Laser cutting is so old hat ... Enter the EMP

Apparantly EMP (electromagnetic pulse) is the laser cutter of the future.
(see news articles below)

Two questions

1) When will Ponoko be upgrading from 4.5mm acrylic to 4.5mm steel?
(For a repstrap kit that does not crack when you tighten the nuts too tightly.)

2) When will Adrian Bowyer be releasing the EMP extruder/cutter for the reprap?

Stephen


Sources

[www.theregister.co.uk]

[gizmodo.com]

[www.physorg.com]

Looks to me like they can only use it to punch holes. Probably can do some funny-shaped holes too, but not likely cut lines with it the way a laser cutter can.

Still, I'd love to see one of these at work!

Lasers vaporise the material in the beam, I don't understand how this displaces it. Is it sheared out, does it punch through like a projectile, or is it vaporised or decimated? It sounds like it goes through like an armour piercing shell or similar, but even those cause local deformation. Is it noisy? Surely something that can deliver that sort of concussive force should be?

I imagine it would be very noisy!

Since it's an electromagnetic pulse, I imagine the principle is similar to an induction motor. A rapidly changing magnetic field induces a burst of electric current in the steel, by Faraday's law. From Lenz's law, the eddy current's magnetic field is opposite to the field from the coil, so there's a sudden, strong repulsive force between the coil and the steel. It sounds like they've set it up so that this effect is so strong, and focused so locally, that the repulsive force on that part of the steel is enough to shear it right away from the rest of the sheet.

(Sorry for the double post!)

If my theory is right, then it should also work even better in aluminum, which has a higher conductivity and a lower toughness compared to steel.

From the little info I found online this would be a great alternate methond oxyfuel, plasma and laser cutting, is this right? Any of you know any OEMs who have used this technology on CNC steel cutting tables?

From the little info I found online this would be a great alternate methond oxyfuel, plasma and laser cutting, is this right? Any of you know any OEMs who have used this technology on CNC steel cutting tables?

The technology has just reached the point in the lab where the marketing drones are spamming the media+world about it. It is probably running on a single production line with a bunch of researchers climbing all over it, praying that it doesn't explode or turn into a warp engine on a day when the investors / prospective buyers are showing up.

I'd suggest you email them and ask directly.
[www.fraunhofer.de]

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Change of subject: anyone tried bolting a dremel or drill onto their mendel or repstrap?

Yes on two machines I have fitted a Dremel I used a part from the Saw sharpener attachment in fact I only bought the saw sharpener to get that part.

The Details I posted in the forms here I think erm... heres a couple of pics



Close up of the plastic mount.



This is from the Dremel’s Chain Saw Sharpening Kit 1453. Some thing like this is an ideal candidate for making a 3D drwaing and printing.



The other clamp is made from Ply wood or MDF I have used both sucessfuly this mount was original on the Mcwire build prior to that the original repstrap Betha so its now on its third machine.



As to fitting it onto a Darwin or Mendel I dont think either are stif enough.

I re built as Bertha CNC to provide additional vertical support for a Dremel. I then had to add two more 8mm Horizontal sliders as two slides did not give enough support. I also added two more 8mm X axis sliders as well. Note Brtha is also made using my now universal building blocks the plastic corner block.

Pictures of Bertha in more deatail are here:

[bodgeitquicktools.blogspot.com]

With the most recent here showing almost all of the 4 Extra 8mm sliders.

From Blogger Pictures

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Bodge It [reprap.org]
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BIQ Sanguinololu SD LCD board	BIQ Stepcon	BIQ Opto Endstop
BIQ Heater Block PCB	BIQ Extruder Peek clamp replacement	BIQ Huxley Seedling
BIQ Sanguinololu mounting	BIQ standalone Sanguinololu or Ramps mounting	Print It Stick It Cut it

My rep strap: [repstrapbertha.blogspot.com]

Buy the bits from B&Q pipestrap [diyrepstrap.blogspot.com]
How to Build a Darwin without any Rep Rap Parts [repstrapdarwin.blogspot.com]
Web Site [www.takeaway3dtech.com]

Very nice pictures

Thanks for showing them.

Stephen