In recent years, with the rapid development of 3D printing technology, its application scope in the fields of aerospace, automobile, biomedicine and construction has been gradually widened, and its advantages of convenience and high material utilization have been emerging.

At present, the high-quality metal 3D printing powder used by metal 3D printers at home and abroad generally includes: tool steel, martensitic steel, stainless steel, pure titanium and titanium alloy, aluminum alloy, nickel base alloy, copper base alloy, cobalt chromium alloy, etc. The commonly used powders are titanium powder, aluminum alloy powder and stainless steel powder.

According to the types of materials, high-quality metal 3D printing powder can be divided into iron-based alloy, titanium and titanium based alloy, nickel based alloy, cobalt chromium alloy, aluminum alloy, copper alloy and precious metal.

Iron base alloy has the advantages of low cost, high hardness, good toughness and good machinability. It is especially suitable for mold manufacturing. 3D printing with shaped channel mold is a major application of iron-based alloy. The traditional process is difficult to process special-shaped channel, and 3D printing can control the layout of cooling channel and the geometry of cavity

Titanium and titanium alloys have become ideal materials in the fields of medical devices, chemical equipment, aerospace and sports equipment because of their remarkable characteristics of high specific strength, good heat resistance, corrosion resistance and good biocompatibility. However, titanium alloy is a typical difficult to machine material, which has high stress, high temperature and serious tool wear, which limits the wide application of titanium alloy.

Nickel base alloys are the fastest developing and most widely used superalloys. They have high strength and certain anti-oxidation and corrosion ability at 650 ~ 1000 ° C. they are widely used in aerospace, petrochemical, shipbuilding, energy and other fields.

Cobalt based alloys can also be used as superalloys, but their development is limited due to the lack of resources. Because cobalt based alloys have better biocompatibility than titanium alloys, they are mostly used as medical materials for the manufacture of dental implants and orthopaedic implants.

The demand of other metal materials such as copper alloy, magnesium alloy and precious metal is less than that of several high-quality metal 3D printing powders introduced above, but they also have their corresponding application prospects.