JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #139 - March/April 2021 - 36

FEATURE 4D printing

Focus
Desktop Metal is accelerating the transformation of manufacturing with 3D printing
solutions. Founded in 2015 by leaders in
advanced manufacturing, metallurgy, and
robotics, the company is addressing the
unmet challenges of speed, cost, and quality
to make 3D printing an essential tool for
engineers, designers and manufacturers
around the world.
End effector 3D printed with continuous fiber: PA6 (ESD) on the Fiber printer

cifically a technology that bridges the
gap between existing AM technology
and automated fibre placement (AFP)
of high-performance composites. In
addition, traditional AFP systems can
be cost prohibitive for many manufacturers, costing millions of dollars.
Desktop Metal recognized an opportunity in the market to bring 3D printing
to an underserved area - the automation
of small composite parts manufacturing. Fiber printers combine the material
properties of high-performance AFP
continuous fibre materials with the
affordability and speed of a desktop 3D
printer, bringing AFP technology to the
manufacturing floor for smaller, more
complex parts. Engineers will be able
to print industrial-quality, continuous
fibre-reinforced composite structures.
This breakthrough technology offers
the ability to print continuous fibre
reinforcements with high fibre volumes
and high Z-axis strength. These benefits are combined with high-resolution
printing and beautiful surface finishes
that give users flexibility in how they
can cost-effectively design and manufacture high-performance composite
structures. With a wide range of materials and an easy-to-use platform, Fiber
offers high-quality composite printing
at a price point every engineer and
designer can access.
3D printing for
high-performance applications
In the composites space, many manufacturers still rely on hand lay-up
processes for small parts (less than 9
kg). Such labour-intensive processes
typically require technicians, cost-pro-

36

hibitive tooling and a significant time
investment - and this in turn increases
the overall cost of manufacturing these
parts. Attempts have been made to
automate the manufacture of small
composite parts, but the properties
rarely reach the quality that users are
accustomed to with hand lay-up. What's
more, in most composite 3D printing
today, the resins are often not the same
as those used in traditional processes. In
addition, many printers use proprietary
materials that fail to offer the same high
performance as qualified materials. As
a result, the parts can have a lower fibre
volume content and higher porosity
than parts manufactured by hand. With
Fiber, Desktop Metal combined the
benefits of 3D printing with continuous
fibre materials that are qualified for
high-performance applications.
Sustainability and recycling
Traditional composites manufacturing
requires multiple steps and many of
these steps involve a large amount
of energy consumption and material
waste. In hand lay-up, fibre-reinforced
materials are cut and laid into a mould.
The excess material is scrapped and
thrown away, finding its way into
landfills. Furthermore, the majority of
composite parts are still manufactured
using thermoset resins such as epoxies
that hold the fibres together. Many of
these epoxies are styrene-based and
can cause long-term health effects for
workers who inhale the fumes from
these epoxies in the work environment.
Once the material is laid into a mould
and infused with epoxy, these parts are
then typically cured in large ovens or

jec composites magazine / N°139 March - April 2021

autoclaves that consume a lot of energy
to heat the internal chamber uniformly
and also to pressurize, usually with
nitrogen. Once cured, the parts are
trimmed and drilled, leading to more
material waste and contamination of
the surrounding air with small fibrous
particles. Finally, if the part is shown to
have one or more defects present after
inspection, there is often no recourse
for salvaging it and the entire part must
be scrapped, leading to more waste.
A desktop 3D printer such as Fiber utilizes recyclable thermoplastic matrices
such as PA6, PEEK, and PEKK so that
if a part is made with defects, it can be
reworked or recycled into some other
part. For example, the plastic reels
that hold the materials are made with
recycled chopped glass fibre-reinforced
PA6 material. What's more, the additive
manufacturing process does not require
expensive and wasteful machining of
large metallic mould tools, cures in-situ
so that no oven or autoclave cure is required, and results in net-shape parts so
that no trimming and post-machining
are required. All of this results in a process that significantly reduces energy
consumption, harmful contaminants in
the environment, and utilizes recyclable materials.

More information:
www.desktopmetal.com
http://www.desktopmetal.com
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #139 - March/April 2021

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