UTRECHT, Netherlands, June 16, 2022 – Ultimaker, the global leader in professional 3D printing, announced the extension of its Ultimaker Platform with a Metal Expansion Kit, making metal 3D printing more accessible and affordable. Engineers using the new Kit will be empowered to produce applications capable of high mechanical stress and thermal resistance.
F.l.t.r. Miguel Calvo (CTO Ultimaker); Tobias Rödlmeier (business development manager – Metal Ecosystem at BASF Forward AM); Andrea Gasperini (product manager Ultimaker) presenting components of the Ultimaker Metal Expansion Kit, co-developed by Ultimaker and BASF Forward AM.
The Ultimaker Metal Expansion Kit is explicitly developed to remove existing process’s bottlenecks and limitations by providing users all the dedicated items, software features and knowledge to maximize process efficiency. The newly introduced Kit comes with materials that are automatically recognized by the printer through NFC and enables efficiently switching between printing plastics and metal on one machine. The launch of the Ultimaker Metal Expansion Kit is accompanied by the release of a MFFF dedicated Ultimaker Cura 5.1 version that brings the extensive set of features needed to prepare metal parts on the Ultimaker Platform.
Andrea Gasperini, product manager at Ultimaker: “The Ultimaker Metal Expansion Kit is especially suitable for printing non-of-the-shelf parts such as tools, jigs and fixtures, replacement parts, functional prototypes and auxiliary components. The Kit provides access to a complete and validated 3D printing workflow on an open platform that offers competitive quality and lead times normally only accessible with full in-house metal fused filament fabrication (MFFF) solutions at a much higher total cost of ownership.”
The new Kit includes:
All required items for metal parts preparation from printing to accessing post-processing services, including materials and a set of dedicated print cores to support both the metal filament (Ultrafuse 17-4PH) and the Ultrafuse Support Layer, allowing full design freedom. Especially for this Kit, Ultimaker developed a new Print Core DD 0.4, a highly wear-resistant core to print the abrasive support material.
- Access to exclusive Ultimaker 3D Printing Academy content – developed together with the team of BASF Forward
- Access to the BASF Debinding and Sintering Order Management Portal, for post-processing of the 3D printed part into a full metal part.
Firat Hizal, head of metal systems at BASF Forward AM: “This unique all-in-one bundle by Ultimaker unlocks Metal 3D printing on open desktop platforms like Ultimaker S5, makes MFFF more accessible and affordable. With all the necessary components and accessories in the kit, it facilitates for users switching between printing plastics and metal parts back-to-back, and helps them throughout the process step by step from a to z. We are happy to complement this kit with our Ultrafuse filaments and to offer a simplified post-processing step at a competitive price through our Debinding &Sintering partners located in different regions.”
The Ultimaker Metal Expansion Kit will be available in North America, China, EU and UK in July 2022. Contents of the Kit vary by country. For more information on the Metal FFF Solution: www.ultimaker.com/metal.
About Ultimaker
Established in 2011, Ultimaker is on a mission to accelerate the world’s transformation to flexible, empowering and sustainable solutions. 380 employees collaborate globally to deliver a unique platform that enables customers to take full advantage of the Ultimaker Ecosystem, offering the largest selection of 3D printing products and services in the industry. Ultimaker provides a seamless integration of hardware, software and materials that simply works.
For more information, visit www.ultimaker.com.