The Metal Printing Process (MPP) is aimed at developing the equivalent of a high-speed photocopier that produces three-dimensional objects from powder material. This technique is based upon the commercially proven technology and patents of high-speed photocopiers that use photo-masking and electrostatic attraction. The MPP technique uses the same fundamental functions to build solid objects on a layer-by-layer basis.

With regard to the layer manufacturing processes available today, only the Metal Printing Process offers true processing of entire layers with the final material of the object. Other methods produce layers by either solidifying a finite surface of material or by depositing a small finite line of material. Hundreds of lines of powder material must either be deposited or, as in the case of SLS (Selective Laser Sintering), liquid phase sintered by the laser to form a single layer. These processes are much slower than the MPP approach because they must trace the plan form of the layer using a laser beam or deposition line of barely few hundreds of a millimetre in width. For metals like iron and steel laser sintering is just a shaping process, used to hold particles in place before subsequent densification in a sintering furnace. Most of these processes use powders that are coated with binder materials, which must later be removed in a secondary process. This binder burnout or removal process typically takes many hours leaving a porous structure in the base material. Therefor, the potential cost and savings for the MPP approach are dramatic in comparison to other rapid prototyping systems.

In the MPP each layer is deposited on a building table where it is sintered with the aid of electric discharge sintering or microwaves. Solid-state sintering, where particles fuse by atomic transport events below the melting point offers a larger assortment in building materials. Common powders like iron and steel together with more exotic materials like titanium, nickel-based superalloys and ceramics may be sintered.

In addition to fabricate objects in metal we see many other interesting applications for the Metal Printing Process. One is products in advanced materials like tungsten and molybdenum where machining are difficult due to the hardness of the material. Examples are products for thermal protection of heat-exposed components. Another is products of complex structure where machining is equally difficult due to the geometrical shape of the product.

An interesting area where a developed Metal Printing Process is bound to show competability is production of components made of functionally gradient material (FGM). This may be a product for use in the space industry or in extremely heat-exposed jet engine parts.

In other applications we may want to keep the powders geometrically separated. The objective is to achieve sintering in both materials simultaneously without distortion or the formation of defects. Co-sintering requires that the two materials follow the same shrinkage pathway, even though they may exhibit differences in basic properties. An application for co-sintering is the fabrication of multi-layered print circuit boards. A ceramic and metal are combined, where the ceramic functions as the insulator and the metal provides electrical interconnections in a three-dimensional array.

An obvious application is direct fabrication of moulds for pressure die-casting. This will involve a dramatic reduced  lead-time from product development to product delivery, which is one of the most important contributions to the competitiveness of a company. Norwegian industry purchases pressure die casting moulds for approximately 100 MNOK/year.

Experimental work has proven that the MPP is able to fabricate objects with controlled porosity. Porous metals are used in filters, self-lubricating bearings, flow resistors, air distribution surfaces, sound absorbers, heat pipes, and biomedical implants which allow growing-in of neighbouring tissue and thereby achieve attachment and fixation of the device. Examples are heart pacemaker electrodes and artificial joints and bones.

This is just some examples. The limitation is only our imagination. It is our belief that the MPP technology may be the beginning of a new industry. A long-term objective is to establish a new enterprise located in Norway. This new enterprise will be the developer and supplier of MPP technology worldwide.