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Crius.Co

Desktop Metal PBF for On-Demand Production

Cover Image for Desktop Metal PBF for On-Demand Production
ÆTHERFRAME by CriusCo
ÆTHERFRAME by CriusCo

Forging Futures on Your Bench: Desktop Metal PBF for On-Demand Production

Metal powder-bed fusion (PBF) has long stood as the pinnacle of additive manufacturing for high-performance industries-unlocking complex geometries, conformal cooling channels, and bespoke alloys that were once impossible with subtractive methods. Yet until now, achieving true selective laser melting (SLM) meant investing in multi-million-dollar, factory-scale machines housed in dedicated powder rooms, run by specialized operators.

Our desktop Metal PBF printer shatters these conventions, delivering full-density stainless steel, titanium, Inconel, and maraging steel parts from a compact benchtop unit. By rethinking every subsystem for safety, purity, and precision, we’ve created a turnkey solution that fits under a fume hood or on a shop-floor cart-empowering engineers, designers, and educators to prototype, iterate, and even produce small runs of certified metal parts on demand.

1. Introduction: Miniaturizing Industrial Power

Since the first metal PBF patent in the early 1990s, printer sizes have ballooned to accommodate high-power lasers, inert-gas infrastructure, and extensive post-processing. These machines deliver outstanding mechanical properties-density above 99.9%, tensile strengths rivaling wrought alloys, and microstructures tunable through heat treatment-but their footprint and overhead have kept them out of reach for many.

The desktop Metal PBF changes the calculus:

  • Accessibility: No dedicated powder room, ventilation ducting, or three-phase power.
  • Affordability: Up to 70% reduction in total cost of ownership compared to entry-level industrial units.
  • Agility: From CAD to part in under 24 hours, even for complex lattice structures and internal channels.
  • Scalability: Operate a single machine in your lab or deploy a fleet for rapid small-batch production.

By democratizing metal PBF, we’re collapsing supply chains, accelerating R&D cycles, and igniting a new wave of innovation-right on your desk.

2. Core Engineering Breakthroughs

Achieving industrial-grade metal PBF in a sub-1 m² footprint required reimagining lasers, gas handling, powder workflows, and sensing:

High-Peak Power Fiber Laser & Scanhead

  • 300 W Fiber Laser: Custom-tuned beam profile ensures uniform energy distribution, enabling melt pools with minimal spatter and consistent layer fusion.
  • Dual-Galvo Module: Air-bearing scanner with active vibration damping achieves scan speeds up to 10 m/s and micron-level positional accuracy.

Integrated Inert-Gas Micro-Recirculation

  • Sealed Build Chamber: Maintains oxygen levels below 0.02% using a miniature recirculation loop-no full-room enclosure needed.
  • Micro-Filtration Cartridges: Capture sub-micron particulates and dew point sensors ensure powder and part purity throughout prints.

Automated Powder Delivery & Sieving

  • Auger-Feed Cartridges: Programmable flow rates meter fresh powder into the recoater in real time, maintaining consistent layer thickness.
  • On-Board Sieving: Reclaims agglomerates and removes dust in situ, enabling multi-day unattended builds with fresh, uniform powder each layer.

Real-Time Melt-Pool Monitoring & AI

  • Dual IR Cameras & Photodiodes: Track melt-pool size, keyhole thresholds, and thermal gradients on every hatch pass.
  • Adaptive Control Algorithms: Machine-learning models adjust laser power, scan speed, and hatch spacing on the fly-automatically compensating for powder batch variation or environmental drift.

Thermal-Zone Management

  • Zoned Pre-Heating Panels: Rapidly bring the powder bed to 200–250 °C to minimize residual stresses and warping in high-alloy materials.
  • Embedded Cooling Channels: Active cooling beneath the build plate accelerates part release and shortens cycle times by up to 40%.

3. Performance & Precision in a Compact Workspace

Despite its benchtop footprint, the desktop Metal PBF delivers metrics comparable to much larger systems:

  • Build Envelope: 100 × 100 × 100 mm-perfect for functional prototypes, tooling inserts, and end-use brackets.
  • Feature Fidelity: 100 µm minimum wall thickness and 0.3 mm hole diameters, supporting fine geometries and integrated lattices.
  • Part Density: ≥ 99.8% of theoretical density, validated by CT scanning and metallographic analysis.
  • Dimensional Repeatability: ± 10 µm over 100 mm spans, ensuring interchangeability and tight-tolerance assemblies.
  • Power Requirements: Single-phase 230 V outlet at < 3 kW peak draw-no specialty wiring or heavy infrastructure.

