At home metal 3d printer

The fixture must be regularly replaced as it wears out. Printing the part with the Studio System eliminates CNC lead time and frees up the machine shop for more critical work.

• Size (mm): 47 x 28 x 15
• Cost to print: $14.00

• Bound Metal Deposition™

Tri Manifold

Manufacturing Alloy 625

This part converges three flow paths into one via internal channels. These channels would be impossible to machine and instead would need to be drilled as straight holes and plugged.

Printing on the Studio System allows these channels to be designed for their function rather than their manufacturing method. This part can be produced in just a few days with very little hands-on work.

• Size (mm): 108 x 101 x 98
• Cost to print: ($) 906.00
• Cost to DMLS ($): 4069.28
• Savings vs. machining: 77.74%

Bound Metal Deposition™

Generative Piston Head

Generative Design, Prototyping 4140

Prototype piston head for a reciprocating engine, optimized with generative design. Typically CNC machined from aluminum alloy, pistons can be time-consuming and difficult to rapidly prototype and test.

It often takes months or even years to move from design to production. With the Studio System, various piston designs can be easily prototyped and tested—speeding up product development timelines, reducing time to market, and introducing new opportunities for optimization, including generative design—all while avoiding CNC backlog and lead times.

• Size (mm): 105 x 105 x 54
• Cost to print ($): 271.00
• Cost to machine ($): 568.13
• Savings vs. machining: 52.30%

Bound Metal Deposition™

YE6 Burner Tip

Tooling and Machinery 316L Stainless Steel

This burner tip was originally cast in the 1950s. With the Studio System, the company was able to recreate the part with properties similar to the original cast part, with no tooling cost or long lead times.

The quote for new tooling is usually in the tens of thousands of dollars. Thus, Studio System 2, a printer that was designed from the ground up for simple installation and use, allows for significant cost savings, especially when it comes to manufacturing obsolete parts at low costs and without compromising part quality.

• Size (mm): 139 x 139 x 86
• Cost to print ($): 193.46
• Cost to machine: ($) 694.00
• Cost reduction: 72.00%

Bound Metal Deposition™

Helical Heat Exchanger

Manufacturing Copper

This heat exchanger enables a much higher heat transfer rate than a traditionally manufactured part. Used in chemical processing to cool a hot gas as it flows through a pipe.

The Studio System allows for the complex geometry of the heat exchanger to easily be printed as a single component. It would not be manufacturable as one component via CNC machining due to its thin external fins and a complex, internal helical cooling channel.

• Size (mm): 78 x 64 x 58
• Cost to print ($): 443.00
• Cost to machine ($): 2138.00
• Cost reduction: 79.28%

Bound Metal Deposition™

Zipper Mold

Material: h23 Tool Steel

This part is an injection mold insert for manufacturing zinc zippers.

The 3D printing of the mold inserts shortens production run lead time and allows rapid iteration and refinement of zipper designs. Using a high-resolution printhead allows for smaller parts with finer features, requiring less post-processing.

Size (mm): 46 x 27 x 18
Cost to print ($): 16.00

Bound Metal Deposition (BMD)™

😲 Metal 3D Printing at home!

😲 Did you know that you can print 100% metal parts on your home 3D filament printer?

A hint: it’s not like making a mold to cast molten metal – much easier!

We show you how to print metal with your FDM printer and introduce you to all the 3D metal printing technologies that exist.

📖 What do you want to read?

Filament for printing metal parts

You may have noticed that some manufacturers sell filament with metal dust. These are materials that imitate the metal finish on your printed pieces.

But we are not talking about this, we are talking about filament that is printed in 3D and used to make 100% metallic printed parts.

What material is it? It is the BASF Ultrafuse filament from the German company BASF. It is a filament with a large amount of metallic dust that is printed with a conventional FDM 3D printer. After printing, the pieces have to follow a chemical washing and sintering process in an oven so that the metal powder is fused into a single solid metal piece.

Here is a video where you can see what results can be achieved with this type of 3D metal printing.

What is the filament made of? The content of the BASF Ultrafuse 316L filament is, as its name suggests, 316L stainless steel, a very popular steel used in applications where corrosion resistance is a critical feature, as it is more expensive and stronger than the most common stainless steel (304).

The filament coil contains 90% metal by mass; the rest of the material is the thermoplastic which makes it remain in thread form and flow through the printer extruder.

Examples of parts made with this filament

As you can see, the parts that go through the whole post-processing process have the characteristic lines of 3D layered printing and some filament sticking. The pieces can be sanded both in green (this is what the piece is called before it is washed and sintered) and in its final metallic form. They can also be polished, shot-blasted, etc.

The post-processing of the metal filament

As we said, with this filament we need a post-processing to obtain the final metal part.

The post-processing is usually done in an external company. Usually when you buy the coil it includes in its price the post-processing of the parts you manufacture with it. The technologies for post-processing of powder metal and plastic parts already exist for MIM (Metal Injection Molding) manufacturing, so it is possible to find suppliers who focus on these phases.

The process that the part goes through until it is a steel mass is as follows:

• Printing (green part). Printed on a conventional FFF printer with an abrasive resistant tip
• Washing/Debinding (brown part). The printed part is immersed in an atmosphere of vaporized nitric acid (HNO3) and heated to remove the plastic from the part so that only the metal dust remains. The result is the phase known as the brown part.
• Sintering. The brown part is placed in an oven where it is subjected to high temperatures without melting it so that the powder particles are completely fused and almost 100% desiccated. During this process the part shrinks, so it is necessary to print it with a margin that is established in the design process.

