Levelling Up 3D Printing
How Particle Coating is Transforming Additive Manufacturing
Additive Manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, has revolutionized design freedom, but its greatest challenge lies in the quality and consistency of its raw material: the powder feedstock. The reliability of a final 3D-printed part—its strength, density, and finish—is entirely dependent on how the powder behaves before and during the printing process.
At LAYRR, we're not just coating parts; we're fundamentally improving the feedstock itself. By leveraging our precision coating methods, like magnetron sputtering, we can create designer composite powders that solve the biggest pain points in metal and polymer 3D printing.
This capability is moving AM from a prototyping tool to a robust, industrial manufacturing platform.
The Two Critical Impacts of Particle Coating on AM
Our precision coating methods impact additive manufacturing across the entire workflow, from the moment the powder is poured to the final properties of the printed part.
1. Enhanced Processability: Making the Powder Print Better
The single biggest operational challenge in powder bed fusion (like Selective Laser Sintering or Laser Powder Bed Fusion) is powder flowability. Fine metal and polymer powders are naturally cohesive—they stick together due to powerful van der Waals forces. This leads to problems like:
Uneven Layers: Poor flow results in inconsistent layers, creating voids and porosity in the final part.
Poor Packing: Low bulk density in the powder bed limits the final part density and strength.
The Coating Solution: Nano-Scale Flow Aids
We apply a nanoscale coating onto the surface of the larger host powder particles. This is where the magic happens:
Reduced Cohesion: The coating acts as a spacer and a nanoscopic ball bearing. It physically separates the micro-sized host particles, drastically reducing the strong inter-particle adhesion forces.
Improved Flow: The coated powder flows smoothly and evenly, allowing the printer's recoater blade to spread uniform layers. This immediately translates to a denser, more consistent powder bed and, consequently, a higher-quality final part.
2. Functionalised Material: Making the Part Perform Better
Coating the feedstock goes beyond just making the process smoother; it allows us to engineer new functionalities directly into the core material.
| AM Challenge | LAYRR Coating Solution | Final Part Improvement |
|---|---|---|
| Laser Absorption | Apply a dark ceramic or carbon shell onto highly reflective metals (like Copper or pure Aluminum). | Enables high-reflectivity metals to be 3D printed efficiently using standard, lower-power lasers, which was previously impossible. |
| Microstructure & Strength | Apply nanoparticle strengthening phases (e.g., specific carbides or nitrides) to the metal powder surface. | These particles melt and re-solidify during printing, acting as grain-refiners. This prevents large grain growth, resulting in finer grain structures and dramatically increased strength, hardness, and wear resistance (known as dispersion strengthening). |
| Oxidation & Reuse | Apply an ultra-thin, dense protective oxide coating (e.g., Al2O3 or TiO2) to reactive metal powders (like Titanium or Aluminum). | Suppresses oxidation during printing and subsequent powder reuse, ensuring material purity and reducing the formation of brittle oxide inclusions that would otherwise compromise part integrity. |
| Multi-Material Composites | Coat a ceramic powder core with a metal shell or vice-versa. | Creates complex, integrated metal-matrix composites with exceptional localized properties, such as a material that is conductive on the outside but insulating on the inside. |
What LAYRR Can Do for Your AM Program
By utilising precision techniques like magnetron sputtering in “The STORM”, LAYRR moves past simple powder mixing to achieve conformal, atomic-level control over particle surfaces.
This means we can engineer feedstock for virtually any demanding AM application:
Aerospace: Create high-strength, low-weight metal parts with built-in thermal resistance via coated alloys.
Electronics: Produce pure copper components for heat sinks and antennas with enhanced laser absorption, overcoming the reflectivity challenge.
Biomedical: Develop custom bio-active or anti-microbial surfaces by coating Titanium powders used for implants.
The future of Additive Manufacturing is not just about complex geometries, but about designer materials. By controlling the surface of every single powder particle, LAYRR is giving engineers and scientists the tools to create materials that are not only printable, but fundamentally better.
