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ORNL's Bianca Haberl and Amy Elliott hold 3D-printed collimators - an invention that has been licensed to ExOne, a leading binder jet 3D printer company. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
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Small, 3D-printed neutron collimators, designed by ORNL's Jamie Molaison, yield reduced costs and manufacturing times and could enable new types of experiments. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
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ORNL's Bianca Haberl and Amy Elliott hold 3D-printed collimators - an invention that has been licensed to ExOne, a leading binder jet 3D printer company. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
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Small, 3D-printed neutron collimators, designed by ORNL's Jamie Molaison, yield reduced costs and manufacturing times and could enable new types of experiments. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
NORTH HUNTINGDON, PA, Jan. 26, 2021 - The ExOne Company (Nasdaq: XONE), the global leader in industrial sand and metal 3D printers using binder jetting technology, today announced it has reached a commercial license agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory to 3D print parts in aluminum-infiltrated boron carbide (B4C).
Researchers at ORNL developed the patent-pending method of 3D printing aluminum-infiltrated B4C on an ExOne M-Flex, a 3D printer that uses binder jetting technology to 3D print objects in metals, ceramics and other powder materials.
In 2019, ExOne executed an R&D license for the manufacturing process. Now, that license has been expanded to commercial use so that ExOne can begin printing aluminum-infiltrated B4C collimators, shielding equipment, and other components used in neutron scattering research.
ExOne Technology Drives ORNL Innovation
Binder jetting is a groundbreaking 3D printing process that uses a digital file to quickly inkjet a binder into a bed of powder particles - metal, sand or ceramic - creating a solid part one layer at a time. When printing metals, the final part may be fabricated into a solid object. Other materials can also be infiltrated into the part during this process.
In this instance, a team at ORNL led by David C. Anderson, Manager of Instrument Systems Engineering for the Second Target Station Project, developed a process to 3D print objects in B4C, a neutron-absorbing material, and then infiltrate the objects with aluminum. Infiltration is when a material is wetted or absorbed into another material like water into a sponge. The final aluminum-infiltrated B4C material is known as a metal-matrix composite, a type of cermet. ORNL's Amy Elliott is a co-inventor of this process. Additional co-inventors of these technologies include Corson Cramer and Bianca Haberl, both of ORNL.
The development is significant because aluminum-infused B4C has strong but lightweight properties, as well as neutron-absorbing characteristics that are particularly useful in neutron scattering instruments, which enable researchers to capture data down to the atomic level.
About ExOne
ExOne is the pioneer and global leader in binder jet 3D printing technology. Since 1995, we've been on a mission to deliver powerful 3D printers that solve the toughest problems and enable world-changing innovations. Our 3D printing systems quickly transform powder materials - including metals, ceramics, composites and sand - into precision parts, metalcasting molds and cores, and innovative tooling solutions. Industrial customers use our technology to save time and money, reduce waste, improve their manufacturing flexibility, and deliver designs and products that were once impossible. As home to the world's leading team of binder jetting experts, ExOne also provides specialized 3D printing services, including on-demand production of mission-critical parts, as well as engineering and design consulting. Learn more about ExOne at www.exone.com or on Twitter at @ExOneCo. We invite you to join with us to #MakeMetalGreen™.
This story originally appeared here.
