Metal additive manufacturing via a novel composite material using powder and polymers formed in sheets
Rocco Lupoi, William M. Abbott, Ramsankar Senthamaraikannan, Seán McConnell, John Connolly, Shuo Yin, Ramesh Babu Padamati
Abstract
In additive manufacturing, PowderBed Fusion (PBF) has been shown to be a highly reliable approach for prototyping of metal parts, but has several disadvantages: relative slow production time, inherent safety issues involved with using loose metal powders, and difficulty in printing multi-material parts. A novel method for additive manufacturing of metal parts, Metal Additive manufacturing using Powder Sheets (MAPS), is hereby described. MAPS uses rollers of a novel composite material as feedstock, which eliminates the need for loose powder in the build chamber, potentially reducing risks and enhancing applications while still producing material on par with that produced by established PBF methods.