What is DMLS 3D printing?
DMLS stands for Direct Metal Laser Sintering. You could say it is like a cousin of the SLS 3D printing method, since both use laser sintering to obtain the desired results. The main difference is that DMLS 3D printing is a process that is applied on metal powder instead of plastic powder, so it belongs to the group of metal 3D printing methods. This technology is one of the few available to create a metal part directly from the 3D CAD model. Similar to what happens in SLS, in DMLS 3D printing, the metal powder is sintered by pointing a laser that transforms the powder into a solid metal piece. Compared to other 3D printing technologies, DMLS 3D printing could be considered new. The most popular technologies like FDM and SLA were first developed in the 80s, whereas DMLS had its first patent filed in the 90s. Let’s take a look at the details of the DMLS operating principle. How does DMLS 3D printing work?
Generally speaking, DMLS 3D printing follows the same operating principle as the majority of 3D printing technologies, which can be summarized in three steps: design, slice and print by layers. However, there are some details that are specific for this technology and the type of material used. Here are the printing steps in detail: 1.A container, usually called the hopper is filled with the metal powder that will be used, with aluminum, copper and titanium powders commonly used. 2.The powder is preheated inside the hopper until it reaches a temperature near the required for sintering the specific material in order to help the laser achieve quality results more easily. 3.As metals are more susceptible to react with the environment than plastics, an inert gas is used is used to protect the material along the process.