Hey, everyone, I'm here to talk today about the Markforged Metal X process.
It's a simple safe and cost-effective method to go from design to functional metal part.
There are three steps in this process,
printing, washing, and then sintering.
First, let's start with CAD.
You design your part then export to STL 
and upload into Eiger.
Eiger is a cloud-based slicing and print management system that comes with every Markforged product.
This automatically configures your part based on the material and printer, you've selected.
When your part slices for metal 3d printing
it gets scaled up to account for shrink and deformation in the downstream processes.
It then slices your part into discrete layers
and identifies overhanging features and build supports and a raft underneath your part.
As we go through printing washing and sintering, Eiger will monitor the parts progress along the way.
Let's start this print and go to the Metal X.
Before starting a print
the machine automatically maps and levels the bed to ensure the first layer goes down well.
Your print is built of two materials stored in this heated chamber above,
one of a ceramic release material and one 
of the metal to be printed.
This filament material is metal powder 
safely suspended within a two-part plastic binder.
It gets heated and extruded onto the build plate where the part is created layer by layer.
Release material gets extruded as an interface between the part and its supports
so that once your part comes out of the 
furnace, it's easy to remove.
Unlike other metal 3d printing systems
this process does not require a loose metal powder resulting in a safer and more cost-efficient workflow.
17-4 stainless steel is loaded now.
However, with a quick changeover, the 
system is capable of printing in
stainless steels, tool steels, coppers, Inconel, along with several other materials currently in development.
Once your part is finished printing you'll 
get a notification.
At this point you can go to the printer, remove the part from the build tray and clear the bed.
Now we have what's called a green part.
It doesn't really look or feel like metal however a large part of it is comprised of metal powder.
Next step we'll be putting it into Wash-1 
for the debine process.
The Wash-1 removes the first stage of the 
binding material.
A green part is taken from the printer and placed into the wash basket which is then lowered into the solvent.
Wash times will vary ranging from a few hours to a few days depending on the thickest region of your part.
After that it's now called a brown part and 
is ready for sintering.
Let's go over to the furnaces.
This is Sinter-2, a furnace design for mid-volume production runs and larger printed parts.
Sintering transforms a print from a lightly bound collection of metal powder to a fully finished metal part.
First, the temperature is ramped slowly to burn away the trace amounts of remaining binding material,
then temperature ramps closer to the 
melting point of the material
allowing metal particles to start to fuse together to create a strong metal part.
Markforged sintering furnaces use a carbon-free retort
to ensure part quality and alloy composition standards are met for our finished pieces.
Each run takes about a day and can be monitored remotely using the Eiger software.
Once a run is complete the setter tray full of finished metal pieces can be removed from the furnace.
Once removed from the
raft these parts are ready for use.
In the furnace,
the layer of printed release material between supports and rafts and your printer part remains powderized.
This allows the structure to be tacked to the raft to better control shrink and accuracy
throughout the process but also an easy 
release after sintering.
At this stage your part is fully
sintered and ready to be used.
It can be post machined, polished or otherwise processed as necessary for the final application
but in many uses the accuracy and strength are good enough as is.
It's ready for install. Check out markforged.com
for more information about our simple safe and cost-effective method of metal additive manufacturing.
