The following is an excerpt from the article “NPE 2024: Additive Manufacturing Assisting, Advancing Plastics Processing” by Stephanie Hendrixson.
One of just a few 3D printing machines physically present on the show floor was Xact Metal’s XM200G2, a laser powder bed fusion printer which is positioned for accessibility. The machine is small enough to fit through a standard doorway, runs on 110-V electricity and offers a compact build volume that keeps operating costs down by limiting how much powder is needed to fill the bed and how much argon is required to keep the environment inert. But, just to the right of this 3D printer was a postprocessing machine, a DLyte electropolisher from GPAInnova, one of Xact Metal’s equipment partners. The company has found that, while some buyers want to research and choose their own auxiliary equipment, 3D printer adoption (and sales) can be eased by offering customers a more complete package of equipment.
“There’s a solution for everything out there, from software to polishing to auxiliary equipment,” Kraemer says. Xact now has relationships with a number of other companies whose products it can recommend to customers — including materials. The company recently announced a new partnership with Uddeholm to supply the latter’s Corrax tool steel in powder form.
“Toolmakers are used to making tools from Corrax billet,” Kraemer says. “Now they can 3D print with it, too.”
