5 ms·

Seems like a more costly and complicated version of Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM). What's the benefit of using lasers vs. simple electrical current?

0_____0 2y ago
Precision, I think. Much easier to confine the heat to the material you want with a laser.
xyzzy123 2y ago
According to this: https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5134/8/2/52 https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5134/8/2/52 you get better heat control / precision at the cost of being slower. Apparently people are also working on a process combining arc and laser. One thing I notice with physical stuff is that hundreds of tiny individual advances (each one seemingly inconsequential) seem to really add up over time. Like a 2025 FDM printer is "fundamentally the same" as a reprap from 2014 but I get much more utility from the 2025 printer.
- Joel_Mckay 2y ago
  There are hobby metal printers that may eventually be applicable to regular consumer markets. The reason "open public development" stalled was people were tired of subsidizing cloner companies with engineering projects, and disillusioned by the complete lack of community loyalty to the original authors. i.e. people proved they also didn't want to help pay the original sunk cost just like cloners, and would still get pissy when asking the hapless for support. This is why some have our own metal printers... and the public gets 20 year old glue dispensers on a flimsy CNC platform. Try building your own, it is actually not as hard as people assume. lol =3
  - xyzzy123 2y ago
    Most of the current metal printers have a wacky vendor-specific supply chain, for feedstock and also post-processing. It's not really worth it for me to buy the equipment when I need an ongoing contract for it, and it will severely drop in value / usefulness once the vendor stops supporting it. If I build my own it's probably gonna look like a mig stinger gaffer taped to a second hand kuka ;) I have a CNC taig and a manual mill and lathe. Like most home shops I'm stuck at 90's tech level or below. A lot of innovation has happened in the CNC space since the 90s but not much of it seems to have trickled down :/
    - Joel_Mckay 2y ago
      Nice, we've had a CNC taig mini-mill for small <1mm mill stuff around for ages, and linuxCNC is actually surprisingly reliable once setup. Our machines internal CAM release candidate is slowly getting more features, and the slicer part likely will end up FOSS once it meets its goal. You could also check out this great group (kits were around $8k if I recall): https://iro3d.com/ https://iro3d.com/ Or build metal + ceramic composites: https://www.rapidia.com/ https://www.rapidia.com/ YMMV, and remember safety... Ti powders can fail in dramatic ways... =3

0_____0 2y ago

Precision, I think. Much easier to confine the heat to the material you want with a laser.

xyzzy123 2y ago

According to this: https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5134/8/2/52 https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5134/8/2/52 you get better heat control / precision at the cost of being slower. Apparently people are also working on a process combining arc and laser. One thing I notice with physical stuff is that hundreds of tiny individual advances (each one seemingly inconsequential) seem to really add up over time. Like a 2025 FDM printer is "fundamentally the same" as a reprap from 2014 but I get much more utility from the 2025 printer.

Joel_Mckay 2y ago
There are hobby metal printers that may eventually be applicable to regular consumer markets. The reason "open public development" stalled was people were tired of subsidizing cloner companies with engineering projects, and disillusioned by the complete lack of community loyalty to the original authors. i.e. people proved they also didn't want to help pay the original sunk cost just like cloners, and would still get pissy when asking the hapless for support. This is why some have our own metal printers... and the public gets 20 year old glue dispensers on a flimsy CNC platform. Try building your own, it is actually not as hard as people assume. lol =3
- xyzzy123 2y ago
  Most of the current metal printers have a wacky vendor-specific supply chain, for feedstock and also post-processing. It's not really worth it for me to buy the equipment when I need an ongoing contract for it, and it will severely drop in value / usefulness once the vendor stops supporting it. If I build my own it's probably gonna look like a mig stinger gaffer taped to a second hand kuka ;) I have a CNC taig and a manual mill and lathe. Like most home shops I'm stuck at 90's tech level or below. A lot of innovation has happened in the CNC space since the 90s but not much of it seems to have trickled down :/
  - Joel_Mckay 2y ago
    Nice, we've had a CNC taig mini-mill for small <1mm mill stuff around for ages, and linuxCNC is actually surprisingly reliable once setup. Our machines internal CAM release candidate is slowly getting more features, and the slicer part likely will end up FOSS once it meets its goal. You could also check out this great group (kits were around $8k if I recall): https://iro3d.com/ https://iro3d.com/ Or build metal + ceramic composites: https://www.rapidia.com/ https://www.rapidia.com/ YMMV, and remember safety... Ti powders can fail in dramatic ways... =3