AMPrint Center Receives Vader Mk1 Liquid Metal Printer
As reported by local newspaper Rochester Business Journal, Rochester Institute of Technology’s AMPrint Center received the first liquid metal 3-D printer from Buffalo-based Vader Systems LLC last month.
RIT and Vader Systems have a university-corporate partnership at the RIT’s AMPrint Center to help grow 3-D printing and additive manufacturing in New York, officials said.
“It is our job to try to help companies like Vader be successful, and I think they’ve got a phenomenal new technology that’s completely different than any other process out there,” said Denis Cormier, director of AMPrint, in a statement.
“It’s an honor to have our Mk1, serial 00001, installed at the new AMPrint Center, the top university lab for additive manufacturing in the region,” said Scott Vader, president and co-founder of Vader Systems. “We look forward to working with Dr. Cormier and his elite team of students to create a new generation of advanced materials and products across all manufacturing sectors.”
Vader and his son, Zachary, developed the technology.
The RIT and Vader teams arranged a machine modification that allows the system to integrate slightly larger wire—wire that is approximately one-quarter of the cost of wire being used previously—which resulted in a 75 percent reduction in raw material cost, officials said.
“We are very excited to see what the AMPrint Center’s expertise in lattice structures, high-strength aluminum alloys and printed circuitry will produce once let loose with the technology,” Vader said. “On the Vader side, there will be continuing opportunities for ongoing R&D projects, internships and hiring of RIT graduates as a result of this ongoing collaboration.”
The AMPrint Center opened last October.
“Partnerships between businesses and academia, like RIT’s acquisition of the Vader Systems liquid metal 3-D printing system, solidify the Finger Lakes region as a core for advanced manufacturing and imaging technology,” said Howard Zemsky, Empire State Development president, CEO and commissioner.
