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I wonder if you could just 3D-print a mold and then pour the aluminum in as part of a 3d printer like this, rather than use a nozzle, and you'd get better quali
by gregw2 3y ago
I wonder if you could just 3D-print a mold and then pour the aluminum in as part of a 3d printer like this, rather than use a nozzle, and you'd get better quality/resolution.
- amelius 3y agoOr a 3 step process: PLA mold -> silicone mold -> aluminum object.
- jan_Sate 3y agoI'm thinking about the other way around. Assuming that their aluminum 3D printer works, print the aluminum mold using their 3D printer. Then make plastic parts with injection molding.
- frognumber 3y agoInjection molding molds have precision requirements well beyond any 3d printing. They're very expensive for that reason. It's hard even for precision machining.
- naasking 3y agoYou can print molds that you literally cannot machine.
- numpad0 3y agoBut how do you get the product out!?
- lazide 3y agoYou break the mold
- frognumber 3y agoFor injection molding? Or other types of molding? Injection molding processes I've seen have super-tight tolerances. Something like plaster or sandcasting do not.
- ElevenLathe 3y agoI've seen hobbyists do investment casting with FDM-printed patterns. I assume something similar in spirit is available to industry if they want to do it?
- barbegal 3y agoYou can but then you lose some of the advantages of the 3d printing technique e.g. the ability to create complex internal geometries
- frognumber 3y agoA 3d-printed mold could actually do that. It'd just be a destructive process -- the mold would not survive. Ceramic is cheap enough that this might be okay. Removal would be a pain. Probably some chemical which melts ceramic but not metal. Perhaps something mechanical which relies on ceramic being brittle to break it up. Dunno.
- amelius 3y agoSilicone is easy to remove.
- twobitshifter 3y agoYou would need a ceramic mold, but that might be easier to 3d print? Right now it is in a bed of fine glass beads that the printer drags through as it goes, so this is kind of a similar approach. For one offs or prototypes this might be good, but when you print more than one of something than a mold likely makes more sense.
- frognumber 3y agoAluminum sandcasting is what you're looking for. Sand is cheap, and should be easy to 3d print, even for one-offs.
- whatshisface 3y agoSand molds have to be compacted.
- rpmisms 3y agoThis is already done using sand casting. However, it's low resolution.
- idiotsecant 3y agoLow resolution is a relative term. It certainly beats this.
- Const-me 3y agoHere’s a commercially available high resolution DLP 3D printer people use to make molds for casting gold and silver parts: https://www.junction3d.com/ https://www.junction3d.com/ There are downsides, too: printing is slow, and the build area is small, furniture parts not gonna fit there.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]