The Virtual Foundry’s Filamet™ metal, glass and ceramic FFF 3D Printing filaments combine metal (or glass or ceramic) powder with a Polylactic Acid (PLA) binder to enable a printing process familiar to PLA users, in printers made for plastics.
After printing, the part is placed in a kiln like those found in schools and heat-treatment facilities and countless other environments, this removes the binder leaving behind a porous metal structure.
The print is then raised to a higher temperature, causing the particles to fuse together and form a metal, glass or ceramic part. This phase of the process densifies the material, resulting in a final part that is dense and strong.
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.
