Article on new 'low cost' fast metal printer

**LINK**

Iain

Interesting, I think I will order one straight away

John

The big problem for this kind of new technology is that copies can be be made and sold at a fraction of the cost within 10 years

Great to see things romping onwards though

I'll pick one up at Lidl for 599 in 2026

"Final finishing then completes the process."

.... something about Details and the Devil?

I also thought this statement in the article was questionable:

"Just as inkjet printers produced high-resolution printing at a much cheaper price than laser printing ......"

I have both a laser and a couple of inkjet printers. I know what I think is cheaper.

In reality, this is 3d printing a sintered item. It really is not the same as a 3d printed metal part that has beed printed with an electron beam that fuses the layers together in real time. But the technology is movingvery quickly with new ideas it seems monthly. I know that many are working on ways to mimick the over casting methods, like when a steel or cast iron part has a cast Al alloy feature as part of the whole, or when metal inserts are cast over with alloys. The last level will be the combination of metals and ceramics , especially for parts that are exposed to extreme heat, like in a rocket engine.

Neil

The final product from DLS extrusion/deposition machines that produce metal powder models bound with wax or resin, then get sintered in a furnace have much lower accuracy than models made by direct laser fused metal powder. I've had several of each type made by service bureaus. Accuracy to parent CAD model on the sintered ones, on stainless steel alloy objects the size of a computer mouse, varied from +/-.030" in some areas to +/-.012" in areas closer to the build bed. For similar size models from a direct fused powder type machine it was accurate to CAD +/-.006" pretty much everywhere.

Big difference in part price though for the higher accuracy direct fused powder models.

If you want to make purely decorative articles or articles to be post-machined later (like using a casting for a steam model part) the cheaper extrusion/deposition machines and parts furnace-sintered may be fine. That type of machine will probably hit the home-build market before the direct fusing type.

One thing to consider with any of this type of machine that uses loose metal powder (vs string on a reel like 3D prints, in the extrusion/deposition machines) - loose metal powder is a major health and safety hazard and needs to be handled with great care and with proper PPE in place. There are also restrictions on shipping many of these powdered metals and how much of them you can store in one place, in some cases.

Edited By Jeff Dayman on 13/11/2017 19:51:15

For models and the time being I suggest using the lost-PLA casting process - much cheaper!

I posted this the other day, 1 3/8" tall.