Imaginarium/Technologies/Metal Additive Sheet 01 of 08

DMLS

metal, the smart way

Direct Metal Laser Sintering | Metal 3D Printing aka L-PBF or SLM

A high-powered laser fuses metal powder layer by layer, building fully dense, flight-grade parts straight from CAD, including the geometries you can’t machine or cast.

±0.2 - 0.4% / layer 30 microns Laser Recoater Metal powder Fused layer by layer LIGHTWEIGHT PARTS. geometry is free here.
Build envelope800 × 400 × 500 mm
Typical volumes1 to 500 parts
Tolerance±0.2 - 0.4 %
Lead time5 to 15 days
01 Why use it the good bits
  • Geometries you can’t machine: conformal cooling, internal lattices, topology-optimised brackets, all in one build.
  • Lightweight by 30–60% via lattices and part consolidation, a win for aerospace, motorsport, drones.
  • No tooling: CAD to certified metal in days, not months.
  • AS9100D and ISO 13485 certified; parts ship flight-grade and implant-grade.
  • Consolidate assemblies: replace welded or bolted multi-part stacks with one printed component.
  • Wrought-equivalent properties via full heat-treatment capability.
02 Ideal volumes how many?
  • 1–500 parts per batch is the sweet spot, where complex geometry pays for itself.
  • Best for high-value components where CNC is impossible or uneconomic.
  • Simple prismatic parts at high volume go to CNC or investment casting.
  • Larger components built by welding multiple DMLS sections together.

03 Materials

Pick your metal

click one, geek out.

Eight production alloys, qualified and in stock. Open a material for its typical properties, then download the datasheet as a PDF for your design review.

04 Post-processing & finishing aerospace and medical-grade finishes, in-house.
Stress relief Solution anneal + age Wire EDM support removal CNC finish to ±0.01 mm Bead blast Hand polish Mirror polish Anodise (Al) Passivation Laser mark + UDI
05 Quality control printed, finished, then interrogated.

Every DMLS part faces the lab before it ships. Seven ways we prove it, all in-house:

3D scanning inspectionevery surface, millions of points
CMM inspectionmicrons, on the record
Dynamic balancingsmooth at full rpm, no wobble
Radiographywe see straight through it
CT scanporosity has nowhere to hide
Dye penetrant testingcracks glow, literally
Mechanical testingbroken on purpose, so yours never is
The full labproof, in microns →
Take a break while the powder cools.

Proof not promises.

Pairs well with

CNC Machining every DMLS part we ship gets CNC finishing Explore → Post Processing the extra mile that matters Explore →

It hasn’t been done

which doesn’t mean it can’t be.

Let’s build something