Desktop Metal Upgrades Live Sinter™ Software

Desktop Metal Announces Upgrades to its Popular Live Sinter™ Software, a Powerful Multi-Physics Simulation Tool that Delivers Trusted Results

Desktop Metal, Inc. (NYSE: DM), a global leader in additive manufacturing technologies for mass production, recently announced significant updates to Live Sinter — a powerful multi-physics sinter simulation software application that automates the generation of sinter-ready, printable geometries, as well as supports, setters, and inserts, to make repeatable, volume production of high-precision end-use metal parts through binder jetting more accessible.

Launched in the fall of 2020, Live Sinter is now trusted by users at more than a hundred companies globally, and the software is a key enabler of Desktop Metal’s AM 2.0 binder jetting solutions, making them easier to adopt and ramp to production for customers without any prior powder metallurgy or sintering expertise.

Live Sinter’s powerful multi-physics simulation and compensation software delivers sinter-ready, printable geometries that maintain tight shape and dimensional tolerances. After scan-based adjustments, Live Sinter enables correcting for complex distortion effects, yielding parts that consistently fall well within 1% of target dimension with as low as +/- 0.3% deviation, avoiding distortion, warping, and other common sintering challenges, as well as the cost and time associated with supports or setters.

“Within the field of sinter-based additive manufacturing, Live Sinter stands alone for its ease of use and functionality,” said Ric Fulop, Founder and CEO of Desktop Metal. “No other solution offered today combines our powerful, rapid multi-physics simulation with scan-based adjustments and automated support and setter generation. Customers continue to report their absolute delight with this tool to us, and we look forward to continuing to invest in advancing Live Sinter to make sinter-based manufacturing accessible to an ever wider audience, including metal injection molding customers.”

A Key to Metal Printing Success

Live Sinter is a critical companion to Desktop Metal’s portfolio of metal binder jetting systems, which produce parts that must be sintered in a furnace to fuse the particles into a high-density material.

Desktop Metal offers the broadest portfolio of metal binder jetting systems, including the Shop System, X-Series and Production System P-1 and P-50. Several of these systems include Desktop Metal’s furnace, which simplifies and reduces costs associated with the sintering process across a range of geometries and materials for businesses new to binder jetting. The Company’s printers support processing 30 metals across volume production, specific customer applications, or research and development. Learn more at https://www.desktopmetal.com/materials.

The Shop System is now the world’s best-selling metal binder jet printer, and Live Sinter has been a critical component of that turnkey printer’s ease of use and success.

“One of my biggest worries investing in this technology was the furnace and the frustration of failing that far into the process during sintering. Using Live Sinter, I’m blown away at our success with the sintering furnace,” said Neil Glazebrook, Vice President of 3D Solutions at ABCorp in Boston. His company invested in a Shop System and Desktop Metal Furnace in 2021 for the production of 17-4PH stainless steel parts. The company had no prior sintering experience. “I don’t have to use sintering supports anymore, so I don’t have to charge for supports. I use Live Sinter for everything, and it makes it more competitive.”

“We’ve found Live Sinter to be an extremely valuable tool for FreeFORM. The ability to print, scan, adjust, reprint, etcetera, has reduced our lead time by helping us yield product in spec faster than a traditional trial and error loop. The ability of the software to predictively deform products prior to first manufacturing or to take first-off parts and make adjustments have resulted in our customers getting to market faster with product so they can move on to their next development,” said Chris Aiello, Co-Founder, FreeFORM Technologies of St. Marys, Pennsylvania. FreeFORM owns three Shop System printers, as well as a Production System P-1 and an InnoventX.

Sean Harkins, President, AmPd Labs, in Houston, Texas, owns a Shop System and says Live Sinter is an essential part of his company’s success with it. “We use it all the time now, and it’s a dramatic change. We simulate, print, scan and reprint and it comes out perfect,” he said.

To learn more about Live Sinter, visit https://www.desktopmetal.com/products/livesinter