Creating amazing products of plastic and othermaterials by engineers and designers has become quite a rage in the world of 3Dprinting. Many designers use 3D printers for printing plastic parts for thepurpose of prototyping or low-volume productions. However, now, a quantum leaphas been established in 3D metal printing. It is possible to create amazingpieces of work in metal.

In fact, metal 3D printing is going beyond theregular plastic 3D printing in some cases. Designers and engineers are keen toadopt this technology for creating new masterpieces. As a matter of fact, ithas started getting professional response from big names. To make it simple,metal 3D printing is nothing but a term that is used for metal-based additivemanufacturing process. It is either Selective Laser Melting (SLM) or DirectMetal Laser Sintering (DMLS). 

Difference between regular metal designing andmetal 3D printing:

Regular metal fabrication needs stamping orremoving metals for creating the desired design. On the other hand, metal 3Dprinting creates objects by  buildingeach layer by fusing material together using a programmed laser. It actuallydraws each layer’s shape till the object is completely produced.

The best part about using 3D printing technologyfor metals is that if it is used with powerful tools for designing thenextremely efficient and lightweight products can be made. Besides this, theseproducts can have better functionality as each part will have detailed workdone by the 3D printer.

An excellent example can be found with NASA andElon Musk’s Space X who completely accepted metal 3D printing for creatingparts of rocket ships. This has not only benefitted them in terms of design andengineering but has also helped in reducing costs.

Nasa was successful in creating a turbopump which goes in their rocketengine using forty-five percent lesser parts than the regular manufacturingprocess.