NORTH HUNTINGDON, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The ExOne Company (Nasdaq: XONE), the global leader in industrial sand and metal 3D printers using binder jetting technology, today announced it has opened a Metal 3D Printing Adoption Center at its European headquarters in Gersthofen, Germany.
The mission of ExOne’s Adoption Centers, which have locations in the U.S., Germany, and Japan, is to allow customers to try binder jet 3D printing for their designs before they decide to buy an ExOne 3D printing system for their own production.
The investment announced today represents an expansion of ExOne’s longtime Adoption Center in Europe, which 3D prints sand molds and cores for metalcasting customers. ExOne’s Metal Adoption Center now offers manufacturers end-to-end engineering services for direct-metal binder jet 3D printing, including benchmarks, design support, and materials, process, and work cell development.
“Now, manufacturers throughout Europe can benefit from locally produced binder jetted metal designs and benchmarks, along with world-class engineering consultation and support,” said John Hartner, ExOne’s CEO. “We encourage manufacturers to take advantage of the high speed, low cost, and industry-leading quality that our patented binder jetting technology can deliver for even the most complex designs.”
“Our centralized location outside of Munich gives manufacturers the opportunity to see metal binder jetting in action and work closely with our expanded metal team on precision metal parts projects,” said Eric Bader, Managing Director, ExOne GmbH. “This expansion is supported by increased interest in metal binder jetting in Europe as the technology matures.”
High-Quality Metal Parts Key Focus of New Center
Binder jetting is a high-speed method of 3D printing in which an industrial inkjet printhead selectively deposits a binder into a bed of powder particles creating a solid part one thin layer at a time. When printing metals, the final part must be sintered in a furnace to fuse the particles together into a high-density solid object.
All new ExOne metal printers, such as the X1 160Pro manufactured on-site in Gersthofen, are now offered with the company’s patented Triple Advanced Compaction Technology (ACT), which delivers industry-leading accuracy, density, and repeatability in binder jet printing.
ExOne has now qualified more than 20 metal, ceramic, and composite materials for its binder jetting process. More than half of those materials are single-alloy metals, such as 17-4PH, 316L, 304L, M2 Tool Steel, Inconel 718, and more. Most recently, ExOne announced that 6061 aluminum is now a Customer-Qualified material, and titanium is now fast-tracked for qualification in partnership with a global medical device firm.
ExOne’s New Metal 3D Printing Adoption Center will initially focus on the delivery of small-to-medium parts with quality similar to Metal Injection Molding (MIM) in 316L and 17-4PH, with other materials available. To exploring having your part or product metal 3D printed with ExOne technology, contact ExOne through exone.com/EMEAmetal or +49 821 65063 238.
About ExOne
ExOne is the pioneer and global leader in binder jet 3D printing technology. Since 1995, we’ve been on a mission to deliver powerful 3D printers that solve the toughest problems and enable world-changing innovations. Our 3D printing systems quickly transform powder materials — including metals, ceramics, composites and sand — into precision parts, metalcasting molds and cores, and innovative tooling solutions. Industrial customers use our technology to save time and money, reduce waste, improve their manufacturing flexibility, and deliver designs and products that were once impossible. As home to the world’s leading team of binder jetting experts, ExOne also provides specialized 3D printing services, including on-demand production of mission-critical parts, as well as engineering and design consulting. Learn more about ExOne at www.exone.com or on Twitter at @ExOneCo. We invite you to join with us to #MakeMetalGreen™.
