Case Study: University of British Columbia achieves rapid, office-friendly metal 3D printing for research and industry with ExOne's Metal Designlab and X1F advanced furnace

Accelerating Office-Friendly Metal 3D Printing Innovation

The University of British Columbia sought to accelerate research and industrial applications in metal additive manufacturing—covering DFAM, smart manufacturing, non‑linear dynamics and student training—while needing an office‑friendly, fast solution that could produce complex metal parts safely on campus. To meet this challenge UBC deployed the ExOne Metal Designlab™ (by Rapidia) alongside an X1F advanced furnace, using HydroFuse water‑based feedstock to simplify metal printing and sintering.

ExOne’s Metal Designlab and X1F furnace delivered a streamlined CAD‑to‑part workflow: parts print in roughly two hours (using 0.4 mm nozzles and 17‑4PH stainless) and go straight to sintering for next‑day or within‑48‑hour classroom turnaround without lengthy debinding. The system enabled measurable research gains—including a gyroid heat‑exchanger test showing a 15% improvement in mean heat transfer coefficient—while improving student training, industry collaboration and faster validation of metal AM designs.

University of British Columbia

Ahmad Mohammadpanah

Department of Mechanical Engineering