DESIGN RULES

Overview:

Despite the freedom of design that additive manufacturing offers every process for Metal 3D Printing comes with a set of design rules attached. Below we lay out the limitations of our LMD-WP Process and contrast it with the most common metal 3D printing processes. Get in touch with our application engineers to arrange the production of a demo part.
Note: The design rules laid out below apply to our process in general. If your design requires the breach of a particular design rule but conforms to many others, please contact us, as a satisfactory solution can usually be found for most applications. Further the unsupported overhang angle is given for 3 axis systems, on 5 axis engine integrations this does not apply, the same goes for integrations with milling machines.

Design Rules

Process

  • Meltio LMD-Wire
  • Meltio LMD-Powder
  • Selective Laser Melting
  • FFF Binder Metal
  • Binder Jetting Metal

Minimum hole diameter

  • 1.5mm
  • 1.2mm
  • 0.5mm
  • 1.5mm
  • 1.5mm

Minimum pin diameter

  • 4mm
  • 4mm
  • 1mm
  • 3mm
  • 0.8mm

Print Speed

  • 5-10
  • 2
  • 1
  • 0.5
  • 5

Supported wall minimum thickness

  • 1.2mm
  • 1mm
  • 0.4mm
  • 0.8mm
  • 2mm

Minimum slot width

  • 1.2mm
  • 1mm
  • 0.5mm
  • 1.2mm
  • 1.2mm

Maximum wall thickness

  • Not limited
  • Not limited
  • Not limited
  • 5mm
  • 8mm

Effective lot size

  • 1
  • 1
  • Must fill chamber
  • Must fill sintering oven
  • Must fill sintering oven and chamber

Unsupported wall minimum thickness

  • 1.2mm
  • 1mm
  • 0.5mm
  • 0.8mm
  • 3mm

Escape holes

  • Not required
  • 3mm
  • 3mm
  • Not required
  • 5mm

Tolerance

  • 0.3mm
  • 0.25mm
  • 0.1mm
  • 0.5mm
  • 0.2mm

Maximum density

  • >99.9%
  • >99.9%
  • >99.9%
  • <98%
  • <98%

Unsupported overhang

  • 55°
  • 60°
  • 45°
  • 45°
  • Unlimited

Minimum feature size

  • 2mm
  • 1.5mm
  • 0.6mm
  • 1.5mm
  • 0.5mm

Material Cost

  • low
  • Medium
  • High
  • Very High
  • High

Conclusion

Meltios LMD-WP Process offers a unique value proposition by combining good feature resolution and part complexity with the lowest part cost in the industry. The scalable nature of our process makes printing large components quick and cost effective with very good material properties.