OR Laser and Heraeus Collaborate on Metal Materials Development for AM

O.R. Lasertechnology Inc. (Elk Grove Village, IL) announced that their parent company, O.R. Lasertechnologie GmbH (Dieburg, Germany), recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Heraeus (Hanau, Germany) to collaborate on the development of optimized metal powdered materials for additive manufacturing applications with the ORLAS CREATOR metal 3D printing platform. 

Heraeus is a family-owned international technology company with specific expertise in materials development that has built a solid reputation for developing powdered materials for additive manufacturing systems by focusing on a cohesive approach that combines powder, process and printer. The ORLAS CREATOR system from OR Laser offers a new paradigm for high quality, economic 3D printing of metal products and parts with a powder bed process that utilizes a high quality laser and a proprietary recoater blade that promises speeds up to 30 percent faster than comparable systems. The system utilizes an open source materials approach so that users are not locked into any specific materials supplier.

However, because OR Laser is very aware of the issues that arise from processing metal AM powders and is keen to offer users options for optimal performance with this system, this collaboration agreement involves Heraeus obtaining and operating an ORLAS CREATOR system to fully test it with a wide range of their powdered materials. The objective is to qualify Heraeus-powdered materials for the ORLAS CREATOR and subsequently develop specific 3D printing parameters and guidelines for their powders.

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