Design guidelines for metal binder jetting

Abstract

In addition to the general advantages of additive manufacturing technologies, such as the resource-efficient production of highly complex components, the metal binder jetting (MBJ) process enables a more cost-effective manufacturing of metal additive components. However, the design freedoms gained by additive manufacturing, and MBJ in particular, are also accompanied by new design restrictions for component design. While a large number of design guidelines are already available for the established additive manufacturing processes, the metal binder jetting process imposes additional requirements on component design, which are currently only inadequately covered in the literature. Therefore, this paper presents the development and derivation of first design rules for the metal binder jetting process using martensitic stainless steel (17–4 PH). In this way, the paper also provides a methodology for deriving guidelines regardless of the material. In total, 13 guidelines have emerged from this, which in part both confirm existing guidelines, but also extend them.