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3D Metal Hub

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING SERVICES FOR THE LUXURY INDUSTRY

We print your ideas

From the forty-year experience of Legor, progress, innovation and sustainability meld to create the Legor 3D Metal Hub: an innovative centre aimed at experimenting and producing precious and non-precious components through revolutionary 3D Metal Binder Jet technology.
3D printing represents an alternative approach to traditional investment casting, with the advantage that it does not require the combustion of waxes or resins, nor the use of gypsum, meaning a great step towards increasingly sustainable production processes.

Legor is the first company to experiment with utilising revolutionary 3D Metal Binder Jet technology to cater for needs of the jewellery and fashion accessories markets.

Why choose binder jet technology?

Binder Jet technology represents an alternative to SLM technologies (Selective Laser Melting) and MIM (Metal Injection Moulding), and offers a range of benefits:

No need for a mould

Quick creation of sampling

Printing multiple diverse pieces and layering them efficiently in a single cycle

Zero waste: reusable powder at the end of the cycle

Production of hollow or interlocking pieces without the need for soldering

No support required in printing

Main stages of printing with Binder Jet

Standard material currently in use: Stainless Steel AISI 316L

The departure point for using this technology is ultra-fine metal powder (between 5μm and 25μm).
Once the CAD model of the item to be produced has been received, dimensions are scaled to allow for shrinkage that occurs during processing. Special software then carries out a ‘slicing’ operation to create overlapping 2D images from the 3D object.
The subsequent stages of the process are as follows:

01 PRINTING

Inside the build unit of the printer, a roller spreads out a layer of powder to a predetermined thickness. Next, the printing heads selectively apply a binder corresponding to the 2D images obtained.
This step is then repeated until the height of the objects to be produced has been reached.

02 CURING

The build unit is then placed in a Curing Station, where curing takes place at around 150°C: the binder is activated and still-fragile “green” objects are obtained, immersed in a bed of powder;
After a careful Decaking and Depowdering, the “green” objects are placed in a sintering oven;

03 SINTERING

The component is subjected to a specially calibrated heat ramp process in the oven in three phases:
Debinding: the binder evaporates completely, the pieces are composed only of powdery particles;
Sintering: the particles begin to coalesce and metallurgical bonding takes place. This is the phase when most shrinkage occurs;
Cooling: controlled cooling of the pieces is carried out to avoid residual stresses and cracking.

Printing Materials

Items can be printed using metal powders in Steel (316L, Panacea Nickel-Free and 17-4 PH), Bronze and Silver.

Additionally, the Legor R&D Team is currently working on a project to make it possible to print items using Platinum metal powder.

Powmet

the family of powders for the additive manufacturing industry

To meet the needs of 3D printing and anticipation of its future widespread adoption, Legor has developed Powmet: a range of certified ultra-pure metal powders with a very fine and homogeneous particle size.

Powmet powders are produced using an exclusive atomizing process that enables perfectly spherical, extra-fine and homogeneous particles to be obtained, featuring uniform chemical composition and low levels of impurities.

Laser Applications

— precious alloy powders of Gold, Silver and Platinum
— non-precious Copper, Bronze, Brass and Steel powders

Binder Jet

— precious alloy powders of Silver and Platinum
— non-precious Bronze powders

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