GREG PAULSEN, Director of Applications Engineering at Xometry

How to Design
for 3D Printing
with DMSL
As 3D printing metals are on the rise, understanding the processes becomes more
valuable.

A
dditive manufacturing is Laser

a process that adds mate- Optics and mirrors

rial, usually on a layer-to-
layer basis, to make a 3D Roller
object based off the interpretation of
3D computer-aided-design (CAD) data.
Additive manufacturing is also called 3D Supply powder Removable build plate
printing or rapid prototyping.
Supply piston
Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) Sintering piston
is an additive manufacturing method
that builds prototype and production
metal parts using a laser to selectively
fuse a fine metal powder. This image shows the main components of a DMLS 3D printer.
Traditional manufacturing techniques
remove material from a piece of stock fully sintered.
to create the desired geometry. Additive manufacturing is Step 6: Part Removal: Sinter piston rises up, allowing the
capable of producing highly complex features and all-in-one build plate to be removed.
assemblies that would be difficult to achieve with subtractive
manufacturing techniques. USES
DMLS creates fully functional parts out of metals such as
STEP BY STEP cobalt chrome, ctainless steel, titanium, Inconel, and many
Step 1: Material Feed: Supply piston moves upward, placing others. The typical users of DMLS fall under these needs:
powder in front of the roller. • Fast turnaround—DMLS parts are often produced in one
Step 2: Adding a Layer: Roller moves across supply piston, to three days.
delivering powder to the sintering piston. • High complexity—Difficult-to-machine parts, custom
Step 3: Sintering: Laser sinters the cross section of each part medical pieces, hollowed or lightweight parts, and artistic
being built. pieces fall in this category.
Step 4: Piston Movement: Sinter piston moves down the • Rapid or continuous revisions—Product development
thickness of one layer. efforts and iterative designs are well-suited to DMLS because
Step 5: Layering: The process is repeated until the parts are there are no setup costs as in traditional manufacturing.

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PART COMPLEXITY
A key advantage of DMLS is the abil-
ity to produce parts that cannot be made
using traditional manufacturing tech-
niques. Manufacturing with DMLS can
be advantageous if engineers design
parts with complex geometries, such as
integrated fastening features, long and
narrow channels, custom contours, and
metal mesh structures. DMLS allows for
production of assemblies in single-part
form reducing number of parts, assembly
time, and opportunity for failures. A geometrically complex DMLS part.
In specialized applications, the weight
of the part is an important criterion of the LIMITED BUILD SIZE
design. Using subtractive processes for manufacturing of met- DMLS machines come in various build platform sizes. Two
al mesh or weight-reduced parts will dramatically increase the of the more popular build platforms are 4 in. × 4 in. × 3 in. and
manufacturing time and cost due to the amount of material 10 in. × 10 in. × 12 in. While these build sizes are large enough
removed. DMLS is an optimal process for these parts as both to build a wide array of parts, larger parts (often the ones made
manufacturing time and cost are reduced as volume decreases. in lower quantities) are still not able to fit within the build
envelope.
SPEED DMLS, being a 3D-printing process, is falsely associated
Speed is an important aspect of the design and manufactur- with the simplicity implied from other 3D-printing processes.
ing process. Both the quality of the product and the overall Preparation of the design before being sent to the DMLS
time to market are driven by the ability to produce physical machine and the post processing afterwards can be time con-
models in a timely manner for fit and function tests, peer suming. All modern manufacturing processes have before and
review, and market feedback. after steps. CNC, for example, requires the programming of
Here, additive technologies allow for faster and more effi- tool paths, machine setup, cutting and grinding, then polish-
cient concept review and prototyping. Thus, DMLS parts ing and de-burring afterwards.
are commonly used during pre-launch activities for product Prior to being sent to the DMLS machine, part support
testing, whereas the final product is made with a tool (i.e., die structures are designed and built. This step may take up to an
casting, metal injection molding, sand casting). DMLS parts hour and may determine success or failure the job.
are commonly used to validate designs as part of final product DMLS post processing consists of:
quality assurance as well as stand in for parts early in product 1. Removing the part(s) from the build plate with a band
life. saw, wire EDM, or handheld rotary cutoff tool.
DMLS parts do not require tooling (e.g., molds, jigs, fix- 2. The support structures are then removed from the part
tures, gauges, etc.), which reduces initial part manufacturing using hand tools or CNC machining.
lead time from months to days. Thus, additive technologies 3. Other optional finishing steps:
such as DMLS present a tremendous value for product cus- a. Polishing
tomization and change by offering ways to create short-run, b. Grinding
customized products without incurring expensive tooling c. Machining—turning, milling, facing, tapping
changes. d. Heat treatment

