Liquid magic - additive manufacturing

A unique additive manufacturing technology that can process both metals and ceramics was the star of the show at Carfulan’s December event. Andrew Allcock went along to learn more

The big draw at this event was XJet’s Carmel 1400 metal additive manufacturing (AM) machine, with the Carfulan Group’s latest company, XJ3D (https://is.gd/ehinis), having recently become the first appointed partner worldwide of Israel-based XJet.
XJet units operate in similar fashion to an inkjet printer but employ a suspension liquid that contains nano-size metal or ceramic particles plus support material particles (Nano Particle Jetting – NPJ). A localised temperature of around 300 C evaporates off the suspension liquid and the nano-particles bond together at high density, with support material solidifying everywhere else (watch the metal process here: https://is.gd/jasaru - ceramic here: https://is.gd/pecara). That support material can, as of very recently, simply be dissolved away after the process, prior to sintering of the metal part.