4 ms·
It's worth noting that in the picture from the article of the printed piece, what they're actually doing is building up a near-net part and then sending it off
by pdelbarba 10y ago
It's worth noting that in the picture from the article of the printed piece, what they're actually doing is building up a near-net part and then sending it off to be machined down to it's final spec. It appears similar to the process of using a TIG welder to rebuild a severely damaged engine block or other metal part and then machining it back to spec.
- fudged71 10y agoYes that's correct. You could call it Laser Cladding, Directed Energy Deposition, or Laser Metal Deposition If I'm not mistaken, it's cheaper to build titanium in a hybrid process like this, compared to milling a large block of titanium. 3D printing has found it's cost efficiency with titanium and it's not even because of complex geometry. The industrial potential is massive.
- pdelbarba 10y agoYep. Machining large volumes of Ti is a PITA. You'll burn through (expensive) tooling super fast.