Posted on 07/18/2014 9:50:36 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Metal 3D printing is the Holy Grail of additive manufacturing. Unlike with other materials that can be printed, metal enables manufacturers to create end-use objects via 3D printing, objects which oftentimes outperform matter-1those produced with traditional casting techniques. In fact General Electric and Airbus are already saving money money using metal laser sintering machines to produce parts for anything from aircraft, to fuel nozzles. Additionally, once those products are installed for end-use, they continue to save money because of their light weight, great strength, and precise fit. The reductions of just a few kilograms on board an aircraft can save thousands of dollars over the course of a year in fuel costs. Multiply this by an entire fleet of passenger planes all using hundreds of a particular part, and that equates to millions of dollars in annual savings.
There is a problem though. Multi-billion dollar corporations like General Electric and Airbus can afford the $1 million+ price tags for these machines, however, most smaller manufacturers find it too hard to even dream about owning one.
One San Francisco based company, MatterFab, founded by Mathew Burris and Dave Warren, want to change all this. This week they have brought their low cost industrial 3D metal printer out of stealth mode, giving hope to all those small manufacturers out there, who have aspirations of owning such a device. Their goal is to lower the barriers of entry for businesses within all industries, which they intend to accomplish by lowering machine, support, and material costs. The printer will be the first U.S. based powder bed fusion metal 3D printer to ever come to market.
It works by laying down metal powder. A high powered laser then melts that powder in certain precise locations based on a CAD file. Once one layer is melted, the printer will place another layer of metal powder on top, and the process repeats until an entire object is fabricated.
MatterFab CEO Matt Burriss, sat down recently with Ryan Lawler of Techcrunch, and discussed the printer in a bit more detail. What we learned from the interview, which is available at the bottom of this article, are several key details.
Matterfab first successfully 3D printed a metal object back in April, so they certainly are working quite fast. Burris stated that he expects the first test units will begin shipping to their test partners in the early part of next year. He also stated that the reason the company is able to reduce the price of this technology so significantly is because of the experience of the team, which allows them to pull a dozen different engineering disciplines together and come up with workable solutions. This is in addition to the drastic price decreases we are seeing in computational power, and components which make up the printer, including high precision sensors.
The exact price of the MatterFab metal printer was not stated, however, a recent press release from the company stated the following,
“MatterFab’s 3D metal printer is an order of magnitude cheaper and has the same quality as million dollar metal 3D printers.”
This would equate to a price which is approximately 10% of metal 3D printer prices which are on the market today. What do you think? Will MatterFab revolutionize the industrial metal 3D printing market? What could this mean for manufacturing in general? Discuss in the MatterFab metal 3D printer forum thread on 3DPB.com.
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
really cheap metal printers would change everything
I would think they will do much the same as paper printers have done. Expensive at first but prices will fall and capabilities will rise. Will be kind of slow for now but will rapidly increase.
This is precisely what is needed on a moon base to build spare parts and other components to expand said base without having to go all the way back to earth for the parts.
Sounds like scintering. I was driving around the DC beltway in a ‘67 Chevy station wagon with scintered valve rockers.
One or more of the rockers exploded at speed, and sounded like a gun going off.
Thanks for posting this very interesting article! :-)
So, $100K for a metal printer. That business has serious potential.
I still want cheap steel guitar bridges and tremolo systems, instead of paying a premium for an Original Floyd Rose or various other top of the line variants.
You would think so, when they talk about metal powder as the “ink.” But then, it seems that no pressure is involved in the process, only heat from a powerful laser which actually does the printing, after the powder is laid down. Might it not more resemble welding in that case?On a lighter note (pun intended), there have been articles posted in the past year or so about the economical production of titanium powder. If you are going to the expense of 3-D printing your complex, precision metal part, it would seem that you could find it advantageous to use titanium powder to make it light and strong as well.
The article I’m remembering was about a British company which proposed to use an unconventional (for titanium production) chemical process, and claimed a projected cost per pound competitive with specialty steels. Since titanium is only about 1/3 the density of steel and approximately as strong as steel, that could be a winner.
I'm only supposing, here, but I'm betting that the bushing that let go was a sleeve bushing, or the bearing that the rocker arm pivots on.
It was the rocker arm, connected to the pushrods from the camshaft and valve. ‘Rocks’ up and down?
Like so many things I’ve pronounced but never tried to spell, I should stick with Ockham, Ocham, Offham, whatever, I usually stick too many letters in.
Yeah, it was like a gunshot under the hood.
My Dad never bought another Chevy, until the last car he bought recently, an SUV just before he died.
I got to thinking about this because I saw that station on wagon today, same year, different color.
Right after the rocker arm disaster he bought a Nissan 310 (I think it was numbered). Hatchback but it had a 260Z engine—with fabric fuel injection tubes. The engine caught on fire.
He never had much luck with new cars, except VWs.
“The boundary between laser sintered layers requires further investigation as a failure point. “
Exactly. First thing that popped into my pointy little head. How well would a printed engine block work?
In any case, it strikes me that investing in this sort of thing now is not unlike investing in ‘micro computers’ back in the late 70’s.
I was thinking the same thing - somebody is going to get rich, but the great majority of these companies are going to fail.
Wish I knew which was which.
This is precisely what is needed on a moon base to build spare parts and other components to expand said base without having to go all the way back to earth for the parts.
You’d have to overcome operating the printer in an environment of 1/6 (if I recall correctly) of Earth’s gravity.
It’s hard to melt metal powder with a laser to form an object when the powder is floating away.
[ You’d have to overcome operating the printer in an environment of 1/6 (if I recall correctly) of Earth’s gravity.
It’s hard to melt metal powder with a laser to form an object when the powder is floating away. ]
1/6th gravity is NOT ZERO gravity
It would work just fine you may just have to wait a few seconds more for the metal dust to settle before zapping it with a laser.
Gravity still works on the frickin’ moon with frickin’ lazers...
I think that was it - thanks.
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