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Elnik Systems: Sintering AM parts
Metal Binder Jetting and FFF: Considerations when planning a debinding and sintering facility for volume production A new generation of Binder Jetting machines now promises to deliver high volumes of parts at previously unimaginable speeds. Metal AM’s Nick Williams interviews Stefan Joens and the team at Elnik Systems LLC, a leading provider of industrial debinding and sintering furnaces, about the reality of entering this field and the technologies and equipment that are needed for the often underestimated processes of debinding and sintering.
Batch debinding and sintering furnaces manufactured by Elnik Systems, based in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, USA, have over a period of nearly twenty-five years become a common sight in Metal Injection Moulding (MIM) facilities around the world. The company’s leading position in the MIM industry will, it hopes, also put it in a strong position to deliver the industrial scale debinding and sintering equipment that is needed to process parts produced using metal Binder Jetting (BJT) and Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF). These technologies are rapidly gaining traction as a ‘second wave’ in the development of metal AM for industrial applications. Elnik’s involvement in MIM dates back to the early 1990s, when BASF launched its Catamold® feedstock system. It was shortly after this that the company commenced the development of a ‘one-step’ debind and sinter partial pressure furnace specifically to meet the needs of the growing MIM industry. The company’s MIM 3000 furnace, launched in 1994, provided a cost-effective alternative to the two-furnace technology commonly used at that time.
Vol. 5 No. 3 © 2019 Inovar Communications Ltd
Elnik states that its system was the first all refractory metal furnace with partial pressure operation from 10 mbar to 800 mbar for hydrogen, nitrogen or argon, with laminar gas flow via an internal retort to remove the second stage binder. This shortened processing time from the thirty plus hours which was typical at the time, to around twenty hours.
Over the years there has been a process of continuous improvement in the company’s products, focusing in particular on laminar gas flow, temperature uniformity and accuracy through its proprietary Accu-Temp system, process control automation, hot zone and retort strength, and durability. An automatic cleaning process for the binder traps and the
Fig. 1 Elnik Systems furnaces installed at DSH Technologies, the wholly owned subsidiary of Elnik Systems that offers process development, consulting and toll debinding and sintering services
Metal Additive Manufacturing | Autumn/Fall 2019
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