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Low Cost Metal 3D Printing by Electrochemistry

dogma1138 6y ago
Long way from that, and quite likely never going to be viable for printing actual parts. There already is a “low cost” desktop metal 3D printing technique via sintering, you can buy filaments with 90%> copper and a sintering forge while expensive is can still be done on a relatively small budget <$2000. Yes there is shrinking that needs to be adjusted for but that can more easily be done in software. Electroplating requires a clean environment, high voltage and usually rather odd and sometimes nasty chemicals. FDM metal printing on the other hand can be done on a $200 printer just as well as on a $3000 FDM one. Beyond that it would be interesting to see what SLA can offer since there are already ceramic resins that need to be sintered and I don’t see a reason why metal resins can’t be also fabricated in the same manner. I don’t see powder deposition laser sintering becoming a consumer product either but there are already desktop printers that do that too they are just rather expensive.
- FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
  I can see an immediate appliation for this technology: printing combustion chambers for regeneratively cooled liquid rocket engines. Electrforming is state of the art for these engines already. Sure, it's slow, but production rates aren't typically very high.
  - dogma1138 6y ago
    Oh I’m not doubting that this has a lot of industrial applications, I’m doubting the desktop and cheap part that essentially means it’s suitable for a consumer application.
- petermcneeley 6y ago
  This has been around for quite some time and its primary advantage is its microscopic resolution. http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~mm/papers/Madden_JMES_1996.pdf http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~mm/papers/Madden_JMES_1996.pdf
- jjk166 6y ago
  > Electroplating requires a clean environment, high voltage and usually rather odd and sometimes nasty chemicals. The voltages are actually very low - you want to get as close to the ideal electrode potential as possible. Most galvanic cells have a potential of only a few volts. In the case of copper electroplating, for example, you want between 0.5 and 2.5V. Potentially you could have a high current setup (the higher the current the faster the deposition) but if you care about safety more than print speed there's no reason you can't run it on a few milliamps. As for chemicals, it differs with the material you want to print, but most are pretty mundane. Again in the case of copper, copper II sulphate is a common fungicide applied to fruits, you don't want to drink it obviously but it's no more dangerous than common household cleaners. Sintering may be doable for a few thousand dollars, but electrodeposition could potentially be done with a $20 print head on a standard 3D printer. Further, the same setup can be used for subtractive operations (just reverse the voltage) and it's trivial to set up multi-material printing (which sintering can't do). Given that 3D printing is mostly for hobbyists who can sacrifice time to save on cost, electrochemical printing seems like a strong option.
peter_d_sherman 6y ago
>"[Billy Wu] has been writing for a few years about electrochemical 3D printing systems that can handle metal. He’s recently produced a video that you can see below about the process. Usually, printing in metal means having a high-powered laser and great expense. [Wu’s] technique is an extension of electroplating. Boiling down the gist of the process, the print head is a syringe full of electroplating solution. Instead of plating a large object, you essentially electroplate on tiny areas. The process is relatively slow and if you speed it up too much, the result will have undesirable properties. But there are some mind-bending options here. By using print heads with different electrolytes, you can print using different metals. For example, the video shows structures made of both copper and nickel. You can also reverse the current and remove metal instead of depositing it." PDS: I wonder if this process could print a single transistor... (Perhaps if silicon, or some other semiconductor (as opposed to metal) were mixed in an electrolyte solution (not sure of the chemistry of this at this point, or if it can be done -- more research is necessary) then maybe that could be deposited in addition to the metals, and then a transistor, or transistor-like circuit, could be created...) Key Phrase: "Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing"

Long way from that, and quite likely never going to be viable for printing actual parts. There already is a “low cost” desktop metal 3D printing technique via sintering, you can buy filaments with 90%> copper and a sintering forge while expensive is can still be done on a relatively small budget <$2000. Yes there is shrinking that needs to be adjusted for but that can more easily be done in software. Electroplating requires a clean environment, high voltage and usually rather odd and sometimes nasty chemicals. FDM metal printing on the other hand can be done on a $200 printer just as well as on a $3000 FDM one. Beyond that it would be interesting to see what SLA can offer since there are already ceramic resins that need to be sintered and I don’t see a reason why metal resins can’t be also fabricated in the same manner. I don’t see powder deposition laser sintering becoming a consumer product either but there are already desktop printers that do that too they are just rather expensive.

FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
I can see an immediate appliation for this technology: printing combustion chambers for regeneratively cooled liquid rocket engines. Electrforming is state of the art for these engines already. Sure, it's slow, but production rates aren't typically very high.
- dogma1138 6y ago
  Oh I’m not doubting that this has a lot of industrial applications, I’m doubting the desktop and cheap part that essentially means it’s suitable for a consumer application.
petermcneeley 6y ago
This has been around for quite some time and its primary advantage is its microscopic resolution. http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~mm/papers/Madden_JMES_1996.pdf http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~mm/papers/Madden_JMES_1996.pdf
jjk166 6y ago
> Electroplating requires a clean environment, high voltage and usually rather odd and sometimes nasty chemicals. The voltages are actually very low - you want to get as close to the ideal electrode potential as possible. Most galvanic cells have a potential of only a few volts. In the case of copper electroplating, for example, you want between 0.5 and 2.5V. Potentially you could have a high current setup (the higher the current the faster the deposition) but if you care about safety more than print speed there's no reason you can't run it on a few milliamps. As for chemicals, it differs with the material you want to print, but most are pretty mundane. Again in the case of copper, copper II sulphate is a common fungicide applied to fruits, you don't want to drink it obviously but it's no more dangerous than common household cleaners. Sintering may be doable for a few thousand dollars, but electrodeposition could potentially be done with a $20 print head on a standard 3D printer. Further, the same setup can be used for subtractive operations (just reverse the voltage) and it's trivial to set up multi-material printing (which sintering can't do). Given that 3D printing is mostly for hobbyists who can sacrifice time to save on cost, electrochemical printing seems like a strong option.

peter_d_sherman 6y ago

>"[Billy Wu] has been writing for a few years about electrochemical 3D printing systems that can handle metal. He’s recently produced a video that you can see below about the process. Usually, printing in metal means having a high-powered laser and great expense. [Wu’s] technique is an extension of electroplating. Boiling down the gist of the process, the print head is a syringe full of electroplating solution. Instead of plating a large object, you essentially electroplate on tiny areas. The process is relatively slow and if you speed it up too much, the result will have undesirable properties. But there are some mind-bending options here. By using print heads with different electrolytes, you can print using different metals. For example, the video shows structures made of both copper and nickel. You can also reverse the current and remove metal instead of depositing it." PDS: I wonder if this process could print a single transistor... (Perhaps if silicon, or some other semiconductor (as opposed to metal) were mixed in an electrolyte solution (not sure of the chemistry of this at this point, or if it can be done -- more research is necessary) then maybe that could be deposited in addition to the metals, and then a transistor, or transistor-like circuit, could be created...) Key Phrase: "Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing"