Steel – 3D Printing Material
Steel – 3D Printing Material
Material Info
About
Steel is an affordable and strong metal that is well-suited for consumer products both small and large with an industrial look and feel. It’s printed using a binder jetting process and is later infused with bronze, creating a material that is 60% steel and 40% bronze and can range in color from a silver gray to reddish bronze. It is strong enough for metal parts like bottle openers and dice, but is not recommended for industrial load bearing applications. More information about this material can be found in our Help Center.
Color & Finishes
Bronze
Bronzed-Silver
Black
Unpolished for a rough surface and matte finish.
Parts are polished until shiny and smooth. Note: Internal detail can not be polished, well-reachable surfaces will be polished therefore tight internal spaces may remain unpolished. Products larger than 150 x 150 x 150 mm and products with particularly thin features or details will undergo bead blasting instead of the regular polishing process in order to avoid breakage. This may lead to a rougher and less consistent finish than usual.
Technology
- Binder Jetting
Technical Documents
Material Properties
Description
Design Guidelines
Bounding Box
Maximum Bounding Box
762 × 393 × 393 mm (Bronzed-Silver, Bronze, Black)
152 × 152 × 76 mm (Polished)
178 × 178 × 178 mm (Plated)
Minimum Bounding Box
6 × 6 × 3 mm
The bounding box is a 3D imaginary outline of a box that encloses the smallest area occupied by your model. Your model must be within the minimum and maximum bounding box sizes. If the size of the model is close to the maximum bounding box, then the printing orientation will be restricted.
Walls
3 to 75 mm = 1.0 mm
75 to 150 mm = 1.5 mm
150 to 200 mm = 2.0 mm
200 to 300 mm = 3.0 mm
Model’s Longest Dimension:
3 to 75 mm = 1.0 mm
75 to 150 mm = 1.5 mm
150 to 200 mm = 2.0 mm
200 to 300 mm = 3.0 mm
A supported wall is connected at least on two sides of the wall, while an unsupported wall is connected only on one side of the wall. Walls that do not meet the minimum requirements may not survive printing and cleaning processes. Additionally, models may still be rejected based on the wall geometry of the model. Please consider the size of your model and reinforce the walls or add support structures as needed as minimum guidelines will not always be adequate for large models.
Wires
Model’s Longest Dimension:
3 to 75 mm = 1.0 mm
75 to 150 mm = 1.5 mm
150 to 200 mm = 2.0 mm
200 to 300 mm = 3.0 mm
Model’s Longest Dimension:
3 to 75 mm = 1.0 mm
75 to 150 mm = 1.5 mm
150 to 200 mm = 2.0 mm
200 to 300 mm = 3.0 mm
A wire is a circular, rectangular or even triangular feature that is thinner in its unconnected directions than its length. A supported wire is connected at least on two sides of the model, while an unsupported wire is connected on one side of the model. Wires that do not meet the minimum requirements may not survive printing and cleaning processes. Additionally, models may still be rejected based on the wire geometry of the model. Please consider the size of your model and reinforce the wires or add support structures as needed as minimum guidelines will not always be adequate for large models.
Details
1.0 mm high & wide
1.0 mm high & wide
For text, the ratio between width and depth, should be 1:1 and sans-serif fonts are preferred for line weight consistency.
Escape Holes
4.0 mm
2.0 mm
Escape holes are necessary to empty the support material of a hollow model. Two escape holes at the opposite ends of the model is optimal for the support removal process. Please consider the size of your model and make the escape holes bigger or add more escape holes as needed as minimum guidelines will not always be adequate for large models.
Clearance
3.0 mm
Clearance is the space between two individual parts in a model. If the space among the individual parts do not meet the minimum clearance, then parts can fuse together or can be difficult to clean. This is important for movable pieces like hinges, gears, etc.
Sprues
Sprues are wires that keep two or more parts together. Parts should be connected with a minimum of two sprues each. Please consider the size of your sprues and increase them as needed as minimum guidelines will not always be adequate for large models. If the sprues are within the guidelines and are broken, but there is no damage to your model, we will still ship them as is.
Interlocking & Enclosed Parts
Interlocking
No
Enclosed
No
Parts in File
Up to 250
Accuracy
±5% The bronze infiltration of each steel part makes this material less dimensionally accurate than other Shapeways materials. Shrinkage is more prevalent, especially on small holes and inner diameters. Accuracy and tolerance can vary greatly depending on the model, and are hard to predict because they are so geometry specific. A 5% deviation on a ring is around 1 US ring size. So if you order a size 6, the deviation could cause the actual print to be a size 5 or 7.
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