What metals/alloys would you make use of and why? February 06, 2014 11:35PM |
Registered: 10 years ago Posts: 4 |
Re: What metals/alloys would you make use of and why? February 07, 2014 07:21AM |
Registered: 10 years ago Posts: 1,381 |
Re: What metals/alloys would you make use of and why? February 07, 2014 12:38PM |
Registered: 10 years ago Posts: 4 |
Re: What metals/alloys would you make use of and why? February 07, 2014 01:39PM |
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Re: What metals/alloys would you make use of and why? February 07, 2014 02:19PM |
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11010broadway
I am a physicist with access to lasers.
Re: What metals/alloys would you make use of and why? February 07, 2014 03:01PM |
Registered: 17 years ago Posts: 392 |
Re: What metals/alloys would you make use of and why? February 07, 2014 05:13PM |
Registered: 10 years ago Posts: 4 |
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criswilson10
Sounds like a 3d printer I made back in the mid 1990s.
The bed was the size of kitchen table. It had a 3 foot tall gantry on top of it to move a laser around.
Another large table was beside it that acted as a hopper and plastic or metal powder was in the hopper.
A set wipers moved the powder from the hopper to the kitchen table.
Zcorp made one a lot like it.
Plastic powder and titanium powder worked well in it.
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Hello 11010, welcome to the forum!
The three most common metals or alloys I see in the general space occupied by people who have RepRap style printers are aluminium, brass and mild steel. There is not much beyond that, except for small inox parts. After that I rarely see anyone build much with anything else.
If I had to pick one, I might be tempted to say brass. I think I would get the most use out of that if I had a machine that could print only one metal.
After that, aluminium and mild steel are neck and neck. I used to cast metal, and aluminium was a favorite at the time. In part because as a teenager, I had very limited technical skills. Steel is more versatile, but it is harder to work with, but easier to weld. The trade offs get complicated real fast, that is why I would pick brass!
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The world would be a way cooler place if every one was a physicist.... or an engineer smiling smiley
Awesome, glad you're here!
I spent a year studying, and designing a metal droplet printing (paper sketches, some CAD dwgs), no experience with lasers,
but there is another physicist who specializes in lasers in these forums.
Poke around in this room:
Laser Cutter Working Group
[forums.reprap.org]
I would set my sights on aluminum, and zinc both are very useful, start with zinc to work out the bugs.
Maybe your laser can melt glass frit, process temperatures from 1000°F – 1600°F (540 - 870°C).
Shrink rate, and cooling will be a challenge.
[en.wikipedia.org]
Ferro is the supplier:
[www.ferro.com]
If glass had a much higher yield point it would replace steel.
I digress...
Re: What metals/alloys would you make use of and why? February 07, 2014 06:12PM |
Admin Registered: 16 years ago Posts: 13,888 |
Re: What metals/alloys would you make use of and why? February 07, 2014 06:13PM |
Registered: 10 years ago Posts: 1,381 |
Re: What metals/alloys would you make use of and why? February 07, 2014 11:15PM |
Registered: 10 years ago Posts: 4 |
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VDX
... I've recently assembled a multi-diode head with 6x of the common 445nm-diodes with around 6x 1.5Watts focussed on a spot of maybe 0.2mm:
[forums.reprap.org]
... and have plans to add one or more IR-diodelasers with 9Watts each to get higher raw powers .
And actually got my galvo-scanner head working with self programmed software to mark surfaces or sinter different materials with my IR-fiber-lasers.
So, beside optimizing the setups I'll start with testing all sorts of available materials - sheets, wires and powders made from plastic, ligning, ceramic, glass and metal.
The next weeks/months should then identify the more interesting sytem - either the (slower, max. 150mm/s) laser-heads moved with my CNC-mill with a working area of around 275x210x210mm ...
... or the much faster (up to 20m/s!) but more expensive fiberlaser+galvoscanner with only around 100x100mm scanning area
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A2
To help absorb the energy from the laser you could blacken the aluminum surface.
Same could be done with the brass. You could use black frit glass too.
These are the two most popular methods, after anodizing, which I don't think you want,
as anozizing is actually a dye that is trapped in the pores of the aluminum,
where as these are micron thin coatings that I think would blow/burn off with the heat.
Re: What metals/alloys would you make use of and why? February 09, 2014 11:29AM |
Registered: 11 years ago Posts: 74 |