Multiphase jet solidification -MJS-. A new rapid prototyping process for metal and ceramic parts

Changing requirements in the production industry have lead to a higher demand of prototypes during the last years. This demand was not fully satisfied by the Rapid Prototyping (RP) systems which are commercially available. The reason is that the existing Rapid Prototyping technologies use only plastics, paper or waxes. Two Institutes ot the Fraunhofer society, the Institute for Applied Materials Research (IFAM) and the Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) started activities in RP more than two years ago. One aim of the research was to find a RP technique which allows the production of prototypes with different materials like plastics, ceramics and metals. During these activities different possibilities for the generative production of prototypes have been examined and evaluated. Tests have been done on agglutination of metallic sheets and sintering of powder by an electron beam. According to our experiences we found a working-principle which we name "Multiphase Jet Solidification (MJS)" best suited for these purposes. The first apparatus was assembled and tested at IFAM. Prototypes out of metals and ceramics parts were produced.