A company developing a ‘production-grade’ liquid metal printing process has emerged from stealth with 5.5 million USD in funding.
Led by former Desktop Metal Chief Engineer Peter Schmitt, Fluent Metal is bringing to market a ‘drop-on-demand’ approach that is compatible with most metals and is said to enable the printing of parts in a single-step process. Fluent Metal says this process therefore minimises variability, while also promising scalability and energy efficiency.
The company says that while existing metal additive manufacturing technology has ‘come to accept the extensive industrial scale overhead required to operate the equipment safely,’ its inkjet printer-like approach offers a lean overhead process that will ‘make it more sustainable, operationally efficient and functional.’
In announcing its entry to market, Fluent Metal has so far explained its drop-on-demand inkjet printer-like approach uses wire as the starting material, enabling ‘true multi-metal printing’ that can address complex shapes while using less energy than powder-based technologies. With this process, Fluent Metals says it is possible for high-value metals to be intricately combined, enabling, for example, fully enclosed voids and internal channels. The company has also designed the technology to be safe to operate on typical manufacturing floors and in prototyping shops without the need for clean rooms or ‘expensive’ safety measures. It has also placed a focus on simplifying material changeover to reduce set-up efforts and increase machine uptimes.
“Drop-on-demand technology is an elegant approach to create complex metal components,” commented Schmitt, CEO of Fluent Metal. “Whether it’s prototype iterations of an idea or production runs of a single part, Fluent Metal will provide customers with great operational and material flexibility. This freedom will unlock new creativity and problem solving abilities across industries.”
“As the manufacturing industry evolves in response to the changing needs of global supply chains and sustainability demands, we need novel approaches to drive creativity and expand our collective conception about what’s possible,” added Philip Liang, Managing Partner, E15. “In the near term, Fluent Metal will spark the imagination of designers, engineers, and technologists to consider how rapid, on-demand production of custom metal parts could transform their capabilities. At scale, this approach will revolutionise the entire footprint and direction of industrial manufacturing.”
