Posted on 08/19/2016 11:02:03 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Lockheed Martin, the aerospace company, have filed a patent for a new kind of 3D printer. The patent, filed on April 4 by inventor David G. Findley, describes a new way of 3D printing which would use a pre-ceramic polymer and nanoparticle filler to create synthetic diamond objects of pretty much any shape you can dream up.
[The] method includes depositing alternating layers of a ceramic powder and a pre-ceramic polymer dissolved in a solvent. Each layer of the pre-ceramic polymer is deposited in a shape corresponding to a cross section of an object. The alternating layers of the ceramic powder and the pre-ceramic polymer are deposited until the layers of the pre-ceramic polymer form the shape of the object. The method includes heating the deposited ceramic powder and pre-ceramic polymer to at least a decomposition temperature of the pre-ceramic polymer. The decomposition temperature of the pre-ceramic polymer is less than a sintering temperature of the ceramic powder. The method further includes removing excess ceramic powder that the pre-ceramic polymer was not deposited onto.
-excerpt 3-D Diamond Printing Using a Pre-Ceramic Polymer with a Nanoparticle Filler patent, David G. Findley.
While the printer will most likely have the primary function of making drill bits, sharp objects and maybe even lightweight armor, this could be great news for jewelry makers. With almost no restrictions on customization, jewellers can let their imaginations run wild.
About Lockheed Martin
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 98,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.
Lockheed Martin is led by Marillyn A. Hewson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.
What else is happening with 3D printing and diamonds?
Diamond technology specialists De Beers Technologies has invested in two Stratasys 3D printing systems, the Fortus 360mc and a Dimension 1200es, to ramp up production of parts for equipment in the diamond industry. Initially the company were outsourcing their 3D printed needs, but the addition of the two machines means round the clock production at its diamond R&D centre in Maidenhead, UK. The 3D printers are used to create automated methods for verifying and sorting diamonds, as well as helping engineers make machines that ensure all synthetics and treatments can be detected.
Whenever I come up with an idea the first thought is always will it work?. Now we can put it on the Fortus overnight so that the next day we are testing it, assessing it, and figuring out any limitations. We can then modify the design and put it back on the 3D printer overnight. The following morning we are testing the next iteration. In terms of reducing development time, its impossible to put a value on what 3D printing has saved us.
-Senior Mechanical Engineer, Andrew Portsmouth, De Beers Technologies.
One of the components, the optical measurement cell housing (pictured above), would be impossible to create without 3D printing.
The way its been designed means there is no other way to make it than with additive manufacturing, and it has many benefits because of that, Andrew explained. Manufacturing it on the Fortus 360mc represented a three- or four-fold reduction in production cost compared with than the previous machining method simply because its a much cheaper process.
I’d love to see the tryanny of the de Beers diamond cartel be crushed by technology. Make diamonds as ubiquitous as water and they become worthless.
Very poor writeup. Talks about ceramics and never mentions when diamonds come into the process or how.
The wedding ring my wife wishes I had bought her.
Synthetic diamonds are made under very high pressure and heat, this seems to bypass both. I will read the article later when I am on something bigger than my phone but synthetic diamonds production mimics natural diamond creation process.
Yes, and there’s a reason for that - high pressure and heat - because carbon does not naturally like to be in the state of “diamond” (otherwise coal mines would be known as diamond mines). No simple 3D printing process is going to get around that unfortunate fact. I.e., a 3D printing process in itself does not have the energy to turn coal (or some other carbon-containing powders) into diamond.
When I was a kid superman used to squeeze coal with his bare hands and make diamonds.
Diamond coated frying pans.
I have been doing a little research on this process as bonding quartz cost effectively is something I have been working on for years.
Current 3D-printers are operating at a extremely much coarser level than this. To 3d-print a diamond you’d have to position individual atoms of carbon in a lattice,
The diamond phase C-C bond requires extremely high pressure and temperature to form and, in their absence, what you will get from 3D printing with a diamond suspension or a diamond paste will be a “green” preform, where the diamond grains will be loosely held by a binder (a glue). Such a material, although consisting of many tiny diamonds, it is not considered “a diamond” as there is no material continuity within it.
It is however quite possible to 3D print a diamond-in-metal-matrix composite, like those used for tools. It has not been applied yet, though, as such material is expensive.
https://3dprint.com/146562/diamond-3d-printer-lockheed/
Lockheed Martin, aerospace and defense corporation and big name in metal 3D printing, has filed a patent application for a 3D printer that prints diamonds. Yes, theyre synthetic diamonds, but diamonds all the same. Diamonds are formed when the extreme heat and pressure in the earths core cause carbon atoms to bond together and form super-hard crystals. Lockheed Martins diamond printer uses poly(hydridocarbyne), a carbon-based pre-ceramic polymer with structural similarities to diamonds.
That polymer is deposited in layers, alternating with layers of a ceramic powder, by the printer in a predetermined shape. The deposited shape is then heated to temperatures over 100 degrees in an inert atmosphere to cause pyrolysis, a physical and chemical change that happens when an organic material is heated without the presence of oxygen. In this case, the heat causes the poly(hydridocarbyne) to crystallize into a diamond. Any excess ceramic powder is then removed.
Thats one proposal. The patent application also discusses the use of other pre-ceramic polymers; another proposal involves the use of nanodiamond powder.
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