XJet’s NanoParticle Jetting™ (NPJ™) is the proprietary additive manufacturing / 3D printing technology that builds high-precision parts in advanced technical ceramics or metal materials layer-by-layer using an approach similar to inkjet printing on paper. The key to NPJ™ starts with XJet’s exclusive liquid dispersion technology. Liquid suspensions containing solid nanoparticles of selected build and support materials are accurately jetted onto the build tray through high-precision print head nozzles. These liquid suspensions serve as the base materials for the XJet NPJ™ process, unlike most existing metal and ceramic AM/3DP technologies that utilize hazardous, comparably inefficient, and hard-to-handle powdered raw materials.
XJet’s NPJ™ technology offers an unprecedented level of accuracy, precision, and flexibility, enabling ceramics additive manufacturing / ceramics 3D printing of advanced technical ceramics parts with complex geometries and intricate internal details that are not achievable with any other ceramics manufacturing approach. Fully sintered advanced technical ceramics parts made with the XJet NPJ™ process have physical and material properties that are on par with or better than parts made with legacy ceramics manufacturing approaches. These exclusive NPJ™ capabilities enable a whole new level of design freedom in advanced technical ceramics that is well-suited for applications such as medical, aerospace, energy, electrical, automotive and many other demanding applications.
Marvel Medtech Advanced Manufacturing is one of the first companies in the US to adopt the XJet NPJ™ system for additive manufacturing / 3D printing of advanced technical ceramics. As an early adopter, Marvel Medtech Advanced Manufacturing has developed unique, proprietary insights, knowledge, and skill in using the XJet NPJ™ system. The unique capabilities of the XJet NPJ™ technology, and our expertise in using NanoParticle Jetting™ for advanced technical ceramics AM / 3DP, are available to you through our custom ceramics manufacturing services.
Benefits of NanoParticle Jetting Technology
The state-of-the-art benefits offered by the XJet NanoParticle Jetting™ technology arise from several features and advantages of the NPJ™ approach. With NPJ™, parts are additively manufactured layer-by-layer in ultra-thin (10 micrometer) layers. High-precision print heads featuring thousands of inkjet nozzles jet millions of fine droplets of ceramic and support ink onto the build tray in each pass of the print heads. This unique process provides highest dimensional precision and smallest feature size capability in parts that may have complex geometries and intricate internal details. Furthermore, the dispersion of solid nanoparticles of ceramic in the liquid ink suspension comprise a stochastic distribution of nanoparticle sizes. This creates a more efficient dense packing of ceramic particles onto the print tray as the liquid portion of the ink is evaporated away, resulting in final parts with extremely dense (99.9%) characteristics. High-precision jetting of the liquid ceramic and support material suspensions uses only the amount of raw materials required to build the part, virtually eliminating waste of costly raw materials. This also eliminates operator’s exposure to any hazardous powders when loading raw materials into the printer and minimizes overall exposure in the safe handling of the raw material inks. When the part printing completes, the water-soluble support material is dissolved-away in a controlled water bath, vastly simplifying the cleaning process and virtually eliminating post processing operations. After cleaning and drying, the green ceramic parts are sintered in the same way as typical / legacy-manufactured technical ceramic parts.
Why Choose XJet’s NanoParticle Jetting Technology for Advanced Technical Ceramics Applications
Our clients have leveraged XJet NanoParticle Jetting™ technology and Marvel Medtech Advanced Manufacturing’s NPJ™ expertise to realize new designs with complexity and intricate details that are enabling entirely new capabilities in advanced technical ceramics applications. In summary, the following features and benefits of XJet NanoParticle Jetting™ can offer you a competitive advantage.
- Design freedom: Additively manufacturing advanced technical ceramics parts layer-by-layer with high-precision NPJ™ enables design complexity that cannot be realized with legacy ceramics manufacturing approaches.
- Super fine part details: Enabled by high-precision print heads featuring thousands of inkjet nozzles jetting millions of fine droplets of ceramic and support ink onto the build tray in ultra-fine (10 micron) layers.
- High ceramic density: Dispersion of solid nanoparticles of ceramic in liquid suspension comprise a stochastic distribution of nanoparticle sizes, enabling a more efficient dense packing of jetted ceramic particles, resulting in final parts with extremely dense (99.9%) characteristics.
- Easy, safe, low-cost support removal: The support material used in the NPJ™ process is water-soluble and easily removed in a simple water bath following printing. No other post-processing is required before drying and sintering.
- Efficient raw material use: High-precision jetting of the liquid ceramic and support material suspensions uses only the amount of raw materials required to build the part, virtually eliminating waste of costly raw materials.
- Safe and efficient raw material handling: With liquid inks, operator’s exposure to any hazardous powders is eliminated, and handling of the raw material inks is safer.
Applications
The exclusive capabilities of XJet’s NanoParticle Jetting™ technology and Marvel Medtech Advanced Manufacturing’s NPJ™ advanced technical ceramics AM/3DP expertise are ideal for demanding applications in medical/healthcare, aerospace/defense, energy, electrical/electronics, automotive/transportation, consumer products and many other applications.
Please contact our team today with your questions on how the state-of-the-art NanoParticle Jetting™ AM/3DP technology can respond to your needs for advanced technical ceramics applications. Call us at 1-877-345-6261 or 1-608-688-0868, or complete our Contact Us form. You may also Request a Quote for Your Project to receive a secure file upload link.