Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)

Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS)

EOS StainlessSteel 17-4 is a pre-alloyed stainless steel in fine powder form. Its composition corresponds to US classification 17-4 and European 1.4542 and fulfils the requirements of AMS 5643 for Mn, Mo, Ni, Si, C, Cr and Cu. This kind of steel is characterised by having very good corrosion resistance and mechanical properties, especially excellent ductility in laser processed state, and is widely used in a variety of engineering applications.

This material is ideal for many part-building applications (DirectPart) such as functional metal prototypes, small series products, individualised products or spare parts. Standard processing parameters use full melting of the entire geometry with 20 µm layer thickness, but it is also possible to use skin and core building style to increase the build speed. Using standard parameters the mechanical properties are fairly uniform in all directions. Laser-sintered parts made from EOS StainlessSteel 17-4 can be welded, machined, micro shot-peened, polished and coated if required. Unexposed powder can be reused without restriction or refreshing.

Surface roughness
- after shot-peening
- after polishing

EOS CobaltChrome MP1 is a fine powder mixture for laser-sintering on EOSINT M 270 systems, which produces parts in a cobalt-chrome-molybdenum-based superalloy. This class of superalloy is characterised by having excellent mechanical properties (strength, hardness, etc.), corrosion resistance and temperature resistance. Such alloys are commonly used in biomedical applications such as dental and medical implants and also for high-temperature engineering applications such as in aero engines.

The chemistry of EOS CobaltChrome MP1 conforms to the composition UNS R31538 of high carbon CoCrMo alloy. It is nickel-free (< 0.1 % nickel content), sterilisable and suitable for biomedical applications. The laser-sintered parts are characterised by a fine, uniform crystal grain structure. They fully meet the requirements of ISO 5832-4 and ASTM F75 for cast CoCrMo implant alloys, as well as the requirements of ISO 5832-12 and ASTM F1537 for wrought CoCrMo implants alloys except remaining elongation. The remaining elongation can be increased to fulfill even this standard by hot isostatic pressing (HIP).

This material is ideal for many part-building applications (DirectPart) such as functional metal prototypes, small series products, individualised products or spare parts. Standard processing parameters use full melting of the entire geometry with 20 µm layer thickness, but it is also possible to use skin and core building style to increase the build speed. Using standard parameters the mechanical properties are fairly uniform in all directions. Laser-sintered parts made from EOS CobaltChrome MP1 can be welded, machined, micro shot-peened, polished and coated if required. Unexposed powder can be reused without restriction or refreshing.

Surface roughness
- after shot-peening
- after polishing

approx. Ra 5 µm
Rz up to < 1 µm

DirectMetal 20 is a very fine-grained bronze-based, multi-component metal powder. The resulting parts offer good mechanical properties combined with excellent detail resolution and surface quality. The surfaces can be easily post-processed by shot-peening and can be polished with very little effort. The specially developed powder mixture contains different components which expand during the laser-sintering process, partially compensating for the natural solidification shrinkage and thereby enabling a very high part accuracy to be achieved.

This material is ideal for most prototype injection moulding tooling applications (DirectTool) and for many functional metal prototype applications (DirectPart). It offers the highest building speed and thus is particularly suitable for larger tools and parts. It also offers a broad window of usable process parameters, e.g. a wide range of achievable mechanical properties and build speeds. Standard parameters use 20 µm layer thickness for the skin and 60 µm layers for the core, but for faster building the entire part can be built using 40 µm layers for the skin and 80 µm layers for the core.

Using standard skin parameters the mechanical properties are fairly uniform in all directions, which is especially beneficial for many DirectPart applications. Areas built with core parameters have a porous structure, but the combination of skin and core produces a strong total part. Parts built from DirectMetal 20 also have good corrosion resistance.

Surface roughness
- after shot-peening
- after polishing

R_a 3 µm
R_z up to < 1 µm

EOS MaragingSteel MS1 is a maraging steel in fine powder form. Its composition corresponds to US classification 18 Maraging 300, European 1.2709 and German X3NiCoMoTi 18-9-5. This kind of steel is characterised by having very high strength combined with high toughness. It is easily machinable after the building process and can be easily post-hardened up to approx. 55 HRC by a simple thermal age-hardening process. This kind of steel is conventionally used for complex tooling as well as for high-performance industrial parts, for example in aerospace applications.

Ultimate tensile strength (MPIF 10)
- as laser sintered
- after age hardening*

1100 MPa + 100 MPa
1950 MPa + 100 MPa

Yield strength (Rp 0.2%)
- as laser sintered
- after age hardening*

1000 MPa + 100 MPa
1900 MPa + 100 MPa

Elongation at break
- as laser sintered
- after age hardening*

Hardness
- as laser sintered
- after age hardening*

33-37 HRC
50-54 HRC

Ductility (Notched Charpy impact test)
- as laser sintered
- after age hardening*

45 J + 10 J
11 J + 4 J

Surface roughness
- after shot-peening
- after polishing

R_a 4 – 6.5 µm
R_z up to < 0.5 µm