Laser metal printing without the powder bed.

The powder bed was the constraint. We replaced it with a roll: change alloy in minutes, print with powders a bed can't touch, and build with no loose powder in the building.

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IMS-1, the roll-to-roll MAPS machine

What changes when the powder is in a sheet.

The numbers, against laser powder-bed fusion.

10min

Material change.

Swap the roll and the next alloy is loaded. No clean-down, nothing left behind.

vs LPBF: hours of powder change and cleaning
0kg

Loose powder.

Rolls store and ship as ordinary goods. No dust cloud, no ATEX room, no glove box.

vs LPBF: kilograms in the bed
99.99%

Relative density.

Fully dense SS304, benchmarked head-to-head with a powder bed. Same density, higher strength.

vs LPBF: parity on density, higher strength
3in 1

Alloys per build.

Stainless steel, IN718 and a high-entropy alloy as one part, fused in the melt pool. No other laser process we know of has done it.

vs LPBF: one alloy per build
5

Alloys published.

Stainless steels, a nickel superalloy, a high-entropy alloy and an aluminium alloy, all peer-reviewed, all from one machine.

vs LPBF: one machine, one powder
+65%

Tensile strength from the sheet.

Turn up the binder and carbon from the sheet refines the grain and hardens the metal. A property dial no powder bed has.

vs LPBF: no equivalent lever
Any

Powder shape.

Irregular, water-atomised and recycled powder print as well as spherical stock. The cheap powder works.

vs LPBF: spherical, gas-atomised only
≈part

Feedstock consumed.

You use what goes into the part. Offcuts dissolve and re-cast into new sheet. No sieving, no requalifying.

vs LPBF: fill the chamber, then sieve

The bed was the constraint. The roll is the way past it.

02 Feedstock

Change the roll, change the alloy.

The feedstock is a roll, not a bed of powder. Swap it and the machine is loaded with a different alloy, no clean-down, nothing left behind. Our target on IMS-1 is ten minutes. That is what makes high-entropy alloy development move at the speed of the printer instead of the powder supply chain.

The IMS-1 printer with its doors open, showing the supply roll, take-up roll and build platform
IMS-1, the roll-to-roll machine, with the doors open. Supply roll on one side, take-up on the other, the build platform between them. Changing alloy is changing what sits on the roll.
5alloys published: SS304, SS316L, IN718, CoCrFeMnNi, AlSi10Mg
+65%tensile strength in one high-entropy alloy, from binder content alone (≈590 to ≈980 MPa)
10 minroll to roll, one composition to the next

Zhang et al., Mater. Des. 245 (2024) · Sasnauskas et al., CIRP Annals 73 (2024) · Addit. Manuf. Lett. 8 (2024) · J. Laser Appl. 36 (2024) · Addit. Manuf. Front. (2025)

2.1

Small batches go a long way.

A powder bed has to be filled before you can print a coupon. A sheet carries only the material that goes into the part.

2.2

No clean-down between compositions.

Candidates print back to back on one machine, with nothing left behind from the last one.

2.3

Same machine, new chemistry.

High-entropy alloys and other experimental compositions run on the same printer as the established alloys. Only the roll changes.

03 Multi-material parts

Two or three alloys in one part, from one machine.

Swap the roll mid-build and the next layers are a different alloy. Bi-metallic and tri-metallic parts come off the plate as a single piece, with an interface fused in the melt pool rather than a joint made afterwards.

Electron micrograph of a MAPS build cross-section: high-entropy alloy on Inconel 718 on stainless steel 304, fused to the build plate HEA IN718 SS304 Base plate Fused interface Fused interface
The real thing.Electron micrograph of the cross-section. High-entropy alloy at the top, IN718 in the middle, SS304 below, sitting on the build plate. One build, no interruption, no joint.
3alloys in one build: SS304, IN718 and a CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloy
99.8%density of the tri-metallic composite

Zhang et al., Additive Manufacturing Letters 8 (2024).

3.1

Hard face, tough core.

Put the expensive or wear-resistant alloy only where the part needs it.

3.2

Fused, not joined.

Transitions made in the melt pool, tens of microns wide. No braze, no weld, no adhesive.

3.3

Demonstrated.

Stainless steel, a nickel superalloy and a high-entropy alloy in one build. We are not aware of another laser AM process that has done this without cross-contamination.

04 Updates

Follow the build.

Occasional notes as the printer, the feedstock and the first parts come together. No noise, unsubscribe any time.

05 Parts & contact

We make parts. Send us one.

We are printing parts for companies now: coupons, test articles, inserts and multi-material samples, in the alloys we run. Send a drawing or a spec and we will quote it. If you would rather talk first, write to us.

Get a part made lorcan@iteri-labs.com LinkedIn