Bright Laser Technologies (BLT), will reveal new additive manufacturing applications (AM) in tungsten carbide at TCT Asia2023 this week.
China-based metal 3-D printing specialist Tungsten Carbide added manufacturing process was introduced earlier this year as a way to overcome the challenges of printing parts from tungsten. BLT will present several examples of its work at the Shanghai event. These include intricate components for industrial machines.
Tungsten steel traditionally offers exceptional heat, corrosion, and wear resistance but, depending on the level of tungsten content, can also suffer from brittleness. BLT says it has developed a dedicated AM approach for tungsten carbine that overcomes these issues, which can cause cracking defects, and now offers a viable process for manufacturing intricate structures for parts such as micro drill bits, rotary cutting blades and rocket engine nozzles.
The company is now focusing on manufacturing tungsten nozzles to be used with laser solder balljet welding equipment. The nozzles have an interior hollow cone with a smooth finish and a complex design. The nozzles are said to meet stringent requirements for high-temperature and corrosion resistance in laser tin ball jet welding applications and achieve a minimum micro-pore size as small as 200μm.
BLT says its tungsten steel nozzles tips/tubes can also be used in to expand the lifespan of hot runner systems used within injection moulding equipment, thanks to their thermal conductivity, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance. The nozzle tips/tubes can also be customized with different cavity sizes, aspect ratios, tip angles, etc. to meet a wide range of application requirements.
At TCT Asia this week, BLT says it is on a mission to bring industrial metal 3D printing to the masses. In the last year, the company has launched several machines including its five-laser BLT-A400 and large-format BLT-S1000 with the capacity for up to 12 lasers, and reported its “strongest ever” year to date with machines now sold into over 20 countries.
Register to attend TCT Asia 2023 and visit BLT on booth #H31.