HIGH VOLUMES SUPPORT STRUCTURES

When considering a manufacturing technique, some of DMLS parts need support structures for:
the factors to consider are lifetime volume and the ability to • Anchoring the part to the build plate
make changes to the part. If a part design is stable, unchanged • Reducing or eliminating warping
throughout its lifetime, and the quantities are high, traditional • Supporting overhanging geometry
manufacturing processes are less expensive. This is especially Unlike other laser and powder based additive technologies,
true for simple designs that cannot benefit from the geometric DMLS parts move around in the build envelope if not properly
complexities that DMLS is capable of producing. secured to the build platform. Movement of the part occurs
from the act of spreading a new layer of powder over the previ-

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 Fill Lattice

Offset Gusset

ously sintered layer or larger cross sections of the metal part DISTANCE BETWEEN FEATURES
warping during the sintering process. Movement of the part During the DMLS process the laser creates a melt pool that
during the build will cause failures in part accuracy and could is slightly wider than the laser diameter from heat dissipating
potentially lead to machine crashes. into the surrounding powder. This will cause features that are
A further reason support structures are required is to sup- close to each other to bond together or create a section of sin-
port overhanging geometry because the spreading would tered powder that cannot be removed from between sintered
move unsupported overhands. Examples of these types of areas in the part. Distance between features should be at least
geometry are horizontal surfaces, large holes in the horizontal 0.4-0.5mm to adequately remove powder and allow for part
access, angled surfaces, arches, and overhangs. movement.
Note: Several methods are employed to support overhang-
ing geometry. Depending on the part and surrounding fea- ACCURACY
tures, each method has its positives and negatives. Positive features hold an accuracy of 20-150μm without any
Force from the roller may cause tall, narrow parts to shift post processing. Negative features, such as holes smaller than
in the build. Support structures prevent parts from shifting in 50mm, will typically be slightly undersized by 100- 150μm.
the build. Overhang geometry may require support structures Surface finish will vary from material to material, however
to successfully build using DMLS: Horizontal surfaces, angled an unfinished part will have a surface finish of μm RA from
surfaces <30 deg., arches, and overhangs, large holes on the 2-5.
horizontal axis. How to Use this Information to Influence Your Designs:
The quoted price of parts is heavily influenced by factors
PART STRENGTH DURING THE BUILD such as support structure design and removal of support.
During the build process, parts are subjected to forces from Therefore, minimizing the amount of support structure
spreading and compacting of new layers. Tall, thin parts are required will decrease design time, build time, and post pro-
susceptible to these lateral forces, causing inaccuracy in the parts’ cessing required.
features due to improper design or lack of support structures. The best way to accomplish this is to make the geometry as
self-supporting as possible:
LOAD-BEARING FEATURES • Design angles to be ≥ 30 deg.
Load-bearing part features require further guidelines for • Utilize chamfers and fillets on corners and features
height to cross-sectional ratios to ensure feature integrity not • Implement features for weight and volume reduction
presented in this article. Generally, as the height of the feature
increases, so does the wall thickness.

3 MACHINEDESIGN.COM
 Example #1:

Add chamfers or fillets to overhanging geometry to make it self-

supporting.

In this example the flanges toward the top of the part will
cause a problem. The bottom-facing surface of the flange will
require some form of support. Adding a chamfer or a fillet to the
overhanging geometry makes it self-supporting.
Example #2:

Angles <30 deg.: non-self-supporting, while angles 30 deg. to 45

deg. are self-supporting with rough surface finish.

In this example the sloping angle of geometry is changed,

making it self-supporting. Note that angles from 30 deg. to 45
deg. will self-support with some surface roughness and angles
>45 deg. will have a smoother surface finish.
Example #3:

Reduce mass built in DMLS to reduce cost.

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 The price of DMLS parts is heavily influenced by build time
and the amount of material being used.
The surface area to volume ratio of a part plays a large role
in determining the quoted price of a given part. A part with
reduced mass allows for a lower price because it takes less time
to build, uses less material, and has a higher success rate of
being produced correctly the first time.
As the volume of a part is decreased, either by redesign or by
using another manufacturing process to create the geometry,
the overall part price will go down significantly. In this exam-
ple the important features of a mold are built using DMLS and
the surrounding material is milled to save on overall assembly
cost.
Example #4:

Examples of self-supporting features.

Reduce mass and volume by using self-supporting features

in the vertical axis.

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