👉 How to print metal on your own printer

Now the most important question: can I use any printer to print it? Yes, you can print with conventional FDM desktop printers: Ultimaker, BCN Sigma… in 1.75 and 3mm filament. The only thing you need is a steel nozzle to resist the abrasion of the metal filament.

These are the printing parameters of the BASF Ultrafuse 316L filament, judge for yourself:

And how much does it cost? It’s starting to be distributed and can be found at Matterhackers for $465 a reel.

¿Do you want to try 3D metal printing?

We have not yet been able to get hold of a BASF Ultrafuse coil to test it, but we are very interested in starting to print metal parts. If you want to ask us for a quote for this or any other project, just leave us a message and we will help you make it happen:

Home metal 3D printer is already a reality

3D printing

It is extremely rare for a 3D printer to appear in the 3D printing industry, the principle of which is based on a completely new approach. Today we can print products from hundreds of different materials, but when it comes to metals, the prices for 3D printers become simply sky-high. Only very large companies can afford "metal" 3D printers because they start at $250,000. But progress does not stand still, and someday anyone will be able to purchase such a miracle of technology and print metal products without leaving home.

The first steps have already been taken. Take, for example, the project of the Argentine engineer Gaston Accardi. Accardi has been into 3D printing for over 12 years and was one of the first to bring the technology to South America. Somehow he had an idea to make a completely new 3D printer, but due to a busy schedule, he put off work on the project for five years. And a couple of weeks ago, he finally managed to find time.

“This is a 3D electroplated metal printer,” says Accardi. – Layer-by-layer deposition of metal in the right places occurs due to an electrochemical reaction. A wide variety of metals can be used, as well as alloys, conductive materials, and semiconductors. But most importantly, it is a very cheap method.”

By "cheap" Accardi means "very cheap". The fact is that he assembled a working prototype of the printer for just ... $ 2 (no, no, this is not a typo). So how does this unique 3D printer work?

So, galvanization is the process of coating one metal with another by means of electrolysis. There is no hint of laser sintering, stereolithography, or fused filament technology in Accardi's 3D printer. Instead, the most common electrical plating is used here.

In fact, galvanization becomes possible with a power supply and two poles. One field is connected to the part you want to plate, the other is connected to the metal that will be electrodeposited. You will also need an electrically conductive solution, usually sulfuric acid or lemon juice is used for this purpose. If galvanizing is done with copper, then for best results it should simply be added to the solution.

“A few minutes after you start running current through the solution, the copper starts to coat the piece,” explains Accardi. “Both of the electrodes you use must be electrically conductive.”

Accardi's 3D printer is based on the galvanization method, but he has further improved it. He took a marker, pulled out a rod from it and poured a solution of acid copper into it. Then he brought one field (copper electrode wire) inside the marker. Under the influence of an electric current, copper ions are released from the acid in the marker, pass through its tip and settle on the surface of the printing platform, which is coated with conductive silver and connected to another field. The result is a layer of metal.

“You can actually write with brass,” says Accardi. “And if you keep writing the same letters over and over again, they gradually grow in height and become voluminous.”

The marker can be filled with almost any conductive and semi-conductive metal, be it titanium, gold, iron, platinum, nickel, chromium or alloys such as bronze. Accardi said he bought a 4-axis CNC machine and plans to install his electroplating system on it. As a result, he should get something like a regular FFF 3D printer, only metal will be used here instead of molten plastic.

Although the prototype cost only $2, Accardi is looking for investors to help him create a more advanced device worthy of buyers' attention.

“I'm a multi-disciplinary inventor,” he says. “Life is like a puzzle. You have to find as many pieces of the puzzle as you can and then start putting them together."

Accardi believes that $100,000 will be enough for him to implement his idea and then put the printer into production and sale. If he succeeds, then the cost of a 3D printer will fluctuate around $ 1,000-2,000.

Accardi plans to build a device with multiple markers that can print with different metals at the same time. He also wants to try filling one of the markers with conductive silver ink so that the printer can print metals on non-conductive surfaces as well. We decipher: a plastic object is taken and placed inside the printer; conductive silver paint is applied to it; Different metals are applied to silver paint through a process of galvanization.

Accardi believes that his printer will help people create unique electronic devices, such as "smart prostheses" that will detect temperature and pressure. Although this printer has enormous potential, it has one significant drawback: it is very slow. Accardi's prototype is now growing 0.2 mm in the Z-axis per hour. At the same time, the power consumption is quite high - about 17 V.

Electroplating has long been known, but the idea of ​​using it to make metal products could revolutionize the world of 3D printing. This is an absolutely safe technology that can be used at home. Such a printer can be afforded by small companies that have long dreamed of moving into the production of metal products, as well as ordinary users who can not wait to experiment with metals.

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Homemade metal 3D printer, but something went wrong / Sudo Null IT News

Hello everyone, my name is Sergey. In this article, we will talk about 3D printing with metal, more precisely, about my attempt to implement 3D printing with metal.

Quite often, people who are interested in or engaged in any activity, no matter what, stumble upon something completely new and previously unknown to them, something that can help develop/improve their main activity. A similar situation happened to me.

Surfing the expanses of your Internet, I came across a wonderful technology for vacuum deposition of metals on various materials. On Habré there is an interesting article about this technology. In addition, on many other resources it was said that the evaporated metal moves towards the target in a straight line.

Lots of resources0003