We’re pleased to announce that after a successful bidding process last academic year we now have an exciting new type 3D Printer that uses selective laser sintering or SLS printing technology: The Fuse+ 30W.  

This type of 3D printing is a leading additive manufacturing technology that uses a high-powered laser to fuse small particles of powdered material together. The resulting fused powder forms your 3d print whilst the surrounding unfused powder is recycled back into the system. This circulation process is managed by the Fuse Sift station where excess powder is mixed with new before being added back into the printer as part of its own ecosystem. 

Our machine will exclusively use a grey powdered material called ‘Nylon 12’ which is known for its strength and durability, making it suitable for various applications in your model making projects.

The printable build area is 155mm(L) x 155mm(W) x 300mm(H).  

The process of creating SLS 3D parts first involves creating a suitable STL digital file that you will need to discuss with a member of B.15 staff. If accepted, your job will be priced up and added to the queue. Once your print has completed, the process requires a cool down period of around 6 hours before we can manually post-process it by removing all of the unfused powder.

Post-Processing – Cleaning excess powder from prints.

Depending on your design, you may have to contribute to this process. If this is the case or you would like to learn how it’s done, then we will provide instruction on how to do it.  

With this type of technology, it is more efficient and sustainable to group files together and because of this we will be trialling a workflow by running the machine once a week. This will initially be on a Thursday to run overnight and be ready to postprocess from Friday. If demand increases this will be extended to also include another day earlier in the week. Files need to be approved for this process no later than 1pm on Thursdays to have a chance of going on later that day. Post processing can be completed from Friday. 

Should you wish to find out more about this printer or about how it might be used as part of your project, drop in and speak to a member of B15 staff and we’ll happily discuss your project requirements.  

See you soon – Lara