IÐAN Education Centre visited the Technology Centre with mechanical engineer Dagur Ingi Ólafsson, who shows the printing space at the Technology Centre, goes over the possibilities of the metal 3D printer, and gives examples of things that can be printed.
The Technology Center is a research laboratory and support environment for entrepreneurs. The Technology Center has various types of equipment and infrastructure, for example, a metal 3D printer that is useful for people in innovation, whether they are independent entrepreneurs or corporate entrepreneurs. The metal 3D printer is based on a technology called selective laser melting. It is possible to print from various metals, but so far, the main materials used have been stainless steel and aluminum with 10% silicon.
The printer uses metal powder and a laser beam. The laser beam melts one layer of metal powder at a time to build up a three-dimensional object. The program used to design the object is called Materialise Magics, and Dagur Ingi prints several objects to demonstrate its functionality: a gear wheel, components for a gear wheel, a Lego brick, and a Duplo brick.