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Next gen 3D metal printing

fabric8labs.com

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Re: Next gen 3D metal printing

#61

Post by Haemm0r »

kragen wrote: post #53
petermcneeley wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont think there was any rigor in modeling of the field. I did this entire project as one semester as one of my last undergrad courses. I wish I had more time and resources for the project but by then I knew I was headed outside the university into software development. https://darkcephas.github.io/MELED_paper/MELED_paper.pdf From what I heard the state of the art was to move away from electrodes and to use lasers.…

neat! i was wondering if that would work last week i feel like it's probably easier to have 1000 electrodes than 1000 lasers tho

Optics may help to reduce the amount of lasers.

Re: Next gen 3D metal printing

#62

Post by cjbgkagh »

dpain wrote: post #55

CTO of Fabric8 here - happy to answer any questions you may have about the technology or company. As you can tell we've got a process that's quite different than other metal AM techniques with some very unique benefits that we're excited to share!

It’s really cool and I wish I had one of these machines. On the assumption that I couldn’t afford such a machine myself for DIY, it would be really cool to have a send-cut-send like service. It seems like the relatively gentle process and I assume predictable results with minimal post processing would lend itself to an high degree of automation. Perhaps a scale out manufacturing set up where the speed of an individual machine is less important than the throughput of having many machines.

There are a lot of little random things that I would design if I knew there was a capability to have it made at non-aerospace prices. Initially heatsinks, manifolds, heat exchangers, but possibly many random things depending on the pricing.

Re: Next gen 3D metal printing

#63

Post by dpain »

Nathanael_M wrote: post #59
dpain wrote: post #55

CTO of Fabric8 here - happy to answer any questions you may have about the technology or company. As you can tell we've got a process that's quite different than other metal AM techniques with some very unique benefits that we're excited to share!

Where does this fall on the hazardous/toxicity scale? What kind of off-gassing/risks are there, especially compared to existing high resolution powder based systems? Disclaimer: I don’t know much about this field, this may be a dumb question.

Much safer than existing powder-based systems. The feedstock is effectively water based so none of the flammability risks of metal powder. No special gases required, no high powered lasers or thermal processing sytems.

That being said it still is an industrial process and requires responsible handling of the feedstock and equipment to ensure safety to personnel and the environment.

Re: Next gen 3D metal printing

#64

Post by midnightclubbed »

matmatmatmat wrote: post #27

Roselle St (where Fabric8 Labs has their office) is the most innovative street in San Diego. I don't know what it is about that particular street, but a ton of great companies have come out of there.

Not a street I was aware of, but it's located between the Qualcomm and General Atomics campuses and a stones throw from UCSD. Also has great freeway and rail (commuter) access and modern research focussed buildings for lease.

Re: Next gen 3D metal printing

#65

Post by dpain »

ben_w wrote: post #3

Good 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…

Yes the microelectrode array is the key to driving parallelism of the process, making it area based (layer-at-once) rather than point deposition. DLP/LCD vs laser SLA or FDM is a good analogy!

Re: Next gen 3D metal printing

#66

Post by Joel_Mckay »

kbenson wrote: post #35
Joel_Mckay wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 l…

Fatigue failures could theoretically be more probable on stress-raisers around oxide inclusions. However, most modern DMLS have achieved better than >99.5% build density in an inert atmosphere, and better controlled annealing. =)

The more exotic experimental processes intended for hobbyists will likely overtake industry in the next year... ;-)

Re: Next gen 3D metal printing

#67

Post by philipswood »

dpain wrote: post #55

CTO of Fabric8 here - happy to answer any questions you may have about the technology or company. As you can tell we've got a process that's quite different than other metal AM techniques with some very unique benefits that we're excited to share!

This is so cool!

What kind of currents do you need?

I've considered the idea before and it seemed to me that since you need a fixed number of electrons for every metal ion you deposit that the currents end up being huge.

Also deposit speeds tend to be slow. How fast can your process layer metal (say in grams per hour)?

Re: Next gen 3D metal printing

#68

Post by cpitman »

dpain wrote: post #55

CTO of Fabric8 here - happy to answer any questions you may have about the technology or company. As you can tell we've got a process that's quite different than other metal AM techniques with some very unique benefits that we're excited to share!

Your website mentions printing on pcbs, do you expect this to be a competitive option for pcb prototyping or manufacture?

Re: Next gen 3D metal printing

#69

Post by dpain »

glitchinc wrote: post #33

What 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…

In general, the ECAM process is actually a highly energy efficient means of manufacturing especially when compared with other metal AM techniques that use either a laser or furnace to thermally process the material. Specifically, there's quite a lot of energy that goes into making the metal powders that is avoided as the input to the ECAM system is a precursor material several steps upstream of a typical refined metal.

Re: Next gen 3D metal printing

#70

Post by dpain »

philipswood wrote: post #67
dpain wrote: post #55

CTO of Fabric8 here - happy to answer any questions you may have about the technology or company. As you can tell we've got a process that's quite different than other metal AM techniques with some very unique benefits that we're excited to share!

This is so cool! What kind of currents do you need? I've considered the idea before and it seemed to me that since you need a fixed number of electrons for every metal ion you deposit that the currents end up being huge. Also deposit speeds tend to be slow. How fast can your process layer metal (say in grams per hour)?

Yes, currents can be high as they directly correlate with build rate. But the voltages are typically low, making it a lower power process than one would think.

100-1000x faster than a typical electroplating process

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