Aluminium powder producer Equispheres joins Additive Manufacturing materials consortium
Metal powder producer Equispheres, Inc, based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, has joined the Materials Consortium founded by Dyndrite, Constellium, Elementum3D and Sandvik. As with other consortium members, Equispheres has pledged to develop, test and publicly release parameter sets for its materials, including the NExP-1 line of aluminium powders for Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) Additive Manufacturing machines.
The Materials Consortium comprises select metal AM powder producers who collaborate to generate and release open parameter datasets with testing data and reproducible toolpath scripts for their materials. Members focus on process development toolpath projects to accelerate qualification. The Consortium actively works to widen the range of usable materials, extend productivity and accelerate the adoption of metal AM in production environments.
“We are thrilled to join the Materials Consortium alongside our industry peers,” stated Evan Butler-Jones, VP Product & Strategy at Equispheres. “We believe that a rising tide lifts all boats and are dedicated to collaborating to provide the metal AM community with practical data that will advance the overall expertise in the processes and applications of our products.”
Equispheres provides powders designed for users producing metal parts in volume. Its innovative atomisation technology, which produces powders optimised for AM processes, enables manufacturers to increase build speeds up to nine times higher than industry standards, thereby lowering production costs by up to 80%. Equispheres’ aluminium powders further support industrial adoption by improving the mechanical properties of printed parts while increasing energy efficiency, reusability, and safety of metal Additive Manufacturing.
“We’re excited to have Equispheres join our Materials Consortium,” added Harshil Goel, CEO of Dyndrite. “Their commitment to empowering the additive manufacturing community with cutting-edge products that promote AM as a reliable and cost-effective manufacturing technology aligns perfectly with our mission. We eagerly anticipate their contributions to our open knowledge base, enhancing the availability of reliable and accessible parameter sets for all manufacturers.”
In a recent demonstration, Equispheres and its partner Aconity3D used Dyndrite LPBF Pro’s advanced laser control capabilities to successfully build a representative valve component in 70% less time than the legacy process, with improved surface roughness compared to prior software controls. Building on work previously completed with Aconity3D and its 3kW laser system, the team was able to leverage the Dyndrite software to retain significant build time reduction while also retaining superior as-built surface quality. The part was produced on an AconityTWO, with bulk areas at a 120µm layer height using a high powered beam-shaped laser and surfaces at 60µm with a 1kW Gaussian laser. This combination of rapid production speeds and high quality surface finish paves the way for new applications and possibilities for Additive Manufacturing users.
During the Rapid + TCT 2024 event, Equispheres will showcase aluminium parts built with and without Dyndrite LPBF Pro for comparisons. Booth #1361
Dyndrite will showcase additional Equispheres aluminium parts, demonstrating the high-productivity and advanced surface quality capabilities of Equispheres powders using Dyndrite LPBF Pro at the Dyndite Booth #2031
