The world’s second most popular 3D printing technology


Today, we’re going to introduce the world’s second most popular 3D printing technology: powder bed fusion.

Powder bed fusion is also one of the most widely used metal 3D printing technologies today. It employs a high-energy thermal source—such as a laser beam or an electron beam—to scan across a bed of metal powder according to a predetermined path, causing the powder to melt and solidify into the desired shape. After each layer is completed, the powder bed descends by a certain height, and then a new layer of powder is spread on top. The process is repeated until the entire part is finished. The final product is enveloped and supported by unfused powder.

During the melting process, it is necessary to control physical parameters such as furnace temperature, contact angle, and melting point to ensure that the manufactured metal ingots have uniform density and excellent surface quality.

Powder-bed fusion technology offers a high degree of design freedom. Thanks to the highly precise control of laser or electron beams, this technology can produce extremely complex three-dimensional geometries. Moreover, since the material is in a high-energy state during melting, it achieves a high density and strength upon solidification. As a result, the resulting metal parts exhibit exceptional hardness and strength, making them ideal for manufacturing intricate components such as aircraft engines, rotating parts, and medical devices.

Powder bed fusion technology can produce high-precision, high-density metal parts with excellent mechanical properties and surface quality. However, due to the need for layer-by-layer powder spreading and melting, the printing speed is relatively slow, and the equipment cost is relatively high.

In short, powder-bed fusion technology is a highly promising metalworking technique that can be used to manufacture a wide variety of components with complex three-dimensional geometries, high density, and high strength. As the technology continues to advance, its application fields will also become increasingly broad.

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