Proto Labs, the company that creates custom prototype and low- to mid-range volume parts, has added two nickel steel materials, Catamold FN02 and FN0205 and a chrome-moly material, Catamold 42CrMo4 so product designers and engineers can now order injection-molded low-alloy steel protoypes.
Both of the new steel materials are the equivalent of 4140-steel and expand the potential applications for parts produced by the company’s advanced metal injection molding (MIM) process.
“We’ve had tremendous customer demand for stainless steel with MIM last year, and expect the same response to our new low-alloy metals,” says Becky Cater, Proto Labs’ product manager for MIM. “We offer many different hard and soft metals through our 3D printing and CNC machining services at Proto Labs, but nickel steel is only produced through metal injection molding. This material boost will inherently let our customers do more things in the realm of low-volume metal manufacturing.”
Low-alloy steel creates strong, wear-resistant metal parts when heat-treated and is able to be to be coated in post-processing for further protection.