The Virtual Foundry Democratizes Metal 3D Printing

Common 3D Printer + Common Ceramics Kiln =
Pure Metal 3D Printing at the Office, Home and School!

Affordable and Easy to Use, Here’s How it Works:

Metal Filament A metal 3D printer on a white background.
Buy now from our partners at Matterhackers.com

STEP 1:

Print in Common FFF 3D Printers

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.

Metal Filament A small oven with a lid, designed for desktop use.
Standard kiln

STEP 2:

Debind in a Common Kiln

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.

Metal Filament A small copper stool on a white background.
With minimal investment you can create pure metal parts in your classroom, home studio or machine shop

STEP 3:

Sinter in the same Common Kiln

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.

YES! You can 3D print pure metal parts with a kiln and a 3D printer from companies like Prusa, Ultimaker, Lulzbot, Creality, etc.! If your printer can print PLA filament, it can also print Pure Metal with Filamet™.

How can I use Filamet™?

Metal Filament A person is holding a copper model of a stadium created using metal 3D printing.

See some of the cool parts made with Filamet™

Metal Filament A magnifying glass sits on top of a stack of documents made with fffmetal.

Read the published research
papers about Filamet™

Featured Products

Filamet™ Kits & Bundles

Metal 3D Printing Filament

Ceramic 3D Printing Filament

Glass 3D Printing Filament

Metal Filament A 3D printer with a wide range of parts, including fffmetal and metal filament capabilities.

The Advantages of Printing with Filamet™ 3D Printing Filaments

Customers Who Trust The Virtual Foundry

Metal Filament A variety of metal parts are arranged on a white background, showcasing the versatility of metal 3D printing.

What’s on Your Material Wish List?

The Virtual Foundry Can Make It.

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.

Virtual Foundry Graphnet - Bruce Power - Tungsten - Prusa
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