Ultimaker Offers Metal Expansion Kit for 3D Printing

Ultimaker has extended its printing platform with a Metal Expansion Kit which is said to make metal 3D printing more accessible and affordable. According to the company, users will be empowered to produce applications capable of high mechanical stress and thermal resistance, which can be a difficult task even with high-performance thermoplastics.

The kit was developed to remove existing process bottlenecks and limitations by providing users with all the dedicated items, software features and knowledge to maximize process efficiency and further expand Ultimaker printer capabilities beyond thermoplastics. It comes with materials that are automatically recognized by the printer through NFC and enables efficient switching between printing plastics and metal on one machine.

The company says the technology is powered by Ultimaker Cura, Ultimaker’s powerful and easy-to-use slicing software, and is compatible with the Ultimaker S5 Platform. It is said the kit is especially suitable for printing non-of-the-shelf parts such as tools, jigs and fixtures, replacement parts, functional prototypes and auxiliary components.

The kit is also said to offer a complete, easy-to-use solution for metal parts preparation on the Ultimaker platform. It includes all required items for metal parts preparation — from printing to accessing postprocessing services, including materials and a set of dedicated print cores to support both the metal filament (Ultrafuse 17-4PH) and the Ultrafuse Support Layer, thereby enabling full design freedom.

Ultimaker developed a new Print Core DD 0.4 especially for this kit, which is said to provide a wear-resistant core to print abrasive support material. No permanent hardware modifications are needed as print cores and materials can be simply replaced like any other print core or filament.

The kit also offers access to exclusive Ultimaker 3D Printing Academy content – developed together with the team of BASF Forward AM. It offers users a centralized, up-to-date knowledge base to teach the full workflow with all kinds of tips and tricks so users can successfully apply Metal FFF on the Ultimaker platform.

Finally, the kit offers access to the BASF Debinding and Sintering Order Management Portal, a network of debinding and sintering services for postprocessing of the 3D printed part into a full metal part.