Velo3D partners with Praxair
Devin Jones
GeneralThe partnership will allow customers to purchase powder directly from a supplier that has demonstrated its powders work in the machine.
Earlier this month, metal AM company Velo3D announced a partnership with Praxair Surface Technologies (PST), a producer of high-performance coatings and materials for the aerospace industry and subsidiary of Praxair.
Through the partnership, Velo3D will develop process parameters for new alloys with Praxair’s TruForm powders and will qualify PST as an approved supplier of powder for released parameter sets for Velo3D’s AM solutions. Two of Praxair’s TruForm powders, 718 and 64, have already been validated with Velo3D’s Sapphire system. Essentially, the qualification will allow customers to purchase powder directly from a supplier that has demonstrated its powders work in the machine.
We first heard about what eventually would be the Sapphire system a number of years ago, but Velo3D only officially launched the product in August 2018, showing it at IMTS ‘18 in Chicago a month later. Powered by their Intelligent Fusion technology and Flow print preparation software, Sapphire was designed with mass-production of components for the medical and aerospace industry in mind.
“PST is constantly looking for ways to help expand the number of applications that are addressable by metal additive manufacturing, and Velo3D is a great company to partner with in this effort,” said Andy Shives, business manager for AM at PST. “Velo3D’s technology enables the building of difficult geometries, which opens up new opportunities for additive manufacturing across a broad range of applications.”
The Sapphire system utilizes two 1kW lasers printing at a rate of 60mm3/hr (or 30mm3/hr per laser) within its 315 x 315 x 400mm(z-axis) build volume. For comparison sake, the EOS M 400-4 metal printer has a similar build volume (400mm3) and a build rate of 100mm3 per hour using four 400W lasers (or approximately 25mm3/hr per laser).
Having raised nearly $90 million since its inception in 2014, Velo3D says its end-to-end metal solution can create complex geometric metal parts that incorporate steep overhang angles and relatively large internal cavities without the need of supports.
“Velo3D was founded to enable customers to manufacture any design they can conceive,” said Stefan Zschiegner, chief product and chief marketing officer at Velo3D. “Praxair is a trusted alloy solution provider and the right kind of partner for Velo3D’s rigorous standards for metal powder quality. Together, we drive adoption of additive for manufacturing.”
