productivity.

These Golf clubs on Cobra Golf are 3D-printed using HP’s metal adhesive jet technology. This unique shape is impossible to achieve with any other manufacturing technique. Because thousands of identical parts are needed, manufacturers have chosen adhesive injection technology because of its speed and high yield. At the same time, the technology can print excellent surface finishes. Cobra Golf transfers club manufacturing to a local additive manufacturer in the United States, eliminating the need to manufacture and ship from a manufacturing center in Asia.

How to choose the right metal 3D printing technology for yourself?

Not all metal 3D printing technology features are measured in the same way, especially when it comes to building speed. Some techniques record construction speed by the weight of deposited material, while others measure it by the volume of material formed. These speeds are also affected by the shape of the parts being printed. Moreover, every 3D printer in a technology is unlikely to reach the same speed.

Height, usually a parameter of the ability to print fine detail, is affected by the materials used, the shape of the parts, and the printing speed. Ask the 3D printer manufacturer for sample parts (identical parts) before investing in any technology. Sample parts should come with a report stating how long it will take to print the part, how many parts of that size and shape the printer can print at once, the price of each part, and material consumption.