Sweden-based Freemelt announced its innovation ProHeat for preheating the powder bed in 3D printers based on E-PBF (Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion). ProHeat offers improved solutions to users by providing many advantages over existing E-PBF print preheating solutions. Freemelt plans to implement ProHeat which is presently under development, in future versions of 3D printing systems.
Founded in 2017, Sweden based Freemelt is a 3D printing technology developer and manufacturer using electron beam as an energy source. Freemelt was recently recognized as a “top-33 startup in Sweden 2020” by national trade media; and among “5 top additive manufacturing startups impacting Industry 4.0” by StartUs Insights. Founded by an experienced team with a long history in the 3D printing industry, the company recently announced its latest innovation, ProHeat. Freemelt presented ProHeat at the EBAM 2020 virtual conference that took place on October 5-7, 2020. Patent pending ProHeat stands out with its different features and creates an alternative to existing E-PBF solutions. At the same time, the company plans to implement this innovation in future versions of 3D printing systems.
The innovation of Freemelt offers many new advantages
ProHeat is based on heating by electromagnetic radiation from a heating device positioned over the powder bed. The radiation sinters every powder layer smoothly, with zero risk of powder charging and so-called smoke events. With these features, ProHeat offers a series of advantages over existing E-PBF preheating solutions. ProHeat provides fast and efficient heating, preserving all the unique advantages of a hot and stress-relieved additive manufacturing process. At the same time, ProHeat eliminates powder charging with its preheating feature without interaction with electrons. ProHeat has the advantage of zero consumption of costly and high purity inert gas (helium or argon) with highest vacuum purity and optimum beam quality maintained at all times. Uniform sintering of the powder bed results in smoother melting and less spatter.
“ProHeat will speed up development of new E-PBF materials”
Freemelt CEO, Ulric Ljungblad stated that they are very optimistic about this innovation, and said; “ProHeat is an enabler for robust, efficient processing and expands the potential of E-PBF to new classes of materials; that are difficult or even impossible to process in E-PBF systems as of today”. Freemelt Senior Scientist, Ulf Ackelid told that ProHeat makes it possible to heat and sinter the powder bed in a gentle and uniform manner; without exposing it to electric charge. Relaying that this makes it much easier and more efficient to build parts from fine powders and from powders of poor conductivity, Ackelid noted; “ProHeat will speed up development of new E-PBF materials since it eliminates the time-consuming optimisation of preheating parameters”.