The metal filament Ultrafuse 316L from BASF is an innovative metal-polymer composite for Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF). It has its technical origin in the metal injection molding (MIM) technology of BASF's Catamold® product family. It enables the safe, simple, and cost-efficient production of fully metal parts for prototypes, metal tooling and functional metal parts in the simplest 3D printing process. After the subsequent industry-standard debinding and sintering, the final 3D printed part is 316L stainless steel.
The metal content in the high 90 percent range and the even distribution of the metal within the binder matrix reduces the risk of defects and increases the success rate. Due to immobilization of metal particles in the binder matrix in the filament dramatically reduces the potential hazards of handling fine metal powders when compared to Selective Laser Melting (SLM), Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) and Binder Jetting.
Ultrafuse 316L is compatible with both Bowden and direct drive extruders via the use of a non-slip surface. Possessing high flexibility, the filament can be guided through complex idler pulleys and guide roller filament transportation systems.
The main reasons why Ultrafuse 316L is cost effective are:
- Our filament works with any open FFF printer which means low investment cost in hardware
- We make use of a highly efficient and established post processing technology used in the Metal Injection Moulding (MIM) industry
- As this is a filament the material handling is much safer and very easy to handle. This allows an easy material exchange in comparison to handling with fine metal powders
The advantage of Ultrafuse 316 are:
- It is in general 1.4 tot 2.2 times more cheaper than most metal powders with less investment in hardware
- There are significant cost advantage for small and medium sized components
- The overall manufacturing costs decrease significantly with increasing the lot size
- With additive manufacturing you can create full stainless steel parts with a high degree of complexity
NB! Because the materials debinding and sintering requires industrial equipment, we offer these as a service. Maximum size for unsintered parts is 100mm x 100mm x 100mm, but we might be able to sinter larger parts, contact us for this.
If you have questions about this or other things related to the filament, please contact us asiakaspalvelu@3d-tulostus.fi or +358102355140
Link to BASF metal sintering portal, where you manage your sintering order and insert sintering ticket to.