Hi all, My first post here, been perusing these forums for about...

Hi all,

My first post here, been perusing these forums for about 9 months now as novice investor.

I work a little in the additive manufacturing field (mech engineer). The recent announcement regarding the need for a bunch of tests of the printed parts are normal. Basically Finc. want to know what the material properties of a printed part is compared to a cast part and what properties can be improved through heat treating. TTT would have done some in-house testing, which sounds the case as they have previously advised of "similar to cast properties" but it is important to get independent results. Finc. will certainly do that and they are just doing due diligence before making a decision about further investment. Additive manufacturing is such a new field, but an extremely exciting one with huge potential.


If the material property results are lower than cast properties without heat treatment - this simply means you use more material to meet the strength/fatigue design requirements or the part is put in a furnace for a few hours, whatever is cheaper/more design appropriate (depends on application).

TTT's target is to be a much quicker, cheaper way of manufacturing titanium parts which so far has been limited to casting-then machining, or laser sintered manufacturing (small parts). How much heat treatment TTT parts need will come out in the end user design requirements.

So, IMO, TTT's recent announcement for detailed testing done in partnership with Finc. is sound engineering. These things take time. Anyone else in this space is doing the same thing, there are no shortcuts here. Will heat treatment be required? Probably. Is it a show stopper? Unlikely, considering the highly expensive, highly time consuming process of cast/machining or laser sintering.