Aurora Labs, a Perth-based metal additive manufacturing company, has begun physical construction of its long-awaited AL250 metal 3D printer.
With detailed design work completed, assembly is underway at the company’s Perth factory. Aurora Labs announces launch on October 10th.
The company has long promised the use of high-power lasers for L-PBF printing.
According to Aurora Labs: “At 1500W, our 3D printers’ lasers are 50 percent more powerful than those currently used in the industry and approximately three times more powerful than the industry average.”
“Although our laser performance is unique, it is our optics, pre-planning and extraction subsystems that work in harmony to enable the exploitation of this significant increase in performance.”
A feature of the printer is the use of the company’s proprietary Multi-Layer Concurrent Printing (MCP) technology, in which the system prints multiple layers simultaneously in a single pass.
This improves the duty cycle of the laser and increases the duty cycle efficiency of the printing system.
CEO Rebekah Letheby said: “The physical build is the result of months of detailed design work resulting in the first machine, which will be our leading flagship printer model.”
“Our design is based on the extensive knowledge and expertise in laser powder bed fusion technology.
“It’s great to see a high quality precision machine being built with Australian engineering at its core.”
Ms Letheby said the new machine had a number of novel features, such as: B. dynamic adjustment of layer height and a proprietary powder dispensing mechanism that conditions the powder raw material before delivery.
“This mechanism also moves non-spherical powder, opening up a world of materials development for the industry that includes the ability to laser cost-effective crushed or non-spherical powders, many of which remain unexplored in laser powder bed fusion.”
Further reading:
Aurora Labs introduces 1,500W powder bed laser printer
Image: Aurora Labs
