The use of 3D printing in industry has become increasingly frequent in recent years. For this type of printing is used different types of materials, and one of them is precisely the steel (of course in different formulations). You can create molds, drive pulleys for pumps or rotors for medical equipment.
What materials are used in 3D printing?
Steel types that are used for this work may be different. For example the Maraging steel powders (type of special steel with an high hardness and at the same time an high malleability) or stainless steel AISI 316L (with an high corrosion resistance). Of course, 3D printing machines can handle powders of different materials, in addition to steel, including aluminum, titanium, cobalt-chromium alloy and lastly, precious metals. Therefore, applications are varied, from the automotive sector to that of the jewelry, up aerospace. But we’re back speaking about types of steel suitable for 3D printing.
What are the steels?
But as we have just seen, there are different formulations of steel that can be used for this type of printing. Let’s have a look at them:
- Maraging steel
- Stainless steels
- Alloy steels.
Maraging steel is often used in metallurgy, thanks to its composition based on iron. Thanks to its contemporary hardness and malleability is suitable for use on airplanes, racing cars or even for creating tools. Stainless steel, on the other hand, has as main characteristic high corrosion resistance. Stainless steels are divided into ferritic, austenitic and martensitic and distinguished by their percentage of alloy elements weight (e.g. stainless steel AISI 316L has a low carbon content, a percentage of chromium between 16.5 and 18.5% and of nickel between 10.5%-13.5 and molybdenum, between 2-2 .25%). Last but not least, the alloy steels that are made up of iron, carbon and other elements such as manganese, chromium-vanadium etc..
What applications for steel 3D printing?
With stainless steel, 3D printers can create lots of tools as
- spare parts for automatic machines
- biomedical devices
- spare parts for industrial sector.
Thanks to the mechanical properties of this material and, as mentioned earlier, thanks to its excellent corrosion resistance. The materials used for 3D printing, in fact, must have features suited to this type of construction. In order to guarantee certain mechanical and physical properties of the finished part.
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