Selective powder deposition is the creation of a 2D powder layer by selectively placing voxels of powder in predetermined locations.

See the technology in action in this Youtube video .

The Aerosint technology allows generating a 2D image with several powders in a line by line fashion. This allows for fast layer generation. The used technique is also flexible and largely  independent of the powder properties. As such the Aerosint technology can be used with a wide variety of materials.

We sell hardware solutions with our partners. We launched the commercialisation of the first multi-material L-PBF printer jointly with Aconity 3D. 

We sell hardware to organizations interested to integrate our technology in their own R&D or production systems. 

We sell application development services to industrial end-users. We can support end-users from the initial feasibility assessment, all the way to a full proof of concept. The starting point is usually a high potential, but unqualified, multi-material application.   

We provide prototyping services with our in-house equipment (both L-PBF and die & pressing post-sintering). 

Aerosint is building a component (the recoater) which, once integrated into a commercial printer, gives this printer multi-material printing capabilities. 

Today, a first commercial version of the recoater is sold for the Aconity 3D Midi + L-PBF printer. 

For inquiries about this printer please reach out to Aerosint or to Aconity. 

We are focussing on Additive Manufacturing and Powder Metallurgy, but the world is your oyster. As we have the capability to deposit a wide range of powders it is not unimaginable that selective powder deposition can be applied in other sectors where powder dosing is needed.

Our deposition technology should in principle work with most, if not all, commercial L-PBF powders. So technically any combination of L-PBF powders can be deposited next to one another. That does not mean that all material combinations can be laser melted together. 

To select materials that have the potential to be combined basic materials engineering principles must be taken into account. If the materials have widely different thermal properties such as melting temperature or thermal expansion coefficient combining them will be challenging or be subject to thermal stresses and cracking. Likewise if the materials are expected to form intermetallics based on their composition, then the potential exists for generating a brittle layer at the interface. This does not mean these materials cannot be combined, but rather that a large R&D effort is expected to investigate whether these combinations can yield satisfactory results. For instance at Aerosint we are currently working ourselves on combining steel and copper.

In the ideal case the materials that are combined have similar lasing parameters and matching thermal properties. We’ve compiled a tentative list of potential “easy” combinations that fit these parameters in this article. 

The combinations in the article are ones for which we make an educated guess that these should work nicely together, so little or no transition zone needed. And even for those the applications are huge. Just think of things like internal cooling channels in a hard tool steel die lined with stainless steel to prevent corrosion or clogging, or incorporating local wear surfaces by ceramic reinforcement directly in the part.

Our deposition resolution at this moment is 500µm XY. The contour of the part is defined by the laser. The deposition resolution is only important at the interface between two materials. There, the real minimal feature size will be determined by whether or not a transition zone is needed to make both materials compatible for the laser melting. 

As the materials need to be co-fired in practice only materials with an overlapping sintering range can be co-sintered. Infiltration of one material with the other during sintering or reactive sintering might extend this range somewhat.

There are several options for this, but these will mostly be determined by the choice of materials and the route in which you intend to make a green or brown part.In general the traditional sintering approaches still apply. Our intention is for selective powder deposition to be an additional tool to extend the application range of traditional powder metallurgy and ceramic production.