Aurora Labs begins build of metal 3D printer

Perth metal additive manufacturing company Aurora Labs has begun the physical build of its long awaited AL250 metal 3D printer.

Having completed detailed design work, assembly is underway at the company’s at its facility in Perth with Aurora Labs announcing an October 10 market launch.

The company has long promised the use of high-powered lasers for L-PBF printing.

According to Aurora Labs: “At 1500W, the lasers of our 3D printers are 50 percent more powerful currently used within the industry, and approximately three times more powerful than the industry average.

“Whilst our laser power is unique, it is our optics, pre-planning and extraction sub-systems that work in harmony to enable the use of this significant power increase.”

A feature of the printer is the use of the company’s proprietary Multi-Layer Concurrent Printing (MCP) technology in which the system prints multiple layers simultaneously in a single pass.

This improves the laser on-time, increasing duty cycle efficiencies of the printing system.

CEO Rebekah Letheby said: “The physical build culminates from months of detailed design work materialising into the first machine which will be our premier flagship printer model.

“Our design is built on the deep knowledge and expertise in laser powder bed fusion technology.

“It is great to see a high quality, precision machine being built with Australian engineering at its core.”

Ms Letheby said the new machine has a number of novel features such as dynamic adjustment of layer height, and a proprietary powder dosing mechanism which conditions the powder raw material prior to delivery.

“This mechanism also moves non spherical shaped powder which opens to industry a world of material development which includes the ability to lase inexpensive crushed or non-spherical powders, many of which remain unexplored in laser powder bed fusion.”

Further reading:
Aurora Labs reveals 1,500w powder bed laser printer

Picture: Aurora Labs