Sounds interesting; any details on how it works, what materials it can be used with, what are the consumables, strength, accuracy/resolution, maximum size, etc..?
Strong but not nearly as strong as casting (especially without secondary processing), as for materials powdered metal printing is usually either ferrite alloys or nobel metals the former is much more common.
Resolution is in single digit microns or finer.
This is based on similar products not this specific one, it might be faster which is important but there is only that much you can improve on the process.
The speed also to me looks like a result of very limited market in terms of competitiveness. Existing products are few and they rather sell you more machines than drastically improve the printing speed by making it much smaller and focusing on smaller parts.
I don't know if they use induction or optical fusing based on the size I would go for optical so they might have found a good laser or a absorption facilitating epoxy/flux to go with the powder.
Edit: based on a comment here it looks like they don't do fusing as part of the print.
In this case its metal powder with a chemical binder (glue) which usually contains flux and vaporizes at a fairly low temperature.
After the printing the parts go into an oven (usually encased in sand for temperature control)
The oven brings the part to a high enough temperature for the crystal formation but not close to the melting point.
In this process larger crystals can form but not nearly as large as with cast forging.
I notice that Desktop Metal doesn't show their oven in the video. That's the big, expensive, somewhat hazardous unit. "Easily swappable aluminum gas canisters ... safe to use on the shop floor" says the data sheet.[2]
Wazer, the low-end water jet cutter that's still stuck at "pre-order", has a similar problem. They're trying to make a somewhat messy industrial process less messy. There's some hand-waving involved. You end up with a sludge that's a mixture of water, shattered garnet, and whatever you're cutting. They gloss over what you have to do to dispose of that.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9VOwqtOglg [2] https://desktopmetal.s3.amazonaws.com/Studio-office_friendly...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-FHY5FNsWc
12 minutes uncut. They go from printed model to working cast piece.
All new, Kaya Cast vac chamber they use is $1k, the Paragon kiln is $800, and the Electro-melt furnace is $350. Add in safety gear and incidentals and you are looking at 3-4 thousand dollars to go from a 3d print to a cast metal piece. Heck, depending on the complexity, the vac may be optional.
(The "maker movement" may have run its course. TechShop seems to be in financial trouble.[1])
Casting aluminum is easy, but not very useful. Doing this yourself you can't guarantee grain structure/size, inclusions/porosity, or temper. Plus it's usually plenty easy to mill from billet since aluminum is so soft.
Gold/silver is also relatively easy. You need better equipment since the temperatures are 2x higher. Strength isn't important, so casting stuff in gold/silver is quite common. Outside of jewelry there is basically no need for it.
Casting something more complex like good steels, or platinum, or nickel alloys- casting will be very difficult. Molds aren't so trivial, you need preheats, and a mistake leads to liquid metal on the floor or an explosion.
Sintering can be used with challenging alloys and requires almost no expertise. Everything comes certified and gets heat treated in the oven. If your time is valuable enough to warrant a metal 3d printer, it's valuable enough to make learning an entire discipline too expensive.
The important thing to remember is that the 3D printing doesn't generate the final part, the plastic binder in the filament has to be burned out and then the part has to "densify", e.g. the actual sintering where the metal particles fuse together creates the final material properties of the part.
The final part will be a lot smaller than the thing coming out of the 3D printer, controlling uniform shrinkage is probably a lot of the secret sauce.
The printing part just forms a "green" part, it's basically like you would make pottery, the actual strengthening of the part happens in a high-temperature furnace.
Or if you want the relevant portion quoted, see this article: (halfway down, below the graphene motorcycle helmet): https://hackernoon.com/an-innovation-taxonomy-d1ed0751b92b