At Formnext 2023, ADDiTEC showcased its Liquid Metal Jetting technology for the first time, after the acquisition of Elem Additive from Xerox earlier in the year. The technology uses a sophisticated drop-on-demand liquid metal printing process. The technology features in the company’s new Hybrid 3 system which launched at the show. The system also includes its Laser Directed Energy Deposition technology, as well as CNC machining.

TCT visited the ADDiTEC booth to get a closer look.

R&D Program Manager at ADDiTEC Sriram Manoharan told TCT: “Liquid metal jetting is welding wire intro a crucible, where you have an induction heating mechanism to melt the wire. Then you have electromagnetic forces generating the pulse, and that pulse generates the droplets. The main advantage of this is high resolution parts. The laser wire DED is for high deposition rate.

“Combining these two has two advantages, the first advantage is a geometric advantage, where you can come with the laser wire DED with high deposition rates and do the infills, and then you can come back with the liquid metal jetting and do your perimeters which have high resolution. Then you have a CNC operation to do surface finishing.”

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