Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Emerging Tech
  3. News

Printing metal just got easier with Desktop Metal’s new supercharged tech

By


Few things are more hardcore than 3D-printing metal. We can think of just two off the top of our head: Pressure cookers and cave diving. That’s about it. The point is, 3D-printing metal is really cool.

One of the leaders in the hardcore industry is the aptly named Desktop Metal, a company that’s practically hell-bent on making this hardcore technology accessible, not just for the military industrial complex, but for the civilian industrial complex as well.

Recommended Videos

Last year, the company launched two new systems: DM Studio and DM Production. These printers promised to handle all steps in the metal printing process — from early stage prototyping to mass production — using a proprietary “microwave enhanced sintering” that makes its process as straightforward as printing plastic.

Related

Now, it has added two new tools to the Desktop Metal suite. The first is Studio System+, a system that expands on the company’s flagship printer by offering more functions and the ability to print smaller metal parts with higher resolution. Users can also livestream the build in real time, a perfect feature for those of us who like to watch our pizzas cook in the oven.

The second, Studio Fleet, is a bundled system of printers, debinders, and furnaces that support rapid fabrication of high-quality, complex metal pieces, according to the company. Studio Fleet can be ordered in 3:1:1 or 5:2:1 (printers:debinders:furnaces) configurations.

Desktop Metal

“The production of metal parts in low volume and high resolution presents significant challenges to manufacturers,” Ric Fulop, Desktop Metal CEO, told Digital Trends. “For the first time, the Studio System+ and Studio Fleet enable batch processing for low-volume production of complex metal parts in-house. We’ve designed the technology to be an end-to-end solution, reducing both cost and lead time.”

Both systems are intended for industry companies interested in prototyping or mass manufacturing, from fabricating customized prototypes to replacement parts.

Desktop Metal is selling its Studio System+ printer for $60,000. The Studio Fleets sell for $235,000 for the 3:1:1 and $315,000 for the 5:2:1 configuration.

“Trillions of dollars are spent annually producing metal parts and we are just at the beginning of a 3D-printing revolution,” Fulop said. “We expect significant adoption of metal 3D printing over the next decade as technology develops and becomes more affordable and accessible to manufacturers.”

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Dyllan Furness
Dyllan Furness
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Dyllan Furness is a freelance writer from Florida. He covers strange science and emerging tech for Digital Trends, focusing…
Printable wood biopaste could be the sustainable future of 3D printing
Biopaste 3D printing

Researchers at Germany’s University of Freiburg may have found a way to make 3D printing a bit more environmentally friendly -- by printing with a new material best described as a wood-based biopaste. After all, who needs boring, unsustainable plastics when you’ve got an alternative that works impressively well, made out of wood biopolymers cellulose and lignin?

Marie-Pierre Laborie, the lead researcher on the project, told Digital Trends that creating the printable material is straightforward. “We put each component, a cellulose-based derivative and lignin, into [a] solution and blend the two … to form a sort of paste of high-solid content,” Laborie said. “At [a] particular solid content and composition, we retain the lyotropic liquid crystalline behavior of the cellulose derivative. This facilitates the processing of the paste. The paste then solidifies thanks to the stabilizing effect of the lignin upon 3D printing.”

Read more
This startup says it will be 3D-printing entire houses within a year
mighty buildings 3d print house 5

Is 3D printing the future of housebuilding? It certainly will be if new startup Mighty Buildings, which launched from stealth mode this week, has its way. The company builds houses rapidly using a giant 3D printer and proprietary 3D printing material that, unlike concrete, hardens almost immediately thanks to a UV light curing process. This technique allows it to create houses with 95% fewer labor hours and significantly less waste than traditional construction techniques, which could be a game-changer in the construction field.

“The 3D printing, robotic post-processing, and the ability to automate steps like the pouring of insulation means that Mighty Buildings will be able to automate up to 80% of the construction process,” Sam Ruben, chief sustainability officer and co-founder of the company, told Digital Trends.

Read more
Inside the quest to 3D print a perfectly palatable steak
3D printed steak

As people grow more concerned about the impacts of the meat industry both on the environment and the animals involved, fake meats have experienced a boom in popularity. Products like Beyond Burger and Impossible Pork, for example, have captured the attention of vegans and vegetarians across the globe for their astonishingly meat-like tastes and textures. But while ground meat substitutes have made big strides in recent years, plant based versions of more choice cuts aren’t yet on the menu. Whole cuts of meat are the next milestone for the fake meat business, and companies around the world are sprinting to replicate the most iconic cut of all: Steak.

And they’re doing it through 3D printing.
Steak: Nature’s meaty masterpiece
Even the tastiest ground beef arrives in your kitchen as a mass of reddish flesh pressed into plastic or wax paper. Next to that, a good steak is a Michelangelo fresco, with layers of muscle fiber and fat.

Read more