Engineered for R&D labs, innovation hubs, and advanced manufacturing cells alike, it requires only 0.8 m² of floor space and leverages filtered exhaust to eliminate external ductwork.

4. Applications & Impact

Our customers are already transforming workflows across sectors:

  • Aerospace & Defense
    Rapid iteration of titanium heat-exchanger manifolds and Inconel thrust subcomponents-validating flow paths and thermal performance in-house within days.

  • Medical Device Innovation
    On-demand production of patient-specific stainless steel surgical guides, bone plates, and implant prototypes-streamlining design validation and regulatory pathways.

  • Precision Tooling & Molds
    Conformal-cooled maraging steel cores and inserts for injection molding and die casting-unlocking geometries unreachable by EDM or CNC and slashing cycle times.

  • Automotive R&D
    Lightweight aluminum AlSi10Mg brackets and sensor mounts for rapid vehicle prototyping-reducing hours of machine shop time to minutes on the bench.

  • Heritage & Artisanal Restoration
    Custom stainless steel fixtures and jewelry elements for conservation labs-enabling faithful reproduction of historical artifacts with minimal lead time.

Each use case highlights the shift from waiting weeks for parts to iterating design changes overnight-fueling faster product launches, responsive maintenance, and ground-breaking research.

5. End-to-End Digital Workflow

A powerful printer deserves an equally robust software ecosystem:

  • Seamless CAD Integration
    Native plugins for Siemens NX, Solid Edge, CATIA, and Fusion 360 automate support generation, build orientation, and part nesting-right inside familiar design tools.

  • Secure Job Management & Traceability
    Encrypted build files, user-permission layers, and immutable audit logs capture every parameter-from laser power curves to gas composition-for full compliance in regulated industries.

  • Cloud-Connected Monitoring & Analytics
    Real-time dashboards stream melt-pool imagery, thermal profiles, and build progress. Mobile push notifications keep teams informed, and remote-access capabilities let specialists troubleshoot from anywhere.

  • Automated Post-Processing Queues
    Integrate robotic depowdering, stress-relief ovens, and CNC finishing stations into a single digital thread-automatically triggering downstream workflows upon build completion.

  • Data-Driven Optimization
    Centralized analytics portal aggregates build metrics across your fleet-identifying process drifts, material performance trends, and maintenance windows to continually refine throughput and quality.

6. Materials & Process Flexibility

Our platform supports a growing library of pre-qualified and custom powders:

  • 316L Stainless Steel: Corrosion-resistant, versatile for fixtures and tooling.
  • Ti6Al4V Titanium: Lightweight, biocompatible, and high-strength for aerospace and medical.
  • Inconel 718: High-temperature superalloy for heat exchangers and engine components.
  • Maraging Steel: Ultrahigh-strength tooling and molds with superior toughness.
  • AlSi10Mg Aluminum: Thermally conductive, low-weight parts for heat sinks and housings.

Advanced users can develop proprietary alloys or mixed-matrix powders-leveraging the automated sieving and cartridge system to graduate novel materials from lab-scale trials to production-ready workflows.

7. Roadmap: The Next Horizon

We’re committed to continuous evolution, with major upgrades on the horizon:

  • Multi-Laser Synchronization
    Parallel laser heads to double effective throughput without expanding the footprint-ideal for higher-volume R&D cells.

  • Hybrid Deposition Modules
    Optional heads for binder-jetting, directed-energy deposition, or polymer co-printing-enabling functional graded materials and multi-material assemblies.

  • Edge AI Defect Prediction
    On-device deep-learning models trained on global fleet data to flag potential build anomalies before a single layer is laid.

  • Open API & Developer Ecosystem
    SDKs for custom process scripts, plug-in sensor modules, and integration with ERP/MES platforms-empowering partners and power users to tailor workflows.

  • Global Service & Certification
    Expanding our network of certified application labs, training centers, and retrofit upgrade paths to ensure peak performance wherever you are.

Through platform upgrades, material expansions, and community collaboration, our desktop Metal PBF remains a living system-growing in capability as you push its limits.

A Message from Our Founder

When I first encountered large metal PBF machines, I was awestruck by their capabilities-and daunted by the sheer scale and complexity. I dreamed of unlocking that power for every engineer, designer, and researcher without the burden of a factory footprint or specialist infrastructure.

This desktop Metal PBF printer is the culmination of that vision. It embodies our belief that true innovation happens when barriers fall away-when you can conceive, print, test, and refine metal components as ideas emerge. It’s not just a machine; it’s a catalyst for accelerating progress, fostering creativity, and forging solutions that today’s challenges demand.

Collin Baldrica
Founder & CEO, CriusCo