Materialise is pleased to introduce a new Magics module, Metal Structures, tailored to facilitate the additive fabrication of metal parts. With this module, you can now replace solid parts with lattice structures. Magics’ latest innovation has various applications.

Enclosed by an outer shell, these lightweight structures allow you to use less material in comparison to solid parts while maintaining the same level of strength. Without an outer shell, on the other hand, these metal structures are perfect for biomedical applications because their open lattices stimulate bone ingrowth.

The Metal Structures module operates as a three-step wizard that guides the user in the generation of lattice structures.

First of all, the user can choose whether or not to create an outer shell. When an outer shell needs to be created, the desired thickness of the shell can be designated, as well as the detail size, i.e. the smallest amount of detail to be included. One can also choose in which direction the shell should be generated.

Secondly, users can select a unit structure from a list and initiate a preview of the structure. Other structures can easily be added. The lattice will be created by joining the bounding boxes of the structure. The spacing between the bounding boxes can be modified, as well as the angle growth.

Users can add drain holes to remove excess material from the part’s interior.

Materialise’ slice-based software also allows the user to easily generate internal structures for large datasets.