Protolabs adds copper to its metal Additive manufacturing services
April 4, 2019
A copper part produced by Protolabs using Laser Powder Bed Fusion (Courtesy Protolabs)
Protolabs, headquartered in Maple Plain, Minnesota, USA, has added copper to the list of materials it makes available to customers of its metal Additive Manufacturing service. The company can now produce complex parts from CuNi2SiCr, a low alloy copper said to combine electric and thermal conductivity with good mechanical properties and corrosion resistance.
The company stated that this service will be ideal for the production of parts with features such as intricate internal channels or honeycomb structures designed to save weight, or for prototyping and quickly reiterating part designs.
Using Protolab’s Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) Additive Manufacturing systems, parts made from CuNi2SiCr also have the benefit of allowing customers develop parts for harsh environments, where the use of pure copper is not feasible.
Protolabs will showcase a number of examples of its additively manufactured copper parts at the Industry 4.0 Expo in Manchester, UK, from April 10–11, 2019.
