Market Background

Along with the fast market growth of polymer powder 3D printing (especially in 2021, the global market size of this technology surpassed photopolymer 3D printing for the first time), it has become the most widely used 3D printing technology in manufacturing of end products. Selective laser sintering (SLS) was the earliest and is now the most mature polymer powder 3D printing technology with a wide range of applications. The market is posing increasingly higher requirements for forming volume and printing efficiency, two key indicators of industrial SLS equipment.

Large-Format Industrial SLS Printing Equipment Has Been Developed to Meet Market Demand

To accommodate the current and future market demand for industrial equipment, TPM3D has launched two large-format dual-laser SLS 3D printers, i.e. P550DL and S600DL, which have already been delivered and deployed at premises of many customers in China and other countries. TPM3D's dual laser series is not like with the most similar equipment’s development based on extended format in the market, as it pays more attention to improve quality and efficiency in manufacturing. With a wider overlapping area of dual laser scanning and intelligent collaboration in scanning, the two lasers work together to maximize scanning efficiency in a coordinated manner.

TPM3D P550DL

P550DL, a member of TPM3D's Performance series, can produce various types of large-size components in a one-off manner or mass produce small and medium-sized parts with a build chamber measuring 550 × 550 × 850mm. This model adopts two 140W ceramic cavity carbon dioxide lasers, which feature stable performance and longer service life. The two matching high-performance dynamic focusing scanning systems work at a scanning speed of 22m/s, enabling extremely high production efficiency. The built-in nitrogen generator saves the cost of purchasing an external one. In addition, P550DL also features TPM3D's patented active cooling technology to allow starting cooling faster after printing with higher cooling efficiency. It also extends the service life of powder with used powder being recycled indefinitely. Characterized by large forming volume, high production efficiency and high-cost effectiveness, P550DL focuses on the needs of users in automotive, prototyping, health care and other fields to meet their pursuit of ultimate quality and efficiency. P550DL is possibly the most cost-effective large-format dual-laser SLS additive manufacturing equipment available on the market at present.

TPM3D S600DL

S600DL, a member of TPM3D's Superior series, is a large-format dual laser system developed by TPM3D according to the most stringent safety standards of the European Union. With a build chamber of 600 × 600 × 800mm and a volume of 288L, S600DL is the largest SLS equipment of its kind at present and works in a balanced manner in all XYZ directions. Compared with P550DL, S600DL features a larger forming volume and higher efficiency. Moreover, it adopts separate electrical and mechanical design and modular design, and has obtained TUV CE certification. With its safety level at the highest PL-e, the model is also equipped with oxygen concentration detection and smoke filtration modules to ensure stable, safe and reliable operation. S600DL helps users in automotive, aerospace, military, health care and other fields create greater value with top-of-the-line performance as well as stable and efficient production. Since its launch nearly one year ago, S600DL has been highly recognized by overseas industrial users. Its appearance has facilitated the application of SLS printing is large-scale manufacturing.

Features of TPM3D Large-Format Dual-Laser Printing Equipment

So how do we ensure the quality and forming efficiency of parts in large-format large-size printing?

Firstly, one of the challenges encountered by multi-laser equipment is the scanning quality control at overlapping areas. If the overlapping area of multi-laser scanning is narrow, the overlapping will occur at a fixed position, so the overlapping position are prone to have fragile points with compromised strength. To solve this problem, we adopt a wider overlapping area in multi-laser scanning and a more flexible scanning strategy. If there are parts to be scanned and printed in this overlapping area, the software will automatically stagger the overlapping positions of each layer instead of setting a fixed one to avoid the concentration of possible fragile points in parts and thus ensure their strength and quality after printing.

Meanwhile, to maximize the scanning efficiency is another focus of TPM3D's technical team. TPM3D has developed an intelligent and collaborative multi-laser scanning strategy adaptive to different parts and different scanning areas, shapes and parameters to allocate scanning tasks between lasers and improve the overall printing efficiency with dual lasers by more than 45% over that of single-laser equipment.

Last but not the least, Parts & Power Processing Station (PPS) is an efficient and clean production solution independently developed by TPM3D's technical team, and also a key to industrial efficiency to be achieved by large-format multi-laser equipment. With a larger volume of the build chamber, the workload increases significantly for cleaning larger parts and recycling more powder. A manual process would be highly expensive and inefficient without the assistance of an intelligent and automatic powder cleaning and powder management system. TPM3D PPS integrates parts cleaning, powder collection, powder filtration, virgin powder addition, proportioning and mixing, and automatic powder supply to minimize the impact of powder leakage on the environment, make parts cleaning and powder handling easy and efficient, and reduce a lot of time and labor costs for users.

Bigger and More Capable Models Are Coming

To meet current and future market demand, we are not satisfied with the launch of P550DL and S600DL. We will soon launch S800DL capable of forming 800×800 mm formats with 4 lasers, which is expected to enable another leap in production capacity and efficiency in the industry. Let's look f–orward to unveiling of its superiority.