Markforged Adds Metal Printing Capability to FX10 Composite System

Markforged has added a Metal Kit print engine to its FX10 industrial 3D printer, enabling it to print both metal filaments and composites with continuous fiber reinforcement.

“Customers no longer have to choose between a metal and a composite printer. Years of R&D investment and field experience have come together to provide an all-in-one solution for 3D printing to provide immediate return on investment once installed on a factory floor,” says Shai Terem, Markforged CEO. “The FX10 supercharges other equipment on the factory floor to be better utilized and run more efficiently, increasing productivity and reducing potential line-down events.”

The FX10 was released in November 2023 as a composite-only printer and designed to be a versatile tool on the factory floor. With its modular architecture, upgrades like the Metal Kit enable FX10 customers to gain additional value from the machine after purchase.

Markforged has also added the 316L stainless steel metal filament for use with the FX10 Metal Kit. Users will also be able to print in 17-4PH with additional support for other Markforged metal filaments in the future.

“We designed the FX10 to be a modular platform so that we are able to release new innovations and upgrades without customers having to purchase a new printer every year,” Terem says. “Along with new software capabilities we release regularly, the FX10 Metal Kit is poised to provide continuously growing value on factory floors for years to come.”

The FX10 Metal Kit consists of a swappable print engine that includes a metal-specific printhead, material feed tubes, routing back and dual pre-extruders. An FX10 can be swapped between metal and composite as many times as needed, and the swap takes about 15 minutes.

Similar to the fifth-generation continuous fiber reinforcement (CFR) print system in the FX10 that prints nearly twice as fast as previous composite printers, the second-generation metal FFF engine was built on years of Markforged’s experience printing metal and prints significantly faster than previous Markforged metal systems. The FX10 combines faster print speed with a print volume twice as large compared to Markforged’s prior industrial metal printers.

Metal prints are built from the metal filament and a ceramic release filament. The ceramic release is extruded as an interface between the part and supports for ease of separation and removal. Once metal prints are complete, they must be washed and sintered in Markforged’s Wash-1 and Sinter-2 solutions. Markforged’s Eiger slicer and print management software automates the process, including scaling parts to account for shrinkage during sinter.

The Digital Forge is the additive manufacturing platform that enables every aspect of the FX10 and is purpose-built to integrate into existing manufacturing ecosystems. With the Digital Forge, users can share parts across their organization and monitor fleet performance from a central location.