A team of bachelor’s students at ETH Zurich has created a laser powder bed fusion printer that prints with two different metals, simultaneously and without interruption. Their breakthrough lies in a rotating platform design: instead of the usual stop-start layering, this system applies powder and melts it continuously along a circular tool path, reports Tech Xplore.
Over just nine months, under the guidance of Professor Markus Bambach and Senior Scientist Michael Tucker, the team developed the prototype as part of the RAPTURE focus project. It targets cylindrical components common in aerospace, such as rocket nozzles and turbine parts, where internal copper cooling circuits can sit inside a heat-resistant nickel-alloy shell.
Compared with conventional printers, this rotating setup cuts manufacturing time by more than two-thirds. It also minimizes material waste, eliminating excess powder mix and recovery steps, by precisely depositing just what’s needed in the right place.
Gas flow control was a critical challenge. The team engineered a gas-inlet system to direct inert gas over the fusion zone, reducing oxidation and clearing spatter. Synchronizing the laser, powder supply, and gas flow around a rotating build plate posed technical hurdles, but they overcame them to make a working machine.
The prototype prints parts up to 20 cm in diameter. ETH has filed a patent and is seeking industrial partners to scale the technology for aerospace, e-mobility, and mechanical engineering.
This is more than a student project. It’s a fast, efficient, scalable step toward real-world, multi-material metal 3D printing, ready to serve high-performance sectors.