High performance, lower costs 3D pellet printing: A cost-effective addition to traditional manufacturing

Related Vendors

AIM3D GmbH

HASCO Hasenclever GmbH + Co KG

AMPCO METAL Deutschland GbmH

Renishaw plc

3D pellet printers are emerging as a complementary technology to traditional injection moulding, utilizing standard pellets instead of filaments. This approach offers potential cost advantages in material use and improved process stability.

3D pellet printers now supplement traditional injection moulding technology with a toolless additive manufacturing strategy. In contrast to FDM printers, they do not use polymers in the form of filaments, but standard pellets with enormous price advantages in terms of material input, but also significantly improved process capability. Part price calculations have therefore reached a new level. Depending on the application and batch size, 3D pellet printers enable a new level of cost-effectiveness. We spoke to Dr.-Ing. Bastian Gaedike, CEO of the printing service provider Malping, about why he will be relying on 3D pellet printing in the future.

Since 2017, system manufacturer Aim 3D has been consistently focusing on 3D pellet printers, which, as opposed to FDM 3D printers, process pellets instead of filaments. The significantly lower material purchase costs for pellets, alongside the use of reclaimed material directly from the mill, form the basis for the high cost-effectiveness of this AM production strategy with 3D pellet printers. 3D printing service provider Malping, from Neuhausen auf den Fildern in Baden-Wuerttemberg, is now using an Exam 510 from Aim 3D for its customer orders. Dr.-Ing. Bastian Gaedike, CEO of Malping: “3D pellet printers finally offer us the unique opportunity of mapping the properties of conventionally manufactured components in a very cost-effective manner with an additive manufacturing strategy. Tool-based injection moulding technology is now being supplemented by a pellet-based 3D printing strategy. I also see further potential for the future: with the newly introduced Voxelfill strategy, 3D printing is now able to reach the strengths of conventional injection moulding.”