Furnaces For Metal 3d Printing Processes and Additive Manufacturing
CM Furnaces is on the cutting edge of commercial additive manufacturing of metal parts, owing to its long history providing furnaces for the sintering and annealing of traditional MIM parts for production. In the world of 3d printing, small volume, low throughput applications like dental implants and jet engine parts are well known and good fits for what was traditionally a low throughput or one-off type production environment. Fast forward to 2017 however, where costs of purchasing and deploying 3d production lines is coming down while maturing 3d printer capabilities show that manufacturing lines can achieve mid to high volumes of throughput bringing them into the realm of more and more mainstream production requirements.
In particular, 3d metal printing manufacturers, have found the CM Rapid-Temp line of box and tube furnaces to be a perfect fit for the finishing of metal parts in almost all materials currently used. As throughput increases however, continuous or pusher furnaces made by CM, also find a place in high volume 3d printed part production, achieving the same atmosphere capabilities and multi-stage thermal control long enjoyed by MIM and other sophisticated metal forming applications.
Specialized Thermal Finishing For 3d Metal Printing – Batch Furnaces
Commercial metal parts can be printed from aluminum, stainless steel, brass, copper, bronze, sterling silver, gold, platinum, titanium not to mention hybrid ceramic compounds. Typical processes used achieve a wide variety of results for finished parts including sintering, debinding, fusing, curing, heat treatment and more. Another key consideration is the ability to support a wide variety of atmosphere’s such as hydrogen, argon, or other inert gases to facilitate processing.
And key to your ability to reliably reproduce acceptable 3d printed metal parts, is your ability to carefully and safely control heat and soak times in the proper atmosphere, while achieving accurately the high temperatures needed for a wide variety of processes. Perhaps one of the most unique features of the CM line of furnaces is their extended temperature operation vs. their low cost of ownership: a direct relationship to the high quality of parts and materials used in all our USA made furnaces.
Overview of CM Furnaces Suitable For Finishing of 3D metal Printed Parts
Rapid Temp Series – 3d Metal Printing Batch Finishing Furnaces
As their name indicates, extremely fast thermal cycling is possible owing to the use of ultra-high quality heating elements. Rapid Temp furnaces used in the post processing of 3d printed metal come in several different series according to their maximum temperature range. All furnaces have options to run a completely sealed atmosphere with advanced safety controls.
Advanced engineering techniques include high purity alumina fiber insulation, stainless steel double wall shells, and long-life heating elements with extremely high uniformity. Configurations are available for virtually any requirement with three basic configurations including front loading, bottom loading and front loading atmosphere retort in a variety of chamber sizes.
3d Metal Printed | Temperature | Process Atmosphere | Model |
---|---|---|---|
Copper, Brass, Bronze, Nickel, Silver, Aluminum |
1200°C (2192°F) | inert, hydrogen and reducing atmospheres |
1200 Series |
Stainless Steel, Aluminum, Ferrites (Iron), Tungsten, Manganese |
1600°C (2900°F) | Air, any inert gas | 1600 Series |
Stainless Steel, Chromium, Aluminum |
1700°C (3100°F) | Air, any inert gas | 1700 Series |
Titanium, Aluminum Oxide, Ceramics |
1800°C (32700°F) | Air, any inert gas | 1800 Series |
3D Metal Printing with CM Furnaces For Continuous Production
Manufacturers can find furnaces that facilitate higher and higher throughput requirements, starting with our batch furnaces like those in the Rapid Temp Series but ending with sophisticated pusher furnaces that facilitate high volume part production like our CM 400 series shown below. For over 70 years CM furnaces has been a supplier of advanced furnace technology to Fortune 100 commercial manufacturers, schools and universities, labs and research facilities, government agencies and small businesses all over the world.
Manufacturers looking for sophisticated, automated solutions to continuous furnace processing of 3d printed parts, should contact CM directly to discuss their needs.