3D Printing in Metal!

Hi everyone!

I would like to discuss the pros/cons and engineering challenges facing the construction of a 3D printer capable of printing in metal.

I have created an open source initiative (linked to below) that aims to make a 3D Printer that can make parts in metal, there is quite a bit of information that has been amassed on the subject, so it is worth checking out... Metalbot - Community for 3D Metal Printing and Laser Sintering

From my experience, the two limiting factors with 3D printing have always been a - strength of the printed parts and b - part resolution. Hopefully it is possible to solve both of these problems by designing printer that works through a process called 'laser sintering' (although a few other avenues are being pursued).

Let me know what you think!

Best regards,

Jethro.

Strength has been pretty much solved, at least with this technology
Concept Laser: .technology
And they provide quite good resolution. I've seen ported holes at .01" right out of the printer.

Metal requires an inert atmosphere when melting, so large amounts of nitrogen or argon are required. Metal powders can be nasty to work with, especially aluminum and Ti. Lots of interlocks need to be in place, as well as construction to Class 2 Division2 standards. That get expensive real quick. Metal printing sounds really cool, and it is, but there is a lot of gotcha's when working with this stuff.

I think it sounds great. I e-mailed you a couple months back and got no reply...

Hey metalbot, glad to see you made it to CNCZone! I post as shortbus on ACC, and talked to you there.

Yes, the laser sintering process has resolved these problems and it is widely grown in various applications. Direct Metal Laser Sintering, one of the laser sintering process is even widely used to design military as well as commercial aviation parts. It is also growing in power generation and marine industries. You can look here to know more about this process.