The manufacturer of industrial 3D printers for metal – AddUp, has announced the introduction of an alloy for shaping steel AISI 420. It is the most widely used material in the plastic injection molding sector and can now be used in 3D printing technology. AISI 420 is intended to enable toolmakers to develop more complex and efficient injection molds. It is available for AddUp – FormUp 350 New Generation Powder Bed Fusion machines.
According to the company, it is one of the first in the metal 3D printing market to offer the possibility of using AISI 420 steel. Stainless steel is commonly used for plastic injection molding because it has both high mechanical strength and good corrosion resistance . AISI 420 completes the material portfolio offered to the tooling sector, which includes 316L stainless steel and Maraging 300 (M300) steel.
” In contrast to alloys specifically designed for additive manufacturing, which require users to invest in developing the appropriate finishing operations, we offer a widely used material,” says Frédéric Sar, materials manager at AddUp. “With AISI 420, the finishing operations after the 3D printing process are identical to those of parts produced by forging. Existing solutions in terms of heat treatment, surface treatment, machining settings and insert grades can also be directly applied to parts printed from our alloy.”
AddUp claims that the quenching/ tempering treatment allows printed parts to exhibit tensile strengths in the range of 1,350 to 1,980 MPa, with an elongation at break of 2 to 10 per cent, depending on the tempering temperature. A standard material surface treatment, such as nitriding, can significantly increase the surface hardness of the part after treatment. A key benefit is that AISI 420 alloy does not contain cobalt or nickel, making it REACH compliant.
AddUp recently installed one of its FormUp 350 New Generation PBF 3D printers at WBA (Aachener Werkzeubau Akademie GmbH), Germany’s leading technical center for tool manufacturing. The machine, equipped with AISI 420 stainless steel powder and a newly developed recipe, capable of 3D printing of details with a porosity of less than 0.05%, guarantees the durability of molds subjected to heavy loads.
The company says all potential customers will be supported at all stages of their projects, from helping design optimized molds to printing parts and feasibility studies for mass production.
Source: www.addupsolutions.com
Photo: www.addupsolutions.com (press release / all rights reserved)
