4 ms·

Sounds interesting; any details on how it works, what materials it can be used with, what are the consumables, strength, accuracy/resolution, maximum size, etc.

by elihu 9y ago

Sounds interesting; any details on how it works, what materials it can be used with, what are the consumables, strength, accuracy/resolution, maximum size, etc..?

jtraffic 9y ago
Here is an Economist article that explains it much more detail: https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21724368-recent-advances-make-3d-printing-powerful-competitor-conventional-mass-production-3d https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21724368-recent-adva... Or if you want the relevant portion quoted, see this article: (halfway down, below the graphene motorcycle helmet): https://hackernoon.com/an-innovation-taxonomy-d1ed0751b92b https://hackernoon.com/an-innovation-taxonomy-d1ed0751b92b
zwieback 9y ago
Here's a little more detail: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/4/26/15440744/desktop-metal-studio-printer-3d-printing-manufacturers https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/4/26/15440744/d... The important thing to remember is that the 3D printing doesn't generate the final part, the plastic binder in the filament has to be burned out and then the part has to "densify", e.g. the actual sintering where the metal particles fuse together creates the final material properties of the part. The final part will be a lot smaller than the thing coming out of the 3D printer, controlling uniform shrinkage is probably a lot of the secret sauce.
- dogma1138 9y ago
  Does it actually has to go trough forging and tempering? They don't have a fusing element in the head?
  - zwieback 9y ago
    It goes through two additional steps: burning out the plastic and then putting the part into a furnace to get the metal particles to "fuse" together more closely, aka sintering. The printing part just forms a "green" part, it's basically like you would make pottery, the actual strengthening of the part happens in a high-temperature furnace.
dogma1138 9y ago
Looks like fused jet deposited powdered metal printing. Strong but not nearly as strong as casting (especially without secondary processing), as for materials powdered metal printing is usually either ferrite alloys or nobel metals the former is much more common. Resolution is in single digit microns or finer. This is based on similar products not this specific one, it might be faster which is important but there is only that much you can improve on the process. The speed also to me looks like a result of very limited market in terms of competitiveness. Existing products are few and they rather sell you more machines than drastically improve the printing speed by making it much smaller and focusing on smaller parts. I don't know if they use induction or optical fusing based on the size I would go for optical so they might have found a good laser or a absorption facilitating epoxy/flux to go with the powder. Edit: based on a comment here it looks like they don't do fusing as part of the print. In this case its metal powder with a chemical binder (glue) which usually contains flux and vaporizes at a fairly low temperature. After the printing the parts go into an oven (usually encased in sand for temperature control) The oven brings the part to a high enough temperature for the crystal formation but not close to the melting point. In this process larger crystals can form but not nearly as large as with cast forging.
- ortusdux 9y ago
  I don't see the advantages to this over lost-PLA casting. Am I missing something?
  - Animats 9y ago
    That's what I was wondering. Shapeways makes metal parts by a similar process as a service. See their 2009 video.[1] There's a mini-industry making metal jewelry that way. I notice that Desktop Metal doesn't show their oven in the video. That's the big, expensive, somewhat hazardous unit. "Easily swappable aluminum gas canisters ... safe to use on the shop floor" says the data sheet.[2] Wazer, the low-end water jet cutter that's still stuck at "pre-order", has a similar problem. They're trying to make a somewhat messy industrial process less messy. There's some hand-waving involved. You end up with a sludge that's a mixture of water, shattered garnet, and whatever you're cutting. They gloss over what you have to do to dispose of that. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9VOwqtOglg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9VOwqtOglg [2] https://desktopmetal.s3.amazonaws.com/Studio-office_friendly.pdf https://desktopmetal.s3.amazonaws.com/Studio-office_friendly...

by elihu 9y ago

Sounds interesting; any details on how it works, what materials it can be used with, what are the consumables, strength, accuracy/resolution, maximum size, etc..?

jtraffic 9y ago

Here is an Economist article that explains it much more detail: https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21724368-recent-advances-make-3d-printing-powerful-competitor-conventional-mass-production-3d https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21724368-recent-adva... Or if you want the relevant portion quoted, see this article: (halfway down, below the graphene motorcycle helmet): https://hackernoon.com/an-innovation-taxonomy-d1ed0751b92b https://hackernoon.com/an-innovation-taxonomy-d1ed0751b92b

zwieback 9y ago

Here's a little more detail: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/4/26/15440744/desktop-metal-studio-printer-3d-printing-manufacturers https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/4/26/15440744/d... The important thing to remember is that the 3D printing doesn't generate the final part, the plastic binder in the filament has to be burned out and then the part has to "densify", e.g. the actual sintering where the metal particles fuse together creates the final material properties of the part. The final part will be a lot smaller than the thing coming out of the 3D printer, controlling uniform shrinkage is probably a lot of the secret sauce.

dogma1138 9y ago
Does it actually has to go trough forging and tempering? They don't have a fusing element in the head?
- zwieback 9y ago
  It goes through two additional steps: burning out the plastic and then putting the part into a furnace to get the metal particles to "fuse" together more closely, aka sintering. The printing part just forms a "green" part, it's basically like you would make pottery, the actual strengthening of the part happens in a high-temperature furnace.

dogma1138 9y ago

Looks like fused jet deposited powdered metal printing. Strong but not nearly as strong as casting (especially without secondary processing), as for materials powdered metal printing is usually either ferrite alloys or nobel metals the former is much more common. Resolution is in single digit microns or finer. This is based on similar products not this specific one, it might be faster which is important but there is only that much you can improve on the process. The speed also to me looks like a result of very limited market in terms of competitiveness. Existing products are few and they rather sell you more machines than drastically improve the printing speed by making it much smaller and focusing on smaller parts. I don't know if they use induction or optical fusing based on the size I would go for optical so they might have found a good laser or a absorption facilitating epoxy/flux to go with the powder. Edit: based on a comment here it looks like they don't do fusing as part of the print. In this case its metal powder with a chemical binder (glue) which usually contains flux and vaporizes at a fairly low temperature. After the printing the parts go into an oven (usually encased in sand for temperature control) The oven brings the part to a high enough temperature for the crystal formation but not close to the melting point. In this process larger crystals can form but not nearly as large as with cast forging.

ortusdux 9y ago
I don't see the advantages to this over lost-PLA casting. Am I missing something?
- Animats 9y ago
  That's what I was wondering. Shapeways makes metal parts by a similar process as a service. See their 2009 video.[1] There's a mini-industry making metal jewelry that way. I notice that Desktop Metal doesn't show their oven in the video. That's the big, expensive, somewhat hazardous unit. "Easily swappable aluminum gas canisters ... safe to use on the shop floor" says the data sheet.[2] Wazer, the low-end water jet cutter that's still stuck at "pre-order", has a similar problem. They're trying to make a somewhat messy industrial process less messy. There's some hand-waving involved. You end up with a sludge that's a mixture of water, shattered garnet, and whatever you're cutting. They gloss over what you have to do to dispose of that. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9VOwqtOglg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9VOwqtOglg [2] https://desktopmetal.s3.amazonaws.com/Studio-office_friendly.pdf https://desktopmetal.s3.amazonaws.com/Studio-office_friendly...