Metal Sintering

Introduction

Metal sintering is a useful process that can be applied in conjunction with 3D printing of plastic filament. Metal powders embedded in plastic filament can be used in regular 3D printers. It is relatively straightforward to embed 80% of metal powders in plastic filamnet. Powder Metallurgy Research indicates that with 20 percent viod space, the sintered metal still retains 50 percent of it's tensile strength. Thus, sintered stainless steel for example would still have 30 ksi strength with 20% voids. 30 ksi is useful for many applications - and thus metal 3d printing using standard FDM printers is around the corner as a mainstream technology.