A new approach to Additive Manufacturing

Overview

Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) suffers from weak interlayer bonding, delamination, and warping because the material cools down after being deposited. This also leads to porous structures and lower relative part density resulting in weaker strength in 3D printed parts.  Although some 3D printing systems use heated chambers to resolve this, they often use convection to heat the air which suffers from high heat losses and thermal gradients, thus limiting the heating of the material and thermal stability.  Orion AM's process utilizes Thermal Radiation Heating which heats the material to much higher temperatures thus eliminating warping, distortion, and delamination.

Benefits

With Thermal Radiation the heat penetrates through the material, allowing the layers to truly fuse together. This results in parts that are more uniform in strength, more dense and stronger. This enables the full strength of the material and the production of end-use parts.  The process is also capable of producing hermetically sealed parts, making it suitable for the production of seals, underwater housings and parts for vacuum applications. 

Results

Orion's technology resolves the anisotropic nature of FFF 3D printing, even for difficult to print aerospace-grade materials like PEEK and PEI.  This results in nearly isotropic properties.