The Virtual Foundry’s Filamet™ metal, glass and ceramic FFF 3D Printing filaments combines Metal Powder with a Polylactic Acid (PLA) binder to create a unique 3D printing process familiar to all PLA users. This is all accomplished with the same inexpensive printers made for printing common plastic filament.
After printing, the part is placed in a kiln like those commonly found in schools, labs, makerspaces andeven home studios. This slow heating process removes the PLA binder leaving behind a porous metal structure that’s ready for the next step.
The print is then raised to a higher temperature, causing the particles to weld together to form a metal, glass or ceramic part. This phase of the process densifies the material, resulting in a final part that is dense, strong and pure.
The Virtual Foundry has provided this service to organizations like National Labs, NASA and a variety of public and private research organizations. We’ve made Filamet™ with everything from high-tech Thermoelectric materials like doped Molybdenum Telluride and custom 3D printable piezoelectric materials, etc. All the way to the other end of the spectrum with simplistic materials like foundry sand for 3D printable casting cores and components.
