There was recently report of an Indian rocket engine that was 3D printed.
Next gen 3D metal printing
31–40 of 127 posts
Re: Next gen 3D metal printing
#32As someone who's built/designed multiple metal 3D printers before, this actually looks really cool. Every metal 3D printer requires high temperatures, inert and reducing gasses to prevent oxidation, and most of them require powdered metal, whether for something like DMLS or powder bed technologies. The accuracy is also impressive.
One of the ancillary ideas that I and a few others came up with in exploring binder jetting was 3D organ printing because the feature size is quite small. I wonder if there's a world where you could use an analogous process on a solution of individual cells.
Re: Next gen 3D metal printing
#33What distinguishes the offerings from Fabric8Labs from the offerings from long-established companies like Desktop Metal[1] that are capable of printing parts using a wide range of materials including carbon steel, stainless steel, titanium, and tungsten?
The tungsten capability really throws me for a loop. As someone who TIG welds in my spare time, I can’t imagine having a machine in my shop that could make electrodes. The amount of energy required must be … a lot.
Re: Next gen 3D metal printing
#34Good to see! This looks like something I toyed with in 2016, but (as you may expect from my lack of relevant experience and qualifications) all I found were what Edison called "ways to not make a lightbulb". The: > microelectrode array printhead in particular is what I wanted to experiment with, because something like this clearly allows parallelisation of the build process in much the same way photopolymerisation is…
I tried out the multi electrode approach about 15 years ago. My work was based on the original work of John D. Madden https://people.ece.ubc.ca/mm/papers/Madden_JMES_1996.pdf I can find my paper and post it but keep in mind it was a "undergraduate thesis" and something I spent only a very finite amount of time on.
Yah, please post it! Can you speak to the minimum resolution and wear rate/lifetime with single electrode approaches?
Re: Next gen 3D metal printing
#35My understanding is that most current metal 3d printing yields items with significantly worse properties with respect to shear forces, because of how the molecules align compared to when it's melted together as a whole and cooled (or something like that, I can't find the research paper someone linked to me in the past here regarding that). Do we know if this is better with respect to that?
Where did you hear that? In general, the issues sintered parts have are slight porosity ( We also looked at metal-salt plating processes, and concluded the risks to the operator made it nonviable for general application. There was also the serious environmental impact risks, and that meant hazmat disposal costs etc. There are always trade-offs with any technology. Have a great day, =3
Took me a while, but I tracked down the conversation. Turns out it wasn't a research paper, and I wasn't linked to it but found it on my own in researching the discussion I was having[1]. It was an a video about engineering and cost effectiveness of sintering metals and the current downsides, which (at the time) there were attempts to counter by using specific laser patterns, but even with that the fatigue life was lacking compared to other manufacturing methods.
This is, of course, four years out of date, and I can't state for certain how accurate the review of the problems that video provided were, but it did a very good job of explaining what caused those problems, so I wasn't left with many questions as to why sintering wasn't as well suited for some situations. That said, I'm not in this industry, I just noticed some relation to a prior conversation I had and the topic is interesting to me.
Re: Next gen 3D metal printing
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree we should avoid blanket statements, which is why your statement "current metal AM is more than able to meet material standards" is problematic. What standards? There is no generic "material standards" for all materials, and 3d metal printing is definitely inferior to MOST other manufacturing methods in MOST circumstances, in terms of mechanical properties.
A line has to be drawn somewhere because this is a rabbit hole. Without going into the specifics of ASTM standards, etc., there are metal AM parts flying today in both air and space. IMO, that counts as meeting standards.
But which standard, or even rough category means a lot.
Forged? Stamped? Die cast? Investment cast? Billet/machined?
Each of those has vastly different characteristics.
Re: Next gen 3D metal printing
#37What distinguishes the offerings from Fabric8Labs from the offerings from long-established companies like Desktop Metal[1] that are capable of printing parts using a wide range of materials including carbon steel, stainless steel, titanium, and tungsten? The tungsten capability really throws me for a loop. As someone who TIG welds in my spare time, I can’t imagine having a machine in my shop that could make electrode…
Fabric8Labs can print 100% density, whereas Desktop Metal is highly porous. Also Fabric8Labs can directly print pure copper, which has historically been very difficult. The process is also more energy efficient and better suited for small complex parts. Desktop Metal serves a different market in terms of material and size.
disclaimer: I'm a GP at Asimov Ventures and invested in Fabric8labs' pre-seed round.
Re: Next gen 3D metal printing
#38Relevant patent here:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10724146B1/en
Edit: I wonder what compensation for anode consumption looks like. Model based? I assume in-situ measurement/process control is hard.
Re: Next gen 3D metal printing
#39I saw a video doing something like awhile ago [1], and I thought the idea of using electroplating made sense, but I know absolutely nothing about chemical engineering or material science. It's interesting to see this idea in action, though with my limited experience with electroplating it seems like it'd be absurdly slow. [1] https://youtu.be/W1d36wbx_yg
I managed 1μm/minute when electroplating PCBs at home. Faster and it grows a sponge of copper (entrapped gas I assume). I would like to know how they did it.
Seems like even in a vacuum it could still make a metal foam, but perhaps would help minimize defects?
Re: Next gen 3D metal printing
#40Fancy 3D-printed nano-pipe heatsinks here we come. Sign me up.