14 DAY TRIAL // In order for a metal to be used in 3D printing, it has to be ground to a very fine powder. Depending on how well it is ground, and how free of impurities, it can yield different results once actually used in additive manufacturing.
That's why some powders are better than others, and by extension why some companies are doing better in this field than the rest.
It is also why NanoSteel Company Inc., a corporation based in Province, Rhode Island, believes they can easily come to rule this segment, or at least make a good impression.
Having provided nano-structured steel material designs for the better part of 13 years, they believe they can offer the best metal powders, especially steel powder, to anyone using additive manufacturing technologies.
They have created a 99.9% dense steel powder which supposedly yields objects that are very hard to crack or otherwise damage.
The powder is made through the company’s metal matrix microstructure process and can be used in normal laser sintering machines. The objects made from it have a hardness of 1000 HV on the Vickers hardness tester. In layman terms, that means the parts are very tough indeed.
In fact, they can be used in tooling, mining, energy and transportation industries, for bearings, pumps and cutting tools. Quite a nice list, so we'll be looking forward to seeing packs of powder being made available for even consumer metal printers, no matter how few they are at the moment.