XJet’s 17-4PH Stainless Steel Features High Tensile Strength, Hardness, Fatigue Resistance and Corrosion Resistance

XJet has added 17-4PH stainless steel to its portfolio of materials for metal and ceramic additive manufacturing (AM). The material offers high hardness and tensile strength, and is well suited for expanding industrial applications across a range of sectors, including medical devices and surgical instruments, aerospace and defense, oil and gas filtration, and high-precision tooling and manufacturing.

The company says the 17-4PH solution enables a rapid production process with a new soluble support material, based on XJet’s proprietary NanoParticle Jetting (NPJ) technology. The new support material maximizes the freedom of design and dramatically shortens the automated end-to-end manufacturing process of metal 3D parts, while further improving NPJ’s leading surface roughness and accuracy.

With XJet’s rapid three-step process: Print-Wash-Sinter, and the accuracy and smooth surfaces delivered by XJet NPJ technology, postprocessing requirements are an absolute minimum, shortening the manufacturing lead time to just weeks.

“The time and labor savings gained with XJet technology cannot be understated,” says XJet CBO Andy Middleton. “And that’s due to the minimal postprocessing requirement. With the new solution for 17-4PH, support materials can be removed in down to six hours — a stark contrast to other AM processes.”

The material properties of XJet 17-4PH stainless steel — high tensile strength, hardness, fatigue resistance and corrosion resistance — in combination with accuracy to 50 microns with NPJ technology, can unlock new possibilities for innovation and drive new applications.

“Another radical advantage of XJet’s new offer is its ability to create complex inner cavities that no other technology, additive or otherwise, can achieve,” Middleton adds. “This innovation enables preassembly —particularly useful for a lot of medical device applications — and offers true design freedom. Where part assemblies are too demanding and time consuming for traditional technologies, XJet is the answer.”

It is said XJet materials stand out for their exceptional quality, establishing pioneering standards in AM for density and fidelity to the original material.

“17-4PH enables us to effectively collaborate with industry leaders to produce cutting-edge end-use parts at unique designs, quality and speeds that their respective industries will not have seen before,” Middleton says. “By increasing our customers’ potential, we aim to reshape the way each industry approaches the manufacturing of complex pieces.”