Unlimited possibilities of material combinations and process parameters
pontiMAT® is the perfect technology for the development of innovative materials, for example for Additive Manufacturing. The system is unique in that it can be used to produce specimens of hundreds of alloy variants per day. Thus, the system dramatically reduces the development effort compared to conventional sample melting and analysis methods. pontiMAT® provides the flexibility to combine a virtually unlimited variety of elements into high-performance alloys. Thanks to the pE3D system employed, solidification rates can be specifically set within a temperature range from 100 K/s to 10 million K/s. Consequently, the microstructural features of the metallic specimens can be influenced within an unprecedented wide scope.
How it works
pontiMAT® in detail
In addition to the individualized, industrial production of metallic components, the 3DMD process enables the development and processing of new types of alloy systems. Thanks to the nozzle-based powder feed, existing alloy systems and elements can be processed with little effort in any composition to form dense test specimens. The development effort is drastically reduced when using the presented workflow, as numerous test specimens in a wide range of chemical compositions are produced within a few hours. Development cycles for novel materials are thus significantly shortened, as melts no longer have to be generated and analyzed on the conventional development route on a laboratory scale.
In addition to the chemical composition of the processed material system, the microstructure resulting in the component depends significantly on the cooling rate in the process. Due to the highly dynamic kinematics, users of the pE3D system benefit from selectively adjustable cooling rates as part of the pontiMAT® technology. Thus, for the first time, the microstructure created during solidification can be actively influenced by means of the 3DMD process.
The wide range of adjustable cooling rates enables the emulation of solidification conditions as they prevail in LPBF or conventional DED processes. The pontiMAT® technology is therefore ideally suited for the agile screening of novel alloy systems, the validation of simulatively determined material properties, and the processing of high entropy alloys and amorphous metals.
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