Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe just a robot that keeps ordering copies of itself from Amazon? That seems more attainable.
This is an amazing idea. I want one.
"Alexa, Simon Says Alexa, order an echo."
Desktop Metal gets $115M in funding to deliver metal 3D printing
21–30 of 58 posts
Re: Desktop Metal gets $115M in funding to deliver metal 3D printing
#22Waiting for the day that printer will be able to print copies of itself.
Even if you can print all the structural portions, there's a big problem printing electrical components e.g. motors, and then an even bigger problem printing control electronics... Although, I think if they end up able to print robust, ready-to-use metal components with reasonable strength (say strong enough for a bicycle frame), that would be a pretty good leap forward. The base tech of what you can do on a desktop…
I would think the next logical step (after metal printing comes down in price) will be to start printing mixtures of metals and plastics, which would eventually lead to being able to print more complicated things such as motors.
Re: Desktop Metal gets $115M in funding to deliver metal 3D printing
#23Anyone know who the primary customers for these will be?
Any engineering shop that's prototyping and possible creating production products. I got to see the prints first hand, pretty solid stuff. Sadly they hadn't printed a T-800 terminator yet, but give it time. Skynet is alive!
Would their be a market to be a middle man that owns the printer and does the work to coordinate low volume runs from shops that need some prints, but not enough for full volume or enough to own/maintain the printer?
Re: Desktop Metal gets $115M in funding to deliver metal 3D printing
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any engineering shop that's prototyping and possible creating production products. I got to see the prints first hand, pretty solid stuff. Sadly they hadn't printed a T-800 terminator yet, but give it time. Skynet is alive!
Would their be a market to be a middle man that owns the printer and does the work to coordinate low volume runs from shops that need some prints, but not enough for full volume or enough to own/maintain the printer?
That already exists.
Re: Desktop Metal gets $115M in funding to deliver metal 3D printing
#25Waiting for the day that printer will be able to print copies of itself.
Maybe it is already here... we just call it "life"! Hmmm... maybe that is life is - someone's printer?
Re: Desktop Metal gets $115M in funding to deliver metal 3D printing
#26Sounds interesting; any details on how it works, what materials it can be used with, what are the consumables, strength, accuracy/resolution, maximum size, etc..?
Here is an Economist article that explains it much more detail: https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21724368-recent-adva...
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
Re: Desktop Metal gets $115M in funding to deliver metal 3D printing
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looks like fused jet deposited powdered metal printing. 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…
I don't see the advantages to this over lost-PLA casting. Am I missing something?
Expertise and materials.
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.
Re: Desktop Metal gets $115M in funding to deliver metal 3D printing
#28Jamison Go reported that his beetleweight fighting robot, Silent Spring, used a drum weapon made using a Desktop Metal system. The drum was printed using 4140 steel, then hardened the traditional way.
It apparently yielded very good results, winning the beetleweight category at Bot Blast. You can search YouTube for videos of it in action.
Re: Desktop Metal gets $115M in funding to deliver metal 3D printing
#29What 3D printer or service -- in any material, metal, wood, plastic, glass, anything -- can print something affordably i.e. $5 for something that's say 1" by 5" by 5" ???
Re: Desktop Metal gets $115M in funding to deliver metal 3D printing
#30For a nice CGI movie on their high volume model: https://www.desktopmetal.com/products/production/
Very impressive video. Questions that page completely doesn't answer, though: How much does the system cost? ($5k to "reserve", but what's the final cost? Their "downloads" page, of all places, has a price sheet for the "studio" system, but not the "production" system.) What does the software workflow involve, from CAD software to printing?
Also disappointing that, despite having an innovative piece of hardware, they still treat the software as heavily proprietary as well.