Liquid metal 3D printing

Just found this my chance

[news.cnet.com]

Same here...

Don't forget some caveats. That thing is SUPER TINY. Also, metal deposited on a previous oxide layer is completely inferior (it would flake off with vibration or shock instantly). Proper metal prints for the consumer are gonna take quite a bit of work...but we can draw inspiration from the micro/nano mechanical systems academic progress.

Looks like they are printing with soldering tin haha, and yes, it's super tiny..

I would still go for metal sintering process:
[youtu.be]

ANd look at this stuff:
[youtu.be]

They print a mold and then pour metal in it. The beauty of a mold is that you can refine the detail in it by hand where needed and you can re-use it in some cases (not always).

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2013 05:58AM by Ohmarinus.

it is just marketing fizz, unless they actually can make flexible electronics, and repeat results.

True it's not really feasible for anything useful at this stage, but often steps like this end up being something much more useful down the line. I posted it because I found it interesting and thought others might as well.

frankly, lets say you could sell a metal printer. Would you really want to? Is the world ready for it? ITs kinda crazy to think about the 3d printed gun issue....And believe me, I think it is really impractical, today.. but it will be more feasible soon and without the regulation of bullets we could face a government shutdown due to basic misinformation / paranoia

Also, what about the warp issue with metal. How do we deal with those? Its going to be metal, so nearly impossible to control warp by just holding down one side...

Also with the cost. Does it make sense to have a $1999 3d printer that makes metal? A $199 one? It just seems like too good a technology to find in a consumer product.. I know many more people that would want a functional plastic model than a metal one...so the metal seems mainly useful for engineers and makers. That is until we integrate the metals as wires with P&P

i would imagine it would be on par with a cnc machine, which can make a gun already, so not really an issue, unless your a gun grabber.

That is very cool! There are definitely some very interesting applications for this such as unbreakable wires! However the drawback is that the structure of the printed metal depends on an 'oxide layer'.

Quote

A thin oxide skin holds it all together and prevents the printed structures from just collapsing into metal blobs.

Oxygen will have to be present for the useful properties to show, therefore it will not be practical to cover the 'printed wire' in plastic as a normal earphone wire is.

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